Is UFC and Mixed Martial Arts cold as ice more than ever in 2023?

General
1

With the amount of wrestling that is out there now along with a somewhat popularity boom for professional wrestling, is the sport of MMA really cold in the year 2023? I remember 10-15 years ago, there was a ton of crossover between fans of wrestling and MMA and some of those completely switched to MMA and UFC after their dissatisfaction of the WWE product.

Now I feel like the UFC and MMA in general is not on the radar of many people. Even my friends who were not wrestling fans at all but were die-hard fans of the UFC a decade ago have fallen off completely and say that there’s not much enticing cards anymore and it’s boring.

Even the journalists who cover both industries like Pollock and Dave Meltzer are now picking and choosing what to cover and can’t watch all the UFC events like they both used too. Dave even said he can only watch the big UFC and Bellator events.

For me, MMA is close to falling off the radar for myself with so much pro wrestling and being a fan of so many sports like NHL, Premier League, F1, etc. There’s not much enticing stuff in MMA these days for me.

How about for y’all?

2

The UFC is as profitable and popular as it’s ever been. They can headline events with unranked fighters that only the hardcore’s have ever heard of, and the arena will sell out regardless of where the event takes place, with a seven figure gate.

I largely do not enjoy the UFC product, but much like the current WWE product, it would be very out of touch to implicate that it is in any way cold.

3

It drew record ratings last week against Summerslam.

AEW did not

4

I think it’s about the same it’s been for the past five years. They’ve basically adopted the WWE-mode of no one being bigger than the company. ESPN also legitimizes them a ton. Numbers on tv and box office are steady and they are highly profitable so I think they’re doing fine.

A league like the NHL is in way more trouble of falling off than UFC.

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5

I think that’s the factor there - they fell into the WWE trap where they just rely on the brand as opposed to individuals and making them into stars. Dana White is mostly the star of UFC when some would argue that’s not what a promoter’s job is supposed to be.

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