UFC/MMA hype is gone

[DapperDave]

Not just fighters. I rarely see a commercial for mega events... I guess they expect the UFC to sell itself...

It does.
We rarely turn on a TV, never watch any of the promo or trash talk stuff, and our miss rate is significantly less than 1 card per year.
We watch nearly every event, and have since about when Mir subbed Abbott.

There are a lot of people like us watching UFC.
Very few if any post on the internet.
Not sure why I am here actually.
I think because it tickles me to trigger sherflakes.

 

[m249viking]

Noob

 

[Rio Ferdinand]

all the hype surrounding most fighters is gone.
and yes, i have been watching since pride days.

ufc was extremely exciting these past few years (especially during covid) because everyone wanted to know who the best fighters were.

since 2018, we've had so many fights between top fighters and we roughly know who is left standing.
in my opinion, there are 4 hyped fighters left:

- islam makhachev (maybe arman tsarukyan)
- shavkat rakhmonov (maybe leon edwards)
- alex pereira (maybe magomed ankalaev)
- jon jones (maybe tom aspinall)


list of hype that died:

- khabib retired
- mcgregor is basically retired / washed up / exposed by khabib
- tony ferguson is absolutely washed up / should retire
- dustin porier and justin gaethje exposed by charles oliveira
- charles oliveira exposed by islam makhachev
- alexander volkanovski exposed by islam makhachev
- sergei pavlovich exposed by tom aspinall
- ciryl gane exposed by jon jones
- stipe miocic is basically retired / old / exposed by ngannou
- ngannou left ufc / approaching 40
- jiri prochazka exposed by alex pereira
- israel adesanya basically retired / exposed by alex pereira
- jan blachowicz exposed by old glover texeira and alex pereira
- magomed ankalaev keeps breaking mma rules and fighting dirty
- sean strickland exposed by alex pereira
- khamzat chimaev exposed by 12-days-notice usman
- usman exposed by leon edwards... twice
- aljamain sterling and petr yan exposed by sean o'malley
- sean o'malley is a mcgregor copycat
- no one cares about 125 lb flyweights

change my mind please (or don't if you agree)

Yea but is the UFC dying?

<45>

 

[Prex32]

- alexander volkanovski exposed by islam makhachev

right. the midget almost won
one could argue he actually won

 

[kahiljabroni]

I'm not particularly hyped to see anyone fight...I'll give you that.

 

[Morning Star]

I agree. Around UFC 100 the Star Power was ridiculous (Champs were Brock, Machida, Silva, GSP, and BJ) , even UFC 200 you still had a lot big names still fighting. Now their biggest PPV Star Is still a washed up Conor or maybe on his last legs Jones. UFC 300 will only sell a million if Conor is on it. All their biggest draws are old part time fighters like Conor and Jones or retired (Khabib, GSP, Silva, Ronda, Brock). Izzy was probably the closest they had to a superstar and he just lost and never had been close to selling a Million PPV.

 

[Ladder Master]

Look no further than UFC 297 for confirmation of death.

Jan. 20 2024 UFC RIP.
Canada it's your fault.

 

[Kryptt]

Canada it's your fault.

 

[Domitian]

They're not even a real country anyway.

 

[SakurabasEar]

The reality check should have came 5 years ago when the biggest names were still strikeforce guys and conrad.

I've already stated this multiple times here, but the UFCs model oversaturated the product to the point where name power significantly suffered, after they amassed a roster of over 500 fighters in order to put on a card every week.

The significance will likely rarely match anything were used to 12 or so years ago, save the biggest ppv cards of the year

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

Gotta respond to the 2nd one "exposed by Khabib". Not really exposed if it's against an undefeated champ and in a weight class where he didn't do his best work. Conor is washed up and has been gone mentally since the Floyd fight, not since Khabib. Conor was basically already retired before Khabib, Khabib dragged him out of retirement.

Tony is old but even in his prime was never a huge draw.

I think Poirier and Gaethje aren't any less of a draw rn than they ever were.

People still love Oliveira and he has had plenty of losses in his career. Also what's with this whole "exposed" thing you've got going on? Losing doesn't mean exposed. Exposed is typically used when somebody is crushing cans, not for former champs.

Volkanovski is a 5'6 Featherweight and Islam is an absolutely massive 155er. Volk did really well when he had a full training camp too. He's an amazing fighter and on a crazy run at 145.

Pavlovich got starched yes but that only added to Aspinall's hype. You are mentioning a lot of guys that were never big draws or anything and there are guys with way more hype than a lot of them that are doing well but for whatever reason you are ignoring... Aspinall always had more hype than Pavlovich.

