Why isn't UK catching up to UFC level?

Trifick

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I was thinking about the end of the Conor era , and what comes next in his part of the sphere. They don't seem to have an infastructure to grow talent over there. Especially Ireland, who don't even like MMA. You look at Russia and how fast they're growing. UFC wisely jumped on that business. New Zealand has put together a nice system as well. What's going on?
 
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Give them a few more years of decent into shithole status. They've got the history, they just need to be toughened up a bit.
 
Give them a few more years of decent into shithole status. They've got the history, they just need to be toughened up a bit.

I came here to say 'they take too many pills'

But your post is actually kinda accurate too.
 
UK is still a hot bed for Boxing.
 
Well firstly the Republic of Ireland(where Conor is from) is not part of the UK.

Secondly, they had some good fighters like Bisping and Semtex.

I think us Aussies/Kiwis are doing better than them at the moment with Whittaker, Hunto, Tuivasa, Tehuna(basically the islander boys).
 
Ireland isn't part of the UK.
 
MMA just isn't that big a deal, despite being neck-and-neck with soccer.
 
Boxing is prominent here.

A lot of people here don't know or aren't into mma (this is why the bt sport deal was so important imo)
 
More money in boxing. You can be a domestic level boxer in England and make decent money with a regional following.
 
Give them a few more years of decent into shithole status. They've got the history, they just need to be toughened up a bit.
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UK is still a hot bed for Boxing.
Yup it's this exactly. Why would a country give a fuck about MMA when they're producing some of the greatest boxers of this generation. There's 3 British heavyweights in the top 10 including the lineal champ and another one of them has how many belts now? Like 3 or 4? When they start getting their asses kicked in boxing they might start taking an interest in MMA but for now boxing is where it's at over there.
 
As a UK citizen, I think a large part of it is the time zone differences. UFC pander to the US market the most as its their cash cow and country of origin, and as such they put on very few shows on TV here at a time that suits people. MMA is very popular here for fight fans and martial artist practitioners, apart from that its generally seen as a bit of a hill billy sport as its not main stream enough.

If I want to watch a main card live, that means either staying up all night and battling through to 6am, or getting up at 3am to start watching. There are MMA clubs everywhere though, we will produce a lot of talent soon..
 
I was thinking about the end of the Conor era , and what comes next in his part of the sphere. They don't seem to have an infastructure to grow talent over there. Especially Ireland, who don't even like MMA. You look at Russia and how fast they're growing. UFC wisely jumped on that business. New Zealand has put together a nice system as well. What's going on?

Now GSP retired, why aren't USA any good at MMA?
 
It’s a niche sport, but the talent pool is definitely bigger than it was. Till is a good example of that.

However, boxing rules the roost in the U.K.
 
A lot of Muslims immigrating to UK every day, so there is hope knowing how fast Muslim mma community is growing.
 
Western Europeans have real sports to care about like football. Also UFC is on at like 4am. Also boxing is big over here. Also Conor isn't from the UK. Also MMA is a grappling dominated sport which is why USA, Russia, Brazil have done so well. Europe dont have an extensive grappling history.
 
I’ve seen the growth of MMA over the last few years here- I’m sure the BT sports deal has something to do with that.

I train in the same gym as Tom Breese and he’s classes are now flooded with young kids, it wasn’t like that a few years ago. Still not a big wrestling community as far as I can see but boxing and bjj gyms are common.
 
Wrestling is currently the most important aspect of MMA

We don’t wrestle
 
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