Why is boxing still producing bigger stars than MMA?

[Doctor Grudge]

Because the UFC is the only big promotion in MMA. Boxing simply has more promotions and media outlets in more markets.

 

[Trabaho]

Cause it's not in a cage, doesn't gave grappling, seems less brutal to the unkowledgable and it's been around since ancient greece. MMA is like 35 years old.

 

[HeffDoesWant]

The ufc can't promote people. They suck at it.

They couldn't promote DJ because he was a Mayweather sized fighter who finished finished fights.

It's a pretty damning assessment of their abilities as fight promoters.

 

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

Boxing only has a few big superstars on top and after their top guys the rest are pretty much irrelevant. While UFC fighters popularity is more spread out, I feel people know more UFC fighters than boxers.

 

[KarateYeah]

There are 8 billion people in the world. That means that about 0.15% of the population follows him on Instagram. And approximately 99.85% of the population does not. The average person has never heard of him.


Why does Ryan Garcia have a lot of Instagram followers? He's successful, good-looking, and he has Mexican heritage. Boxing is huge in Mexico.


UFC is big business, but it's still ultimately a niche sport, and their business strategy is promoting the UFC brand rather than individual fighters.

The boxing business model is different, with a bunch of rival promoters each trying to create breakout stars.

TLDR; The UFC doesn't give a shit about creating stars. The brand is what matters.

Boxing needs to make stars to generate interest. No one tunes in to watch a random boxing match. Lots of people watch UFC without particularly caring who is fighting.

Perfect post

 

[GOATtalks]

Ryan Garcia has 11.6 million instagram followers.

only McGregor and Khabib in the UFC have more than that (and they're both basically retired).

Izzy has 8.7 million
Khamzat 8M

Tyson Fury has only 6.9M

Boxing doesn’t have bigger stars than MMA right now and no one’s at the level of McGregor

 

[World eater]

Thanks bro

This Saturday GLORY will organize a fun card in Paris!

I am a simple man. If Rajabzadeh is fighting, I tune in. Good to see him at LHW, even though I was hoping he could pull the upset against Rigters.

 

[markantony20]

It’s not a competition.

 

[GolovKing]

The amount of people on this planet who can become great at MMA is much smaller than boxing.

Everyone and their mother can train to become a boxer. MMA takes years to learn. Perfect example is Jake Paul and all those Youtube boxers.

Not to mention a lot of these boxers with 30-0 records have a padded record with a bunch of bums.

I'm not ready to say boxing has more stars, but even if it does, we're just talking about a few people. As a sport, MMA is crushing boxing and has been for quite a while. No one even takes boxing seriously these days.

Jake isn't "great" in boxing. He started training in his early 20s and can beat some people but nowhere near elite. Legit p4p champs and contenders like volkanovski in mma started their training at the same age. You won't see that in boxing anywhere but heavyweight

 

[GolovKing]

More people care about boxing worldwide than MMA, and also just the nature of how the UFC promotes compared to boxing. In boxing the stars are the most important thing, in the UFC the organization itself is always bigger than any one fighter

 

[Dana's Moonface]

The average person has never heard of any of these guys except Conor McGregor and possibly Tyson Fury.

Anthony Joshua
Canelo

Maybe not in America, but Joshua is absolutely huge in the UK and so is Fury.

 

[haj02]

Boxing is more popular than MMA. Pretty straightforward answer. Also Dana/UFC seems to have zero interest in promoting fighters, only the organisation.

 

[EndlessCritic]

Everyone in MMA is still impressed by Holloway/Gaethje and Alex Perreira but Ryan Garcia/Devin Haney was the biggest fight of the year.

Ryan Garcia is now bigger than any star in MMA (except McGregor).

Aside from him, there's Tank Davis. Who's also bigger than any star in MMA.

And of course there's Tyson Fury and Usyk.

All these guys are McGregor/Khabib level stars.

A fight between two p4p greats is coming up in a couple of months between Beterbiev and Bivol, and the average person gives zero shits about it.

 

[Spiderbite]

A pro wrestler won the UFC HW title in his 4th fight. A kickboxer is now a 2 weight UFC champion in 12 fights.

To the initial point. It should be noted that the "Pro Wrestler" and "Kickboxer" are both very much "Martial Artists" and extremely talented ones at that.

 

[Corrado Soprano]

Boxing produces genuine characters and personalities unlike MMA fighters who all have the same boring act. It’s like they’re in cahoots with WWE or something.

 

[ipowerslapmywife]

They aren’t, no current boxer is
really a star besides Jake Paul

 

[mjfan23]

It’s still more mainstream

 

[Ares Black]

Boxing produces genuine characters and personalities

Lol like who?

 

[cshireman4]

Structure and incentives are different. Conor McGregor is often used as an example of what the UFC stars could be. But that's what the fans want, not what is best for the UFC. They saw what happened when the tail wagged the dog. When your golden goose stops laying eggs, shit gets real. The UFC can't always control the outcomes (who wins and who loses, who gets arrested or fails drug tests) so they control the "contractual employees" instead by always having the leverage. If Francis gets too big for his britches, good. Fuck em. Izzy, Pereira, Strikland, DDP, O'Malley, Topuria, the BMF belt, Jon Jones, Tom Aspinall, Leon, Usman, Colby, Khamzat, Shavkat and the list goes on. They are hedged against any and all outcomes. That works for them and mega stars works for boxing. It is what it is.

 

[mma fighter]

It's easier for dumbasses to understand.