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Media Luke Thomas says MMA fans last between 5 to 10 years before the fall out of love with MMA

it feels a lot more homogenized than it used to, the styles were much more distinct and the cast of champions truly felt like world warriors. maybe the overall skill level was less consistent but it felt less formulaic.

after the ufc started granting egregious title shots and seemed more interested in gifting cross-weight superfights the belts just don't mean what they used to. champs can now take what feels like 2 years between fights and EVERYBODY is trying to negotiate like conor at the highest level.
 
For me, the religious interest lasted from around 2005-2006 up until 2016-2017ish, so yeah, close to the ballpark of 10 years. I still follow the sport for sure, but beyond the big numbered cards, I don't even keep myself up to date with most of the results anymore, much less attempt to watch everything like I used to.

I maintain an active interest in maybe 40 to 50 individual fighters in the UFC, but other than that, I really don't care much at all.

Everything about the UFC feels so generic and bland these days, and the roster is so massive that I can't even recognize most of the main card fighters by name anymore, so the storylines that get you invested in a specific fighter just never come into being when most of the content is random fighter X vs random fighter Y, with their records being filled with random fighter A, B, C, D... etc.

I will always try to tune into the kinds of fighters that bring something truly novel and unique into their fights, be it via extraordinary physical attributes or a weird ass style, but these days I completely rely on my fellow Sherbros to even become aware of them in the first place.
 
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I used to be able to talk with people, co workers or friends about mma (namely the ufc) and they'd know who was going to fight soon. Not so much anymore. The sport has expanded and the level of fighting is higher but the UFC has become a bit..tired? Lacks star power because they tried to force stars too often after the Era of GSP, Rousey and Conor.
 
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I watched as a kid in the 2000s when I was growing out of WWE. Somewhere around 2010 I stopped, didn't watch sports at all until I found Kickboxing in 2016 or 2017. Nowadays I watch highlights of some of the big cards since my friends are MMA fans and I like talking about fighting with them.

I find Kickboxing and Muay Thai to be way more entertaining though, much higher level striking and way more bangers per card than any MMA event I have ever seen.
 
Im still here. Only really tired with Dana. Time to kick the goof out imo.
 
Spam On Rye said:
I fell in love during the Pride days and still love the sport and watch all the main events and the feature prelims most of the time. Don't really pay attention to the fighters personalities and backstage shit anymore but I think that just comes with age.
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This is where I'm at, still watch all the events and fights prelims included if possible. But don't really keep up with interviews, personal lives, twitter beefs drama etc. Just like watching people beat each other up at this point, I still have my favorites that I do pay attention too I guess.
 
Im burnt out because i feel ive seen it all already. There are just a few guys around that ill keep an eye on, but i dont watch the fight nights like i did. That's also probably because everything was fresh back then.

Also adding on over double the fighters and more shows made it worse. Its too much and not enough high quality talent to balance it with.


Main thing is, there is no competition. Competition creates controversy! With no competition, you just get a stale product
 
Sms_productions713 said:
Im burnt out because i feel ive seen it all already. There are just a few guys around that ill keep an eye on, but i dont watch the fight nights like i did. That's also probably because everything was fresh back then.

Also adding on over double the fighters and more shows made it worse. Its too much and not enough high quality talent to balance it with.


Main thing is, there is no competition. Competition creates controversy! With no competition, you just get a stale product
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Real rivalries help.

Jones vs Cormier.

Conor vs Khabib.

Conor vs Diaz.

There doesn't seem to be a superstar level fighter at the moment either. But I'm sure one will come along soon as they always do.
 
I stopped watching twice, but I came back. Still Watch every card, but don’t care much what I’m watching unless a big card is on. Boxing, kickboxing, mma.. I’ll watch something (almost) every day, but can’t even remember the names three days later unless something wild happened. The UFC is still an exception, because I pay more attention to it and because of this forum.
 
That’s how it works with everything. You get really into it, then it starts to change and you become less interested, then you start to talk about how cool it used to be and how everything sucks now, when reality is you’ve simply outgrown it, and it always sucked but you were too young and stupid to realize it. Of course MMA is no different.
 
I burned out of the sport when I thought it was boring and I had shit going on in life, but came right back to watching it again after only about a year.

Going to bars to watch the cards has made them more enjoyable, I don't feel like 90% of PPVs are worth the $70(!) sink.
 
Does he have any evidence for his assertion? Never cared for this guy Luke Thomas, even the word "fandom" is a kind of internet vocabulary I would never use. MMA was better in the Pride days when it was Pride vs UFC, and maybe it's a watered down product now but it's still pretty much my favourite sport and has been for many more years than the timeframe he suggests.
 
It’s the inaccessability that stops me.

All the streams are full of viruses, the bar is cringe and I’m not paying 80bucks to watch a card.

I can watch basketball free regularly with no issue so I just follow that instead.

Also, I think it’s just this generation of people being pretty uncool, but yeah not a massive fan of any modern fighters, poatan and Olivera are really cool though.
 
The rest of sherdog is full of people who stopped watching. Seems to be true.
 
I still follow the sport thru sherdog, but all my old fighters are retired or close to it. I've generally been losing interest for 5+ years now I'd say.
 
Been following the sport closely since 2009 and casually since around 2006, so I can't say I've burned out. That said, I rarely ever clear a Saturday to watch fights live anymore. I dont know, I'm not sure I agree with Luke exactly, I know too many people that have fallen in and out but been fans for a decade or more.
 
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