Is the UFC No Longer Interested in Hiring The World's Greatest MMA Fighters?

[Leonard Haid]

And were they ever? So many great fighters fighting and having fought for other orgs, and with the increasing desire to feature more and more WMMA fights...is it just about the money now? Has it always been? What's going on? For the first time in 7 years my interest in the UFC is on the decline. Thoughts?

 

[Thesnake101]

At least name some of the fighters, bruv.

The untapped market is the Russian one, other than that, the UFC still hires the top talent avaliable most of the time.

 

[The Witcher]

No one cares for your opinion. The UFC is great featuring 99% of the worlds best mma fighters. The fight cards this year and years before have been top notch.

 

[12ga.]

I dont think they ever were. Pride had better fighters and Strikefoce too. They bought them and incorporated them into UFC system out of competition fears not "bringing in best". Since competition is waining it's all money fights. Shelve wrestlers like askren/usman etc

 

[TheWobbler]

At least name some of the fighters, bruv.

The untapped market is the Russian one, other than that, the UFC still hires the top talent avaliable most of the time.

Dana should take his contender series on the road. Russia should be first on the list.

 

[KGmma]

The fact that they didn't outbid Cage Warriors to get ahold of Paddy Pimblet for the Livetpool card is disgusting.
Or why have'nt they signed Andre Harrison and why the fuck was Ben Askren not even offered a contract?

 

[12ga.]

The fact that they didn't outbid Cage Warriors to get ahold of Paddy Pimblet for the Livetpool card is disgusting.
Or why have'nt they signed Andre Harrison and why the fuck was Ben Askren not even offered a contract?

Thats a shocker about Paddy. Figured he'd be next blue chip for UFC. You sure thats how it went down? I understand Harrison/askren though (not money fighters).

 

[Thesnake101]

The fact that they didn't outbid Cage Warriors to get ahold of Paddy Pimblet for the Livetpool card is disgusting.
Or why have'nt they signed Andre Harrison and why the fuck was Ben Askren not even offered a contract?

Chill the fuck out with the Paddy thing, guy lost somewhat recently and they signed the guy that beat him.

Harrison and Askren are egregious mistakes on their part though, Andre does have a chance of getting into the UFC if he gets through the PFL season.

 

[Wayne Brady]

The fact that they didn't outbid Cage Warriors to get ahold of Paddy Pimblet for the Livetpool card is disgusting.
Or why have'nt they signed Andre Harrison and why the fuck was Ben Askren not even offered a contract?

Paddy said in an interview that he didn't want to be on the UFC Liverpool card. He doesn't want to play second fiddle to Darren Till and is going to be in Mexico at that time.

 

[welcometohavoc]

And were they ever? So many great fighters fighting and having fought for other orgs, and with the increasing desire to feature more and more WMMA fights...is it just about the money now? Has it always been? What's going on? For the first time in 7 years my interest in the UFC is on the decline. Thoughts?

The UFC currently employs roughly 90% of the world's top 1000 fighters.

The next closest is Bellator with roughly 5%

The idea that the UFC isn't getting the best fighters is simply stupid

 

[Katsumi Yamada]

The UFC currently employs roughly 90% of the world's top 1000 fighters.

UFC has 682 fighters

 

[welcometohavoc]

UFC has 900 fighters?

I round up because saying top 600 sounds weird.

 

[Gorkle]

UFC has 682 fighters

So 68.1% then.

CM Punk doesn't count.

 

[RampageFaction]

The UFC doesn't need all the greatest fighters. They need 1 star per division at best and a bunch of jags (just another guy) to fill out the division. Jags fight cheap, the best don't. As fans we would all love it if all the best were competing in the UFC...but it doesn't necessarily make good business sense for them go after all the top talent.

 

[Levels]

At the end of the day its all about the money

UFC would be doing themselves a favor if they cut guys Kamaru Usman, boring yet highly skilled fighters like that are bad for business

 

[DRMZ]

The fact that they didn't outbid Cage Warriors to get ahold of Paddy Pimblet for the Livetpool card is disgusting.
Or why have'nt they signed Andre Harrison and why the fuck was Ben Askren not even offered a contract?

Agree on Askren.

Pimblett is really poor, this coming from a scouser who actually likes his personality. Very weak build, sloppy strikes with little power and terrible wrestling.

When he fought Nad Niramani (?), that is precisely what his fights would look like in the UFC, man against boy.

He is clearly natural, which means he will be grapple fucked by all these big jacked atheletes.

The UFC should definitely look at Nathaniel Wood.

 

[613]

I dont think they ever were. Pride had better fighters and Strikefoce too. They bought them and incorporated them into UFC system out of competition fears not "bringing in best". Since competition is waining it's all money fights. Shelve wrestlers like askren/usman etc

You are just hating on the UFC if you think SF had better fighters. They had a better HW division and MAYBE a better MW division. But the UFC clearly had much more depth. LHW, WW and LW was not even close

 

[Okajima]

They have most of the best fighters but they prefer guys who can sell.

 

[nopeavi]

The UFC still has a long way to go to get a bigger star than Conor...The guy doesn't even fight anymore but is still all anyone wants to talk about

 

[rob mafia]

the ufc never gave a fuck about having the best, they just wanted to make money.

the problem is that their bs marketing scheme worked - people actually believe that the ufc had 'only the best,' even with it being rather disproved a few times. ie: the aforementioned pride/strikeforce rosters.

after buying strikeforce, they basically had a stranglehold on the (at least known) top talent. but they chose to repeat the process instead of actually maintaining/having the best.