What’s going on with UFC? Even the next few PPV main events are weak.

[Jasper_RB81]

I mean Nunes vs Pena is not really top notch main event, but the other ones are solid cards, don't know what you talking about. Also there is gonna be a lot of other bangers added.
With the amount of content they produce, I think the ppvs this year has been really solid.

No one is forcing you to buy.

 

[Redando]

I agree. They have more than a few future contenders (like Umar Nurmagomedov) and action fighters (Brandon Royval), but they get buried on the prelims while a loudmouth like Strickland gets to headline card after card so that everyone can see a 25 minute sparring session.

Being a good promoter doesn't mean taking popular fighters and capitalizing on their growing fame - it means taking an unknown but promising fighter and introducing him/her to the masses. But the UFC is not willing to put in that hard work - they keep going for low-hanging fruit like Greg Hardy / Paddy and hope that their "edgy" personas somehow translate into MMA success and crossover appeal. When it inevitably doesn't, UFC moves on to the next gimmick - the teenager Rosas, the Meatball Molly, etc.

Someone like Canelo or Fedor don't speak a word of English, haven't said or done anything outlandish / attention-grabbing in the media, but had the right team around them to propel them into global superstardom in their respective sports. It didn't happen overnight, but it has paid enormous dividends. UFC wants to take the easy road - take a loudmouth who won a few fights and cash in quickly, instead of investing long-term for a future payoff. Sure, it could be the fear that a fighter will become larger than the organization (like Conor did), but I feel it's less an issue of fear and more an issue of complacency.

well said. Beautiful spoken.

 

[AmonTobin]

I don’t know if anyone’s to blame, but it seems like some of the biggest and best fighters are fighting less and less often. Think of your favourite 5 fighters. How many of them fight more than once a year?

 

[Mike]

Same shit that's been going on for years. Prices are up, quality is down. Too many cards that are extremely watered down. After decades of promotional experience they still suck ass at it. Can't make their own stars, have to just hope charismatic dudes show up to do it all for them. They offer a large promotional arm for people to use to market themselves, but that's it. They seemingly have no idea how to use all that money and influence to create stars.

Add to that most of their last generation of stars have retired, are about to retire, are trying to leave the sport because the money sucks, are trying to go box etc.

 

[DebtCollectorMMA]

They're not good at their job
Their generational talents were carrying them, but they're all old now

 

[linvillegorge]

Add to that what was supposed to be Tsarukyan-Moicano main event fight card and is now this:


MAIN CARD:
Middleweight Caio Borralho vs. Michał Oleksiejczuk
Middleweight Rodolfo Vieira vs. Cody Brundage
Women's Strawweight Emily Ducote vs. Polyana Viana
Heavyweight Marcos Rogério de Lima vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta
Welterweight Joshua Quinlan vs. Ange Loosa
Preliminary Card (ESPN2 / ESPN+)
Heavyweight Martin Buday vs. Jake Collier
Featherweight Julian Erosa vs. Fernando Padilla
Lightweight Natan Levy vs. Pete Rodriguez
Flyweight Cody Durden vs. Charles Johnson
Women's Bantamweight Stephanie Egger vs. Irina Alekseeva
Bantamweight Brian Kelleher vs. Journey Newson
Women's Bantamweight Hailey Cowan vs. Jamey-Lyn Horth

Back in the day, I knew about fighters well before they even signed with the UFC. Now the UFC has entire cards where I struggle to recognize a single name. They've always focused more on promoting their brand than they have the fighters but damn... folks aren't tuning in when you've done such a poor job of promoting your fighters that they don't even recognize the fucking names.

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Point #2 is as real as it gets


Fuck the fans LoL

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

We all know the Apex fight night cards have gotten terrible lately (next one being the exception with Pav/Blaydes as a killer main event).

But we’ve got some shitty ppvs coming up.

1.) The next PPV main event is Aljo vs. Cejudo. Cejudo hasn’t fought in 3 years and is 36. Not a terrible main event, but weak considering the card has no other big fights. Looks like an Apex card with a low level PPV main event.

2.) UFC 289: Peña vs. Nunes: this is steaming garbage and whoever is responsible should be in Guantanamo Bay.

