Give Me Evidence that MMA/UFC are is dying in popularity?

I don't think its dying/declining but its no longer growing at the rate it was in North America and that is obvious because it can only go so far.

If Meltzer is to be believed then PPV sales spiked when Lesnar arrived. An abundance of cards to help the growth worldwide and to help produce content for FS1 and the likes of Lesnar and GSP leaving has caused PPV sales to decline. That doesn't necessarily mean the sport is losing popularity but there are no real BIG fights atm or someone who can command 500k+ PPV buys alone.

Contrary to what has been said the attendance figures and more importantly the gate for events has been on the up which is a positive sign for the UFC.

The sport has grown worldwide and most people in North America are aware of it, they just need to get the right fights to get the casual fan interested.

All in all its a combat sport and like boxing it will continue to be a niche sport with certain fights and fighters being able to capture the mainstream.
 
PPV numbers have nothing to do with interest


Near me boxing gyms now have MMA classes
MMA gyms have more members
Many more organizations with more shows to watch

I think its popularity is on the rise and will continue with more countries getting involved, adding more womens weight classes

Lol the womens part.... hahahahaha
 
PPV numbers are about the same but its available in some many more homes then it was in 2009.

TUF numbers are in the toilet. Each season getting progressively worse.

Twice as many cards similar amount of yearly profit.




Its not going to go anywhere or die. Its just hurting and a lot of that has to do with how its run. How its matches are made. The lack of the UFC hype machine. Because soon as someone losses they are garbage people don't get invested like they did with Chuck. Chuck could have lost 5 in a row and people would have still believed he would win the rematches and by KO in the first.
 
2009 with Brock Anderson GSP running shit was just the best. Amazing year for MMA. I miss it. 2009 had so many stars man. Best time ever for the sport
 
GSP and Anderson leaving the game in close proximity has stagnated growth in North America. This will change when new champs like Weidman and Pettis become more established and popular.
 
I can only speak for myself, but the past two years I've lost a lot of interest.
 
his will change when new champs like Weidman and Pettis become more established and popular.

That's far from a given. Jones is the only dominant champ right now, and people don't care enough about him to pay for his fights.
 
Zuffa got greedy, flooded the market, gambling on wmma, charging 60$ for ppvs that would make just OK FOX cards, but I still think it's popularity is growing internationally.
 
How about the fact that UFC's biggest cash cow, Rhonda Rousey's last fight only brought in 350K PPV buys is a big indication.

Also, the last Fox card was stacked, and it got fewer viewers than a rerun of 'Mike and Molly.'

Sad to say, but the facts are overwhelming.
 
i think the us market may be slowing down with regards to the popularity of mma, but new international markets should offer growth especially in mexico.

if uncle dana and the ufc can work out an arrangement with the thai sports authority, i think mma in thailand would be another growth market. thais love their muay thai and mma would offer better pay and more opportunities for thais to compete in other combat fighting sports.
 
It's not as popular as the last month! (and Im kinda bored with this fad) THE ROOF IS FALLING! MMA IS OVER! IT was so much better when I loved it!
 
I think the UFC is starting to lose it's position of being synonymous with the sport of MMA to most people in the US due to Bellator and WSOF being on basic cable television.
 
I think it has plateaued in the US, at least for now, but it could perhaps gain popularity abroad.
 
it has definitely lost its lustre in north america. do you not remember the amount of hype surrounding the sport in 09? even your random guy off the street knew household names and the biggest upcoming fights. obviously there's some newer fans just discovering it, but the casual fan has all but disappeared.

With people I know it has definitely become less popular. The last time I remember anybody even being pumped for a fight was Anderson vs Sonnen II. I used to order the PPVs at my place and get drunk with my buddies. Nobody really cares anymore. I also care far less than I used to and I've been a fan since Tito was champ. It has become more boring in my opinion....and the opinions of a lot of people I know.
 
