Post: #51

(07-10-2013 11:22 PM)Wutang Wrote:  

(07-10-2013 02:02 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

(07-07-2013 03:47 PM)rudebwoy Wrote:  I stopped caring about UFC a long time ago, the last fight I saw was when Silva killed Chonnen.

The sport is dying and needed an "upset" like this to get people talking about it again.

He will be back and is still the best fighter, not his fault if the division is weak.

Do you really think UFC is dying?

I'm an unabashed MMA fanboy and I will be the first to tell you that the MMA boom is over and has been over since 2011-2012. I remember back in around 2007-2010, you would see Tapout and Affliction shirts all over the place and there was all sorts of media covering MMA - talking about how it's the hot new sport (even though it's been around for a while now) and people would be going around claiming to be cage fighters cause it was the in thing. You also saw all these organizations coming up like IFL, Bodog Fights, Affliction, and the like trying to get on the bandwagon. All of this is over now. I think a lot of the novelty has worn off and now the bandwagon fans are starting to move on to the next trend.

MMA will NEVER be as anywhere big as any team sport as much as I would like it to be. Watching two guys trying to beat each other up will only appeal to a certain narrow demographic unlike say baseball which appeals to children, women, white-collar people, etc.

That is an interesting take.

It seemed for me to lose it's luster around the time that Liddel and Rampage fought.

That seemed like a "Superfight".

The new generation of fighters don't seem to have the personalities like Penn, Liddel, Ortiz, Couture, etc.

How are there PPV numbers doing? Are they dipping?

I wonder if the sport got to much overexposure.

Thoughts?

Post: #52

(07-11-2013 12:42 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  That is an interesting take.

It seemed for me to lose it's luster around the time that Liddel and Rampage fought.

That seemed like a "Superfight".

The new generation of fighters don't seem to have the personalities like Penn, Liddel, Ortiz, Couture, etc.

How are there PPV numbers doing? Are they dipping?

I wonder if the sport got to much overexposure.

Thoughts?

http://mmapayout.com/blue-book/pay-per-view/

Here's a breakdown of the UFC PPV numbers going back a few years. You can see that the company really peaked between 2008-2010 when they had big names like GSP, BJ Penn, Liddell, Rampage, Anderson Silva and Lesnar active. Of those six, only GSP and Silva are still fighting, and they both seem to be winding down their careers.

The trouble with MMA is that it's such a brutal sport that even the best fighters realistically only have a 4-5 year window to be at their peak, and that's not factoring in injuries which often totally derail guys for months or even years at a time. So the UFC invests a lot of time and money building up guys, and by the time they've become super popular, their careers are almost over (at least as high level, championship caliber fighters) or they end up getting injured and having to sit on the shelf for a year at a time.

I agree that MMA's popularity has essentially peaked, at least for the foreseeable future. I think it will remain a popular niche sport, on the edges of the mainstream similar to professional wrestling.

Post: #53

Yes I believe the sport has been on a downward trend for some time, the appeal was some of the characters it had. Sadly, most of them have gone. Liddell, Ortiz, Rampage and Couture were all interesting characters who you loved or hated.

Looking at those PPV buys, I can see why WWE was quick to sign Lesnar.

I notice in Canada, the UFC is going to the smaller markets and I am sure cities like Winnipeg are glad to host a
'big" event. When it first came to Toronto, people paid big money to see a bunch of no names and GSP beat some no name in the main event.

I can't see Weidman holding onto the belt for too long, people are not going to buy PPV to see him fight. They will however pay big money for the rematch, I know I will be anxious to see Silva destroy this guy.

Post: #54

This guy was my hero... sucked watching the end of his career

Post: #55

MMA has been somewhat eroded by gyms which offer training but little or no sparring. This means that there are a lot of guys out there who think they have been training MMA and brag but would still get their ass kicked in a fight, and as such this undermines the discipline/ sport. Also I think that the UFC made a mistake by going after boxing so hard. A boxing fan is likely to also be a potential MMA fan and there's no point in trying to alienate a huge potential market, by insulting boxing. The Ultimate Fighter also needs to be evaluated when looking at the huge growth of MMA. As Chuck Lidell explains in his book, the popularity of this show (and the first series in particular) really helped to push MMA into the mainstream. However like any reality tv show, it quickly lost its shock value, and this fall in popularity/ interest for the TUF has led to a corresponding fall in interest for UFC/ MMA in general. Furthermore I would agree that the UFC lacks big personalities at the moment. Its position as a 'franchise' makes it quite gimmicky and it really needs some over the top characters to carry it.
To be honest I think that MMA is just going to simmer on the side lines for a few years, and won't fall much further because there's still a hardcore fan base. I mean viewing figures may still drop somewhat, but the number of people training MMA (which is what matters) is likely to only increase. Over the last two years, the MMA gym I've been going to has doubled its membership, and this highlights the way that across the UK there's been a real surge in the number of guys training it and there's still a big untapped market of both working class and middle class men who want to train it for self defence, fitness or competition.

Post: #56

(07-11-2013 12:42 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

(07-10-2013 11:22 PM)Wutang Wrote:  

(07-10-2013 02:02 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  

(07-07-2013 03:47 PM)rudebwoy Wrote:  I stopped caring about UFC a long time ago, the last fight I saw was when Silva killed Chonnen.

The sport is dying and needed an "upset" like this to get people talking about it again.

He will be back and is still the best fighter, not his fault if the division is weak.

Do you really think UFC is dying?

