Why do you think 20 years ago was a better product of MMA then it is now?

[Juzie]

People always think the past is better. As soon as ufc 2 happened, ingrates just go UFC 1 was better, I miss UFC 1

People here even think ONE FC is better than the UFC even though they only watch it once a year and have no idea how to even score a muay thai fight.

People on here are oddly pessimistic. Maybe they are very bored people in real life or something.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

The only thing i find "odd" for the lack of a better word, is how MMA turned into this "league sport" with uniforms, MMA model pushes the brand over the fighters first, uniforms with only the UFC sponsors, not fighters sponsors, and the octagon is covered to an extreme with advertising.

They even sell scraps of the octagon after foght cards to marks hahaha
Its all about the Benjamins.

 

[jsbx45]

Personally I cared a lot more 20 years ago because it was new and fresh and I was participating in the sport as well.

As far as the fans go, there are a bunch of reasons.

1) 20 years ago "As real As It Gets", meant something. Not anymore.
2) Event saturation. We used to salivate for a month or so between events. The events aren't as special as they used to be.
3) Dana and UFC are the stars now. We get event after event with Fighters that we've never heard of. Nothing against these Fighters either, they are great, we've just never heard of them before and they don't cost much. See #2.
4) Conor McGregor brought shit talking to a new level. The rest of the wannabes looking for a Payday weren't that good at it. It brought a whole new level of cheesiness to the UFC. The shit talk of Connor and Chael Sonnen has not aged particularly well in hindsight. When the shit talk of criminals is one of your top marketing tools you're in trouble.
5) Shitty protective matchmaking. The UFC thanks it's fans are idiots. UFC puts profits ahead of actual MMA , the sport they supposedly promote . They must read Sherdog and see fans rationalizing why Jon Jones versus Poeton or Jon Jones versus Tom Aspinalll are bad ideas. UFC insults fight fans with any level of intelligence.
6) people are just over it. I am to a certain degree and I used to live this shit.

 

[Luffy]

Dunno, I think we all have a tendency to romanticize the past.

 

[Tito Tapped]

Y'all a bunch of old dudes mad that you're not having as much fun pushing 40 than you did as a teenager.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

This is basically a "I peaked in HS" type of thread

 

[El Fernas]

They even sell scraps of the octagon after foght cards to marks hahaha
Its all about the Benjamins.

Dont forget you can (or it was a thing before) pay like $1000 to get your name printed in the octagon black line.

 

[Elvis.]

There are a lot of reasons as previously stated , I think the uniforms are more of a deterrent than they think
Everyone looks the same and it took a lot of the personality out of the fighters
Imagine everyone in pro wrestling had to wear the same trunks
I know it’s a ploy to fuck the fighters out of money , but it looked better when people could have more distinctive shorts

 

[MyOwnSummer12]

It was much better when Japan was a mecca for MMA and Pride rivaled the UFC. The Pride events had this epic feel to them. The UFC rarely had that feel. That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the UFC immensely as well, but it was two very different ways of putting on events and it was nice to see that. I think competition is a good thing, even though it prevented some dream matchups from taking place. Fighters had negotiating power. It was just better with two major organizations and several good feeder organizations as well.

This isn't just a Pride vs. UFC thing either. The local and regional scenes were much better and frequent. I hardly ever see any advertisements for local MMA anymore.