mma is thriving,the best fighters are not flocking to the ufc like days of yore.. reason's i ask are: -with gsp's probable retirement and possibly silvas in the not to distant future -the pride fighters curse i.e crocop,wandy,rua etc -pointless fights like lidell v ortiz III and wandy v jackson -nobody really standing out as the 'next big thing' -with lesnar as poster boy -dana's inability to sign fedor -an ageing generation of greats etc i dont think it has the 'clout' it once has...
UFC will be here for some time yet - each UFC event is sold out and its very popular among many countries & it always has many up & coming new stars.
You make certain good points, but certain bad ones. Shogun has nothing to do with a "Pride curse". He's doing very well for himself right now. And how was Wand vs Jackson a pointless fight?
what i mean by 'pride curse' is the inability to set the ufc alight,there fall from greatness... crocop was a prime example and rua has been inconsistent to say the least! though he seems to be finding his feet now... come on wandy destroyed jackson twice in pride! tell me what the point of a trilogy fight would be when a guy already has 2 wins over the opponent...
Bring the UFC to oz every month and it wont matter who fights.. 22Thousand tickets sold in under 24 hours...Enough said.. We love a scrap downunder.In a cage...EVEN BETTER
With your population, it wouldn't take long till the crowd numbers went down. But I like the idea of it going to different parts of the world. Just not the same place every month.
I know what you mean by Pride curse. Wand, Cro Cop, Herring, Dennis Kang, Nakamura, Marcus Aurelio, and a few others have suffered this. But Shogun seems to have found himself. And to be honest, I don't think he ever lost himself. He's had a bad knee problem that seems to be behind him now. Losing a VERY contraversial decision shouldn't automatically keep him in suspicion of a Pride Curse. And not all fighters that come from Pride have failed in the UFC. Anderson Silva, Dan Henderson, NOG & Rampage have found success. Some have failed, mainly Mirko because he was supposed to come in and wreck shop right away. Wand is still trying. Now Gomi & lil NOG just got signed, we'll see what they have to offer. And the point of a trilogy fight between Wand & Rampage was very simple. They still had unfinished business and don't like each other. Rampage is a different fighter now from when he was in Pride and the point of a 3rd match would put either guy closer to a title shot. Wand is a huge name so beating Rampage again would have been HUGE for him and he probably would have been 1 more fight closer to a title shot at the time. On top of the fact that Rampage was the last guy to be champ around when he and Wand fought that 3rd time. Perhaps the fight didn't have to be made, but from a fight fans perspective, and them naturally wanting at each other because of pure dislike, and lot's of money to be made, then hell yeah, they made it happen. Though Wand already held 2 victories, Rampage is still one of the best fighters out there. Maybe it wasn't needed, but it certainly wasn't pointless.
Thank you:thumbsup. You make good points as well. When you say an aging generation of greats, that's VERY true. And they're being recycled right now. Liddell vs Ortiz 3 is CERTAINLY a pointless fight, just Couture vs Coleman. Couture vs Coleman is actually a PPV, I'm not ordering that ****, and the card is pretty weak IMO. And if Liddell vs Ortiz 3 is PPV, then that's absolutely absurd and I'm not ordering that garbage either.
Mate the UFC needs to branch out overseas more.. Its is year 2010 now..not the good ol days in the tent of redneck towns.. To keep getting outside interest the UFC has to clean up the constant stinch of YANK it has all over it..
do you have your eye on anyone in particular because no one is standing out to me like a young st pierre or anderson silva did.. hope someone sets the scene alight fairly soon,cant believe st pierres quitting whilst at the top of his game... they may aswell get rutten v randleman 2 on.
no. they are an established companies who will have ups and downs. their next 4 or 5 cards look great. floyd vs pac has disgraced boxing. ufc are still going into new cities, countries etc