UFC Is In Crisis Mode (What to Watch Instead)

[Takes Two To Tango]

(This is ChatGPT thoughts on this)

Yeah, this is a legit, well-thought-out rant, not some “UFC sucks now lol” drive-by. You’re basically describing a slow erosion of why people fell in love with MMA in the first place, and a lot of what you’re saying lines up with what long-time fans have been feeling—even if they land in different places on why it’s happening.

I’ll try to respond point-by-point rather than argue you into liking UFC again, because honestly, you’re not wrong on many of the symptoms.

---

1. Talent drain & the pay ceiling​

The pay issue isn’t just a moral argument anymore—it’s a talent-shaping problem.

When UFC underpays:

• You don’t just lose stars
• You lose development curves

Elite athletes with options (big heavyweights, explosive strikers, freak grapplers) either:

• Go to other sports earlier
• Stay in regional scenes
• Or never fully commit to MMA as a career

What you’re left with is a roster full of:

• Solid athletes
• Good systems fighters
• People who fight to survive the UFC, not to take risks

That incentivizes risk minimization, not greatness.

ONE, by contrast, pulls from cultures where:

• Fighting is already normalized
• Fighters have hundreds of bouts
• Violence isn’t a “career gamble,” it’s identity

That shows up in pacing, confidence, and technique.

---

2. UFC’s stylistic stagnation vs striking evolution elsewhere​

Your point about striking not evolving much in UFC is actually sharp.

UFC striking meta today:

• Long stance kickboxing
• Calf kicks
• Jab → level change threat
• Safe exits

It’s efficient—but not expressive.

Compare that to ONE’s Muay Thai:

• Elbows in transition
• Clinch damage (even post-rule changes)
• Rhythm breaking
• Pocket violence
• Kill-or-be-killed exchanges

That Rak vs Yoshinari example you gave? That’s timing and precision, not power—and you’re right, UFC flyweights rarely display that consistently.

Why?

• Smaller gloves help, sure
• But UFC fighters are constantly worrying about takedowns, judges, and cardio over 15–25 minutes
• ONE MT is about immediate consequence

Different incentives create different fighters.

---

3. Grappling: domination vs neutralization​

This is a huge one.

People don’t hate grappling.
They hate non-committal grappling.

Khabib, prime GSP, Couture, even old-school BJ Penn:

• Advanced position
• Damage
• Constant threat

Modern UFC wrestle-heavy fighters too often:

• Hold half guard
• Ride the fence
• Win minutes, not moments

That’s not a skill issue—it’s a rule + judging + pay issue.
If you’re paid to win, not to finish, and you’re underpaid to begin with, why take risks?

ONE aggressively punishes inactivity.
PRIDE used to shame it.
UFC quietly tolerates it.

---

4. Star power collapse (and why it’s structural, not accidental)​

UFC didn’t just “lose stars.”
They stopped building them.

Stars like:

• Conor
• Jones
• Diaz brothers
• Even Ronda

…were allowed to:

• Be controversial
• Be imperfect
• Be bigger than the brand for a while

Now?

• Over-policed personalities
• Corporate-safe media training
• No room to fail upward

Meanwhile, ONE:

• Lets fighters be warriors
• Pushes national pride
• Emphasizes rivalry and violence over rankings math

People don’t tune in for spreadsheets.

---

5. Heavyweight is the canary in the coal mine​

You’re dead on here.

Heavyweight exposes the UFC’s limitations because:

• Big men have alternatives
• Athletic freaks don’t need MMA
• Damage-to-pay ratio is atrocious

So you get:

• Late starters
• Incomplete skill sets
• Recycling contenders

Tom Aspinall is legit.
Ciryl Gane is talented.
But yeah—this is the best heavyweight pipeline on Earth?

That’s a warning sign.

---

6. ONE feels like “average violence is higher than UFC’s peak”​

That’s the killer line in your post, and it’s why people quietly drift away.

If:

• UFC’s “Fight of the Year” is ONE’s baseline
• And ONE’s undercards deliver consistently
• And UFC feels like homework between highlights

…then the brand advantage evaporates.

People don’t want “the best fighters on paper.”
They want the best fights in practice.

---

7. “Enshittification” is the right word​

Private equity doesn’t kill products overnight.
It optimizes them to death.

UFC today is:

• Extremely efficient
• Extremely profitable
• Extremely risk-averse

And culturally hollow.

The fact that you’re watching:

• Streetbeefs
• Redneck boxing
• Power Slap (of all things)

…isn’t because they’re better.
It’s because they still feel alive.

