CHESSNOID

Professional boxing has 3 major organizations each with its own title belt and most of the fights you can actually watch are for free. Yes, the first airings are PPVs, but for fans like me, we just wait for a week and they show them for free on HBO or Showtime. I think that is why boxing can continue its lead against the major MMA organizations until they stop focusing just on the money.

Lately, mixed martial arts (MMA) has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years. Although, they have been around a long time and have made over 70 UFC productions, those were all pay per view (PPV) events. Most normal fans just can’t really afford to spend $50 per show. Before they bought out there competition, Pride FC (PFC) was putting on a show every month too. So in any given month, you could be spending over $100 just in PPVs. With the MMA PPVs, they never show them free. That is more than the actual bill for cable and internet access combined. PFC shows previous fights for free on fox sports channels that show every week. I think these free shows created a bigger fan base and created even more competition.

UFC may be caving in, since they have televised one free UFC event a few months ago and are scheduled to air another free UFC event on spike tv in September. Maybe if they are allowed to be on regular tv and just be paid by sponsors, they might drop the PPV fees. There is definitely a lot of free alternatives around to put pressure on them. The international fight league (IFL), Chuck Norris’s World Combat League (WCL), regular K-1 reruns, BODOG tv, and ISKA tournaments on tv is helping the sport get bigger. Showtime is now airing their fights from Pro-elite for free and has a free monthly fighting show that starts this weekend. The common theme is all these shows are free to the viewer and can be supported by sponsors like other sports.
Recently, I heard a rumor of Mark Burnett (the creator of the TV shows survivor, the contender, and the apprentice) planning to do a similar show based on MMA. I think if he does put a show on one of the big 3 networks, MMA will surpass boxing. Most MMA shows are like a combination of boxing, wresting, and MMA which will appeal to many new viewers.

One last factor is the internet. Now that www.youtube.com is widely viewed and a great community, many of these MMA and boxing shows are there to be watched for free. No need to even buy the DVDs. If you can find it on the internet then you can probably see it for free. Most of the videos I post on my sight are just links to youtube.