The UFC is caught in an awkward flux

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MMAPlaywright

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Jan 18, 2015
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From BloodyElbow.com

UFC Minneapolis: The UFC is caught in an awkward flux



Never mind the ESPN deal and how profoundly it has perplexed and pissed off viewers and would-be viewers. We can all argue for the reasons for this, but to no doubt, Saturday night’s UFC on ESPN 3 card with Francis N’Gannou clubbing Junior dos Santos in just 71 seconds, among other happenings on the card, really brings this to the forefront.

Undoubtedly, the Ultimate Fighting Championship is still the leading mixed martial arts promoter in the world. No one can argue this. That said, the promotion just put on a card, on “The Worldwide Leader in Sports,” where its main event ended in barely a minute, won by a man who just had a woeful bout with Derrick Lewis, and its co-main event was contested in a division that the company is actively trying to erase. It’s all a headache.



On the surface, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with N’Gannou clubbing Dos Santos. At the same time, he’s still a fairly one-dimensional fighter who lost an absolutely agonizing fight less than a year ago to Derrick Lewis, another one-dimensional fighter who was humiliated and blown out of the water by the current UFC heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier. And in turn, Cormier has been twice exploited by current light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, a recalcitrant steroid cheat, who is about to fight his second straight middleweight step-up. Like, what’s happening here?

It gets no better as you go down the line, as part of this entire process is that the UFC put all its eggs in a few select baskets, so we end up with Conor McGregor out of his mind climbing trees intoxicated with two titles, forfeiting them, then we wind up we beneficiary of a genocidal warlord like Ramzan Kadyrov grooming him in Khabib Nurmagomedov, while at the same time, we have an interim champion in Dustin Poirier. This is to say nothing of Tony Ferguson, who won an interim title – one of the banes of the company – only to have his title stripped after a freak accident, and just returned this month after a well-documented and obvious case of mental illness. The UFC Performance Institute can foster the training of fighters and its partner, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, is willing to kill anyone’s career for trace amounts of ostarine, but we can’t examine athletes who get punched in the head for a living for possible cognitive disabilities? This is a good policy?

The fact is, the UFC has lost control of its athletes; you can view that however you want. MMA stars clearly have more agency over their own careers now, which is a positive. However, it’s not because of the company’s willing. We’re long gone from the days of Joe Silva terrifying fighters over the phone with fight deals. Now, the UFC has given too much flex to their top earners, circled in on social media and other extraneously elements that fighters know what Conor McGregor earns, and feel free to decline fights. I’ve talked to UFC matchmakers and their biggest annoyance now is people turning down fights. We’re a long way from Matt Hughes defending his welterweight title after doing roofing for a summer.

No doubt, there are positives to the current UFC model. The stoking of the fire for fights like Robert Whittaker-Israel Adesanya or Kamaru Usman-Colby Covington is valuable. But, at the same time, they’re only made more valuable by the UFC’s insistence on pushing garbage interim titles and having college grads push their fighters to engage in trash talk without understanding the industry. But, for those of us who can see behind the curtain, it’s transparent and absurd. The UFC created its own monster by using titles and interim titles as bonus chips, and created a monster by encouraging these people to become social media monsters. That’s why Colby Covington can be in the Oval Office and, then posting pictures with him cruising in a convertible with a woman her breasts out, and that’s why it constitutes a “call out.”



On this same UFC card, Joseph Benavidez whopped Jussier da Silva, whom he knocked out almost six years ago. He’s the last person to best two-division champion Henry Cejudo. Yet, he competed in a division the promotion is actively seeking to eliminate. What’s the point? It’s just animals hopping through flaming rings. It’s cruel and it’s stupid. Does anyone really expect a Cejudo-Benavidez rematch? This is just a circus game.

When it comes to the UFC, there’s so little thoughtful promotional oversight and so much given to pure earning and brand deals, you can just fight, make sure you have someone in mind to call out if you win, then take your gloves off. It doesn’t even matter any more. It’s rote, formulaic and frankly, anarchic. Paradoxically, while fighting off unionization and imposing ridiculous impositions on fighters, the company is so bent on hand selecting stars and then relying on those stars, individual athletes can stunt on the promotion and hold them hostage.

The UFC will remain the biggest show in town. But the state of things, when it comes to promotion and competition, is simply bizarre, caught in a weird coming of age where no one – not the UFC itself, fighters, media or fans – seem to really know what the company truly wants to be. It’s unnerving and exhausting. The sickest part of all is that because it possesses the bulk of the best talent in cagefighting, we’re all going to watch to fuel this schizophrenic fire.
 

Onetrickpony

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Nov 21, 2016
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This here is an perfect example of how to write an awkward and unclear paragraph.

It gets no better as you go down the line, as part of this entire process is that the UFC put all its eggs in a few select baskets, so we end up with Conor McGregor out of his mind climbing trees intoxicated with two titles, forfeiting them, then we wind up we beneficiary of a genocidal warlord like Ramzan Kadyrov grooming him in Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Commas everywhere there should be periods. And this line

“then we wind up we beneficiary of a genocidal warlord like Ramzan Kadyrov grooming him in Khabib Nurmagomedov”

makes no fucking sense whatsoever.

Fucking mma media are a bunch of clowns.
 
1

1031

Guest
The fact is, the UFC has lost control of its athletes
To my understanding, they are contractors and not the UFC's athletes.
To the underlying point made, yes things are stale for the reasons given, but many guys have been pointing out these things for years.
 

MMAPlaywright

First 100
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Jan 18, 2015
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This here is an perfect example of how to write an awkward and unclear paragraph.

