American MMA fans typically focus their attention on American fighters. October’s high profile all-Brazil UFC 104 main event, however, helped move the needle in the direction of international talent. Brazilian MMA fighters collectively represented 18.5% of all MMA fan interest in October, well ahead of the 3rd ranked category of Japanese fighters. U.S. fighters still represent over half of fan interest, but with the increasing influx of overseas talent into the UFC’s roster the gap looks poised to continue shrinking.
October brought several events that helped shift the balance of fan interest towards international fighters. UFC 104′s main event feature between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua drove significant attention towards Brazilian fighters, while the Dream.11 and Dream.12 shows from Japan highlighted that organizations talent to U.S. fans watching on HDNet.
Russian fighters led by Fedor Emelianenko held steady at capturing 2.2% of fan interest, as did Canadian fighters and Georges St. Pierre, staying put at 2.1%.
| October Share of Fan Interest |
Fighter Nationality | Change from September |
|---|---|---|
| 56.9% | United States | down 2.9% |
| 18.5% | Brazil | up 1.0% |
| 6.1% | Japan | up 2.2% |
| 3.4% | Bahamas | down 0.8% |
| 2.2% | Russia | - |
| 2.1% | Canada | - |
| 1.9% | Netherlands | up 0.5% |
| 1.7% | United Kingdom | - |
| 1.0% | Belarus | - |
| 0.8% | Armenia | - |
| 0.6% | Lithuania | up 0.4% |
| 0.5% | Croatia | down 0.6% |
| 0.5% | Cameroon | - |
| 0.5% | France | - |
| 3.4% | Other |
[...] fan interest for recent months: – October 2009 – September [...]