The Sports Business Journal reports on the Scarborough annual survey which tracks the habits of avid fans of the UFC and pro boxing. The Scarborough survey of over 200,000 U.S. residents age 18 and older indicates that 12.1% of the U.S. general population says they are very or somewhat interested in pro boxing, while 10.8% state the same about the UFC.
The results are similar to that of last year with the exception that the survey no longer compares pro wrestling with the two other combat sports.
According to the survey, most respondents from the UFC were in the Men 18-34 demographic (24.0%) while boxing had the same demo but a little less in the 18-34 range (19.3%). The survey shows more Men over 50 interested in boxing (15.5%) than the UFC (8.8%). As for women, the younger generation dominates again with both sports having the most women interested in the sport in the 18-34 range (UFC: 11.1%; boxing 10.4%).
Household Incomes
The household incomes for UFC fans in this survey vary greatly from the “Less than $35K” (11.5%) to the “$250K +” demo (9.3%). Boxing fans are the same with more fans in the “Less than $35K” (13.8%) and “$250K +” demo (10.5%).
Most of the fans in the survey earn less than $50K which may be based on more respondents being in the younger demos as many young people are just starting in their careers and earn less.
Ethnicity
The categories listed for ethnicity included White, Black/African American, Asian, Other and Spanish/Hispanic origin.
For the UFC, “Other” was the most represented with 16.0% of the people surveyed.
For boxing, Spanish/Hispanic origin had the most represented with 23.7% of the people surveyed.
Markets
Top 3 Markets for the UFC
1) Honolulu, Hawaii
2) El Paso, Texas
3) Albuquerque/Santa Fe, NM
Top 3 Markets for Boxing
1) Harlingen/Weslaco/Brownsville/McAllen, Texas
2) El Paso, Texas
3) San Antonio, Texas
Payout Perspective:
Similar to last year, the survey reveals much of what we already knew. The UFC fan base caters to the younger generation while boxing is received much better by the older generation. As for the key markets, Honolulu is first again for the UFC. This may be based on the interest with BJ Penn. For boxing, the key markets are all in Texas. This would fall in line with the heavy interest from the Hispanic population. The takeaway from all of this is that despite the fact that some loathe to compare the UFC and boxing, the survey shows that the two sports vie for the same demos.
Did they look at how many responders are fans of both? My issue with these surveys is that they oversimplify the “competition” between MMA and boxing. It’s likely that a lot of people are fans of both sports, and hence competition isn’t just between boxing and MMA, but between individual fight cards within and across the two sports.
For example, I will watch the Velazquez – Werdum fight, but I didn’t watch the Mayweather fight. That’s not because I’m a bigger fan of MMA than boxing, but because I’m a bigger fan of Velazquez and Werdum than of Mayweather and I feel that the UFC card will be more competitive overall (though the Mayweather fight did turn out to be competitive, the undercard was crap). I will however buy the Canelo-Lara fight, because it will be competitive and I like both fighters.
Likewise, I didn’t buy the Jones-Teixera card because I’m not a fan of Jones and didn’t think the fight would be competitive, but I will buy the Jones-Gustafsson rematch.
The suits like boxing and hate MMA it seems.
Diego makes some great points. Boxing has become not only event driven but individual main event driven. You might buy 3 PPV in a row, and then none for 6 months depending on who is fighting.
The UFC I think was more card driven (how stacked was the card either in importance or star power of certain fighters) but now is more aligning to boxing. I like JJ, but had no interest in watching him cruise to an easy victory, but yes I am likely to buy the Gustafson fight. Bought Rousey-Tate II but not Rousey-McMann. Plus, there are just so freakin many fights that it becomes a time issue and not just a money issue.
@Diego
Please stop pretending you have any interest in boxing. The Mayweather-Maidana undercard was one of the best cards ever. They had Adrien Broner vs Molina and Amir Khan vs Collazo on the same card. You clearly have no interest in boxing if you think those are bad fights.
About the article,
I wish you people would stop pushing the idea that the UFC caters to younger fans while boxing caters to older ones. This article blatantly shows us that their number of young fans are practically identical.
For boxing:
12% of 314 million(US population) = 37 million total boxing fans
If 19.3% are 18-34 then that means 7.1 million boxing fans are 18-35
UFC:
10.8% of 314 million = 31 million
24% of them are 18-34 meaning there are 7.4 million UFC fans in that age range
7.1 for boxing
7.4 for the UFC
And for this slight gap you people try act like the UFC has legions more younger fans? They’re almost identical.
The undercard was crap? Ahahahahahaha