Who really watches MMA?

Why do promotions think I love metal riffs and want Megadeth to play between fights? Why do they think I’m a low-rent man wearing a stained wife beater and swilling Pabst Blue Ribbon in my trailer while gazing with bloodthirsty eyes upon the sport of “human cock fighting” before stumbling off to climb on top of my wife?

I have always have had my doubts about this stereotype of the MMA fan. First, there’s the MMA couture: Tap Out and Affliction shirts aren’t cheap. UFC tickets are prohibitively expensive and the pay-per-views are not nothing. Throw in a bar tab, and flowers for an angry wife or girlfriend when you come home pissed and it’s downright costly. If you actually train in the martial arts, tack on gym fees, the cost of gloves, shinguards and other gear, and “fighting with the stars” seminars (Shogun and Rich Franklin were both in Toronto last week and their seminars cost more than 100 bucks apiece for what amounts to a glorified autograph session).

So it’s obvious that, as a demographic, we obviously have some disposable income. UFC president Dana White saw it years ago and has been making my pockets lighter ever since.

Thus, when data from Scarborough Sports Media indicated that advertisers were reaching key male demographics via MMA, I assumed it had been published in ‘The Journal of Things I Could Have Fuckin’ Told You Myself.”

Shocking! Advertisers are marketing to men at MMA events! Does this mean no ‘Affliction Tampons’? No Tapout ads during repeats of Sex In The City? Slightly less obvious than the fact that we are a sausage fest, is that this kolbasa seems to have some bread.

According to the research, MMA fans (defined as “those who watched the sport on broadcast or cable in the past year”) are doing well. We are fifteen percent more likely than the average adult to have a household income of $75,000-plus, and ten percent more likely to own a second home. Fifteen percent of us are planning to buy a luxury vehicle within the next year, and we are ten percent of the potential market for new SUV purchases. As will be painfully obvious to anyone who has ever watched Spike, we buy a lot of video games. Thus, we are 158 percent more likely to buy a video game system in the next year. Also, we are more likely to buy an HDTV. ‘Cause you have never seen Roy Nelson’s gut jiggle until you have seen it jiggle in HD.

So next time you are stuck at a traffic light and a Bentley pulls up and asks to borrow some Grey Poupon, think MMA fan.