More on UFC vs. Boxing

After my earlier post about UFC vs. Boxing and who will win the ratings war tomorrow someone sent me some numbers. They were the top gates for MMA and Boxing in Nevada more specifically Las Vegas.

CHUCK LIDDELL vs. TITO ORTIZ II 12/30/06, 12,191 paid attendance and $5,397,300.00 in Gross Sales.

FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR vs. OSCAR DE LA HOYA 05/05/07, 17,078 paid attendance and $ 18,419,200.00 in Gross sales.

So it appears that boxing does make more money but the reason that is, is because there is maybe only two good fights on in a year for boxing and so more people want to buy those one or two fights. However the UFC does 1 million dollars in gross sales on a consistent basis. You also have to factor in the sports bar factor. Sports bars across the nation have contracts to show events like UFC, and WWE. I’ve seen bars in my town of Grand Rapids, Mi that are packed 200-300 people to watch UFC. The bars are making money but if you really think about it the UFC and WWE lose money because of those contracts.

For example, I know of seven bars around my area that show UFC. So lets give each place on average of 200 people. So a total of 1400 people decide to go to the bar instead of buying it at home. UFC pay-per-views are generally around $50.00. So with those 1400 people you are losing $70,000 in pay-per-view buys. Lets take it one step further…Say there are 1500 bars in the nation that show UFC with an average of 200 people at each bar to watch it. So that’s 30,000 people who do not buy the pay-per-view and end up going to the bar. So the UFC loses $1,500,000 in pay-per-view buys. This hypothetical and I am just throwing numbers out there. However you do see my point on how sports bars showing the events have an effect on how much money they make.

I am still standing by what I said that tomorrow night is either going to help boxing or completely kill it. The only reason anyone in my opinion would watch this fight with Mayweather is to see Pretty Boy Floyd get knocked. If you ask me, if Floyd gets knocked there is really no reason to watch boxing anymore. Mayweather is really the only marketable fighter in boxing. Just one problem with that and that is no one likes him. The UFC has more personality, and they market their fighters a lot better then boxing ever did. And another thing, boxing has way to many titles in way to many divisions. Start unifying all of them now and only have one title in each division.

So tomorrow night, it’s on and I cannot wait. I will be watching the return of UFC legend Vitor Belfort who takes on Rich Franklin. I’ll be back with the results and thoughts on most of the fights tomorrow night.