Triathlon may be the fastest growing sport in England, but sports fans like it a little rougher Stateside. Time magazine has called it “the fastest growing sports brand in the United States” and it recently graced the front cover of Sports Illustrated. UFC – the Ultimate Fighting Championship – is taking the sports world by storm…with mixed reactions.

Many purists see this as a step back in time, as fighters regress into a more barbaric style of combat, not seen since the days of bare knuckle boxing. Although they have now banned head-butting and hair pulling, many boxing fans and officials still consider this as a highly dangerous sport. This view from the boxing world may be influenced by the massive market share of sports fans that UFC is drawing in, as boxing slowly but surely decreases in followers.

Boxing may have pulled in 850,000 pay-per-view sales for the recent fight between Pacquiao and Hatton, but in the US, UFC regularly hits the million mark. In the style of the infamous “Fight Club” film, most of UFC’s followers are typically white-collar males aged 18-34 years. Whether you like it or not, brands looking to sponsor a rapidly growing sport would be wise to look seriously at this proposition; although, controlling the UFC ambassadors you employ would be a different story. Another appealing factor to this high-adrenaline sport is that there are rarely unbalanced fights, unlike in boxing where a promoter cannily chooses matches in his fighter’s favour. This may be due to the greater balance of pay amongst the fighters; according to one source there are around 380 UFC fighters earning over $100,000 a year.

As much as I enjoy spending a quiet day watching a village cricket match, for sheer entertainment and a real ‘edge of your seat’ factor, few sports compare to UFC’s aggression, skill and will to win. I hasten to add, in this case these views most definitely come from an armchair sportsman!

By Simon Roche on August 28th, 2009

Tags: Sport