UFC is more popular and is perceived to be the combat sport in the strongest position when being compared to other combat sports.So while UFC may have a dud "fight night" card they have the hardcore fanbase and casual viewers to eat it.Boxing does not.UFC fight night cards are recognized as a step below of the PPV ,obviously.However their fight night cards have featured fighters with high name recognition who are not totally washed up that people care about watching.that doesn't harm them. Junior Dos Santos,Shogun Rua,Jose Aldo,Eddie Alverez are all fighting on UFC fight night cards on FS1/FOX in the next few weeks.They're not blockbuster fights but comparatively in boxing we get Gilberto Ramirez,Jose Ramirez (before his opp got hurt),Joseph Parker,Andre Berto,Devon Alexander in fights that hardcores barely care about and casuals give ZERO fukks about because they don't know who the hell they are besides Berto but he's known just for taking L.That doesn't help boxing at all.While UFC's C/B level cards are easy to find (FS1,FOX,Fight Pass) boxing's mid-tier cards are all over the place (Fox,HBO,DAZN,BOUNCE,ESPN,Wealth) there isn't any consistency.
If boxing wants to build stars you don't do it by given random fighters you think have star potential main event cards on random fridays,you throw them on cards with established stars with name recognition.For example,Regis Prograis.You say he has star potential,cool.However ,does ANY casual know wtf a Regis Prograis is? How many advanced casuals know wtf a Regis Prograis is? How many people are going to say on friday "oh shyt,Regis Prograis is fighting"and click on ESPN?" Next to no one.Why isn't Regis on the Paquaio card? Why didn't Top Rank do a split site telecast? A lot of viewers will have eyes on Manny's fight the next day,than regis' fight on friday. More eyes = more opportunity to further your brand. It's a wasted opportunity.
On HBO Jamie Mungia or whatever the fukk is fighting Beefy smith as a main event.....why? nobody is going to watch that fight as a standalone..it draws nobody.Two weeks after that fight HBO has Kovalev/Alvarez ...why isn't the Mungia/Smith fight on the undercard? Some promotional b.s? Fine..in September Canelo/GGG, Golden Boy could've tossed this fight on there.More eyes = more opportunity to legit create a star.