Is the sport anymore of a farce than it was?

[Garnet_StrongerThanYou]

Brock Lesnar got a title shot off of one win.

james toney main evented against Randy.

Pride fixed a bunch of fights.

Is it any worse today?

 

[Sonny Qc]

Brock Lesnar got a title shot off of one win.

james toney main evented against Randy.

Pride fixed a bunch of fights.

Is it any worse today?

Toney Vs Randy Jo was co-main tho

 

[Warfist]

Not as much of a farce as this thread

 

[Soul On Ice]

The "sport"

 

[ConorFacts]

Roxy beat th shit out of Danas cash cow and he downplayed Roxys performance.

he even said that Roxy wont face a top 5 fighter ...

She isnt good for TV, thats the reason.

UFC sucks

 

[No Skill Gap]

You forgot CM Punk

 

[SeattleFightFan]

Yes.

Saying it's "more" today does not mean it used to be "nothing" before. So your debate tactic of giving several examples is spurious, at best.

It's always been somewhere on the "pure-merit-to-pure-money-entertainment-fight" spectrum. It's just further to the right on that spectrum than it used to be.

Here's a quote I like from Mike Brown on the topic:

https://www.mmafighting.com/2017/2/...fan-of-entertainment-over-merit-in-todays-ufc
“I think it used to be you would find it was 80 percent merit, and 20 percent entertainment/money to make the fights,” he told MMA Fighting at the UFC 208 Ultimate Media Day. “Now I think that it’s almost 80 percent money than the merit of who deserves the fight. I honestly didn’t see it coming so quickly.”
​

 

[SpecialDelivery]

Roxy beat th shit out of Danas cash cow and he downplayed Roxys performance.

he even said that Roxy wont face a top 5 fighter ...

She isnt good for TV, thats the reason.

UFC sucks

Barber isnt a cash cow. And nope, you DONT know if she will be one or not

 

[ConorFacts]

Barber isnt a cash cow. And nope, you DONT know if she will be one or not

lmfaooo please

 

[Tapatio]

Yes.

Saying it's "more" today does not mean it used to be "nothing" before. So your debate tactic of giving several examples is spurious, at best.

It's always been somewhere on the "pure-merit-to-pure-money-entertainment-fight" spectrum. It's just further to the right on that spectrum than it used to be.

Here's a quote I like from Mike Brown on the topic:

https://www.mmafighting.com/2017/2/...fan-of-entertainment-over-merit-in-todays-ufc
“I think it used to be you would find it was 80 percent merit, and 20 percent entertainment/money to make the fights,” he told MMA Fighting at the UFC 208 Ultimate Media Day. “Now I think that it’s almost 80 percent money than the merit of who deserves the fight. I honestly didn’t see it coming so quickly.”
​

I don't think OP said it went from nothing to something.

 

[SpecialDelivery]

lmfaooo please

Good rebuttal

 

[SeattleFightFan]

I don't think OP said it went from nothing to something.

Well, 2 things:
a) i didn't see he said 'sport'. i was talking about UFC only
b) and i only saw the Brock Lesnar and James Toney examples. and that is because I only read the snippet you see when you hover over the thread title, instead of reading the thread

So ya, my answer was incomplete at best. Spurious, you might even say frankly, i accept and deserve a stronger rebuttal than yours. But you're too much a gentleman. Cheers.

 

[No Skill Gap]

The sport definitely has more merit today than it did in 1998-2008 for example. I'm not sure how anyone is arguing that. Yeah a Mike Brown quote but perhaps he feels spurned and is projecting because he never saw a title shot or something, or felt he should have been ranked higher.

Yes there are some instances where money is prioritized over merit, and most of those examples are arguably going to be revolving around McGregor probably, sure, But there's nothing egregious like there was in the Pride era, and nothing totally outlandish like in earlier UFCs.

First off we introduced USADA in the current age, right there it made the sport more legit and based on merit than the free reign steroid days of Pride/early UFC, and the TRT festival that followed. Not saying USADA was "good for the sport" but it did test people and created a more legit playing field.

Secondly, any dumbass fight like CM Punk being a co-main can be countered by the James Toney, sort of Lesnar saga, and especially Pride matchmaking. Punk isn't even necessarily black mark on merit because h didn't get a title shot or an unfair ranking, he simply headed a card - which was clown-ish sure.

Last: What is so horrible about the merit now a days? McGregor got a title shot at LW right away? So? He was the FW champion and just beat the GOAT at FW and a top 3-5 GOAT all-time, after an impeccable run. Don't we want super-fights and two division championship matches? We always wanted that with Penn and GSP + Silva + Jones prior.

I guess the one big difference is that McGregor didn't defend his title at all, fair enough, but it wasn't totally a joke or anything, he was the legit FW champ moving up to fight at LW (after a 1-1 stint with Diaz only because RDA got hurt).