What do you HONESTLY want to happen to the UFC?

I agree with Will and Stoo.

MMA really need smaller show for the fighter to gain experience.
I wouldn't mind if the UFC was scheduling 1 event per month or 2 or 3 month per region to put on cable TV and they could come and pick up some of the people there. In fact it would be a great idea

But still, I'm pretty sure SF is going to fold !

 

I want them to buy everyone so we get the best fights, be more fair and have some sort of ranking system, bring the ring back

 

The UFC can only have so many fighters on its roster. Guys who are on the fringe, like McCorkle or today's version of Jardine, will fight in other promotions. Guys in those other promotions who dominate these types of fighters will be noticed by UFC scouts.

Now you are arguing my point for me. By your own words, the sport was doing best when everyone was under one roof instead of split between promotions.

You tell me. You're the one who wants to see it be like that. :conf

Mate, that is exactly what you're arguing for. :-( Look at the top 10 list. Take 2 guys and put them in Strikeforce. Take 2 others and put them in WEC, then 2 more and throw them in PRIDE.

What do you have now? You have 4 guys calling themselves the champion of the world. You have a shitload of great top-level fights that never get made. Everybody's resume suffers. Everybody has bull**** title defenses instead of facing the best challengers the sport has to offer, and the fans miss out.

Guys can still do this. There are only so many shows the UFC can put on, only so many fighters it can have on its roster. Guys who show world-class talent or potential in regional shows will get noticed, and get opportunities to step up. Some will sink, that's the nature of every competitive sport. Others will swim.

No, YOU want to see that, because you want Ben Henderson to be happy being the champion of Strikeforce and Gray Maynard being the champion of WEC, instead of those guys being the challengers for the only truly legitimate world title belt.

Look at how stacked the lightweight division is at the moment. See how many great fights are on the table, and how willing to fight each other everyone is. You want to take that talent pool and divide it between several organizations who have NO incentive to co-operate, so that Lauzon-Pettis and Miller-Guillard and Diaz-Cerrone are ALL "world championship" fights and none of them will ever fight Edgar.

:hat

 

I have to say that is very good post Haggis. I think what Stoo was trying to get at is that different promotions allowed talent to grow and developed before getting to the UFC. However I don't think there's any reason that can't happen in the major organisation (for example the deepest division is lightweight and everyone at the top of that division is essentially Zuffa homegrown).

 

Also one quick point Stoo - I've made this before but you're wrong to cite 2007 as a major growth year. 2007 was a difficult year for the UFC and with the exception of Liddell vs Wanderlei (which had GSP vs Hughes as a main event) none of the Pride guys walked in as a big draw. The major growth years were 2005 and 2006 (getting onto television, popularity of TUF1 and TUF3) and 2008-10 (rise of Brock Lesnar and GSP). Of those the most important fight was Tito vs Shamrock 3 - the blockbuster television ratings that did in America was one of the major reasons why mainstream media outlets started covering the UFC. And there's a huge difference between the Tank return (desperation move dark ages) and the Royce return which finally made Matt Hughes a star.

 

Arguing your point for you Haggis... you've missed the point more like it

What Im saying is that there are no experienced guys from other organisations to sign because there are no other viable organisations. So id like to see the UFC invest in grass roots and help it thrive rather than smother it with monopolistic ambitions or there will be a lack of talent 10 years down the line

Im not arguing against the UFC signing the best talent, survival of the fittest and all that. My argument was that monopolies are that, 10 years down the line, what's to stop Zuffa promoting a Fedor v Monson type fight as the best fighting the best. What about the fans who dont like the UFC product, they wont watch the sport anymore. Will MMA attract the best young athlete's when the pay days in other sports will be much higher, due to the competition for their services driving the prices up

As I said, the fighters are the sport, not the logo on the mat

 

Again Stoo. You don't need competition to achieve that. The simple fact that Zuffa is running more shows will ensure that fighters come up and are 'blooded' in the sport before challenging for titles while collective bargaining is the best way to get fighter pay up. And it has to be said that in terms of low-end fighters most would acknowledge that Zuffa treats them better than perhaps any promoter in history.

