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Does anyone else miss the old UFC days?

3K views 28 replies 25 participants last post by  RangerClydeTheBlue 
#1 ·
Before I start, I am obviously ecstatic that the UFC had made it to the level of popularity it is at right now, both for the Sport as a whole, the fighters and fans obviously.

But a small part of me misses the excitement I use to get before an event because they would only have like 3 or 4 a year and the forums would be chaotic on fight day. I would pass up making plans with guys i knew other friends and girls to catch a UFC event I had been anticipating for months.

I still get ampped up before a UFC like tonight, but it's not the same level of excitement. I know it's because we are getting spoiled with the amount of events they throw, but a small part of me as I said earlier, enjoyed it even more with less events.

Before someone jumps out and tells me to STFU and stop complaining, I'll be the first to say I am not. Just reminiscing on the past and how the excitement level for me and I'm sure a lot of you was heightened with UFC's of old.

MagiK
 
#3 ·
When my favorite fighters are fighting I always get super excited or if two guys that are very competitive and aggressive or hate the crap out of each other...I'll get interested.

But before, I got excited for every single event lol.
 
#4 ·
I miss the old UFC days too. Way back when there weren't all the regulations and you really didn't know what the heck to expect. And the fact that they were so few and far between that you wouldn't ever miss one live. But I do like the fact that I don't have to wait so long between cards though.
 
#6 ·
The first MMA event I ever saw was UFC 86 Griffin vs. Jackson, and I only really started watching intently after UFC 100 (or around there). For me, those where the good ol' days, but I definitely think we're in the prime of the UFC and enjoy watching the events more now than ever before.

My main qualm with the UFC revolves around releasing horrible (on paper) cards as PPVs.
 
#9 ·
My main qualm with the UFC revolves around releasing horrible (on paper) cards as PPVs.
This is my issue as well. It's not that the majority of these ppvs are not fun to watch, it's that they expect people to shell out money without big stars on the cards.

Tonight's card is a perfect example. You have 2 fairly big names in Bendo and Edgar but then Shields, Herman, and Okami are their only back up. None of these guys are popular with casual fans. This card will do poor numbers because of that and should really be a free card.

The stars are just getting spread a bit too thin because there are so many events. We should at least be getting a co-main event that has some sort of implication or some star power.

And this right after UFC 149? Pffff.
 
#8 ·
I wasn't around back then but I don't know if I could have dealt with 4 events a year. I personally love the fact that there's so many events, with the UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, AXS and OneFC there's always MMA on it seems like, Can't way that about basketball or football.
 
#11 ·
I dont miss the only on vhs days or the 4 a year days and honestly what I miss is not the time between events

What I miss is the greater then life champions that fought allot and were not out for year at a time, they fought everybody and their competition were great fighters that put on a war but the champ woud squeek out a win ect

I miss the Chuck Lidell, Rich Franklin, Ken Shamrock, Bj Penn glory days

Now we have Anderson Silva where his only compitition we know will just get destroyed before they even get in the cage (yes this is because he is just that good but also because of the compition also) Gsp out for what seams forever so much so he has become erelevant in my eyes, the hw champ i dont really care about because it just gets switched around.

I also miss the submission game, the sport evolved to much to quick into wresting ect that sub guys cant take down strikers and wrestlers take people down but go for the smuther ect...

It seams most of my favorite fighters are retiring from the sport and i miss them. biggest blow was Shamrock getting just demolished and Bj Penn retiring (yes i knw he is gunna fight again ect but still)

I get allot of flack for this but i believe in what diaz said about the sport before he semi quit
 
#15 · (Edited)
In my opinion the UFC will never reach the level again when Tito, Chuck and Randy were all battling it out. For some reason that sticks out in my mind as the golden age of the UFC because I really haven't seen any fights that come close to those days. Now most title fights are so lopsided before they even start that it's not as exciting.

I get allot of flack for this but i believe in what diaz said about the sport before he semi quit
what did he say?
 
#14 ·
Of course I miss the days of Liddell, Gracie, Shamrock, Couture, Fedor, Cro Cop etc. The PPVs were indeed more sporadic. I guess my thinking is that in 5/10 years, I'll miss the current era as much as the days of Liddell etc. We'll be talking about JBJ, Cigano, Velasquez, Aldo, Cruz, GSP like we talk now about Gracie, Fedor, Couture etc.
 
#16 ·
Yeah UFC 1-15 will always have a special place in my heart. The newness/raw-ness and the holy shi- moments. As unpolished as it was, it was fun.

I love modern MMA, but the old UFC fights were something special that you had to experience at that time.
 
#18 ·
I really enjoyed the time shortly after UFc acquired Pride and the LHW division got super stacked. I was so damn excited when all the Pride guys started coming over, I could hardly handle it. Things have settled themselves out now.

