Anyone feel like the UFC is losing its legitimacy?A

[Jorge Luis Borges]

I think his offensive stand-up game is pretty good to be honest, but I'm not calling him a can, I'm calling him a canner, which means he's only beating cans (and an unprepared* Mendes who sort-of messed up in their fight).

Poirier and Holloway are not cans.

 

[Paradigm]

Maybe I'm late to the party, but what's this about?

yeah...i want to know also. which UFC fighter got dusted in a street fight? maybe hes referring to the Tito vs Lee Murray fight?

http://www.fighthype.com/pages/content3000.html

"I came out of the bar and one of my buddies was double legged up against a car with three guys hitting him in the back so I just went over and threw them off of my buddy. I didn't even know Tito was in it until the whole thing was over with…It's a street fight man. Anybody I didn't know that was throwing punches, I just clocked them."

or maybe he's talking about the possibility of Ronda getting KO'd by Floyd in the street?

 

[Bones245n4847]

Knock Knock, who's there
Why did the chicken cross the road
UFC

Those are the top results when you type in joke. UFC is becoming more and more of a joke these days. Instant rematches on massacres. Title shots coming off losses. Claiming their women would beat the premier boxer in the world. Reebok sucking the soul out of it's fighters. The UFC's mouth piece feeding trolls online and fighting with 14 year old kids on twitter.

 

[rerun406]

I'd find the Werdum-Cain rematch or Alexander Gustafsson title shots far worse than Carlos Condit

and aside from those, the Reebok deal is pretty laughable, from what the fighters are getting paid to what they're wearing (can we get some variety aside from black or white?)

 

[unfinishable]

I don't know if they were ever legitimate. Dana and the ufc are more interested in the show than the sport. Their decisions are based totally on revenue rather than competition and fairness.

 

[Taric]

It was never legit

Yeah, I'm not sure when or how people got it into their heads that the UFC was anything other than 2 random guys locked in a cage together.
There has never been a time when matchmaking was based off of any kind of tangible metric.

 

[tat2man5k]

yeah...i want to know also. which UFC fighter got dusted in a street fight? maybe hes referring to the Tito vs Lee Murray fight?

http://www.fighthype.com/pages/content3000.html



or maybe he's talking about the possibility of Ronda getting KO'd by Floyd in the street?

I hear ya, but wasn't Murray an established fighter at the time? And yes, I think RR would get destroyed by Floyd.

 

[Polish Punisher]

Well seeing they have Rousey ranked #4 P4P the answer is a fuck yes.

 

[VAfan]

inb4 dgt4now and other zuffa posters

gold

 

[BWC]

Saying it's "losing its legitimacy" is implying it has some in the first place.

UFC has always been small part sport, large part WWE-Entertainment. Boxing is miles ahead in the legitimacy dept, as corrupt as boxing can sometimes be.

Stars are going to stars in any sport, but the UFC is particularly egregious. Remember when Carwin was punching a hole in a turtled-up Brock's face for an entire round without a stoppage and then Conor lands two punches on Mendes and it's stopped. The UFC has never been terribly legit, it was almost banned for God's sake.

 

[The Bard]

Maybe I'm late to the party, but what's this about?

The infamous "Google me, bitch" incident was not a good look for the UFC:

http://www.tmz.com/2014/10/06/cody-gibson-punch-fight-vegas-video-bar/

 

[The Bard]

Chael Sonnen talked himself to one title fight. He definitely earned his other two shots. Of course, you could add in Nick Diaz getting an undeserved shot and Edgar getting a shot at FW coming off of two losses.

If it weren't for his mouth, I'm not sure. Imagine another blanket wrestler who didn't trash talk. Imagine that wrestler came off of decision wins over Okami and Marquardt--would he have gotten a title shot against Silva? Chael was a HUGE underdog in that fight because he didn't really have a typical high-level challenger track record.

And if Chael wasn't an ingratiated shit-talker, would he have gotten the Jon Jones payda--errr, I mean "fight?" Hard to tell. I think he talked himself into two big title fights, one of which led to him getting a rematch.

 

[tasticles]

I feel as though the matchmaking along with the promotional antics have made it more cagefighting-esque than a legitimate and respectable sport.

I understand they have to sell tickets. Robbie Lawler vs Carlos Condit was a bad gift title shot but it can be dismissed as it wasn't too much of a reach down the rankings and it's an exciting fight. However, Werdum vs Cain is just wrong. There is no way you can justify it.

Along with the unprofessional and shameful favoring of certain fighters, makes it seem like its run by greaseballs. McGregor is a great fighter and knows how to promote himself, so there's no blame on him but the organizations itself should not be bashing its own employees, let alone it's own champion. I don't even like Aldo, and I feel like he has been whining a lot lately. However, I see his anger with the structure of the company.

On top of all that, the favorited fighters by the company are the ones who get the biggest paycheck. That's understandable, I mean it's a business and you need to make smart investments. Taking away a fighter's ability to make money on his own with the whole Reebok move, not only hurts the fighters, but tightens the vice grip they already held on them by endangering their financial stability.

