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Why isn't ONE FC Kickboxing/Muay Thai more popular

Pride was bigger than the UFC in the mid 2000s and certainly had a global audience

I didn't say it didn't have a global audience, I said it wasn't huge. It was never broadcast to as many countries as the ufc, but it was more popular during the early 2000's in some of the markets it was shown in. It never did crack the US market though.

Zuffa bought Pride in the mid 2000's and by then it was declining
 
American audiences don't give a flying fuck about kickboxing and never have. This has been shown many times at this point.
Which is funny because every time an MMA isn't a kicking boxing fight people lose their minds, but will neve switch over to a sport that gives them exactly what they want.

It's about marketing.
 
Which is funny because every time an MMA isn't a kicking boxing fight people lose their minds, but will neve switch over to a sport that gives them exactly what they want.

It's about marketing.

Even in the aftermath of Van Damme films etc where you'd think it would take off it just never did.

I don't really watch it myself so maybe I'm part of the problem but unless it's a few people I'll always skip it on the ONE cards to get to the MMA fights
 
I love boxing and mma but I really dont enjoy kickboxing. For some reason it bores me a great deal. I would rather watch bkfc
 
Same reason BKFC and Karate Combat are a tiny fraction of UFC"s audience. People want to see the best fighters in the world. They want people who also have defensive skills.
 
We like to see people stand and trade sloppily until a gruesome KO is presented. The best way to achieve that is to have mma guys who spend half their time training just for wrasslers throw down because neither can get the other to the ground.
 
One’s 4oz glove Muay Thai is the most entertaining combat sport in the world. I will happily die on that hill.
 
Its literally MMA without the casual's least favorite part. Honestly I'd put the average fight's entertainment level above UFC fights and skill wise probably similar because its a totally different discipline. This promotion is worth a watch for anyone who didn't like Khamzat vs DDP

The reason I don't watch it is because of the timeslot where I am, we're a few hours behind Singapore so events start late at night. From what I've seen it's a great product though.
 
Rampage is really the only one that had mainstream appeal in US but he got it more after he went to UFC, did TUF and the Ateam movie.

of course..... only when an american fights in America, they 'blow up', not when they were ragdolling people and slamming them all over the place in Japan.
this is nonsensical. there are different audiences all around the world.

it's like saying.....Lionel Messi only blew up when he went and played for Miami.......you are talking like a typical person that lives in the United States Bubble. The world is bigger than the 50 United states.

Pride was bigger back in those times than the UFC. Fighters like Liddel and Penn came to pride for a short time because game recognizes game.

Mark Coleman
Josh Barnett
Heath Herring


Did they 'blow up' in the USA or in Japan? You are really looking at it through an American perspective and it makes zero sense. Pride was more than just Fedor and Japanese local fighters. A true big organisation where all sorts of fighters made a big name for themselves.
 
Despite popular belief, Americans actually do like grappling. I dont know why people keep pushing this narrative.

America was very receptive to MMA from the start, which was grappling heavy (literally brought over by the Gracies and shortly after infested by folkstyle and shoot wrestlers).

Wrestling is a core component of American scholastic sports, and USA is one of the major hubs of wrestling. If Americans did not care about wrestling, it would not even be an Olympic sport anymore.

America is also a major epiccenter for BJJ and submission grappling. Pretty much the leader in it along with Brazil.


In addition, just from watching MMA people clearly do like the grappling exchanges. People like submissions. People like GNP. People like takedowns. People like clinch knees and dirty boxing. We can observe fans cheering for it.

It's lay and pray and wall and stall people do not like.



As for the question - kickboxing and Muay Thai do not have powerful promotions to push them. One is based in Asia and has limited ability. It took the UFC a long time to get people to like MMA and they needed very good promoters (Dana White is very good at his job even if he is a dick).

To get the point across - you could just as easily ask why do people like the UFC but not the PFL or Bellator when it was around?

The answer is simple - people like the UFC not MMA. People like Coca-Cola and Pepsi not just cola. People like NBA and NCAA not just basketball. etc


MMA is not popular outside of the UFC in the United States. So the answer why MT/KB is not popular is because they do not have a good promotion to push it. Glory and ONE were not capable of doing so in the US, nor are they based in the US which heavily limits their ability also.
 
You can have a fighting sport that focuses on a very limited skill set and build up the fighters as the absolute best in the world at using that skill set (boxing). You can have a fighting sport that focuses on fighting, with rules that are mostly skill set neutral and focused on keeping the fighters fighting and avoiding cheesy injuries (MMA). Or you can be somewhere in the middle.

"Somewhere in the middle" is almost always harder to market, regardless of context. There's obvious value in being one of the best at a specific skill and there's obvious value in being a generalist who may have relative strengths and weaknesses but is really good at a wide variety of related skills; there's unclear value in being second tier at each of a limited set of skills.
 
Guess I’m the only one here that likes it, I get it for free on my tv and the fights move along quickly. I’ve always liked the stand up arts, not sure where all the hate is coming from.
 
Casuals will eat anything up that has "UFC" brand logo on it. Even if you the whole ONE roster and changed the rule set they wouldn't notice.
 
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