This is fact not opinion. It will be at least 5 years, if ever, before a bellator competes head-to-head with the ufc. Let alone over-take. These guys don't need the money, and their expenses are streamlined. All that can happen is if the UFC is no longer popular. This can only happen if people are turned off by it. But these guys will NEVER run out of money, and quite honestly do not need more. This product can't fail, decline, lose end unless mma dies because there business is too well structured to 'fail.' As long as mma survives, the UFC will as well.
There is almost a 0% chance that smaller companies can create bigger stars, or draw a champion to leave the UFC, See Randy couture failing in his attempt.
Hate the UFc, Hate randy, love Fedor, these are all separate issues, but failure is literally not an option. hell BMX is still around.
Wat 
Fact: the OPinion doesn't understand what a fact is. 
I don't think anyone has argued that the brand will go bankrupt. They've just said it will stop being a cash cow because people are losing interest.
There was a time when I would skip work to watch a PPV. Now I don't even check the results first thing the next morning.
UFC is dying by the minute in the states...
when they were on spike they had up to 3 million eyeballs a week or more consuming their content (commercials, tuf, fight nights, replays, unleashed, countdowns, etc...)... even if you wanted to forget about the UFC you couldnt... Today they have less than a third of those consistent impressions.
Consistent and accessible weekly programming is what cultivated a loyal fanbase... it's what kept people sticking around.
That fanbase is now eroding away by the minute because that foundation of consistent and accessible weekly programming is gone. The passion index for the UFC is also likely dropping by the minute.
The UFC isnt dying because it's a "fad" just six months ago bisping vs miller pulled 3.5 million viewers on spike, tuf 14 was pulling 1.3 million viewers after 14 seasons... what show is still around after 14 seasons? we are beyond fad. It;s a structural problem. ie: they lost their foundation.
It's also not a "fox isnt adverting enough" problem... they cant red carpet every event. at some point the content itself has to build up enough momentum to pull the viewers. Florian vs Gomi pulled 2 million viewers on spike.
also, Zuffa cant cannabalize the stars it built on spike and place them on fox expecially with no current foundation because you're just gonna burn through what took you so long to build that much faster.
The bleeding will not stop unless the foundation is reconstructed.... the only platform that can do that is FX, but FX doesnt want to become the "UFC" network or what spike used to be (airing a ton of ufc content).
FX wants only fresh programming. They need to come to terms on a weekly live fight series and move tuf to a better night. Along with the primetime this is enough. This will get 2million plus eyeballs a week and reconstitute the UFC's base.
Fix the FX portion of the deal and you fix everything else,...
- Get 2 million eyeballs on FX everyweek and you consistently get 4 million on fox. Get 4 million on fox consistently and you increase your FX viewership.... increase FX viewership you then again increase fox viewership and the cycle continues until you hit your real cieling... but this cycle doesnt work unless you have consistent/consumable/accessible/weekly programming
- Get 2 million eyeballs on fx every week and you double the viewership on primetime. DOuble the viewership on primetime and you go back to 2009, 2010 ppv numbers. With the big Fox platform properly in the cycle you get into mayweather space.
With this cycle properly running you get 10's of thousands of people every week demanding fuel so they can catch up and go deepre with the sport (replays, prelims, unleashed, weigh ins, international tufs, etc...)
If the FX portion of the deal isnt fixed the bleeding will continue and it's gonna get ugly.
If they think Fuel is the answer, it will be 4 years or more before they can reconsistute a proper foundation and by then alot of what they worked so hard in building up with spike will have erdoded away.
If the FX portion of the deal is not fixed asap... the passion index for the ufc will continue to decline and the casual fanbase will continue to erode.
^^frat, coz I've already done that a few times this week, good points though.
MMALOGIC - UFC is dying by the minute in the states...
when they were on spike they had up to 3 million eyeballs a week or more consuming their content (commercials, tuf, fight nights, replays, unleashed, countdowns, etc...)... even if you wanted to forget about the UFC you couldnt... Today they have less than a third of those consistent impressions.
Consistent and accessible weekly programming is what cultivated a loyal fanbase... it's what kept people sticking around.
That fanbase is now eroding away by the minute because that foundation of consistent and accessible weekly programming is gone. The passion index for the UFC is also likely dropping by the minute.
The UFC isnt dying because it's a "fad" just six months ago bisping vs miller pulled 3.5 million viewers on spike, tuf 14 was pulling 1.3 million viewers after 14 seasons... what show is still around after 14 seasons? we are beyond fad. It;s a structural problem. ie: they lost their foundation.
It's also not a "fox isnt adverting enough" problem... they cant red carpet every event. at some point the content itself has to build up enough momentum to pull the viewers. Florian vs Gomi pulled 2 million viewers on spike.
also, Zuffa cant cannabalize the stars it built on spike and place them on fox expecially with no current foundation because you're just gonna burn through what took you so long to build that much faster.
The bleeding will not stop unless the foundation is reconstructed.... the only platform that can do that is FX, but FX doesnt want to become the "UFC" network or what spike used to be (airing a ton of ufc content).
FX wants only fresh programming. They need to come to terms on a weekly live fight series and move tuf to a better night. Along with the primetime this is enough. This will get 2million plus eyeballs a week and reconstitute the UFC's base.
Fix the FX portion of the deal and you fix everything else,...
