The UFC's future in MMA ?

Do you guys think that it will continue to be the top league for MMA? Will Bellator overtake it in the future? I saw this thing on TV over the weekend called "The World Series of Fighting" that looked pretty good.......
It seems that boxing is starting to gain more of a fanbase again, and there's probably a big chunk of young males who are now becoming more intersted in boxing than the UFC. What do you guys think will happen to the UFC and MMA in general in the next few years? Will it decline? Or go through another growth spurt again?

It will continue to grow as it has cross-over appeal to all other major sports as well as the WWE, with many of the athletes from other sports and the WWE getting into the UFC.

I'm honestly surprised that the UFC isn't bigger than what it already is. I do expect competitors to UFC to grow, but that only helps the entire MMA industry as a whole in my opinion.

Will it decline? Or go through another growth spurt again?

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I guess logically you'd have to look at the demographic who statistically financially propped up all these bread & circus events (white beta male gen X'ers) and then figure out whether it's possible to capture the interest (wallets) of the next generation of atomized millennial's. Quite frankly I'm not so sure those low T faggots are even ready to leave their bronie conventions. On the days they're not masturbating over cartoon horses their making angry "screw your heteronormative symbols of the patriarchy dad!!" tweets in the twittersphere. It's gonna be a hard sell in my opinion.

I've worked in mma promotions for years, at least until my state put us out of business with excessive taxation and regulation.

Here's several things wrong with mma:

#1 - Everyone is on steroids. It's hard to compete, even at an amateur level, if you're not on something. I trained with a lot of guys on hgh and other stuff. I'm positive the second guy I fought was on it. You can tell when grappling with them; their strength is ridiculous. There is no real random drug testing for the UFC. That's why GSP quit. The UFC is like major league baseball in the 1990s.

#2 - The scoring system needs updating. It currently favors wrestlers who can just tackle and lay on a guy for a round, which makes for boring fights. For political reasons, an effort to get the sport legalized, damage was not allowed to be included in the scoring system. We didn't want to look like savages. But the problem is that the point of fighting is to fvck the other guy up, not touch him harmlessly a bunch of times. I lost two judge's decisions where I would not have wanted to trade places with the other guy, because he was so messed up.

#3- The sport, like boxing, is overseen by a politically-appointed committee. It's cronies who gave the governor money who get the jobs. The jobs are not awarded to people who have any knowledge of the sport, so they are clueless about supervising the judges. Teddy Atlas has had many recent rants about this problem.

#4 - Where is the money for the fighters? Boxers actually make money. No mma fighters outside of the main ppv card are making enough money per fight to pay for treatment of one broken bone at the hospital. I trained with a guy who was an absolute killer at mme, but had to go into boxing so he could make a living.

I actually dont see the UFC getting much bigger than it already is. Their appeal is maxed out. The people who are already interested in MMA will watch it, but there is no hidden demographic out there that they have yet to reach. They can put it on other cable channels or even prime time network TV; stage big-name matches and hype the living daylights out of them, but this isn't going to generate any *new* interest and ultimately non-MMA fans still see it as a spectacle.

The UFC has reached it's zenith, and may even be on a very slow decline.

As far as the actual fight game goes, there is a LOT of talent and not enough space to showcase this talent. There just aren't enough promotions, time slots, and fight cards to house them all. So it makes it difficult to keep fans interested, when the big name guys are retiring or getting into movies, and there are so many new faces---good fighters---that it's impossible to keep up with it as just a casual fan. This takes away some of the appeal because you don't get invested in any one guy or group of guys. It's constantly in flux and as of now there is no "world series" of MMA to truly determine who is best in a cross-promotional fashion.

As far as steroids, I don't think they are more or less prevalent than any other professional contact sport. It does make for an unfair playing field, but I cant blame guys for doing them.

Dana and the Fertittas are smart business people, they made it grow a lot and I don't think that growth has maxed out yet.

I've lost a lot of interest in MMA over the last few years, though. I remember watching whole PRIDE events back in the day, every fight was entertaining to me at the time.
Nowadays, I watch only the really big fights or fights including guys I really love.

UFC is as big as it's gonna get under it's current schematic. It's a niche sport that appeals to a niche market.

Additional problems I see with the UFC

1. Over-saturation, UFC puts on too many events now. There are an average of 2-3 events per month and only the most hardcore fans can keep up with it. The UFC has to water down the cards with lesser known talent to fill the card. UFC was best when they only did 1 show per month. Cards were stacked and watching an event was a real treat.

2. Quality of fights have decreased. The fights you see now just aren't as exciting as they were 10 years ago in the old school UFC/Pride days. Most of the fights seem to consist of guys stalling against the cage or lay and praying. As soon as the paychecks got bigger everyone started playing it safe and fighting not to lose. It's become like boxing where guys are point fighting and playing it safe.

3. The Octagon is too damn big which results in guys throwing jabs and then back peddling the entire fight. I think the Octagon is like 32 feet across. The old school 22 foot Pride ring was the perfect size. The smaller ring forced guys to engage and have a decent scrap.

