The talent in the UFC has never been better and the fans have never cared less

[Gracious Warrior]

Its crazy to think but right now we are watching three future goats write history. Volk, Usman, and Izzy are some of the most dominant champs we've ever seen and they are cleaning out their divisions and lapping the competition. I truly believe they will all end up being considered top 5 of all time and also goats of their respective division.

With such great talent fans should be excited, right? Well that's the other crazy part. The level of enthusiasm and excitement amongst fans is the lowest I've ever seen. We have a surplus of historically great talent and MMA fans could not care less.

If I'm Dana White this would drive me nuts. Its like having 3 Tom Brady's at the same time in the NFL but ratings and fan engagement go down.

I hope it gets better in the future.

 

[Karelinator]

Volkanovski and Usman I get, but how is Izzy lapping the competition?

Like 3 very close, somehow uneventful title fights that could honestly be scored either way now.

Not sure level of excitement is low, anyway, maybe on SD, but UFC seems more popular than ever, actually.

And people will always complain, in any case.

 

[Pechan]

Volkanovski and Usman I get, but how is Izzy lapping the competition?

Like 3 very close, somehow uneventful title fights that could honestly be scored either way now.

Not sure level of excitement is low, anyway, maybe on SD, but UFC seems more popular than ever, actually.

And people will always complain, in any case.

What? I what world could this fight been scored for Jared or the previous scored for Marvin? wtf?

 

[Black Leprechaun]

I do miss this type of crowd…

 

[DS66]

What evidence do you have that "ratings and fan engagement are going down"?

UFC's revenue keeps going up and up and seems to me to be more popular than ever. Really not sure what would lead you to believe that "the fans have never cared less".

 

[NationWideNinja]

Volkanovski and Usman I get, but how is Izzy lapping the competition?

Like 3 very close, somehow uneventful title fights that could honestly be scored either way now.

Not sure level of excitement is low, anyway, maybe on SD, but UFC seems more popular than ever, actually.

And people will always complain, in any case.

Romero, Whittaker 2, and???

 

[Bushido Kai]

Like 3 very close, somehow uneventful title fights that could honestly be scored either way now.

just no....

 

[TheBulge]

What evidence do you have that "ratings and fan engagement are going down"?

UFC's revenue keeps going up and up and seems to me to be more popular than ever. Really not sure what would lead you to believe that "the fans have never cared less".

He looks at sherdog and is basing his conclusions on that sample size.

 

[Black Leprechaun]

 

[Alpha-Q-Up]

Proof that most of the fans only ever cared about seeing 2 swangin brawlers beat the crap out of each other.

Technique and skill level is completely lost on most of the fanbase because they're generally idiots.

 

[Greg House]

but ratings and fan engagement go down.

That's not true. This thing is more popular than ever.

 

[Staph infection]

The talent is not better but the fighters are getting more well rounded so we get a lot of boring fights where fighters create a stale mate.

 

[iggymcfly]

18 consecutive sellouts, $10MM live gate for the show last night. Prelims on national television. Record PPV revenue last year. How the fuck is fan engagement at an all-time low?

 

[tkotom]

TS is somewhat right. I don’t agree that the guys now are better than before. But UFC used to have champs that would permeate the non fighting social scene and transcend ethnic and religious bias. They ended up in movies, TV shows and were part of the common vernacular. Like Chuck, Conor, Anderson, GSP, etc. Nobody outside of the sports knows who Usman is despite his stellar record. Home country and religion based fans (Khabib for example) don’t count.

It’s likely because the UFC is focusing less on building individual fighters and more on building the brand which is why you’re seeing a consistent stream of celebrities and overall glamour being much more prevalent around events. Kind of like boxing. Unless you’re a hometown hero (Mexican, Filipino) celebrities just show up to be part of the pomp and ceremony.

UFC is probably going in this direction because relying on one star like Conor for a few years is risky because once he gets knocked out and coked out he has lost nearly all value to the company. So they moved away from relying on one cow and split it into a bunch of little calves.

 

[racoon4]

Volk, Usman, and Izzy are some of the most dominant champs we've ever seen and they are cleaning out their divisions and lapping the competition.

Because they "clean out the divisions" in a boring way, it's always a decision. Casuals like me don't want to watch fights like that.

 

[Goatenstein]

Most of the 1993-1996 era guys with modern training would easily be dominating now.

 

[don't ask]

I think people are tired of the UFC's bullshit behind the scenes. Interfering with fighter's strategies, giving title shots to loud athletes instead of based on rankings, holding up entire divisions and screwing over contenders to make money with "super fights"... at least I hope this is the case. I'd like UFC to feel some pressure to run it more like a sport and less like pro wrestling.

 

[Orochimaru 大蛇丸]

The UFC is more popular than ever

Amazing how many guys on here run with this narrative it is dying with literally no evidence to back it up

 

[coolfight3r]

I hope Alex sleeps Izzy boring ass fights

 

[Eiger]

Don't agree with the lapping of the divisions part necessarily. There have been some fights to make that haven't been made, but I think I'd favor the champs in any case. Yeah, the talent is there for sure.