UFC is eroding the sport of MMA.

[Bend NvR Break]

UFC is devolving into WWE. They try to captivate fans with stories and big personalities while pushing skill and merit to the back burners. They've always done this, but it seems to be accelerating to the point that things like championship belts have no meaning.

What is an interim champion? (from Wikipedia)



We all saw Jon Jones come back and defend the "heavyweight championship", but Tom Aspinal is still the "interim champion". There are 2 champions and people are so stupid they don't question anything, but demand JJ fights Tom. Of course this occurred after the actual champion was released from the UFC because he tried to get health care and better benefits for his colleagues. This scenario is one example of the UFC's disrespect of the sport of MMA.

This is annoying because UFC has it's roots in spectacle / freak show fights and it took forever to gain legitimacy. It was so cool when they first started showing results on ESPN.

...

grumble ...

It was WWE to make the interim title fight in the first place.
Stipe vs Jon was announced and scheduled and just because they were having a card in England they made the interim HW title fight to help promote and market the card.
Not because they needed a replacement for the champ.

You talk about Jon's fuckery but don't mention it was the UFC greedy fuckery that made this whole situation in the first place because there was no need to make an IC HW title.

 

[markg171]

Spending a year and a half injured is grounds for stripping the champion. Refusing to fight the interim champion is grounds for stripping the champion. Jones is absolutely sitting on the title, and the UFC allows him to. The fault lies with them.

Aspinall by contrast is defending left and right instead of sitting on his title though right?

 

[markg171]

What does PFL have to do with UFC evolving from freak show to sport, and then sliding back toward freak show? It's been proven that the barrier to entry is too high to compete in MMA. All non UFC orgs fail.

The best and probably only way for the UFC to change is for the fighters to organize.

PFL is out there abandoning their league format so they can sign Francis and Jake Paul to make belief Super Fight divisions that sell 10k PPVs and lose millions of dollars

Which backfires entirely on them to the point they can't even afford to have all the rest of their fighters even fight.

Yet the UFC is the freak show?

 

[NoSmilez]

There was never any respect for skill and merit. Japanese MMA was as crooked as can be and we all loved it. The guys didn't defend their belts all the time and there were no complaints.

 

[skylolow]

Sports are for entertainment and profits on the big stage. Every major sport has gone through various changes all in the name of entertainment for you the fan.

I look at the UFC jumping the line on title shot once in awhile no different than other sports changing rules to have more scoring. Combat sports have always got more people buzzing when there is heat. UFC wants fighters to be polarizing outside of the cage, they want you to care more about them than just being a good fighter or win or lose.

 

[yodog]

I read your post.

I read your post where you lampooned the UFC for freakshow fights and immediately thought that's an odd putdown when you consider the genuine freakshow fights of the pride days.

Yeh, Kron doesn't deserve to be in the UFC, but given the history of his family name it's not a surprise he gets more opportunities than someone without his family name would qualify for. Hardly qualifies as freakshow

More sort of nepotism which is rife in many sports frankly.

My contentions are: the UFC gained legitimacy and became mainstream by trying to behave like a legit sports org. That got them on ESPN. Now they are going back toward WWE, which jeopardizes the legitimacy of the sport.

The HW division (and to an extent LHW) are void of talent because of greed. And now HW is a trainwreck with 2 champions while the lineal champ was released.

 

[fedorthegoat777]

Maybe true but the problem is that fans love it. Examples are the gimmicky BMF belt, double champ hype, and meritless ranking system.

I would like to think nobody fell for the Cheesy BMF belt.

But the double champ thing is real and a real accomplishment.

 

[Y2Khaos]

If it wasn't for pro wrestling then MMA wouldn't even exist. You can't separate them. They are too closely tied.

 

[JBJ was here]

There was never any respect for skill and merit. Japanese MMA was as crooked as can be and we all loved it. The guys didn't defend their belts all the time and there were no complaints.

Quite. Stipe Miocic has more title defenses than Fedor. Fedor, as Pride HW champion, had eight non-title fights in Pride plus two fights outside of Pride, with only three successful defenses plus a no contest in title fights as champion, one of those defenses being a highly questionable booking against Mark Hunt.

 

[markg171]

Quite. Stipe Miocic has more title defenses than Fedor. Fedor, as Pride HW champion, had eight non-title fights in Pride plus two fights outside of Pride, with only three successful defenses plus a no contest in title fights as champion, one of those defenses being a highly questionable booking against Mark Hunt.

Fedor rather ironically for this thread had an interim champ in Nog he ignored for a year and had 4 other fights before fighting him. Nog by contrast had 3, also all without defending his interim.

They only wound up fighting as they both made it to the 2004 HW GP finals, not because Fedor finally tried to defend against him, and were being forced to by the brackets. And as they were already in the finals and fighting anyways Pride decided to up the ante and put the HW title on the line too and they had to unify.

I'd be willing to guess the people who are bitching today probably correlates quite highly people who didn't care back then.

 

[Yellowcrab]

Their main mistake was the separation with USADA. Now they have an unreliable private anti-doping agency.

Obviously, they're happy with that and don't care unlike people who actually care about sport integrity.

 

[Mind Mine]

Lol Ngannou has been the lineal heavyweight champion since before Jones even had the balls to fight at heavyweight. And Tom has basically cleared the division out.. Jones has beaten a guy with no wrestling (who lost to volkov btw) and a retired fighter.

The actually heavyweight championship belt is currently the 3rd in line belt lol. Lineal MMA champion>interim UFC champion>UFC champion as it currently stands.

