MY local shop sold out of this day 1.

UFC is huge

According to this source, the UFC actually topped $222 million in pay-per-view revenue in 2006, beating HBO Boxing, which took in $177 million.

The UFC is the fastest growing sport in America. It seems it's cutting into the WWE market share more then Boxing though.

And while it's true that the top boxers earn far more then the top UFC fighters (45 million for De Lay hoya vs 500k for Chuck Lidell) it seems the undercard fighters stand to earn more in the UFC.

THQ has started off the year very strongly. I can't wait for red faction too...

I'm not surprised. The UFC and MMA in general is more popular than boxing. As for the PPV argument the two of you seem to be arguing different things. A major boxing fight draws more PPV dollars than a UFC PPV. The average UFC PPV draws more than average boxing PPV and UFC puts on one PPV per month and the total PPV dollars generated by the UFC is higher than boxing. Boxing has maybe one Mayweather/De La Hoya or Pacquiao/Hatton PPV a year

that source is mmaweekly, which is heavily biased towards mma. that being said, i could find you numbers from a boxing website and flip the stack around. as i mentioned in that post you quoted, 1 boxing ppv (the de la hoya vs. mayweather fight) earned more than 10 ufc ppvs.

fact is, if the ufc was bigger than boxing, why do boxers earn 10x more? actually, ufc undercard fighters earn just as much as undercard boxers. most, even less. does this mean that the ufc is just shitting on it's fighters? i don't think so. the ufc just doesn't have the kind of budget to pay it's top stars 7 digit figures, while the top stars of boxing regularly earn at least 7 digits, and 8 digits for the elite.

look at the best mma fighter on this planet. Anderson Silva only earns around 150-200k per fight. pacquiao earns at least 10 million per fight. if the ufc had so many ppv buys, couldn't they afford to pay Anderson more than that? fact is, boxing can pay it's stars more because they get more money coming in. the ufc and mma are still in their growing stages.

i do agree though that one day, maybe next year or the year after that, mma will be bigger than any combat sport in the world. but right now, no. no way. 

@burgimmar

"boxing can pay it's stars more because they get more money coming in"

no its because boxing has less stars, thus they put on 1-2 PPV's a year. Pacquiao is a bit of an exception - he has a following that rivals any sports star in the world. Anyone thinking boxing is still bigger then MMA has their head up their arse. Why is it that boxing is only on TV once or twice a year? MMA is on multiple channels , multiple times a week. And comparing PPV gross numbers isnt the best comparison because thats all boxing has and it does less of PPV"s to boot.

1-2 BIG PPVs per year

UFC is growing in the UK, too. The slots are usually late-night, but I was surprised to see how many people watch it when they can, I know of many people who have downloaded the UFC demo off of XBL, too. (All purely anecdotal).

if that's your argument, then let me put it this way:

even if you have 13 UFC ppvs in one year, and have the top fighters perform in every show (which, roughly, is 1 million in total salary per show, meaning 13 million total salary for a year, and that's a generous amount);

Pacquiao alone, in one fight, would still earn more than all of them combined.
De La Hoya would earn twice that.
Mayweather Jr. would also earn far more.
Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez would, in two fights, generate the same money.
etc, etc.

so see, no matter what happens, boxing still generates more money, since obviously boxers get paid FAR FAR more.

FYI:

UFC was in the Top 10 list for most games played on XBL last week, via Major Nelson. That in and of itself is INCREDIBLY impressive, given the fact that I cannot remember a time where SVR 2009 was in the list.

I think the advantage UFC has is the fact that it's more action-based, which may garner a more broad audience than a boxing game would. However, we have to remember that FNR3 is ancient, and I predict that FNR4 will debut to even higher numbers. Loved FNR3, BTW.

And having said all of that....UFC > Boxing

i think this discussion has gone beyond the limits of the game already.. we should move further arguments about boxing vs. mma revenues to the proper forum :P

anyway i'm still surprised about how much the game sold. i bought it, and so should you guys. it's a great game. /thread