All time low interest point - Anyone else?

[Lepo Lepo]

Sport hasn’t progressed like some say it has. One dimensional champions in several weight classes. No real legitimate feeder leagues, only coming through DWCS, which fills up cards with names no one cares about.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

Zuffa era UFC>>>> today's corporate shit bag

To be honest though I think the big difference is in the Zuffa era the UFC still had a talent base from the pre monopoly era, ex Pride, Strikeforce, etc fighters helped sustain MMA for many years.

Were seeing more recently what a UFC monopoly MMA actually looks like talent wise and its not pretty, low levels of investment in new talent to maximise short term profit and hope the brand sells things.

I would argue its not really "casuals" who are the issue, I think such fans actually tend to recognise genuinely exciting MMA and watch the odd fight for fighters proven to deliver it plus of course also a bit of celeb fueding. Someone like Conor love him or hate him did consistantly have entertaining fights in the cage.

I think the issue isnt so much those fans but more the "hardcore" fanbase who have bought into the UFC spiel, on Sherdog I think you see some of the most brainwashed MMA fans of all but this fanbase isnt enough to big in the big money.

 

[Through The Looking Glass]

The worst era for me was the Ronda Reebok era.

These past few years of MMA have been epic.

UFC 300 was arguably the best card ever. 2023 was stacked with great cards all year.

 

[IIIIIIII]

I've been following the sport for about 25 years, since I was in high school. And I think right now the sport is at all time low as far as interest levels go. I'm not going to say the sport is dying, but I think something needs to change.

The major issue is lack of exciting champions and rivalries. The sport is woven of narratives, people need to care about the fights. But most divisions have a lack of interesting rivalries.

Flyweight hasn't had a dominant champion since at least Cejudo, if not DJ. It's a fun division that always delivers, but Pantoja doesn't seem to have any interesting rivalries in the division waiting, and he is a very bland character.

Bantamweight is, I think the most exciting division right now. O'Malley, love or hate, is a very exciting fighter, and there's lots of interesting fights there: Merab, and Umar down the line. It's a very fun division to watch overall.

Featherweight just crowned Topuria, who is very exciting, but also unfortunately very unlikeable and tryhard. The issue is everyone under him is a veteran that can only offer possible former champions to return: Holloway, Volk, Ortega, Yair... Evloev is the only fresh contender, but about as charismatic and exciting as a cucumber. The really exciting fight here would be with O'Malley, provided the latter gets past Merab, which is far from a given.

Lightweight was incredibly exciting a few years ago, but has become exhausted and filled with veterans that have spent their shots. Islam stands without par, and there's no one reasonably that could challenge him. Arman is very good, but we've seen that fight before, and Islam is better than ever. Even Islam himself talks about the staleness of the challenges in the division.

Welterweight is another division mostly filled with veterans, and with a particularly unpopular champion. Leon was not exactly the most colorful or exciting fighter out there, and Belal is even less popular and often even more unexciting. The saving grace for the division is Shavkat, who is truly an interesting prospect that could very well be the next big thing.

Middleweight has a recently crowned champion that seems fickle in his position, with guys like Izzy, Strickland, Imamov and Whitakker in the periphery. After Pereira deserted the division, the Izzy-Alex rivalry which was super interesting waned, and now the division feels a bit lackluster. Khamzat was supposed to be the next big thing, but health issues and unreliability prevented that.

Lightheavyweight has Pereira at the top, and a bunch of familiar, tried faces at the bottom. Other than Ankalaev, who is probably even more unpopular than Belal, there doesn't to be anyone to challenge.

And HW is as usual the worst division out there. We are getting Jones vs. a nonagenarian Stipe, Ngannou fled the division, and Aspinall is there hanging loose with no interesting contenders to face.

