UFC Thread...yeah, wanna fight about it?

[Cola]

Surprised a thread doesn't already exist, honestly. I pretty much watch all the PPVs and try to catch the Ultimate Fighter when I can. Like many, GSP is one of my favorite fighters although he hasn't put on the best shows as of late in my opinion.

One of my other favorite fighters, and what led me to starting this thread, is Roy Nelson- who won in the main card tonight on the FX Ultimate Fighter finale.

Is there just not a strong interest on the CCSLC in MMA or is the absence of a thread the reason for lack of discussion?

Next fight will be part 2 of Junior dos Santos/Cain Velasquez at UFC:155. The first fight was the most watched MMA event in history, but I am not sure if this one will be on PPV or (like the last) on Fox.

[dfwabel]

UFC 155:Junior/Cain 2 is a PPV event. They are done with broadcast tv for the year since they ran three in the last seven days.

There is little interest in MMA here, boxing even worse. I was more in to it five years ago. Now I am less interested since 25% of the announced fights never happedn due to injuries during training. What's worse is that 30% of the main events announced have been replaced.

[Cola]

Yeah, boxing is basically dead to me. The straw that broke the camel's back for me was when Lennox Lewis pulled out on Klitschko, because he knew he would get his head beat in and have his career tarnished.

Other than that, the political mess had long ruined in.

The replacements due to injuries is aggravating, but I think it is still entertaining because anything can happen and someone is always hungry to take out their opponent to make a name for themselves. Carwin/Nelson was supposed to happen last night (for the 2nd time) and obviously the fight I would have liked to see...but imagine Mitrione getting the chance to establish himself as a contender by beating Nelson? Yeah, it didn't happen once Big Country tattooed that jaw...but still, it adds something to the replacement scenario.

[pmoehrin]

Other than that, the political mess had long ruined in.

That's the biggest problem with boxing. The fact that the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight couldn't get done was/is a joke. The people involved in it let the biggest payday in boxing history walk out the door because everyone's ego wasn't stroked properly. Its nothing new, but I never remember a time when it was ever this bad.

As far as UFC goes I'm kind of mixed. The fighers there get treated like dirt by Dana White who's also made it very clear he's trying to monopolize the sport and my personal opinion of him is that he's a slime bucket. So I do have alot of moral objections to UFC being in the position they are. But otherwise I'm pretty much on board with UFC. I think they do a very good job and organizing and booking big fights. They also do a really good job of spreading out where their fights are which I really like as well. Its not just Vegas or bust for any kind of superfight as it is with boxing. And I think where they really kill boxing they actually promote their undercards and give meaning to those fights. Even if the main event isn't great, chances are there will be at least one or two other fights happening that night that will be entertaining to see.

I've never seen a UFC event and came away disappointed or upset that I spent my night watching it.

They still got some PR issue they need to work on, but all in all I think its a pretty good time to be a fan of the sport.

[CS85]

I just don't get it. I grew up watching pro wrestling and have some begrudging appreciation for boxing's history, but UFC always came off as tacky and the NASCAR crowd's new fad.

The guys are definitely tremendous athletes, but it just does nothing for me.

[Cola]

I just don't get it. I grew up watching pro wrestling

UFC always came off as tacky and the NASCAR crowd's new fad.

I am confused. You mean wrestling, as in the WCW/WWF/ECW/ETC? What is known down South as the "NASCAR fan's soap opera"?

How can you get more tacky than "pro" wrestling? I thought that was kind of the point of it all...to not be taken very seriously.

I don't want to turn this thread into a "why UFC is great" thing, but these guys who compete are highly multi-skilled at what they do in the world's fastest growing sport that is constantly evolving. I've been watching UFC since I was really young and you we had to rent/order the VHS tapes to watch the events...when there was truly no rules at all.

[Seadragon76]

I sort of remember those early days of UFC... Lot has changed.

I, myself, hold some respect to UFC for what the fighters can do. Most of these guys are trained in two or three martial arts. Even in different levels, like say Bellator (which, if you aren't too high on UFC, you can watch that every week on MTV2), all of these guys are very damn talented.

It can get better when you get a great knockout. I remember a few years ago when a guy used the cage itself to launch a roundhouse kick to KO his opponent. That, my friends, is purely awesome.

[rvrdgsfn]

IMHO, MMA is slowly taking over in popularity that boxing once had. It just seems like the sweet science is slowly on its last legs. I got into the UFC a few years ago & I've been hooked. I'm looking forward to the next couple of fights like Dos Santos vs. Velasquez, GSP vs Nick Diaz & hopefully Jon "Bones" Jones vs Dan Henderson.

[dfwabel]

IMHO, MMA is slowly taking over in popularity that boxing once had. It just seems like the sweet science is slowly on its last legs.

Boxing is NOT on it's last legs and is far from it. Four of the 100 highest paid athletes are boxers (Floyd, Manny, Wladimir Klitschko, and Miquel Cotto). That is on par with tennis and golf.

On Saturday, CBS aired its first live boxing match since 1997.

It may be on its way out with white America, but it far from being done. Hispanics and other minorities still watch and participate

The live gates and PPV numbers for the major fights or HBO/Showtime fights are very good. In the US, there still is a large disconnect between the goals and scoring of amateur boxing (USA Boxing) and professionally. AIBA is returning to paper scoring for the 2016 Games, but there probably will still be issues.

As for the UFC, today's Q&A on si.com did describe how Dana White is using the "superfight model" like boxing has done for nearly three decades.

The UFC is starting to operate this way. The company's president, Dana White, is a boxing fan who hasn't been shy about sharing his pointed opinions about what ails that sport. But he's sharp enough to recognize that boxing, for all its troubles, remains a big enough player on the sports scene to generate huge money via pay-per-view. And that doesn't necessarily happen by pitting a champion against the fighter who's earned the No. 1 contender spot.

So now in the UFC we get Jon Jones defending his light heavyweight championship against Chael Sonnen, a middleweight coming off a loss and whose only UFC bout at 205 pounds came seven years ago and also was a loss. We get Georges St-Pierre putting his welterweight title on the line against Nick Diaz, who lost his last fight and now is serving his second suspension for testing positive for marijuana. We get talk of champions meeting in superfights while, in their weight classes, challengers stand in line awaiting their turn.

Personally, Dana White is part of the problem the UFC has in terms of image, but since he owns a percentage, the Fertitta Brothers are not going to muzzle him much. On the Organizational Chart, White is not the matchmaker (that actually goes to Joe Silva), but he d@mn sure gives the impression he is. A little after a year since signing the TV deal with FOX, things out of their control haven't helped them.

You can also point to when they started to run a card every three weeks as the result of their declining PPV buys, since viewers will pick and choose to watch at home. Adding two lower weight classes from the WEC and now a women's division, gives them more classes like when boxing's alphabet soup added the "junior/super" classes between 1980-1984.