Boxing vs MMA: Which Sport Are Fight Fans Turning To?
Written by Greg Saks (contact - e-mail) -- October 6th, 2008 |
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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.
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October 6th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Thanks for snapshot on MMA. This is why we love Compete.com! :)
October 7th, 2008 at 2:04 am
I take it WWF (or WWE, whatever you want to call it) is not a part of this analysis. Big audience for that. And it is fighting, even if it ain’t for real.
October 10th, 2008 at 1:11 am
MMA is currently touted as the fastest growing sport, so it’s no surprise that MMA dominates boxing in web interest. Having said this, I don’t believe either segment is flooded with competing sites.
November 3rd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Why didn’t you include Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya in the fighter search category?
Also, Mayweather last fought in December, not July.
December 15th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I would like to see what the numbers are now since Elite XC died after that big show and Delahoya vs Pacquiao was such a huge fight, please update your blog.
Good call on Mayweather fighting in July, your research is top notch.
March 5th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Have these rankings been updated? I’d be interested in seeing perhaps a more complete list.
March 25th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
I love compete, you make life so much easier for me. I would have thought some of those sites would have been MUCH higher though…
April 13th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
thanks
April 14th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
nice sharing thank you
April 21st, 2009 at 1:06 am
put pacquiao in there. even his website mannypacquiao.ph, lol i swear, your graph aint that high enough
May 11th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Very interesting, though how often is it updated?
May 19th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
hi, msj 173 wonderful blog 173 share