Subscribe to RSSBoxing vs MMA: Which Sport Are Fight Fans Turning To?
This past Saturday night, CBS broadcast its 3rd live mixed martial arts primetime event. The show, which featured Internet sensation "Kimbo Slice" losing via quick knockout in the main event, was promoted heavily by CBS for the past few weeks. How many consumers are interested in MMA as a sport, and how far has it come in comparison to boxing in popularity?
The most popular MMA websites now far outrank their boxing counterparts, with UFC.com attracting nearly a million monthly U.S. visitors. UFC.com, the official website of the largest mixed martial arts promoter, and Sherdog.com, the largest MMA news & community website, are 3X to 8X larger than the closest boxing websites.
Since boxing does not have a single dominant promoter in the way that the UFC dominates MMA, it may not be a surprise that UFC.com is the largest website. To create a fairer comparison, the boxing and MMA sections of Yahoo! Sports were carved out to see how they stacked up.
Beginning in January of 2008, the MMA section of Yahoo! surpassed the boxing section in visitors. With the exception of this last July when boxing champion Floyd Mayweather had his most recent bout, the gap between MMA and boxing has continued to grow.
The last comparison looks at individual athletes and how many consumers were using search engines to look for them. The average big name athlete in MMA has been able to draw more searcher interest than big name boxers. And, while some boxers generate heavy buzz among searchers when they are heading into a big fight, MMA fighters appear to generate sustained searcher interest even in the down-time periods between fights.
Final score:
While boxing has a more storied history and firmer standing in American culture, mixed martial arts has no doubt captured the attention of today’s consumer and fight fan. All signs point towards continued success for this young sport.
