Female divisions are literally beer breaks between fights
“b” level draws like Gaegthe, Poirier, Islam, are either going to retire in 2 years or fade away
The era of PPV juggernauts are over for the UFC. They have built literally ZERO starts in the past 5 years and there is ZERO buzz about the sport for the next 6 months. Look at the line up for the next several months. Complete trash cards and not really worth watching
No one outside of these forums gives a flying fuck about these fights coming up. Dana is going to cash out his chips at maximum price at the end of the year.
People have literally said this shit with every single generation of stars and yet here we are.
Conor hasn’t been an actual fighter for like 6 years now so who even cares there. Jon Jones also didn’t fight for 3 years. Why didn’t the UFC die?
UFC popularity peaked a long time ago and it was before Conor and Jones were the main guys.
It is what it is UFC and isn’t really going away now. To say the UFC will be irrelevant is saying the sport will just disappear because Jon Jones and Conman McFelon?
I mean, the idea that the UFC was going to be a mainstream mainstay was always a bit ridiculous, I think it’s just regressing to the mean a bit. The initial pop was due to the novelty and that lasted a bit. There was a pop in MMA gym participation too but that has definitely tempered somewhat, or at least from what I can tell.
Basically we’re getting a picture of which MMA fans actually watch it for the MMA, not for the personalities, storylines, or the trendiness.
I do agree that UFC is about to have a superstar problem. They don’t have anyone close to Ronda or Conor or Khabib or Jones. They’re hoping O’Malley is the next breakthrough star.
Jamahal Hill, Leon Edwards, Alexa Grasso, and Brandon Moreno are all champions. They are not draws.
But the UFC will be fine. In terms of stars and promotions, it’s pretty cyclical throughout UFC history to have a huge star, then a lull, and then a breakthrough start, then a lull. Same thing happens in professional wrestling. Hulk Hogan left and they didn’t have a superstar until Stone Cold showed up 5 years later. Then he left and it happened again. Same thing with boxing, the NFL, etc.
It’s part of sports promotion. The UFC needs someone to break through.
But boxing has lulls too where they go years without any huge stars so do some other sports but they usually have such large rosters it isn’t quite as dramatic.