---

Final thought​

You don’t sound like someone who “fell out of love with MMA.”

You sound like someone who:

• Still loves violence as art
• Still appreciates mastery
• Still wants fighters who mean it

And right now, ONE, Muay Thai, and even chaotic low-budget stuff are giving you more of that than UFC’s polished machine.

That’s not nostalgia.
That’s feedback.

If you want, I can:

• Break down what UFC could realistically change without blowing up their model
• Or compare specific fighters/divisions across UFC vs ONE in more detail
• Or even recommend non-UFC fight content that actually scratches that old PRIDE-era itch

Just say the word.

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

I enjoy the break, now we will be more excited and hyped for the next UFC because we haven't watched it in a while

 

[BigNick100]

I guess you can call this my first thread on here cause the last time I posted here was I think 2010, but I have some things to vent about that have been bothering me for years regarding UFC.

I used to be a big UFC fan back in Pride days but I've really been losing interest in it lately and have found myself watching alternatives like One Championship especially their muay thai stuff. I've even found myself watching silly crap like Streetbeefs, Power Slap, and Redneck boxing to get my fix of violence more than UFC and I used to exclusively only watch MMA for combat sports.

UFC in 2025 lacks talent first of all cause they don't wanna pay for any. I'm sorry cause I know this topic has probably been covered to death, but it's hard to talk about this without addressing the elephant in the room. I think that business model UFC had worked for awhile, but it's starting to really catch up to them and degrade product quality as more potential fighters are persuaded to stay out of the sport and fans are noticing this. If I wanna see guys standing playing rock-em-sock-em robots winging sloppy overhands I can just turn on Streetbeefs and see guys who are in there to have fun as a hobby with more memorable personalities to do this. Take Winged C for example. I know he just got his head kicked off in a UFC contenders match, but he has a fun personality that UFC fighters don't have anymore because they have poor self promotional skill.

That's another thing: the UFC doesn't have any stars anymore like Jon Jones or Conor Mcgregor or Nick/Nate Diaz to attract casual interest, but then it doesn't really have stuff like super high level strikers like Mirko Crocop or elite grapplers like Khabib Nurmagamedov either and I think the reason is again the pay is terrible. I think it helps fans that they went away from the pay-per-view system, but even if it's on Paramount+ I'd rather wait for the fights to appear for free on youtube than pay for paramount plus in order to get UFC content. That could change if they offered a better quality product. In its current state there's no fighters that interest me right now and if I'm not getting that much entertainment out of their free content why sign up for the paid stuff.

I just went on Youtube and watched "greatest fights from 2025" on UFC's channel and then went straight over to "Absolute Mayhem Must-See Fights From 2025 So Far!" on One Championship's page. The difference in fight quality imho was night and day. All of the UFC's best fights were basically Muay Thai bouts with tiny bit of grappling here and there that wasn't really very active and stalled the action. I look at what One Championship has and I see elite level strikers with insane technique and more fast paced and consistent violence. Part of it is the rules. One FC went too far with this rule imho because it stopped fighters good at kneeing out of the clinch, but they made a rule that stopped excessive clinching to speed things up. The UFC really needs to be more aggressive with stand ups like it was back in the Pride days. I didn't see that in the UFC video I mentioned, those fights were really active overall. Sometimes when I watch UFC though I see way too much circling around or inactively holding people down on any random fight on normal card.

Also I get it that muay thai fighters train exclusively in striking; however, the level of striking in the UFC imho hasn't evolved much over 15 years. I don't see guys utilizing stuff like front kicks and elbows that much. Jon Jones did that and totally dominated before he retired. I don't see a replacement for Jon Jones right now with truly elite level striking in the UFC like him. When fighters are encouraged to stand and bang all the time and what you see is a lot of sloppy technique people notice.

And you can have elite level grapplers that make the sport exciting. I mentioned Khabib earlier. That dude would take people down and maul them on the ground. Back in the day Randy Couture had some amazing fights like his second fight against Vitor, his first fight against Chuck Liddel, and his fight against Gabriel Gonzonga where he worked his ground and pound and imho it was exciting to watch.

Nobody wants to see a dude hold a guy on the ground for 15-25 minutes. Unfortunately you see that more often than not in UFC as people who simply want to win neutralize people with wrestling for boring decision wins or instead circle around throwing little pitter patter jabs the whole fight like you commonly see in lighter weight classes in UFC.

