MMA Promotion Signs Prime Time Network TV Deal

Did you mean to use blue font for that boxing headstone comment? UFC has never had a pay-per-view anywhere close to the buyrates of De La Hoya vs. Mayweather during a supposed dark era for the sport.

 

Nope.

In five years it will be deader than glam rock.

Walk into your news room or news side and take a poll about how many current boxers they know. Ask men and women who are sports fans and non-sports fan.

I doubt you will find someone who can name five active fighters and no more than two current champions.

 

Really?

• Almost everytime I've watched it, it's two white dudes going at it
• Everytime I saw it on at a bar or restaurant, it's predominantly white people watching it.
• Damn near every network it's televised on caters to young white men

But don't take my word for it. Here's boxing promotor Bob Arum ...

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?id=3204784

No matter what colors the fighters are, this issue doesn't answer another: why MMA is so damn boring. I don't like MMA's violence, but I disapprove of its snooze factor even more.

Like I said, it's high school wrestling with 'tude ... and punching ... and blood.

 

I would ask whether they can do the same for MMA fighters. I would say Floyd Mayweather currently has a far higher profile than any MMA fighter.

 

De La Hoya - Mayweather: 1.5 million buys

600K more than the highest grossing UFC of all time, which was that same month's Lidell vs. Jackson show. Mayweather - Hatton drew about equal to that Lidell - Jackson card, and had about 250K more buys than UFC's average.

The numbers don't lie, boxing is still more relevant than MMA.

 

I just asked a coworker whose son pitched with Verlander, travels to watch Virginia Tech sports and roots for VCU. He also won a fantasy football league I was in this year. So he is a sports fan.

I asked him to name a current boxer. He could not. He said he will watch it with his son every now and then when flipping channels, but he could name anyone.

He could not believe he did not know who the heavyweight champion is right now.

 

Now he does.

But will a boxer have a higher profile than a MMA fighter in five years after this CBS deal?

 

OK, Devil, ask him if he even knows what MMA and UFC mean... forget asking if knows any MMA fighters...no chance.

 

You are 100 percent correct.

Until they consolidate the two somehow, it will flounder or underachieve.

He is in his mid 50s. They are looking for a younger demo, though.

It still proves a point about the sweet science.

 

MMA fighters are far more well known right now than boxers.

If you did a poll on the names - Wladimir Klitskcho, Kelly Pavlik, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Vernon Forest vs Randy Couture, Quinton Jackson, Anderson Silva and Chuck Liddel

I think more people would know the second batch than the first.

Edit: You would need to take a wide sample of males though, differing ages and races.

 

And if that is not true now, this CBS deal almost assures it will be true in a few years.

 

Saturday night... the despondent XFL fans scream in joy.