5 Years Since The Sale: Is The UFC Better?

[avenue94]

No, they don't at all. Fans were and at O'Malley for saying he'd rather fight bums than killers, but there's an inherent incentive for any fighter to feel that way.

Look at it from an economic perspective. The UFC pays Sean the same whether he's fighting in a number 1 contender fight or crushing a bum. Economically and rationally, why would someone do a harder job for the same pay? That's an incentive problem, and the UFC controls pay structure and rankings. It's more the promoter to blame than fighters.

I've said this over and over again since people ignore this, but during the golden ages of boxing that people like to talk about, where the best fought the best, boxers were compensated as well or better than Conor McGregor. They were economically incentivized to fight the best. It's not a panacea, but economic incentives matter a lot.

 

[Juzie]

Look at it from an economic perspective. The UFC pays Sean the same whether he's fighting in a number 1 contender fight or crushing a bum. Economically and rationally, why would someone do a harder job for the same pay? That's an incentive problem, and the UFC controls pay structure and rankings. It's more the promoter to blame than fighters.

I've said this over and over again since people ignore this, but during the golden ages of boxing that people like to talk about, where the best fought the best, boxers were compensated as well or better than Conor McGregor. They were economically incentivized to fight the best. It's not a panacea, but economic incentives matter a lot.

You also get win bonus for guaranteed wins vs risking losing + you are better able to negotiate your next contract for higher value while on a win streak. The lesson here is that UFC overhypes guys way too soon and some of them are finding ways to exploit that.

No reason to hate Sean here, it's just his job and everyone wants to make the most money they can out of their job.

 

[Ghostoftheville]

If you're comparing the entirety of Zuffa to endeavor, of course, Zuffa looks better. If you compare the last 3 years or so of what Zuffa was doing to Endeavor, you wouldn't know there was a change in ownership.

 

[JSN]

Holy shit; it’s insane to think it’s been half a decade.

I think that in the spirit of being fair, we do see a LOT of events being put on consistently. So that’s good.

Overall I’d be hard pressed to see it as anything but overwhelmingly negative, both from the fighters’ and viewers’ perspectives. No access to sponsorships, increasing whitewashing of the sport, consistently watered down events, champ-champ matchups that don’t make sense, horrible leveraging of the interim title system, and Bellator imo has a larger % of top fighters despite the fact that they’re an idiotic organization that could never hope to make money long term.

 

[Juzie]

If you're comparing the entirety of Zuffa to endeavor, of course, Zuffa looks better. If you compare the last 3 years or so of what Zuffa was doing to Endeavor, you wouldn't know there was a change in ownership.

Yeah the whole quantity over quality cards things has been something UFC was pushing for long before WME.

Things that people hate such as WMMA and the reebok deal were also already around as well.

 

[MCS]

It's numbers guys doing network deals with little regard to card quality. "As long as a certain number is watching we're OK with it". Media company.

 

[TempleoftheDog]

Long term, this is absolutely the best way. Even if in the short run you sometimes miss out on a fight you want to see it is worth it. The way it should be. I feel like WME has been worse in this regard than Zuffa, and Zuffa wasn't blameless either.

As far as I can tell Zuffa only really came off the rails at the end.. Conor. Before that most title fights were legit.
Now they are literally a joke. You need look no further than the Usman vs Masvidal rematch. I don’t know the complete history of Zuffa and won’t pretend I was actually there. But did they do any bullshit like that?

 

[Mongoosemk12]

My guess is that the "best" version of the UFC isn't the most profitable version of the UFC. Welcome to the world of business. I don't like it either and I have a degree from a very decent business school. Wish we could go back to 1-2 cards a month with stacked ass cards. Let the mid tier regional orgs build and get a strong base under them, then only scalp the very best talent.

Edit: You have to remember they look at a lot of different metrics and perceive those metrics differently from the paying fan base. A "good" card to them might be mostly made up of sponsorship dollars secured via sales deals vs a night of what fans consider to be "good" fights.

 

[Tweak896]

For 4 billion it was a steal. Imagine if you IPO'd just the UFC how much it would be valued. They bought prior to all the money printing, it was all perfect timing. Bet that the Fertittas probably wish they sold it in 2020.

 

[ejazahmednit]

The worst part is the inactivity from fighters
I see my favourite fighter but I dont know when they will fight next
There is no urgency
I am not sure if it has something to do with how WME do business but during the fertita era there was a lot more urgency in making the next matchup
Also the champs are so sluggish in accepting challengers

 

[koquerelle]

No, it’s trash. All ducking, waiting out, and looking for money fights. The best rarely fight the best. And even though it was before my time. The champs used to always face the next guy in line.

Conor changed the game alright. He turned it into a circus.

Oh stfu. That shit has always been there and newbs like you act like it’s a new thing.

Couture getting a title shot after a loss? Title shot after beating MVA?

Tito avoiding Chuck.

BJ leaving the ufc.

I could go on and on. Newbs like you need to stop with the false narrative. You’re just embarrassing yourselves and show how little you know about mma.

 

[Franklin U.]

Pay Per View Buys | Tapology

Bullshit. The top 10 PPVs have all been since the WME takeover.

If you really believe the UFC is out of touch, vote with your wallet. While numbers are booming out of the roof they are doing something right (it's a business).