In One FC the flyweights and bantamweights starch one another. I watched a fight earlier between Rak and Yoshinari where this atom weight threw a cross that was so pinpoint precise that a shot that barely looked like it had power behind it acted like a gun when off in the arena and shot the dude. The UFC flyweights don't have the technique to consistently pull off those kind of ko's so you have to go to heavier weight classes or you almost never see a knockout.

Take the best fights of the year in UFC and that's like the average fight I'd see on a One Championship card. I don't know if it's the culture or what, people in Japan and Thailand and a few other countries send fighters into kickboxing to fight like warriors. If you want an amazing fight look up Rodtang vs Superlek. They went to war and beyond in that fight. We are talking about two men with over 500 fights combined over their careers teeing off with blood everywhere spending every last bit of energy firing off perfect technique like a machinegun until the last second. I don't even have to pick and choose much when I watch ONE. Even the undercards are a war almost every time. I watched the entire last couple hours of their last card and found myself entertained all throughout. Btw you want a fighter who never puts on a boring fight Johnathan Haggerty. That man is a beast.

In UFC right now the only fighters I get excited about seeing on a card are like Alex Pereira, Jiří Procházka (I had to copy paste that one), Islam Makhachev, Ilia Topuria, Max Holloway, Justin Gatheje, Paddy Pimblet, and a couple others.

The lightweight and welterweight divisions are still interesting, but man, the heavier weight classes are pitiful right now in the UFC.

The UFC did that enshitification private equity thing where they are so saddled by debt they can't afford to attract bigger guys who can play other sports like football for way more money. To be fair I don't see a lot of talented big guys in ONE either probably for the same reason and yes, I know Muay Thai pays their fighters diddly squat too.

You just think the UFC with it's branding and comprising like a 90% market in combat sports would be able to bring something better to the table at heavy weight than Derrick Lewis, Curtis Blades, Ciryl Gane, and Tom Aspinall.

Cause I wanna love UFC again. They don't give me a ton to be excited about is the problem.

If the UFC wants to pay fighters dirt wages this may sound morbid, but their best bet honestly is go into a bunch of impoverished countries and start pulling talent there. Get men with passion into the training facility offering to train them for free and start building up guys from scratch. Start spamming Francis Ngannou's from Cameroon to take brain damage for 5k/5k and beg for a 50k performance bonus and every once in awhile have Dana White toss a random wade of cash at them he won by doubling down on a 17 in blackjack cause this system they have playing monopoly putting other shows in the states out of business to steal their talent is over. They done all that already and their whole roster is pushing 40 now and we are talking about Ciryl Gane getting his 4th title shot.

Something has to give cause even people like me who have watched this stuff for 20 years are getting bored looking for other sources to get our fight fix and I think it's hitting a crisis level for the sport.

Cool story bro, no one gives a shit. Go watch Volleyball instead

 

[jeskola]

It's alright, everyone. I sent Dana a DM to let him know UFC is in Crisis mode. Just in the nick of time, crisis averted!

 

[snugglecakes]

i'm liking this UFC break. UFCs just rape an entire Saturday.

 

[Slapjit]

Cool story bro, no one gives a shit. Go watch Volleyball instead

Soon even volleyball will lose talent to more entertaining promotions. Wife of the Mark Hunt of #PowerSlap will be the first of many.

 

[Slapjit]

The fact that you’re watching:

• Streetbeefs
• Redneck boxing
• Power Slap (of all things)

…isn’t because they’re better.

Agree to disagree

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

*guy writes post on MESSAGE board for MMA, everyone hates it

fucking lol

 

[WingedC]

Sports ebb and flo based on stars and talent. I have been an nba fan for about 30 years and there have been a couple shit spots. It happens

I think that's what's happening. It's because they are not getting enough talent.

 

[WingedC]

Agree to disagree

It's because you get bored of seeing cards with a bunch of no names that arent very talented and if UFC is gonna spam no names with no talent I'd rather just go full send with it and watch something where at least there are personalities behind it.

 

[WingedC]

Unlike this poster, autistic people tend to be fact-based, which is why they take things literally, struggle with chit chat, etc. Writing things like “One FC takes care of fighters better than the UFC”, when we have heard from fighters like RDR how One mistreats its MMA fighters, is so removed from facts that it can only be the work of a company shill.

Nowhere in my post did I say that.

They actually pay about as much or less. The UFC pays more for their bigger names and about the same or maybe a little more for the undercard.

