UFC in decline?

dunkamania

I have linked to a couple of articles on the UFC's poor showing in 2007.

Mentioned are,

messy acquisition of pride(overpaid and had to close it down and some contracts non-transferable)

Failure to get top tv deal, HBO deal fell through, and showtime deal got taken from under their noses.

Expensive expansion into UK, which is best known for lacklustre cards.Also Bisping has lost his shine.

TUF ratings are in a steep decline, and no sign of a change in format in sight.

Poor main events, Bisping v Rashad, what were they thinking. The Serra upset over GSP, Randy leaving, Sherk's drug abuse, all messed up main event fights.

S&P recently cut Zuffa's credit rating one notch, from BB to BB-, not very significant on its own, but it suggests that spending will be cut back in 08, and quality may suffer.

All in all it appears that UFC's stranglehold over MMA is slipping, another year like this and they wont be the big boys on the block anymore.


http://samcaplan.proelite.com/75893
http://bloodyelbow.com/story/2007/11/28/19586/690

mark.leonard

But who will replace them? I know their are massive Russian shows, but can you really see a russian event getting mainstream puplicity or TV like the UFC does?
The likelihood is that if the UFC continues to decline then the profile in western MMA might decline along with it, lets hope that isn't what happens!

dunkamania

EliteXC have made huge strides this year, most notably with their showtime deal.
Strikeforce have come along way, and the IFL have potential if they manage to retool their format into a more fan friendly format.Add to that HDnet foray into MMA and 2008 could be the year where smaller players make an impact

cowzerp

The UFC was not great last year,
i felt they where starting to mismatch fights and put on lower standard undercard fights.

in my opinion this was about cutting back on wages or probably more to do with the increase in wages that the fighters expect.

MMA will not decline but i think it has peaked in the states and asia and will go through small peaks and throffs, europe still has potential for growth but historically grappling type sports have never took off great in most of europe to the paying public.

MMA will be here for the long haul..ufc may not be the main player but competition is only a good thing..

mark.leonard

dunkamania wrote: »

EliteXC have made huge strides this year, most notably with their showtime deal.
Strikeforce have come along way, and the IFL have potential if they manage to retool their format into a more fan friendly format.Add to that HDnet foray into MMA and 2008 could be the year where smaller players make an impact

I agree that they have increased there market share, but I just don't think any of these shows are marketed at the general public, more power to them of course, it won't hurt anybody if fighters have options on who to sign with, they'll wind up getting paid more at the end of the day.

O'Leprosy

cowzerp wrote: »

The UFC was not great last year,
i felt they where starting to mismatch fights and put on lower standard undercard fights.

in my opinion this was about cutting back on wages or probably more to do with the increase in wages that the fighters expect.

MMA will not decline but i think it has peaked in the states and asia and will go through small peaks and throffs, europe still has potential for growth but historically grappling type sports have never took off great in most of europe to the paying public.

MMA will be here for the long haul..ufc may not be the main player but competition is only a good thing..

Yeah, I'd agree with most of the things you said, MMA is not going to go the way of the dinosaurs. Surprised it is'nt bigger in Europe.

FiannaGym.com

Who cares about the general public?

I think MMA needs to become one sport, much like boxing. THe casual fan doesnt know what belts Hatton holds and what belts Mayweather holds, they just know they tune into sky and presto they watch a boxing match.

MMA needs to be like that too, promoters putting on huge shows but the belts being owned by a different organisation, thus allowing fighters to fight in any organisation, against the best guys all the time (most of the time).

Peace

Vince135792003

dunkamania wrote: »

I have linked to a couple of articles on the UFC's poor showing in 2007.

Mentioned are,

messy acquisition of pride(overpaid and had to close it down and some contracts non-transferable)

Failure to get top tv deal, HBO deal fell through, and showtime deal got taken from under their noses.

Expensive expansion into UK, which is best known for lacklustre cards.Also Bisping has lost his shine.

TUF ratings are in a steep decline, and no sign of a change in format in sight.

Poor main events, Bisping v Rashad, what were they thinking. The Serra upset over GSP, Randy leaving, Sherk's drug abuse, all messed up main event fights.

S&P recently cut Zuffa's credit rating one notch, from BB to BB-, not very significant on its own, but it suggests that spending will be cut back in 08, and quality may suffer.

All in all it appears that UFC's stranglehold over MMA is slipping, another year like this and they wont be the big boys on the block anymore.


http://samcaplan.proelite.com/75893
http://bloodyelbow.com/story/2007/11/28/19586/690

Nothing is ever perfect. They made amazing strides in 2006. 2007 hasn't quite matched it but that's what happens when your trying to grow a business and sport. In saying that they broke theirall time tv rating this year with the Jackson/Henderson fight and are doing about 400000 buys a show which is dam good.

