🤛 Official UFC Thread - Part 8

[Dr. Evil]

He was hoping to get her back and has been talking like he could. He probably knew it was a long shot, but he needed it. Especially with Conor being Conor.

I would think that Ronda told him that she was going to the WWE.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I would think that Ronda told him that she was going to the WWE.

I am sure she did. But that doesn't change how this being a reality effects him and the UFC.

 

[TheVileOne]

So Ronda is in the WWE, fulltime. Dana must be bricking it.

I doubt it. Rousey was pretty much gone after her last fight. The good news is, he doesn't have to deal with this while she's still active and on the roster, which he wasn't into.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I doubt it. Rousey was pretty much gone after her last fight. The good news is, he doesn't have to deal with this while she's still active and on the roster, which he wasn't into.

Who are his draws? Ronda is gone, Bones is suspended and Conor isn't scheduled, with an undisputed LW title match coming up.

 

[TheVileOne]

Who are his draws? Ronda is gone, Bones is suspended and Conor isn't scheduled, with an undisputed LW title match coming up.

Cyborg is becoming a bigger draw for them. Beside that, Khabib Nurmagomedov is growing in popularity, especially in Russia. Not sure if GSP will fight again, but we'll see.

The thing about who are the draws DarthSkywalker, MMA has a strange way of making new ones. Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey weren't always big draws. In fact, Rousey's critics used to constantly bemoan her lack of drawing power. It took a few fights for her drawing power to really take off.

UFC was facing a similar dilemma before Rousey and McGregor because Liddell was done. Anderson Silva was toppled. Chael Sonnen basically banned for several years due to steroids. And then McGregor and Rousey soon became top stars. Chris Weidman also did respectable business.

Even Jon Jones didn't draw huge money outside of his fights with Daniel Cormier and Rashad Evans.

 

[B]

Yeah I don't know why Dana or the UFC would be 'bricking it', Ronda's only fought twice in the last 2 years against Holm & Nunes. Since the Nunes defeat, it seemed pretty evident that she was going to be making the move into entertainment on a more full-time basis & that was over a year ago.

As Vile pointed out, the UFC (& MMA in general) has faced similar things in the past when one star loses, leaves, retires, gets suspended etc. From Liddell to GSP to now Rousey, there will always be someone that picks up the torch. Due to the way the UFC works & unlike boxing IMO, the company is capable of building up their own stars & creating their own hype trains through their own propaganda & outreach from their own shows. Eventually, they'll promote someone the way they recently promoted the likes of Kevin Lee when he fought Tony Ferguson, Rumble Johnson when he fough Daniel Cormier or Francis Ngannou for the bout with Stipe Miocic & they'll win, then a new hype train will be born.

Don't expect Rousey, McGregor or Lesnar numbers to be born overnight though.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

This feels about right. I have missed so many UFC events recently. Shows how much star power the brand of the UFC has opposed to certain stars. UFC, the brand, is down, a lot.

https://deadspin.com/who-cares-about-the-ufc-in-2018-1822743470

It was easy to be bullish about the UFC’s future during the heady days of July 2016. Sure, Rousey had lost to Holly Holm, but there was no reason to think she wouldn’t be back. McGregor was coming off two extraordinarily successful pay-per-view fights against Jose Aldo and Nate Diaz, and the rematch with Diaz was set for the next month. Brock Lesnar had returned to headline the UFC 200 show that cracked a million buys. Jon Jones had tested positive for a PED, which was not great, but if and when he returned, he too would be a marketable property. In a star-driven pay-per-view market, having WME-IMG on board to help push the promotion’s fighters into the spotlight looked like a no-brainer. The TV ratings were good enough, if not mind-boggling. There was good reason to think the next UFC contract might go for as much as $450 million per year.

In retrospect, the situation wasn’t nearly as good as it looked. The success of Rousey and McGregor disguised deeper structural issues with the UFC’s product. Those two linchpin stars drew record-breaking buy-rates at marquee events and the promotion could scrape together enough star power for standout shows like UFC 200, but the audience for everything else was shrinking.

During its pay-per-view glory years between 2008 and 2010, the UFC had a wide array of marketable draws outside the best-known stars and a strong-enough brand that fans felt compelled to buy events even when they didn’t feature elite fighters. Reliable draws like BJ Penn routinely pulled 500,000 or more buys and even dismally booked shows performed well: 2010’s UFC 119 card, headlined by an injury-replacement fight nobody was asking for between Mirko Cro Cop and Frank Mir, still drew nearly 300,000 buys.

