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

2006 to about 2018 I was a hardcore MMA fan. Couldn't miss an event. Could tell you everything about fighters. Just loved the sport.

Then in 2019 my interest in it started to drop. Went from a can't miss any event to now I really only watch big fights live and usually come to Sherdog to learn about results and then watch the good fights everyone talks about.

The only event I plan on buying this year is the next Jon fight. Besides that I can get the results from Sherdog and if the fight is good I'll watch it even though I know what's going to happen.
 
There is some selection bias in the responses here. People who take the time to sign up and post on an MMA forum can certainly be fans for longer than five years, but I’ve already seen casuals come and go from the Conor era fans to those who started following during the pandemic when nothing else was on.

I know people who were fans of GSP but haven’t followed the sport since he retired.

I think the UFC model acknowledges that the casuals come and go that's why they are so focused on attracting the Gen Z market now with influencers.
 
I can see that, I'm not the same die hard i was 18 years ago. Throughout adulthood I've only been able to find 1 or 2 people to converse with in person making it almost mandatory to find forums like this just to find somebody to talk to about mma.
 
AL-Tappo McSnappo said:
Do you agree?

I do.

Video is time stamped.



Intro - 00:00
Burned Out On The Sport - 1:26
MMA Media Landscape - 10:34
Lack of UFC Criticism - 17:45
Media Being Replaced - 23:30
Politic Obsessed MMA Fans - 27:01
Dana White Privilege - 38:54
Pereira vs Ankalaev - 41:45Gaethje vs Hooker Off - 49:18
Islam vs Topuria - 52:25
Click to expand...

It’s expensive to be a true fan.

Costs include time, energy and money. Plus, at a certain point, most people get married, have kids , and their careers get more demanding, so it’s harder to stay laser focused.

I would say I am in the same boat where I still watch the occasional fight, but don’t watch a lot of fights these days due to many other obligations.
 
People like eating member berries. The talent is deeper than its ever been, maybe we lost the days of the true "specialist" Ala Maia, but sports medicine, training, everything is better now than when Tank Abbot rolled his ass out of the bar and into the octagon. I loved PRIDE, truly, but to say that the roided up monsters of the day could even hold a candle to current standards is wilful ignorance....and that's to say nothing of the cheating and match fixing that went on. I'm sorry it's hard for us old farts to remember every name, but as a fan, undercards have never been better. We have scores of fighters, too many perhaps, but we need to recognize our bias affects how we perceive the fighters themselves. Do we really think the names of our era, chris Lytle, josh koshcheck, Jeremy horn, Benji radach etc were uncompromising stars that hold up to today? No, probably not. We have our legends of course, but people like GSP earned their legacy with adaptation to the game. People love to forget that part.

It's OK to lose interest, our hobbies come and go like the tide. Don't put pressure on yourself. This is your life. If you ain't feeling MMA, it's OK to peace out. It's also OK to love an "era".....but don't marry yourself to the idea that it was 'the best"
 
Kind of. You definitely have favourite eras, rivalries and fighters. I fell off hard between 2019-21 but came back to following it closely today. Now it's only about 50% of fights that interest me, and actually more just the economics and business of MMA, the competition between orgs and guys coming through.
 
Started watching in 2006, only quit when Aldo lost to Conor, and some months after that i lost my mother so I didn't follow that much for something like 2 years (even football), quit posting in any forum for longer... My father being a BELLATOR fan made me comeback to MMA when Patrício was fighting Straus in 2017.
 
lenbiasgoat said:
the older guys had a mystique about em... some guys fought all around the world in dif weight classes ect so i personally find the older days with more open rules and stuff a lot more fun.. now a days u got guys in the mma game to be celebs, game planning a lot more and not taking as many risks. that said this is all just my 2cents.. thanks for asking
Click to expand...
I agree 100%
 
he's not really wrong. How often can you really watch the same thing over and over and over? I'll remain a fan but just reading the results or having fights on in the background while i do other things is good enough for me
 
This is my 20th year as a fan. My interest has slowly been declining since like 2017.

Around the time of the Reebok deal I started seeing a noticeable down turn. Maybe even as early as when they started doing 2 events a month.

So many events waters it down and takes away the "specialness" the spectacle.

I'll still catch cool KOs big names and cool subs but it's just not that good anymore in nearly every division

Fighters were truly unique and there were many interesting styles before. Now everyone is a clone and seems amateurish.

The reebok deal accelerated that but there were enough fighters who already had names and stood out but they're all old now.

Truly the best era was when fights were shorter notice and fighters just had to be ready to fight in a few weeks so they to focus on honing skill rather than a discovery gameplan to negate a specific opponent. The fights were just what each guy brought to the table and see who's unique style and strengths wins
 
Been watching forever, been through 3 groups of friends when it comes to watching events together. Post COVID I rarely watch events with buddies anymore. The sport is more casual than ever, less interesting than ever because the market is over saturated. I enjoy MMA still, there are fighters that interest me, but most of the time you just know a guys limits. Like when people were geeking about Neil Magny I couldn't believe the stupidity I was hearing/reading. Usman lasted longer than I expected. He was boring as fuck though.
 
Bob Sagat said:
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.
Click to expand...
You can't be a star if you fight every 9 months. One of the reasons I'm never respect Omalley and his hype
 
AL-Tappo McSnappo said:
Do you agree?

I do.

Video is time stamped.



Intro - 00:00
Burned Out On The Sport - 1:26
MMA Media Landscape - 10:34
Lack of UFC Criticism - 17:45
Media Being Replaced - 23:30
Politic Obsessed MMA Fans - 27:01
Dana White Privilege - 38:54
Pereira vs Ankalaev - 41:45Gaethje vs Hooker Off - 49:18
Islam vs Topuria - 52:25
Click to expand...

Two fat/skinny fat not quite men.

If they influence you, you are beneath them.

See ya , 2021. You made it under four years.
 
From 2009 I’ve gone from a hardcore to more a casual. I hardly watch the fight night cards and when I do I watch a couple of the fights. PPVs I still watch and if it’s really good I’ll watch the prelims too.
I still love the sport as much as back then though. I just don’t have as much time as when I was younger unfortunately lol and the over saturated cards don’t help.
 
Kinda maybe dunno, I have been watching for 19 years and am starting to fall out of love now. I still read here and look up results but I'm not losing any sleep over it and unless the fights go how I really want them to, don't really bother watching.

IE: Spinning bitch kick fight, had Jones lost I would have rewatched it 20 times. Since he won I have not even bothered.
 
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