Jon Fitch: MMA has been shrinking since 2008 due to monopoly of UFC....

2006-10 was a huge growth period for MMA. Then it stagnated. The only org that has a clear 10 year future is the UFC.
 
Rampage_Jackson said:
Fitch is right. MMA was much better off with two orgs competing at the top and its been downhill since the UFC taking over and killing Pride and to a lesser extent Strikeforce.
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How so? there is UFC and Bellator
People looked at UFC like Bellator compared to Pride alot of the time.
What is so different other than that they are both US companies?
 
HHJ said:
How so? there is UFC and Bellator
People looked at UFC like Bellator compared to Pride alot of the time.
What is so different other than that they are both US companies?
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If you think Bellator compares to Pride in any way shape or facet you need a reality check friend. No top fighter views Bellator as a legit alternative to the UFC like Pride was. Guys don't bounce back and forth between the UFC and Bellator like they could and did between UFC and Pride. Don't be fucking ridiculous
 
Rampage_Jackson said:
If you think Bellator compares to Pride in any way shape or facet you need a reality check friend. No top fighter views Bellator as a legit alternative to the UFC like Pride was. Guys don't bounce back and forth between the UFC and Bellator like they could and did between UFC and Pride. Don't be fucking ridiculous
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I didnt compare it to pride. I compared UFC to Bellator when Pride was around.
 
I used to be a Fitch fan, until he popped. You can't talk all that shit, complain, etc etc only to cheat.
 
Rampage_Jackson said:
If you think Bellator compares to Pride in any way shape or facet you need a reality check friend. No top fighter views Bellator as a legit alternative to the UFC like Pride was. Guys don't bounce back and forth between the UFC and Bellator like they could and did between UFC and Pride. Don't be fucking ridiculous
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The big issue for me is the way promoters operated, honestly even the way the UFC operated more in the earlier 00's. There was much more a sense of "we need to go out and find talent" people like Fedor, Crocop, etc didnt spend years in the little leagues waiting to be noticed they were head hunted from other sports. The UFC's business model post Pride as really been to monopolize, buy out your rivals and strip talent, they themselves do quite a poor job of investing in talent.

Its what fans don't seem to realize with the endless debate over fighter pay, the end game here isnt so much "fighters getting what they deserve" as "you get what you pay for". All those years of the UFC pocketing the vast majority of the profits they were stealing the future of the sport, money that should have gone to investing in talent was gone into keeping Fertitta's casinos open and now to pay investors debts.
 
It’s bigger now in a sense it’s reaching every corner of the world.


DE493039-75EE-40E1-BF84-6A2504E2D6DB.png It’s an international sport now. There’s only one American champion at the moment and even he reps a foreign country. Compare that to 10 years ago when they were all only either American or Brazilian with one Canadian sometimes. They’ve expanded to newer territories in Europe, Middle East and Asia. They’re on the biggest sport channels and with higher viewerships.

The sport is also more professional and respected with drug testing unlike the circus that was Pride. Pride was a joke with their fixed fights and PED usage whereas UFC has cleaned that image from the sport.

UFC fighters make the news now. Conor, Khabib and Ronda made headlines whenever they fought. I’ve never seen someone from 10 years ago make the news like that.
There’s also MMA gyms popping up everywhere compared to 10 years ago. The sport has evolved to a better standard and higher level of fights compared to a decade ago.

Some of the old people here though don’t want to see that.
 
Completely stupid points tbh.

In 2008 the UFC had 20 events and 201 total fights. In 2019 the UFC had 52 events and 517 fights, so more than twice the opportunity for fighters to compete in the UFC alone.

Outside the UFC you now have other reasonably strong promotions in every market like ONE, KSW, Bellator, PFL, Rizin, and ACA where fighters are paid pretty well (at least the main card ones).

Then you have other promotions like Brave, Cage Warriors, Invicta, LFA, CCFC, Titan, Combate, ARES, Shooto, Future FC, GFC, EFC etc etc where fighters can make some money and learn their trade.

