As someone who started off watching bootlegged RINGS vhs tapes over a decade ago, the fanbase of today is pretty well clueless about the history of the sport which is critical to understanding the sport today. MMA in the mainstream has plauteaued quite a bit over the past few years and so the mainstream fans are more aware of the mechanics of mixed fights, but they are still so ignorant, and you know that's okay. I don't expect to get quality coverage of Wimbledon from the columnists on Around the Horn. I don't expect the average MMA fan to know who Takada or Rikidozan are, much less Akira Maeda or Ad Santel. I don't even expect them to be familar with Rorion Gracie or Bob Meyrowitz.
The gist of my comment here is that there existed a time when there were only hardcore fans and decent, meaningful conversations happened. You actually learned something by communicating with other fans. These were the days when people would orgasm when susumu would upload pics from events in Japan. It's not that I miss PRIDE and things like Rickson and Royler doing a GJJ demo in the middle of an event, or the unified rules before Larry Hazzard's eyes were stained by Gan McGee, or the days when the Shooto welterweight division was the greatest thing in the world, I just miss the exclusivity of the sport. Random people talk about it now and I honestly don't want to talk about it with them. It's impossible to have a fulfilling conversation with the modern fan because they are so loud and without analytical skills as it relates to MMA.
The sad thing is that the original fans have largely disappeared from the online community or vanished in the influx of new fans. They're either quiet spectators now or they have left the product they were addicted to.
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