Deadspin: Whatever Happened To The UFC?

I agree entirely.

Watching the UFC on a Saturday night used to be a big deal. Bars would fill up, friends would have viewing parties, having to choose between a few places to watch the fights, people in lineups and buses talking about the upcoming fights, hearing about that shit at work, people just generally giving a fuck.. now.. nobody cares.. and for good reason.

and that Iole article was embarrassing.
 
He misspelled Nico Musoke's name who is 2-0 in the UFC with a first round win over Alessio Sakara. Jeremy Stephens is known as an 18 fight UFC veteran coming off a win over a formerly top ranked FW and running a 3 fight win streak. He is facing another Top FW who has looked like a killer lately and is looking to avenge a loss to Aldo.

This douche is pissed because he may not want to watch every show the UFC puts on... who cares.

It takes a time for a person as dumb as that author to actually see the big picture. UFC is correcting it's failings of the past.. There are few stars now because UFC were unable to build them a few years ago that is changing now.

UFC is finally doing exactly what it needs to. Dumbasses like to talk about watered down events but in bast years UFC would run PPVs headlined by non title fights... This year every single UFC PPV has been a title fight and some of the Fox cards have been absolutely PPV level of a few years back.
 
There's too many fights, I wouldn't be surprised if Big Brown headlined a UFC card.
 
Nothing controversial about this article. UFC is a filler sport for me, something I watch when mainstream sports are not on (including boxing, FFS). It wasn't always like this, and before I get accused of being a casual fan, I've been around this sport for quite a while and at one point (pre-TUF) started a UFC/Pride fan club in my hometown. My obsession was sad and a little unhealthy, but there was something so primal and novel about seeing that level of violence that got me through the latter stages of my adolescence.

Nowadays, there are 3 fighters I'm passionate about and will pay to see fight and a few that I will watch for shits and giggles but have no attachment to. But mostly, it's just filler. I can't help but think I'm watching Dana White's freak show at a local carnival when I tune into some of these cards. Maybe I'm just too old for this stuff.
 
Rucks said:
Nothing controversial about this article. UFC is a filler sport for me, something I watch when mainstream sports are not on (including boxing, FFS). It wasn't always like this, and before I get accused of being a casual fan, I've been around this sport for quite a while and at one point started a UFC/Pride fan club in my hometown.

Nowadays, there are 3 fighters I'm passionate about and will pay to see fight and a few that I will watch for shits and giggles but have no attachment to. But mostly, it's just filler. I can't help but think I'm watching Dana White's freak show at a local carnival when I tune into some of these cards. Maybe I'm just too old for this stuff.
Click to expand...

You seem the definition of a casual fan. You only follow a few select fighters and not the sport as a whole. 100% casual fan despite your more dedicated past.
 
The UFC's PPV buys are tanking. UFC 173 did 200-220k, UFC 174 was rumoured 100k.

Draws 350k-375k = Velasquez & Jones
Draws 300k-350k = Rousey & Weidman
Draws 200k-300k = Aldo, Barao, Johnson, Pettis and Hendricks
 
Comparing the fight business to the NBA is ridiculous. I'm sure if you sat Lorenzo down and asked their strategy for the amount of cards and he'd probably give you a pretty compelling reason for why they're doing this. I think a lot of it is controlling the talent, and having guys come up through the UFC instead of getting good in other orgs. Also, more events mean more places you can bring your product.

That being said, I don't like how watered down the cards are. I think 26-30 events per year would probably be perfect for the amount of talent they have.
 
Whoever wrote this article sounds like an ignorant tool. The analogy with basketball is ridiculous. He should compare MMA to other combat sports like Boxing which has way more weight classes than UFC.

UFC Fight night 43 is not the greatest event, I can give him that, but complaining about Jeremy Stephens is stupid and using a fighter missing a wiki page as an argument is absurd. Musoke is very solid fighter who is fighting a relatively well known Gastelum.
 
Bigj383 said:
You seem the definition of a casual fan. You only follow a few select fighters and not the sport as a whole. 100% casual fan despite your more dedicated past.
Click to expand...

