Newb here trying to learn the industry
 

Hey guys.

I'm trying to understand more about the MMA industry. If you got the time and the patients, please help me with a few things...

So MMA is the industry. What percentage of the industry do you think UFC makes up? What other organizations are worth mentioning?

If there is a major organization outside the UFC that makes up this industry, please include that organization in the following questions if you could.

Would you include boxing in this industry? My first thought is no...

How many fighters are relatively popular or at least known? For example in MLB there are 780 players each year in the MLB, about 200 are actually known by those who follow baseball.

How often are there events? Once a week, month, ect...

How many fighters participate in each event?

How often would each of those popular fighters in the above question fight in a single year?

Does anyone play fantasy UFC? If so, what website do you use?


Thanks for helping a newb out. I appreciate your time!

The thing that makes these questions hard to answer, is that MMA doesn't have leagues. The number of known fighters depends on the viewers' interest in the sport. Casual fans will most likely just know fighters that are fighting in the UFC, or have at some point.

Besides UFC, you should check out WEC, Dream, K-1, Strikeforce, King of the Cage, Bellator Fighting Championships, and whatever organizations you can find depending on your interest.

If you want to learn some history, watch the old Pride FC fights. Tons of good material there, and their dvds are dirt cheap.

The amount of events a month is always fluctuating. Tonight's UFC event is the 3rd in 2 weeks. That isn't common though. The UFC and WEC are definitely the most driving forces of MMA. Strikeforce and Dream are coming up though, and are starting to get better fights.

UFC.com has a fantasy section. This forum has a vbookie which is fun for betting points that you gain for posting, polls, etc.

Watching old UFC footage and Pride FC footage will give you a deeper perspective on today's MMA world. I suggest doing that.

More than happy to man! Welcome to the forum!

If you're talking about marketshare, I'd be willing ot bet UFC makes up probably 90% or more of it. There are others worth mentioning though as quite a few have cropped up recently.

Sengoku: Japanese MMA victory (Also known as World Victory Road)

DREAM: Pretty much the new PRIDE, A lot of tournament format bouts and some seriously high level competition.

Strike Force: UFC's biggest rival, even if that's not saying much. Shown on Showtime and CBS. Good crop of fighters, high level.

WEC: Dana White's (president of the UFC) MMA organization. Incorporates lower weight classes, I believe 135, 145 and 155. Excellent level of compeition.

Bellator: Seasonal Tournament format with some really high level dudes. Great organization.

Those are the main ones, other people can post ones I've missed.

No, I wouldn't. While they're both similar in that they're combat sports that's generally where it ends. Boxing CAN pull PPV ratings from MMA and vice versa, but MMA is starting to grab the reigns of power there so I think you'll see a paradigm shift in the very near future so boxing will stop trying to rival MMA's PPV showings and there will be a bigger divide between the two.

That's a really tough question TBH. In the UFC there are probably 50-60 fighters that are well known, in MMA it's fairly hard to judge as there are so many different organizations and there are different fans. There are the hardcore fans (most of us here) that can tell you almost every fighter in the UFC and his fight style, then there are casual fans who know who Chuck is and it ends there.

Honestly it depends. There have been 4 UFC evens in the past and coming 20 days. It used to be the standard to have one a month, now it's becoming standard for 2 a month with some free events (Ultimate Fight Night in the case of the UFC) thrown in. Places like Strike Force and DREAM tend to be a bit more spread out. From what I've seen SF will hold an event every three months and DREAM is around there too.

UFC Standard is 5 Main card bouts and 6 Under Card bouts, so ~22 give or take depending on injuries and the amount of fights. There were 20 fighters at UFC 111.

2-3

Yes, THIS ONE! We have our own FFL and a Pick 'Em leagues along with a vBookie. Have to be a Gold member ($10 for a life time is worth it, trust me) to participate though.


Not a problem man, welcome to the board and enjoy your stay!

^^^Beat me too it^^^

TraMaI is so organized. I knew that I was forgetting something. It was Sengoku...dang it. How did I remember Bellator and leave out Sengoku?

Traimai is on top of his game!!!

TraMai just earned his Black Belt :thumbsup:

Gratz to you^^

1st Welcome to the forum and glad to see you interested in MMA, thats the 1st good sign your interested in MMA and you dont think that the UFC=MMA.

Ufc is by far the most popular and is the dominating force but there are many other organizations. But probably Strikeforce, WEC and Dream are the other major or more well known ones. So UFC probably industry wise you can say its a little more than half as far as size, people and power individually.


Your 1st thought is right as far as boxing the sport. Boxing is 1 of the disciplines used in MMA but the sport by itself is not really related. Although we do have to use the same scoring system at the moment which has been the subject of great debate.
There are many household MMA fighter names to many to put in here but the ones that most half way interested fans will know would be Anderson Silva, GSP, Fedor, Brock(very public entering into the sport), Rampage, Forrest Griffen, Chuck Lidell, Tito Ortiz.
They are on all the time but UFC events exclusively is about 20 events a year. 12 or so PPV ones and then about 8 Televised ones.
Usually about 11 fights so 22.

If they don't get hurt the average is about 3 times a year. Truthfully champions have not even hit that mark as of late, 2 a year would be alot for some of them.
I dont so cant help there sorry.

TraMai he kinda answered everything, didnt really need mine. LOL sorry.

If you're a new UFC fan, I suggest paying the $50 or whatever for the UFC 100 Greats Fights DVD box set. A friend of mine actually just got into MMA (mainly UFC) a couple months ago and I told him to go buy that box set and said it was amazing. Now I can talk to him about MMA without him giving me a weird face when I say kimura or oma plata.

you earned yourself a purple belt :thumbsup: