Deadspin: Whatever Happened To The UFC?

Bigj383 said:
Every prospect starts as random fighter from country x. Then they either become contenders or journeymen.
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No they don't. They start out looking good in fights in their region then look decent against decent ufc comp. Now its regional guy vs local guy and then 2-2 chinese guy vs 3-2 Thailand guy so they can simply have fighters from those markets.

They pick cheap random fighters and you know it
 
Scamrock said:
Do you honestly think that if they made a PPV today without a champ headlining that people wouldn't bitch, even if there were former champs headlining? Hell, every PPV now is headlined by a title fight and people still bitch.

The last time a PPV didn't have a title fight was UFC 161: Evans/Henderson. Before that it was UFC 153: Silva/Bonnar, but in that case, even though it wasn't a title fight, one guy was a current champ. UFC 147: Franklin/Wanderlei II. Going back into 2011 you see it a little more.

My point isn't that those cards weren't good. I certainly enjoyed them. It was to show that back in the day when cards were allegedly super stacked, they weren't really as stacked as people seem to recall. Like I said, if we had PPV cards with no title, people would bitch. If we had 3 in a row, people would go apeshit.

I don't necessarily think the events now are better or worse. Though there are twice as many divisions now, which means twice the titles and twice the contenders. With less PPVs, you would think that means an improved PPV main card. But the problem is two-fold, I believe.

First, I think our standards have increased. In addition to having more champs and contenders to put on the PPVs, I truly believe the champs today are better than they were then, and so are the contenders. So what is the problem? Well injuries play a part. But back then, you could put on a card without a title fight, have upper-mid level guys fighting each other, and big name veterans in squash matches against guys people don't care about all on a PPV main card. That wasn't to say people didn't bitch then. They did. They also spoke with their dollars. They didn't buy the PPV. But for some reason, we look at it like the superior product to that of today, even if it isn't, and expect more from today's product. Maybe it's just that things are always better in retrospect. Lesser known up and comers and prospects became known names. But the guys today are still lesser known. Maybe 5 years down the road, people will look back at some of these shows and comment about all of the big names.

Part two, and this feeds into part one, is that some people, for whatever reason, don't like sub-LW and WMMA divisions. So for me, as I said, I see it as twice as many champs, twice as many contenders...twice as many big important fights, but with less PPV fights to fill. But for some people, it means less PPVs, and only half the fights they care about. So rather than being expanded in a good way, it's like the product was cut in half. I get it. But it's not like that for everyone. There are lots of WEC fans and WMMA fans that like what is going on. But for the others, I get it. But it's not because there is less talent on the PPVs, it's because they don't like the content despite how good the fighters/fights are or aren't. It's not about quality, but rather personal preference.

But again, I'm not trying to say it was bad or worse back then, just that it wasn't so much more stacked/loaded than it is now like people seem to believe.
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Again, you confuse things. Before it was confusing prospects with random cheap fighters, now it's champs and stars are the same thing. Throwing a belt on some fighter is a lazy marketing strategy that doesnt really seem to work

More champs do not equal more stars.
 
Bigj383 said:
UFC 169 did over a million buys. The last fight night did 1.2 million viewers on FS1 making it the #3 highest rated UFC on FS1. As mentioned Cain, Pettis, and now hendricks are injured. Weidman is fighting for the first time this year so a lot of UFC champions in the most established divisions are injured.
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UFC 169 did whatttt?
 
Bigj383 said:
Are they? Fight nights are designed to showcase prospects and Fightpass is for international prospects. Cub is an elite FW btw. And those prospects were the elite of their smaller orgs before being signed by the UFC.


UFC 169 did over a million buys. The last fight night did 1.2 million viewers on FS1 making it the #3 highest rated UFC on FS1. As mentioned Cain, Pettis, and now hendricks are injured. Weidman is fighting for the first time this year so a lot of UFC champions in the most established divisions are injured.
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lol
 
Unbreakabull said:
No they don't. They start out looking good in fights in their region then look decent against decent ufc comp. Now its regional guy vs local guy and then 2-2 chinese guy vs 3-2 Thailand guy so they can simply have fighters from those markets.

They pick cheap random fighters and you know it
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The guys from UFC china are the excepti on. 95% of UFC random fighters looked good on the minor circuit that's why they were signed.

Why do you care about guys who are only going to fight in China. UFC has yet to put Wang Anying on a PPV. So the guys from TUF china aren't UFC level which was actually openly said during the TUF china season.
 
Loiosh said:
So go, then.

I don't mean to be rude, but if you're losing interest, why stick around to tell everyone? You (and the people who are saying what you're saying) sound like an unpopular girl who talks about how lame a party is but won't leave.

I love all the MMA that's available these days, it's awesome. There are probably more top quality fights available than we've ever had in the past, but now instead of having to wait a month or two for more, it's a few days. If we go a week or two without an event it's a big deal, and so much of it is free.
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That's great you feel that way but not everyone does. Forums are a place to discuss the sport, with both positive and negative views and opinions. If what you want is a forum where everyone just cheerleads every move the UFC makes you are going to have trouble finding one.
 