If you can't respect the Lineal champion as the true MMA champion then you're just a UFC fan not an MMA fan. Kinda proving the TC right

He cleared the division out and nobody gives a flying fuck outside of this website. I know you narcissistic bozos think whatever is going on in the UFC HW division is the talk of the world. I assure you dufuses that would be Jon Jones. There is a reason Aspinall hasn’t headlined a good PPV.. Who the fuck wants to rush a fight with an unpopular dangerous dude when your division looks like it does

 

[Mind Mine]

If we cut through the word sauce, it looks like you're saying HW doesn't exist without Jones and Tom sucks because he's not popular.

You are the problem IMO. You spit out UFC marketing after deep throating it.

No Sir that’s what you said to argue with your fucking self and I will leave you looking like what you are in doing so because all you had to ask was to explain. I must becimportant to you that you would have to lie on my words to have communication with me. I assure you the feeling is not mutual

 

[Juzie]

lol nganou doesnt want any part of jones
remember when jones was ready and nganou didnt want the smoke
the man literaly fled the ufc

proof that nganou refused the 8 - 14 million dollar offer

Not even Jon Jones UFC superfights match Francis Ngannou’s current pay

Sorry, Dana! The UFC’s offer to Ngannou only comes close to touching his boxing and PFL pay with the help of two hypothetical bouts against Jon Jones.

www.mmamania.com

also the fact that stipe and ganes name alone makes aspinals resume at HW look weak
lol

Yeah that's why one guy is out fighting the very best boxers of the entire generation in their own sport and the other is fighting retired fighters to avoid the big challenges. Because Ngannou is totally the one afraid of losing.

Get off the Dana juice. Tom vs Jon isn't even the fight that should be made. Jon hasn't done anything at heavyweight. Free title shot against a guy with no grappling and already lost and then defends against a retired fighter who hasn't beaten anyone in the current top 10.

 

[Juzie]

He cleared the division out and nobody gives a flying fuck outside of this website. I know you narcissistic bozos think whatever is going on in the UFC HW division is the talk of the world. I assure you dufuses that would be Jon Jones. There is a reason Aspinall hasn’t headlined a good PPV.. Who the fuck wants to rush a fight with an unpopular dangerous dude when your division looks like it does

Because it's supposed to be a sport where the best fight the best. But if you want it to just be a business like boxing where they only fight winnable fights then good for you. I will no longer be watching by that point though

 

[Juzie]

lol nganou doesnt want any part of jones
remember when jones was ready and nganou didnt want the smoke
the man literaly fled the ufc

proof that nganou refused the 8 - 14 million dollar offer

Not even Jon Jones UFC superfights match Francis Ngannou’s current pay

Sorry, Dana! The UFC’s offer to Ngannou only comes close to touching his boxing and PFL pay with the help of two hypothetical bouts against Jon Jones.

www.mmamania.com

also the fact that stipe and ganes name alone makes aspinals resume at HW look weak
lol

Oh Dana Wife said that Ngannou would have made more in UFC than he did in boxing? Well in that case I hope you never buy any ufc games because Dana once said that EA doesn't believe MMA is a real sport and we shouldn't buy their game ! LOL

 

[Mind Mine]

Because it's supposed to be a sport where the best fight the best. But if you want it to just be a business like boxing where they only fight winnable fights then good for you. I will no longer be watching by that point though

The UFC is a BUSINESS in the field of entertainment that acts according to sporting rules. For the sake of BUSINESS that would be the dumbest fight imaginable. Tom never established his star power. Even if he beat him he will have likely Weidman level fame. He simply isn’t the guy that’s going to bring fans in. If that weren’t the case why the hell can’t he fill a Fight Night now? You live in an imaginary bubble that you feel most UFC fans know who Aspinall even is. They don’t. Most UFC fans likely just know his name due to JON JOKES

 

[Juzie]

The UFC is a BUSINESS in the field of entertainment that acts according to sporting rules. For the sake of BUSINESS that would be the dumbest fight imaginable. Tom never established his star power. Even if he beat him he will have likely Weidman level fame. He simply isn’t the guy that’s going to bring fans in. If that weren’t the case why the hell can’t he fill a Fight Night now? You live in an imaginary bubble that you feel most UFC fans know who Aspinall even is. They don’t. Most UFC fans likely just know his name due to JON JOKES

If you don't know who Aspinal is at this point id have a hard time believing you know who Gane or maybe even Stipe is.

So you would rather something like Jones vs John Cena over Jones vs Aspinal? Each to their own.....the Cena fight would absolutely sell more but no actual MMA fan would want to see that fight over Aspinal and John Cena certainly hasn't fucking earned it either but hey....you're allowed to enjoy the sport however you like. Don't speak for what is right or what others want though.

 

[Mind Mine]

If you don't know who Aspinal is at this point id have a hard time believing you know who Gane or maybe even Stipe is.

So you would rather something like Jones vs John Cena over Jones vs Aspinal? Each to their own.....the Cena fight would absolutely sell more but no actual MMA fan would want to see that fight over Aspinal and John Cena certainly hasn't fucking earned it either but hey....you're allowed to enjoy the sport however you like. Don't speak for what is right or what others want though.

No you xan play that little Snide IF YOU DONT KNOW WHO ASPINALL IS to me or you can be honest with yourself as to why he has zero successful headlined PPV and the fame of a Fight Night tighter. Comparing him to fighters that have been out headlined made their name is you beating Tom’s pecker for him and I aint got time for it boss. Copulate Tom with your tall tale in private boss

 

[ejazahmednit]

Yeah and the fans over here who dont want Alex to fight Ankalaev are pushing the sport
UFC shows what people want to see
They are doing their best numbers every year so people are watching more
Now we have MMA meme pages with bollywood memes of fighters, sport is getting more popular globally
And that causes some of the champs to become divas, its an unavoidable side effect