Why does MMA have to be a popularity contest? Can't we just enjoy the fights?

[Steve-French]

I'm not trying to shill here, but I never understood calling a card trash before it even happens. There are fighters I get a little bit more hyped to watch than others, but I don't really care who wins or loses I just like to watch to see who the better fighter is.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm more of a fan of fighting in general than I am a fan of individual fighters. I'll still watch a UFC or Bellator card even if it isn't stacked, because even if the card isn't full of big names MMA has evolved to the point where there are a lot of high level fighters these days. There's even a lot of high level talent fighting on AXS TV.

Everybody is entitled to there opinion and if you don't want to watch by all means don't watch, but it just seems like there are less people enjoying the sport and more people following it like it's pro wrestling, where they are more consumed by the booking vs watching martial arts or people fighting.

Edit: There is nothing wrong with Pro Wrestling btw, MMA wouldn't be what it is today without it.

 

[Janne1]

"I'm not trying to shill here, BUT". I stopped reading there. GTFO, shill.

 

[Übermacht]

Fights are way more fun when you are emotionally invested in a fighter and he destroys another dude who you honestly dislike.

 

[SuperNerd]

A lot to address in there, but in short I think most of this stems from MMA being a fad for young people, refusal to believe that and then resistance to moving on.

 

[Thunderchild]

Because Millennials

 

[Steve-French]

"I'm not trying to shill here, BUT". I stopped reading there. GTFO, shill.

 

[Franc Mittelo]

The curse of Combat Sports. The paying customers want to see celebrities, and most times, the celebrities are not the best fighters. This is why WWE is scripted, to ensure the popular performers are mostly winning.

The UFC has the following options (1) Educate the fans to a point were they are able to enjoy a fight regardless of who is fighting (very unlikely, even boxing, a much older sport hasn't been able to accomplish this), (2) Match Celebrity Champions with winnable fights (best option, this what boxing has been doing for years, and the UFC were able to flawlessly execute with Conor McGregor), (3) Scripted endings like WWE (very lucrative, but loss of competitive credibility).

 

[CDN420]

I'm not trying to shill here, but I never understood calling a card trash before it even happens. There are fighters I get a little bit more hyped to watch than others, but I don't really care who wins or loses I just like to watch to see who the better fighter is.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm more of a fan of fighting in general than I am a fan of individual fighters. I'll still watch a UFC or Bellator card even if it isn't stacked, because even if the card isn't full of big names MMA has evolved to the point where there are a lot of high level fighters these days. There's even a lot of high level talent fighting on AXS TV.

Everybody is entitled to there opinion and if you don't want to watch by all means don't watch, but it just seems like there are less people enjoying the sport and more people following it like it's pro wrestling, where they are more consumed by the booking vs watching martial arts or people fighting.

Edit: There is nothing wrong with Pro Wrestling btw, MMA wouldn't be what it was today without it.

I agree with all except for the edit. u lost me there lol

 

[CieloLuce]

Agree I like watching fights in general, even if the card looks 4/10 I will still watch because I like seeing fights(except for those bellators Nascar events, gotta have a standard).

 

[Otto!]

I feel the same way. I don’t get emotionally invested in fighters. Sure I have my favourites, but it’s not the end of the world when they lose.

I’d rather watch a good scrap between 2 unkown guys than a boring fight between two big draws.

 

[CieloLuce]

The curse of Combat Sports. The paying customers want to see celebrities, and most times, the celebrities are not the best fighters. This is why WWE is scripted, to ensure the popular performers are mostly winning.

The UFC has the following options (1) Educate the fans to a point were they are able to enjoy a fight regardless of who is fighting (very unlikely, even boxing, a much older sport hasn't been able to accomplish this), (2) Match Celebrity Champions with winnable fights (best option, this what boxing has been doing for years, and the UFC were able to flawlessly execute with Conor McGregor), (3) Scripted endings like WWE (very lucrative, but loss of competitive credibility).

I hope that third option never happens in the ufc, but chance of it happening can be possible with WME.

 

[GoldenAzazel]

I definitely think that MMA fans can act like spoilt babies sometimes. It wasn't long ago that there would be a PPV that would get 350k buys without any title fights on it or number 1 contender fights. Now if a card doesn't have 2 title fights on it then people shit on it and say they're just gonna stream it instead, then blame the UFC for the reason ppv buys are so low.

 

[Steve-French]

A lot to address in there, but in short I think most of this stems from MMA being a fad for young people, refusal to believe that and then resistance to moving on.

That makes sense. I guess I'm just an old fuck I started watching in 1994 when I was in the 8th grade. Around 98-99 it got really hard to find until TUF. I saw a few Pride cards via hacked satellite dish and bought a few KOTC DVDS, but I though MMA was pretty much dead until 2005. I did have the UFC game on the Dreamcast in 2001 though. I also didn't really start using the internet until around 2004, so I really didn't know what was going on.

 

[Simian Raticus]

Well, this is where MMA is majorly lacking as far trying to compete with more established mainstream sports.

