Talent being spread out. Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

[Thesnake101]

So, in light of Rory signing with Bellator and the possibility of more and more fighters going to Bellator due to financial reasons, I wanted to ask you guys: Is the talent being spread out a good thing for the fans? Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that fighters will be getting more money due to this, but as a fan I'm not really too thrilled about elite fighters being in different orgs, since that means that they won't be able to fight each other unless one of the orgs folds.

What are your thoughts? Do you think this is a good thing for MMA?

 

[surgeyou1]

Good for the business and the fighters as a whole. Not that great for the fans if we don't see the best fight each other as much.

 

[chitoortiz]

Good and bad.

Good for fighters.

Bad for us, cause we don't get to see all the matchups that we want.

 

[Threetrees]

Good for the longterm health of the sport
Good for the fighters
A little annoying for me as a fan personally, but I understand my opinion on this means fuck all.
Overall good for MMA

 

[Gorkle]

It's good and bad.

Its good to have a bit of competition, if only to keep the UFC on its toes and stop it stagnating.

It'll be terrible if it ends up like boxing however, where the best fighters basically never fight each other.

 

[PrinceOfPain]

I prefer it. It gives attention to guys in the smaller orgs and creates new stars or persons of interest.
The fact that some of us will then bitch that those guys (we otherwise wouldn't have heard of) aren't all in one org is a negligible concern.

 

[MEAN357]

Good for the fighters but sucks for the fans who wanna see a lot of matchups that wont get a chance to happen. Its like the strikeforce days "Oh I bet so-and-so would beat the champ at so-and-so" especially considering Rory has a dominant win over the current WW champ. I support the fighters getting out from under the boot of the UFC either way tho.

So far it's only guys that are entering the twilight of their career that are leaving, Bendo, Thompson, Rory, Rampage ect. But I wouldnt be surprised to see a lot more jump ship in the future.

 

[Haj01]

It's good. We always see the fights we want sooner or later. People don't stick to one organization forever. In most cases.

 

[Grappleboxing]

Good for the fighters and mma as a whole. The fighters can have a second option for a place to fight, and can get more money than just the UFC being top dog. MMA as a whole will be better due to competition between UFC and the 2nd tier organizations. Competition is good for the sport to grow.

Bad for the fans who might not be able to see the match ups they want.

 

[laleggenda27]

As others have said, it's great for the fighters but bad for the fans. The perfect scenario would be a world where there are several large successful promotions (e.g., UFC, Pride, and Strikeforce) who co-promote once or twice a year, with a number of smaller organizations serving as talent development. Unfortunately, with the UFC dominating the market the way it does, that's just a pipe dream at this point.

 

[tramendous]

good for the fans and the sport and the fighters.

the promotions get incentive to out do eachother. right now nothing keeps the ufc honest.

 

[lsa]

"Bellator due to financial reasons,"

you should try and check Bellators pay outs..

Main card (Spike)
Benson Henderson ($75,000 + no win bonus = $75,000) def. Patricio Freire ($50,000)
Derek Anderson ($10,000 + $10,000 = $20,000) def. Saad Award ($18,000)
Georgi Karakhanyan ($17,000 + $17,000 = $34,000) def. Bubba Jenkins ($14,000)
A.J. McKee ($10,000 + $10,000 = $20,000) def. Cody Walker ($8,000)

Prelims (Spike.com)
David Duran ($2,000 + $2,000 = $4,000) def. Kyle Estrada ($1,500)
Steve Ramirez ($1,750 + $1,750 = $3,500) def. Ron Henderson ($2,000)
Joey Davis ($5,000 + no win bonus = $5,000) def. Keith Cutrone ($1,500)
Gabriel Green ($1,500 + $1,500 = $3,000) def. Alex Trinidad ($1,500)
Andy Murad ($2,000 + $2,000 = $4,000) def. Johnny Cisneros ($2,000)
Jake Roberts ($5,000 + $5,000 = $10,000) def. Stephen Martinez ($2,500)
Chinzo Machida ($8,000 + $8,000 = $16,000) def. Mario Navarro Jr. ($2,500)
Jacob Rosales ($1,500 + $1,500 = $3,000) def. Mike Segura ($1,500)

 

[mcdowels]

rory destroyed his body fighting for the UFC and now he's cast aside after he's no longer able to compete at that level (because of said damage)

 

[AP_RESURRECTION]

Good for the business and the fighters as a whole. Not that great for the fans if we don't see the best fight each other as much.

pretty much summed up right there

 

[screaminleeman]

So, in light of Rory signing with Bellator and the possibility of more and more fighters going to Bellator due to financial reasons, I wanted to ask you guys: Is the talent being spread out a good thing for the fans? Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that fighters will be getting more money due to this, but as a fan I'm not really too thrilled about elite fighters being in different orgs, since that means that they won't be able to fight each other unless one of the orgs folds.

What are your thoughts? Do you think this is a good thing for MMA?

If you asked this question prior to the fall of Strikeforce, I would have of course agreed that it was a no brainer to have as much of the top talent under the UFC umbrella as possible.

Hindsight is 20/20 however. Since the UFC acquired the prohibitive vast majority of the top ranked fighters, the average number of MMA contest(s) that said top ranked MMA fighters competed in fell from around 3 fights per year to 1.4 fights last year.

The problem is NOT having all of the ranked MMA fighters under one umbrella. Do the math!

If the UFC had every single top 25 ranked MMA fighter on Earth, then the total UFC roster would be 250, and you would be able to see these great MMA fighters suqre off regularly.

