Floyd Mayweather vs. The UFC

[jmt225]

Floyd Mayweather's fight against Juan Manuel Márquez is on September 19th, which coincidentally enough, is the same day as UFC 103. So, simple question: Which show will be more successful?

Over the years, Floyd Mayweather has runned his mouth about the UFC, claiming MMA is for white guys who can't box. He has also criticized the promotion over how little the top stars get paid compared to him, saying shit like, "For $100k, I'll show you a $28m check". So it looks like now the UFC will have a chance to shut him up forever, but will they pull it off? You have to give them an A for effort.

Dana White changed the main event of Rich Franklin vs Dan Henderson II to Rich Franklin vs Vitor Belfort (a much more intriguing fight, especially after the backlash the UFC received from fans when they made Henderson/Franklin the main event of UFC 103) after the Mayweather fight was re-scheduled to take place on the same day as UFC 103. Add CroCop vs Dos Santos as the co-main event and a solid, televised card of Mike Swick vs Martin Kampmann (practically a #1 contender's fight for GSP's Welterweight Championship.), Josh Koscheck vs Frank Trigg and Tyson Griffin vs Hermes Franca, it's truly a stacked card. But that's not all, for the first time ever, the UFC will air the preliminary card on Spike TV, which is also stacked in its own right. Check out the list of fights there:

Efrain Escudero (11-0) vs. Cole Miller (15-3)
Jim Miller (14-2) vs. Thiago Tavares (14-3)
Dan Lauzon (12-2) vs. Rafaello Oliveira (9-1)
Paul Daley (21-8-2) vs. Brian Foster (10-3)
Drew McFedries (8-5) vs. Tomasz Drwal (16-2-1)
Jason Brilz (17-1) vs. Eliot Marshall (7-1)
Vladimir Matyushenko (22-4) vs. Igor Pokrajac (21-5)
Robert Emerson (9-7) vs. Rafael Dos Anjos (11-4)

Those are some very good fights.

However, will all this be enough to still outdraw the biggest draw in Boxing? The thing is, Mayweather vs. Márquez, for once in boxing, isn't the only good fight on the card. No, Golden Boy Promotions went all out for this as well by booking 3 solid undercard bouts. Chris John will rematch Rocky Juarez at lightweight, Michael Katsidis, who has the potential to be the new Arturo Gatti, faces 2004 U.S. Olympian Vincente Escobedo, and Zab Judah returns to battle Antonio Diaz.

So, man... the turn out of all this will be very interesting. I absolutely LOVE the competition. This feels like WWF vs. WCW all over again, except not even those companies ran pay-per-views against each other. I cannot wait to see all this unfolds.

 

[jmt225]

Turns out Spike will only show an hour of the pre-lims after all. It will be commercial free though:

Spike TV has officially announced it will indeed broadcast a portion of the preliminary card action from "UFC 103: Franklin vs. Belfort."

As was first reported by the Orange County Register, Spike TV today announced the network will carry a commercial-free lead-in to the evening's pay-per-view broadcast.

However, while the original report called for a two-hour broadcast, today's official announcement calls for just a 60-minute lead-in.

And now Mayweather vs Marquez will be available in 170 movie theatres across the USA.

From Golden Boy:

We are extremely pleased to welcome Fathom [Events] into the Golden Boy family of sponsors as their interest in the Mayweather vs. Marquez mega-fight is another indication of the sheer magnitude of the fight itself," said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. "Having the fight in high definition in movie theaters throughout the country is unprecedented and gives boxing fans another outlet to watch the compelling action of a big-time fight.

Seriously, has anything ever been so competitive? Every time someone makes a move, the other tries to top it. It is truly unbelievable, but I love it.

Not too sure how I feel about the Mayweather fight being broadcast in theaters though. And I'm not so sure how successful that'll end up being. I mean, I guess it's a good idea and sort of ground breaking, but how much will tickets be? Will alcohol to served to the audience? Both of these will factor in, I believe, to whether or not people will attend. It's intriguing though, and I will be interested in seeing how it all turns out.

 

[OIL]

Mayweather will win, to put it quite simply.

Don't get me wrong, UFC is capable of being very successful with this PPV, as it has shown in the past. However, unless Brock Lesnar is on the card, I just don't think it has a chance at all. Lesnar is the UFC's biggest draw right now. He brings so many wrestling fans into the world of MMA, to see how well he does.

Mayweather vs Marquez is one of the few mega-fights left. It's a huge fight, and only Mayweather vs Pacquiao could top it. With that being that, and all the marketing that this match will get, there's only going to be one winner; Floyd 'Money' Mayweather.

 

[TM Punk]

I don't know why you're bringing wrestling fans into the equation. UFC already draws more PPV buys than WWE and boxing combined. If there is one boxer today that could beat UFC which is by far the top seller as far as PPV's it would be Mayweather, but i don't think this fight will be the one to do it. Paquiao (spelling) would do it though.

