How to Save the UFC

cheezum

cheezum

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the UFC is dying. there's no doubt about that now. the figures don't lie. they need some major changes to try and stop the rot.

1. Fire Dana. he was a useful idiot when the UFC was small and had to fight for attention and was probably a good guy to thrash out small time deals. but the guy plays favorites and publicly shits on his fighters over and over again. you don't want your public face trashing your own "products" repeatedly. it doesn't make business sense. he's hardly involved in any deals anymore, that's done by actual businessmen now. get rid.

2. fire sean shelby. he is not up to the job. the roster hasn't changed that much since silvas time and yet the quality of cards has gone to absolute shit. we've been served up PPVs repeatedly the last year that are not even fight night quality. he is not good at his job.

3. focus on recruiting. the roster is stale as fuck right now. we see the same guys fighting over and over again. any good young fighter that does pop out is pushed on to top fighters way too fast, get beat and hype train's derailed. complete mismanagement of fighters. again, see point 2 above.

4. stop putting women fights as headliners. i have nothing against WMMA, but they can't carry cards. there is no draw there at all. not even cyborg as all she gets is absolute cans.

5. stop screwing over fans outside the US. UFC is hated by many in europe for refusing to put decent cards at european times, even when the event is in europe. putting london cards on at 3 am etc. this turned a huge amount of the fanbase off and these people will never pay for a PPV again. was it worth it? a few hundred thousand extra viewers for one PPV against the permanent loss of hundreds of thousands of paying fans? extremely shortsighted. not to mention all the best PPVs are exclusively in vegas or at least the US. if you want to grow the organisation in foreign lands, put on big stacked quality cards, not those second rate ones stacked with local nobody talent. FIFA know how this works.

6. stop screwing over online viewers. a LOT of people don't have satellite tv and get their media online. there is now NO WAY to get PPV online legally anymore in many countries. not on youtube anymore, can't watch through the UFC website itself. you make actual money from making it available online. most don't want to watch shitty quality streams and would be happy to pay the money for a legitimate quality stream. again, you have legions of fans that will never pay for a PPV ever again.

7. promote your fighters properly! you are now reaping the rewards of putting 90% of your marketing efforts into just two fighters the last few years. now that ronda and conor are gone there is a massive void, partly caused by your shortsighted strategy.
 
Surprisingly I'm ok with all 7 of those options.
 
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cheezum said:
3. focus on recruiting. the roster is stale as fuck right now. we see the same guys fighting over and over again. any good young fighter that does pop out is pushed on to top fighters way too fast, get beat and hype train's derailed. complete mismanagement of fighters. again, see point 2 above.
Click to expand...


What? Man- on each card there's plenty of newcomers and 99% of sherdog have no idea who they are.
It's actually opposite- roster is way too big for most of divisions (except HW/LHW), and it should be trimmed down asap.

But agree with you about too fast push for new stars.
 
It's no use - the UFC is headed in the same direction as those brotastic Affliction t-shirts.
 
I was ready to trash you but I agree with everything.
 
Sell the company back to Lorenzo for 2 billion dollars
 
cheezum said:
the UFC is dying. there's no doubt about that now. the figures don't lie. they need some major changes to try and stop the rot.

1. Fire Dana. he was a useful idiot when the UFC was small and had to fight for attention and was probably a good guy to thrash out small time deals. but the guy plays favorites and publicly shits on his fighters over and over again. you don't want your public face trashing your own "products" repeatedly. it doesn't make business sense. he's hardly involved in any deals anymore, that's done by actual businessmen now. get rid.

2. fire sean shelby. he is not up to the job. the roster hasn't changed that much since silvas time and yet the quality of cards has gone to absolute shit. we've been served up PPVs repeatedly the last year that are not even fight night quality. he is not good at his job.

3. focus on recruiting. the roster is stale as fuck right now. we see the same guys fighting over and over again. any good young fighter that does pop out is pushed on to top fighters way too fast, get beat and hype train's derailed. complete mismanagement of fighters. again, see point 2 above.

4. stop putting women fights as headliners. i have nothing against WMMA, but they can't carry cards. there is no draw there at all. not even cyborg as all she gets is absolute cans.

