The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the 800 pound gorilla in the sport of MMA and its events and fighters capture the majority of fan interest. The UFC stayed atop the Tapology Promoter Rankings for August by a wide margin, yet Strikeforce made a big jump with a five percentage point gain in fan MMA interest. Propelled by a mid-month card featuring fan-favorite Gina Carano, as well as the signing of former Pride heavyweight champion and consensus number one heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, Strikeforce captured nearly 18% of MMA interest in August.
With two pay-per-view events bookending August, the UFC captured half a point more of fan interest in than it did in July, and has an enormous lead over all other promotions. Zuffa’s lesser-known WEC promotion picked up two points with its Miguel Torres vs. Brian Bowles card, yet still only grabbed 3.8% of the MMA interest of American fans. Without the brand name, distribution, and marketing channels of the UFC, the talented lower weight class fighters of the WEC are, unfortunately, unfamiliar to most fans.
Major Japanese promoters Dream and Sengoku collectively represent 5.4% of American fan interest, whereas the fighter rosters of Bellator and M-1 Global pulled in minimal interest in August.
| August Share of Fan Interest |
Promotional Roster | Change from July |
|---|---|---|
| 58.4% | UFC | up 0.4% |
| 17.6% | Strikeforce | up 5.3% |
| 12.7% | Regional / Free Agents | down 4.45 |
| 3.8% | WEC | up 2.0% |
| 2.8% | Dream | down 1.5% |
| 2.6% | Sengoku | down 0.4% |
| 0.9% | K1 MMA | down 1.0% |
| 0.4% | M-1 | down 0.1% |
| 0.3% | Bellator | down 0.1% |
| 0.2% | Deep | No change |
| 0.1% | Pancrase | No change |
| 0.1% | Shooto | down 0.3% |
