Things in MMA that have/will age poorly

[Buff]

2 seconds*

You watched the whole thing too, and we both know it.

 

[DestinedAussie]

YouTube decided to toss the ufc 194 weigh in video into my feed and I had like almost forgotten we used to put these guys on stage dehydrated out there minds and get them to square off:

View attachment 970387

What other things have or will in future age very poorly in MMA?

Right now I’d say:

- No drug testing era
- The rocks shoes
- Prime
- Fighter Pay
- Dana White

Pay issues fade very quickly. Lockouts in major sports don't have much effect.

I fear it will be MMA itself. There may become a point where governments step in and ban the sports if new medical data comes out showing effects of head trauma. If the NFL is scared what might happen, then boxing/MMA should be too.

A couple of things I would list:
-UFC NFCs
-UFC hot dog brander
-Crypto.com sponsorship
-Venum sponsorship
-Condom branding on almost every fighter of classic era
-Current UFC fighters, post fight criminal issues

 

[HHJ]

You watched the whole thing too, and we both know it.

No never!

 

[Johnny_Knuckles]

Hasbulla, Dana White, White Power Slap Fighting, cringe inducing sponsors, courting YouTubers, fighter pay, Jon Jones

 

[wwkirk]

You could argue that this guy has aged badly. He would never have become an icon as of, say, 10 years ago and forward.

 

[SharpasaRazor]

You could argue that this guy has aged badly. He would never have become an icon as of, say, 10 years ago and forward.

Apparently Just Bleed Guy stopped watching MMA in like the early 2000s because he felt it strayed from the ethos of pure violence he was in it for.

 

[wwkirk]

Apparently Just Bleed Guy stopped watching MMA in like the early 2000s because he felt it strayed from the ethos of pure violence he was in it for.

So, for him, the UFC itself aged badly! lol

 

[SharpasaRazor]

So, for him, the UFC itself aged badly! lol

Yeh apparently he got into because he like actual cockfighting and dog fights. He was organising backyard fights and then found out about UFC 1. Got pissed off when they started implamenting rules and only found out about being an MMA icon when he was in prison on a drug charge.

 

[mexfighter]

First things first, you're coming at the king of combat sports - MMA - and throwing around some serious accusations. I gotta say, I'm not feeling it.

Let's talk about these supposed things that will age poorly. You say the no drug testing era will age poorly? Well, I say that's just a load of hogwash! Ain't nothin' wrong with a little extra horsepower under the hood, am I right?

And what's with all the hate on The Rock's shoes? Those kicks are iconic, man! I'll admit, they might not be for everyone, but you gotta give credit where credit is due.

As for fighter pay, well, that's just capitalism at work, baby! You gotta earn your keep in this world. And let's not forget about Dana White - the man's a legend! He's done more for MMA than anyone else out there.

So, to answer your question - I don't think there's anything that will age poorly in MMA. Sure, we might look back and laugh at some of the fashion choices or rule changes, but at the end of the day, MMA is timeless. It's a sport that will continue to evolve and captivate audiences for generations to come. And if you don't like it, you can just step into the octagon with me and we'll settle this like real men!

With oil and no clothes?

 

[MikeyB]

You could argue that this guy has aged badly. He would never have become an icon as of, say, 10 years ago and forward.

How dare you.

Hopefully you new school sensitive crew fans age badly.

These people are legitimately trying to kill each other. You're paying money to watch people break each other's bones and create major brain damage.

That's what it is.

The Just Bleed guy is awesome. You're not.

 

[Johnny_Knuckles]

You could argue that this guy has aged badly. He would never have become an icon as of, say, 10 years ago and forward.

Out with the old. The new kings are here

 

[wwkirk]

How dare you.

Hopefully you new school sensitive crew fans age badly.

These people are legitimately trying to kill each other. You're paying money to watch people break each other's bones and create major brain damage.

That's what it is.

The Just Bleed guy is awesome. You're not.

I hear you. I still like the dude, but a lot of Sherdog doesn't seem to. Post after post complaining about CTE. Also, far more complaints about late stoppages than early. And of course, the UFC itself long ago abandoned the awesome "Face the Pain" theme.

 

[Neck&Neck]

WMMA fighters

 

[Richard Fannin]

Bro come on... There was a fraternity back then.