Stipe is old and retired yes but was he a massive draw? nope.

Prochazka is wild and everybody knows that, Pereira hits crazy hard. Nothing was exposed plus was an early stoppage. This list is too long and nonsensical for me to continue.. People win and people lose.



O'malley is doing better than anybody ever thought (he's champ) and a bigger draw than most of the "exposed" guys you mentioned

Strickland became champ AFTER the Pereira fight and is way more popular than ever so idk about this exposed business... Okay I've already wasted enough time...

It's almost Christmas, stop being so negative and cheer up.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

Oversaturation. It happens to all entertainment. The band you randomly discovered gets a huge hit song and now everyone likes them.

I remember watching every single prelim and main card fight with passion for years and years. Now? I'm pretty much only watching the numbered cards and usually only the main cards of those. The Fight Nights are almost always filler. People always counter with "But what if there are good fights!?". I simply don't care about watching fights for the sake of fights. I need a "storyline". Whether that be an interesting styles clash, high ranked fighters fighting each other, some drama, a title, SOMETHING. But most importantly, I want to watch the best fight the best and that is no longer the case.

There are so many cards now thanks to ESPN and TV deals that they are filled with filler fights. Guys and girls that are 10-7 fighting someone that is 12-8. Why am I watching that? They are never going to amount to anything beyond a prelim fighter. Even if they have a good fight, what does that matter? They are going to lose their next fight. That kind of fighting just doesn't interest me.

Less cards, more quality and only the best in the world fighting would get be excited about UFC again.

 

[MeatGrinder]

There isn't any legit juggernauts anymore like gsp or a silva, at least not at the moment. I don't know though, I don't have a Nickal in this...

 

[wwkirk]

There isn't any legit juggernauts anymore like gsp or a silva, at least not at the moment.

Chimaev, no?

 

[Voodoo Dahl]

Is it that time already? It's been a few months since Ive seen this post. I think I made my first one of these on the underground or was it the Joe Rogan forums?

I can't remember, I just started drinking.

Anyways, cheers , chicken little. It'll be fine.

 

[Osculater]

Only noobz are hyped for UFC

 

[Number 8]

Absolutely agree, weakest MMA/UFC era ever, not a single fight I'd wanna see even if I could pick one.

 

[Jihad-MMA]

all the hype surrounding most fighters is gone.
and yes, i have been watching since pride days.

ufc was extremely exciting these past few years (especially during covid) because everyone wanted to know who the best fighters were.

since 2018, we've had so many fights between top fighters and we roughly know who is left standing.
in my opinion, there are 4 hyped fighters left:

- islam makhachev (maybe arman tsarukyan)
- shavkat rakhmonov (maybe leon edwards)
- alex pereira (maybe magomed ankalaev)
- jon jones (maybe tom aspinall)


list of hype that died:

- khabib retired
- mcgregor is basically retired / washed up / exposed by khabib
- tony ferguson is absolutely washed up / should retire
- dustin porier and justin gaethje exposed by charles oliveira
- charles oliveira exposed by islam makhachev
- alexander volkanovski exposed by islam makhachev
- sergei pavlovich exposed by tom aspinall
- ciryl gane exposed by jon jones
- stipe miocic is basically retired / old / exposed by ngannou
- ngannou left ufc / approaching 40
- jiri prochazka exposed by alex pereira
- israel adesanya basically retired / exposed by alex pereira
- jan blachowicz exposed by old glover texeira and alex pereira
- magomed ankalaev keeps breaking mma rules and fighting dirty
- sean strickland exposed by alex pereira
- khamzat chimaev exposed by 12-days-notice usman
- usman exposed by leon edwards... twice
- aljamain sterling and petr yan exposed by sean o'malley
- sean o'malley is a mcgregor copycat
- no one cares about 125 lb flyweights

change my mind please (or don't if you agree)

Very well analyzed.

 

[TrueBias]

If you’ve been watching since pride days then you’d understand we have down periods. It’s part of the game. Guys gotta fight and lose and win to re-build hype.

RELAX.

Give it 2 years and see how the landscape looks

Agreed 100% A lot of those fighters are in UFCs later days, which means, they're the new tito/chuck/hughes getting replaced. In 10 years, this thread will happen again.

 

[Megatronlee]

Agreed 100% A lot of those fighters are in UFCs later days, which means, they're the new tito/chuck/hughes getting replaced. In 10 years, this thread will happen again.

Bingo. 2013 khabib was on the prelims