Nothing wrong with that. But largely, the top tier guys are separated from the prospects. Top guys are usually on PPVs, and prospects are usually on Fight Nights and prelims. They cross over when they occasionally put bigger names in Fight Night main events or when they need some replacement fighters on PPV main cards.
But none of this is anything new. Forrest Griffin was a TUF prospect who got on PPV main cards right from the start. He was fighting guys like Bill Mahood and co-main eventing with Elvis Sinosic. Even when he was considered more of a veteran, he was in a PPV co-main event with Hector Ramiriz.
So even if there is some bleeding over with lesser knowns, journeymen, and prospects getting some PPV action, that is how it has always been. So people saying it used to be so good and now it is watered down are looking at the past through rose colored glases.
There is nothing wrong with that. If you only want the best, that is totally fine. I hate to say this, but this is where the whole "then don't watch" really is the best response. If you only want the best, only watch the best. Only watch PPV main cards. For the most part, the guys put on there are top 15 other than late replacement fights/fighters. Even then, only watch the ones with guys you want to see. Skip prelims unless there is a guy you are interested in. Skip the Fight Nights unless there is a main event you want to see. Then you don't really need to watch the whole main card. Just tune in for the main event.
Define "worse". You have guys at the top like Bisping who are 2-3 in their last five. Then you have guys you've never heard of farther down on the rankings that are undefeated in the promotion. On one hand, Bisping would probably beat that guy. On the other hand, nobody has been able to beat him so far. Do you get rid of a guy who hasn't lost just because he is down on the food chain?
If they did do what you suggest, and take things back to 2010, you have to remember, there are twice as many divisions as there were back then. So not only are you going back to around 200 fighters, but you are cutting the divisions back then in half to split the difference with the new divisions. How many do you want in each on the average.
Also, if you cut back the number of shows, you can't reach as many locations. Which might be fine, but how do you deal with all of the people asking when your coming back to Germany, when are you coming to Poland, when are you coming to southeast Asia, when are you coming back to Quebec, when are you coming back to Seattle, etc.? How do you meet the live show demand the best you can with a cut back number of shows/fighters?
I mean, I like things the way they are. But I also liked it back then. I'm not opposed to the idea of taking it back a notch, but give me an action plan. Let's talk about how you think they should go about that.
How much are they really watered down compared to back in the day? Also, what does the free cards have to do with PPVs being allegedly watered down?
I know some people say that if they didn't have so many Fight Nights, they wouldn't have to pull as many top guys to headline those cards, freeing them up for PPV action. But let's look at that theory. Today you have Marquardt vs. Te Huna. People are bitching that it is a shit fight. Is it really the fight you wish they would put on a PPV main card? Now, some guys like Machida and Gustafsson have been used, so there could be something to be said about that. But let's still look deeper.
Most of the PPV main cards are pretty stacked by design. What happens is that as injuries and other things happen that alter the original card, you have to make adjustments. Let's look at the case of Cormier/Cummins. You have Cormier's original opponent, top ranked Evans, pulling out of the fight. You have to find a replacement. You might think that if some guys were tied up in Fight Night main events, they would be available to fight Cormier. But it's a little tougher than just that. Not a lot of guys, even top tier guys, are going to accept a last minute fight against a guy like Cormier. Machida, a top ranked guy who was on a recent Fight Pass main event has a history of refusing to act as a last minute replacement. He turned down fights with both Evans and Jones that we know of when they needed a replacement. You could just pull Cormier from the card. But here on Sherdog where we complain bout fighter pay, that would be like asking him to go from getting paid to not getting paid. It's asking a guy we didn't think could even fight at LHW to altering his weight plan and make weight a few weeks or more to hit that target of 206. There are problems. So sometimes, you have to plug in guys that might not be as desirable on a PPV main card. There isn't really a solution to that. It even happened back when there were half the fighters on the roster and hardly any Fight Nights.
This is just some bullshit complainers say to discredit people who might actually like the product.
For example, I was a big WEC fan. Nobody ever called me a shill for saying I like the UFC. So if I like the FWs and the BWs, of course I'm going to also enjoy them in the UFC. However, I have been called a shill for defending those divisions being in the UFC. I'm not a shill for liking them before they were in the UFC, but I am a shill for liking them in the UFC. Can't people just accept that I like the product?
Same with the women. Nobody called me a UFC shill for being a fan of WMMA back in 2007. Am I supposed to be against it now that it happens to be in the UFC? No. I'm a fan of WMMA. So I support it being in the UFC. Doesn't make me a shill, just a fan of the product.
I've always been a fan Fight Nights since the first one back in 2005. I'm not even really defending the increased number of Fight Nights so much as I'm just reminding people that they always consisted of similar talent and were never really as stacked as some people seem to believe. But I've been called a shill for that. In fact, a big reason I like watching the prospects is because I'm already familiar with a lot of them because I do follow MMA outside of the UFC, which is another reason I shouldn't be refered to as a plant or a zombie. I'm actually talking some guys up because I watch enough non-Zuffa MMA.
Fight Pass. That's always a hot topic. But again, I have a good reason for supporting it. I've been buying up old UFC DVDs for a while. I can assure you, Fight Pass gives me a much cheaper way of having access to all of those fights. 10 bucks a month is much cheaper than if I were going out and buying them on DVD. On top of that, Fight Nights never came out on DVD that I'm aware of other than some "best of" compilations. On top of that, there is all the non-UFC Zuffa owned content that would be expensive and hard to find. I'm not even talking about the live events and all of that. The fight library, for me personally is worth the asking price. I don't think it is for everyone, and that is fine. But it is for some people. But again, I've been called a shill for supporting Fight Pass.
People like to throw that "UFC plant/UFC shill" crap around,
but isn't it just possible that some of us actually enjoy the product? And it's not just a few guys supporting the product, it's a lot of people. That isn't to say that everyone will or even should enjoy it. It's not for everyone. Not liking some of the changes, or even any of them is a fair opinion. But there are many of us that are okay with it, not because we are UFC plants, not because we are Zuffa Zombies, but because we actually like the product.