I'll spare the ladies the sermon.

alright, a lot to tackle there lol. i'll touch upon some of the points you've brought up:

- lack of interesting rivalries: in my personal opinion, blame none other than conor mcgregor. this guy is the sole reason why we no longer have rivalries. not sure why? allow me to explain haha. what happens when fighters continuously change divisions? you never have the same fighters fighting for the same belt. conor moving up to lightweight to beat alvarez to become the first double-champ, and the ufc acknowledging it's importance, gave the green flag to the rest of the champions that it's okay to go for the same thing as well, and that it's now the most important accomplishment in the ufc. so of course the champs are going to try for it, thus not keeping fighters together long enough for rivalries to blossom.

- regarding islam and in your opinion, "staleness" of the division, well that is sort of what happens when a dominant champ is in a division. they beat everyone and make it look easy. anderson and gsp received the same criticisms during their runs. anderson had terrible competition with the likes of stephan bonnar and forrest griffin, etc. gsp had fights with dan hardy and jake shields, fights that had a lot to be desired. islam is just making the competition look bad in my point of view.

- belal is exciting, at least to me. i don't buy the dana white bullshit regarding that. he's just sour due to other reasons. heavyweight would, or will be incredibly exciting, if jones stays and fights aspinall and does defend the belt given he beats stipe. if he doesn't, then yes the division will be another hot potato of champions.

 

[Timewave zero]

Matchmaking. MATCHMAKING for fuck sake!!!!! AhHHHHhHhHHHh

 

[Khaosan]

High school 25 years ago? Holy shit. What's the average age of a sherbro?

Been on the dawg since 03’, 35 here.

 

[gonads20]

alright, a lot to tackle there lol. i'll touch upon some of the points you've brought up:

- lack of interesting rivalries: in my personal opinion, blame none other than conor mcgregor. this guy is the sole reason why we no longer have rivalries. not sure why? allow me to explain haha. what happens when fighters continuously change divisions? you never have the same fighters fighting for the same belt. conor moving up to lightweight to beat alvarez to become the first double-champ, and the ufc acknowledging it's importance, gave the green flag to the rest of the champions that it's okay to go for the same thing as well, and that it's now the most important accomplishment in the ufc. so of course the champs are going to try for it, thus not keeping fighters together long enough for rivalries to blossom.

- regarding islam and in your opinion, "staleness" of the division, well that is sort of what happens when a dominant champ is in a division. they beat everyone and make it look easy. anderson and gsp received the same criticisms during their runs. anderson had terrible competition with the likes of stephan bonnar and forrest griffin, etc. gsp had fights with dan hardy and jake shields, fights that had a lot to be desired. islam is just making the competition look bad in my point of view.

- belal is exciting, at least to me. i don't buy the dana white bullshit regarding that. he's just sour due to other reasons. heavyweight would, or will be incredibly exciting, if jones stays and fights aspinall and does defend the belt given he beats stipe. if he doesn't, then yes the division will be another hot potato of champions.

Silva moved up the LHW to fight them though after he cleared out the MW division. It made it interesting.

 

[InternetBadAss]

UFC and MMA fell when it became a money grab for the corporate masters. Their biggest draws are a drunk, drug addict, sociopathic ego maniac that goes around punching people for no reason and drops fights. The other is a wife beating, drunk, drug addict sociopathic ego maniac, cheater. For a side show, they have a Fascist, anti-democracy scumbag show up.

 

[lefthighkick01]

I've been following the sport for about 25 years, since I was in high school. And I think right now the sport is at all time low as far as interest levels go. I'm not going to say the sport is dying, but I think something needs to change.

The major issue is lack of exciting champions and rivalries. The sport is woven of narratives, people need to care about the fights. But most divisions have a lack of interesting rivalries.

Flyweight hasn't had a dominant champion since at least Cejudo, if not DJ. It's a fun division that always delivers, but Pantoja doesn't seem to have any interesting rivalries in the division waiting, and he is a very bland character.

Bantamweight is, I think the most exciting division right now. O'Malley, love or hate, is a very exciting fighter, and there's lots of interesting fights there: Merab, and Umar down the line. It's a very fun division to watch overall.