In 2017, by contrast, it took two compelling title fights and a stacked lineup to drag last May’s UFC 211 card to the 300,000-buy mark. A poor offering—UFC 215, with a women’s bantamweight title fight featuring Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko on the marquee—drew just 100,000 buys, which is the low-water mark in the promotion’s modern era. The proportion of the UFC’s audience that’s willing to pay $59.99 for low-end content has fallen drastically. Middle-class draws like Penn or Rashad Evans aged out of relevance or retired altogether, and haven’t been replaced by fighters who inspire comparable interest from the fans; the UFC 211 numbers bear this out. The UFC fooled itself into thinking that it would always be able to convince a huge number of consumers to buy what it was selling simply because it was branded “UFC.” It has never quite rid itself of that assumption, even as the evidence against it has continued to mount.

...

We could point to any number of reasons for this, but the UFC’s next five scheduled events are as good a summation as any: The UFC just doesn’t have enough star power to pull viewers and buyers to all its events. When you ask viewers to care about your product, giving them fighters they know and enjoy is the easiest way to make the sale. At this point, there simply isn’t enough name value in the promotion to pull that off. This Saturday’s UFC 221 headliner features an interim middleweight title fight between former champion Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero. It happens to be an outstanding matchup and compelling matchup between two guys I really like. Despite the fact that Rockhold held the belt and Romero fought for one just last summer, though, it’s not going to sell much of anything.

 

[B]

UFC 221 was a sleeper event, the card didn't get really any hype & ended up being filled with a lot of good fights IMO. I had read about Israel Adesanya making his debut tonight & him being one to watch for the next year or two, very impressive UFC debut, you can tell just by watching him he has a lot of striking talent & experience picked apart his opponent at will, showed good takedown defence as well.

Mark Hunt got absolutely ragdolled again tonight by Curtis Blaydes, he's done one way or another IMO. He should retire, 40+ years old, nothing more to prove & in reality he's never going to be a UFC HW Champion unless he gets a Bisping/Rockhold like break & manages to shock Stipe or DC.

The Romero/Rockhold fight & most importantly the result has arguably left the UFC MW division in even more chaos simply because Romero won after having missed weight What do you do now? Have Romero/Whittaker 2 for the title coming off the back off him missing weight? You can imagine the UFC not being too keen having that fight if it's going to turn into another non-title fight embarrassment if Romero misses weight.

This feels about right. I have missed so many UFC events recently. Shows how much star power the brand of the UFC has opposed to certain stars. UFC, the brand, is down, a lot.

https://deadspin.com/who-cares-about-the-ufc-in-2018-1822743470

As I was reading that I chuckled, it reads like one of Donald Trump's Tweets about the NFL.

 

[LoganGambit87]

 

[killface]

The MMA equivalent of a double tap

 

[TheVileOne]

At least there's no stupid extra interim title.

 

[Texas Zombie]

Went to UFC Austin.

 

[Texas Zombie]

I want to see Stephens vs Holloway.

 

[B]

UFC 222 is this weekend, good card even though Holloway was pulled, Edgar accepted fight with Ortega which should be a good fight.

 

[B]

Mackenzie Dern made her UFC debut in UFC 222 prelims, tough fought split decision victory over Ashley Yoder.

Split decision because Adalaide Byrd, enough said. ****ing clueless. Why the hell the NSAC would have her judging MMA bouts when she can't even judge boxing bouts competently is beyond me when the former is more complex.

 

[B]

That kid Sean O'Malley is a potential star. Very impressive exciting all round performance, hurt his foot badly in the 3rd & managed to fight till the end despite being visibly hurt.

 

[B]

Jeezus.. Ortega very impressive. First man to ever KO Frankie Edgar.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Edgar being done is a sad thing.

 

[Dr. Evil]

I liked Frankie Edgar.

 

[Doug_Moore]

Cris Cyborg Vs. Amanda Nunes. Who wins?

 

[Dr. Evil]

Cris Cyborg Vs. Amanda Nunes. Who wins?

Cyborg.

 

[Texas Zombie]

Ortega is really good man.

 

[B]

Take this with a grain of salt as I read it on Twitter in a few places, but apparently the UFC is looking to get a 165lb division going & they want McGregor/GSP to fight to crown an inaugural champion.

I somewhat want to believe it as if they created that division & could then change Welterweight to 175lbs it would mean there is 10lbs in between every division right up to Middleweight.

If they then added a 195lb Cruiserweight division it would be perfect.

 

[Texas Zombie]

If they do that heavyweight should be 235 and Super heavy 265.
But I’m definitely onboard with the 165 and 175 changes

 

[TheVileOne]

That's ridiculous. Look at the heavyweight division. Outside of the top 5 guys, it's pretty much a wasteland. Who would fight at heavyweight and superheavyweight? Superheavyweight would be non-existent.