Live Gate for Pacquaio vs. De La Hoya = $17 Million

They are apples and oranges. The UFC puts together a show with fights on it. Boxing puts together a fight with a show around it. Its hard to compair numbers when the UFC puts on a show every month or more and a big boxing match happens less often. The one thing I can say is that there is more money in boxing. I can’t really explain why it is so much more. There seems to be much more buzz for MMA events, but maybe I am just in the sport to deep.

plus delahoya is the only boxer alive that can generate these kind of #s. he’s as close to retirement as ever and once he’s gone i doubt we’ll see any more 1 million ppv buys. as far as affliction/gpd ’s boxing/mma hybrid , i still see that as a little sketchy.

The question is though, how much of this money is already promised to Pacuqaio and De La Hoya? I’m guessing a lot of it.

I know that if the Affliction card has 4 mma fights and one big boxing match, it will do better than a UFC card. But how much money will be left for the mma guys?

Boxing only has the old and latino’s left in the states…

The old will die and the latinos will shift to MMA at some point. It’s only a matter of time.

“Golden Boy’s” war chest is for Dela Hoya’s legacy… I doubt he is dumb enough to invest 40m to 50m in MMA.

They will try it with little outlay and see if the metrics work… if not – they will dump it.

Cuban with a bigger “war chest” and his own channel was smart enough to stay away from launching his own MMA org.

In My analysis the threat to Zuffa is not Affliction, elite xc or anyone else dumb enough to go head to head.

Back in the day when pride was the big dog Zuffa wasn’t stupid enough to step on their toes… until the kill strike.

The threat to Zuffa is not how much money a group can invest… it’s how long an entity can operate without losing money and how deeply it’s brand penetrates during this time.

The only probable threat to Zuffa and likely number 2 if one ever emerges will be HDnet.

Why? and How?

They are branding themselves very inexpensively by acquiring content cheaply instead of creating it themselves.

If the day comes when the channel and the content garners significant eyeballs then Cuban can mount an assault with his own in house promotion, in house content – with a good probability of success.

Every other organization is just investing money to build stars for Zuffa.

The usual: History ended at the beginning regarding MMA so UFC will rule forever, boxing is on a decline, blah blah blah. This was about as predictable a result as possible for this thread. Boxing’s been dying for 60 years now and yet still pulls fights with over $100 million in revenue. Hell, MMA was more popular in Japan than it ever was here, and look at the comparative popularity of its top boxers to its top MMA talent in 2008.

Boxing’s strength in the US are the smaller weight classes. There are very few 5’5’’ point guards or running backs, and the farm system for hockey in Mexico and Puerto Rico is, how should I say this? Nonexistent. Additionally, when you say that a huge percentage goes to Oscar, you have to remember: he is 50% of the promotional team here. Not only that, if you’re a George St. Pierre or Brock Lesnar, when your contract starts to come up, numbers like that are pretty damn amazing compared to what it is you make now. They will think about it. If you don’t think so, ask yourself where that new GSP contract with the UFC is.

The other thing the promoters have as a benefit is the internationalism of the sport. 10 million people in Germany watch ARD or ZDF’s big boxing cards. That’s like 20% of the country. MMA currently has no TV outlet there outside of the US military bases. Local boxing shows in the Phillippines get big crowds, and with names like Gerry Penalosa, they can fill arenas. Name some local MMA organizations to the Phillippines. UFC talks about doing stadium shows in Great Britain: Golden Boy Productions did one in May in Manchester City’s stadium with 55,000 in attendance.