Do most fans of other sports feel obligated to watch every single event?

BigMuffler

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It's a rhetorical question, I know the answer - now the real question is why is MMA different, why do people complain about too many cards and not just be more selective about what they watch like fans of every other sport? This is not about watered down cards BTW, that seems like a much more valid complaint, but complaining about there purely being too many events seems to make no sense? The more the sport grows and more fighters there are, the more events there will naturally have to be...
 
People tend to feel the need to bitch about everything. If there are less events it wouldn't be enough. More is no good.
Too many divisions, fighters, events, commentators, ring girls. There will always be something wrong and a message board is a good place to vent frustration.

I watch soccer, selective. And watch MMA almost everything, my sport of choice.
 
Personally for me. The too many cards things came down to the fact that some of the legends I watched retiring or moving on like Chuck, Randy, and a few of the other guys in this era.

While I still like the sport of MMA I certainly do not follow it enthusiastically enough like I use to in order to keep up with all the events. There was a time when I use to think "Oh shit, UFC 90 in one month" I'd be excited....now, I dont get that feeling ever. My friends call me up and are like hey wanna watch the fights. "Sure, who is fighting this weekend?"

Too many cards took me from a hardcore fan to a casual fan. I have no anticipation for cards anymore because it seems like they are every week now.

Am I right, who knows. Its just my own personal opinion. Maybe its because I'm 40 now instead of 26
 
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The more cards the better. I try to watch every UFC card as well as any other intriguing fights (kickboxing, boxing, Bellator, etc) that might be on.

While I do have favorite fighters (Shogun, Matt Brown, Lawler, etc) I like the sport in general.
 
I think it's the lack of product compartmentalization that's really getting to people. Product-wise all of the UFC fighters are just one big jumble. Sure, there are weight classes and the such, but cards aren't based around this.

Simply speaking, there are more cards than a good number of fans actually want to watch, and if you don't watch everything, you will know far less of the fighters on the cards you do watch, since they aren't separate leagues or something like that.

Had the UFC been three different orgs, or a single org but with some other sort of brand separation, an interest in MMA could be easier scaled back without singular cards losing appeal to the same degree.

It's a good time to be a fan who wants to watch as much as possible, but I think the current incarnation has a problem with building or maintaining interest among fans who wants less than that. I don't see an easy solution to this.
 
it's not that there's too many cards really, it's that they divide up the top talent among those numerous cards. So you have to tune into several events to catch the top guys fight, not just one. Sure, you can just pass on the TUF Brazil finale card, but then you miss out on Stipe and Maia.

It would be fine if the other 30 events a year were for prospects, but to take top ten guys and sprinkle them across 50 cards? Sheeeeit, you know fans wanna see Gus, so they have to watch some weak ass card in England at 5 am or whatever time. That's the complaint really. It's just fucking stupid. NFL fans aren't on internet watching their team fight some unknown prospect team in another god damn country at 5 am.
 
I don't think so. I consider myself a pretty big MMA fan, yet I skipped both events last week as I only knew who 1/5 of the fighters fighting on both cards were. But generally I watch 80% of the cards and will watch the live events when they come to my city(If they are good of course :D)
 
No, but I try to. It's a nice way to sit back, relax and enjoy an evening away from worrying about work, bills, and adult stuff.
 
I wouldn't say obliged. I just enjoy watching, so I'm ok having all those cards. I actually enjoy watching bellator and WSOF as well
 
I think as the UFC expands more and puts on less-interesting fight night cards I'll begin to skip a few events, but I'll always watch something if there are big names involved that appeal to me. I enjoy watching way more when I have a basic understanding of who fighters are.
 
I think it's the lack of product compartmentalization that's really getting to people. Product-wise all of the UFC fighters are just one big jumble.

Unbreakabull said:
it's not that there's too many cards really, it's that they divide up the top talent among those numerous cards. So you have to tune into several events to catch the top guys fight, not just one. Sure, you can just pass on the TUF Brazil finale card, but then you miss out on Stipe and Maia.