The problem is that the UFC brass were too greedy elementary school F-tards that killed the goose that laid the golden egg. A 250 fighter UFC roster would be dynamite. The UFC brass however feels the need to employ 620+ fighters on their roster.

So, now you get to see ranked MMA fighters compete 1 time per year, and dozens and dozens of F-tard LW's and WW's not ranked in the top 50 compete instead.

FFS, no kiding here, there are over 100 LW and 100 WW fighters on the current roster. Ultimately it is the UFC fans fault for sucking on a companies wang that feeds them bullshit bush league garbage at the expense of true competition.

With that said, I PRAY that the UFC loses every single ranked fighter since they are more interested contesting fighters NOT ranked in the top 100. 100% honestly, I PRAY that the UFC dies, so that MMA may live.

Either let the ranked fighters go, or jettison 70% of the worthless unranked UFC roster of "fighters?"!

 

[mjmj]

rory destroyed his body fighting for the UFC and now he's cast aside after he's no longer able to compete at that level (because of said damage)

What? He can compete as good as he ever could. He’ll get punched in the nose in Bellator too, you know? Once he gets his nose fixed, he’ll be back to normal.

Overall I agree with most, it’s good for the fighters but not so good as a fan. It’s a shame that Bellator doesn’t have the ability or desire to build up their own fighters and create more interest outside of the handful of UFC fighters they sign. They have some good fighters, but very few know about them. But they’ll promote the shit out of their freak show fights. I understand why, but it’s still a shame.

 

[mjmj]

If you asked this question prior to the fall of Strikeforce, I would have of course agreed that it was a no brainer to have as much of the top talent under the UFC umbrella as possible.

Hindsight is 20/20 however. Since the UFC acquired the prohibitive vast majority of the top ranked fighters, the average number of MMA contest(s) that said top ranked MMA fighters competed in fell from around 3 fights per year to 1.4 fights last year.

The problem is NOT having all of the ranked MMA fighters under one umbrella. Do the math!

If the UFC had every single top 25 ranked MMA fighter on Earth, then the total UFC roster would be 250, and you would be able to see these great MMA fighters suqre off regularly.

The problem is that the UFC brass were too greedy elementary school F-tards that killed the goose that laid the golden egg. A 250 fighter UFC roster would be dynamite. The UFC brass however feels the need to employ 620+ fighters on their roster.

So, now you get to see ranked MMA fighters compete 1 time per year, and dozens and dozens of F-tard LW's and WW's not ranked in the top 50 compete instead.

FFS, no kiding here, there are over 100 LW and 100 WW fighters on the current roster. Ultimately it is the UFC fans fault for sucking on a companies wang that feeds them bullshit bush league garbage at the expense of true competition.

With that said, I PRAY that the UFC loses every single ranked fighter since they are more interested contesting fighters NOT ranked in the top 100. 100% honestly, I PRAY that the UFC dies, so that MMA may live.

Either let the ranked fighters go, or jettison 70% of the worthless unranked UFC roster of "fighters?"!

There’s a whole lot of ignorance in this post. Apparently a lot of people can’t see the forest for the trees, yourself included, but the reason they’re doing what they’re doing is to GROW the sport of MMA. 10 years ago there was very little discussion on fighters outside the top 5, and basically nothing on fighters out of the top 10. The only way to increase the notoriety for the guys ranks 10-20 (roughly speaking) is to get them on TV where people can see them and remember their names. The UFC is both building their brand and building the sport so there are more people able to make a living in MMA. While not all of the fights we watch are going to be great, and we may not know who we’re watching, in time it builds name recognition for these guys.

 

[Appylion]

Good for them.
Bad for us.

 

[WinZip]

Good for the business and the fighters as a whole. Not that great for the fans if we don't see the best fight each other as much.

This.

For the fans, it sucks because now we won't get to see the best fight the best. Back in the PRIDE days we had so many "who would win" threads, for example Fedor vs Randy, Wandy vs Chuck, Penn vs Gomi, etc. But we never saw those fights (the Penn vs Gomi fight was late in their careers, not in their prime). Are we gonna see Rory fight Condit or Lawler again? Not for a while, at least. Will we see Bendo fight the current top LWs? Nope.

At the same time, it's good for the fighters because they're making a better living now and can dictate their own terms in Bellator (for example, Rory is taking a year off to let his nose heal, Bendo had an immediate title shot at WW).

Bottom line: good for the fighters, bad for the fans.

 

[screaminleeman]

There’s a whole lot of ignorance in this post. Apparently a lot of people can’t see the forest for the trees, yourself included, but the reason they’re doing what they’re doing is to GROW the sport of MMA. 10 years ago there was very little discussion on fighters outside the top 5, and basically nothing on fighters out of the top 10. The only way to increase the notoriety for the guys ranks 10-20 (roughly speaking) is to get them on TV where people can see them and remember their names. The UFC is both building their brand and building the sport so there are more people able to make a living in MMA. While not all of the fights we watch are going to be great, and we may not know who we’re watching, in time it builds name recognition for these guys.

Again, not only am I good with top 10 and 11-20, I clearly stated that I am good with 25. Anything beyond that requires a dedicated minor league/ feeder system like all of the mainstream sports have.

That is the UFC's challenge. Lower MMA organizations (ARE NOT) feeder minor leagues to the UFC. If a smaller MMA organization can develop a top ranked MMA fighter, than they exploit it at the UFC's expence. This is why the UFC has soooooooo many fighters on the roster. They not only need ALL of the top ranked fighters, they also need ALL of the prospects that could develop into ranked contenders under contract.

For every 1 prospect that makes it big and establishes a serious rank in their WC, there will be 10 that flop, and never make it.

Minor league/ feeder league, and problem is solved.