Some random thoughts on the UFC

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Steve Timko

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Jan 28, 2018, 5:10:05 PM1/28/18
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I don’t know how many of you follow mixed martial arts here. There’s something interesting going on with the UFC ratings.
A couple of years ago the UFC sold for something like $4 billion. They trotted out a lot of celebrities as minority owners but the rumors are that most of the money came from China. Conan O’Brien was one of them and joked he would be fighting in the UFC. In fact a lot of the celebrities have since been bought out.
When I see something like that, I wonder if Vince McMahon’s ultimate goal with XFL is to sell it to Chinese investors.
But the UFC has been in trouble.  Its two biggest stars ever are no longer active. Ronda Rousey lost twice by knockout and now has moved to the WWE and is trying her hand in movies. Conor McGregor made tens of millions fighting Mayweather and doesn’t seem interested to returning to fight for only a few million a fight. 
Injuries and age decimated the heavyweight ranks. Heavyweights are always big ticket draws. It’s third biggest draw, Jon Jones, keeps getting busted in drug tests, but is scheduled to return.  No stars are taking the place of the other stars. The second woman to knock out Rousey set the record for the lowest-rating UFC show a few months ago with a title defense. That record got eclipsed last night.
Meanwhile, competitor Bellator counterprogrammed a UFC card a week ago by scheduling a fight to go against it, and then moved their heavyweight tournament fight onto that Bellator card. Both people fighting in the heavyweight fight, Quinton Rampage Jackson and Chael Sonnen, are washed up. So their fight was happened the same time as the UFC’s fight. But the Bellator fight got double the viewers that last night’s UFC fight had with no MMA competition. Maybe the piggybacking strategy worked, with people turning both shows on instead of Bellator detracting from the UFC?
The UFC seems desperate for new stars. Dana White seemed firmly on the Francis Ngannou bandwagon for the heavyweight title. Ngannou is a big, muscular bruiser and was the betting favorite. But reigning champ Stipe Miocic had an excellent strategy of wearing down Ngannou so his muscle mass worked against him after being flooded with lactic acid. Ngannou was gassed by the fourth round. After retaining the title, Miocic refused to let White put the championship belt on him and took it away and handed it to his coach.
Heavyweight is the money division. Look at what having a couple of washed up fighters at heavyweight did for Bellator the week before. Miocic is likeable. He seems to be popular in Cleveland, where he was raised. But he doesn’t have much charisma and isn’t catching on nationally.
Khabib Nurmagomedov looks fierce but took almost a year to recover from problems he had making weight for one fight. He said his time in MMA is limited.
Demetrious Johnson is spectacular at flyweight and had an incredible win last year, but no one cares about flyweights.
So Dana White faces renegotiating the FOX Sports contract, or moving someplace else, while ratings sag. This is after he reportedly made several hundred million in the UFC sale. It may be that the glory days of the UFC are over. The question is whether anyone can justify the $4 billion investment.


Kevin M.

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Jan 28, 2018, 5:28:53 PM1/28/18
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When I joined the Peace Corps and lived in Central Asia back in 2002, fights in the octagon were hugely popular overseas. I assume if there is still an international market for it, UFC can make money even if its popularity declines in the US.

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Adam Bowie

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Jan 28, 2018, 6:49:43 PM1/28/18
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I think Kevin’s on the money. The UFC is truly international, and while they might struggle with some of their stars, they can basically contain their costs. Conor McGregor’s fight was widely considered a bit of a joke, and while he can sit tight having earned his millions, I doubt many more will be queuing up anytime soon.

XFL would be incredibly unlikely to have any non-US traction. The NFL struggles with just pockets of interest here and there, so who’s going to want an inferior football product? The UFC *is* MMA on the other hand.

Personally I have little to zero interest in the UFC or MMA in general, and my sports package includes most of the PPVs. But it still feels like it’s on upward trajectory, especially compared with boxing, or even WWE.

The NBA is the only major US sport that feels truly international, although without supersonic flights developing ex-US markets is tough!


