Hardcore MMA fan's mindset

[GoldenAzazel]

Could someone explain to me the mindset behind some hardcore MMA fans?

So at the moment there's this complaint that UFC is a freakshow and it's making a mockery of the sport. That's cool, I kinda understand that opinion to an extent. The problem is I believe hardcore MMA fans are at part of the reason things like this happen.

Go through the forums on Sherdog and most people pirate events and refuse to pay for UFC PPVs. UFC will put on a great card like UFC 218 where there's a title fight between two exciting fighters, 2 number one contender fights, a hot prospect in Francis Ngannou, and 2 fight of the year candidates. It can't sell over 250k PPVs.

What options do the UFC have at this point? The hardcore fans won't pay for solid cards, so now they have to create freakshow fights with undeserving contenders to get casuals to watch.

 

[Uptown Swinger]

Hi Dana,

There are way too many pay per views which bring their value down.

There should be more good cards on free tv and the occasional stacked ppv like last night's card.

Thanks,

Uptown

 

[brroth]

Don't have an opinion on this topic, but I did want to point out that Emperor of Sand is amazing.

 

[GoldenAzazel]

Hi Dana,

There are way too many pay per views which bring their value down.

There should be more good cards on free tv and the occasional stacked ppv like last night's card.

Thanks,

Uptown

Yeah, I definitely agree with that (other than being called Dana), but when there are really good cards the hardcore fans don't buy them anyway, so what's the point? Surely it only brings down the value of the mediocre or shit cards, not the cards that are genuinely great. Then you have the issue of every fighter wanting to be paid more. They aren't gonna be paid as much if they're not fighting on a PPV.

Just out of curiosity how many PPV's do you think they should do a year? I believe last year they did 12.

 

[Uptown Swinger]

I would be cool with stacked 4 ppvs per year. I think it could encourage more people to have fight partys where it's better to pay rather than stream.

 

[fedoriswar37]

Yeah, I definitely agree with that (other than being called Dana), but when there are really good cards the hardcore fans don't buy them anyway, so what's the point? Surely it only brings down the value of the mediocre or shit cards, not the cards that are genuinely great. Then you have the issue of every fighter wanting to be paid more. They aren't gonna be paid as much if they're not fighting on a PPV.

Just out of curiosity how many PPV's do you think they should do a year? I believe last year they did 12.

4 major PPVS a year. Stacked cards top to bottom. Build hype have fighters on standby for injuries.

 

[TIMELESS TRUTH]

You have it backwards. The hardcores pay for the cards, casuals stream.

Oh, and Mastodon is a joke! Any hardcore metal site that isn't for casuals will tell you that...

 

[GoldenAzazel]

You have it backwards. The hardcores pay for the cards, casuals stream.

Oh, and Mastodon is a joke! Any hardcore metal site that isn't for casuals will tell you that...

I feel like hardcore fans used to pay for cards but are doing it less and less. Whenever somebody is talking about the topic it's mostly people saying they will stream it instead of pay for it.

Meh, I don't really care what elitist music fans think. The good thing about music is that it's subjective, so I don't have to like what you do.

 

[Tdot9666]

Could someone explain to me the mindset behind some hardcore MMA fans?

So at the moment there's this complaint that UFC is a freakshow and it's making a mockery of the sport. That's cool, I kinda understand that opinion to an extent. The problem is I believe hardcore MMA fans are at part of the reason things like this happen.

Go through the forums on Sherdog and most people pirate events and refuse to pay for UFC PPVs. UFC will put on a great card like UFC 218 where there's a title fight between two exciting fighters, 2 number one contender fights, a hot prospect in Francis Ngannou, and 2 fight of the year candidates. It can't sell over 250k PPVs.

What options do the UFC have at this point? The hardcore fans won't pay for solid cards, so now they have to create freakshow fights with undeserving contenders to get casuals to watch.

How about price it reasonably? $30 I'm buying every single ppv!! $69.99 for less then 3 hours of entertainment , lick my balls Dana!

