INTRODUCTION

The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) is often considered the world's largest mixed martial
arts (MMA) promotion company, gathering many fighters from different countries, attracting the
attention of millions of fans. It can be said that UFC has opened a new era in the realism of martial
arts, winning is more important than how to win. Founded by Art Davie, Bob Meyrowitz and
Rorion Gracie in 1993, America. In 2001, Zuffa LLC, owned by the Fertitta brothers bought the
UFC, under their ownership, UFC gradually grew faster, highly organized and more professional
with headquarters located in Las Vegas, a team of employees all around the world. UFC is often
considered the dominant league in mixed martial arts competitions in the same way that when
talking about basketball leagues, people often think of the NBA. This makes UFC stand out among
its competitors like ONE or Bellator MMA.

The first event was held on 11/1993 at McNichols Sports Arena, Denver, America. Since then,
UFC held over 693 events all over the world with the most recent event as of the time of this
essay being UFC 297 held on 21/1/2024 in Toronto, Canada.

UFC's Instagram account was selected for data analysis based on how active they are on the
platform, averaging 20 posts a day with high views and engagements. Viewers often leave a like,
comment or share posts. Along with that, the admin team also responds to comments to
promote post-interaction. Furthermore, posts with different topics also have significant
differences in the number of engagements.

Research Question
- Question one: What types of posts have high engagement and get a lot of attention?
- Question two: Does the engagement of posts depend on the popularity and results of
the matches?
- Question three: Is there any evidence that fans BIRGing and CORFing?
The following analyzed data was taken from the official UFC Instagram account within two
days: 20th January – 21st January 2024 when UFC was holding one of the biggest tournaments of
the year: UFC 297 (21st January), spread across 61 posts.
*Link to the official UFC Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/ufc/
TABLES

Table 1: What types of posts have high engagement and get a lot of attention?

Post’s content Number of posts Average likes per Average comments

post per post
Fight Highlights 20 188.135K 1333
Training 5 42.12K 347
Announcements 16 140.5K 858
Face-off 8 93.225K 952
Other 12 62.325K 574

Table 2: Does the engagement of posts depend on the popularity and results of the matches?

Number Average Total number Average likes

Matches of Posts comments of likes per post
per post
Sean Strickland vs 8 8580 2556.4K 319.55K
Dricus Du Plessis
Arnold Allen vs 5 388 970.8K 194.16K
Movsar Evloev
Chris Curtis vs 4 369 586K 146.5K
Marc-Andre
Barriault
Neil Magny vs Mike 4 1440 453.8K 113.45K
Malott
Raquel Pennington 5 723 740.9K 148.18K
vs Mayra Bueno
Silva
Jasmine 3 394 406.5 135.5K
Jasudavicius vs
Priscila Cachoeira
ANALYSIS:

Question one:
The spreadsheet above has compiled the data of 61 posts into 5 different
categories: Fight highlights, Training footage, Announcements, Face-off and
Others. From there, the number of likes and comments for each post is calculated
and classified.

Based on the collected data, it’s clear that Fight Highlights gets the most attention
and interaction among other post content. Most Highlights are posted mid-match
or between rounds, sometimes they are posted before the match to update live
information directly to fans. This is also a way to increase excitement and hype for
the event, as shown by this being the content with the highest number of posts.
Posts about Announcements also received a lot of engagement but overall had
fewer comments than Face-off posts because matches between fighters often
caused fans to discuss in the comments section. Posts with training content or
other things also receive interaction but not too impressively.

Question Two:
The data in the table above reveal that fighters who participated in highly
anticipated matches received the most number of postings featuring them. So the
more popular the matches are, the more posts will be posted to attract attention
and increase engagement. However, the number of likes of a match is determined
by the fighter's performance as well as the result of the match. The evidence is
shown through the match between Neil Magny vs Mike Malott, although the total
number of likes in this match is more than Jasmine Jasudavicius vs Priscila
Cachoeira match, the average number of likes per post is also lower, the reason for
which was Mike Malott was underperformance and the match also had a
controversial result which led to a significant number of comments in the match
posts.
The match with the most likes is the
Sean Strickland vs Dricus Du Plessis
match with 319.55K likes. The match
took place on January 21 for the UFC
middleweight championship. It was
tense and evenly matched from
beginning to end, both fighters had
their moments, keeping viewers
entertained. However, the result of
the match made the audience
unsatisfied because they thought
Sean Strickland should be the winner,
so the posts of this match attracted a
lot of engagement and discussion.

Question Three:
Evidence of the BIRGing and CORFing
of the audience is best demonstrated
in the post's comments section. Neil
Magny's victory post received many
cheers, victory celebrations and pride
of him.
On the other hand, fighters who have
high expectations from fans but lose
will receive little support and criticism
(Goldstein 2009). For example, in the
same match, same post as above,
Mike Malott lost the match and
received a lot of criticism for his
performance and gameplan.
Especially, he lost on his court, which
disappointed many fans as well as
negatively affected Canadian MMA.

Reference list:
Goldstein, JH 2009, Sports, games, and play : social and psychological viewpoints / monograph.,
Psychology Press, New York.

‘ufc’ 2018, Instagram.com, viewed <https://www.instagram.com/ufc/>.

‘UFC 297: Strickland vs du Plessis | UFC’ 2023, www.ufc.com, viewed 1 February 2024,
<https://www.ufc.com/event/ufc-297>.

UFC 2018, ‘Homepage | UFC’, Ufc.com, viewed <https://www.ufc.com/>.