You could even argue that the UFC is fading away globally, when you consider the fact that League of Legends(a video game played professionally) is pulling much larger peak and overall viewership numbers.
#1) Failed content delivery mechanisms. Fight pass is dated albeit useful for noobs to catch up, it is still another pay to play system that is necessary to follow the sport. Couple Fight Pass with PPV and you are being bled dry if you want to follow the UFC closely. FOX Sports 1 has steam, people know of the channel and you simply can't blame FOX they have provided a dedicated platform, but they constantly change between FS1, FS1, FX and big FOX. The UFC has become confusing, jumbled and lost as a product. It has become increasingly difficult to consume UFC content.
#2) Dry content. The UFC is putting out amateur content compared to the past for the most part, we are talking about inferior fighters and combative action. No matter how much you point at some sort of athletic evolution, the fights are weaker than the Pride days and definitely weaker than the prime Rich Franklin, Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes and Anderson Silva era. An Aging Bisping, a non champion, a relic of the past from those glory days is still landing flying knees and sporting the best conditioning and second best shit talking game in the sport. This evolution is overrated and features more point fighting than ever.
#3 Lack of respect for fans. When you insult someone who was very friendly with you directly, eventually that friendship will weaken. The UFC has done a great job of burning bridges with their fans by very specifically telling them to fuck off. I would rank the lack of respect for fighters above this, but the fans' dollars are more important to the bottom line. The PPV's have declined directly in relationship with the lack of respect, this a fact, but the model is also very dated it's not 1996.
#4) Lack of big money paydays for fighters. When you don't prop up the athletes properly with the healthiest paydays possible, when the machine eats better than the men who built it then you are going to a disparity that leads to unhappiness. The UFC builds up fighters very selectively. When is the last time you saw a UFC fighter pull up in something foreign and get TMZ interested? The last MMA fighter who ended up on TMZ was Randy Couture dressed as Chuck Liddell nonetheless, a guy who had problems with the UFC pay scale publicly even walking away from the sport at one point. To get mainstream notoriety you need mainstream success, CASH is a huge part of this.
#5) Lack of virality. When you are relying on Craig Borsari to create the majority of your content that has a chance to go viral, well you are basically refusing to compete. This is a global economy. League of Legends has viral videos and content that far exceeds and surpasses the UFC's reach. That's why the UFC can't do the global numbers that League of Legends does and most likely never will. Pulling that Cormier/Jones promo video down just shows how Zuffa shoots themselves in the feet when trying to police their product.
#6) A company full of yes men. When Dana White refuses to sign Ben Askren, because Ben "isn't Dana's type of guy" then you have integrity issues. If you want to maintain sporting integrity in a real sport, then you don't cut a guy like Yushin Okami for being too talented. You don't hold back the proper development of the 170 lb. division by refusing to sign arguably the most talented guy at 170 lbs. because he doesn't want to be your friend. This is a sign that the UFC has gone soft as fuck, it's OK for Dana to buddy up to Conor McGregor while the rest of the 145 lbs. fighters watch helplessly, but it's not OK for Dana to get called out on his shit by a fighter who is better than Conor in Ben Askren.
I could go on and on, my list has over 15 points to be made, but I am not getting paid for this.
I meant to put FS2 instead of FS1 twice
They're is only one reason. The best way I can explain it is, early mma was like watching gladiators fight. Current mma is like chess. 
No solid competition ala Pride, Strike force, Affliction, etc. They keep buying out solid orgs, making the mma market stale.
Solid points. The matchmaking has to be blamed at some point (as well) for cutting short a bunch of UFC careers for guys who were capable of generating much higher pay per view numbers than we've seen of late.
The UFC has lost it's identity.
they we're putting on events packed with big names top to bottom
they stopped doing it
that is the reason
forget about everything else
CRE - You could even argue that the UFC is fading away globally, when you consider the fact that League of Legends(a video game played professionally) is pulling much larger peak and overall viewership numbers.I would like to see Askren in th ufc,
#1) Failed content delivery mechanisms. Fight pass is dated albeit useful for noobs to catch up, it is still another pay to play system that is necessary to follow the sport. Couple Fight Pass with PPV and you are being bled dry if you want to follow the UFC closely. FOX Sports 1 has steam, people know of the channel and you simply can't blame FOX they have provided a dedicated platform, but they constantly change between FS1, FS1, FX and big FOX. The UFC has become confusing, jumbled and lost as a product. It has become increasingly difficult to consume UFC content.
