Is This Org Better Than UFC?

[Danespina]

The last Dublin cars had a female bout as a main event due to injuries and I will remmeber one of the oppnent had like 3-2 on the record

UFC headlined their Ireland show with Paddy Holohan vs. Louis Smolka.

 

[You Will Vote For Dreyga]

In the event that any promotion gets enough talent to compete with the UFC. The UFC will likely buy them out to get the talent or start poaching talent. Unless that promotion has the pockets to compete, which is unlikely, they will lose.

They did this with Pride and Strikeforce and will do so again if they have to

 

[Hellowhosthat]

I'm sure that's what most people thought when Strikeforce was absorbed too

There are guys outside that would do well over time. But if you put the top 15 UFC fighters against the top 15 outside fighters in a reverse seed thing (say #1 outside fights #15 UFC etc) then the UFC fighters win comfortably in all divisions except flyweight (but that's because they released a bunch of guys who would jow be against them)

At the time everyone thought Strikeforce had a comparable if not better HW division and also thought guys like Mousasi, Hendo, Feijao, Jacare, Rockhold, Melendez, Thomson, Marquardt, Saffiedine, Kennedy etc were top 15.

Guys like Romero excelled over time, and there are several fighters like that who would be ranked over time but wouldn't beat top 15 fighters right now. However those are guys the UFC will pick up over time anyway.

You should check out rankings from at the time.

 

[Cool Cat]

If you were to divide the world of MMA into UFC and non-UFC, the UFC still wins. However, the non-UFC world cannot be ignored.

nicely put. Plenty of great fights and fighters outside the ufc, as I am now discovering thanks to the education watching ufc has given me...but ufc has by far the largest pool.

 

[EndlessCritic]

Why exclude the non-champs, doesn't fit your narrative? Daniel Cormier, Gegard Mousasi, Tim Kennedy, Lorenz Larkin, Ronaldo Souza, K.J. Noons, Josh Thomson, Masvidal, just to name some, all did well in UFC. All but one of those you listed were past-prime and still had very respectable careers.

As a tournament, champion, Cormier belongs in that list, but the point remains.

None of those other guys were incoming champions.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Just FTR here's the rankings from May 2011

HW
1. Cain
2. Brock
3. Werdum (Strikeforce)
4. JDS
5. Carwin
6. Mir
7. Bigfoot(Strikeforce)
8. Fedor (Strikeforce)
9. Overeem (Strikeforce)
10. Nelson

LHW
1. Jones
2. Shogun
3. Rashad
4. Rampage
5. Lyoto
6. Forrest
7. Bader
8. Davis
9. Nog
10. Hendo (Strikeforce)

MW
1. Anderson
2. Chael
3. Okami
4. Marquardt
5. Jacare (Strikeforce)
6. Maia
7. Santiago (Sengoku)
8. Vitor
9. Bisping
10. Lombard (Bellator)

WW
1. GSP
2. Fitch
3. Alves
4. Shields
5. Koscheck
6. Diaz (Strikeforce)
7. BJ
8. Condit
9. Daley (Strikeforce)
10. Diego

LW
1. Edgar
2. Gilbert (Strikeforce)
3. Maynard
4. Aoki (Dream)
5. Alvarez (Bellator)
6. Kenflo
7. Miller
8. Pettis
9. Kawajiri (Strikeforce)
10. Sherk

 

[skylolow]

Beyond talent you need a brand and that is what the UFC has in aces.

Back in the day when everyone cried about fighter over org bullshit the UFC pushed forward with those three letters meaning more than anything else. Today MMA for most people equals UFC. They have successfully become the Coke of the Cola world. Some orgs may have some better talent here and there and even in hypothetical world of combing a bunch of orgs the end result without a brand that can rival the UFC you get the Bellator's of the world is about the best you can do. You also won't last long because your money burn would be off the charts compared to your revenue.

 

[strebitel86]

Bellator and PFL into 1 promotion sounds great.

 

[vladimirvlad]

Hard to answer your question. UFC is the most popular, but fighters quality.... hard to judge to be honest.