5. stop screwing over fans outside the US. UFC is hated by many in europe for refusing to put decent cards at european times, even when the event is in europe. putting london cards on at 3 am etc. this turned a huge amount of the fanbase off and these people will never pay for a PPV again. was it worth it? a few hundred thousand extra viewers for one PPV against the permanent loss of hundreds of thousands of paying fans? extremely shortsighted. not to mention all the best PPVs are exclusively in vegas or at least the US. if you want to grow the organisation in foreign lands, put on big stacked quality cards, not those second rate ones stacked with local nobody talent. FIFA know how this works.

6. stop screwing over online viewers. a LOT of people don't have satellite tv and get their media online. there is now NO WAY to get PPV online legally anymore in many countries. not on youtube anymore, can't watch through the UFC website itself. you make actual money from making it available online. most don't want to watch shitty quality streams and would be happy to pay the money for a legitimate quality stream. again, you have legions of fans that will never pay for a PPV ever again.

7. promote your fighters properly! you are now reaping the rewards of putting 90% of your marketing efforts into just two fighters the last few years. now that ronda and conor are gone there is a massive void, partly caused by your shortsighted strategy.
Click to expand...
  1. Dana can, and will always, be a promoter. If history has taught us anything, promoters can be greedy scumbags, but there's no doubt that Dana is a fan of the sport, and does set up great fights from time to time. Besides, who's to say Dana's replacement won't be worse?
  2. You're either a true fan of MMA, and don't mind watching up-and-comers who may be next Jones, GSP, Silva, etc., or you're a lukewarm "fan" who simply enjoys the thrill of big names. Keep in mind those big names where once nobodies themselves.
  3. There's TUF and the Contender. Not sure how much more they can recruit.
  4. Ronda was a decent draw when she headlined PPVs, and it seems like people enjoy watching Cyborg maul her "competition". Joanna Champion typically has good fights, too.
  5. The UFC started in Denver, CO. As much as the UFC wishes to expand its product, I'm assuming the U.S. it its key market.
  6. Go to a sports bar, or something.
  7. I agree that many fighters aren't promoted as well, however, I'm certain that if someone sat on their couch and watch FOX Sports 1 all day, they'd find plenty of fighter promotion.
Jus thought I'd offer a different perspective.
 
Fair points all around, but why do you care? Remember a forest fire clears the way for new growth.

I don't care what tactics the UFC uses to stay in business. If they become egregious the market will respond in kind allowing for a better product to take its place.

Fuck being a UFC fan; Be an MMA fan.
 
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Sounds so easy to run a multi-billion dollar corporation.
You should head right over and hand in your resume.
They would be idiots not to hire you.
 
2. Shelby is working with what he has. Silva didn't have a card every weekend that needed filling so he could stack PPVs. It's not Shelby's fault the UFC has gone to this retarded schedule and he also doesn't decide headline title fights the higher ups do that. The fights since Shelby has taken over for Silva have been much more intelligently matched and put together. In summary, Shelby is actually excellent at this job he's just being completely hamstrung by the company and the schedule.

3. The UFC is brining in more talent than they ever have at any point in history. They might not be promoting it effectively. But they're bringing in a ton of talented young fighters constantly and as hardcore fans it's our job to recognize that.

4. Cyborg vs cans makes money. Holly vs _____ makes money. Ronda and Miesha used to make money. As long as that's the case they're going to keep doing it. You and I might not give a fuck but casuals do and they already have our money so they don't give a fuck about us



Every other point I agree with
 
So basically, your pissed that you can't find a high quality illegal stream to watch PPV's.
 
Disagree with recruiting.

There's like 500 fighters, that's a whole fucking lot.
 
1. Maybe, he is the face of the business side of things though. Would have to get another recognizable face with MMA experience and business sense in there and other than Coker, can't really think of one.

2. Not sure it's his fault as the UFC brass wants so many cards (and has Fox obligations). I'd say more high-quality cards, less filler cards.