 

I understand that they didnt walk in as a big draw, but their performances in the Octagon did that for them. Word of mouth and smart promotion did they rest. Rich made his name beating Ken, Anderson made his beating Rich, and so on. That's combat sport, the new get over by beating the old so to speak

 

Another thing to consider is what eventually happens with the super-camps that are forming. Could they ultimately become the regional promotions, running shows to get their fighters ready for the big time? Duke Roufus already does something akin to that.

 

Quite but it does call into question how much the UFC benefited from their Pride fame when even someone like Quinton Jackson didn't walk in a huge draw.

And Anderson really only became a big star by beating Griffin. His pay per views before that were pretty awful.

 

Why do you say there are no other organizations? Do you think that the success of the UFC and the consequent explosion of MMA popularity won't generate new organizations? :huh

The UFC stages one or two events in England each year. Yet in the last 4-5 years there are thousands of British guys who have gotten into the sport and started training in BJJ. MMA gyms are popping up all over. Do you think that won't lead to higher-profile regional promotions with local fighters building a fan following and getting experience in the cage before the UFC gives them a shot if they look like they are good enough? :huh

You seem to want it all RIGHT NOW. Apparently you forget that the sport was completely irrelevant and basically illegal a mere decade ago. Look at how far it has come in that short time. There is a LONG way still to go.

Uh, they are doing that. TUF Brazil, anyone? In a few months there are going to be a couple of dozen unknown Brazilians who all of a sudden have access to world-class training and facilities and the unprecedented opportunity to fight in front of a huge Brazilian audience, put their faces and personalities on TV, and catch the attention of UFC scouts.

That's ridiculous. Monson will never put the type of performances together that will warrant that tag. And before you start talking about Brock, well Brock actually WAS a physical beast, and he DID walk straight into the top levels of the HW division and immediately prove himself very competitive. The Monson who fought Fedor couldn't beat a Herring, let alone a Mir or a Carwin.

Much as you might resist, the MMA fans who don't like the UFC product are the minority. Hence the success of the modern UFC over ALL other MMA promotions.

It's attracted some GREAT athletes in the last few years, even before it was on network TV and had its champions earning several million dollars per fight. Money isn't the be-all and end-all. GSP didn't get into MMA because he wanted to earn $5 million for a fight, because when he started NOBODY was earning that money. But more kids and teenagers today are wanting to be the next Jon Jones than the next Floyd Mayweather, you can count on it. And over the last 4-5 years, a lot of top-notch young athletes are starting to look at professional fighting as a valid option. They will start coming through in the next five years, and that will only raise the bar for the sport.

For the sport to prosper, the fighters need to compete against each other. There needs to be ONE guy at the top of the hill, and every other guy in the world who competes professionally in that division wants his belt. That's how you grow a combat sport. Not by having five different champions in five different organizations using five different rulesets.

If you doubt that, just look at boxing's heyday. ONE belt. ONE champion. Everyone else is hungry for his title.

:hat

 

Great, so you acknowledge that fighters can enter the UFC without being a big draw, and achieve prominence by fighting well and generating a fan base. So they don't in fact need to be promoted as a superstar of a rival organization to get to the upper levels of the UFC. They just need to win fights and sell tickets.

:hat

 

That's a good point. Ive already mentioned the point about fighters retiring and increasing the talent pool of Coaches. Would be great to see others following in Randy and Pat Miletichs footsteps by bringing the next generation through, and that will happen more often now. And these guys will already have an in with Zuffa to say ''I got a young fighter here, he's promising''

 

I dont think they benefited at all from their fame over sea's other than the hardcore, I think they benefitted from their skill set and experience. They were ready made stars

 

Exactly and if Zuffa doesn't have a fight for one of the camp's guys for awhile then they can lend them back to the trainer's promotion a la Danny Downes.