USADA came in and fucked everything up - everyone used to cover up for eachother, or went abroad to cycle, it was pretty much a given.

I don't hold it against anyone, but it definitely happened because stigma was way worse back then, but it was the 90s... Everyone was on the juice back then... They still are now... Its OK too.

Sport, TV, wrestling, rockstars, Arnold, or whoever... Who gives a fuck. It was great entertainment and they should bring it back becaude it was awesome.

Sure, but the post I replied to seemed to imply that back then, it was "we the audience" who didn't give a shit about steroids, while now we'll all against it.

Back then MMA fans, organisations and fellow MMA fighters were more critical of fighters who popped, and were also much more ignorant about them.

The early to late 2000s MMA fans knowledge about PEDs use is certainly something that has aged badly... I'm not saying the current fans are smarter, like the ones before them they just parrot the popular opinion, but at least nowadays the opinion they happen to parrot is mostly correct.

Open any thread about prime Ubereem pre-pissing hot, and about half of sherdog was saying that it was 100% possible to acquire Ubereem's physique while being roid-free, and that "they all know someone at the gym who is a swole as Uber, and they're 100% clean"
Just eat a lot of horse-meat, jump on that Dolce Diet© and you're dandy.

The consensus also seemed to be that none of the Japanese fighters were using, "it's not in their culture" and other BS

The big name fighters would constantly shit on steroid users too, from Bas Rutten, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, GSP, Cro Cop, etc

The few who got caught were heavily criticized/insulted for it, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Kimo, etc... when Royce popped, it seemed like someone made a mistake: "Royce of all people? Everyone knows that only heavyweights take steroids, and it's a minority of them... why would this guy who relies only on technique want to take that crap? He's not even jacked! He doesn't have a head like a balloon like Tito! And some Brazilian fans claim that Yakuza tainted Royce's water"

Nowadays, so many people have pissed hot that you can't make broad statements like "Anyone who ever did steroids is a pussy" like Bas used to say... well you still can, Aljamain Sterling did it recently, but he's already very unpopular with MMA fans, medias, fighters, so he probably doesn't care anymore
This is from January 2022:

“All these guys in these other countries, I don’t think they’re being tested as much as we’re being tested, and I do think, and people can tell me I’m crazy – I’ve watched Icarus, I’ve always had my suspicions about things,” Sterling added later. “This sport was founded on being prideful of, ‘Yeah, I’m jacked, I’m a monster.’ Look at the back in the days and see what people used to look like, the Sean Sherks, and I don’t want to disparage anyone’s name, but we kind of know who’s who. The Belforts – we know what’s up.
_______________________
“You should do jail time for doing steroids or EPO or any type of sh*t like that in the UFC, in combat sports,” Sterling said. “You can literally rearrange someone’s career, their livelihood doing this contact sport. This is not like playing basketball. We’re not hitting a baseball into the crowd. We’re dealing with life-changing events when you step into the octagon. And people will say – the ones that are stupid – are going to say, ‘Well, no one put a gun to your head and told you to do this.’ What? How is that a logical comeback to justify those actions?”

“We’re not Lance Armstrong,” he added later. “We’re not riding a bike. We’re in a freaking fistfight, and if you can be a little bit more aggressive, a little more on point, a little more dialed in, that’s a more dangerous person in my eyes. That sh*t should be jail time. That’s f*cked up, bro.”

Sterling said he would continue to speak up about the situation because of the moral issues at the heart of performance-enhancing drug use in MMA.

“I’m still going to make it known that you’re probably cheating,” he said. “Regardless, I’m still going to get in there with you and beat your ass.”
_______________________

UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling again raised questions about rival Petr Yan and performance-enhancing drugs, saying he “would not be surprised” if the interim champ was cheating.

“For me, I look at him the same way I look at T.J.,” Sterling said Monday on The MMA Hour. “When you hear rumors, it is what it is. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I said that about T.J. [Dillashaw] years ago, and it comes out years later that I was right.

“I’m not trying to put dirt on Yan’s name, but there’s a lot of guys in the UFC that I competed against, and I just wouldn’t be surprised. Nothing surprises me any more. You just learn how to become numb to it.”
“Unless he’s on the extra supplements, I don’t know, that good old acai,” Sterling said.