 

[TIMELESS TRUTH]

I feel like hardcore fans used to pay for cards but are doing it less and less. Whenever somebody is talking about the topic it's mostly people saying they will stream it instead of pay for it.

Meh, I don't really care what elitist music fans think. The good thing about music is that it's subjective, so I don't have to like what you do.

Those people are noobs and casuals and probably won't even follow MMA in 5 more years.

With that attitude you never will...

 

[GoldenAzazel]

I would be cool with stacked 4 ppvs per year. I think it could encourage more people to have fight partys where it's better to pay rather than stream.

4 major PPVS a year. Stacked cards top to bottom. Build hype have fighters on standby for injuries.

I think 4 major PPVs is a good idea, kinda how WWE have their big 4. In my opinion they could do at least 2 in Vegas, 1 in New York (or the other way around), and an international one. I personally don't think they should stick to 4 though if they have an abundance of solid talent with charisma. When we had Ronda and Conor about, I think 4 would have been too little.

 

[GoldenAzazel]

How about price it reasonably? $30 I'm buying every single ppv!! $69.99 for less then 3 hours of entertainment , lick my balls Dana!

$30 for the small ones and $70 for the bigs ones? I suppose It's not much of an issue if you get a bunch of friends around to chip in. It's crazy to think that WWE have 14 PPVs a year and only charge $9.99 for them.

 

[fedoriswar37]

I think 4 major PPVs is a good idea, kinda how WWE have their big 4. In my opinion they could do at least 2 in Vegas, 1 in New York (or the other way around), and an international one. I personally don't think they should stick to 4 though if they have an abundance of solid talent with charisma. When we had Ronda and Conor about, I think 4 would have been too little.

I completley agree, and like i mentioned, this gives an opportunity to have quality fighters on srandby in case of an injury which is a massive issue (it also involves UFC paying guys to do so which may be an issue in itself) . From there , i dont know subscription based channel? A Few free cards every other month (6 a year ), im not sure. All i know is the UFC needs a major rebrand of their model

 

[basementdweller]

this time I enjoyed the freakshow a whole lot. also it's on HW, competition was bad enough already that DC just moved up and wrekt the champion. we're not losing anything.

 

[GoldenAzazel]

this time I enjoyed the freakshow a whole lot. also it's on HW, competition was bad enough already that DC just moved up and wrekt the champion. we're not losing anything.

Yeah, I was talking to someone last night on Twitter about the same thing. If it was in a deeper division I'd be a bit pissed off, but HW is arguably the most shallow and it needs some eyes on it imo.

 

[GoldenAzazel]

I completley agree, and like i mentioned, this gives an opportunity to have quality fighters on srandby in case of an injury which is a massive issue (it also involves UFC paying guys to do so which may be an issue in itself) . From there , i dont know subscription based channel? A Few free cards every other month (6 a year ), im not sure. All i know is the UFC needs a major rebrand of their model

It's probably stupid to keep mentioning WWE, but they do 14 cards a year all on the subscription network for $9.99 each. If UFC could work out a big deal with ESPN that promises more money for UFC, but way better cards then I think the business and the fans would be in a better place. Hell, how about a discount on PPVs if you are subscribed to Fight Pass or something too. That being said, there will always be those fans who will just complain about anything.

 

[GoldenAzazel]

Those people are noobs and casuals and probably won't even follow MMA in 5 more years.

With that attitude you never will...

With what attitude?

 

[GBJohn]

I'd like to see them move away from the PPV model altogether. It's hard to expect new fans to pay to see your best events. If they moved towards more of an advertising supported model, I think their revenues would suffer at first, but I believe that would lead to growth which would lead to more revenue in the future.

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

If you stream fights you aren't a hardcore fan, either that or you're poor.

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

What I want to know is how long have people been saying "the ufc is turning into the wwe". I know GSP stepped in the cage to challenge Matt Hughes and I know there has been a lot of wwe style trash talk in the past (especially from guys like Chael) yet people act like this Lesnar vs DC thing is the first time anything like that has happened.