#2) Dry content. The UFC is putting out amateur content compared to the past for the most part, we are talking about inferior fighters and combative action. No matter how much you point at some sort of athletic evolution, the fights are weaker than the Pride days and definitely weaker than the prime Rich Franklin, Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes and Anderson Silva era. An Aging Bisping, a non champion, a relic of the past from those glory days is still landing flying knees and sporting the best conditioning and second best shit talking game in the sport. This evolution is overrated and features more point fighting than ever.
#3 Lack of respect for fans. When you insult someone who was very friendly with you directly, eventually that friendship will weaken. The UFC has done a great job of burning bridges with their fans by very specifically telling them to fuck off. I would rank the lack of respect for fighters above this, but the fans' dollars are more important to the bottom line. The PPV's have declined directly in relationship with the lack of respect, this a fact, but the model is also very dated it's not 1996.
#4) Lack of big money paydays for fighters. When you don't prop up the athletes properly with the healthiest paydays possible, when the machine eats better than the men who built it then you are going to a disparity that leads to unhappiness. The UFC builds up fighters very selectively. When is the last time you saw a UFC fighter pull up in something foreign and get TMZ interested? The last MMA fighter who ended up on TMZ was Randy Couture dressed as Chuck Liddell nonetheless, a guy who had problems with the UFC pay scale publicly even walking away from the sport at one point. To get mainstream notoriety you need mainstream success, CASH is a huge part of this.
#5) Lack of virality. When you are relying on Craig Borsari to create the majority of your content that has a chance to go viral, well you are basically refusing to compete. This is a global economy. League of Legends has viral videos and content that far exceeds and surpasses the UFC's reach. That's why the UFC can't do the global numbers that League of Legends does and most likely never will. Pulling that Cormier/Jones promo video down just shows how Zuffa shoots themselves in the feet when trying to police their product.
#6) A company full of yes men. When Dana White refuses to sign Ben Askren, because Ben "isn't Dana's type of guy" then you have integrity issues. If you want to maintain sporting integrity in a real sport, then you don't cut a guy like Yushin Okami for being too talented. You don't hold back the proper development of the 170 lb. division by refusing to sign arguably the most talented guy at 170 lbs. because he doesn't want to be your friend. This is a sign that the UFC has gone soft as fuck, it's OK for Dana to buddy up to Conor McGregor while the rest of the 145 lbs. fighters watch helplessly, but it's not OK for Dana to get called out on his shit by a fighter who is better than Conor in Ben Askren.
I could go on and on, my list has over 15 points to be made, but I am not getting paid for this.
But saying he's 'better than mcgregor' is a scratch. How many top 10 guys has he faced? His style is universally seen as boring. I think the ufc are making a concerted effort to rid themselves of lay and pray fighters (see Fitch and shields)
Not saying I agree with this, but in the Ufcs defence they are damned if they do and damned if they don't with ref to fighters who rely almost solely on wrestling prowess.
Stretch not scratch! Doh.
Fuck you and your Logical List OP
CRE - You could even argue that the UFC is fading away globally, when you consider the fact that League of Legends(a video game played professionally) is pulling much larger peak and overall viewership numbers.I've never agreed w anything CRE ever posted. I fucking agree w every point in this post. Well said.
#1) Failed content delivery mechanisms. Fight pass is dated albeit useful for noobs to catch up, it is still another pay to play system that is necessary to follow the sport. Couple Fight Pass with PPV and you are being bled dry if you want to follow the UFC closely. FOX Sports 1 has steam, people know of the channel and you simply can't blame FOX they have provided a dedicated platform, but they constantly change between FS1, FS1, FX and big FOX. The UFC has become confusing, jumbled and lost as a product. It has become increasingly difficult to consume UFC content.