Featherweight just crowned Topuria, who is very exciting, but also unfortunately very unlikeable and tryhard. The issue is everyone under him is a veteran that can only offer possible former champions to return: Holloway, Volk, Ortega, Yair... Evloev is the only fresh contender, but about as charismatic and exciting as a cucumber. The really exciting fight here would be with O'Malley, provided the latter gets past Merab, which is far from a given.

Lightweight was incredibly exciting a few years ago, but has become exhausted and filled with veterans that have spent their shots. Islam stands without par, and there's no one reasonably that could challenge him. Arman is very good, but we've seen that fight before, and Islam is better than ever. Even Islam himself talks about the staleness of the challenges in the division.

Welterweight is another division mostly filled with veterans, and with a particularly unpopular champion. Leon was not exactly the most colorful or exciting fighter out there, and Belal is even less popular and often even more unexciting. The saving grace for the division is Shavkat, who is truly an interesting prospect that could very well be the next big thing.

Middleweight has a recently crowned champion that seems fickle in his position, with guys like Izzy, Strickland, Imamov and Whitakker in the periphery. After Pereira deserted the division, the Izzy-Alex rivalry which was super interesting waned, and now the division feels a bit lackluster. Khamzat was supposed to be the next big thing, but health issues and unreliability prevented that.

Lightheavyweight has Pereira at the top, and a bunch of familiar, tried faces at the bottom. Other than Ankalaev, who is probably even more unpopular than Belal, there doesn't to be anyone to challenge.

And HW is as usual the worst division out there. We are getting Jones vs. a nonagenarian Stipe, Ngannou fled the division, and Aspinall is there hanging loose with no interesting contenders to face.

I'll spare the ladies the sermon.

I completely agree, at this time this is probably the least interested I've ever been in UFC... I barely know who the champions are... every card I look at now I'd be lucky to recognise half the names.. I only watch PPVs now and even then I skip probably half of them unless the main events are fighters I recognize....
god I used to follow UFC religiously and would never miss a PPV ever...

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

UFC and MMA fell when it became a money grab for the corporate masters. Their biggest draws are a drunk, drug addict, sociopathic ego maniac that goes around punching people for no reason and drops fights. The other is a wife beating, drunk, drug addict sociopathic ego maniac, cheater. For a side show, they have a Fascist, anti-democracy scumbag show up.

This. The demographic changed from working class guys to Gen Z influencers and hipsters

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

Signing in. Sponsored by Bernard mo

 

[IIIIIIII]

Silva moved up the LHW to fight them though after he cleared out the MW division. It made it interesting.

oh, you're right. thanks for the correction. well i think my point still stands haha. anderson fought some bad competition here and there.

 

[lefthighkick01]

Long story short, the storytelling is just not there right now. Where are the rivalries?

Pereira-Izzy
DC-Jones
Silva-Sonnen
Hughes-GSP
Khabib-Conor
Ronda-Meisha
Cruz-Faber
Rampage-Silva
Fedor-Mirko/Nog
Chuck/Tito
...

It's fights like those that make the sport shine.

yep all the fighters now are so boring.. so generic..

True, and of course "marketability" played into every decision I imagine, but they still had much more of a drive to grab all the top talent they could get their hands on.
OP, burn out is real. I took a year or two break from the sport when it got boring to me 2017-2018 and only watched a small handful of events then.

This is inarguably true IMO. There is nothing about the way the company puts on events now that is better except for production value. The cards are more watered down, with now seemingly hundreds of no name no face B and C level fighters that take up main card spots (Bo vs whatever can he KO'd)
I picked a random card, top of my head, 115.
Every fight on the main card was worth a watch when they were conceptualized.
View attachment 1050979

yeah look at that card!!! stacked to the gills!! every single fighter on there is a star and an insteresting fighter in many ways...

 

[Bowel-forged Stool]

To be fair with this WW title fight, I wouldn’t have been happy with who won unless there was a double KO with no winner.

