A lot of time has passed since boxing ceased to be the most popular fighting sport discipline. Older among us are remembering famous fighters and their matches. People from all around the world were getting up late at night just to see these famous fighters. These days are long gone. In modern times, we are witnessing that different fighting sports are popular these days. There is a wide array of reasons for this. With no time limits, no weight classes, no gloves, no rules. As you can presume, we are talking about MMA. With the emergence of Connor McGregor, this sport’s popularity really started to grow.
As you might know, boxing has a lot of issues these days. This was the perfect chance for MMA to step up and take a primate as the most popular fighting sport in the last decade. As we already stated, there is a high number of reasons that support our claim. This was the reason we’ve decided to compile an article that will provide you with the top 10 reasons why UFC is becoming so popular. Without wasting too much of your valuable time, we are going to start now.
The Organization Itself
Without any doubt, UFC has the major role of the popularization of MMA as a sport. Before UFC, there were organizations like StrikeForce and PRIDE, which made a significant impact on the popularity of this sport. However, after UFC emerged back in 1993, they have positioned themselves as the top promoter of the sport in the world.
Deals and Sponsorships
As you know, all of the major athletes have sponsorship deals. This is where MMA, with the help of UFC, got to the whole another level. We are witnessing paid public appearances, sponsors on the shorts, and many others. This shows that MMA represents various brands like no other individual sport in the world.
Social Media
During the early days of MMA as a mainstream sport, the internet just started getting social media. This was a time when social media wasn’t an integral part of our everyday lives. Today, all sportsmen, even those who are participating in MMA have their accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. That way they’ve managed to be more accessible to the fan bases. Furthermore, this way they’ve managed to increase them over time.
Diversity
UFC was always known for its cultural diversity when it comes to fighters. But with the emergence of WMMA promotions and introducing more weight categories, MMA opened its doors for much more diversity than it was before. Now, there is a wide array of different fighters, both in sex, culture, nature, nation, weights, etc. This is probably the biggest reason why this sport is popular all around the world.
Regulations
In the early era of the MMA as a highly organized sport, it was not allowed on pay-per-view and John McCain invested himself in lobbing for FFC to keep mixed martial arts away from PPV. As a response, UFC decided to organize the whole competition in several categorizations. For example, MMA as a sport was organized into weight categories and regulations in order to make the sport much clearer to the public. Because of these changes, MMA as a sport started to be more of a mainstream escaping from the underground circuits. The result is what we have in front of us today. We’ve recently witnessed that the hottest fighter of MMA, Connor McGregor was involved in several fights that earned a couple of millions of US dollars for the organizations and fighters as well. This trend doesn’t show any sight of stopping any soon.
Fantasy MMA and Gambling
As we told earlier, boxing held the first spot when it comes to fighting sports. In order to provide you a little insight into the popularity, you should know that even bookmakers enlisted it in their offers. If you are interested in seeing something more about it, check ussportsbonus.com. At one point in the past, this was a go-to fighting sport which was very popular in the world of betting. Today, MMA is highly popular among bettors. Betting on MMA fighters under UFC’s wing is now one of the most popular ways of betting. Also, there are fantasy sports related to MMA that can be found on the internet pretty easily. Try some of them out.
Understanding of the Sport
After the introduction of the regulations and rules into the MMA as a mainstream sport, it became much easier to understand to the simple observer. Before that, this sport was called badmouthed by some politicians as a blood sport. The reason for these words was a lack of understanding of the sport itself. Thankfully, today we have much bigger knowledge about the sport itself. Therefore, a high majority of the fans are now appreciating fighters who have higher technical skills, which are essential for becoming the professional MMA fighter.
Promotion
UFC and other organizations are working hard to increase the popularity of MMA and make it more applicable for public consumption. They even have reality shows that are giving the audience an insight into the private life of some of the fighters, making them much closer to masses. That way, people are growing fond of some of them and start following their matches regularly.
Training Availability
Back in the day, it was pretty hard to find enough gyms that were specialized in this sport. At that time, karate and taekwondo were much popular than MMA. Over time, more and more gyms managed to implement elements needed for people to start practicing MMA. Thankfully, we today have gyms that are specialized in a wide array of sports, including MMA. It’s simple logic, the more people interested in MMA, the more future fighters in the UFC.
Accessibility
Today we have a high number of sports networks like FoxSports, Spike, and AXSTV, who are regularly showing UFC fights during weekends, it is pretty easy to watch all of the major matches. From the comfort of your home, you can enjoy all of the biggest matches just one click away. Today, this is much easier than it has ever been.
