Boxing Still More Popular Than UFC

We will not know the pay-per-view numbers for a couple of weeks, but we can tell you at the betting window Boxing is still the king of the combat sports.

The amount of money bet on Saturday night’s Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez fight was more almost twice that bet on the entire UFC 103 Card.  The money on the fight was split between the fighters but with Floyd Mayweather going off the board as a -425 favorite the books stood to lose a bundle if Marquez had pulled off an upset.

MMA Betting has been catching up to boxing in money wagered at online sportsbooks. I asked a BetUS.com betting analyst about this and this is what he told me, “It will take a while before MMA surpasses boxing in dollars wagers.  There are a few factors; first the MMA bettors are generally younger recreational bettors, so they don’t commit to betting the same dollar amounts that the older more mature betting crowd will wager on boxing title fight.” The analyst continued “also because the sports is relatively new the lines set for the fights are a little softer than boxing so most online sportsbooks will set a lower max bet on MMA than boxing.”

The younger demographics of MMA represent a positive outlook for the future, according to the BetUS.com analyst “MMA betting attracts a new crowd to betting online. We see a good portion of our new bettors who place their first bet online on a UFC fight.”