I hate boring fights as much as the next guy, but fighters now have to adapt their style, not to have the best chance to win, but to catch the eyes of the top company officials. Also it promotes trash talking, which is great when it's genuine like Jones-Cormier, but when it goes bush league, it's just embarrassing.

Also Dana White and that's self-explanatory.

Anyone also feel like it's taken a few steps back lately?

Sorry for the rant.

I'm sorry but when did it ever have legitimacy? I can't remember. It's always been a joke to me and its not a real sport but very entertaining none the less.

 

[SnowBlynd]

Casuals never took it seriously and now the ufc is doing everything in their power to make sure hardcores don't either.

 

[JKS]

Anytime you get a combat sport that relies on promotion to sell fights and rankings that are based on perception you will get these type of fights.

Its been going on in the UFC for years, Pride before, other mma promotions and in boxing for decades. Its just the nature of the fight game.

 

[tasticles]

The infamous "Google me, bitch" incident was not a good look for the UFC:

http://www.tmz.com/2014/10/06/cody-gibson-punch-fight-vegas-video-bar/

I don't get what people are praising him for? he looked like a moron and pretty much got his ass kicked for it too.

 

[NormalSizedNog]

Disappointed by all the "never was legitimate" comments here, or the "two guys fighting in a cage, that's not a sport!" bit. These are the types of arguments I expect from people who have never watched an MMA match in their lives.

While the criteria for a title fight has always seemed subjective, there's been a threshold point and people are sick of it. At least fighters use to have a couple of wins before title fights, now we've got people getting title fights coming off of losses, some of them with multiple losses, and immediate rematches all while there are legit contenders in the divisions. There is a definite bias for smack talkers, the Reebock deal is just atrocious all around, and there's a heavy dilution of fight cards. "Quit crying, they're free fights!" Who cares if they're free if they aren't worth watching?

All the grumbling on the boards and comments section shows people are getting tired of Zuffa's direction.

 

[jimbob27]

Like other have said, it's never really been legit if you compare it to pretty much any other sport.

That's kinda the nature of professional full contact combat sports. None of them have ever been "legit".

Boxing was actually better when it was more corrupt, when King had the WBC in his pocket and could make the fights he wanted. K-1 could do whatever they liked. Sumo had massive corruption scandals, as did MMA in Japan. Muay Thai in Thailand is largely based around gambling similarly to horse racing in the west. Even Judo keeps changing the rules to suit the Japanese players and that's an amateur olympic sport.

Still..... none of this gets in the way of me enjoying watching two guys smash the shit out of each other.

 

[tasticles]

Disappointed by all the "never was legitimate" comments here, or the "two guys fighting in a cage, that's not a sport!" bit. These are the types of arguments I expect from people who have never watched an MMA match in their lives.

While the criteria for a title fight has always seemed subjective, there's been a threshold point and people are sick of it. At least fighters use to have a couple of wins before title fights, now we've got people getting title fights coming off of losses, some of them with multiple losses, and immediate rematches all while there are legit contenders in the divisions. There is a definite bias for smack talkers, the Reebock deal is just atrocious all around, and there's a heavy dilution of fight cards. "Quit crying, they're free fights!" Who cares if they're free if they aren't worth watching?

All the grumbling on the boards and comments section shows people are getting tired of Zuffa's direction.

Its absolute non sense. It is an athletic endeavor and one that takes balls to do, but it hasn't been legitimate. It doesn't not follow the structure of a legitimate sport and the infractions against it are numerous. I've been watching it since UFC 3 and it didn't take me long discover the gracies cherry picked mostly bums to market their repackaged Judo called gracie jujitsu. It was a smart move of course and made people rich but I don't think legitimate is a word i'd use to describe the UFC. The closest time it was legit is when they had truly great guys like semi prime coleman, don frye, etc fight to see who is the toughest.

 

[NormalSizedNog]

Like other have said, it's never really been legit if you compare it to pretty much any other sport.

That's kinda the nature of professional full contact combat sports. None of them have ever been "legit".

Boxing was actually better when it was more corrupt, when King had the WBC in his pocket and could make the fights he wanted. K-1 could do whatever they liked. Sumo had massive corruption scandals, as did MMA in Japan. Muay Thai in Thailand is largely based around gambling similarly to horse racing in the west. Even Judo keeps changing the rules to suit the Japanese players and that's an amateur olympic sport.

Still..... none of this gets in the way of me enjoying watching two guys smash the shit out of each other.

And which other sport would you say is "more legit"?

Soccer and FIFA?
College football and the NCAA?
Pro Football and the NFL?
Baseball and the MLB?

I think people like to bag on combats sports in terms of legitimacy, but these sports are all just as ripe with their own problems, the owners playing favorites just like they do in combat sports. Anything with such large amounts of money being moved is bound to encounter this.