When the Wall Street Journal covers the UFC, the sport has arrived. From On the Vegas Strip, A Fast, Brutal Sport Deals Blow to Boxing:
For decades, Las Vegas was the biggest venue for boxing’s prizefights, featuring ring stars like Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe and Lennox Lewis. But with few new marquee names and younger spectators craving harder, faster action, heavyweight boxing’s golden era has faded. The Ultimate Fighting Championship is muscling in with corporate sponsors, pay-per-view specials and star-flecked audiences. On Feb. 4, boldface names like Paris Hilton, Cindy Crawford and Charles Barkley showed up for a championship Ultimate Fighting event at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.Dana White, the UFC’s 36-year-old president, says the sport fills a void left by boxing’s failure to adapt to fans’ changing tastes. ‘The UFC is the most exciting combat sport in the world because there are so many ways to win and so many ways to lose,’ he says. ‘Boxing is your father’s sport.’
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In Las Vegas and some other cities, the audience for Ultimate Fighting matches can now rival or surpass big boxing matches. For the Super Bowl weekend matchup between Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell — UFC stars capable of earning $1 million or more per year — about 10,300 people packed the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Tickets ranged from $50 to $750, but scalpers commanded well above face value. Most fans were in their seat for the entire card, not just the marquee matchup. An image of spectator Paris Hilton, flashed on the big screen, drew lusty boos from the raucous crowd. The event took in about $3.4 million.A few weeks later, a big junior middleweight boxing match was held at Mandalay Bay between “Sugar” Shane Mosely and Fernando Vargas, two of the sport’s few remaining brand-name fighters. Though the venue seats nearly 11,000, only about 8,500 fans showed up to watch the bout. The fight took in about $3.5 million. A spokesman for Mandalay Bay’s owner, MGM Mirage, declined to comment on why the venue did not sell out.