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Is fighter bitchiness and random winners killing off MMA?

3K views 45 replies 22 participants last post by  Trix 
#1 ·
I don't know many men who buy female gossip magazines or who are fascinated by who is being bitchy to who. So I don't know why fighters thought doing that would be a good idea I'm talking to you, McGregor.

Also the sport is poorly calibrated, I wish a good mathematician would compare the winning statistics of fighters against other sports, I'm sure the results would be ridiculous.
 
#2 ·
Sadly a good chunk of men today are not men but little catty women, raised on TMZ, "reality" TV and WWE, hence the fanbases of "charismatic" douchebags.

As for random winners, it's definitely worse than mainstream sports where long term domination is more routine, but at least it's better than kickboxing where even the GOATs have like 40-15 records.
 
#9 · (Edited)
MMA is dying? These posts should be in the "you laugh, you lose" thread. Seriously, wtf are you guys talking about? If you don't like the smack talk just don't listen to it. To suggest the sport is dying is ludicrous.

Sadly a good chunk of men today are not men but little catty women.
How dare society advance social norms to allow men to be interested in whatever they please.
 
#4 ·
That adds to the OP point. MMA is dying to give way to this new preposterous "reality show", full of fake beefs, loud trolls and constant bitchiness that end up affecting even down to earth athletes and camps. It's a plague that has eyes on nothing but gathering more and more money from casuals.

Conclusion: Richer investors, poorer sport.
 
#6 ·
Several things are killing MMA

1.) Thin Divisions - a 30 person division is just not good enough to maintain the weight-class you need at the very least 60-90 guys to give match makers the discretion to book great fights, main events and bring guys up through the ranks.

2.) Zero Competition - Pride built stars, by having them fight often(crazy idea I know) the UFC doesn't do that, they ration out the fights for as long as possible.

3.) Reebok Deal - The Reebok deal took about 60% of the money out of the sport, which leads us to the fighters having just enough to compete but the camps are just dying out.

4.) Weight-class expansion - It was to fast, a way for Zuffa to lock in cheap talent and push big contracts off it's payrolls, now five years later we are paying for it.
 
#7 ·
MMA is in full expansion as a sport right now, where are you guys getting your stats that its dying?

There's a shitload of fight cards every week, or every other week between UFC and Bellator and that's just the top two dogs.

UFC is doing the looking for a fight show, where people are actually signing up to random little shows hoping that the UFC comes by and signs them up, the interest in pursuing a career in MMA is rising by the day.

If the UFC has more bad fighters on the roster then it did 10 years ago, its only because the number of fighters is significantly bigger. Like any other sport out there, there's the elite and there's a shitload of average in between.

Also to adress the thread title. Before the Reebok deal (which i think sucks btw) the way for fighters to get sponsors was to have some sort personality and not be blank.

This myth that before the reebok deal fighters would get sponsored because they let their hands do the talking is just that, a myth.
 
#12 ·
Why are guys still replying to this guy? Almost every single time he speaks it's regarding McGregor.



People are just so wrapped up in their own bollocks and too stupid to see it. People say MMA is dying and we need guys like GSP back. Do you guys remember when GSP was around and MMA was dying because of the lay and pray? How about when MMA was dying cause they added rules in?
 
#13 ·
Killing off MMA? MMA is easily the strongest it's ever been in terms of profitability/recognition/being mainstream.

I liked MMA better during the early/mid 2000s, it was more niche and interesting and it just held my attention more. However, today's MMA has far more big fights, far better fighters/athletes, far more skill variation, etc, than back in those days. So on one hand I'm not as into it as I was during my peak, but on the other MMA is a lot better in general these days, from the fighters to the quality of fights to quantity of big events, etc. One could argue there is over-saturation, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but that's a half glass empty half glass full kind of thing, a lot of people love having UFC events pretty much always around the corner.

As for bitchiness/random winners, I actually have no idea what you mean so can't comment on it.
 
#34 ·
Well put - pretty much sums up how I view the sport now too. The golden days are gone and they will never be replicated. But there's pros and cons to every aspect of the evolution...

The sport is far more glossy now and has more of a 'sport' feel to it which is fully intended by the UFC and generally this is a good thing, but it goes hand in hand with saturation and shed loads of fighters who I know nothing about. I liked the days when I knew pretty much everyone on the roster and what they were good at - it was easier to get hyped for fights when I knew who I was about to watch.

The skill level is far beyond what it was 10 years ago and that too has pros and cons. It means some fights are absolutely insane and we're seeing physical specimens like Jones and McGregor put on some spectacular performances. On the flipside, lots of guys are evenly matched and elements of their game are neutralised. Still, there's been some crazy resurgences from the likes of Lawler that turn the evolution aspect on its head.

I don't like the watered down cards and the safe fighters who don't go in to finish every time. But that's how a sport works and MMA is no different - if anything it has more risk takers than many other sports.
 
#14 ·
I was a huge fan of MMA from 2004 - 2012, but since then my interest has been declining. Largely because of the growth of the sport and the business practices it's entailed; partly because my interests have just changed.

I still watch free cards occasionally, and I rarely order PPVs now, because they're all over-hyped on just 1 fight.

These days, the guys fighting on the prelims, under card, and half the main card are relatively unknown to me.

Many of them are so unknown, that you could take their last name off the fight card. "Doug vs. Steve" would be fine.

I can appreciate what the UFC is trying to do as a business. But like any other commodity, once it's scaled up for mass production, quality always deteriorates.
 
