MMA Decline or UFC Decline?

The idea that light heavyweight was more stacked years ago is a product of marketing and successfully using the personalities of popular fighters.

Rampage, Chuck, Shogun, Wanderlei, Lyoto, or Rashad are comparable with todays 205ers because there hasn’t been a ton of technical progress or skill in heavier divisions, not because the roster has degraded.
 
They make this argument in every sport, it’s called getting old. Everybody thinks their own era was the best era of whichever sport and that today’s athletes are softer and don’t work as hard as the athletes of their time.
 
From a skills perspective today's fighters are leaps and bounds ahead of the fighters from the past, if we are talking averages. There are always corner cases but the sport has evolved so much it isn't worth comparing today to 15 years ago. Matt Hughes was amazing but don't you think todays well rounded fighters would have neutralized his wrestling and taken the belt?
 
BowserJr said:
Are we starting to see a Decline in MMA in general or is it just the UFC that is declining?

Specifically I'm referring to skill level.

With the exception of Jones LHW and HW had much more skilled guys years ago. MW is the same.

WW is still fairly stacked but I'd say it was even more stacked with skilled fighters before

LW and BW are probably the only divisions that have continued to get better.

FW is decent but it seems to be a 2 man show
Click to expand...
RIZIN
 
Chalky White said:
They make this argument in every sport, it’s called getting old. Everybody thinks their own era was the best era of whichever sport and that today’s athletes are softer and don’t work as hard as the athletes of their time.
Click to expand...

Actually I typically see the opposite. I always see the claim that athletes of the past cannot compete today.

I'm a big basketball and soccer fan and I see the same arguments there.

However from my observation the improvements in basketball slowed down dramatically beginning in the 90s with soccer I'd say the 80s.

The improvements are minimal. In UFC certain divisions have regressed. HW use to have a bunch of complete fighters.

Now there are almost no guys that can grapple and the strikers with the exception of 2 or 3 are Haymaker types not really technically sound
 
Some divisions are great now like BW , Lightweight. Some were better in past. HW was great 10-15 years ago. LHW was Great 12-15 years ago. FW 8 to 10 years ago. Goes in cycles
 
BowserJr said:
Are we starting to see a Decline in MMA in general or is it just the UFC that is declining?

Specifically I'm referring to skill level.

With the exception of Jones LHW and HW had much more skilled guys years ago. MW is the same.

WW is still fairly stacked but I'd say it was even more stacked with skilled fighters before

LW and BW are probably the only divisions that have continued to get better.

FW is decent but it seems to be a 2 man show
Click to expand...
Its poor marketing and matchmaking by the ufc anymore.


Its hard to get excited for cards anymore. Even a p4p matchup where islam owned volk got virtually zero marketing push up until the week of the fight.
 
Declining lol. check out the league formerly known as the NBA, thats what a sport falling off a cliff looks like
 
BowserJr said:
Are we starting to see a Decline in MMA in general or is it just the UFC that is declining?

Specifically I'm referring to skill level.

With the exception of Jones LHW and HW had much more skilled guys years ago. MW is the same.

WW is still fairly stacked but I'd say it was even more stacked with skilled fighters before

LW and BW are probably the only divisions that have continued to get better.

FW is decent but it seems to be a 2 man show
Click to expand...

I disagree. Fighters are bigger, stronger faster. Fighters are previous generations would likely have to move down a weight class to be competitive.

Personally I think the wider training means that there are more "stalemates" in fights which aren't as good to watch as one fighter dominating. Wrestlers even when they get it to the ground can't just ground and pound or they lose position meaning more maintaining position.

Not saying fighters of the past aren't great, they were great at the time but the body shape of athletes has changed just like other sports. With modern training they would all be much greater fighters than they were.
 
BFoe said:
I don’t think the skill level has declined necessarily. But we’re definitely in a dogshit era where fights (even title shots) are made because of storyline drama, or who has the most fucking IG followers, or who has their bullshit shared and re-tweeted the most, or whatever. Pointless rematches, lack of meritocracy, sloppy matchmaking. That’s where we’re at.
Click to expand...
UFC has spoken.

They're willing to dilute their hardcore fanbase in favor of bringing in more casuals.

They're gonna keep marketing this "the best fight the best" bullshit until most fans catch on to that being just that - bullshit. But that's gonna take awhile.
 
All I know is that Thiago Santos who was still in the top 10 UFC LHW ranking was completely destroyed by Rob Wilkinson in the PFL.
 
This might be more fruitful if you specify which years and which fighters are better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,280,705
Messages
58,312,337
Members
175,998
Latest member
Fitboy485

Share this page

Back
Top