Has Anyone Else Here Quit Watching MMA?

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Rambo John J

Eats things that would make a Billy Goat Puke
First 100
Jan 17, 2015
71,545
71,469
I watch the normal hours saturday cards
kind of out of habit
not that interested in most of it but sometimes I am surprised and I always have a few fights I want to see play out

not a hardcore anymore

digging some other Orgs also
 

megatherium

el rey del mambo
First 100
Jan 15, 2015
8,798
11,164
I watch the normal hours saturday cards
kind of out of habit
not that interested in most of it but sometimes I am surprised and I always have a few fights I want to see play out

not a hardcore anymore

digging some other Orgs also
You know what I hate the most? I mean above everything else? It was Zuffa buying up the tape libraries of every fight card that ever happened anywhere in the world ever. And then scrubbing youtube and the internet itself of all memory of the sport's early and middle periods. Stuff that the brothers had no hand in, stuff that preceded them. What kind of sport allows one family to own it's history outright lock, stock and barrel.

So for me, I'm afraid it's a case of out of sight, out of mind.
 

Rambo John J

Eats things that would make a Billy Goat Puke
First 100
Jan 17, 2015
71,545
71,469
You know what I hate the most? I mean above everything else? It was Zuffa buying up the tape libraries of every fight card that ever happened anywhere in the world ever. And then scrubbing youtube and the internet itself of all memory of the sport's early and middle periods. Stuff that the brothers had no hand in, stuff that preceded them. What kind of sport allows one family to own it's history outright lock, stock and barrel.

So for me, I'm afraid it's a case of out of sight, out of mind.

agreeeeeeed
 

Andrewsimar Palhardass

Women, dinosaurs, and the violence of the octagon.
Jan 8, 2016
5,234
6,822
You know what I hate the most? I mean above everything else? It was Zuffa buying up the tape libraries of every fight card that ever happened anywhere in the world ever. And then scrubbing youtube and the internet itself of all memory of the sport's early and middle periods. Stuff that the brothers had no hand in, stuff that preceded them. What kind of sport allows one family to own it's history outright lock, stock and barrel.

So for me, I'm afraid it's a case of out of sight, out of mind.
Baseball. Football. Golf. Basketball. Hockey.


Actually, basically every sport is run by one body who owns all of the rights. Maybe not soccer since there are so many big leagues everywhere.
 

ShakaSway

The Unintentional Voice of Reason
Oct 18, 2015
3,907
3,896
I keep up with news and might catch a Bellator sometime in the near future, havent watched a UFC since Jones’ PED use got overlooked in the Gus 2 fight
 

Chromium

Posting Machine
Oct 10, 2016
825
1,326
You know what I hate the most? I mean above everything else? It was Zuffa buying up the tape libraries of every fight card that ever happened anywhere in the world ever. And then scrubbing youtube and the internet itself of all memory of the sport's early and middle periods. Stuff that the brothers had no hand in, stuff that preceded them. What kind of sport allows one family to own it's history outright lock, stock and barrel.

So for me, I'm afraid it's a case of out of sight, out of mind.
Baseball. Football. Golf. Basketball. Hockey.

Actually, basically every sport is run by one body who owns all of the rights. Maybe not soccer since there are so many big leagues everywhere.
I strongly suspect that elite soccer would all be owned by one league if it were more popular in America ;)

Anyway, it's dumb when sports leagues do this too. The NBA made a very wise decision to just let publicly uploaded YouTube highlight clips slide, with the reasoning being "if they come for the appetizers, they'll stay for the meal." The UFC is being fucking retarded trying to get clamping down on all that.

Also baseball, football, golf, and even hockey are all a lot easier to find on mainstream television than MMA. It's not that ESPN isn't accessible enough, they're probably a great home, it's that they only air 10 UFC events a year on their main channel. There's also no minor league MMA getting mainstream coverage the way college football or basketball are really huge deals. It's also not a sport one can casually participate in, the way nearly all of the above can (hockey is a bit more difficult, but you still have little league hockey even for 8-year-olds in North America).

If the UFC was smart about making MMA more mainstream they would be willing to sacrifice some short term profits for long-term visibility. Out of sight, out of mind is the worst place to end up.
 