Adam 


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Kevin M. (RPCV)

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Tom Wolper

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Jan 29, 2018, 5:38:30 PM1/29/18
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On Sun, Jan 28, 2018 at 6:49 PM, Adam Bowie <ad...@adambowie.co.uk> wrote:
I think Kevin’s on the money. The UFC is truly international, and while they might struggle with some of their stars, they can basically contain their costs. Conor McGregor’s fight was widely considered a bit of a joke, and while he can sit tight having earned his millions, I doubt many more will be queuing up anytime soon.

XFL would be incredibly unlikely to have any non-US traction. The NFL struggles with just pockets of interest here and there, so who’s going to want an inferior football product? The UFC *is* MMA on the other hand.

Personally I have little to zero interest in the UFC or MMA in general, and my sports package includes most of the PPVs. But it still feels like it’s on upward trajectory, especially compared with boxing, or even WWE.

The NBA is the only major US sport that feels truly international, although without supersonic flights developing ex-US markets is tough!

I wasn't going to comment because I'm not an MMA fan. But one thing that occurs to me is that the UFC had an unprecedentedly fast meteoric rise. The established sports we know took generations to rise to prominence. They have their ups and downs while still small in scale and over time build in some stability as they gain popularity. The UFC has shot up in about 20 years and it may simply not had that stability built in.

Steve Timko

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Feb 17, 2018, 1:10:54 AM2/17/18
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Turns out the UFC announced it is expanding into boxing. The future apparently looks bleak. Ratings continue to drop. One person wondered if the new owners bought MySpace.

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Steve Timko

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Apr 11, 2020, 8:35:26 PM4/11/20
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Ronda Rousey is apparently done with the WWE and maybe pro wrestling altogether. She cited crappy fans. She called pro wrestling fake fighting. That's burning your bridges.
Anecdotally, I have a Facebook friend who is a single mother and is really into pro wrestling with her children. She hated Rousey from the start and repeatedly posted negative comments about her. 

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Kevin M.

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Apr 11, 2020, 8:43:44 PM4/11/20
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Wait wait wait wait... wrestling is fake?!

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Tom Wolper

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Apr 12, 2020, 9:50:49 AM4/12/20
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On Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 8:35 PM Steve Timko <steve...@gmail.com> wrote:
Ronda Rousey is apparently done with the WWE and maybe pro wrestling altogether. She cited crappy fans. She called pro wrestling fake fighting. That's burning your bridges.
Anecdotally, I have a Facebook friend who is a single mother and is really into pro wrestling with her children. She hated Rousey from the start and repeatedly posted negative comments about her.

This popped up and caught my attention a couple of weeks ago. I subscribe to NBC Sports on YouTube for hockey and soccer highlights. As pro sports came to a halt the channel started putting up Olympic highlights from the past. So I saw this video about Rousey's bronze medal win in Judo at the 2008 Olympics. I had no idea.

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Tom Wolper

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Apr 13, 2020, 11:39:03 AM4/13/20
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On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 10:04 AM 'Bob Jersey' via TVorNotTV <tvor...@googlegroups.com> wrote:


On Saturday, April 11, 2020 at 8:43:44 PM UTC-4, Kevin M. (RPCV) wrote:
Wait wait wait wait... wrestling is fake?!

I'm still waiting to find out how Vince stopped big business from driving WWE into the ground and got them to support it instead...

It's probably tied to the media business shift from looking to build the biggest mass audience to finding the most loyal niches.

M-D November

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Apr 13, 2020, 1:37:27 PM4/13/20
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I wouldn't read too much into this.  When Rhonda turned heel on Becky Lynch in the run-up to Wrestlemania 35, she made some similar comments about fake fighting vs. shoot fighting, so this is actually 'kayfabe' (or as much as Rhonda gets).

Even if her beef were legit, that wouldn't stop the McMahons from welcoming her back.  There's still money to be made in an MMA Horsewomen (Rousey/Shayna Baszler/Jessamyn Duke/Marina Shafir) vs. NXT Horsewomen (Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley) match, and Rousey throwing shade at pro wrestling in the press may just be the opening gambit leading to that match at a PPV to be named (presumably once audiences are actually allowed again).
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