There are definitely more fans. I think it feels different for the hardcores because there isn’t the same feel for the events that there used to be. Hardcores from yesteryear care less for the sport than they used to. The absence of that feeling, I believe, is the spirit of OP’s post. Which I agree with. The concept that there are less fans though now, is wrong.
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More fans are always the goal of an entertainment organization
I think some people here are conflating “awareness,” and “brand-identity,” with sustainable viewership. The whole world now knows MMA exists, but very few know much more beyond that. Like boxing, every once in a while, a charismatic figure emerges that transcends the sport and gains worldwide notoriety, but again, this doesn’t translate into people actually caring about MMA beyond a surface level.
When Rousey was on top, you had all sorts of people tuning in for the novelty and to be part of the culture zeitgeist, but how many of those “fans” stuck around? Very few. Conner’s charisma is guaranteed to pull a lot of casuals in every time, but when he’s not around, they all disappear.
MMA has, and will always be, a niche product, because to really get a lot of watching it, you have to have some intimate knowledge with at least some aspects of martial arts. Grappling, striking, etc. The only way to really pick up on a lot of the nuance of it is to have trained yourself, and not many people are going to do that with any seriousness anyway. That’s why it’s laughable to try and have MMA programs installed into kids/high schools, because there are innate issues that drive someone to want to be a fighter. Insecurity, needing to prove something, etc., and unless you have that drive, then you’re not going to want to gravitate to something as violent as MMA.
TLDR: MMA has never been as popular as people think. It’s forever destined to be a niche activity that will occasionally brush with the mainstream.
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true, ~5years ago some friends, knew many ufc fighters, and their epic fights, today they know one or two new fighter and gives zero fucks about any ufc event xD maybe ufc is more known of all wmma and other stupid shit like pride months etc, but they definitely losing fans quicker then gaining new ones
conor/floyd rly helped for ufc to gain more popularity, but its fading
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Which entertainment organization doesn’t want more fans?
Which ones seemed cool, educated and respectful? Chuck? Tito, either Shamrock? Tank? Wandy? I’ll give you Silva, GSP, Frankie, and some others, but there are still guys like that on the roster, there has always been tatted up thugs, as you call them.
When the UFC was sold we started getting watered down product plain and simple. They go for numbers instead of for the fans anymore. It was one of the few sports where they kept guys around and put them in winnable fights so to please the fans but now we get a dozen new names each event. Much of that comes with the popularity of MMA and many more people making it a career but they started selling out n firing people immediately and it has been downhill from there imo. Aside from the past couple cards most have been unrecognizable as far as old talent goes. I miss the old guys, the Means fight was a good example of what I miss and what’s wrong.
the first few UFCs were by far the most exciting Not even close.When they brought in judges in it took half the excitement away .That said I understand why they did it But it took out the urgency to finish the fight
I agree, and that would be a perfectly valid question. However, hardcore fans have to realize that we’re the least important fans they have. If they spent their time catering to us, they’d still be doing 150K buys on big events.
Ok, but you have to understand that YOUR friends lost interest…however, there are plenty of younger fans that have recently become interested. I’m 41 now, and there’s only been one time in the last few years that I went to a “UFC party” where we all hung out, drank beers and watched the fights. However, that doesn’t mean that nobody has UFC parties anymore.
As hardcore fans and their casual fans lose interest, there’s a new crop of fans doing all the shit we used to do. WE don’t care about the current PPVs, but there’s plenty of people going crazy for it.
I had a young dude at work recently (had no idea he was a UFC fan) ask me if I’d ever watched the UFC, because he wanted to tell me about this MMA fighter he’s obsessed with, because she’s the best he’s ever seen, male or woman…then went on talk go on a 15 minute tangent on how amazing Valentina is. Blew my mind.
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FIFA made a huge push in the US to popularize the sport. The PGA has publicity campaigns all the time to increase viewership and fans. I don’t think there are any entertainment based organizations that aren’t always looking for more fans.
I said “entertainment organizations”. That is what the UFC, MLB, NBA, NFL etc is. None of them don’t want more fans.
I’m another who’s lost interest. I think mostly WME-IMG ruined things after they took over. Fight Nights usually aren’t worth giving your Saturday nights to and the ppv cards are just way too expensive.
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The UFC is DEFINITELY an entertainment organization. So are the other orgs I listed.
Oh, its remotely true.
Nate Diaz is an example too…
Maybe you weren’t around for Ken Flo, Forrest, Joe Daddy, Chipper, Junie, ect.
Yes clearly people were more invested in Junie Browning and Joe Stevenson than Conor, Izzy, Jorge, Ferg, Gaethje, Volk, Holloway, Ngannou, Usman, Colby, Khamzat etc etc.
What the fuck?
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Personally I dont think the UFC started to get good until around 97ish, and didnt start truly hitting its stride until the Zuffa years. The early style vs style stuff was fun for what it was, and yeah it was entertaining usually, but you could barely even call it MMA most of the time and the talent level mostly sucked, it was bush league. The evolution after that was pretty rapid.
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This
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OK, but it’s a publicly traded company. The entire goal should be more fans and more money. That’s literally their responsibility to their investors. Improving the sport and working with the base is important…as long as it leads to more fans and more $.
Hardcore fans don’t spend much money, not MMA fans anyway. Look around here, it’s almost impossible to get most of the posters here to pay for anything. The real money is probably in their various deals/partnerships. Granted, you have to have an audience statistic to show potential TV outlets, but that’s where just having a large swath of casual viewers is more important than the small number of diehards.
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