I’m not taking about the No.1 guys, or the up-and-comers, I mean the fighters who will attract huge PPV buzz and energy regardless of their ranking…
Jon Jones
Izzy (debatable)
Conor
WMMA is irrelevant, and there are a lot of guys like O’Malley, Masvidal, Colby etc. who are entertaining - but let’s be honest - would have been co-main fighters back in the day.
UFC 300 shows how far things have fallen and highlights a severe lack of star power.
GSP, Randy, Tito, Chael, Anderson, Chuck, BJ, Brock, Machida, Khabib, Diaz bros, Overeem, Henderson, Hughes, Aldo, Cormier… are we honestly supposed to think that someone like Paddy Pimblett is the next breed of superstar?
I used to be a hardcore fan. My friends were casuals.
Now I’m a casual and my friends know jack shit.
We had a boys trip on the weekend and decided to watch the card. Fuck me, can honestly say thats the worst card I’ve ever seen, names and fights wise. Garbage.
Noone vs noone.
Terrible women fights.
Midgets with zero power to put opponents away.
Oversaturation mixed with a lot of pricks trying to get attention by being the loudest or most offensive.
I’d probably tune in to watch Jones fight Ngannou, but I’m not paying for that shit. What an absolute crap product it’s become.
I used to be hyped beyond belief between cards. Now I can’t keep up and don’t care to.
The game changed when the fighters became athletes. The Ufc use to be raw af… haven’t even heard the terms no holds barred or vale tudo for over a decade.
I remember thinking l hope this bald fk and his rich friends succeed here.,…never dreamed they would sanitize the product so much. Holy fk moments use to be 3 or 4 times per show…now it’s every 3 or 4 shows.
Diego Lopes
Yair Rodriguez
Ilia Topuria
AJ Dobson (not a big name, but comes to fight)
Darrius Flowers is a dog
Khalil Roundtree still gets it done
Daniel Lacerda is one of the best fighters in the world for the first 60 seconds of every fight
That’s about all I got rn
Edit: Mike Davis is a savage and he’s fighting March 16th after 1.5 years off
Most of these never “attracted huge PPV buzz and energy regardless of their ranking”. Your examples don’t even meet your own criteria. GSP and Brock did, but Conor outdoes them both.
The stars of today are on a whole nother level as a general rule. DDP practically has a triumph waiting for him to get home:
Dana used to say that the beauty of the UFC is that people cheer for fighters regardless of their country. DDP might get a hero’s welcome back home, but that doesn’t prove he’s a star.
I agree that not every fighter listed was a huge PPV draw, but people like Anderson and Cain would always generate anticipation and buzz. Fans would NEVER complain at guys like Machida, Rua or Wanderlei headlining a card.
Because south africa doesn’t have much going for itself sports wise. DDP can walk around anywhere in the USA and 99.9999999% of people will not recognize him. Someone like connor, jon jones, maybe izzy will get recognized quickly.
I think I agree. There are plenty of equivalent fighters today that fans would NEVER complain about headlining a card also. No one complains about top fighters or well known fighters headlining cards in any era. Complaints about that are usually reserved for WMMA or 125.
I know this. But the same also applies to 90% of American fighters in America. Even most of the legends are just known to MMA fans, not the general public. Not being well known in America but being well known in another country is a higher level of stardom than not being well known in America nor anywhere else.