It would be fine if the other 30 events a year were for prospects, but to take top ten guys and sprinkle them across 50 cards? Sheeeeit, you know fans wanna see Gus, so they have to watch some weak ass card in England at 5 am or whatever time. That's the complaint really. It's just fucking stupid. NFL fans aren't on internet watching their team fight some unknown prospect team in another god damn country at 5 am.

These are some good points especially the bolded hehe.
 
Personally for me. The too many cards things came down to the fact that some of the legends I watched retiring or moving on like Chuck, Randy, and a few of the other guys in this era.

While I still like the sport of MMA I certainly do not follow it enthusiastically enough like I use to in order to keep up with all the events. There was a time when I use to think "Oh shit, UFC 90 in one month" I'd be excited....now, I dont get that feeling ever. My friends call me up and are like hey wanna watch the fights. "Sure, who is fighting this weekend?"

Too many cards took me from a hardcore fan to a casual fan. I have no anticipation for cards anymore because it seems like they are every week now.

Am I right, who knows. Its just my own personal opinion. Maybe its because I'm 40 now instead of 26

people are gonna use the age thing, but it's not you, it's the ufc. and yea, they are doing exactly what you say; Turning fans off with weak cards, top 500 prospects mixed in with top 5 fighters. We're starting to tune out more than ever, as the ratings are pretty stale/ low.

And when you miss one big fight or event, well, it makes it easier to miss that fighter again in another event, especially a costly ppv. After all, I didn't see him on FightPiss and people wanna do something else besides watch a ufc - used to be I'd say no, but these days, sure why not. I'll catch a video of it later. Maybe...
 
Ok, I'll admit it too! There are just so many events and watered down cards that it's really tough to watch them all with the same enthusiasm like we did years ago.
But if you miss one fight you just might miss a story of the next champion! So in a way we do feel obligated to watch every single fight.

So what I've started doing is just scrolling through the prelims and if the fight sucks I'll just scroll to get the highlights. TUF finale was a great example - overall the event sucked (for lack of a better word).
 
Until very recently, there used to be a grand total of 1 or 2 cards a month. Older fans are used to watching all the fights.
 
These are some good points especially the bolded hehe.

the ufc is in a bit of a pickle with this. they need headliners to get a decent gate to pay for the production set up and having prospects duke it out on tv isn't gonna make Fox happy. Then again, the ratings can't get too much worse than they are. Maybe they can try a prospect/ SF Challengers / UFN type of brand. We know they won't, but it's fun to pretend
 
Your assumed answer to your rhetorical question is wrong. Generally hardcore fans (people who post on forums) watch every game for their team. Thats the whole point of a season ticket.
 
These are some good points especially the bolded hehe.
Absolutely. It might create quite a bit of logistical issues with matchmaking, but this kind of separation would probably serve them well in the long run.

They could also possibly go back to making a clearer distinction between undercard fights and main card fights. The best undercard fight is usually better than the worst main card one, and this makes sense, as they are using undercards as a commercial for the following PPV. But if they wanted more ways to differentiate their product, going back to "Main Card > Under card" might make sense.
 
Your assumed answer to your rhetorical question is wrong. Generally hardcore fans (people who post on forums) watch every game for their team. Thats the whole point of a season ticket.

Every game for their team is more equivalent to every fight of your favorite fighters, every UFC event is more akin to every game in the NBA.
 
It's has always been pretty much impossible. Back then you'd get one or two UFC cards a month so it was easier to follow other organizations. I'd follow everything I could get my hands on and would hate missing any fight card live.

Nowadays I mostly stick to the UFC, Bellator and WSOF. I'm not bothered if I miss some prelims here and there or even a card. You can always go back and watch something you missed if it's worth it.
 
I watch every UFC event. I don't stay up and watch them live every time unless it's a card I'm looking forward to as they're on at about 3am here.

I download every event and watch it in my spare time the next day, it's also good if there is a boring fight as I can just fast forward through them and all the talking in between I can just skip past. I don't understand people complaining about too many, just don't watch it or pay for it (in the US) I'd never, ever pay for a card I have paid for two fights (boxing) here
 
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