Who in the heck is watching the UFC?????

[TheMMAnalyst]

When they were able to bring it back so fast during Covid and everyone was just craving something they could watch and enjoy that was fresh, and tv shows/movies were at a standstill I think they brought in a bunch of popularity for sure. Then they started price hiking rapidly and it just got really expensive to maintain.

I still think if they had a $20 a month subscription service they’d be very successful

They had a completely unique situational monopoly thanks to COVID that can't ever be re-created where they were the only sport to watch.

The way you grow a sport is you keep the old fans while adding new ones. Meanwhile they are losing their old fans and think they can replace them with new ones, but the new ones lose interest immediately because there aren't many compelling stars to follow and the quality of fights have degraded to the point where the spectacle has lost it's luster (even to new fight fans).

As long as the suits keep getting their huge bonuses they aren't going to change anything though.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

They had a completely unique situational monopoly thanks to COVID that can't ever be re-created where they were the only sport to watch.

The way you grow a sport is you keep the old fans while adding new ones. Meanwhile they are losing their old fans and think they can replace them with new ones, but the new ones lose interest immediately because there aren't many compelling stars to follow and the quality of fights have degraded to the point where the spectacle has lost it's luster (even to new fight fans).

As long as the suits keep getting their huge bonuses they aren't going to change anything though.

Cost to watch every event all year
NFL: $90-$120
Pro Cycling : $85
UFC: $2,500-3,500

That’s their problem.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

Cost to watch every event all year
NFL: $90-$120
Pro Cycling : $85
UFC: $2,500-3,500

That’s their problem.

They've also pay-walled themselves - you have to pay them to pay them lol (buy ESPN+ for $140 for a year so you can then pay $90 for PPV's). Also with illegal streaming so rampant a lot of the market has an easy workaround if they are compelled to do so.

To me the problem is they think the brand is the most important thing, when they've diluted their brand to fucking baby powder over the years. They didn't like what happened with Conor becoming so big that he could have leverage over them, so they re-designed the entire apparatus to make Dana the only star and the fighters interchangeable pawns. The fighters are the most important thing, it's why we are interested in "fighting."

Ultimately at its best it's not a sport, it's a circus (possibly a hybrid of the two) and you need star attractions to keep drawing people in. If not, once they've seen a bearded lady once the novelty has worn off, people aren't going to keep paying to see the same low-grade attractions over and over again.

They have market dominance and total control over fighters and they've used that to extract as much value as possible for themselves (the suits), while re-investing nothing into the sport itself. The pay is relatively the same as a percentage (what's the incentive for athletes to forgo other sports to fight if the pay is shit and the risk is so high?), they use the same shitty posters, same shitty intro videos, same shitty walkouts, same shitty press conferences with planted boot-licking journalists....everything is essentially the same except for the executive payouts.

It will be interesting to see how long they can keep grifting cities, sponsors, and advertising partners to keep the house of cards from collapsing, but it seems inevitable there is a reckoning coming in the near future.

 

[Why did you]

Outside of Sherdog I have no interest in letting anyone know that I like MMA.

 

[StanTheMan]

A prime example of why echo chambers are fucking dangerous. LOL

 

[Crash Lance]

I'm watching in 2025. UFC Fight Night in Kansas City, Missouri is the most recent event that I watched. Also, I watched the entire event.

I was particularly interested in the MMA fight between Zhang Mingyang and Anthony Smith.

There are times that I forget how shop-worn Anthony Smith actually is. He's only 36 years old, but he's had a gargantuan amount of MMA fights. Meanwhile, Stipe is a dinosaur that's currently 42 years old and he was telling folks that he would definitely eliminate Jones.

Stipe, I was really counting on you. You definitely murdered my hopes and dreams.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Meanwhile they are losing their old fans and think they can replace them with new ones, but the new ones lose interest immediately because there aren't many compelling stars to follow and the quality of fights have degraded

Also not to mention the psyche behind most young people, they want to be on whats new, whats hot, whats inventive. UFC might have a phase where it's cool, but the younger audience has the worst attention span and doesn't care to learn or watch anything nuanced. the youth are very "fad minded" and what's interesting to them comes and goes changes at the drop of a hate

 

[AMAZINGUFC]

Who in the heck is watching the UFC?????