If you take subtract the buzz created by the biggest 2 or 3 stars at any one point in time, the picture starts to look pretty dismal.
For a lot of "fans", after all the bells and whistles are stripped away they don't actually find this sport entertaining on the whole.

 

[SuperNerd]

That makes sense. I guess I'm just an old fuck I started watching in 1994 when I was in the 8th grade. Around 98-99 it got really hard to find until TUF. I saw a few Pride cards via hacked satellite dish and bought a few KOTC DVDS, but I though MMA was pretty much dead until 2005. I did have the UFC game on the Dreamcast in 2001 though. I also didn't really start using the internet until around 2004, so I really didn't know what was going on.

Other posters are right when they mention the nature of combat sports.

It's prize fighting, the money is created by casuals tuning in and paying their money. In turn, the chase for money becomes creating bells and whistles to draw casuals.

I try to pick "bandwagons" and get behind fighters, but besides Canadians, it's never the same. Watching MMA has become an evolution of techniques for me. I like seeing new styles, new approaches, guys who push the wrestle-boxer outlines.

 

[Steve-French]

I agree with all except for the edit. u lost me there lol

If you want to take a moment to read a couple of paragraphs and absorb some combat sports history, the birth of MMA is basically parented by pro wrestling.

Spoiler: MMA and Pro Wrestlings relationship.

It all goes back to Karl Gotch and Billy Robinson, who trained together in old school catch wrestling, both went their different ways in the pro wrestling world and ultimately both of them ended up in Japan training pro wrestlers. Gotch trained Yoshiaki Fujiwara, who trained Suzuki and Funaki, who recruited and trained Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock, Rutten, going on to found Pancrase. Robinson would train most of the UWFI wrestlers that would go on to become Pride.

Then I don't think a lot of modern fans really understand the influence that Rings had on Pride. Pride basically swallowed up Rings, took their best fighters(Fedor, Overeem, etc), stole their ideas, then put them out of business in 2002, right around the time that Pride really started to kick ass.

The guy who founded Rings, Akira Maeda is connected to Takada, Fujiwara, and Tiger Mask. Those four guys all came out of the same dojo and basically laid the groundwork for what MMA would become. Their bidding war over Rickson Gracie would basically shape the history of MMA.

If you take away pro wrestling's direct influence on MMA history, you take away Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, Suzuki, Funaki, Frank Shamrock, Bas Rutten, Sakuraba, Takada, Fedor, Pancrase, Pride, Rings, Shooto never happens. I think it's safe to say that maybe MMA never happens, especially when you consider the influence that pro wrestling had on Mitsuyo Maeda, who taught the Gracies how to grapple.

Maeda was living in a YMCA in Alabama at one point during his travels, learning tricks of the trade from the pro wrestlers he befriended in the 1900's. He basically taught the Gracie's Judo with some old school pro wrestling tricks and submissions worked into it. I mean, if you take all of that away, what does that leave MMA? It would have basically been just a toughman contest, it would have died an early death, if it even would have happened at all.

 

[xx madskillz xx]

I was all with you up until this.... Edit: There is nothing wrong with Pro Wrestling btw, MMA wouldn't be what it was today without it.

 

[Gorkle]

Been said many times before.

Cretins buy into all this shit. Everyone buys into it some extent, but some of us lap it all up.

Think of all the shitposting when McGregor does something irrelevant like gets a tattoo. Think of all the shit that happens whenever Jon Jones deleted something from Twitter, let alone hits a pregnant lady with his car and gets popped for roids. Think of all the shit when Mike Perry did anything at all.

People love when a shitshow. They genuinely get more excited for the pointless shit surrounding the fights than the fight itself.

We're all guilty though. Everyone got more excited for Jones v Cormier when they had a scrap on stage. As much as they would refuse to admit it, Sherdog loves the fact that McGregor hasn't defended his belt. The hours people have spent ranting and raving that he hasn't defended yet, that he should be stripped. And they're all going to love it when he finally fights, as much as they pretend they won't. Because he has given them their pointless daily dramas they love.

 

[Steve-French]

I was all with you up until this.... Edit: There is nothing wrong with Pro Wrestling btw, MMA wouldn't be what it was today without it.

Read post #16.

 

[SuperNerd]

Been said many times before.

Cretins buy into all this shit. Everyone buys into it some extent, but some of us lap it all up.

Think of all the shitposting when McGregor does something irrelevant like gets a tattoo. Think of all the shit that happens whenever Jon Jones deleted something from Twitter, let alone hits a pregnant lady with his car and gets popped for roids. Think of all the shit when Mike Perry did anything at all.

People love when a shitshow. They genuinely get more excited for the pointless shit surrounding the fights than the fight itself.

We're all guilty though. Everyone got more excited for Jones v Cormier when they had a scrap on stage. As much as they would refuse to admit it, Sherdog loves the fact that McGregor hasn't defended his belt. The hours people have spent ranting and raving that he hasn't defended yet, that he should be stripped. And they're all going to love it when he finally fights, as much as they pretend they won't. Because he has given them their pointless daily dramas they love.

Drama is universally enjoyed, the science of hand-to-hand combat, not-so-much.