I'm an unabashed MMA fanboy and I will be the first to tell you that the MMA boom is over and has been over since 2011-2012. I remember back in around 2007-2010, you would see Tapout and Affliction shirts all over the place and there was all sorts of media covering MMA - talking about how it's the hot new sport (even though it's been around for a while now) and people would be going around claiming to be cage fighters cause it was the in thing. You also saw all these organizations coming up like IFL, Bodog Fights, Affliction, and the like trying to get on the bandwagon. All of this is over now. I think a lot of the novelty has worn off and now the bandwagon fans are starting to move on to the next trend.

MMA will NEVER be as anywhere big as any team sport as much as I would like it to be. Watching two guys trying to beat each other up will only appeal to a certain narrow demographic unlike say baseball which appeals to children, women, white-collar people, etc.

That is an interesting take.

It seemed for me to lose it's luster around the time that Liddel and Rampage fought.

That seemed like a "Superfight".

The new generation of fighters don't seem to have the personalities like Penn, Liddel, Ortiz, Couture, etc.

How are there PPV numbers doing? Are they dipping?

I wonder if the sport got to much overexposure.

Thoughts?

2013 so far is going great, and last year was hugely affected by injuries to a bunch of their top stars that depleted the events of good fights.

That said, I think there has been a drop in interest.

It might have to do with the dominance of Brazil. Last year around half of the divisions had Brazilian champions. You kind of do need interesting US champs to keep the interest going. Guys like Rampage, Ortiz, Forrest, even Brock (biggest draw the UFC ever had).

A lot has changed this year, as two Brazilians lost their belts to two Americans, but we'll see how much that changes.

Jon Jones should be insanely popular given his dominance, and the fact that he is American, and on the surface a clean-cut decent guy. He should really be the new GSP, or even more popular. But he had that DUI, the cancelled UFC event, and just the way he acts in general makes him something of an enigma for fight fans.

Post: #57

(07-11-2013 01:24 PM)scorpion Wrote:  

(07-11-2013 12:42 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  That is an interesting take.

It seemed for me to lose it's luster around the time that Liddel and Rampage fought.

That seemed like a "Superfight".

The new generation of fighters don't seem to have the personalities like Penn, Liddel, Ortiz, Couture, etc.

How are there PPV numbers doing? Are they dipping?

I wonder if the sport got to much overexposure.

Thoughts?

The trouble with MMA is that it's such a brutal sport that even the best fighters realistically only have a 4-5 year window to be at their peak, and that's not factoring in injuries which often totally derail guys for months or even years at a time. So the UFC invests a lot of time and money building up guys, and by the time they've become super popular, their careers are almost over (at least as high level, championship caliber fighters) or they end up getting injured and having to sit on the shelf for a year at a time.

Yep. A brand like the New York Giants will always have fresh blood coming in. You never know when someone like Brock Lesnar or Chuck Liddell is going to come along again. Not to mention that New York City, Philadelphia, Miami will most likely be around for the next few centuries - city pride is a HUGE factor in why team sports are big. You can feel like you helped the Giants win the Superbowl just be virtue of being living in New York City. You can't really do that with an individual athlete.

Post: #58

The UFC is just starting to expand in China.

Post: #59

There's going to be an Ultimate Fighter season in China

Post: #60

The new season of The Ultimate Fighter is gonna have girls and guys living in the same house.... I'm pretty excited to watch it an see how that turns out.

Post: #61

(07-11-2013 10:59 PM)Wutang Wrote:  

(07-11-2013 01:24 PM)scorpion Wrote:  

(07-11-2013 12:42 PM)thegmanifesto Wrote:  That is an interesting take.

It seemed for me to lose it's luster around the time that Liddel and Rampage fought.

That seemed like a "Superfight".

The new generation of fighters don't seem to have the personalities like Penn, Liddel, Ortiz, Couture, etc.

How are there PPV numbers doing? Are they dipping?

I wonder if the sport got to much overexposure.

Thoughts?

The trouble with MMA is that it's such a brutal sport that even the best fighters realistically only have a 4-5 year window to be at their peak, and that's not factoring in injuries which often totally derail guys for months or even years at a time. So the UFC invests a lot of time and money building up guys, and by the time they've become super popular, their careers are almost over (at least as high level, championship caliber fighters) or they end up getting injured and having to sit on the shelf for a year at a time.

Yep. A brand like the New York Giants will always have fresh blood coming in. You never know when someone like Brock Lesnar or Chuck Liddell is going to come along again. Not to mention that New York City, Philadelphia, Miami will most likely be around for the next few centuries - city pride is a HUGE factor in why team sports are big. You can feel like you helped the Giants win the Superbowl just be virtue of being living in New York City. You can't really do that with an individual athlete.

In boxing whole countries get behind boxers.

I haven't really seen that in UFC though, but I may be wrong.

Thoughts?

Post: #62

I know the Brazilians go crazy over fighters from their country and are pretty hostile to foreigners coming to their "turf" when events are in Brazil.

With Americans, they'll randomly chant "USA USA" when an American is fighting a non-American but I don't really feel like they get together as a country behind a fighter just cause he's American and good.

I feel guys like Pacman who have an entire nation behind them - a lot of times it's due to the fact that the country doesn't really have any international sporting heroes that is famous worldwide.

Post: #63

It's actually quite common for fighters to have nationalist followings, with the best example being GSP. He's literally one of the most popular athletes in Canada. Michael Bisping has a large UK fanbase, Cro Cop used to be huge in Croatia, Fedor in Russia, etc... The Brazilians are also quite nationalistic as Wutang pointed out.

You really just don't see it in the US because there are so many US fighters that it feels kind of pointless. It would be like going to an SEC football game and starting a USA chant.

Post: #64

For those interested, there will be a rematch of Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman on December 28 at UFC 168!