4. Meaningless belts

5. Rules that favor wrestlers too much. As someone else stated a wrestler can win fights just by maintaining top position and not really doing anything.

6. Pay is a joke. Dana is a multimillionaire while guys on the undercard are getting near poverty wages. 3 thousand dollars to fight on a UFC undercard is disgraceful. There basically getting paid the equivalent of minimum wage to fight.

I like mma, but it is still too new, boxing is just one of those legendary sports with so many legendary fights

speaking on one of bible belt points, I could believe some of those dudes are on roid, I was looking at some of the highlight knockouts of the year, and almost everyone on their look like a damn body builder

mma if growing fats did anyone catch the jones fight hated it But think it will beat nascar in ratings.

http://www.boston.com/sports/other/...or-steroids/PrHPNw1edjpYvtSzZQ7GbO/story.html

UFC Says Ex-Champ Anderson Silva Tests Positive for Steroids

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has tested positive for steroid use, the promotion announced Tuesday night.

Silva tested positive for Drostanolone metabolites in an out-of-competition test Jan. 9

Yahoo Sports also reported that Diaz had high levels of marijuana metabolites in his system during the pre-fight testing.

So he tests positive for 'roids and they let him fight anyway even though he clearly cheated? Sounds like UFC has no integrity.

According to the rules, Diaz cheated just as much...because he smoked weed the month before the fight. That gave him reefer madness superpowers just like Silva's steroids....at least according to the rules.

For the most part, the only amateur fighters I knew who could pass a drug test already had jobs where they got tested. The rest of them were either hgh/roid heads and gym nuts, or stoner/drunk partier types, which, funnily enough, is perfectly represented in that headline.

In an environment where just about everyone is on steroids, it is laughable that the rules say the potheads are cheaters. That's one of the many challenges facing the UFC right now.

UFC is full of guys who take roids, I'm shocked that you guys are shocked. Silvia will be the first of many. Look at my post above me and bible belt predicted the ish you can tell those guys are ripped off something besides working out hard.

Being a Joe Rogan fan, I tried and watched a bunch of fights, and the dudes were on the floor with legs around each other 75% of the time. I couldn't watch anymore and found zero inclinations to. Really wanted to like it, too.

The UFC is scrambling to cover their ass after Anderson Silva's drug test failure. Now they want to randomly test everyone, or at least they say they do.

There are fighters training all over the world. It's going to be a huge logistical challenge to be able to access all of them on short notice for random drug tests. Guys are going to go hide in the Brazilian jungle to train so that the drug test people can't find them.

Another problem with the proposed long suspensions of fighters for failing would be that lower fight leagues like Bellator would be the real winners. They will happily employ any big name UFC fighter who gets suspended from the UFC. Suspensions are only enforced at the state level, and all the states don't co-operate. Even if they did, the fight could just take place outside the US.

http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/The-Savage-Truth-UFC-Takes-Its-Medicine-on-PED-Front-82031

According to the numbers put forth in the press conference, five out of 19 athletes tested out-of-competition have come back with positive results. That is a 26.3 percent clip, and it is very alarming to say the least.

Fertitta clearly stated that his goal is for athletic commissions regulating UFC events to conduct enhanced pre-fight tests for all main events and championship fights, as well as fight night tests for every single athlete on every single card the company promotes. He also stated that his company will institute an out-of-competition testing program to be administered by an independent agency that will randomly test all 585 athletes on their roster. His goal for getting all of this up and running is July 1.

Cat Zingano v Ronda Rousey this Saturday night.

This article made me more interested in seeing the fight:

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/sto...comes-back-tragedy-fight-ronda-rousey-ufc-184

I think the UFC's future is overseas as well as MMA's.

In the United States the UFC fad has plateaued and I think it will shrink back to a more normal size like boxing. America likes it's combat sports but very much in a couple times a year kind of way. It's not football, baseball, or basketball. I think the UFC lucked out with several very marketable stars at one time (Couture, Liddell, Hughes, Ortiz, Jackson, and, of course, Lesnar as well as Silva and GSP for their respective countries) but they haven't created one lately.

In Europe, Asia, and South America boxing and kickboxing are currently kings and MMA could challenge them. Or at least carve out a profitable niche.

Jon Jones doesn't need steroids. He has crack.

www.mmanews.com/jon-jones-involved-...ns-from-the-scene-out-of-ufc-187-title-fight/

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones was involved in a hit and run car accident in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Sunday afternoon. According to MMA insiders @BloodstainLane and Front Row Brian, it appears Jones fled the scene after a car accident with multiple injuries reported. Even worse – cocaine was allegedly found at the scene.

There are already multiple reports that Jones has been pulled from the UFC 187 main event – but that could be the least of his problems. Jones is said to be in custody and could be facing some serious legal repercussions if drugs were in fact involved.

The story is still developing – but here are some updates from FRB and the Albuquerque Police Department: