Why mma fans have such a hard time accepting that the sport evolves?

[Bangkok ready d1]

I don't get it is it the stakes the sport presents and sherdogers are too invested in the fighters and not the sport? I mean people pretty much accept this in other sports, as much as pele was a important soccer player people woudn't dare to compare him to ronaldo skill for skill cause the sport is much more competitive and different now.
Mma right now is bigger than ever right now with a way bigger talent pool than back in the days, still somehow the narrative perpetuated on sherdog by some is that some divisions are worse nowadays... Which its impossible to prove but mathematically it should be way off since talent coming to the mma world is more common now.
Anyway discuss.

 

[Pressure Project]

I just don’t enjoy watching it as much anymore. Maybe it’s the twitter popups, the horrible commentary, or the awful force-fed wmma fights.

Same with all sports these days. I don’t bother. It wasn’t even TUF that ruined it as I watched like the first 10 seasons of those.

Every fighter is just the same, or close to the same. Imagine playing streetfighter or MK and the characters are all the same. I opt these days to actually partake in fighting instead of watching.

 

[Nobru]

I don't get it is it the stakes the sport presents and sherdogers are too invested in the fighters and not the sport? I mean people pretty much accept this in other sports, as much as pele was a important soccer player people woudn't dare to compare him to ronaldo skill for skill cause the sport is much more competitive and different now.
Mma right now is bigger than ever right now with a way bigger talent pool than back in the days, still somehow the narrative perpetuated on sherdog by some is that some divisions are worse nowadays... Which its impossible to prove but mathematically it should be way off since talent coming to the mma world is more common now.
Anyway discuss.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Pele cant be in the same sentence. Only if you wanna say Pele >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Ronaldo. Not my fault If you havent seen Pele in action, but those who have seen both in action have absolutely no doubt about it. Also Ronaldinho >>>>> Cristiano, Ronaldo >>>>>>>> Cristiano, just to clear the mud.
That said, yes, as the sport grows more and more talented fighters we have.
Im just hoping we get a new Fedor, a new Andy, really showmakers. These 'old' styled guys would completely dominate their weight classes NOW with the skill lvl they had back in the day

 

[MadNIghtKing]

I don't get it is it the stakes the sport presents and sherdogers are too invested in the fighters and not the sport? I mean people pretty much accept this in other sports, as much as pele was a important soccer player people woudn't dare to compare him to ronaldo skill for skill cause the sport is much more competitive and different now.
Mma right now is bigger than ever right now with a way bigger talent pool than back in the days, still somehow the narrative perpetuated on sherdog by some is that some divisions are worse nowadays... Which its impossible to prove but mathematically it should be way off since talent coming to the mma world is more common now.
Anyway discuss.

Probably has more to do with missing their All-American champions and the fallacy UFC created in the beginning that Americans are the best at combat sports. Mixed with the Tapout, metal music, Ed Hardy era it definetly had a target audience.

 

[Dionysian]

Serious lol @ the notion that HW is now the best it has ever been. Or LHW.

 

[Stand N Bland]

I just don’t enjoy watching it as much anymore. Maybe it’s the twitter popups, the horrible commentary, or the awful force-fed wmma fights.

Same with all sports these days. I don’t bother. It wasn’t even TUF that ruined it as I watched like the first 10 seasons of those.

Every fighter is just the same, or close to the same. Imagine playing streetfighter or MK and the characters are all the same. I opt these days to actually partake in fighting instead of watching.

I also prefer specialists or people that are excellent in a few areas to all these cookie cutter guys that arent spectacular at anything.

 

[Bangkok ready d1]

Probably has more to do with missing their All-American champions and the fallacy UFC created in the beginning that Americans are the best at combat sports. Mixed with the Tapout, metal music, Ed Hardy era it definetly had a target audience.[/QUOTE

Thats basically the only answer i can find

 

[ExxA]

I just don’t enjoy watching it as much anymore. Maybe it’s the twitter popups, the horrible commentary, or the awful force-fed wmma fights.

