The attitudes of casuals are trickling into the hardcore fandom

[LostMyBlackBelt]

UFC is no longer a hardcore sport, it is WWE with some real fights.

 

[Cartiac]

A largely anomaly would be hearing about any of you hardcores ever paying for a fight.

 

[Robbocop]

"Fandom" is only a very recent term, as are words like "fanboy" and "fangirl". You gotta be cautious about using recently invented words. True it is there are hardcore and casual fans, but to assert that there is a hardcore "fandom", well it's not even clear what that means.

I don't personally care much about discussions about fighter pay even though I followed MMA for 20 years. True I can see that in boxing you can get paid way more than MMA, like McGregor and Ngannou did.

Legends in Pride or K-1 got paid way less than a lot of modern fighters, again I don't especially care, like what is this the money channel?

 

[Gladiator24]

Khabib brought a lot of casuals into the sport.

 

[Dionysian]

Nice post OP.

The answer is a combination of PR posters (who INTENTIONALLY want the "why do you care what they get paid lol" notion to become culturally accepted / a meme) and fans mimicking that notion.

Sadly the WME/TKO PR team has been successful in that notion getting picked up by hardcores so nowadays it isn't only PR accounts posting the idea.

 

[Fedora Millionankles]

Hardcore fans of this sport have historically always cared about fighter pay and treatment.

And it's pretty self evident as to why -
If you're a hardcore fan of this sport, you tend to enjoy some of the finer things and intricacies about it. Something about it has pulled you in, above and beyond the level of a casual.

Maybe it's the sacrifices that fighters make, maybe it's the courage displayed in the heat of battle (heart), maybe its a combination of that stuff and other things, but something has pulled you in. And when you have a high degree of appreciation and respect for what fighters go through, it's both emotionally and intellectually logical to want to see said fighters compensated and treated appropriately.

It is plainly, and self evidently, casual fans of the sport that don't give a shit about fighter pay. They want to see blood and violence. They want to see roided up gorillas swinging wildly until one goes down. Their engagement with the sport starts and stops with the entertainment provided by violence that is momentarily flashing on their screens. Of course when that is the extent of your engagement with the sport, it's completely reasonable to not give a fuck about fighter pay.

So can someone explain to me why the fuck there is a large minority of people within the hardcore Fandom that shit on people concerned about fighter pay? Often, these people don't even attempt to make an argument about whether or not fighter pay is good - they shit on the very idea of giving a fuck about fighter pay and treatment.

Here you are, posting on an obscure karate message board that has been around since the 90s, that is dedicated to the 24/7 365 discussion of mma and martial arts, talking about "why do you give a shit about what another man is paid?" Or "he's not gonna send you a check bro"

Like....BRUH


Do you hear yourself??

Have a look around you.

Look at where you are.

Have a moment of self awareness for the first time in your life.

Motherfuckers are really out here posting 5 McGregor threads a day on a 25 year old karate message board asking "why do you care about fighter pay?"

IDK MAN - maybe because my appreciation of the fighters goes beyond "hurrr durrr sweaty muscle man goes brrrr" *clapping monkey noises*

Do you not realize what a fuckin weirdo you are for being a hardcore fan of this sport and NOT caring about fighter pay? You are a freakish anomaly and should be regarded as such.

True hardcore fans respect fighters like Chuck Liddell who wasn’t all about the money and just loved to fight. Look at what happens when fighters care about money; they chase money fights, avoid dangerous matchups, and clog up divisions/ rank squat.
Look at boxing where the top guys make 90% of the money and refuse to fight the other top guys or like Floyd, carefully cherry pick matchups to pad a record.

 

[DapperDave]

Triathletes have gotten better as the sport has been monetised by sponsorship, YouTube, ambassadorship etc

Money improves even those elite athletes.

Though it's a good example, Sherbro, sorry for he previous reply I didn't realise how snippy it was!

It's all good.

Athlete pay is not linear with athlete ability. If it was, Jeter would be a God.

Jeter isn't a God.

If you had a time machine and cut MLB pay in half and kept it at half from 1970-now, Jeter would still be Jeter. Same Jeter.

Not linear.

There aren't many UFC fighters complaining about their pay.

The lawyers signed a bunch of retired guys by calling them and begging them to sign up in exchange for a small potential payout. If the lawyers hadn't done that, there wouldn't be 1400 people in the class.

Active fighters on the roster: they seem okay. I watch the fights. I rarely see any of them complain about anything.

The loudest whiners are keyboard poof socialists on places like Sherdog. People who don't even fight, but still believe that adult professional fighters somehow need poof help.
It's weird.

 

[burningspear]

A worldwide spectacle pulling in billions yet stilll we have '100k a year for 3 fights, beats my shitty job so fuck them' lol

 

[Jinx_AA]

bud I seen the first UFC at a bar back in 93. I've been a fan for 31 years and I could give a flying fuck what these guys make. Why would a person care what someone else earns unless it's their husband or wife. Like grow the fuck up already. 95% of the UFC fights today are shit anyways. Dogfight Wild Tournament's one show was more entertaining than all the UFC cards of the last decade combined minus Mark Hunt vs Bigfoot.