#2) Dry content. The UFC is putting out amateur content compared to the past for the most part, we are talking about inferior fighters and combative action. No matter how much you point at some sort of athletic evolution, the fights are weaker than the Pride days and definitely weaker than the prime Rich Franklin, Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes and Anderson Silva era. An Aging Bisping, a non champion, a relic of the past from those glory days is still landing flying knees and sporting the best conditioning and second best shit talking game in the sport. This evolution is overrated and features more point fighting than ever.
#3 Lack of respect for fans. When you insult someone who was very friendly with you directly, eventually that friendship will weaken. The UFC has done a great job of burning bridges with their fans by very specifically telling them to fuck off. I would rank the lack of respect for fighters above this, but the fans' dollars are more important to the bottom line. The PPV's have declined directly in relationship with the lack of respect, this a fact, but the model is also very dated it's not 1996.
#4) Lack of big money paydays for fighters. When you don't prop up the athletes properly with the healthiest paydays possible, when the machine eats better than the men who built it then you are going to a disparity that leads to unhappiness. The UFC builds up fighters very selectively. When is the last time you saw a UFC fighter pull up in something foreign and get TMZ interested? The last MMA fighter who ended up on TMZ was Randy Couture dressed as Chuck Liddell nonetheless, a guy who had problems with the UFC pay scale publicly even walking away from the sport at one point. To get mainstream notoriety you need mainstream success, CASH is a huge part of this.
#5) Lack of virality. When you are relying on Craig Borsari to create the majority of your content that has a chance to go viral, well you are basically refusing to compete. This is a global economy. League of Legends has viral videos and content that far exceeds and surpasses the UFC's reach. That's why the UFC can't do the global numbers that League of Legends does and most likely never will. Pulling that Cormier/Jones promo video down just shows how Zuffa shoots themselves in the feet when trying to police their product.
#6) A company full of yes men. When Dana White refuses to sign Ben Askren, because Ben "isn't Dana's type of guy" then you have integrity issues. If you want to maintain sporting integrity in a real sport, then you don't cut a guy like Yushin Okami for being too talented. You don't hold back the proper development of the 170 lb. division by refusing to sign arguably the most talented guy at 170 lbs. because he doesn't want to be your friend. This is a sign that the UFC has gone soft as fuck, it's OK for Dana to buddy up to Conor McGregor while the rest of the 145 lbs. fighters watch helplessly, but it's not OK for Dana to get called out on his shit by a fighter who is better than Conor in Ben Askren.
I could go on and on, my list has over 15 points to be made, but I am not getting paid for this.
interesting...
Pretty much every event has maybe one fight that makes me want to see it. And one fight on a 3-hour event is not enough to make me spend $60 or even just to devote that chunk of time on the weekend to watching. Usually, at this point, I've never even heard of anyone else on the card. Obviously, that's on me, but that's how it is.
I would argue that it's not just the UFC but mma in general. You know why? MMA (like boxing now) is a niche sport and always will be. It will never be "mainstream" on the level of the NFL or NBA or Euro soccer leagues etc. The one point I 100% agree with CRE on is ppv. It's an antiquated model, especially expecting fans to shell out $55 a month to watch fights. Outside of Floyd boxing is having ppv trouble as well. Canelo and Cotto buys have been pedestrian and Manny ain't bringing them in like he used to. PPV needs to die a quick death minus the occasional mega card or something.
Your point about League of Legends being bigger doesn't mean much. League of Legends is more popular than just about any sport or activity in the world.
This site is billed as a UFC shill site, yet they still don't have UFC gifs.
It's bad when you stiff your own shill site.
Solly97 - #7 - banning Nike, Adidas, under armour, reebok, etc. from the octagon ... one of the best ways to expand your product to other sports affiliatesRight? Did they really think forcing their own clownshoes clothing brand into the picture and well known global brands was the more profitable route? Or am I misunderstanding the strategy and goals in that play?
I played League instead of watching last weekends prelims, first time I've missed prelims on forever
TheAlchemist - The UFC has lost it's identity.
Indeed. They'll come crawling back to US consumers when World Fucking Domination utlimately fails. The question is, will there be anyone left who give a shit? If the current trend continues, the answer is a resounding no.