Complainers must be the "real" or "die hard" fans hahahahahaha

It's true. I only look forward to seeing Jon Jones, TJ Dillashaw and Anthony Pettis.
 
Degen Gambler said:
Any sporting event that a fan sits down to watch for 3+ hours requires a significant committment especially when the event is on a Saturday night. The problem with the UFC is they are putting on these 3 or 4 hour events and only using top talent for a fraction of the event. So now a fan has to sit through hours of stuff that they could take or leave to see the fight they want.

No other sports league could get away with that. Imagine the NFL or NBA if the all the rookies and journey played the first half and then the marquee players came out for the second half. There would be outrage.
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couldn't agree more. time is the most valuable commodity at play.

and many of these events just don't trump the myriad of other obligation/options which people have.
 
mccallievols said:
Originally Posted by Degen Gambler View Post
Any sporting event that a fan sits down to watch for 3+ hours requires a significant committment especially when the event is on a Saturday night. The problem with the UFC is they are putting on these 3 or 4 hour events and only using top talent for a fraction of the event. So now a fan has to sit through hours of stuff that they could take or leave to see the fight they want.

No other sports league could get away with that. Imagine the NFL or NBA if the all the rookies and journey played the first half and then the marquee players came out for the second half. There would be outrage.
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couldn't agree more. time is the most valuable commodity at play.

and many of these events just don't trump the myriad of other obligation/options which people have.
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you'd think so. i was upset enough that 20% of my NFL season tickets went to exactly what you're talking about that i cancelled said season tickets. it wasn't just that - there were other reasons as well - but it was definitely a factor.

but plenty of others don't, and half the stadiums have a long wait list.

frankly i'm flabbergasted that i don't hear more (to use your word) "outrage" from season ticket holders about having to pay for pre-season. maybe only first year ticket holders do, and the old timers laugh at the noobs. and in fact, maybe that's a good metaphor for here too.....im just thinking out loud :)
 
Ufc should just get rid of fight pass and run all their overseas cards in the dark in NA. That way there's less confusion for North American fans.
 
SeattleFightFan said:
you'd think so. i was upset enough that 20% of my NFL season tickets went to exactly what you're talking about that i cancelled said season tickets. it wasn't just that - there were other reasons as well - but it was definitely a factor.

but plenty of others don't, and half the stadiums have a long wait list.

frankly i'm flabbergasted that i don't hear more (to use your word) "outrage" from season ticket holders about having to pay for pre-season. maybe only first year ticket holders do, and the old timers laugh at the noobs. and in fact, maybe that's a good metaphor for here too.....im just thinking out loud :)
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Every NFL does that. You want season tickets you must also pay for preseason tickets. Iirc about 20 years ago the Redskins were the last team to join in on the inclusion.
 
riddleofsteel said:
Every NFL does that. You want season tickets you must also pay for preseason tickets. Iirc about 20 years ago the Redskins were the last team to join in on the inclusion.
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right. all teams do it. not all teams have wait lists. most season ticket holders don't bitch.

i probably didn't say it very clearly.
 
Totally agree with the article.

It's for those exact reasons that I went from buying about 10 PPVs per year from 2008-2012 to about 1 or 2 max right now.

These days, I sometimes don't even watch it for free on FOX when before I used to work my social schedule around UFC PPVs, let alone free shows on TV.
 
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Which Doctor said:
I know. I wasn't rebuttal, but a question to you, and Big. Wanted to hear the v-points.



I feel like that's one of the problems, or obstacles, for both casual viewer and the Org. In WCW/WWE, the tiers were much clearer because of the reasons you stated. It's not that they are convoluted in the UFC, it's just that sometimes Kwee-Wee ends up on the main card of a UFC PPV.
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Hahaha, excellent!
Just spent a while browsing the thread, there's some good posts in here, from both sides of the coin.
 
SeattleFightFan said:
right. all teams do it. not all teams have wait lists. most season ticket holders don't bitch.

i probably didn't say it very clearly.
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It is something that people bitch about though but there isn't really anything one can do about it, you either pay or don't get tickets.
 
Degen Gambler said:
Any sporting event that a fan sits down to watch for 3+ hours requires a significant committment especially when the event is on a Saturday night. The problem with the UFC is they are putting on these 3 or 4 hour events and only using top talent for a fraction of the event. So now a fan has to sit through hours of stuff that they could take or leave to see the fight they want.

No other sports league could get away with that. Imagine the NFL or NBA if the all the rookies and journey played the first half and then the marquee players came out for the second half. There would be outrage.
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There are several shitty NFL & NBA teams that probably should put in their backups and leave them in because their marquee players aren't marquee.

I watch NFL games, I'm used to sitting for 3.5 hours to get about 12 minutes of action.

I agree about Saturday night being a commodity. All I can say is hope the ppv numbers get so low they cut back on the number of them.
Iirc UFC's contract with Fox is around $100 million/year which is significantly more than the combined boxing budgets of HBO & Showtime. Last year they combined for $65-70 million and I think they broadcasted 34 fight cards total (that is excluding their PPV cards and ppv money, those are separate).
So the UFC could definitely get by with fewer PPVs.
 
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