UFC vs Boxing: Why is UFC more popular than boxing?
Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather in the biggest crossover of MMA and Boxing
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has been at the forefront of leading MMA to become one of the fastest-growing combat sports in the world. While the sport of boxing had its reign in terms of popularity and viewership globally UFC has made sure that MMA takes over that throne. But why is UFC more popular than Boxing?
The largest MMA organization in the world is undoubtedly the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Though some might suggest that the two sports are not up for comparison, it is inevitable that we put both forms of combat sport up for comparison. In my opinion, Mixed martial arts still doesn’t have a huge scale of lead over the gentleman’s sport, but it sure is a few scrapes ahead of boxing.
What makes UFC better? Why is UFC more popular than Boxing?
The fans decide the fights: To start off, the UFC as a company always sides its fan when it comes to fighting. The promotion always gives its audience what it wants. If a champion is offered to fight a number one contender and a fan favorite, the champ has no way around it. If you don’t fight the contender you are stripped of the title. But that doesn’t happen in the boxing world. Very rarely do we see the champions fight the next big fighter, it always involves a lot of ducking and dodging.
The Octagon: The UFC octagon can’t help but give raw violent vibes. When two fighters get into the octagon it is made to seem that there is no way out. It’s always the survival of fittest. To make it out of the cage you KILL the other man in there with you. But the Boxing ring is aesthetically not that violent to look at. MMA fights are mostly based on finishing the opponent rather than outsmarting or outscoring them. But there are instances that go the other way. In that case, the fighters do catch a lot of flak from fans and also the boss Dana White himself.
Weight classes: The sport of boxing has a broad range of weight divisions. There are 17 different weight divisions, each split by only 5-7 pounds. That accounts to 17 different belts and to be honest the fans don’t get to remember all of the 17 champions. Only the most entertaining one gets to eat the icing on the cake.
Meanwhile, in MMA, there are a total of eight weight divisions. Each class is separated by at least 10 pounds and a maximum of 60 pounds. This way, there are fewer belts and the competition is a lot higher. The lesser number of weight classes help the fights to get a lot more interesting.
Fewer rounds: A usual bout in boxing has a maximum of 12 rounds, with each one lasting up to three minutes. The UFC has made sure the maximum number of rounds in a bout is five and the fighters will go at each other for a maximum of five minutes around. How this plays a huge role is, when a fighter fights for five minutes he is way more tired than fighting a three-minute round. This way it factors a lot of fighters to go all out in the first few rounds resulting in a lot more knockouts.
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Prateek Athanur
(2944 Articles Published)