The Golden Age of MMA (2000-2010), the Present, and the Future

You're 100% right about it being the golden era. My love for the sport keeps me watching, but id really love to see mma being driven by someone other than Zuffa.

We'll see how this reebok thing turns out.
 
I agree with pretty much all you have said TS, and I would love to see a new Pride-like organization come out of Japan. The quality of the fighters has gone up so much in the last 10 years, I just wish we had the rivalries and individuality of old.
 
I do not like the uniform matching uniforms either. Something stale about everything being the same, lack of individuality.

UFC feels too bland now and getting blander. Miss the days of the old gladiator intro, that got me pumped every time!
 
By far the biggest problem in MMA IMHO is that the UFC just isn't as good at drawing in a variety of talent as all the orgs it bought out of drove out of business.

Pride, Rings, FEG, Inoki and even to some degree SF all took more risks than the UFC does IMHO, they went out and signed up guys very early in their MMA careers or even directly from other sports. The UFC does offer excellent money to the top guys BUT it takes many years to fighters to reach that level. Your talkings years in smaller orgs then a few more years building your name in the UFC IF you make it to the top.

The UFC's current tactics draw in American wrestlers pretty well and lower end BJJ/MT fighters but they don't draw in the quality Kickboxers, Judoka and even BJJ fighters that we used to see coming into the sport. Unlike US wrestlers these guys can earn serious money in their own sport either as pro's or though state funding/sponsorship, why would they take a risk moving to MMA when it might not come off and will take years to pay well even if it does.

You can talk about image but Crocop was Crocop because he was kicking guys heads off, Chuck was Chuck because he KOed guys with insane looping punches, the image behind that just added a bit of spice.

The worrying thing is that we've not seen the worst of it yet, todays MMA still has a lot of holdover stars from the pre Zuffa monopoly but as is increasingly being noted many of these are aging fast and in another 2-3 years a lot of them will be done as top level fighters.
 
One of the things that always made MMA great was its sense of danger and rawness. Now, it just seems tamer, watered down, homogenized.
 
Teppodama said:
One of the things that always made MMA great was its sense of danger and rawness. Now, it just seems tamer, watered down, homogenized.
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I pray that Bellator and Saki's new organisation can reach a level that begins to rival the UFC. It probably won't come close but it would be beautiful for MMA. More money for the fighters, more talent and man if we got that old pride rule set back :)
 
Agree with most of what you said TS, see my sig...

I think for a few select top decision makers who have put MMA on the map in NA will eventually milk MMA until it's a dead lifeless corpse, for personal gain of course.

Make money now, get out and who cares where MMA is at 10 years from now...
 
I pretty much agree with everything the TS said except drug testing and freak show fights.

Can someone tell me who the NFL of boxing is?
 
I've always considered 95 -99 more of the Golden Age, and 00 - 05 the Silver Age. Just fyi
 
BruceLeeOnTRT said:
You're 100% right about it being the golden era. My love for the sport keeps me watching, but id really love to see mma being driven by someone other than Zuffa.

We'll see how this reebok thing turns out.
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Hell yeah. The reason MMA still even exists on any noticeable scale should be wiped out. Screw them.
 
The future is going to involve a lot of canceled fights when the culinary union organizes the fighters and they stand up to the ufc.
 
Mr. Death said:
I agree with pretty much all you have said TS, and I would love to see a new Pride-like organization come out of Japan. The quality of the fighters has gone up so much in the last 10 years, I just wish we had the rivalries and individuality of old.
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That would never happen. What made Pride so special and unique was in part that it existed in a time when fighters had evolved to a more broad training regimen, but still paid homage to their root martial arts in many cases. Wrestlers versus Judo fighters versus strikers just doesn't really happen with such prominence anymore.
 
We have a new Brock Lesnar in Ronda, lets hope she doesnt become like Gina Carona and do movies
 
CerebralKnievel said:
That would never happen. What made Pride so special and unique was in part that it existed in a time when fighters had evolved to a more broad training regimen, but still paid homage to their root martial arts in many cases. Wrestlers versus Judo fighters versus strikers just doesn't really happen with such prominence anymore.
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yeah they let you wear your gi and shit.
 
Benoitthegr8 said:
Agree with most of what you said TS, see my sig...

I think for a few select top decision makers who have put MMA on the map in NA will eventually milk MMA until it's a dead lifeless corpse, for personal gain of course.

Make money now, get out and who cares where MMA is at 10 years from now...
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sounds like mma in japan
 
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TS cares about shorts and fireworks...

I care about great fighting.

We are really lucky to see the evolution of fighting before our very eyes. Yet, we are nowhere near the golden age. Wait until the kids who are training mma at 8 years old turn 28 and have truly good boxing, jitz, wrestling, etc. they will be blowing our minds.
 
The UFC buying Pride to me, is if WCW had bought WWF back in the day.

But I am a bit biased, I was prob. more invested in Pride.
 
CerebralKnievel said:
Hell yeah. The reason MMA still even exists on any noticeable scale should be wiped out. Screw them.
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Yeah, Zuffa is the reason mma has exploded and is still around. But are you telling me you DON'T think that they have gone off the rails in the last 5 years?

Zuffa built mma into what it is in North America, and they're also the reason it is becoming bland and stale as all fuck. They are the ONLY mma org that has saturated the market with shit fights between no-name fighters, and yes they are on FOX. So that means MILLIONS of people get to flip through the channels and see some bullshit, no appeal fights. They are literally turning millions of people AWAY from becoming MMA fans because they put out so many watered down cards.











MMA is NOT the NFL, NBA, etc. An MMA card used to be, and should still be, a very special event, that fans eagerly anticipate for weeks if not months. And when those cards happen, EVERY card should be a superbowl event. OK maybe not superbowl, but every card should be a playoff game. Understand? Remember when it was like that? Zuffa has created the market, dominated the market, and are essentially butt-fucking the market until there's nothing left.
 
Top talent being evenly split into 2 orgs and therefore not fighting each other isn't a "golden age".
 
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