#15 ·
Ive said it before, im going to say it again... In all my time watching the UFC, from the beginning to now, ive NEVER seen better fights then some of the amazing shit over the last few years. When I hear people talk of losing interest, it boggles my mind. Who cares about all the extra fluff. Hype. Trash. Bollocks. Its all soooooo easily avoidable. The thought that anybody would stop watching MMA and these amazing fights because of stuff that happens outside the cage? Makes no sense to me whatsoever.
 
#18 ·
It's not dying, that's for sure. But I don't pay much attention to it any more. Too much fluff, some aspects are getting too much like WWE for my taste, and obvious favourtism regarding building up fighters as opposed to sensible ranking matchups. I watched maybe 4 live events last year. I'll watch recordings of fights I hear were exciting, but overall I just pop in here now and again to see what's up (disappointingly, what I see are mostly threads about soap opera fluff) then go back to not caring. I probably wouldn't even do that too much if it wasn't near the top of my Sports bookmark folder. heh

But that's just me and no doubt I'm in the minority and off my rocker.
 
#19 ·
You know what I do when I hate the build ups and "WWE fluff"? I stop watching the build ups and "WWE fluff".

Seriously, if you let an optional press conference or comments from Dana White deter you from watching Robbie Lawler Vs Rory MacDonald then you're probably not right for the sport anyways.
 
#20 ·
It's a double edged sword.

I think a lot of us that have been MMA fans for a long time would prefer it to be more like the golden age of the late 2000s. I miss being able to talk about MMA in public without people chewing my ear off about McGregor or Rousey (without being able to name 10 more fighters on the UFC roster!)
But if you support this sport and want it to grow a watering down of the fanbase is inevitable and as it becomes more mainstream the UFC will pander to the more casual viewer as they want the most PPV buys/tv viewers they can get. At the end of the day money is king - and the talkers and 'MMA celebrities' make the most money for the company.
It's certainly not killing MMA though - It's as big as it's ever been.
 
#23 ·
It is when there is literally no option. The human resources department answers to a district manager.

The district manager and the store manager are in the same fraternity, the same one as the owner and the HR has literally no power. If you aren't in the frat they shit over everyone all day everyday, such is life, I'm going back to school.

At least I know now that I'm not a sociopath and people in fraternities can be shitheads, it doesn't matter. Time to move on to better things, I'm mostly thankful hot grease didn't scar my face. The moral is people get upset way too easily instead of just finding a solution or looking on the brightside. It's just so dumb to sit around going oh poor me unless some serious shit went down which it rarely does. Oh boohoo my boss is a jerk... OK now what. Should I tell him to go **** himself so I don't get my vacation accrual?
 
#32 ·
^This. I personally love every single aspect of MMA. The fights, the interviews, MMAHour, Three Amigos, BloodyElbow, MMAFighting, Tommy Toe Hold, UFC, BAMMA, Bellator etc. I'm a really big McGregor fan and am interested in any fight Ronda has. If I didn't like all that, I wouldn't watch it. Are people punishing themselves by listening to every McGregor interview despite hating him or something? It's easy to avoid. The UFC night has the commentators hyping up almost every fight, a 2 minute preview to each fight and the entrances. Outside of that, hype wise Conor McGregor and Clay Collard are complete equals.
 
#36 ·
Pretty much how I feel to a T. I still get amped for aome fights but have found it easier and easier to forget or simply not care to xatch many cards.

Dying is a strong word. But if their credit standing means anything then they are wilting a bit. Their ppv numbers are weak for anything that doesnt have conor on it. Stars and champs of 170 and 185 traditional divisions are doing very dissappointing numbers for them. But again not sure how much that hurts them.

Backlash against UFC last year was an all time high.

JMMA is all but dead.

Usually to reach the masses the product has to get generically packaged and some fans will be turned off. It may not be dying so much as it is turning over new fans the swollow old fans up.

I can tell you one thing, dana does not look nearly as happy to be there as he did just 2 or 3 years ago. Huge change. He has even lost his excitement.
 
#45 ·
I missed a lot of stuff which I'm going to get back to watching. EliteXC, a lot of Strikeforce etc. I'm currently categorising my EliteXC files (I put a notepad file of the fights with the original so I can search for fighter names).

I love how people have this romantic idea that MMA was something different than now. Things like Kimbo main eventing as an MMA rookie over Robbie Lawler. People flipped their shit when Conor and Aldo was above Weidman and Rockhold (even though Conor and Aldo was one of the biggest fights of all time) yet they pretend Dennis Rodman practically being a host of an EliteXC show is less "WWE".

Also, lmao at watching this 2007 show and Ken Shamrock talking about coming back. I've just watched him "return" to the UFC against Tito. Now I'm seeing him "return" in Cage Rage. I believe that Ricco Rodriguez fight was a "return" and recently he "returned" against Kimbo. Ken Shamrock has returned like 4 times in a decade, the guys ridiculous haha.
 
#46 ·
Also, lmao at watching this 2007 show and Ken Shamrock talking about coming back. I've just watched him "return" to the UFC against Tito. Now I'm seeing him "return" in Cage Rage. I believe that Ricco Rodriguez fight was a "return" and recently he "returned" against Kimbo. Ken Shamrock has returned like 4 times in a decade, the guys ridiculous haha.
That fight Ken Shamrock had where he was winning and gave up because he thought he was having a heart attack in the ring makes me think he should probably stay retired.
 
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