nthony Joshua has become a superstar in the world of sports over the last few years. First, he won the super heavyweight gold medal at the 2012 Olympics. In 2013, he made his professional debut and went on a 20-fight, 20-knockout win-streak that has delivered him to a historical world title unification fight with Joseph Parker. His technically brilliant boxing, athletic physique, and charismatic swagger have brought him droves of fans, making him the biggest star in the current boxing scene. Before him, the incredibly dominant Wladimir Klitschko had a stranglehold on much of the heavyweight division but an upset to Tyson Fury and an emphatic loss to Anthony Joshua ushered in a new era of boxing. With two of the four major world heavyweight titles, Joshua is just two away from becoming the first ever four-belt undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Parker has one, and Deontay Wilder has the other. Yet, even before Joshua has tried his hand at achieving this great feat, rumors have begun to bubble that a promotion service within another sport wants him to fight for them. According to the rumors, the mixed martial arts promotion UFC wants to take on Joshua.
Which is bigger?
Anthony Joshua may have found his stardom through boxing but he’s transcended the sport and transformed himself into a global brand and icon. As the UFC is continually looking for ways to garner publicity and ‘wow’ their fans, it should come as no surprise that they’d try to get a superstar like Joshua on one of their cards. But, Joshua himself has stated that he is a boxer and doesn’t follow the UFC. But, given the huge amount of money that Conor McGregor made from switching from the UFC to fight Floyd Mayweather – who, arguably, has a smaller fan base than Joshua – it can’t be denied that a Joshua crossover would produce massive sums of cash. However, in that same vein of thinking, the major UFC and mixed martial arts bouts don’t generate anywhere near as much revenue as boxing events do. In a comparison of top UFC and top boxing fights, it was found that the boxing events greatly outperformed the UFC events across an average generated from five top fights. Not only did boxing prize funds outweigh UFC prize funds $85.3 million to $1.88 million, but they also performed far better in pay-per-view earnings by $116.04 million to $34.32 million as well as on the tickets sold front – an average of 19,441 in boxing to 15,190 in the UFC. Furthermore, this comparison didn’t take into consideration the super-fight, battle of the decades that was the Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko bout that took place in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, England. Best of all, the gigantic fight lived up to its billing, standing among the all-time greats and proving that boxing can still be an incredibly exciting and popular sport. Given Joshua’s stardom, which has been earned through boxing, his apparent lack of knowledge of mixed martial arts, the fact that he is achieving great feats in boxing and getting serious paychecks for doing so, switching to a new sport simply doesn’t make sense at this time.
Previous crossovers
The biggest UFC-boxing crossover is certainly the overhyped boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. Both fighters made huge sums of money from the fight and, while the hype train dominated social media and click-bait for many months, the fight itself struggled to garner the desired crowd. The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas famously struggled to sell tickets at the targeted price, and evidently didn’t sell out on fight night. It also had somewhat of a weak PPV audience with its inflated cost of viewing. While many who followed the fight hoped for a massive underdog win for the UFC star Conor McGregor over the 49-0-0, 40-year-old, retired Floyd Mayweather Jr., the inevitable outcome came about in the tenth round following a dreary bout. Crossovers can generate a lot of interest from both sports, but huge-money events such as the Mayweather-McGregor fight seldom deliver. However, going from boxing to the UFC sometimes produces skilled fighters who can entertain as a part of the UFC stable. Holly Holm, a storied women’s boxer with a 33-2-3 record, switched to UFC, defeated the seemingly unbeatable Ronda Rousey and stands with an 11-4-0 UFC record. Fabio Maldonado has managed to alternate between boxing and mixed martial arts since 2000, tallying a 25-0-0 boxing record and going 24-11-1 in MMA (5-6 in the UFC). More commonly seen these days is a crossover between mixed martial arts and professional wrestling, with the WWE and UFC exchanging stars quite regularly. The likes of Dave Bautista, Dan Severn, and Brock Lesnar have gone from wrestling to mixed martial arts, and Ronda Rousey has recently switched to wrestling. Crossovers can generate a lot of revenue and some entertaining matchups but, given Joshua’s elite-level skills in such a pure discipline, a crossover may not be so successful.
Should Joshua switch to UFC?
It has been reported in the USA that boxing is all but dead while the UFC is taking over. While that may be true in the States, it is quickly regaining its popularity across the rest of the world. The USA does lack that superstar in the headline heavyweight division to act as the face of the sport, with Deontay Wilder’s weak opponent choices leading to fans losing interest in the world champion. There are great American boxers in the lighter divisions, such as Terence Crawford, Errol Spence Jr., and Danny Garcia, but they struggle to intrigue the American audience – which has long preferred the heavier divisions of the sport, generally, as well as outspoken fighters. One of the biggest stars in boxing right now is Anthony Joshua, and while the UFC continues to grow its fan base and prizes, Joshua has brought boxing back to the headlines of the back pages once again. While a crossover may produce a decent payday, he can make history in boxing and earn huge stacks of cash while doing so.
Joshua looks primed to take all four major belts in the heavyweight division and make history. After that, he could take his skills and his huge fan base and sell out stadiums around the world. Joshua is a tremendous athlete but mixed martial arts fighting is completely different to boxing, and a crossover would be nothing more than a publicity stunt. Hopefully, the rumors remain just that, as there is much for the English boxing sensation to achieve in his native sport.