- Get 2 million eyeballs on FX everyweek and you consistently get 4 million on fox. Get 4 million on fox consistently and you increase your FX viewership.... increase FX viewership you then again increase fox viewership and the cycle continues until you hit your real cieling... but this cycle doesnt work unless you have consistent/consumable/accessible/weekly programming
- Get 2 million eyeballs on fx every week and you double the viewership on primetime. DOuble the viewership on primetime and you go back to 2009, 2010 ppv numbers. With the big Fox platform properly in the cycle you get into mayweather space.
With this cycle properly running you get 10's of thousands of people every week demanding fuel so they can catch up and go deepre with the sport (replays, prelims, unleashed, weigh ins, international tufs, etc...)
If the FX portion of the deal isnt fixed the bleeding will continue and it's gonna get ugly.
If they think Fuel is the answer, it will be 4 years or more before they can reconsistute a proper foundation and by then alot of what they worked so hard in building up with spike will have erdoded away.
If the FX portion of the deal is not fixed asap... the passion index for the ufc will continue to decline and the casual fanbase will continue to erode.
what do you do? just cut and paste the same tired excuse and complaint in every thread? we get it dipshit, you're crying because you're not one of the36 MILLION homes that gets the least important fights one cards that have been televised less than 3 months.
the UFC can easily fail and is clearly on that track already. anyone thinking it couldn't is an idiot. Trhe UFC is still very much a fad
but it sure isn't going to fail because people can't see the fights that are mostly unimportant to the org. that's for damn sure.
I don't consider it failing if it's on multiple channels and places in the world with more events than ever. Now there's 2 TUF's a week, and eventually there will be more ppvs/fight nights a week too. As long as they're making money then it will keep growing. I never would've imagined seeing 3 UFC's in one week and on Fox, Fx, and Fuel, that's pretty cool IMO.
There's nothing to get excited about sometimes...
All other sports have a season... imagine how burned out you'd be on FOOTBALL if it was on all week and every weekend of the year.
Humphrey -I get fuel...MMALOGIC -
what do you do? just cut and paste the same tired excuse and complaint in every thread? we get it dipshit, you're crying because you're not one of the36 MILLION homes that gets the least important fights one cards that have been televised less than 3 months.
the UFC can easily fail and is clearly on that track already. anyone thinking it couldn't is an idiot. Trhe UFC is still very much a fad
but it sure isn't going to fail because people can't see the fights that are mostly unimportant to the org. that's for damn sure.
It's a fad? really... use some common sense. please name a fad that had a television show last 14 seasons still pulling a million viewers?
Tuf 14 just 6 months ago was pulling 1.3 million viewers. bisping vs miller pulled 3.5 million viewers 6 months ago... after being roughly 7 years on the network.
is that a fad? use some common sense...
Now i can further lower myself to your level by insulting you further but you get the point.
MMALOGIC -Humphrey -I get fuel...MMALOGIC -
what do you do? just cut and paste the same tired excuse and complaint in every thread? we get it dipshit, you're crying because you're not one of the36 MILLION homes that gets the least important fights one cards that have been televised less than 3 months.
the UFC can easily fail and is clearly on that track already. anyone thinking it couldn't is an idiot. Trhe UFC is still very much a fad
but it sure isn't going to fail because people can't see the fights that are mostly unimportant to the org. that's for damn sure.
It's a fad? really... use some common sense. please name a fad that had a television show last 14 seasons still pulling a million viewers?
Tuf 14 just 6 months ago was pulling 1.3 million viewers. bisping vs miller pulled 3.5 million viewers 6 months ago... after being roughly 7 years on the network.
is that a fad? use some common sense...
Now i can further lower myself to your level by insulting you further but you get the point.
i see you aren't real bright, so let me show you how it's a fad/
A fad is any form of behavior that develops among a large population and is collectively followed with enthusiasm for some period, generally as a result of the behavior's being perceived as novel in some way.[1] A fad is said to "catch on" when the number of people adopting it begins to increase rapidly. The behavior will normally fade quickly once the perception of novelty is gone.[1]
you lknow, how ufc 100 had 1.6 million buys, and now they've lost 50% of their NORMAL ppv buys down to around 250 to 350k, and can't even get average viewer numbers on National TV. and that's started droppiong quickly too
not rocket science. it's the absolute definition of a fad
mma isn't a fad.. the UFC is. as someone posted, fast food entertainment now. it didn't use to be that way
^ lol
Condit vs Diaz just pulled 400k ppv buys... please tell me in which year a fight like condit vs diaz would have pulled 400k buys?
Please tell me when a fight like edgar vs bendo in japan would pull 350k? wwhat would it have pulled when the "fad" was hot?
Please tell me what tuf 14 would have pulled in viewership if it aired in the "hot fad" years? 6 months ago it pulled 1.3 million viewers.
Please tell me which hot-fad year bisping vs miller would have pulled more than 3.5 million viewers on spike...
Did you even read the very definitition of "fad" that you are using? if you did, do you even understand what you read?
if you think you did then you have a bigger problem than your flawed thinking..
no no, you're right. the company that has had popularity of any kind for less than 6 years (and had to PAY money to be on tv) and has just barely started creeping in to mainstream, except nobody is watching has far surpassed fad status.. it's a long term engrained company. lol.
^ lol, you still dont understand what fad means.
UFC pay per view numbers are only estimates, if I'm not mistaken.
The decline of the UFC is when it bought out WEC and added the featherweight and bantamweight. Plus the UFC is watered down now. Too many TV shows.
ANYTHING can fail... just ask wall street.
The UFC can dwindle away or it can crash and burn over night.... both are very possible if the people running it get to nutty