“It wasn’t even USADA that caught T.J. – it was the New York athletic commission,” he said. “What are we paying USADA to do? Is this just a front to remove all liability, like say, ‘Hey man, this is a third party that we pay to test our guys, we have no accountability for this.’ Because I don’t get it.”

I know, such a post should have several links to older discussions, and old quotes from fighters about steroids, but I started looking for them and most of the results are from recent busts, plus a few quotes for flavor aren't going to change anyone's mind...

Especially since I was looking for what I'd consider "early interviews", like, at least during PRIDE's lifetime; but those interviews were mostly done for MMA magazines, like Fightsport or whatever they had in other countries, so I admit that it will be a pain if the ass if I decide to go digging.



But since I googled them, might as well post a couple:

Here's Chuck's take on Jon Jones pissing hot in 2017:

“He’s his own worst enemy,” Liddell said Monday on a special 400th edition of The MMA Hour. “And he was such a great fighter, I don’t know why he decided — it seemed like he decided in his offseason that one time to start using steroids. And obviously he’s got his time in court, I guess, still. I don’t know. But it seems real obvious with his increase in size and stuff. But I don’t know that he needed that, and it just seemed like he got maybe around the wrong people, got around the wrong ideas, and decided he wanted to (use PEDs), and now he’s gotten caught. It’s sad.

Fedor in 2015, responding to a comment Joe Rogan apparently made about Russians and steroids; he also reacts to Anderson's failed drug test:

"He likes to do PR scandals. As always, I'm ready now to test and always will and always would've been clean. Actually we did get tested for steroids but everyone just assumed that because no one tested positive that there were no steroids. Of course the thought has crossed my mind, and assumptions were made, but it gave me strength to know that my opponent may have had to use something while I put in all of the hard work and long training trying to be a better fighter which is why, with God's help, I was able to win whether my opponent was on steroids or not."
...
"It's extremely upsetting that an athlete of that level actually turned to an aid from drugs to enhance his performance. It's a slap in the face overall. A slap in the face to the sport and all the fighters in the sport. I also feel that an athlete should depend on their skill set, experience and hard work they put in and not have to look to shorten that distance between hard training and the win by using or depending on steroids or any performance enhancing drug. Most importantly you have to stay true to yourself as well as those fans who made you who you are as an athlete. And now due to the use of steroids, he has this trademark, I feel, as someone who uses performance enhancing drugs to win."

 

[Yrat]

YouTube decided to toss the ufc 194 weigh in video into my feed and I had like almost forgotten we used to put these guys on stage dehydrated out there minds and get them to square off:

View attachment 970387

What other things have or will in future age very poorly in MMA?

Right now I’d say:

- No drug testing era
- The rocks shoes
- Prime
- Fighter Pay
- Dana White

I do not know but back on 2007 everyone were using trt

 

[Dorkman]

Aged poorly about 2 minutes after the fact, and only gets worse as the days go by

Yeah respect to chuck, but man that intro was cringey in real time. Follow it with a Vanilla Ice nu metal remix......Jeeeesus christ.

 

[Guffman]

If the sport is to have any hope of long-term survival, it needs to completely rework its scoring system. When that happens, fans will look back on these "dark ages" of the sport and say, "Wow! So...they just used a boxing scoring system?! For a sport with kicks, take downs, and submission attempts?! WTF?!!!!" Also, the criminally low fighter pay for the premier MMA organization (UFC) will be looked back upon very dubiously.

Jarl

I think the UFC is perfectly happy with the current scoring system and the low fighter pay. They aren't going anywhere, and the sport with survive just fine. Not saying that's a good thing, just saying.

 

[mahavishnunj]

Aged poorly about 2 minutes after the fact, and only gets worse as the days go by

All three of those Tapout guys were the foremost examples of MMA cringe. Many have come close to beating them, but it's possible nobody ever will.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Honestly I am ashamed to even admit to people how much I love MMA which is a damn shame because it's an incredible sport.

I keep that shit a secret bro


Even at the gym I roll at, I dont bring that shit up LoL, nobody cares

 

[mahavishnunj]

The reebok deal and the hot dog brander

One of these things is not like the other.

Dennis Hallman and his Speedo.
Justine Kish shitting in the cage.

Both of those ruled.

9) I can't even name the other 2 tapout guys

Skyscrape and Punkass. I didn't even have to look it up. That ridiculous shit is still burned into my memory, and I haven't seen an episode or clip since it was on the air.