They are obviously thinking worldwide. And for that to be successful, the UFC will have to invest lots of money short term in the belief that it will work out long term.

If I was to be critical, I think 2007 was the year to go to new American cities than try and crack the UK. They have only really gone to Ohio and New Jersey as new markets in the US when they really could have gone to a few more. I think the UK market should have been this years target but on the whole, they've had great live gate numbers for the Manchester and London shows.

No other organisation is close to them in terms of ratings, live gate and ppv buys. There's no crisis. And if the rumor about Rampage and Forrest being the next TUF coaches is true, the ratings for it will rebound.

The UFC have had plenty of dark years in its history. 2007 is not one of them.

goo

FiannaGym.com wrote: »

I think MMA needs to become one sport, much like boxing...MMA needs to be like that too, promoters putting on huge shows but the belts being owned by a different organisation, thus allowing fighters to fight in any organisation, against the best guys all the time (most of the time).

Wow, for real?

FiannaGym.com

Heck yes! haha,

I think if you take the good elements of boxing, and the good elements of MMA and disgaurd the bad you are gonna have a pretty amazing sport fascilitator!

That all being said, it looks like amazing things are happening in Japan with Yarennoka.

Peace

Duboverseas

MMA was headline news here in Australia last night with the main television channel reporting that it's growth in America has already put it on a par with boxing. The fan base in Australia is growing at an unbelievable rate with the New South Wales government bringing in new laws to regulate cage fight events. MMA/Boxing events are a regular feature now at some local social clubs.

dunkamania

dunkamania wrote: »

I have linked to a couple of articles on the UFC's poor showing in 2007.

Mentioned are,

messy acquisition of pride(overpaid and had to close it down and some contracts non-transferable)

Failure to get top tv deal, HBO deal fell through, and showtime deal got taken from under their noses.

Expensive expansion into UK, which is best known for lacklustre cards.Also Bisping has lost his shine.

TUF ratings are in a steep decline, and no sign of a change in format in sight.

Poor main events, Bisping v Rashad, what were they thinking. The Serra upset over GSP, Randy leaving, Sherk's drug abuse, all messed up main event fights.

S&P recently cut Zuffa's credit rating one notch, from BB to BB-, not very significant on its own, but it suggests that spending will be cut back in 08, and quality may suffer.

All in all it appears that UFC's stranglehold over MMA is slipping, another year like this and they wont be the big boys on the block anymore.


http://samcaplan.proelite.com/75893
http://bloodyelbow.com/story/2007/11/28/19586/690

While you make a few good points I would disagree for a few reasons.

number 1 revenues in 2007 are the highest yet, and money is the bottom line for the owners.

number 2 ufc events are a lot more frequent, and you have cant massive cards all the time and the odd one is going to have bisping rashad type quality

Randy beating syliva was phenomenal, and I went to his fight against gonzaga to a packed house in vegas, ive never got the impression the organisation was on the down only the up.

All the other organisations pale in comparison to the ufc in professionalism, presentation and running their events properly

TUF has to decline sometime, every series looses its shine at some point.

fianna gym I think your nuts!...boxing has so much crappy organisations to wade through nobody knows whos who, and who is actually the best in the world, the sport is totally untransparent and your just tuning in to watch a fight but if its wba, wbc, wbo most people dont know which is which and which is credible so you have all these sham champions of the world around. The UFC champ is undoutedly the best in the world, whatever supporters of other orgs say, something that every fighter can aspire to

cowzerp

Deleted User wrote: »

fianna gym I think your nuts!...boxing has so much crappy organisations to wade through nobody knows whos who, and who is actually the best in the world, the sport is totally untransparent and your just tuning in to watch a fight but if its wba, wbc, wbo most people dont know which is which and which is credible so you have all these sham champions of the world around. The UFC champ is undoutedly the best in the world, whatever supporters of other orgs say, something that every fighter can aspire to

Not true-Fedor is considered by almost all mma entuasiasts to be the best fighter in the world and he is not in the ufc.

The best boxers will win the most prestigious belts anyway, and belts dont make the fighters, the fighters make the belts..same applies for boxing and mma.

cowzerp

cowzerp wrote: »

Not true-Fedor is considered by almost all mma entuasiasts to be the best fighter in the world and he is not in the ufc.

The best boxers will win the most prestigious belts anyway, and belts dont make the fighters, the fighters make the belts..same applies for boxing and mma.