It gets no better as you go down the line, as part of this entire process is that the UFC put all its eggs in a few select baskets, so we end up with Conor McGregor out of his mind climbing trees intoxicated with two titles, forfeiting them, then we wind up we beneficiary of a genocidal warlord like Ramzan Kadyrov grooming him in Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Commas everywhere there should be periods. And this line

“then we wind up we beneficiary of a genocidal warlord like Ramzan Kadyrov grooming him in Khabib Nurmagomedov”

makes no fucking sense whatsoever.

Fucking mma media are a bunch of clowns.
“Now, the UFC has given too much flex to their top earners, circled in on social media and other extraneously elements that fighters know what Conor McGregor earns...”
 

Splinty

Shake 'em off
Admin
Dec 31, 2014
44,116
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That's a sloppy thesis that bemoans the UFCs lack of central planning while displaying none of its own.
 

Limpy

Banned
Oct 20, 2015
14,842
27,929
I still think it’s funny we all talk shit about this promotion but when there’s a live event on we’re all huddled together on this forum posting how awesome that fight was.

We’re basically chicks.
 

Onetrickpony

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Nov 21, 2016
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“Now, the UFC has given too much flex to their top earners, circled in on social media and other extraneously elements that fighters know what Conor McGregor earns...”
Jordan Breen was:

A) hammered, on drugs, didn’t give a fuck what he wrote and posted that.

B) was hammered, on drugs and forgot to get it proofread before posting.

C) no longer gives a fuck and enjoys trolling mma fans with his articles.

D) just realized
 

Atto

Chinese Virus
Feb 11, 2016
4,750
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What a shit article. Bloody elbow and mmafigting has some e grade journalists. Tmmac should start its own site and it will probably will have better articles.
 

Wild

Zi Nazi
Admin
Dec 31, 2014
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All sports experience peaks and valleys. MMA's been in a valley the past year and half, as Rousey retired, Conor did other things, Jones was on suspension, etc. They lost their stars. But I think (maybe hope) the UFC is going to experience an uptick beginning this fall. Conor is supposedly coming back later this year, we may see the Jones/DC trilogy, Holloway will return, etc.
 

Onetrickpony

Stay gold
Nov 21, 2016
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All sports experience peaks and valleys. MMA's been in a valley the past year and half, as Rousey retired, Conor did other things, Jones was on suspension, etc. They lost their stars. But I think (maybe hope) the UFC is going to experience an uptick beginning this fall. Conor is supposedly coming back later this year, we may see the Jones/DC trilogy, Holloway will return, etc.
I like that you are trying to stick up for other mma sites but that article was a pathetic excuse for journalism.

80% of this forum could’ve written a more coherent and informative piece than this press credentials carrying reporter managed to put forth.
 

Sheepdog

Protecting America from excessive stool loitering
Dec 1, 2015
8,912
14,237
Holy fuck, I've made posts when blackout drunk on here that genuinely make more sense than that article.

I'm all for articles shitting on the UFC, but don't drink a bottle of turpentine before you try to write them.
 

aghof

an person
Apr 15, 2015
2,037
3,814
"then we wind up we beneficiary of a genocidal warlord like Ramzan Kadyrov grooming him in Khabib Nurmagomedov"

wait, is this one of those Google-translated Russian articles that 'touch' posts on that other site?
 

Jesus X

4 drink minimum.
Sep 7, 2015
28,766
31,291
the ufc took the personalities away from the fighters with the fight kits and when the stopped doing countdown shows.

part of what interests you about boxers is the personalities they create.


in skateboarding sometimes a less skilled pro might become more famous than another pro based on his aesthetic with clothes and personality I guess was my point the kits take that away.
 

Wild

Zi Nazi
Admin
Dec 31, 2014
85,004
123,331
the ufc took the personalities away from the fighters with the fight kits and when the stopped doing countdown shows.

part of what interests you about boxers is the personalities they create.


in skateboarding sometimes a less skilled pro might become more famous than another pro based on his aesthetic with clothes and personality I guess was my point the kits take that away.
Bingo. They’re robots now.
 

Sex Chicken

Exotic Dancer
Sep 8, 2015
25,819
59,498
“Never mind the ESPN deal and how profoundly it has perplexed and pissed off viewers and would-be viewers. We can all argue for the reasons for this, but to no doubt, Saturday night’s UFC on ESPN 3 card with Francis N’Gannou clubbing Junior dos Santos in just 71 seconds, among other happenings on the card, really brings this to the forefront.”

This is an insane paragraph, and it opens his essay. I have no idea what he is trying to say. “Really brings” what “to the forefront”?
 

Sex Chicken

Exotic Dancer
Sep 8, 2015
25,819
59,498
This is one sentence...

“It gets no better as you go down the line, as part of this entire process is that the UFC put all its eggs in a few select baskets, so we end up with Conor McGregor out of his mind climbing trees intoxicated with two titles, forfeiting them, then we wind up we beneficiary of a genocidal warlord like Ramzan Kadyrov grooming him in Khabib Nurmagomedov, while at the same time, we have an interim champion in Dustin Poirier”.
 

Onetrickpony

Stay gold
Nov 21, 2016
14,042
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This is one sentence...

“It gets no better as you go down the line, as part of this entire process is that the UFC put all its eggs in a few select baskets, so we end up with Conor McGregor out of his mind climbing trees intoxicated with two titles, forfeiting them, then we wind up we beneficiary of a genocidal warlord like Ramzan Kadyrov grooming him in Khabib Nurmagomedov, while at the same time, we have an interim champion in Dustin Poirier”.
That is not one sentence.
 

lueVelvet

WHERT DA FERCK?
Aug 29, 2015
5,045
7,445
This was the worst article I’ve read in a long time.

Also, the UFC still does countdown shows. For every PPV at least.