UK cannot produce viable MMA prospects. Why?

Underground
41

BigSleep - judging from the small sample of UK folks here, I would say it's mental defects that prevent UK MMA'ers from developing into top prospects.
Well played sir :)



In the Premier League, where no wage cap operates, the average player earns about £21,000 a week, or £1.1m a year, with the highest paid players – such as Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Robinho – earning up to £130,000 a week, almost £7m a year.



not bad considering what a small and poor country we are

 

42

@Mat-burn You obviously haven't watched any of Terry Etims fights then.............He's won 2 of his last 3 with submissions, a killer Guillotine and a nice D'arce on Justin Buchholz.

43

humphrey sphinctermuscle -

mma is microscopic as a sport on US TV. they're happy if they get 1 million viewers while sports like the NFL to 40 million and the superbowl did 156million which is unreal. nascar events sell out 200,000 seats they're also microscopic in revenue generated. the NFL did over 4 BILLION last year.

I mean let's get real. the UFC is BY FAR the biggest org right? well one team in the NFL is worth more than the entire UFC. The Dallas Cowboys are valued at 1.5 billion and there are 32 teams in the NFL

as for the NBA? please... 30 teams, and last year one was valued at 600m. that means 2 of the 30 NBA teams are worth more than the entire UFC. the NBA also averages 26.4 million viewers on Sunday night alone

it's bigger than the UK i guess, I don't know. but don't be silly and try to compare it to any mainstream US sport. it's like saying a 3 year old kid running down the street compares to olympic sprinters


wtf are you talking about? I didnt say it was the biggest org. The NFL will always be huge I didnt say anything about the NFL. No one is watching the NBA, they lost 400m last year. If MMA continues to grow it'll be bigger than the NBA.

Like i said these orgs been around for 40+ years. Gotta even the playing field out, but MMA will definitely be bigger than the NBA in a few decades.

44

Pooch - 
BigSleep - judging from the small sample of UK folks here, I would say it's mental defects that prevent UK MMA'ers from developing into top prospects.
Well played sir :)

<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; ">In the <a title="More from guardian.co.uk on Premier League" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; " href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premierleague"&gt;Premier League</a>, where no wage cap operates, the average player earns about £21,000 a week, or £1.1m a year, with the highest paid players – such as Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Robinho – earning up to £130,000 a week, almost £7m a year.
</span>
not bad considering what a small and poor country we are
 

pahahahaha.

Frank Lampard is paid about £120k a week by a Russian. Gerrard is paid a similar amount by Americans, and Robinho was paid ridiculous amounts by Arabs.

Back on topic: there's a lack of mainstream interest and of course, the fact that we generally don't wrestle. The UFC may be on ESPN over here, but ESPN is a separate subscription channel. If the UFC was on Sky Sports, it would become far more visible over here.

45

Cretard - I think it's the school system and society, English in general tend to be more civilized, look at their crime rates.

I had to fight growing up as did many of my peers, most Americans have fought, most English have not, as we are the #1 fighting Nation in the history of the world. I believe our people proved that in 1776.


ROFL, holy wrong.

46

georgejonesjr -

Um, there are over 300 NHL players who get over a million a year to play hockey. There are over 20 cities that fill 10-20 thousand seats 40 times a year plus play-offs in the NHL. MMA might have 10 guys who make a million a year, and fill maybe 20 arena's a year in North America (which is about a week's worth of NHL). MMA is nowhere close to being as big as the NHL - every major city would have to fill 10-20 thousands seats for MMA 40 times a week to be the NHL's size. And the NHL is tiny compared to the NBA, MLB, or the NFL.




avg salary doesnt mean crap, and I thought the avg salary for NHL was 500k. But anyway no one is talking about the NHL, you mustbe a hockey fan if youre trying to defend the NHL. MMA is much bigger than the NHL right now, this is not even a debate, most people dont even know the playoffs are on right now.

also the NHL has been out close to 80 years right? I bet you more people stream UFC PPVs than watch NHL playoffs

47

melvins - 
Pooch - 
BigSleep - judging from the small sample of UK folks here, I would say it's mental defects that prevent UK MMA'ers from developing into top prospects.
Well played sir :)



<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; ">In the <a title="More from guardian.co.uk on Premier League" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; " href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premierleague&quot;&gt;Premier League</a>, where no wage cap operates, the average player earns about £21,000 a week, or £1.1m a year, with the highest paid players – such as Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Robinho – earning up to £130,000 a week, almost £7m a year.

</span>

not bad considering what a small and poor country we are

 


pahahahaha.



Frank Lampard is paid about £120k a week by a Russian. Gerrard is paid a similar amount by Americans, and Robinho was paid ridiculous amounts by Arabs.



Back on topic: there's a lack of mainstream interest and of course, the fact that we generally don't wrestle. The UFC may be on ESPN over here, but ESPN is a separate subscription channel. If the UFC was on Sky Sports, it would become far more visible over here.
I know mate,,, im from the UK





anyone know if Kevin Darkus is still in the UK

he was training some folks freestyle over here back earlier in the decade

  

48

The UK is actually massively over-represented in the sport considering how small it is over here. The average person in the UK has never heard of MMA, they will recognize the term 'cage fighting' but think it's something to do with Jean Claude Van Damme or Jordan's boyfriend.

There has never been an MMA PPV here, there is no mainstream media coverage of it apart from an occasional newspaper article. Awareness of MMA in the UK is about 15 years behind the US, Japan, Brazil, Canada etc.

The fact that there are so many good fighters coming out of the UK already is just a sign of things to come when the sport gets more popular, it's just a matter of time until we see world class fighters coming from the UK.

