Are Combat Sports Ready For Their Golf Moment?
Golf surged in popularity the last five years. Combat sports' moment could be next.
One reason I love investing in the sports industry is I get to try to answer the question…
What sport is about to become the next big thing?
In the last five years, that next big thing was golf.
Golf surged in popularity globally, thanks to a few tailwinds:
The pandemic pushed people into outdoor, socially-distanced activities, so tons of new people turned to golf.
Social media creators like Bryson DeChambeau and Grant Horvat gave a previously stuffy sport new energy, and inspired a younger and more diverse generation of golfers.
Eat-ertainment concepts like TopGolf and Drive Shack lowered the barrier to entry for trying golf and put clubs into new hands.
Golf participation exploded. In the US, participation grew 4% YoY from 2016-20 – and then 15% YoY from 2020-24.
Golf content consumption also exploded on social media. See below for a report from YouTube’s sports partnerships team. In 2024, YouTube golf content drove 31x more views than Masters content.
Will Ventures actually made an investment behind these tailwinds. In 2023, we backed TGL, a tech-enabled golf property started by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. We’re pumped for Season 2 to return to ESPN in January.
If golf’s breakout growth defined 2020-25, I’m curious… What sport will break out from 2025-30?
I think it’ll be combat sports.
Granted, combat sports are a broad umbrella. It includes boxing, MMA, wrestling – and a long tail of other disciplines (karate, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo, etc).
But I think the category as a whole is primed for a surge in content viewership, recreational participation and permeation of the zeitgeist – thanks to a few big tailwinds.
First, combat sports are about to have their widest media distribution ever. In August, TKO (UFC’s parent co.) signed a 7-year, $7.7 billion deal with Paramount. They’ll air fights on Paramount+ and more importantly, CBS. Those free-to-air broadcasts will give UFC more reach than ever before. Especially compared to UFC’s last deal with ESPN, which put many fights behind pay-per-view.
Meanwhile, the world’s largest streamer is diving into the space. Netflix drove 108 million live viewers for Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson last November. And even if that was a one-off event, Netflix drove another 41 million viewers for Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford last month. For perspective, the NFL’s opening game on YouTube drew 20 million. As I wrote about on LinkedIn, Netflix should be thrilled with boxing’s performance. Not to mention the fight’s promoter Zuffa Boxing – started by Dana White and backed by Saudi Arabia – has deep pockets to continue investing in the sport.
I’d argue combat sports is the perfect media product for 2025 viewing habits. Fights are scarce and highly-anticipated, which lends well to live viewership. But fights are also highlight-centric, which lends well to social media reach. Often a sport can do one of those things. The NFL excels at live games, while the NBA excels at social media highlights. But combat sports have potential to do both.
Combat sports also have incredible storytelling potential to hook fans. In 2025 consumers crave parasocial relationships with their favorite stars. They want to know them as humans. Well many fighters have insanely inspirational life stories and big personalities. And every time they compete, they literally put their lives on the line. That’s why some of the best all-time movies are about boxers: Rocky, Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby, etc. In the age of the athlete-influencer, I think there’s only more whitespace for fighters to win fans’ hearts.
Lastly, I’d mention there are some interesting cultural and political currents behind combat sports in the US. It’s a whole essay in itself, and I’m painting in broad strokes here. But as large macro trends…
Self-care wellness (e.g. mindfulness, yoga & green juice) is giving way to hard-core wellness (e.g. biohacking, weight lifting & protein)
Discipline and toughness are in vogue. Think David Goggins and Andrew Huberman.
And self defense is increasingly top-of-mind because of perceived violence in cities.
Combat sports are somewhat politically coded in 2025. Joe Rogan, serves as a color commentator for UFC, is arguably the largest conservative political influencer. Donald Trump is close with Dana White and plans to put a UFC match on the White House lawn for America’s 250th birthday.
There’s risk that politics alienate a broader audience for combat sports. But the NFL was labeled conservative around Colin Kaepernick and the NBA was called liberal around BLM. But both continue to attract fans across the political aisle. With combat sports, I’d argue all press is good press.
So if combat sports are about to have a moment, where do I see opportunities to build net-new businesses?
I’ll mention three…
1. Media properties
In the last five years we’ve seen a record-number of new sports leagues emerge. Last year my colleague Brian and I wrote this essay on the topic. Most of the successful leagues have been fresh takes on already-popular sports, like TGL and Kings League.
I think there’s room for new combat sports properties to emerge on top of the UFC, WWE and other incumbents. Check out The Scrapyard - it’s an amateur grassroots fighting league based in Washington. They’ve built a massive following (2.5M+ across YouTube and Instagram) and even had iShowSpeed show up last week. I recently learned that Kimbo Slice, the MMA fighter from the 2000s, actually rose to fame doing backyard fights in Florida.
Fighting’s low barrier to entry to start a new competition; you don’t need much equipment. And it’s intuitive to understand as a viewer. So I wouldn’t be surprised if a new creator or property nails a compelling social media content format, and uses that to build a large fanbase. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out @Chrogman, a 19-year-old Australian who posts videos fighting his followers at landmarks around the world. In under six months Chrogman grew to 2M+ followers.
2. Apparel
As golf participation exploded, a bunch of new apparel brands emerged, like Malbon and Eastside Golf. Good Good Golf’s a media property but actually drives the bulk of revenue through apparel. These brands took market share away from stale, legacy golf brands.
I see a similar opportunity in combat sports. Legacy brands like Everlast are failing to speak to young consumers, making room for challenger brands. One that I love is Kill Crew, a muay thai / jiu-jitsu brand that positions itself as a movement fighting “inner demons” through messaging like “Kill Negativity, PTSD, Depression, Anxiety.” The brand quickly scaled to $50M in revenue and the founder’s documented a ton of their marketing tactics online.
It’s also worth mentioning that more combat sport gear is starting to appear in high fashion. Boxing shoes appeared on Stella McCartney and Dior runways this summer, and there are rumors that Bad Bunny’s next Adidas collab could be a boxing-inspired shoe.
3. Participation
Perhaps the largest opportunity is around participation. Golf’s breakout moment was driven by more people playing, not just watching, and combat sports could follow a similar arc.
Today combat sports training is extremely fragmented. There are some recognizable national brands like Mayweather Boxing and UFC Gym, but most clubs are still mom-and-pop. As we’ve seen in multiple other sports, there’s whitespace to roll up clubs and create a scaled brand of gyms.
I think group fitness is another interesting angle. The founders of Rumble Boxing actually just launched a new concept in New York called The Pack, and it’s a boutique fitness class all based around self-defense.
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To wrap up, if you agree (or disagree) that combat sports are about to have a moment, I would love to hear your thoughts.
And if you’re building in the space, the Will Ventures team would love to meet you!
I do feel like it’s growing a fan base. Worked in this space for 5-6 years and there’s new promotions that are building HUGE fan bases out of niche rules and such. There’s YTers popping up everywhere. It seems like every week, there’s a new talking head waffling on about the sport that I don’t recognize with 10k subs.
I’ve covered combat sports for almost 20 years. This is a well-thought out post, but I think there’s reason to think they’ll decline. It would require a more lengthy response, but there are numerous headwinds already taking a toll.