This question is geared more for longtime followers of the sport but newer fans are welcome to chime in too. My peak interest in the sport was from 98' to about 2013 or so and has been on a slow terminal decline since. Maybe it's just my nostalgia at play but the excitement and anticipation around the big fights was a lot greater in the past. Late 90s I had to go a shady mall that sold bootleg UFC/pride/K1 VHS. Later on I used to stay up to 4am - 5am for the big Pride FC cards, now I couldn't be bothered to even check the results for any of these fights. I think the real turning point was after the UFC had completed purging all the rival promotions that threatened their monopoly (Pride, Elitexc, Affliction, Strikeforce etc) and then banned their fighters getting side sponsorship deals. All the notable sponsors that had supported the sport since pre-Zuffa walked away and that KILLED regional mma in every country outside the US. In my country the UFC went from being covered everyday on the biggest sports network in the country to getting zero coverage not even being shown in bars anymore. I also feel the community in the early days was far better than it is today. Great MMA forums like Ironlife and Subfighter are no more and there's absolutely nothing around now of that quality. Sherdog and the UG are just troll cesspits now.
UFC especially had a bit of a hiatus for me when you had the likes of peak Chuck Liddle , Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, Matt Hughes, BJ Penn, GSP, Cain Velazquez tearing the Heavyweight division up. And then you had The Ultimate Fighter which gave rise to Forest Griffin and that epic Final Fight War against Stephan Bonner. I loved watching Bispings roller coaster ride of a career and then there was the intro of the former pride fighters like Shogun Rua, Wanderlei Silva and Cro Cop. The wars with my favourite lower weight division fighter, Frankie Edgar. I could go on ad infinitum but, I don't think the UFC or MMA in general has quite the same characters or uniqueness of style. There are some truly great, dare I say it, ATG fighters operating today but, they just don't give me the same buzz as the past greats.
The fighters are getting more advanced and you got new talents on the rise. You got one fc and rizen, m1 global. The sport has globalized and you’ll see different countries produce their own superstars. Khabib put dagastan on the map ,a lot of fighters coming up from china will also emerge. Mma should/needs a world cup event where a team of fightets like the IFL compete against other’s country.sports betting sites like draftkings and bovada have also made the sport more interesting. I’ve made good bets and won big by following and researching prelim fighters. Id say betting overall improves the excitement for the sport.
Definitely...there was a stretch from probably 2004-2016 where I bought every single PPV event that aired....both MMA and boxing. But the last few years of that stretch I was just buying them out of habit and I was disappointed by the cards more times than not....I couldn't be bothered with the MMA PPVs these days. I still grab boxing events if I deem them worthy of my money. Those have been less frequent the last few years as well with all the corrupt judging and bull**** in the sport.
MMA fighters don't have longevity. Product shelf life is much less than boxing & the UFC doesn't give them their fair cut. Remember McGregor & Khabib? Gone in a blink of an eye. Top level boxers are always in the background in till they reach the forefront MMA fighters pop out of nowhere then they bugger off just as fast If an MMA fighter remains champ for a couple of years or goes unbeaten they are quick to call them GOATS. lol.
Very disrespectful to fighters like GSP, Fedor, Dominick Cruz, Daniel Cormier, Demetrious Johnson, etc, and even Jon Jones who have put together a long body of work to cement their greatness.
I haven't watched mma very much lately, but for different reasons than a loss of interest. I have a severe chronic illness that I'm battling that makes focusing on things very difficult at best and impossible at worst. Also, with everything that's happening in the world with the Great Reset/Agenda 21/Agenda 2030 and all that stuff, sports seem pretty stupid in comparison. Still, I grew up doing martial arts and will always love it. I hope some day I can train again, and at least be able to watch again. I think it's important for a person to have a craft and passion that they continually strive to get better at, and I think martial arts will always be that for me. But I can see why the passion may wane for a lot of people. There aren't really any marketable fighters or rivalries that make the sport compelling. I do think Israel Adesanya could be that guy if he stopped acting like such a DB and just let his fighting do the talking for him, which he's certainly phenomenal at.
Used to be a MASSIVE hardcore fan back in highschool (10 years ago). Would talk about MMA with my friends all the time. This was during the young Jones, Anderson Silva, Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Rampage and GSP era. I used to buy MMA magazines (MMASPOT) and have a few pride and early UFC DVD's. Used to watch every PPV event, had MMA gear (Venou gloves), had MMA gloves signed by BJ Penn at a UFC gym when he visited. Was a member of "UFC Gym", did 1 class of wrestling, 1 class of BJJ, 1 class of boxing every week. Also read books about MMA technique. Would go to buy PPV fights, or watch at the bar with friends for every big fight. Was a member of and regularly posted and browsed on Sherdog UFC forum daily. This was before. Nowadays, I am still a fan, but only watch fights that have lots of hypes or big names (e.g. Conor, Jones, Khabib, Jorge Masvidal). I don't buy anymore MMA gear. Don't really feel much excitement at most fights these days and most of the time I just google and check the results on forums. I quit MMA gym, but I still do boxing daily (just hitting the heavy bag). i follow a few MMA pages on Facebook (MMA Junkie, BJ PENN, MMAFighting, UFC page) etc. Watch highlights every now and then on YouTube but never really replay full fights. I think the lack of big exciting stars made me kind of lose interest.I still love MMA, but not as much. It is probably my third favorite sport after Bodybuilding and boxing.
Hope you get better man, chronic illness is tough. Not sure if recovery process is much different to mental illness, but I know with mental illness, healing takes time and great effort. Best of luck