There’s a zero percent chance you watched the first ufc in a bar back in 93 …. I’m the commercial distributor for the ufc - no bar was showing the first ufcs … not even with illegal
Boxes …

The rest of your rant is fine - carry on LOL

 

[HHJ]

UFC is no longer a hardcore sport, it is WWE with some real fights.

You can always tell someone who started watching MMA and has no conception of fight sports as a whole when they make posts like this.

Things that have been going on in boxing for many decades.

"oMg ItZ wwe!

 

[HHJ]

Legends in Pride or K-1 got paid way less than a lot of modern fighters, again I don't especially care, like what is this the money channel?

I mean its not like im like ooooh i wonder how much this guy makes.

But if you follow the sport, you are going to notice some things wether you like it or not.

There are gonna be fights that get held up because someone wans to re-negotiate their contracts. There are fighters like Sean O malley that says they wont take a step up in competition unless they get a step up in their pay.

Its impossible to ignore this stuff. It directly influences everything.

 

[Brueskie]

What useful function do fighters serve beyond providing the occasional bit of throwaway entertainment? The person who hands me my food at McDonalds serves a greater societal purpose.

 

[moreorless87]

A worldwide spectacle pulling in billions yet stilll we have '100k a year for 3 fights, beats my shitty job so fuck them' lol

Its especially dumb as its not just about the fighters but the fans, the less is invested in the sport the worse the standard of the sport will be, in MMA were your drawing in talent from other sports thats arguably even more true.

Again I think in MMA really the "hardcore" fans tend to be the worst, the casuals will turn up for people like Lesnar, Rousey and McGregor who pretty much garentee action, maybe they buy into the overhype as well that there unbeatable gods whilst there winning but if the fights werent good they wouldnt be there. The hardcores have had the full brain drain UFC hype, they've become fans of the brand over the sport and will watch anything.

Look at say Colby, the "casuals" never cared much about him winning rather dull decisions, the "hardcores" on Sherdog were obcessed with him for years. I spose you can add in the "hardcores" tend to be incels/right wingers who are easily led with a bit of politics.

 

[SkinnyClaw]

Man shut up, I could understand 10/10 fighter saying he doesn't get paid enough, but the example you idiots use every time is "Waaah Ngannou is the baddest man waah, he deserves more than half a million per fight waaah", just shut up. You are crying, because another man who is a millionaire and makes more money than 99% of the world's population is not getting even more, it's just plain weird.

 

[RockyLockridge]

It’s a cultural thing I don’t ask how much they get paid it’s none of my business really. Increased fight pay leading to better athletes is only theoretical

 

[moreorless87]

Man shut up, I could understand 10/10 fighter saying he doesn't get paid enough, but the example you idiots use every time is "Waaah Ngannou is the baddest man waah, he deserves more than half a million per fight waaah", just shut up. You are crying, because another man who is a millionaire and makes more money than 99% of the world's population is not getting even more, it's just plain weird.

Again what it comes down to most is if more money is spent on fighters the better the standard of fighters will be.

Thats why I think the UFC's "evolution" hype is often nonsense, it points to how much richer the sport has become compared to say 20 years ago but if most of that money is just going into the UFC's pockets then it doesn't automatically feed though to the talent base getting better.

Indeed I would say the UFC's business model might well be to create deliberate scarcity, a smaller number of really elite fighters is easier for them to mono[polise the sport. meanwhile you have large numbers of cheap fighters who will never reach that standard kept around to fill up cards.

 

[SkinnyClaw]

Again what it comes down to most is if more money is spent on fighters the better the standard of fighters will be.

Thats why I think the UFC's "evolution" hype is often nonsense, it points to how much richer the sport has become compared to say 20 years ago but if most of that money is just going into the UFC's pockets then it doesn't automatically feed though to the talent base getting better.

Indeed I would say the UFC's business model might well be to create deliberate scarcity, a smaller number of really elite fighters is easier for them to mono[polise the sport. meanwhile you have large numbers of cheap fighters who will never reach that standard kept around to fill up cards.

They are building new PIs every year and fighters keep coming out talking about how impressed they are with them. They are literally living there, getting fed for free, free physiotherapy, equipment, training partners. People just want to cry about % of revenue compared to other sports going to athletes, and use that as an excuse to whine about Dana. Then they'll point to a broke fighter who doesn't know how to manage his money properly and say stupid shit like 'a guy like him should be set for life'.

 

[moreorless87]

They are building new PIs every year and fighters keep coming out talking about how impressed they are with them. They are literally living there, getting fed for free, free physiotherapy, equipment, training partners. People just want to cry about % of revenue compared to other sports going to athletes, and use that as an excuse to whine about Dana. Then they'll point to a broke fighter who doesn't know how to manage his money properly and say stupid shit like 'a guy like him should be set for life'.

Some very limited investment were they push fighters to give them cheap PR whilst generally spending as little as possible.

The issue I'd say is that the UFC has put alot of effort into having the fanbase attached to the brand and Dana White over attachment to the sport, no other sport do you have people so willing to bend over backwards defending the owners.