3.) UFC 290: Moreno vs. Pantoja. Absolute garbage for a main event. 125 + a challenger no one has ever heard of (just checked; he has 48k followers on IG lol.) Are we really supposed to think this is worth $80 lol?

4.) The “big” fight that is being held to headline some huge event is Jones vs. Stipe. This fight does have name value but it a totally uncompetitive matchup featuring a washed old man who got KTFO’d and sat out 2+ years before inexplicably being given a title fight.

This is just getting sad. I get that the UFC is a corporation and tries to cut corners and save money and all that. But it’s getting to the point where they don’t even give a shit about their PPVs these days. So many with either nobodies who we don’t care about or just totally uncompetitive squash matches. They will bring washed legends who haven’t fought in ages and throw them straight in title fights to get destroyed. We end up with like 75% of the PPVs having no “big fight feel”.

This is why monopolies are bad.

1) Lost the Charles-Beneil comain last minute
2) Is an insult to Canada
3) You not knowing Pantojab is your fault. Everyone who paid attention to the very good Moreno-Fig does series was talking up Pantoja
4) Ok, so #3 is a great fight but no name value, so it sucks because you're a shitty casual fan, but this main event which is all name value isn't a good enough fight for you

Stick to jokes, my guy

 

[93confirmed]

This is a silly way to think. When u know u can get something for free, even a 10 is hard to drop

Name one great recent card, regardless of whether it was purchased.

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

vote with your wallet.
if people are willing to pay for dogshit guess what they're going to continue to get served?

It's a problem everywhere. Pay more and get less in all sports and all events. My son wanted to go to the Taylor Swift concert around here. The tickets were astronomical but I told him if his grades were good enough, I'd get the tickets for him (they aren't). His best friend's mother got two tickets and she's going with her boyfriend. The family is very wealthy but I'm sure the mom can't tell the difference between Taylor Swift and Oprah Winfrey. It's why I don't like MMA/UFC becoming mainstream. Then we get these rich bozos buying tickets and raising the prices for everybody. You should see the price I'm paying to go next month. It's crazy but I like to watch the events live when they come here.

 

[CatchtheseHands]

Bro we just had a Massive card nearly 2 weeks ago. You can't have lit cards every week. You just can't, not when you're putting on 4 cards a month.

 

[whocares]

It's just diluted with too many fighters, and it's obvious the UFC's model now is to have as many no names on cards as possible so they can maximize the amount of fights they get to pay out a happy meal and a discounted uber ride to the hospital for losing fighters.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

Has the sport of MMA peaked? I couldn't tell you. Has the UFC taken the necessary steps to keep the sport moving forward? I'm leaning towards no.

 

[JoeRowe]

Name one great recent card, regardless of whether it was purchased.

285, 280, & 276 were all stacked. & 9 times out of 10 their ppvs have delivered since the pandemic, whether stacked preflop or not. Business is booming as a result.

 

[Kb7]

Who cares, it's not like anyone here even buys PPVs anyways, but you complain about fights you will illegally stream and create threads about fighter pay whilst taking money out of fighters pockets.

 

[CC27]

WTF is he talking about Moreno/Pantoja isnt the main event of 290. Cejudo/Sterling is a great main event, Nunes/Pena isnt.

We just had volk/islam, Jones/Ganea and Izzy/alex.

 

[DrTrouble]

When is Conor v10.0 fighting?

 

[Project 2501]

I'm not even gonna bother reading through this thread, but I already know the usual bootlicking posts hollering on how you're not a real fan of MMA if you don't fork over a weeks worth of groceries to watch essentially nobodies (unless your entire life consists of following nothing but MMA) and you should go watch curling or badminton instead. The UFC & WWE merger couldn't have been more perfect, because pro wrestling has these types of tools as well, where hardcore fans with no lives will holler on that you're not a real fan if you don't follow every damn promotion and know about every indie nobody. Both have missed the point by light years.

 

[sonhow]

Dont worry guys Conor is almost here with the comeback of the century. That will get people talking and fill seats with butts

 

[sonhow]

But on a more serious note they seem to think everything is okay and people will pay. Dana is drowning in money. If people didnt pay they would need to change their approach. Theres a reason the same model has worked for 20+ years and every other dummy has went out of business.