That's more a product of ESPN , a plethora of new fans ( who really dont know any better) and the fact that White has to sit on his bread & butter which are the ppvs and has done a decent job putting his draws / names on said cards as the rub continues to be these ultra vanilla fight night line ups.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

Bring back 2010 UFC please

 

[avenue94]

You also get win bonus for guaranteed wins vs risking losing + you are better able to negotiate your next contract for higher value while on a win streak. The lesson here is that UFC overhypes guys way too soon and some of them are finding ways to exploit that.

You're confusing an economic incentive that makes sense with one that doesn't.

Show/win is just a cute way of lowering fighter payouts, it's unique to mma and doesn't exist in most other sports, especially boxing. A fighter doesn't need to be incentivized to win because there are enough incentives to win (aka not getting the shit kicked out of you), and all the money that is going to be paid for an event is collected before anyone even steps into the cage.

On the other hand, paying people more to take on harder jobs makes a lot of sense, it's how most industries and jobs work. It's also how boxing works.

 

[avenue94]

I am not sure if it has something to do with how WME do business but during the fertita era there was a lot more urgency in making the next matchup
Also the champs are so sluggish in accepting challengers

It's not the main reason and I'm not sure if this practice still exists, but the Fertitas traditionally gave fighters a discretionary bonus for headlining an event, including fight nights. It was about 10-20k if I recall.

At any rate, fighters fighting less often is probably more just from more awareness of how little money they are making and awareness of injuries and such.

I could go on and on. Newbs like you need to stop with the false narrative. You’re just embarrassing yourselves and show how little you know about mma.

I think part of the problem is the UFC doesn't do official number 1 contender bouts anymore. Or at least they do it rarely. And the only real reason for that change is more control over fighters and cheapness.

 

[Dionysian]

Honestly I feel we should all be able to agree that anyone that says WME is objectively better has to be a PR poster for WME. Let's take a look:

* Despite being paid TV, they censor/bleep fighters in interviews
* Dean has outright fixed multiple fights to have desired fighters win (Conor and O'Malley most obvious recent examples). Corruption at an all-time high/most transparent it has ever been.
* USADA is a corrupt sham of an organization looking for under-card fighters to crucify for PR points while they protect the higher-up fighter PED users that the org wants to remain untouched. Worse than no testing at all.
* More undeserved title shots
* More bullshit rematches
* Higher charges to fans
* More WWE shit
* Less meritocracy. Yes, I watched your video @ 12:45. I challenge that notion because your methodology is based on a rigged system (the bullshit ranking system). Conor is still ranked at LW... not winning any LW fight in half a decade now. We see people jump in rankings overnight all the time whenever UFC wants to switch them around. @acannxr utterly demolished the illusion of rankings being anything other than a scam. So using a BS system to excuse BS matchmaking does no good... if WMEs want to lend "legitimacy" they'll just bump an undeserving guy into the ranking overnight. We see that all the time now.

 

[koquerelle]

As far as I can tell Zuffa only really came off the rails at the end.. Conor. Before that most title fights were legit.
Now they are literally a joke. You need look no further than the Usman vs Masvidal rematch. I don’t know the complete history of Zuffa and won’t pretend I was actually there. But did they do any bullshit like that?

JC. It’s painful to see you know almost nothing about ufc’s history. Post less and watch more videos.

 

[TGArthur]

Not sure if this makes sense, but the evolution of fighters has improved dramatically, yet at the same time, the caliber of the overall fighters in the UFC has significantly decreased.

 

[TempleoftheDog]

JC. It’s painful to see you know almost nothing about ufc’s history. Post less and watch more videos.

Care to expound on that comment. Or do you just want to pretend you know more of the history of the sport than I do?

 

[Sausage_Carius]

The UFC is consistently shelving top talent because they aren't willing to pay them to face tough contenders and build divisions. Instead they waste the very best on rematches often for ulterior motives to help their financials such as the Weili vs Rose rematch.

It looks like they are going to end up shelving Joanna for 2 years with that bullshit and she is by no means the only one. She was even willing to build contenders, despite what others will say, but the UFC won't pay her for it.

IMO the ref should have let Rose wail on Weili the way Big John let Rose wail on Joanna with maybe a few shots to the back of the head for good measure, putting the whole upper body into each shot, just so they couldn't sell the rematch so easily to ESPN and shut Weili's team up and make Dana's job harder to sell that bullshit rematch. Would have been karma for how she won the belt anyway. Instead they are throwing Weili under the Rose bus just in case she wins so they can secure that 100 million USD Chinese TV deal that China keeps hanging over the UFC's head but never seems to actually want to sign it. No incentive for fuckery there.

I'm not going to pretend the UFC was significantly better pre sale. It had a lot of the problems that has become endemic with fighters getting favorable matches their whole career specifically to hope that they end up as champs while their competition was facing killers and eliminating each other and blowing away their athletic careers in war after war.

This was never a sport to begin with as it isn't a fair competition across the board and nothing has changed in this regard since the sale or since ESPN came on board and there is no end in sight.

Plus it still isn't possible to watch this bullshit in Canada without paying out the ass for it. No I'm not fucking paying for cable to watch this shit. It's not fucking 1990. Stop trying to fucking milk me for every fucking cent.

Can't wait to be done with this shit.