UFC is about to blow UP because of ESPN

West Linn said:
I'm starting to see MMA videos in the ESPN Youtube channel.

Joe Rogan has said it before that MMA is the greatest sport and that all other sports pale in comparison. Why watch a bunch of guys try to get a ball into a goal or a hoop when you can see two dudes headkicking each other.

I tend to agree with him because there is just something about one on one combat that is incredibly compelling. It gets to the root of all competition, whether or not one man can beat another man's ass.

The FOX deal was a huge step, but the ESPN deal will be that much bigger. ESPN is the channel for sports and ESPN covering and showing events finally and ultimately legitimizes MMA as a popular sport in America, on par with the NFL and the NBA.

I doubted WME, but they clearly had an end goal in mind, to broaden the audience of MMA and make it as much a mainstream sport in the States as American football or basketball.

ESPN coverage is probably the biggest step MMA could have taken in that direction.

We are going to see sports fans of all types getting into MMA. Even if they aren't interested, MMA will be getting covered on the biggest sports channel, and they will be forced to deal with it.

Thinking about it this has to be the biggest thing that has happened in the history of MMA to bring it into the mainstream platform.

Fighters that transcended the sport into the mainstream like Ronda and Conor clearly deserve some credit for the way things are headed. GSP probably deserves a mention as well. And obviously MMA was always more mainstream in Brazil than it is in the USA.

Sometimes when you tell people that you are into MMA they give you this weird look because you like to watch half nekkid men roll around in a cage, but no more. We can hold our heads up high with our superior knowledge and understanding of the sport and proudly say that we are hardcore MMA fans. There will be many new fans and we will be here to teach them the ropes. It will be glorious.
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I think UFC will thrive much more on ESPN. It's no secret that Fox is conservative and ESPN is liberal. The UFC has already tapped into the white market as much as they are going to. Too many conservatives turned off by human cage fighting.

ESPN on the other hand will be shown to the inner-city youth and we will develop a golden-age in MMA like boxing did.
 
wait ... do you really think, that this is still some underground shit? lmfao.

most of my friends have seen maybe 1-2 mma matches and 3-5 boxing matches after 4-7 years. lmao

if most people today dont care about mma, ESPN wont change that either lol.
 
It depends. UFC has a lot riding on a bunch of guys who aren't reliable long term. Conor, Jones, Brock, GSP...

ESPN definitely a good thing though.
 
NotoriousMillions said:
I think UFC will thrive much more on ESPN. It's no secret that Fox is conservative and ESPN is liberal. The UFC has already tapped into the white market as much as they are going to. Too many conservatives turned off by human cage fighting.

ESPN on the other hand will be shown to the inner-city youth and we will develop a golden-age in MMA like boxing did.
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soccer is the death of ufc in the usa.
 
The deal is good but to actually make more people go to MMA is dumb. Not everyone likes mma and i find hard for it to make new fans that are not casuals drawn by Mcg and his shenanigans.
 
The reason team sports are huge is because the teams represent enire cities.

Fighting is an individual sport. Once in a while an individual will come along like a conor/floyd but that rare. Other than that, casual fans dont get emotionally connected with fighters like they do teams. Watching teams play is like watching nations go to war. It has the same connection in the brain. Which is why the world cup will forever be the biggest thing ever.
 
After watching mma for two decades I can tell you that it's worse for the sport the bigger it seems to branch out to casuals. The entertainment value goes down and more watered cards because of a bigger audience. My opinion it used to be more entertaining in years past for various reasons.
 
West Linn said:
I'm starting to see MMA videos in the ESPN Youtube channel.

Joe Rogan has said it before that MMA is the greatest sport and that all other sports pale in comparison. Why watch a bunch of guys try to get a ball into a goal or a hoop when you can see two dudes headkicking each other.

I tend to agree with him because there is just something about one on one combat that is incredibly compelling. It gets to the root of all competition, whether or not one man can beat another man's ass.

