Making Cards Great Again - Better Fighters, Higher Stakes

Bone Cold said:
The decline in card quality has been the talk of Sherdog for years, with the two of the most common criticisms being "I don't know half (or more) of the fighters on the card" and "this match has no stakes / is meaningless".

This problem, in my mind, is purely mathematical; driven by the irregularity in which ranked fighters complete in modern MMA (to the extent that a champion is praised as "highly active" for competing twice per year).

So what could be done?

1. Incentivise fighters to compete more regularly
I would contractualise a "fight frequency multiplier" on fighter salaries, whereby if they compete every 6 months (twice per year) they receive 20% more in take home pay per fight and if they compete every 4 months (thrice per year) they receive 50% more in take home pay per fight.

2. Expand the rankings so the consequences of wins/losses on the undercard are better understood
I would increase the number of ranked fighters to 25.

Assuming fighters across the UFC's 11 divisions are incentivised to compete 3 times per year, the composition of a 12 bout card for 40 weeks per year could be:
- 6 bout main card with all 12 fighters ranked in the top 15.
- 6 bout undercard with 8 fighters ranked between 15-25 and 4 fighters unranked (seeking to break into the rankings)

Contrast this to the next 5 cards, two of which are PPVs, and the uptick in quality is evident:
Fight Night 246: 14 bouts - 9 ranked fighters across 5 bouts
Fight Night 247: 13 bouts - 4 ranked fighters across 3 bouts
UFC 309: 11 bouts - 9 ranked fighters across 5 bouts
Fight Night 248: 14 bouts - 6 ranked fighters across 3 bouts
UFC 310: 11 bouts - 11 ranked fighters across 7 bouts

What are your thoughts? Would this be better?
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It‘s very simple. We get as many good fights on a long term period as before, but there are cards every week. It‘s a commercial decision by UFC. This means they need to fill it with fluff. For me who watches every card while not being a hard core fan, it means skipping fights. I skip 99% of WMMA by definition but more and more I skip other fights because I have no time. Sometimes I recognise only like 10% of the names on a card.

To me it s a problem because it costs me time to filter.
 
DecisionSplit said:
The cards only run long because of commercials. You take out the delays between fights and you could cut each even down by half or more in running time. You cut the long intros and decision reads and you could remove even more unnecessary time. A UFC event without endless commercials would run under four hours without losing a single fight.
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This is one reason why I don‘t understand that so many people equate the UFC‘s interests as a corporation with „being good for the sport“. There comes a point after which the fan and the promoter have opposite interests.

Only in the most basic neoliberal economics textbooks is the interest of the customer equated to the interest of corporations.
 
Egészségére! said:
If they’re unscathed like Khamzat after Rob then cool but I’d be careful about a system that pressures them to fight sooner than they’re ready especially after a war or a KO loss
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The UFC could apply the fight frequency multiplier over a rolling 12 month period, so that if a fighter is injured they have time to heal and aren't punished if they cram a few fights into a 3 month period when they return. Most injuries don't run longer than 9 months recovery based on my incredibly limited medical knowledge, haha.
 
World eater said:
While TS’ ideas are not bad per se, one should ask the important question here. If the hardcore fanbase is growing disappointed, but the UFC is doing better than ever, maybe we are no longer the target audience?
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Potentially but I thought the UFC's goal was World F*cking Domination, haha. That isn't going to happen without producing a lot of content, all of which draws eyeballs. Compare this to soccer and the contrast is stark. This sport produces even more content per week but has engineered its competitions to deliver meaningful contests most of the time (eg. winning the league, get relegated from the league, qualifying for other special competitions etc.).
 
Having knowledgeable judges would help to.
Armfield 29-28
 
Pechan said:
I remembered tonight's card because I was browsing IG, honestly don't know if I'm even gonna tune in, no interest whatsoever.
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There's a UFC event nearly every single week. It would be more odd to look at the calendar and not see an event.
 
TheMMAnalyst said:
They need to not sign so much low level talent, but their goal is to cut costs to increase profits.

They are drug dealers that continually cut their product with baby powder progressively more and more. With a guaranteed buyer (ESPN), they’ve got no incentive to stop.

So if you keep snorting that shit prepare to shit your brains out.

<Varys01>
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This is a rediculous post. Everyone and their grandmother knows you cut your product with inositol, not baby powder.
 
Less cards with higher quality fights is probably the way to have a better product overall. Could also disincentivise inactivity both in terms of number of fights per year and in the bout itself (such as yellow cards)

Dana's no fool though, if that was going to make him more money he would have done it already. I suspect just spamming events full of random cans brings in more revenue than having less-but-better cards

Being the premier division of MMA is great conceptually, but it requires having only the best fighters. But there are just less good guys out there, so the more you lean into that the less cards you can run, meaning less revenue. The easiest lever to pull is just "more fighters" regardless of quality
 
TheMMAnalyst said:
They need to not sign so much low level talent, but their goal is to cut costs to increase profits.

They are drug dealers that continually cut their product with baby powder progressively more and more. With a guaranteed buyer (ESPN), they’ve got no incentive to stop.

So if you keep snorting that shit prepare to shit your brains out.

<Varys01>
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Sherdog is strangely angry about the sport the collective pretend to like
 
The idea of fight more > get paid more, is a win-win for UFC, fans, and fighters. It should be the answer to fighter pay debate, while fixing the problem of modern fighters inactivity. If you only fight 2x a year, you're talking about 6 months of not fighting before and after a fight, there's basically a whole year where you only fight once.
 
SuperAlly said:
Sherdog is strangely angry about the sport the collective pretend to like
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We like good fights AKA pure uncut Colombian marching powder. They keep selling us the idea of that, but it’s so cut up we might as well be snorting lines of Sweet n’ Low.

You’d be mad too if the product was always a pale facsimile of what it’s supposed to be. When reality constantly fails to meet expectations it makes you mad, sad, or both.

But when you’re an addict and one supplier has the market cornered you don’t have many options but go cold turkey or just hope it’s finally a good batch!
 
25% deduction of your purse at every round ending.
 
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