What happened to MMA in Canada?

Queen B said:
Maybe as big as boxing, or basketball then.
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Yeah I'd say it's about as popular if not more popular than boxing, but definitely less popular than basketball.

I only really speak for what I see in Ontario though lol and we have the Raptors at least.

I have a few friends that are hardcore fans like me (this is the only sport I really follow). But it's hard to find a lot of people outside of a local Gym that can converse about current MMA at all.
 
gsp left, mein left for whatever fucking reason (he couldve been a lil big with some time, maybe) and rory can't/hasn't gotten the title yet.
 
So basically, Canadians are fairweather and fickle MMA fans
 
Queen B said:
So basically, Canadians are fairweather and fickle MMA fans
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Well duh. They only watched mma because of GSP. Even then they were only pretending to enjoy his fights because he's Canadian
 
That should GSP's post fight career nickname. Georges "MMA in Canada" St Pierrre.

Hey, what happened to MMA in Canada? Oh, he retired.
 
http://www.sportskeeda.com/mma/ufc-...o-georges-st-pierre-isnt-fighting-on-the-card
The Canadian UFC star is one of the biggest draws when it comes to the Canadian MMA market. But now that GSP is unlikely to show inside the Octagon in the next UFC’s event in Toronto, the Canadian fans have taken it upon themselves to protest.

GSP's fans are now ready to boycott UFC 206 if 'Rush' isn't going to show up!

Twitter is now bursting with ‘#GSP’ and ‘#BoycottUFC206’, and similar tweets.
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do Canadians like pro wrestling? Because it seems like you have to in order to enjoy a lot of the BS in MMA these days.
 
GSP carried it on his back. Sportsnet covered it like a major sport and pushed it like crazy.

GSP is no longer fighting, no Canadian has taken a title (Rory had a chance), and Sportsnet no longer is pushing it.
 
Cake4Breakfast said:
do Canadians like pro wrestling? Because it seems like you have to in order to enjoy a lot of the BS in MMA these days.
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Probably around as much as the US does on a person-to-person basis.
 
Hockey is #1 up here, but curling is also one of the top 5 most watched sports in Canada, and figure skating is well inside the top 10 as well. So basically once we realized that the blue-greyish floor of the octagon wasn't made of ice we abandoned the sport. They could only trick us for so long.
 
A few things:
  • UFC was on a boom period from 2006-2011; interest in MMA in general waned afterward.

  • They made a huge splash with St-Pierre-headlined UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

  • Obviously, St-Pierre has been on "sabbatical" since 2013.

  • They didn't have a backup Canadian superstar to carry the load St-Pierre was holding.

  • They tried with New Yorker Jon Jones, and did some very lackluster numbers in Toronto.

  • They gave up on Toronto (the biggest city in, and media capital of, Canada) after the abysmal business performance of Jones-Gustafsson, leaving Montreal as the only significant UFC hub in Canada.

  • They then booked a PPV in Montreal headlined by fucking Mighty Mouse defending his title against Kyoji Horiguchi at UFC 186, killing the entire Canadian market for good (to their credit though, they were targetting GSP-Anderson Silva for this card, but St-Pierre refused to return).

  • They'll now try again with Toronto next month, but due to their refusal to acquiesce to St-Pierre's reasonable demands, they'll bomb again in Canada.
 
MMA is relatively popular in Canada even more so when Georges was still active.
Be patient, so many great prospects coming out of Canada within the next five years.
Check out BattleField Fight League it's B.C's top org. Jeremy Kennedy is a Canadian in the UFC we should all have our eyes on.
 
Queen B said:
Maybe as big as boxing, or basketball then.
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It looks like MMA has passed Boxing in Canada according to Google trends.

upload_2016-11-14_2-40-56.png

Not so much the Basketball though...

upload_2016-11-14_2-41-48.png

It seems to be about on par with the WWE, but having the edge for what appears to be the big fights...

upload_2016-11-14_2-50-18.png
 

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UniqueSteez said:
MMA is relatively popular in Canada even more so when Georges was still active.
Be patient, so many great prospects coming out of Canada within the next five years.
Check out BattleField Fight League it's B.C's top org. Jeremy Kennedy is a Canadian in the UFC we should all have our eyes on.
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Five years?

By that time TSN's contract with the UFC will have been done, and with the UFC having cut ties with their Canadian offices who knows what the future brings in regards to future contracts on television. Tom Wright is the guy who negotiated the television deals with both Sportsnet and TSN after having a long working relationship with both broadcasters from his days with the CFL, and he's not there with the UFC anymore. Unless they replace that position....
 
Sharkey said:
Five years?

By that time TSN's contract with the UFC will have been done, and with the UFC having cut ties with their Canadian offices who knows what the future brings in regards to future contracts on television. Tom Wright is the guy who negotiated the television deals with both Sportsnet and TSN after having a long working relationship with both broadcasters from his days with the CFL, and he's not there with the UFC anymore. Unless they replace that position....
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That's a shame because there's a dozen prospects in my head I can think of easily that will make waves in the sport from Canada.
Hopefully they figure something out because Canada needs the platform for these up and comers to gain popularity.
 
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