UFC image problem: Signing an 0-0 fake wrestler; top star a coke head

[bowened]

Image problem? They're just keeping it real!

 

[Natman2939]

People keep talking about UFC's image and how this or that is bad for UFC's image.

What image? What exactly is the image UFC is going for anyway? Because it would seem to me the best case scenario for MMA has always been to be the new boxing (and get on the same level that boxing once was...which is way bigger than boxing is now)

and boxing was never a clean cut family sport like baseball. People would say "hey let's take the kids to see a ballgame" they'd never say "hey let's take the kids to see a boxing match"

Even at it's greatest heights, boxing was like a Rated R movie (which if you know anything about movies, you'll know that even the best selling Rated R movies of all time never do the kinda business that the really big PG 13 movies do--which is why companies try so hard to avoid that rating)

That's because it's simply not family friendly. It's an adult thing.

Baseball is 100% family friendly.

Football is arguably 75+% because it's still pretty violent but they do a great job trying to take the focus off the violence and pretend it's really about moving a ball to a goal line....but there's sort of a "wink wink" thing where everyone knows it's really the violence that makes it awesome (which is why some moms will still frown at the idea of really young kids watching)

but there's no pretending with combat sports: MMA or Boxing. It's flat out not a family sport. It's about violence. The best case scenario is knocking the other guy out.

and as much as the UFC still tries to stress the whole "our athletes are college educated gentlemen who believe in the beauty and discipline of martial arts" thing (mostly because the UFC has sort of a PTSD from all the years of being called human ****-fighting) the truth is when have you EVER heard boxing try to stress that kinda shit?

Boxing (thanks to being so old and established) understands exactly what it is. It's sports for adults only. Rated R.

That means the athletes can be scum bags (one of boxing's biggest stars ever mike tyson was a street kid who was in juvie at a young age and would talk about wanting to eat his opponents children and crazy shit and went to prison for rape and still was the biggest star when he got out)

not to mention had some assault charges on multiple occasions.

So the UFC (or many just you, it's fans need to get it through your heads that desired image of this sport is not squeaky clean honorable martial artists... it's badass cage fighters
That's what it's always been.

This is not mixed martial arts. It's cage fighting. (which is not to say it's not a real sport or is human **** fighting but it is a rough sport and it has rough characters and that's okay)