Since 2003

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

Also not to mention the psyche behind most young people, they want to be on whats new, whats hot, whats inventive. UFC might have a phase where it's cool, but the younger audience has the worst attention span and doesn't care to learn or watch anything nuanced. the youth are very "fad minded" and what's interesting to them comes and goes changes at the drop of a hate

I don't think you necessarily need just young people, though they have the added benefit of being able to be fans for hypothetically longer. What need is just "new fans" by being able to appeal to different demographics through different methodologies. And get them to stay around by offering a quality product that will compel them to stay engaged.

F1 has grown increasingly popular thanks to "Drive To Survive" on Netflix giving the personal stories of the drivers and helping fans understand how much time/money/effort/passion goes into racing. They've managed to get a bunch of Americans that have never given a shit about race car driving a way to understand the sport and care about the people involved in it and because of this they've experienced tremendous growth in the US to not only young people but women.

What's the UFC doing different to promote its fighters and help people empathize and care about them? It's all the same old shit (Ultimate Fighter, Embedded) and they added DWCS to further take away from regional MMA and use as another feeder system to get talent into the UFC as cheaply as possible. But the public has almost no vehicle to learn about fighters and fighting outside of the same shitty vehicles they've been pushing for decades now. Not shockingly growth has stunted entirely and is arguably regressing as they continue to water down the product.

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

i stopped following and watching all the behind the scenes, the press conferences, even the preliminary cards and some cards as a whole since McGregor.
i used to write on some specialized sites before 2015, they still send me money once a year, but i've became a casual and i'm fine with it.

Same regarding behind the scenes, press conferences and UFC embedded, I used to watch it always, never missed any, and I would watch most interviews as well.............. but these days I just don't enjoy it, I skip all the interviews, and have not watched UFC embedded in years. I find the press conferences so cringe now and so many fake beefs made up on the spot, I can see right through it.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

I have a few guys at work that watch it like me. Who cares? You have been watching for 30 years and come to a Karate forum to complain about it?

Go fuck yourself ts

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

I still watch and enjoy and I'm an mid 40s old fart, cool AF of course too

 

[volcom5]

i still do, i just leave it on as background media while about my Saturday, iusy just pay attention to the fights that i find interesting.

It’s not like anyone here pays for any UFC events anymore, so i really don’t get the complaining.

 

[Bwagster]

Did the UFC died?

 

[Tito Tapped]

Or keep the same level of enthusiasm!?!

Of course that changes. No matter how good it is

Why is it all these "hardcore" fans can't keep that same energy?

Almost like they're really fair weather front runners who only care when fights have enough hype and force themselves to watch shitty events because they think they have to.

 

[HHJ]

Why is it all these "hardcore" fans can't keep that same energy?

Almost like they're really fair weather front runners who only care when fights have enough hype and force themselves to watch shitty events because they think they have to.

They blame everything around them except their own advancing decay!!!!!

 

[Sms_productions713]

Fellow old guys,

You need to stop with this pity party bullshit. Your glory days of being young with no responsibilities are over. How could you possibly expect to have the same viewing habits for 30 years?

No it’s the talent and product that still sucks.

Fighters these days don’t even put in any energy to promote or market themselves cause they think ufc will do it for them. That and the talent is just not exciting anymore

 

[Tito Tapped]

No it’s the talent and product that still sucks.

Fighters these days don’t even put in any energy to promote or market themselves cause they think ufc will do it for them. That and the talent is just not exciting anymore

If you need twitter beef and twitch streams to get excited about martial arts, that says more about you than it does the fighters.

 

[David Street]

me

 

[krelianx]

I have about four friends that still watch the fights somewhat regularly. All of them 35-40. I am watching less and less, and used to be the one who was most into it. I care only about a few fighters: Islam, Khamzat, Shavkat, O'Malley, Umar...