The UFC has big plans for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, or, well, at least their brand of Mixed Martial Arts. They have always been talking about making it one of the biggest, if not the biggest, sports in the world. It seems like a stretch for the UFC to really grow that big as there is limited appeal. Part of what has always helped team sports to get as huge as they are is that the teams have a home. While fighters have homes as well, there are just so many of them and a fighter’s career can only last so long.
You can go your whole life while being a Red Sox fan, even if the players switch every season, because the Red Sox aren’t going anywhere. If you are a fan of a certain fighter you have a few years before things start to fall apart for them and age catches up to them. That is why, in my humble opinion, team sports will always trump individual sports like this.
There is some new research out, claiming that the UFC has over 300 million fans worldwide. I’m, uh, not sure that I buy that?
According to sports marketing research firm Repucom, if White wants to make a comparison about the popularity of mixed martial arts and the UFC, he would be better served to compare the numbers to Major League Baseball. Repucom’s research puts the number of MMA fans worldwide at 300 million, more than that of MLB’s worldwide fan base.