But UFC does still pull in decent numbers and I don't see it going away any time soon. In fact, I think boxing can learn a thing from UFC by putting on big events on basic cable like UFC did this past saturday with Johnson vs Moraga on Fox. Can you imagine the amount of main stream exposure boxing would get if Golden Boy put Garcia vs Matthysse on prime time CBS?
The UFC had its heyday during the 2006 - 2010 era, that was back when Chuck Liddell, BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, Brock Lesnar, Randy Couture were fighting and were some of its most popular fighters, now most if not all of them are officially retired. The UFC has completely oversaturated the market with crappy events and looks like it never learned from boxing and now has a bunch of poorly developed and meaningless new weight-classes.
The UFC is definitely here to stay but it is nowhere near as popular as it was before, i wouldn't say the fad is over but it has subsided with the loss of its most popular champions.
When you have an event that is headlined by non-champions or non-contenders and they expect you to pay for that crap then you know the boat has sailed. Now you even have champions that never even earned or fought for the belt, it was handed down to them to speed the process of developing new weight classes that nobody cares about.
Answer to the question: No, UFC is not wearing off in popularity. Quite the contrary, more and more people are started to get interested in it.
As a reply to several of the posters in here: Fighters in the UFC are NOT boxers who "didn't make it" and to claim such is idiotic because most of the fighters competing in the UFC do not come from boxing backgrounds - They are former Olympic/High level wrestlers, Olympic Judoka, Muay Thai fighters, Kickboxers and Grapplers with backgrounds in SAMBO and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. They never pursued boxing so how on earth could they have "failed to make it"? There are plenty of professional boxers turned MMA fighters in the UFC also, so such a point is moot to begin with.
UFC is and will continue to grow as it appeals to one of the most basic human wants: Violence and bloodshed. That is not to say MMA is not a respectable sport, quite the contrary, the training and technique and skill of MMA fighters is fearsome and to claim they are inferior athletes to boxers is ludicrous.
I have been saying this for years . This sport is only around because white guys like seeing other white guys beat the hell out of each other. If these guys were as good as they think they are they would box as well . You will never see one of them cross over to boxing and become a major player. I am not making this out of a race thing but Dana White saw a demand and he filled it. MMA is nothing more than a Tough Man contest white guys wearing short shorts with a bunch of tattoos trying to get each other in the 69 position. I know there are black guys in the sport but you very seldom see good black guys fighting white guys in less it is in what they call championship fights. You will see two good black guys fighting each other they make sure if a white guy is fight a black guy that the black guy is garbage. I remember when they had a guy in his first fight fight for a world title Brock Lesner is his name what a joke. I am not sure what is going to kill MMA but it is coming and it is coming fast. I tried to watch it but when I saw one guys nut sack on the canvas that was it for me.
honestly its going to die down alot soon because rampage is gone, chuck liddell is gone, nick diaz's career is coming to an end .. when nick's brother nate retires its going to die down completely because honestly they single handedly made the ufc and was the only reason the ufc wasn't looked at as a gay sport lol as long as they have ronda rousey it may not die down tho ..
Absolutely. Its peak was because of Brock Lesnar and all the wrestling fans who tuned in. UFC is filled with NFL and boxing rejects who couldn't make it.
it needs to wear off -.- i dont have anything against grappling but come on its boring as hell to watch. Plus they stopped making fight night games for ******* UFC!!!-.-
I sure hope so. If I see another jacked-up douchebag wearing a tapout shirt and a dime on his shoulder... I think I might just barf
Lets face it, a lot of the PPV buys they get are from people that are like "dude people fighting in a cage, cool!" The rest are actual fans but I think people are starting to realise its not so great after all and is just two men rolling around on the floor.
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