SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
January - 2016
35
er. While McGregor is esti-
mated to earn around $8m for
his 13 second act at UFC 194,
Mayweather raked in approxi-
mately $240m for his victory
over Manny Pacquiao in May.
Further evidence shows that
this weekend the UFC broke
their gate record in Vegas with
$10.2m. Comparatively May-
weather/Pacquiao, which also
took place at the MGM Grand
Garden Arena, made that fig-
ure seven times over.
These enormously disparate
numbers prove how far ahead
boxing truly is when it comes
to the mass market. This is
largely down to boxing hav-
ing the advantage of centuries
worth of history from which
to build a brand and reputa-
tion. While boxing is a sport
our great-grandfathers may
have watched, MMA is only a
couple of decades old – it is still
finding its feet in the sporting
world.
Furthermore, the “fight of the
century” was an anomaly and
will not be replicated in terms
of PPV numbers for many years
to come.
In general terms the UFC can
keep up with boxing when it
comes to PPV – each of Ron-
da Rousey’s last two headline
events have teetered around
the one million mark. These
numbers parallel those of last
month’s blockbuster fight be-
tween Canelo Alvarez and
Miguel Cotto, which drew
900k viewers and completely
dwarf those that boxing’s “next
big thing”, Gennady Golovkin,
who achieved 150,000 buys in
his last fight. Indeed they over-
shadow the number of people
who tuned in to see “Money”
fight his last fight in September
– 450,000 people paid to see
him bow out.
When exulting over the growth
of MMA it should also be not-
ed that the heavyweights of
boxing should provide their
sport with an injection of en-
ergy in the coming year. The
staleness of that division which
has left so many uninspired for
the last decade has potentially
been eradicated by Tyson Fury.
The new heavyweight cham-
pion symbolises controversy
and provides a spectacle that
boxing’s most renowned divi-
sion has been missing – his
tomfoolery will undoubtedly
increase the sport’s viewership.
It will increase markedly if he
can captivate the American au-
dience, who have not had to try
very hard to ignore the heavy-
weight division since the glory
days of Mike Tyson. The Ameri-
cans crave unpredictability and
showmanship – characteristics
that Fury has in spades. And if,
as many suspect, Fury one day
goes to-to-toe with America’s
hottest heavyweight, Deontay
Wilder, the PPV numbers will
blow anything the Klitschko’s
ever did out of the water. The
meeting of these two unbeat-
en giants would thrust heavy-
weight boxing back in to the
spotlight.
Mike Tyson explained it well:
”We live in a bizarre world – no-
body likes the nice guy, people
like to see the schmuck win.” It
is for this reason that the chess
playing, multi-lingual, PHD
Wladimir Klitschko never hit
the heights in terms of popu-
larity. And it is why fighters like
Fury and Wilder, although ar-
guably less talented, will soak
up the fame and rake in the
cash. With those two at the
forefront and Anthony Joshua
breathing down their necks the
future of heavyweight boxing
looks bright.
The relationship between
MMA and boxing is and al-
ways will be an interesting one,
a competitive one. As things
stand it is clear that boxing still
has the edge when it comes to
widespread appeal and the big
events are much bigger. But in
terms of dedicated fans tuning
in month after month MMA
handily equals boxing and of-
ten betters it.
The revitalisation of heavy-
weight boxing is encouraging
and it should benefit from the
new blood that the coming
year will bring.
But MMA could be in for its
biggest year yet – it will take a
lot to exceed the boom years
of the late 2010’s but 2016 will
bring us UFC 200, the return
of Jon Jones and Conor Mc-
Gregor fighting for the light-
weight title.
The gap is narrowing.