 

[OIL]

I don't know why you're bringing wrestling fans into the equation. UFC already draws more PPV buys than WWE and boxing combined. If there is one boxer today that could beat UFC which is by far the top seller as far as PPV's it would be Mayweather, but i don't think this fight will be the one to do it. Paquiao (spelling) would do it though.

HAHAHAHA. Did you just say the UFC draws more PPV buys than WWE & boxing combined? You're seriously delusional. Look up your numbers, because I need proof.. please.

Pacquaio wouldn't have a chance compared to Mayweather, because Floyd has been around longer. While Pacquiao is an attraction, he's nothing compared to Mayweather's drawing ability. Put these two together however, and the numbers will be huge.

 

[TM Punk]

I was saying Floyd vs Pacquiao would do it. Not just Pacquiao. And I'm pretty sure they've been around about the same amount of time.

UFC 100: 1,720,000 + buys

WWE Night of Champions: 270,000 + buys

Pacquaio vs Ricky Hatton: 825,000 + buys

You can do the math. And if you do not believe UFC's ppv dominance over WWE here's another thing to consider.

UFC 100 PPV Buys: 1,720,000 +

WWE PPV's in 2009 (summerslam excluded numbers not yet released): 2,031,000

So yes UFC sells more PPV's than boxing and WWE combined. Thank you for your time.

 

[OIL]

I was saying Floyd vs Pacquiao would do it. Not just Pacquiao. And I'm pretty sure they've been around about the same amount of time.

UFC 100: 1,720,000 + buys

WWE Night of Champions: 270,000 + buys

Pacquaio vs Ricky Hatton: 825,000 + buys

You can do the math. And if you do not believe UFC's ppv dominance over WWE here's another thing to consider.

UFC 100 PPV Buys: 1,720,000 +

WWE PPV's in 2009 (summerslam excluded numbers not yet released): 2,031,000

So yes UFC sells more PPV's than boxing and WWE combined. Thank you for your time.

Are you actually fucking kidding me? You've just compared UFC 100 to fucking Night of Champions. That's quite possibly the worst thing I've ever heard. At least compare it to WrestleMania. Utter, utter idiot. Whack in the WM figure and I think you'll find UFC wins. And look at the other UFC PPV buys, I'm pretty sure it's lower than the UFC 100 one.

 

[X]

I'm not really sure what you're arguing about here OIL. Are you arguing that wrestling does better PPV numbers than the UFC? Because that's absolutely false, utterly and completely false. The UFC's PPV numbers over the last year or two have put the WWE to absolute shame.

But if you throw boxing in there too like that guy did and say the UFC does better than boxing AND the WWE, that's a bit of a stretch. Boxing PPVs still do big numbers.

As of now though, the UFC owns the PPV market.

 

[jmt225]

But you can't take anything away from WWE and pro wrestling as a whole. I mean, while, sure.... the UFC and boxing kill them in pay-per-view numbers, Raw still draws MUCH better ratings than anything the UFC does on television. And WWE is also killing them nationally and merchandising wise, as well. You can't take anything away from WWE. They have some great, great business.

But yeah.... pay-per-view numbers wise, the UFC is just more consistent at putting on shows people are willing to pay to see. WWE doesn't do that. They give us Wrestlemania, and that's it. No other pay-per-view throughout the year has that feeling we're you're truly going to miss out on something special if you don't watch it live.

 

[OIL]

I'm not saying that the WWE does better numbers than UFC, I'm adding Boxing into it. Boxing still does very impressive numbers, and people can't keep comparing it to the golden days with the super fights. If you see Pacquiao fight Mayweather, we may get close, because that's the biggest fight that boxing has at the moment.

& jmt, on your last point, I agree to sort of. WrestleMania is THE event that wrestling fans don't want to miss, because you know you're going to miss at least 1 unbelieveable match. However, SummerSlam is starting to become much more consistent, and while not given the card that it deserves, it does give very solid main events from Edge vs 'Taker in a HIAC, to CM Punk vs Jeff Hardy this year.

 

[TM Punk]

Are you actually fucking kidding me? You've just compared UFC 100 to fucking Night of Champions. That's quite possibly the worst thing I've ever heard. At least compare it to WrestleMania. Utter, utter idiot. Whack in the WM figure and I think you'll find UFC wins. And look at the other UFC PPV buys, I'm pretty sure it's lower than the UFC 100 one.

What I did there was give you numbers to shows that were closer together. Now I'll take UFC's two biggest PPV's this year against boxing and WWE's two biggest and show you THOSE numbers. If you don't believe what I'm saying, THEN LOOK IT UP. I showed you numbers and you still don't believe me.

UFC 100/101: 2,620,000

Mania 25: 920,000
Royal Rumble (summerslam not out yet): 450,000

Pacquio vs Hatton: 825,000 buys
And for the hell of it Pacquio vs De La Hoya: 1,250,000


There's the number's I still stand by what I said. And btw, its not something that I made up on my own to try and sound smart on the forums. Dana White himself stated that they out sell boxing and WWE combined. I know he might exaggerate a little bit sometimes, but I'm also sure that he knows the official numbers better than we do.