I used to think PPV was really archaic, still think it is for the majority of sports. But after a while, thinking about the reasons I have lost lots of interest in the UFC/MMA over the last few years, I think a lot has to do with the sport trying to become like any other, having events constantly, trowing a large number of names around, diluting fighters connections and enforcing more of a league sort of system.
I think ultimately the fight business can't work exactly like other regular sports. Most fans don't really have the interest in seeing fights every week, where we barely know anything about the guys. I had a reinforcement on the Jones/Cormier event, one of the few fights in a long time to draw me in with some friends to watch it, drinking on a Saturday night. For the 3 hours we were like, damn, we don't care about any of this fights, prelims, no namers even on the main card, we have no connection, let's do something else, we were almost sleeping hoping to get to Jones/Cormier quickly, which here in Brazil started around 3:30 am.
When it did though, everybody was fired up, bets were made previously and excitement was all around, because they were names, there was build up, involvement all around, people were behind different fighters and their personality/ stories. And that is the essence of the fighting business for the majority of people, have something going beyond the fight itself. Looking back Pride, it was so successful for MMA because it had this at its core, was built around a few elite guys that were in almost every card, that we got to know well and become connected like a family.
And that is why probably Boxing for over 100 years, never moved into truly mainstream as a sport, even though its star very much did, like Tyson, Ali, etc. The majority of fans, don't have the stomach or the interest, to follow a bunch of fighting day in and day out, like an NBA season, NFL Monday nights etc.
The fighting business at its core is 8-12 guys we have connection with and get draw in to see them fighting a few times a year and build up on a few others slowly. Of course, there are those hardcore fans, specially here, that are happy to see 20 fights non stop, every week. But for the majority of fans, I think it gets saturated quickly and with no connection to the fighters the interest is lost and become just guys breaking themselves up physically in a trivial manner.
That is why the PPV model has been so predominantly in fighting, it is designed for sports that spike interest for a few hours a number of times over a year. Manny potentially fighting Floyd illustrates this well also, most people, including a lot of us here, don't care at all to watch boxing even on a monthly basis, but will turn in like crazy for this fight because we are involved in it.