3. Not sure how much more they can do besides TUF

4. Yes, 100% agreed, especially on PPV

5. Fine by me as long as they aren't huge PPV's with big title fights

6. YES times 1000. I remember them saying that a significant part of the PPV cost is paying the satellite/PPV providers. Well, if it's online the cost of PPV's should go down as they don't have to pay the providers. I would buy many more cards at $30 than at $60 (which I very rarely buy)

7. Yes but it's a double edge sword as there has to be a balance of power between the fighters and the promotion. If either side has too much power it is an unworkable situation. when fighters like Tyrone get too big of britches they have to knocked down a peg or 2.
 
Sean Shelby is responsible for the 2 biggest money makers UFC had. Conor and Rhonda. So they will never fire him.

Europe isn't the only problem with viewers. There is hardly any UFC fans on the East Coast USA because of the late times of events.

1. Bring back the walkouts like Strikeforce had
2. Get rid of rankings so fans can't bitch about the match ups
3. Get a set of Refs who know what they are doing
4. Get some judges who know what they are watching
5. Add 165 and trash 170 weight class
6. Stop Interim Belts
7. Start a Grand Prix or keep your Champions fighting
 
1. We need MORE Dana White, not less. Fighter ranked #2 fighting Fighter ranked #3 to take on the champion is BORING. Much more intriguing is figuring out who Dana White likes the best, at least right now. We need intrigue! All cards should have the main screen be Dana White commenting on the fights in real time. A small sub-screen can show the actual fights. Dana White talking about fights is way more interesting than actual MMA.

2. More weight classes and belts. One of the reasons that cards don't seem stacked is that the fighters are not well known. Instead of fans watching Johnny Nobody fight Mike NoName they could be watching the Oceania Junior Welterweight Champ fight the SW USA Diamond Jr WW Champ for the Reserve Intergalactic WW Championship. That is at least 20 times more exciting!

3. Put more at stake for the fighters! The backstories are too complicated right now. I want to watch a fight knowing that both guys are serving life sentences in prison and the winner gets a pardon. The loser goes into solitary for a year. That is a narrative that people can understand! Or have it between people from war-torn countries fighting for a US Green Card. The liberal bleeding hearts will complain but real fight fans will embrace it.

4. Start naming the UFC Cards again. UFC 256? Boring! UFC 256: RAMPAGE AND DESTROY -- totally exciting

5. No more judging. It sucks and it is boring. If the fight is not finished in 3 rounds (or 5 for a championship fight) they move to a sudden victory round. Fighters take turns striking each other. The "receiving" fighter must stand straight up with their hands behind their back and take the punch or kick. Then they get to do the same to their opponent. If not settled after 3 turns each, groin shots become legal. Getting to go first is critical strategy. Finishes are exciting! Judges decisions are not.

6. All Ring Girls are contractually obligated to eventually do porn. Existing ring girls are grandfathered in under the old rules. But fans can be confident that all of the new ring girls will eventually do hardcore.

7. Every fight has an automatic rematch clause. The only way that a fighter can avoid the rematch is to move weight classes or quit.

8. Pay the fighters less. I love hearing old-time fighters who are broke as fuck talk about how little they got paid back in the day. I want more "I fought some guy on 2 hours notice with a broken arm for $200". That is the sort of hunger and desperation is what we want from professional athletes.
 
I’ve been saying the same suggestion for like 10 years. They need to have a regular fight night every week during the week. Football has Sunday everyone watches football Sunday. Basketball and Baseball have Wendsday as their big days. Boxing has Friday night fights, they need to establish every Tuesday or like Thursday is UFC fight night. 4 or 5 fights, in a smaller arena and boom people really start to get to know the people better. Nobody is wasting their Saturday night sitting home watching mma let alone paying $60 to do so
 
the ufc really needs to pay their fighters more. they have been taking way too much of the revenue pie. they can't get true talent because true talent goes where the money is. out of all seven of the points the threadstarter brought up, i really think #7 is the most important. they should be plastering their fighters on fucking billboards. they should be advertising their fighters on every medium imaginable. they need to ram their product down the throats of the regular person. hoping that your fighters have interesting personalities isn't enough. every fighter isn't conor. they need to stop being cheapskates, and invest their money into their fighters and into advertising.
 
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