But more ontopic, I remember getting super excited for that one card every month, and then every once in a while having to wait almost 2 months for a car and all the forums and everything would start to die down. Then fight night strolled along and you could hardly access any sites. It was fun....but I'm generally just a fan of fights and also like that feel when I forget about an event and turn on the t.v and am like "holy shit!"
 
#20 ·
I know what you mean, I have watched pretty much every event live for the past six years. However this year I'm finding it hard to get excited for cards. Like back in the days you had excitement in every divisions, but now you got nothing.

LHW-Jon Jones...nothing left after Henderson
MW-Silva...nothing left
WW-Gsp...When he beats condit, Diaz is exiting, but he will likely win
HW-JDS all he has to do is beat Overeem and he clears out the divsion
FW- Aldo nothing left.....

That is five champs that pretty much monopolize their divisions. Back in the days it was way different as you had a stream of prospects and constant stars from other promotions. Reality is most of the guys we loved are done or gone. When the UFC was amazing it was like this.

HW- Big Nog,Crocop,Fedor,Randy,Lesnar...4/5 gone
LHW-Forrest,page,Shogun,Chuck,Wandy,Tito..2 are retire,3 will be gone by next year, and shogun sucks now. The list goes on such as Huges,Penn, etc.
 
#21 ·
WW has so many challengers atm man. Rory, Maia, Condit, Erick Silva, Diaz, Kampmann, Hendricks, Bahardurzadah.

LHW has Gustafsson and Teixeira. Sonnen is eyeing a move up.

FW has Frankie potentially dropping down and hopefully that means Erik Koch can have another fight or two before he gets thrown in there with Aldo or Frankie.

HW, Cain V JDS is interesting and I believe it just got booked. Then Overeem is back at the end of the year so that fight can be setup with the champ. If Cain is champ then Werdum is a good title contender. If Overeem or JDS is champ then Cormier will be a good title contender.

MW, I don't think Anderson is overly interested in MW at this point, still if Belcher gets by Vitor then he deserves a shot, Weidman has a case for a title shot and with a big win Bisping too could earn a title shot (somewhat undeservingly)

I think it's all gonna be fine :)
 
#22 ·
The only thing I think is that now there are too many fights that should be Preliminary cards on the main events. We lost something when pride fighting got bought up because you had more competition then, not just the ufc saying this is what you get you better like it. I hope for another event to come in and give the ufc a ride for the money it made all the events better for us
 
#24 ·
I miss more the old pride days, i was a pride guy. I also watched UFC but i didnt think it was as awesome as most do back then, most fighters were really subpar and the competition was even more shallow than it is today.

there were 2 or 3 good guys and the rest were from bars, and those 2 or 3 good guys werent that good to begin with and you could tell even from that period, they werent great strikers or great at bjj

the fights were still fun but i think nostalgic really comes into play when ppl remember "the good old days" fact is no matter what era we live in im sure there would awalys be bitching on forums.
 
#27 ·
Dude, I am right there with you. Not only because each event was a huge deal, but also, the only way to win back then was to "Actually finish your opponent" which to me, is the foundation of a fight.

Adding rules, rounds, time limits, etc, etc. Are all what have allowed the sport to grow and become more legit. But I miss the days of 2 guys enter and only 1 can leave and that's it. There was no laying and praying back then, no point fighting. You needed to actually beat the guy to win.

Now, there are also so many fights and fighters that many of them are really kind of meaningless and have no legit hype behind them.

A lot of these events are like watching the Rams play the Dolphins. Yeah, they are pro teams, and they have to play, but do your really expect me to pay top dollar to watch?
 
#28 ·
Nice post and I agree with you to a certain degree. Maybe I should have been a little more specific in my initial post. I started watching the UFC since the very beginning but it's not the old bare knuckle UFC's (UFC 1 till 11 or so) that I miss.

I stopped watching the UFC a bit after UFC 5 till about 25 or so. I ended up downloading the ones I missed years later. I became a fan again around the time BJ fought Hughes and in my opinion after those fights the competition got a lot better and the events were better. I actually prefer the UFC with the rules they have now (except the no knees to a grounded opponent). UFC 42 and on is when the UFC got mega exciting in my opinion but that excitement is starting to die down with lackluster events they throw when a lot of them would have been on the prelims 5 or 6 years ago, as opposed to main card material.
 
#29 ·
Personally, I think right now is the best MMA has ever got. People like to do the "the old days were the best", and no doubt that in 2030 we'll be saying "The current champ is nothing compaired to Anderson Silva/GSP/Jon Jones" etc.

MMA is still a brand new and fresh sport. It has just progressed so fast that people ALREADY get nostalgic about it.
 
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