There are thousands of professional fighters in the world.

It makes absolutely no sense.
 
Eh, I dunno. In America it doesnt really have the novelty factor it once did, it was the "in" thing in the mid/late 00s. But then on the other hand the UFC puts out twice as many cards per year these days, is on ESPN and gets serious coverage from mainstream media. In the mid/late 00s it was more of a trendy thing that wasnt fully embraced by mainstream networks/media.

On a global level the UFC and MMA in general is definitely bigger than it was back then for the most part.
 
Oddmonster said:
Might feel like communism to you because you don't know what it is. In reality, this is capitalism.
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That maybe true if fighters were employees but they are independent contractors who get no employee benefit and yet they have to muzzled and suppressed by uniforms and generic shit pay.

Why do you have to say now choke master!?
 
Frank Edgar said:
NO, it feels like corporatism. This is exactly why leftists turn to communism, because capitalism produces grotesque pseudo-organisms called "corporations" that basically exist to parasitize their own customers and workforce

UFC fighters aren't even employees, they're supposed to be independent contractors. Imagine hiring a plumber to fix your shitter and then you don't like the way he does this and that so you hold a press conference just to shit on him and discredit him, except when he plays along with you, then you do the opposite and praise him. Blatant use of the media to manipulate their own "contractors"/employees

What you call "like communism" is just routine capitalism at work. You don't NEED a totalitarian government to control you when you have a system that allows those with enough money to never work again a day in their lives to continue amassing more wealth, and to top it off they continue to add to their dragon's horde by exploiting their own labor force. It's immoral
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I was gonna say. I'm pretty sure this sounds worse than communism lol.
 
Ogata said:
That maybe true if fighters were employees but they are independent contractors who get no employee benefit and yet they have to muzzled and suppressed by uniforms and generic shit pay.

Why do you have to say now choke master!?
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A billion dollar company buys the rights to what clothes workers of another billion dollar company has to wear. If those workers dont comply, they will be fired from the company that has almost monopoly on what that specific worker does. This monopoly also allows the billion dollar company to pay generic shit pay. All of this to maximize profits for shareholders and completely in the spirit of capitalism. Nothing in this chain of event has the slightest similarity to communism.
 
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Oddmonster said:
A billion dollar company buys the rights to what clothes workers of another billion dollar company has to wear. If those workers dont comply, they will be fired from the company that has almost monopoly on what that specific worker does. This monopoly also allows the billion dollar company to pay generic shit pay. All of this to maximize profits for shareholders and completely in the spirit of capitalism. Nothing in this chain of event has the slightest similarity to communism.
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You know what, your right and I am willing to admit I was wrong.

I don't agree with everything Fitch says but I too miss the 2000s era of MMA. Back in the day they used to call it shootfighting.
 
Ogata said:
He says that " fastest growing sport" is a tagline and UFC is growing but MMA has died down since the end of 2000s.
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UFC_revenue.0.jpg


The revenue only got higher after 2014, so Fitch's claim that MMA has been shrinking is objectively wrong.

Ogata said:
Overall he implies that although Pride might do sneaky shit with fighters, they had deep respect with fighters in public which led to them being looked upon in a more dignified manner in the eyes of fans while today, a fighter is like a dancing monkey and if promoter can shit talk them then why not fans?
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Fighters getting treated poorly does not mean that MMA has been shrinking since 2008, it just means that fighters are getting treated poorly.

Fitch, and others with grudges/agendas against the UFC love to criticize them under the guise of something else, it's a big reason why the MMAFA never took off.
 
Fitch comes out with quotes like this twice a year. He likes to tell himself he was competing at the peak of MMA on a good run when in reality, the sport lacked the depth it has now twice over.
 
Fitch being bitter again, as he's been for years now.

I get it, the sport is a lot more popular now than it was when he was in his prime. Also when he was in his prime nobody gave a shit about him because of his boring style, not the fans nor the UFC. Also he was never able to get that belt.

Still not a good look.
 
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