In addition to the embedded series (RIP Dana White vlogs), all the pre-fight promos are terrible. They have been terrible for a long time along with the countdown shows. They are lifeless templates. We have been listening to Joe Rogan scream OOHHH for decades now with addition of the rest of the commentators.
They have way overdone the foreigners thing (or at least non-English speakers).
Sign the best of them, but you don’t need mid foreigners clogging up most of the card. Those spots would be better reserved for fighters that the biggest portion of fans can actually understand, relate to and follow without needing subtitles.
Plus if you don’t have so many, the ones you do have would stand out more.
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It still has its moments here and there, that card a few weeks ago was pretty damn great and Merab/Umar was a brilliant high level fight. Poatan will obviously be looked back on fondly 15-20 years from now.
But yeah, overall the UFC peaked in the mid 00s through early 10s. We are never getting that feel back again. Just be happy you were there for it.
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I was the same way.
I just randomly watched part of The Royal Rumble the other day, after not watching wrestling in forever.
I had no idea who most the people were, but still enjoyed it more than a UFC event these days.
I might become that crying pro wrestling guy pretty soon.
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It’s connected. Cards are watered down because of a lack of names. There’s a lack of names because fans don’t relate most of the fighters as most are stoic and don’t speak the language, thus those fans never get to the point of liking fighters enough that they become names. (Excluding the few that do enough strictly in the cage to win fans over).
Dagestanis are an exception. There’s actually very few of them signed and most are potential champions.
It’s the hundreds of others that litter cards with no potential of being champions or names that are the problem - people like Gaston Bolaños (8–4), José Medina (11-4), Yusaku Kinoshita (6-3), and so on.
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Personally I don’t hate it, I just don’t care anymore : /
Don’t like the commentary approach, the WMMA fights, the phase with the fake trashtalk was the worst and all the negativity, less specialists just kickboxing as gameplan
As a fan, I came from viewing MMA as the best sport on earth, complexity and technique, budo, sportsmanship. not every fight was like that, of course. but it was about 2 men respecting each other and then going all out in the cage in their underwear 
objectively, the quality of the fights is better than before. and we’ve seen some BANGER knockouts. but still, not feeling it anymore
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You should be in the hall of fame for the sign shenanigan!
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You ever watch Yoshida/James Thompson in PRIDE?
That would be right up your alley.
Yoshida looked about half dead at one point and there was a pause in the action for some reason.
The ref dragged Yoshida’s corpse out into the middle of the ring and let the match continue.
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Out of the 40 events a year, there’s no more than 4 worth watching.
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That would likely have Netflix raise their price to $30 per month at least. Was not a fan of Netflix adding live events.
Nothing which has not already been mentioned or discussed quite a bit over the years.
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Was better when it aired on Spike/VS or Fox. Yes you had to pay for cable other than the local Fox events, however you did not need internet along with a niche service for most events.
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Now you need internet and that niche service just for the privilege to order a PPV unless you want to go fishing.
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There is a card every weekend, which is kind of cool in one sense. However those cards now require at least somewhat “name” fighters to main event. Most of the time.
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So say there are 4 cards in a month including the PPV. Before those other 3 main events would have filled out the main card of the PPV. Now they are spread out over the month.
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There is no guarantee the PPV card is going to be any better than one of the random plus cards during the month. What makes someone want to pay $80 on top of the plus sub (and internent monthly which keeps rising astronomically each year) when the PPV events often are not distinguishable from the other events minus a “title” fight.
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Chick fights on the main card. Chick fights as co-mains. There are very few compelling match ups with these and most of us do not like watching them. Let chick cards be their own events and survive on their own.
Thats enough for now.
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I want to add up the cost of all of the UFC ppvs to date. Just UFC cards, no fight night etc. what’s the cost of all of those ppv’s?
I guess 311(?)* maybe $60 to ballpark it. It was $40/ppv once, now like $80?
That’s a fucking car.
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True and it isn’t that interesting. I don’t think the fighters as good. The sweet spot was maybe late 90’s till about 2008. It seemed to die after that.
I know all Pride fights by memory lol.
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For me it’s the price and watered down cards. The last time I purchased a UFC was at a Fathom Events. I think it was when McGreggor knocked out Aldo. And I didn’t know who either of them were because I hadn’t purchased one a year or 2 before that. I’ve only seen Fight Nights since.
If they stepped up the cards and made watching more accessible MMA would probably be more exciting now than ever before.
Lol…you didn’t know who Aldo or Conor were when they fought?
Nope, I remember seeing Connor yelling and jumping over tables and thinking, “Who the fuck is this guy supposed to be?” But only a few years before that I was catching every UFC and MMA show there was for like $20-$40 a pop. But I admittedly had a bad run financially around that time as well, and had stopped keeping up with it.
The UFC isn’t even worth streaming off the net. Think about that for a moment, they have a product that costs $50 to $80 and it’s sooooo fucking bad it’s not wort streaming. It went from the best fighting the best to who ever yells the loudest and makes a fucking spectacle of themselves get the nod.
Thank God for North American Hockey. It’s the best contact/combat sport in the world
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