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UFC Is In Crisis Mode (What to Watch Instead)

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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.
 
jeff7b9 said:
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.
Click to expand...

things can change though. i agree with what you're saying, but i don't think it's over in the sense that the UFC can't be beaten. i just don't think it can be beaten by another MMA org, but i think some kind of giant scandal or some unforeseen catalyst in the future changing the landscape of the MMA world could happen and significantly affect the UFC in a good way for the fighters/fans.
 
Tracing the absolute earliest example on the internet of someone saying “UFC is dying” is hard to pin down precisely, because this sort of phrase tends to appear first in user-generated posts on forums, message boards, and social media—not in easily searchable indexed news articles or mainstream coverage. However, here’s what we do know from available online records:


🥋​


  • Sherdog forum threads from the late 2000s and 2010s contain people discussing or claiming “UFC is dying” as a sentiment among fans. For example:
    • A Sherdog thread titled “This Is Why UFC is Dying” was started on April 21, 2014.
    • Another thread simply titled “UFCis dying” was started on March 9, 2017.
    • There are even multiple Sherdog threads from as early as 2016–2018 where fans argued about “UFC is dying” and continued the phrase as a meme/complaint.

These examples show the phrase in use as early as 2014 within MMA community forums, which are some of the earliest preserved public instances on the internet.


📌​


  • Community posts referenced in later threads suggest that fans have been saying the UFC was dying for years, possibly going back to the mid-2000s or even earlier forums on Sherdog and other MMA boards. One poster even jokes that these threads have existed “every day since 2006.”
  • Sherdog itself has been online since 1997, and MMA discussions date back to the early 2000s, so the phrase or similar sentiments may have occurred informally before 2014—even if they aren’t easily searchable now.

📌​


  • Early posts on forums like Sherdog, Usenet groups, and other bulletin boards weren’t fully archived in ways searchable by modern search engines.
  • Phrases like “UFC is dying” might have been used casually in thread titles or inside posts that never got indexed.
  • Social platforms like early Reddit (from 2008 onward) might include similar sentiments buried deep in comments.


📍​


  • The earliest clearly dated online example we can cite* is from a Sherdog forum thread on April 21, 2014 explicitly discussing “This Is Why UFC is Dying.”
  • Other similar threads appear in 2016–2018, and fan commentary suggests the sentiment existed even earlier on MMA forums.
  • A precise first ever instance is difficult to verify due to the nature of forum archives and early internet history.
 
WingedC said:
Not really...

There isn't a lot of depth anymore and the level of talent is lower than a few years ago.

They probably changed their business model for a reason.
Click to expand...
People like to say things like this, but it just isn't true. UFC fighters are typically more skilled then they've ever been before, but the areas where skill was most lacking were things like defense and strategy. It used to be that offense had a decided advantage, and that's much less true now even if some advantage remains. BJJ from the bottom is basically dead in high level MMA because it doesn't work against fighters who've trained defense, and the same thing is true to a lesser extent with respect to a broad range of the MMA fighting repertoire. Lots of exciting things that fighters used to do simply don't work anymore at the higher levels of MMA competition. Even Serial Eyepoker could outgrapple any fighter from HW from the UFC glory days who didn't come from a grappling base.
 
What type of human creates an account on a message board in 2026.

Bots and AI everywhere.
 
Don't worry about it. Whatever it was what you were complaining about.
 
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