UFC proves its popularity in the UK, and why it’ll only grow in strength

Last weekend, UFC pitched up in London for the 10th time.

An international event with an increasingly wide appeal, UFC is a much different beast to what London will have first witnessed in 2002 when the sport came to the Royal Albert Hall to host its first event in the UK.

The sport is obviously the same, but the hype, the mainstream success and the organisation’s digital media power is much much different.

Now, UFC comes to plenty of countries over the course of a year and sees its fights play out in front of thousands of fans – though the appeal of the fast-paced, visceral entertainment on show is much broader than those inside the arena.

Next week, UFC is back in the UK once again, in Liverpool for the very first time.

The appeal of UFC has been greatly helped by social media. It is a sport which lends itself to the shortening attention spans of the modern world. Whether people’s attention can be held for less time than ever before is a debatable point, but it’s certainly true that in the world of scrolling through news feeds, the short video clips of UFC are some of the easiest to consume without any dilution of the power, intensity or prowess of the athletes or the fight.

It’s probably no surprise, then, to see that #UFCLondon was one of the top trending hashtags on Twitter in the UK last weekend, nor should we be shocked to see Twitter recognise it with its own emoji for the occasion. And UFC Liverpool is likely to garner similar social media hype in the UK.