No disrespect to fedor, but who has he fought that was or is among the best in the world?
A lot of mma enthusiast in my opinion over rate fighters who havent fought in the ufc, prime examples are cro cop and shogun. the ufc is a defferent level.
If you look at who couture has beaten in the last ten years
randleman at his peak
rizzo at his peak twice
ortiz
liddell
sylvia
gonazaga

they are a lot higher calibre then coleman, babalu, lindland and cro cop none of whom made it to the top of the ufc, and they are fedors most notable scalps. Fedor is overrated, and I think couture would take him apart

Clive

Deleted User wrote: »

No disrespect to fedor, but who has he fought that was or is among the best in the world?
A lot of mma enthusiast in my opinion over rate fighters who havent fought in the ufc, prime examples are cro cop and shogun. the ufc is a defferent level.
If you look at who couture has beaten in the last ten years
randleman at his peak
rizzo at his peak twice
ortiz
liddell
sylvia
gonazaga

they are a lot higher calibre then coleman, babalu, lindland and cro cop none of whom made it to the top of the ufc, and they are fedors most notable scalps. Fedor is overrated, and I think couture would take him apart

While I agree that Fedor is overrated by some and I personally think that, in a cage, Randy has a real chance of winning, to say "but who has he fought that was or is among the best in the world?" is baffling.

In the last five years, he has beaten:
Matt Lindland, Mark Hunt, Mark Coleman (twice), Mirko Filipovic, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice), Kevin Randleman, Heath Herring and Semmy Schilt and suffered no losses

In the same timeframe Randy has beaten:
Gabriel Gonzaga, Tim Sylvia, Vitor Belfort, Tito and Chuck.
He has also lost to:
Chuck (twice), Vitor Belfort, Ricco Rodriguez and Josh Barnett.

Take out the fights at lightheavyweight and it's a very one sided picture.

Clive

Clive wrote: »

While I agree that Fedor is overrated by some and I personally think that, in a cage, Randy has a real chance of winning, to say "but who has he fought that was or is among the best in the world?" is baffling.

In the last five years, he has beaten:
Matt Lindland, Mark Hunt, Mark Coleman (twice), Mirko Filipovic, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice), Kevin Randleman, Heath Herring and Semmy Schilt and suffered no losses

In the same timeframe Randy has beaten:
Gabriel Gonzaga, Tim Sylvia, Vitor Belfort, Tito and Chuck.
He has also lost to:
Chuck (twice), Vitor Belfort, Ricco Rodriguez and Josh Barnett.

Take out the fights at lightheavyweight and it's a very one sided picture.

I dont know why its baffling - the only fighter really held in great esteem on fedors list is nogueira, and we'll soon see how he steps up in the cage, tell me why those other guys on the list are good scalps? and who of them was the best in the world at the time of the fight.
Barnetts victory over randy was a sham, not only was he on steroids but he also wasnt hurting randy when the fight was stopped
Tim sylvia for example, while not the most liked guy in the world is probably one of the most difficult to beat, and I think we;ll see him as heavyweight champ again soon. all those light heavywieght fights randy fought the guys at the top of their game.

denashpot

i watched ufc79 and it was fantastic!!! its getting better and better!!!:D:D

dunkamania

I agree, UFC 79 was great......except for the snoozefest that was eddie sanchez soa palelai.

It really bugs me that Sanchez got 50k for KO of the night

Pride Fighter

Deleted User wrote: »

I dont know why its baffling - the only fighter really held in great esteem on fedors list is nogueira, and we'll soon see how he steps up in the cage, tell me why those other guys on the list are good scalps? and who of them was the best in the world at the time of the fight.
Barnetts victory over randy was a sham, not only was he on steroids but he also wasnt hurting randy when the fight was stopped
Tim sylvia for example, while not the most liked guy in the world is probably one of the most difficult to beat, and I think we;ll see him as heavyweight champ again soon. all those light heavywieght fights randy fought the guys at the top of their game.

The last 4 guys Clive mentioned were all top 5 heavyweights at the time, no other fighter has dominated the division like he has. Heath Herring was the number 2 heavyweight in the world when he fought him and no-one predicted a Fedor victory let alone the beating he doled out. Fedor is still the best heavyweight until a guy starts beating top 10 heavyweights in bulk again. Randy got 2 but he would need 3 more, including 1 against Fedor to be number 1. As for the UFC in decline that can only be a good thing as Dana White is an idiot. However it is not in decline its getting stronger, with Sylvia v Noguiera, A Silva v Hendo, Rampage v Griffen, Lesnar v Mir and possibly Shogun v Jardine/Liddell the org can only get bigger this year.