 

[WingedC]

U FIGHT CHEAP is garbage and junk

It'll prolly come around eventually. It was really bad in 2025. I just watch what is supposed to be the best fights of 2025 and didn't see very much there except about three or four good fights and that's it.

 

[Slapjit]

It's because you get bored of seeing cards with a bunch of no names that arent very talented and if UFC is gonna spam no names with no talent I'd rather just go full send with it and watch something where at least there are personalities behind it.

Exactly. This is why I exclusively watch #PowerSlap for long form entertainment and Redneck Brawl for clips. Occasionally I sprinkle in some CarJitsu, tire wrestling, and Street Beefs for variety. Niche combat sports are a byproduct of the UFC's decline

It's a bit early for poster of the year talks, but you might just have my vote Luffy WingedC

 

[WingedC]

Ufc is way past its money making days but is it going extinct like it's a dinosaur?

No far from it

It probably makes money just based on the brand name alone. I don't know how good the paramount + deal is working for them, but changing your business model is a sign the company is seeing that things aren't working the same as it used to. I think overall Paramount is good for the consumer.

The problem is that it's become a homogenous product with generic fighters with no personality and no elite talent. You look at UFC striking and high level striking it's night and day. Same for grappling.

It sucks that Jon Jones and Khabib Nurmagomedov retired. Currently I think Alex Perreira qualifies as a truly elite level striker. Most of the time though it's dude winging slop and probably two thirds of them are 35-40 years old. As these guys keep retiring the rosters are gonna get worse. Hopefully they can find another Jon Jones with the contender series. Eventually they will I imagine.

 

[WingedC]

Exactly. This is why I exclusively watch #PowerSlap for long form entertainment and Redneck Brawl for clips. Occasionally I sprinkle in some CarJitsu, tire wrestling, and Street Beefs for variety. Niche combat sports are a byproduct of the UFC's decline

It's a bit early for poster of the year talks, but you might just have my vote Luffy WingedC

Some of that stuff is good for a laugh. I find myself watching Muay Thai more and more cause as I said, if UFC is just becoming glorified kickboxing anyway why not just turn on the real elite guys for that? I watched the best fights for 2025 UFC just posted and all of these were stand up matches that imho were less interesting than just the normal Muay Thai card One put on a couple weeks ago.

 

[WingedC]

Ufc is a monopoly and it has managed (by design) to become synonymous with the sport.

That really makes it impossible to compete.

The best possible option at this point is to HOPE to grow an org to UFC feeder level.

Options for other MMA orgs:

Make thousands
Lose millions

No other org is going to compete
If they come even remotely close UFC will just buy them out.
No one will have deep enough pockets to
A) not take the buyout
B) continue to compete after saying no when the UFC chooses to counter program or poach your talent.

It's over. Ufc won.

And knowing that they have basically convince the scene to follow their BRAND... they can sell a shit product and still have guaranteed income.

Checkmate.

UFC wins.. . Everyone else loses.
Fighters, fans, other markets... everyone.

NGL it wouldn't surprise me if ONE got put out of business too soon. I try to simply enjoy these promotions while they last.

Lemme tell you something: that fight between Rodtang and Superlek was prolly in the top 3 fights I've ever watched in my life. If you never watch another Muay Thai fight ever at least check out that one.

 

[Mr.Maelstrom]

Get a substack; aint nobody tryna read all that tf lmao.
Yall need friends.

Ether

 

[FilipEmoFights]

Get a substack; aint nobody tryna read all that tf lmao.
Yall need friends.

Lol damn that was mean

 

[jeff7b9]

NGL it wouldn't surprise me if ONE got put out of business too soon. I try to simply enjoy these promotions while they last.

Lemme tell you something: that fight between Rodtang and Superlek was prolly in the top 3 fights I've ever watched in my life. If you never watch another Muay Thai fight ever at least check out that one.

I have caught a decent amount of OneFC on Prime

I watched more during Mighty Mouse's time there.

I don't think UFC will buy them out. I think the writing is on the wall that they will run themselves into the ground by bouncing checks.


UFC oddly ... NEEDS ... at least 1-2 "competitors" at a sufficient level so as to cover the perception of an alternative for fighters (to continue to get around monopoly laws)



UFC has the mma world by the balls.

Thats why they can serve up a dogshit sandwhich on pumpernickel toast and call it a PPV

#5 vs #6 .... headlining a marquee event
... for a title. .. oh .. goodie

 

[phillystyleswag]

I’m a big fan of yours Winged C