49

The UK's top fighters gravitate toward boxing. Imagine how quickly a guy like David Haye would clean up 205 in the UFC.

Vince McMahon nearly set up a Brock Lesnar vs. Lennox Lewis Wrestling Champ vs Boxing Champ match back in 2002. That would have -truly- been a contest pitting America's greatest fighter vs. Britain's.

50

Squared Circle - The UK's top fighters gravitate toward boxing. Imagine how quickly a guy like David Haye would clean up 205 in the UFC.

Vince McMahon nearly set up a Brock Lesnar vs. Lennox Lewis Wrestling Champ vs Boxing Champ match back in 2002. That would have -truly- been a contest pitting America's greatest fighter vs. Britain's.


yo how come they havent cleaned them up yet if they could?

cause they shook son, boxers dont wanna enter the cage and mess up their pretty faces. Shoguns leg kick would put hayes in a coma

51

joemama - 

yo how come they havent cleaned them up yet if they could?



Same reason you don't see Tom Hanks in a local production of Hamlet down at the Hooterville Community Center.

52

joemama - 
bismanfightclub - 
Dominicf - 
OshKos B'Josh All American Blanket -  I thought the sport was big in the uK now.


It's not big at all.
It's not that big in the U.S. either.  NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL.  Hell even NASCAR, and even boxing are all still bigger than MMA.
 


relax buddy MMA is bigger than the NHL. Right now in the US id say its on par with boxing, MMA has its own fanbase. Check the ratings, we consistently go plat on CBS.

All these other leagues have been around for at least 50+ years. If MMA grows and there are more strikers, in 50 years MMA will be bigger than the MLB/NBA.



LOL, sure an occasional MMA event might to better than a given hockey game, but there are dozens of hockey games each week during the NHL season, and no MMA event equals those #'s Hockey is by far the weakest of the big 4, especially since the strike, which is also when TUF 1 came on spike, so as I've said before, I think the UFC & MMA was helped out by the hockey strike in terms of drawing in hockey fans with nothing to watch at the time. If you want to delude yourself and think that MMA is now bigger than hockey that's fine, but the amount of money made by the players and the teams still dwarfs what MMA is doing. Within 100+ miles of where I live there are a couple of MMA gyms, 1 run out of a garage, 1 out of a church, and another that is a glorified TMA that slapped on an MMA sign up front and charges an arm and a leg for it. Each high school in the bigger towns has it's own hockey team, smaller schools will combine for a hockey team, there are dozens of pee-wee teams for kids in grade school and jr. high as well. There are 0 MMA teams or programs in any school that I know of. I think that will tell you which one is bigger, at least in the cold weather states.

53

Devlyn - The UK is actually massively over-represented in the sport considering how small it is over here. The average person in the UK has never heard of MMA, they will recognize the term 'cage fighting' but think it's something to do with Jean Claude Van Damme or Jordan's boyfriend.

There has never been an MMA PPV here, there is no mainstream media coverage of it apart from an occasional newspaper article. Awareness of MMA in the UK is about 15 years behind the US, Japan, Brazil, Canada etc.

The fact that there are so many good fighters coming out of the UK already is just a sign of things to come when the sport gets more popular, it's just a matter of time until we see world class fighters coming from the UK.



Sounds like a prety fair assessment. I am from the states but think the UK has done pretty well in MMA all things considered. I think a lot of the back and forth is just (usually) friendly banter.

54

Devlyn - The UK is actually massively over-represented in the sport considering how small it is over here. The average person in the UK has never heard of MMA, they will recognize the term 'cage fighting' but think it's something to do with Jean Claude Van Damme or Jordan's boyfriend.

There has never been an MMA PPV here, there is no mainstream media coverage of it apart from an occasional newspaper article. Awareness of MMA in the UK is about 15 years behind the US, Japan, Brazil, Canada etc.

The fact that there are so many good fighters coming out of the UK already is just a sign of things to come when the sport gets more popular, it's just a matter of time until we see world class fighters coming from the UK.



Well said fella. A few more years and then the UK will start to catch up with North America and Brazil.

55

UK like rest of the Europe produces high quality MMA prospects all the time. It's just the champs that we're missing.

56

Devlyn - 
There has never been an MMA PPV here




While I agree with the general point of your post....UFCs 70 and 72 were PPVs on a seperate Setanta PPV channel (not the standard Setanta subscription channel). I think they were about £15.

The Sylvia/Pudz fight is being shown on PPV here too, it's about £6.

57

^Thanks for the correction, interesting to see what the buy rates were for those.

58

Cretard - I think it's the school system and society, English in general tend to be more civilized, look at their crime rates.



I had to fight growing up as did many of my peers, most Americans have fought, most English have not, as we are the #1 fighting Nation in the history of the world. I believe our people proved that in 1776.


 I think you should actually look at the crime rates before you start making up shitty hypotheses.



"CBS News called the UK one of the most violent urban societies in the western world, where people were more likely to be burgled, twice as likely to be robbed and two-and-a-half times more likely to be assaulted than in America."



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/810522.stm



I think the only think you do in the USA is shot more people, which doesn't lend much weight to your theory.



Truth of the matter is MMA is a tiny sport over here. Sure the UFC might sell out 20,000 seats every six months, football on the other hand in the the millions every week.

59

It's not even about getting "good" at wrestling overall, if they could just be more successful at TD defense, and keep the fights standing they would probably fair betteri.

60

Bobby Lupo is an awesome poster. I want to see Sakara do well just for that reason.