Same with all sports these days. I don’t bother. It wasn’t even TUF that ruined it as I watched like the first 10 seasons of those.

Every fighter is just the same, or close to the same. Imagine playing streetfighter or MK and the characters are all the same. I opt these days to actually partake in fighting instead of watching.

Those stupid live twitter popups in the middle of the fight from people i dont even know is fucking dumb.

 

[PalmStrike]

In the same way the NBA has evolved from the Magic/Bird years?


You can keep it.

I own every classic fight on dvd and I watch them on a loop because todays MMA just isn't the same. Call it evolution if you want but men have been fighting since the beginning of time.

 

[HavokHarmon]

I don't get it is it the stakes the sport presents and sherdogers are too invested in the fighters and not the sport? I mean people pretty much accept this in other sports, as much as pele was a important soccer player people woudn't dare to compare him to ronaldo skill for skill cause the sport is much more competitive and different now.
Mma right now is bigger than ever right now with a way bigger talent pool than back in the days, still somehow the narrative perpetuated on sherdog by some is that some divisions are worse nowadays... Which its impossible to prove but mathematically it should be way off since talent coming to the mma world is more common now.
Anyway discuss.

Having seen this talked about before the conclusion I’ve come to is that it’s possible for the overall level of talent to rise significantly while maintaining about the same level of talent at the extreme ends of the distribution. Basically if you plotted it out you’d see the middle of the chart improve dramatically, thus increasing the mean “talent” level of all fighters while the highest end of the distribution would meander around the same point, possibly gaining a few more members but also conceivably going down slightly depending on when you chose to do your calculations.

 

[Unheralded Truth]

Serious lol @ the notion that HW is now the best it has ever been. Or LHW.

True. Look at the guys fighting for the LHW belt next. Gus beat them both (in 2016 and 2017).
And he entered his prime pretty much when the belt ceased to change hands. Before Jones won the title it was a stacked division, so many good match-ups back then.
The problem is they all grew too old pretty much at the same time, and now we have these guys in the top that DC and Rumble would have murked.

 

[Bangkok ready d1]

Having seen this talked about before the conclusion I’ve come to is that it’s possible for the overall level of talent to rise significantly while maintaining about the same level of talent at the extreme ends of the distribution. Basically if you plotted it out you’d see the middle of the chart improve dramatically, thus increasing the mean “talent” level of all fighters while the highest end of the distribution would meander around the same point, possibly gaining a few more members but also conceivably going down slightly depending on when you chose to do your calculations.

I don't desagree with that much of the top guys back them couod be competitive but the overall divisions are way better especially the lighter weight classes since it was not a hot bed for fighters back in the day.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Because what it’s evolving into fucking sucks

 

[Lee_]

Youngster? Noob?

Compared to the 90's it is evolved, but not much after that.

More talent 2005-2010. Especially LHW and HW, which were immensely more talented then.

Since there are no competing orgs really these days, you have to use the whole MMA scene of the era (Pride and UFC); combined those blow away what we have in UFC today. That era was WAY better.

 

[Bork Neslar]

 

[rear naked ankle pick]

seems there is lot more cans than there was before

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

The HW division has certainly been better in the past same goes for the LHW division in the UFC but the LHW division looks like it will be much better in a few years since there are a lot of young but mostly unproven guys now.

 

[TheAmericanGazelle]

The short answer is nostalgia bias combined with glory days syndrome, combined with the idea that evolution generally impacts the average/middle of a distribution more than the superstars (it's easier to improve non-extreme values than extreme values), combined with the idea that some glamor divisions probably haven't evolved in the last dozen years in a meaningful manner, if at all.

There's also the idea that evolution/technical skill often doesn't correlate to having "fun" fights per se.

 

[Satan's Daddy.]

Ufc has been doing a piss poor job at lhw, and hw these past recent years, we have a dominant hw champ and he's not even active rn? Smh.

 

[Fesaine]

Only in sherdog. Outside of this forum everyone knows that the sport is still evolving rapidly