I was just hoping Leon had enough decency to deny Bernard from ever getting gold. Now Wikipedia will remember the name.

 

[krelianx]

alright, a lot to tackle there lol. i'll touch upon some of the points you've brought up:

- lack of interesting rivalries: in my personal opinion, blame none other than conor mcgregor. this guy is the sole reason why we no longer have rivalries. not sure why? allow me to explain haha. what happens when fighters continuously change divisions? you never have the same fighters fighting for the same belt. conor moving up to lightweight to beat alvarez to become the first double-champ, and the ufc acknowledging it's importance, gave the green flag to the rest of the champions that it's okay to go for the same thing as well, and that it's now the most important accomplishment in the ufc. so of course the champs are going to try for it, thus not keeping fighters together long enough for rivalries to blossom.

- regarding islam and in your opinion, "staleness" of the division, well that is sort of what happens when a dominant champ is in a division. they beat everyone and make it look easy. anderson and gsp received the same criticisms during their runs. anderson had terrible competition with the likes of stephan bonnar and forrest griffin, etc. gsp had fights with dan hardy and jake shields, fights that had a lot to be desired. islam is just making the competition look bad in my point of view.

- belal is exciting, at least to me. i don't buy the dana white bullshit regarding that. he's just sour due to other reasons. heavyweight would, or will be incredibly exciting, if jones stays and fights aspinall and does defend the belt given he beats stipe. if he doesn't, then yes the division will be another hot potato of champions.

I also like Belal. McGregor initiated that division jumping trend for sure.

About Islam and his dominance, sure, but it's not like he's been dominating the division for as long as GSP or Anderon or Jones, or Silva, or MM. Two of his defenses were against Volk. Yet still there are a lack of contenders, while the division is running on mostly old glories like Dustin, Oliveira, and Justin.

GSP has a ton of great rivalries inside WW before he cleaned up: Hughes of course, Penn, Alves, Fitch, Condit, Shields, Diaz, Hendricks...

 

[liver.shot]

yeah, it's weird. last 5 years i've bought pretty much every pay per view, watched almost all fight cards --- it's not unusual to watch early prelims, prelims, main card. i know about how much space to jump ahead on the progess bar to skip the commercials between fights. but i haven't bought the last three, am not even sure how many fight cards i missed b/c i don't know how many there were.

very weird. just really not that interested after a sustained run.

 

[Gamboal]

Inactivity and fighters at the top being content to fight once or twice a year is what is killing the sport.

I watch ONE FC more now as there are several dozen Friday Fights each year and one of their biggest stars - who knocks people out - Superlek, fought 5 or 6 times in 2023. This is unheard of in UFC and Superlek is the elite of the elite in terms of striking.

Also, the other problem is the lack of violence in UFC fights as for some unfathomable reason, referees are jumping in as soon as someone appears dazed these days, like the idiot English ref spoiling his last 3-4 fights.

It made me for the first time see why standing counts are a good thing. But obviously that doesn't work with grappling.

 

[RockyLockridge]

I think this perception is due to UFC's shit match making over the last 10 years. Its rematches and 'super fights' with no real intent other than 'money and ratings'. I mean I get it, its a fuckin business and all that jazz, but it's diluted the 'sport' and made it very WWE like. that aint good.

A focus on large short term gains will always kill long term interest. See it in almost every entertainment industry.

 

[stephen90]

Yeah the company's in trouble when this guy one of it's top stars.

 

[Carrotman23]

yeah, it's weird. last 5 years i've bought pretty much every pay per view, watched almost all fight cards --- it's not unusual to watch early prelims, prelims, main card. i know about how much space to jump ahead on the progess bar to skip the commercials between fights. but i haven't bought the last three, am not even sure how many fight cards i missed b/c i don't know how many there were.

very weird. just really not that interested after a sustained run.

Sounds like a classic case of MMA burn out to be honest rather then the current quality of the UFC.