The FOX deal was a huge step, but the ESPN deal will be that much bigger. ESPN is the channel for sports and ESPN covering and showing events finally and ultimately legitimizes MMA as a popular sport in America, on par with the NFL and the NBA.

I doubted WME, but they clearly had an end goal in mind, to broaden the audience of MMA and make it as much a mainstream sport in the States as American football or basketball.

ESPN coverage is probably the biggest step MMA could have taken in that direction.

We are going to see sports fans of all types getting into MMA. Even if they aren't interested, MMA will be getting covered on the biggest sports channel, and they will be forced to deal with it.

Thinking about it this has to be the biggest thing that has happened in the history of MMA to bring it into the mainstream platform.

Fighters that transcended the sport into the mainstream like Ronda and Conor clearly deserve some credit for the way things are headed. GSP probably deserves a mention as well. And obviously MMA was always more mainstream in Brazil than it is in the USA.

Sometimes when you tell people that you are into MMA they give you this weird look because you like to watch half nekkid men roll around in a cage, but no more. We can hold our heads up high with our superior knowledge and understanding of the sport and proudly say that we are hardcore MMA fans. There will be many new fans and we will be here to teach them the ropes. It will be glorious.
Click to expand...


ufc going from fox to espn plus is a big step back.
 
It's more exposure but that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to blow up massively because of this deal. ESPN and cable in general have been bleeding subscribers for years. Boxing has been on ESPN for ages, yet I never have never once felt ESPN made it bigger. Unless they're moving away from PPV and use their big stars on ESPN are people really going to tune into Fight Nights with people the general public doesn't care about? I think it will be slightly bigger but MMA is a niche sport. Lots of people simply don't like fighting, and I'm not sure the younger generation is bound to change that. If anything the younger gen probably is more into E-Sports than MMA or traditional sports.
 
You may not be aware of this but traditional TV is in a bit of a decline. ESPN is losing viewers every year.
 
West Linn said:
I'm starting to see MMA videos in the ESPN Youtube channel.

Joe Rogan has said it before that MMA is the greatest sport and that all other sports pale in comparison. Why watch a bunch of guys try to get a ball into a goal or a hoop when you can see two dudes headkicking each other.

I tend to agree with him because there is just something about one on one combat that is incredibly compelling. It gets to the root of all competition, whether or not one man can beat another man's ass.

The FOX deal was a huge step, but the ESPN deal will be that much bigger. ESPN is the channel for sports and ESPN covering and showing events finally and ultimately legitimizes MMA as a popular sport in America, on par with the NFL and the NBA.

I doubted WME, but they clearly had an end goal in mind, to broaden the audience of MMA and make it as much a mainstream sport in the States as American football or basketball.

ESPN coverage is probably the biggest step MMA could have taken in that direction.

We are going to see sports fans of all types getting into MMA. Even if they aren't interested, MMA will be getting covered on the biggest sports channel, and they will be forced to deal with it.

Thinking about it this has to be the biggest thing that has happened in the history of MMA to bring it into the mainstream platform.

Fighters that transcended the sport into the mainstream like Ronda and Conor clearly deserve some credit for the way things are headed. GSP probably deserves a mention as well. And obviously MMA was always more mainstream in Brazil than it is in the USA.

Sometimes when you tell people that you are into MMA they give you this weird look because you like to watch half nekkid men roll around in a cage, but no more. We can hold our heads up high with our superior knowledge and understanding of the sport and proudly say that we are hardcore MMA fans. There will be many new fans and we will be here to teach them the ropes. It will be glorious.
Click to expand...

It's an intellectually stunted person that believes his opinion to be truth in spite of obvious evidence to the contrary. MMA is entertaining to a tiny fraction of the population. Even less so by those who consider themselves fans a legitimate athletic competition. It's a fringe sport that most equate with WWE and roller derby. It gets just about the amount of respect that it deserves...which isn't much.
 
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