SongExotic2

ATM 3 CHAMPION OF THE WORLD. #FREECAIN
First 100
Jan 16, 2015
39,772
53,672
The never ending ultimate fighters.
I liked the first few seasons but it became generic and bleh pretty fast.
Yea tuf is weird. Some seasons are some of the best things I ever saw. But others I can't recall a single person. Too watered down

I did like the thing they did with the flyweights where they signed up only champions from around the world

They should do that with other weight classes.
 

Onetrickpony

Stay gold
Nov 21, 2016
14,042
32,308
I slowly stopped watching for a number of reasons, to the point where I only catch a few shows a year now. I finally gave up FightPass last year, and to my own surprise haven't gotten ESPN+.

Part of it was cards being 6-7 fucking hours and on a bunch of different platforms I have to jump between (and as a cord cutter I don't have FS1 or ESPN).

Part of it was 600 people on the roster and the bottom half of those fight less than twice a year, because there's not enough card spots. The divisions with like 80-90 people are especially egregious to try and follow, even if men's BW-through-HW roughly reflected the global fighter population. Part of it was plain too many cards, but I could deal with that if they had more familiar faces and were maybe a hair shorter.

Part of it was the Reebok deal and Zuffa/WME's continually fucking over the fighters financially has just been depressing and just sort of killed my early fandom enthusiasm where I was like "this sport's gonna take over the world!!" Running TUF into the ground didn't help either but that's like 1% of it. USADA initially seemed like a good idea, and I get it if some of the bigger stars might get a bit of leniency, but straight up protecting someone like Jon Jones with a free turinabol pass just makes me feel fucking gross.

Anyway I liked Ronda Rousey. A shame she got so arrogant and then had a mental breakdown when she lost, I genuinely pity her.

I've followed MMA since 2005, and I don't remember when the UFC plateaued, but I feel like they've just kept going more and more downhill since early-mid 2015 or so. Maybe they can turn things around but I'm not holding my breath.
Quality post.
 

Onetrickpony

Stay gold
Nov 21, 2016
14,042
32,308
I strongly suspect that elite soccer would all be owned by one league if it were more popular in America ;)

Anyway, it's dumb when sports leagues do this too. The NBA made a very wise decision to just let publicly uploaded YouTube highlight clips slide, with the reasoning being "if they come for the appetizers, they'll stay for the meal." The UFC is being fucking retarded trying to get clamping down on all that.

Also baseball, football, golf, and even hockey are all a lot easier to find on mainstream television than MMA. It's not that ESPN isn't accessible enough, they're probably a great home, it's that they only air 10 UFC events a year on their main channel. There's also no minor league MMA getting mainstream coverage the way college football or basketball are really huge deals. It's also not a sport one can casually participate in, the way nearly all of the above can (hockey is a bit more difficult, but you still have little league hockey even for 8-year-olds in North America).

If the UFC was smart about making MMA more mainstream they would be willing to sacrifice some short term profits for long-term visibility. Out of sight, out of mind is the worst place to end up.
Completely agree but, the UFC can not sacrifice profits in any way since the day were bought out by WME. There is a huge loan that must be paid and they do not give a shit about the integrity of the sport as long as it gets paid.

The UFC is now run by a corporate conglomerate that has to produce quarterly profits for their investors no matter the cost. They obviously do not give a flying fuck about anything other than short term profits and media opinions of the product and you only need to look at the interim belt situation to prove it.

These owners will run mma into the ground if they can make a buck off of it. Welcome to the new era of mixed martial arts.
.
 

Andrewsimar Palhardass

Women, dinosaurs, and the violence of the octagon.
Jan 8, 2016
5,234
6,822
Anyway, it's dumb when sports leagues do this too. The NBA made a very wise decision to just let publicly uploaded YouTube highlight clips slide, with the reasoning being "if they come for the appetizers, they'll stay for the meal." The UFC is being fucking retarded trying to get clamping down on all that.
If the UFC was smart about making MMA more mainstream they would be willing to sacrifice some short term profits for long-term visibility. Out of sight, out of mind is the worst place to end up.
I completely agree with this. The UFC really shoots themselves in the foot by constantly getting people banned for sharing their content. The lower-level, less-known promotions do it too, when it's likely the only way that the general public can even know that they exist.