The Evolution of the Sport
- Thread starter Nastycrow
- Start date
BigLEFT said:
Brick said:
BaconBits said:
Less popular than it is now.
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Yes, significantly so.
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Why is that?
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IMO, I said maybe a year or so ago, the popularity as the latest fad had peaked. It will die down, the sport will go on as more popular than, say, pre-TUF. But PPV and ratinngs continue to decline, no real surprise.
I think the sport will expand dramatically in the next ten years. It is growing by leaps and bounds in countries outside the US, and the sport is not even licsenced in one of the biggest sport states in the country. I fully believe it WILL be licsenced in NY in the next 10 years, allowing substanial growth in the US. And with the UFC aggressively marketing themselves in foreign markets, I see zero reason to think the sport will not keep expanding at a significant rate.
I definitely see mma at a plateau point right now where any further growth is going to require far more effort then I think the avg fan realizes. The market for combat sports is very finite and right now mma is very dominant in that market. But times and taste change. It is no coincidence that the rise of mma comes with the fall of boxing. Boxing is at a 100 year low. There are no electric fighters out there right now. (I'm watching 47 year old champ Hopkins right now) But to think Boxing is done would be foolish imo. You just need that 1 champ, and some real marketing. Boxing's biggest enemy is boxing itself right now. (PPV made boxing too expensive to follow, will MMA continue down that same path?)
Within the combat sport market you also have k1, judo, tai boxing, etc. Any of these can also rise up to compete for the mma dollar. I can't figure out why half the mma fan's haven't already moved over to K1, after all, they boo everything that's not a strike.
The best example I can think of is auto racing. There are only so many racing fans in the world. Within that world F1, Indy, Nascar, etc all vie for viewers and you see the popularity of each league rise and fall against the others.
In 10 years...wow, good question.
-Zuffa grows into the IMMAO (International MMA Organization) and controls all the current popular/credible MMA circuits to make it into one major pro sports unit with the UFC (or another name) obviously being the "major leagues" (like a boxing/baseball hybrid).
-It grows more globally but stays in the same popularity realm as today within each country/continent.
-Added as an Olympic sport.
-TUF America/Europe/Australia/Asia/Africa (or by country)
-PPVs still exist
There wont be "wrestlers vs strikers" anymore. Everyone fighting will simply be mixed martial artists and will be proficient in all aspects of mma. Weird to consider. Brock Lesnar will be inducted into the ufc hall of shame, I mean fame. jon jones will still be the champ at lhw and hw. There will have been crowned a world tuf champ. Brazil will be the Olympic mma champs in all but maybe 2 weight classes. Mma will still be illegal in NY.
wolf said:
There wont be "wrestlers vs strikers" anymore. Everyone fighting will simply be mixed martial artists and will be proficient in all aspects of mma. Weird to consider. Brock Lesnar will be inducted into the ufc hall of shame, I mean fame. jon jones will still be the champ at lhw and hw. There will have been crowned a world tuf champ. Brazil will be the Olympic mma champs in all but maybe 2 weight classes.
Mma will still be illegal in NY
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:lol:
BigLEFT said:
Brick said:
BaconBits said:
Less popular than it is now.
Click to expand...
Yes, significantly so.
Click to expand...
Why is that?
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The sport's current popularity is built on a demographic that has the attention span of a gnat. Everything that demographic gets "into", peaks like crazy and goes right back to where it was within 5 or 6 years. Nobody ever seems to consider this when they're like " OMG mma is taking over".
When all is said and done, mma will exist on a very similar level as boxing currently is.
Bigger than it is now imo. We have barely chipped the black and mexican community. Boxing has one last hoorah with mayweather/pacman, and thats it. Maybe Hopkins, but still. Then this sport is Global. Yes it might die down here in the U.S., but will Zuffa be making less money in 10 years off the UFC than now? I seriously doubt it. More promotions now, Martials Arts will start to be implied to schools and programs across the nation. This sport is growing. Gyms are popping up everywhere, networking will bring this sport to new plateaus with technology. Look at where we were ten years ago with media devices to now, much less the sport. Ill always follow the sport, and ill always follow boxing. Most fans that like to watch fights and watch it now, will always tend to I believe.
They just got the Fox network deal, and before that people said its going to be alot bigger, now they have the deal its dead? :|
PsychoIcon said:
Bigger than it is now imo. We have barely chipped the black and mexican community. Boxing has one last hoorah with mayweather/pacman, and thats it. Maybe Hopkins, but still. Then this sport is Global. Yes it might die down here in the U.S., but will Zuffa be making less money in 10 years off the UFC than now? I seriously doubt it. More promotions now, Martials Arts will start to be implied to schools and programs across the nation. This sport is growing. Gyms are popping up everywhere, networking will bring this sport to new plateaus with technology. Look at where we were ten years ago with media devices to now, much less the sport. Ill always follow the sport, and ill always follow boxing. Most fans that like to watch fights and watch it now, will always tend to I believe.
They just got the Fox network deal, and before that people said its going to be alot bigger, now they have the deal its dead? :|
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I have to agree with Phyco on this one. MMA is still the fastest growing sport by far. We are just now starting to see good fighters coming out of unexpected country's. And look at all the fighters/talent crossing over from other sports to MMA. IMO as long as the talent is there people will watch. I think in the future styles like Silva, JBJ and Aldo will become the norm. Its a pretty easy progression to see if you as me. Look where MMA was 10 years ago. You can stop the best sport in the world from growing!!
The end of an era for mma
The end of an era for mma
The UFC was purchased by Zuffa in 2001 and proclaimed it wanted to stable the best fighters in the world. Today, in a world of 7 billion people it has around 250 fighters under contract. "The best".
So what is their goal over the next ten years? What is their great business plan? To over saturate the market with lesser fighters and weak fights.
They cant even fill a quarterly pay per view card with their current stable, yet they want to have TUF Brazil, regional champions, national UFCs all over the world. UFC on Versus? I don't have Versus, never will, and will never care. UFC on FX? The last card was just on and I had no idea and never saw it. UFC on Fox? One contender fight on the card that doesn't do anything to illustrate good mma or good fighting.
I used to watch UFC religiously and bought every pay per view. Over the last six months I have seen one pay per view (to see Lesnar get his *** beat again) and watched the first half of the American TUF because I dig Uriah Faber but quickly got bored and turned it off.
I have long thought Dana White was the P.T. Barnum of mma, to it's detriment. MMA will never have mass appeal like football. It has a core group of loyal fans and buyers that are being lost because Zuffa wants one thing- to make money. All at the expense of those fans that got them where they are.
Make a great product, get a proper business plan together, grow naturally and the rest will take care of itself. Right now they are alienating hard core fans and losing their bread and butter. Because they want it all now. Soon I won't be watching any UFC at all.
To top all that there are the fake, made up title fights, the drug abuse that is out of control, the unofficial rankings and favoritism guiding who fights, who gets fired and who stays, too many injuries, and ppv cards that are just too weak.
There is no face of the UFC any more and it has lost its connection with the core fans that made them. And it's suing them for watching over priced, poor quality ppv's on the web. Kudos, P.T. When your core fans are gone you will see just how bad of shape you are in and cant even fill a gymnasium in Japan.
It's no coincidence that the UFC doesn't have voice of client, forums on its web site, or any real customer connection, except viewership. Well, I'm voting folks.
MMA was on such a meteoric and exciting rise and now it is just petering out and is uneventful and not exciting. If Zuffa doesn't regroup and rethink what they are doing they will be the way of the dodo and hopefully a new organization can fill the void and get us back to pure mma, the days on NHB where blood ran free and fighters were made!