Can we just acknowledge that the UFC is more closely related to WWE than any legit sport?

[blaseblah]

It’s not a legit sport as long as they make BS title fights and let real contenders wait forever..

Bisping - Henderson is a perfect example of that

MMA is the sport. The UFC is a business putting on exhibition matches of mma. Stop conflating the two.

 

[BForrester]

There's no shame in admitting so.

There's also a strong link between pro wrestling and amateur wrestling, for whatever reason. American pro-wrestling is acrobatic and probably attracts a lot of gymnasts too, but it certainly attracts amateur wrestlers.

Pro wrestling is fake fighting. It's not that crazy of a notion.

Most amateur wrestlers have nowhere to ply their trade if they want to do something athletic as a career. MMA or wrasslin' is pretty much it, unless they're the absolute best of the best freestyle or greco.

 

[piktogram]

But for obvious reasons. It takes so long to prepare for a fight that matches are made for other reasons, beyond the seeding that emerges after, say, an 82 game NBA season. And then apart from rankings, which are kind of random given all the things that can happen in a fight (a fluke, a mistake, and injury, or just being out classed), sometimes matchups make sense even if rankings don't justify them. And of course, there is the non-sporting promotion side of things--Dana and his pals want to make money. If there were a Union, fighters could advocate for more transparency. But that doesn't make it less than a real sport.

I think it does, once your marketability affects your ability to win championships more than winning fights then I cannot call it a real sport. No one tells a team they can't be champions because they win in a boring fashion.

 

[FrontNakedChoke]

How fucking stupid do you have to be to not realize Brock's pedigree?

No one wants to see Fitch or Elias fight. GFY TS.

 

[Flboycanscrap2]

Bring back the IFL and the Bellator title shot tournaments!!! lol.

 

[Tsar]

I think it does, once your marketability affects your ability to win championships more than winning fights then I cannot call it a real sport. No one tells a team they can't be champions because they win in a boring fashion.

Yeah, but consider how College Football works. Yeah, we have some kind of pretend championship game, but no real playoffs. From the late 90s through 2000s the entire Eastern Conference was full of shit teams in the NBA--any Western Conference playoff team most years could have beaten the eventual NBA Eastern Conference Champion. Sports aren't always fair, even if modern organized sports are emphasize rules and fairness. Yes UFC has an even higher level of arbitrariness, but it's still a sport.

 

[piktogram]

Yeah, but consider how College Football works. Yeah, we have some kind of pretend championship game, but no real playoffs. From the late 90s through 2000s the entire Eastern Conference was full of shit teams in the NBA--any Western Conference playoff team most years could have beaten the eventual NBA Eastern Conference Champion. Sports aren't always fair, even if modern organized sports are emphasize rules and fairness. Yes UFC has an even higher level of arbitrariness, but it's still a sport.

I've grown up with Football (UK). If you make an amateur team, you start in the bottom level of the football pyramid. There is a clear path to arriving all the way to the premiership and you do that by winning matches, nothing more, nothing less. I think this is fair.

 

[DaWrassler007]

Look what Lesnar did within 5 fights. WWE superstars are A-level athletes. The only reason there aren’t more of them is because not everyone wants or needs to get punched in the face to make money. They would likely hold all the titles 170 and above.

Lesnar already had great credentials at wrestling.

 

[DaWrassler007]

There's no shame in admitting so.

There's also a strong link between pro wrestling and amateur wrestling, for whatever reason. American pro-wrestling is acrobatic and probably attracts a lot of gymnasts too, but it certainly attracts amateur wrestlers.

Pro wrestling is fake fighting. It's not that crazy of a notion.

Those submission holds are no joking matter.

Here sherdoggers keep on bashing WWE for being fake, which it is totally.
In real fight between any WWE wrestler and sherdogger, the end result would be embarrassing....not in favor of a sherdogger.

 

[Tito Tapped]

Outdated thinking that being a UFC fan puts you in a higher class than WWE fans. Turns out both companies are shit and you're all the same.

 

[Law Dog]

It's a mix between boxing, WWE and Worldstar

Haha, damn that’s true.

 

[Law Dog]

Those submission holds are no joking matter.

Here sherdoggers keep on bashing WWE for being fake, which it is totally.
In real fight between any WWE wrestler and sherdogger, the end result would be embarrassing....not in favor of a sherdogger.

I’d beat the shit out of CM Punk, so.......

 

[Russie]

Truth be told the UFC barely compares to anything. Sure there are elements that you can point to that make it similar to WWE, boxing or others but still as a whole vastly different and unique.

 

[Mike K.O]

Prize fighting in general is not a real sport. The contests are real, the match making and rankings are made up based on non sporting factors.

/thread

 

[Lemmy Caution]

The absence of self-respect is disheartening.

Difference between a flip and a flop:

 

[Cyrano200]

I've grown up with Football (UK). If you make an amateur team, you start in the bottom level of the football pyramid. There is a clear path to arriving all the way to the premiership and you do that by winning matches, nothing more, nothing less. I think this is fair.

You have the perennial top six teams with all the money. I know they actually win the games and earn the spot in the table, but that money enables them to buy the best players from the other teams in the league or just import them from other leagues. Then that money buys bigger stadiums => more tickets => better TV deal=> better sponsors=>.......my point being, money makes it all go around, fairness be damned.
What is the first thing that happens when a team gets promoted? They get a boatload of money, replace the manager and as many players as they can. So the guys that got you there, don't get to stay in favor of someone who had nothing to do with the team before. The UFC just has fewer middle men.

 

[LockardTheGOAT]

People have admitted this for years...

WWE books their matches based on who or what will draw the most money. The UFC is no different; they almost never award shots to those who 'deserve' them the most, but rather who will bring in the most eyeballs. About the only time the right people are given title shots is when there isn't a bigger, more marquee match to book (which thankfully there isn't most of the time, since fighters that draw huge PPV numbers are at a premium.)

Even the ways that MMA fighters become superstars is similar to that of WWE's talent; personality and charisma matters just as much if not more than fighting ability. You have to win to stay relevant, but winning alone won't make you a huge draw.

 

[eiyuu]

Even getting past the fact that several WWE fighters have competed in UFC, even one becoming champ lmao

WWE: Hey, we know you're a great pro wrestler in the ring, but you're not getting over with our fan base so we have to let you go.

UFC: Hey, we know you're a great MMA fighter in the cage, but you're not getting over with our fan base so we have to let you go.

And Dana has the audacity to still claim this is a sport lol

Can you imagine some NHL team drafting a Russian hockey star and saying "hey, we know you scored 50 goals last season, but you don't speak English and your jersey isn't selling well, so we're gonna have to let you go."

smh at carny Dana. He should be promoting cock fights in Tijuana

Except that the UFC (and Dana since you're whining about him) has let popular fighters go if they aren't winning as well.

See Tito Ortiz.

And by all means keep overlooking where other sports let productive athletes go simply because they don't want to pay what the athletes are asking for.

Happens all the time in Football and Basketball.

 

[IGotAHugePeckah]

Except that the UFC (and Dana since you're whining about him) has let popular fighters go if they aren't winning as well.

See Tito Ortiz.

And by all means keep overlooking where other sports let productive athletes go simply because they don't want to pay what the athletes are asking for.

Happens all the time in Football and Basketball.

Oh gee, you mean the Tito Ortiz who went 1-7-1 and Dana let him go? The guy who was completely irrelevant and not a draw by then? You fuckin casual lmao

 

[Bend NvR Break]

I made a thread about this like 10 days ago