HOW McGREGOR CAN PULL IT OFF
Cheering sections highlight cultural difference between MMA and boxing
LAS VEGAS — Boxing fans and MMA fans are descending on Sin City, rooting not only for Floyd Mayweather or Conor McGregor but their respective sport. In some ways they are similar, but they’re also different in their attitude and attire.
Think of MMA as a jeans and T-shirt crowd, while boxing fans take weeks to figure out what dress or suit to wear.
“When you have a mega boxing event in Vegas, people dress nice,” said Danny Brenner, a publicist for both boxing and MMA. “MMA brings in more of a casually dressed crowd. People suit up for boxing. A big reason for that is because people go the fight and then head for the nightclub in their finest clothes. You could make an argument that MMA fans are more of a bar crowd.”
Justin Angermuller of Omaha, Neb., an MMA fan, was wearing a T-shirt on Thursday that read: “F--K the Mayweathers.” He said MMA fans “are more raw.” His fight-night T-shirt will read: “49-1 Fook Floyd Mayweather.” He made no apologies. “Seeing Conor McGregor knock out Floyd Mayweather in front of the world is going to be huge for MMA,” he said.
The common thinking is MMA is for young fans, while the boxing fan base is aging. Stephen Espinoza, the executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports, said that is not necessarily true.
“The two demographics are similarly aged,” he said. “What we’ve seen is that boxing is actually slightly younger and getting younger than the UFC demographic. Boxing is more ethnically diverse. There’s a loyal and enthusiastic audience that’s African-American and Hispanic. That’s a larger percentage of the base for boxing than MMA. That’s why the boxing demo stays relatively young.”
Throughout the four-city world tour to promote Saturday night’s fight, the audiences in Toronto and London were easily pro-MMA crowds, while it seemed more 50-50 in Los Angeles and Brooklyn. Espinoza expects an even mixture of fans at T-Mobile Arena.
“We’re expecting the MMA audience to be a big part of it,” he said. “But it will probably be evenly split between boxing and MMA fans, those who haven’t been exposed to either.”
It will be interesting to see if MMA fans show up for the undercard bouts the way they do for UFC cards. Boxing fans are notorious for waiting until close to the main event to fill the arena.
“MMA fans care about the entire sport and all the fighters, and they’re interested in all the matchups,” said Kevin Iole, who covers both boxing and MMA for Yahoo.com. “Boxing fans are marketed to and only care about the main event. Boxing fans, other than hard-core fans, just care about the Mayweathers and
the top guys on the card, whereas MMA fans have that great passion for all the fights. MMA fans get upset if you have a great main event and a so-so undercard. Boxing fans would be delirious because all they want is a great main event.”
The general feel of Mayweather-McGregor is boxing fans aren’t as engaged in the fight, thinking Mayweather will dominate. MMA fans, especially those who like McGregor, seem to be more interested in the fight.
“I think MMA fans are more appreciative of boxing because it’s a part of their sport,” Brenner said. “For boxing fans, there’s so many more elements of MMA they may not quite understand. That’s why boxing fans are turned off when an MMA fight goes to the ground and you have so many fans that get frustrated and groan. Boxing fans don’t always understand the chess match that’s taking place in MMA.”
Maurice Johnson, of Atlanta, who was wearing a Mayweather brand The Money Team T-shirt at the MGM Grand on Thursday, said both fans have one thing in common.
“Fans want to see blood,” he said. “A lot of people are rooting for McGregor because they think he’s going to bring blood. But he’s not skilled enough to draw blood from Mayweather. You have to be skilled to draw blood from a skilled fighter like Mayweather.”