If chain link fence fighting becomes the biggest sport in the world…God help us.
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No matter how much of a hater you are you have to admit Conor was a great featherweight fighter
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I remember watching this on NASCAR in 2005. At the time, NASCAR was the fastest-growing sport and they were opening tracks in blue states. Bill France said something like “once people understand the thrill there’s no going back to other sports. Thats whats happening in households accross America.”
Of course, NASCAR didnt keep growing and went back to being niche. It just had a lot of recognizeable names in that era.
Rousey and McGregor were high water marks for MMA that probably wont be reached for awhile
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Some people will just never like fighting, itself. Let alone the whole grappling aspect
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What makes MMA different is that it’s very easily digestible in the modern social media landscape and that KO’s can be cut into clips, it’s like how American football got so popular in America with the introduction of televisions; it’s pleasurable to watch a game from that top down angle and the size of the field makes it to where scoring isn’t that rare. It was Dana’s reasoning behind Power Slap, with TikTok he saw a market for knockouts being able to circulate in clips and edits.
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Its a reasonable theory but we’ll see how it turns out. The NBA is very clippable but football is still the king
They don’t pay enough to attract top athletes so the product loses value. Why would the future athletic stars in America choose to get brain damage instead of play baseball. Or the future stars in Europe play soccer and make insane money.
Danas greed is what is holding the sport back.
Also MMA isn’t for everyone. It’s pretty violent for the average viewer and isn’t really for kids. Also the PPV model keeps eyes off the UFC.
So many reasons but basically this sport isn’t getting much bigger than it is right now
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Because Dana is a dipshit
MMA is has a prowrestling business model. They go as their top stars go. When a Conor arrives, you gain fans just like WWF did when Hulk Hogan took off.
WWE circumvented this issue by making the brand bigger than the stars. The UFC is attempting to do the same thing. That’s why they let Francis walk.
Boxing has the same issue.
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I think he was a great fighter period.
Watching Dale Jr win Daytona was a highlight for me!
Saw Dale Sr live a couple times.
I used to really like Nascar but after Jr and some of those other guys like Gordon and Stewart I just lost interest.
It definitely did have a push for a few years and then petered out.
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I’m not from Europe but thanks for coming out.
The sport will only grow and grow if you can continue to suck in more and more casual fans. Ronda and Conor did that. So did guys like Chuck and Tito and Brock.
Do casual fans really care about a bunch of Dagestani Muslims?
The UFC makes it hard to watch with their ppv model as well. It’s too spread out, and $$$ for the average casual to keep up with.
the hardcore fan base is pretty static at this point, it’s not going to really grow any bigger, not in huge leaps anyway.
Dana probably understands this, that’s why he’s doing this slap fighting shit. It puts new eyes on something he can make money off from, even if it’s only a flash in the pan.
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Okay by me. This is perfect for a Boys Night Out.
Not in the States. But they’ve been huge in Russia
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You are on this forum enough to know the answer to that question.
Jake Paul killed the sport when he defeated Anderson Silva
Which is meaningless
Low IQ post