Will modern UFC fans ever be as passionate as Pride Fans?

I think you underestimate what sports means in a place like Japan, and what it means in a place like America. In the U.S. we start training our little sports stars on T-Ball, little league, summer football leagues etc. By the time we get to High School, especially in places like Texas, we are building 20,000 seat capacity football stadiums for kids that are 16 years old.

This is a football stadium for high school kids.

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My point is that its all about winning in the U.S. The type of fan you are dealing with is nothing like the average Japanese citizen. We have multiple big time sports in the U.S. and we are actually a sports culture. Japan is not a sports culture.

You realize that martial arts is big part of Japanese culture right? Why are you talking about football.

I completely agree that it is all about winning in the U.S though. But that's not sports culture. That's corporate culture.
 
Pride FC was fine but the UFC has surpassed them in terms of entertainment.
 
No chance, the TMZ population has taken over.

So fucking true. Gossip is what runs the forums now.

Remember the extreme respect for legends on their downfall? Igor comes to mind. When he moved down to 205 and just couldnt cut it. The guy wasnt laughed at. He was honored big time and to the older fans, he still gets this respect.

Now, old legends lose the respect when they start losing. Its sad.
 
Passion is measured in $$$$$ so yes, i suppose it's possible. Ronda and Conor seem to have a lot of passionate fans.
 
Passion is measured in $$$$$ so yes, i suppose it's possible. Ronda and Conor seem to have a lot of passionate fans.

obsessive fans rather. mostly bandwagon fans.

I might be wrong.

We'll find out when Ronda and Conor lose. Will their fans stick with them like Fedor-fans did, and continue to do up till this day?

Time will tell.


GSP has passionate fans for sure. That's why he could sell 55,000 seats against Jake Shields. That, and his ppv success.

GSP drew 625k buys against Hendricks and fans got worried. Ronda draws the same number and is automatically a legend.
 
Pride FC was fine but the UFC has surpassed them in terms of entertainment.

What? The UFC still hasn't equaled the production or the pageantry of PRIDE events, UFC 189 kinda came close. The fights seemed larger than life with PRIDE.
 
So fucking true. Gossip is what runs the forums now.

Remember the extreme respect for legends on their downfall? Igor comes to mind. When he moved down to 205 and just couldnt cut it. The guy wasnt laughed at. He was honored big time and to the older fans, he still gets this respect.

Now, old legends lose the respect when they start losing. Its sad.

Good post man
 
It seems like every UFC fan hates one thing or another about the organization. From the way it is run, matchmaking, recent sponsorships, fighter pay, fighters, other fighters... etc etc. And not just casual fans, but hardcore fans too.

Is it because the time has changed? Did the people change? Is it because we're actually goofs?

What will it take for Zuffa to make fans loyal to the product, and PROUD... so that years later, we may look back with fond memories instead of with "LOL see he was a can" or "he should have retired haha" comments.

UFC 190 had Shogun and The Nogs and people were calling it a shit card cause dinosaurs and more "haha retire" and all that. Man, just sad to see... is passion gone from MMA?

Pride dudes you know what I'm talking about. Here's one for the feels



Thanks for reminding me about boondock. It was a trip down memory lane.
 
I respectfully disagree with all of this.

The Magny example was just that. There is thread after thread after thread here constantly running through the same cycles for almost every fighter. Fighter X is either on a big roll and set to steamroll the division and become the BEST or Fighter X has been exposed and is on the cusp of a major downward spiral. And don't forget my favorites, the "Was he really all that good?" threads about fighters at or near the end of their careers.

As to the second part, its the selectivity to which the idea is applied that is the main issue. Some fighters get special treatment for what ever the reason, justified or not, while others suffer a poorly timed defeat that leaves them in the weeds for extended periods.

To me, the UFC just feels plastic, cheap, impermanent, all flash with no substance, a highly polished turd, if you will, and then you take the issues I have with their business practices, and it's no wonder I avoid getting too invested in the sport. It's too bad, too, because I love MMA. I still watch but it's not as much fun as it used to be.

100 percent. Too many fair weather fans in this current era of mma
 
I'm as much a fan of PRIDE as the next guy, but I'm not letting its dazzling spectacles and postmortem romanticism blind me from seeing the shady shit that's thousand times worse than in the UFC.

The UFC front man acting like a child? Big fucking deal, the other guy were in league with the Yakuza.

Underserved UFC title shots? Shit, PRIDE doesn't even need it to be a title match!

UFC fighters getting caught with steroid? Ha! Steroids was an essential part of the complete PRIDE breakfast!

For virtually any bad thing one can say about the UFC, there's a far worse example in PRIDE. And yes, that includes the so-called "hype", with an army of tomato cans and bought fighters on the payroll to serve that purpose.

PRIDE was awesome, largely because we were a bunch of innocent, wide-eye kids who enjoyed their pro wrestling-inspired antics/brutality/spectacle, while completely clueless about the shady shit happening behind the scene.

Yes, I was passionate about PRIDE. Just like I was passionate about the World Wrestling Federation.


Lol you should read up on the history of the Ferittas
 
So fucking true. Gossip is what runs the forums now.

Remember the extreme respect for legends on their downfall? Igor comes to mind. When he moved down to 205 and just couldnt cut it. The guy wasnt laughed at. He was honored big time and to the older fans, he still gets this respect.

Now, old legends lose the respect when they start losing. Its sad.

Amen, there was a retard who quoted me earlier and my statement went right over his head, I didn't bother responding. You know exactly what I'm talking about.
 
Eagle_Stadium.jpg



My point is that its all about winning in the U.S. The type of fan you are dealing with is nothing like the average Japanese citizen. We have multiple big time sports in the U.S. and we are actually a sports culture. Japan is not a sports culture.

this is EXACTLY the difference between Japanese fans and American fans. here, its all about winning...over there, they applauded you as long as you displayed that fighting spirit, win or lose. lose a couple times and people say you were a has been or all hype.

i mean, Condit was 27-4 going into the Nick fight with 3 decisions out of 31 fights and was labeled a runner by some of the idiots on here.

i guess running is how you finish 90% of your fights.
 
My point is that its all about winning in the U.S. The type of fan you are dealing with is nothing like the average Japanese citizen. We have multiple big time sports in the U.S. and we are actually a sports culture. Japan is not a sports culture.

Nonsense. Go to a Raiders game. Or a Cubs game. Or a Browns game. Very passionate fan bases, with teams that have long very bad stretches. For every winning team there is a losing team, and a lot of them have surprisingly strong fan bases.

I mean I agree that the average US sports fan is not like the average Japanese MMA fan, just thought you were painting with a broad brush there.
 
You realize that martial arts is big part of Japanese culture right? Why are you talking about football.

Not sure why but this ^ made me laugh hard :D



Ronda and Conor seem to have a lot of passionate fans.

I've never met one person in real life that knows wtf a Connor Mcgregor is. Have you? Have any of you?

Ronda is a little more known, but for me personally, I can't force myself to give a crap about her fights. I think Marloes Coenen would be a much bigger break-out star if she was as dominant a fighter as ronda seems to be.
 
Pretty sure the internet ruined any chance of that.
 
Not sure why but this ^ made me laugh hard :D





I've never met one person in real life that knows wtf a Connor Mcgregor is. Have you? Have any of you?

Ronda is a little more known, but for me personally, I can't force myself to give a crap about her fights. I think Marloes Coenen would be a much bigger break-out star if she was as dominant a fighter as ronda seems to be.

that's because Marloes is well spoken and a class act. Ronda? not so much...
 
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