They need more big rivalries. Couture/Liddell, Liddell/Ortiz, Ortiz/Shamrock, GSP/Hughes, GSP/Penn, Hughes/Penn. We had multiple rivalires between many of the same guys who just happened to be some of the biggest stars in MMA at the time. We don't really have that now. We've got little tastes of it, but nothing like it used to be.

They need more big rematches. Look how many buys Silva/Sonnen II did. It's because Chael almost beat the unbeatable Silva and people wanted to know if Silva got lucky pulling the sub out of his ass, or if he really was the better fighter. Same with Silva/Weidman II. Weidman caught him clowning and people wanted to see if he got lucky or if he could beat him again. Jones/Gustafsson didn't do great. But a lot of people wrote off Gustafsson from the time the fight was announced. But he pushed Jones to the brink, and in the immediate aftermath, many people thought he won the fight. I would bet you anything that the rematch will pull in big numbers. A GSP/Hendricks rematch would have probably done big numbers. When champions who are perceived as unbeatable lose or almost lose, the rematch is usually big business. Obviously, you can't plan for this to happen. It's usually by surprise, but given the close calls the champs all had last year, this year had big potential for big rematches. GSP took a hiatus/semi-retirement and Silva is on the shelf. But they could still capitalize on those fights in the future if/when they come back.

They need more big superstars. We all know what is going on. Rather than creating superstars, the UFC relies on the brand itself to be the catalyst for sales. Obviously, some fighters move the needle more than others, though. Lesnar was huge for the sport. It will be tough to get somebody who can be that kind of a draw again. They need to find their Mayweather or their next generation Lesnar. Guys who are bigger than the sport. Also, because the sport is so new, the guys who were there at the beginning all faded out around the same time, making way for the new stars of the sport. Guys like Couture, Liddell, Hughes, Penn, Franklin, hell, even Sylvia and Arlovski, they came out of the ashes of the dark age and helped popularize the sport in the wake of the TUF boom. they all started to fade out of relevance around the same time. On tope of that, most of the guys from TUF 1 are retired. So people who became fans around that time are trying to fill the void of their favorite fighters no longer being active. The Pride fighters are all also mostly out of the picture.

The UFC had the perfect storm. TUF, the first wave of true superstars, Pride fighters signing with the UFC, and Brock Lesnar all happened in just a few years time and the UFC was huge. Once that all died out/faded away, it was followed up newer, smaller weight classes and WMMA that split the fan base, increased the roster creating "watered down" cards, global expansion and the signing of many unknown fighters in effort to start farming their own talent, which saturated the prodect even more.

But what is crazy is that fighters today are better than they were back then...and there is more of them. Today's champions are better than yesterday's champions. The challengers/contenders are better than back then. Many of them would probably be champions back then. The gatekeepers and mid tier guys are better. The up and comers and prospects are better. But you don't notice it because there is so many of them. Before it was several big fish in a small pond. Now it's even bigger fish, but the pond is so big, you don't notice as much. They don't stand out like they used to. That and '05 through '10 was just such a tough act to follow.
 
Its not dying but it is no longer progressing as fast as it used to. The US market seems like it has already peaked.
 
Too lazy for evidence.

I just project my own disinterest onto everyone else.

It's been a good predictor in the past.

This. I watched the UFC in 2003 and thought "this is great, everyone should be watching this all the time." Starting in mid to late 2011, I stopped thinking that way.
 
Definitely there's a general feeling that the sport isn't as interesting as it was back in the day. I was more interested in the Pride stars, as well as the UFC rivalries back in the day such as Penn/Hughes/GSP, Chuck/Tito/Randy, Brock, Anderson/Chael, etc. There doesn't seem to be the same pop today. Of course, it's easy to dump on Zuffa when GSP and Anderson are inactive and Brock has been gone a few years.

Internationally, Brazil looks good. Network popularity and PPV popularity can be different things, however. What I mean is there used to be mostly PPV eyeballs; now there are more network and Internet eyeballs, in exchange for less PPV eyes.
 
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