Today, you can absolutely call me a casual fan, and I think that's what is wrong with the UFC. How did I go from someone who was obsessed with MMA to someone who only follows a handful of fighters? A lot of this is my personal maturation, and I admit that, but there is also something so stagnant and uninspired about the current presentation of UFC, the politics, and the focus on pay and other such BS. I liked it better when these guys were considered fighters and not athletes and the president of the company did not think he was the main attraction.
 
GWR said:
The UFC's PPV buys are tanking. UFC 173 did 200-220k, UFC 174 was rumoured 100k.

Draws 350k-375k = Velasquez & Jones
Draws 300k-350k = Rousey & Weidman
Draws 200k-300k = Aldo, Barao, Johnson, Pettis and Hendricks
Click to expand...

UFC PPV buys have flatlined over the last 4 years. What are you going to say after UFC 177 when the last three averaged 450K?
 
The_Renaissance said:
Those lads are out drinking, drugging and talking about the last memorable UFC card, they aren't watching some shitty UFN card coming live from New Zealand/China/Brazil.
Click to expand...

You do know that the New Zealand card is only of fight pass and its not a "made for North America" card.

UFC Fight Night 43 Start Times
Main Card on UFC Fight Pass: 5 a.m. ET / 2 a.m. PT
Preliminary Card on UFC Fight Pass: 2:30 a.m. ET / 11:30 p.m. PT

The main card starts at 2am pst....so it is actually perfect for one of those lads to watch that's just getting home from drinking.
 
bearVSshark said:
Could you say the same about a certain promoter?
Click to expand...

Heh heh. I'm not defending the UFC or taking a side. Merely pointing out some observations of mine. Besides, Dana isn't a news or opinion writer. He's a promoter.
 
Good for them. I compared it to expansion in other sports as well. Mark Cuban made a similar point. UFC is falling.
 
Rucks said:
Today, you can absolutely call me a casual fan, and I think that's what is wrong with the UFC. How did I go from someone who was obsessed with MMA to someone who only follows a handful of fighters? A lot of this is my personal maturation, and I admit that, but there is also something so stagnant and uninspired about the current presentation of UFC, the politics, and the focus on pay and other such BS. I liked it better when these guys were considered fighters and not athletes and the president of the company did not think he was the main attraction.
Click to expand...
Then don't focus on politics and pay focus on the fights and Fighters.

Dana has always been front and center his role has not changed in 10 years. Just because the fansnwould rather talk about what Dana White said about a fight or fighter than the fight itself. Fans who don't come on the forums don't have the same issues.

How do you go from obsessed to casual... simple you weren't ever obsessed with the sport but a select few fighters within the sport and as those fighters retire your interest has wained since you haven't switched your focus to new fighters. I'll admit that was hard to do in the past but today there are tons of great fighters getting the air time they deserve when it's been deprived in the past costing them future popularity.
 
JonesBones said:
Good for them. I compared it to expansion in other sports as well. Mark Cuban made a similar point. UFC is falling.
Click to expand...
The same Mark Cuban who runs D-Level MMA fights on his TV network... If there is an audience for the C&D-level fights HDnet puts on then there is definitely an audience for the B&A level fights UFC puts on.
 
Bigj383 said:
The same Mark Cuban who runs D-Level MMA fights on his TV network... If there is an audience for the C&D-level fights HDnet puts on then there is definitely an audience for the B&A level fights UFC puts on.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but does he try to pretend it isn't D level? UFC is the top tier. It is the big leagues. So, when you expand, you are now adding people to the org, who were previously not good enough.

And there is really no point of trying to convince you last few holdouts. The majority of this forum, and fans, are losing interest. It is in the numbers, in the polls. It is all around us.
 
Take all Fight Pass and Fight Night main events and fold them into PPV's and FOX shows.

In other words, bring back the Strikeforce Challengers series. Borrow from WWE again, which has their own Challengers series on their Network called NXT.
 
Bit of sensationalism but the gist of the article has some validity. I've never like Iole.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,280,942
Messages
58,329,737
Members
176,000
Latest member
Markooz86

Share this page

Back
Top