I’ve been an MMA fan ever since the first ever Ultimate Fighter in 2005, and I have never seen a year where general interest in UFC take a nosedive like this year and last year. Is it because they’re putting up too many shows, the lack of depth and star power in the current roster, effects of the IMG buyout and ownership? I would love to see people’s take on this.
Do you guys think that they are going through the “WWF 1995-96” days?
Jake from Chicago
More events makes it harder to build anticipation for the next card. It also makes it harder to build starts as you don’t have enough time to tell people’s stories. The big stars that they do have either are on sabbatical, suspended or have retired. See GSP, Conor, Ronda, Jon Jones, Brock Lesnar.
Events will continue to be popular as long as big stars are involved, if big names can emerge people will pay to see them. If not, it’s very difficult to follow for casual fans as there are more events than most people have time to pay attention to. I have friends that simply ask me “hey when’s the next big fight?”. They like the experience every once in a while but there’s too much noise for them to figure out themselves who to watch.
Too many cards. Too many generic fighters.
Simple as that.
Way too much content out there. I think the Reebok deal also has limited a lot of the fighters individuality.
All the stars got old and can’t be carried like pro wrestling can.
I think there are a lot of similarities with the UFC and the WWE right now. Too much content makes everything feel a bit watered down, and decreases star power. The quality of fighters is much higher then it used to be (kind of like the in ring work is at an all time high in the WWE) but the characters and story’s going into fights are lacking. It should be mentioned both companies have also recently signed lucrative TV deals, which shows that neither company is really in any trouble financially.
But yeah in short you hit the nail right on the head. Having a card every week makes most fans pick and choose what they want to watch, and for the casual audiences that “must watch” category is probably exclusive to Conor McGregor and Georges St Pierre at this point. Asking fans to pay 70$ for 5 fights every month is asking a lot.
Only speaking for myself, but I started watching way less with the Reebok deal. Every corner is wearing the same shit with the same font with the same placement of the fighter’s name. It’s an individual sport. Let the individuals being individuals. Loved the sponsor banners each fighter had. I’d put each fighter’s entire record on the screen with who they fought, etc. Wikipedia style so we’ll all refreshed on this fighter’s career. Plus a boxing scoring system does not work for MMA.
For myself theirs’s a number of factors as to why I stopped watching.
All that along with the “Rebok uniforms” losing sponsor dollars & a scoring system where a fighter must get 10 for winning a round (while the looser receives 9 or less). This would say a fighter who had a totally dominate round only receiving a 10, is the same as a fighter who just won the round in a very “50/50” round. How many 3-round judges decision sound like “30-27; 29-28; 30-27” of differing quality.
This & oversaturation would be my biggest factors for any decline in UFC ratings.
MMA (like any sport) thrives when there are compelling figured for the casual consumer to root for/against. The hardcore fans will always be there…But the casual fans need more than Stipe (great beer commercial, BTW) or a guy in Punk who really shouldn’t even be in the company.
It will be interesting to see if the company’s popularity amongst the mainstream sports fans increase with more exposure on ESPN. 
I believe Stipe Miocic could sell if the UFC put any marking behind him. He’s probably the best heavyweight in UFC history, wins almost all of his fights by knockout, he’s a firefighter in his spare time and a rare real life kind hearted, anti-authority babyface. Listen to the crowd reaction in his last 3 fights, (especially the one in Cleveland) the guy comes off like a superstar when he’s in the octagon.
But the UFC really haven’t done anything to hype him up. Even in this upcoming superfight against Daniel Cormier, it seems like DC’s quest to become a 2 division champ is getting all the promotion. I know Stipe and Dana have had problems, so maybe that’s why it feels like the UFC isn’t even trying with him, but I do think there is plenty of untapped potential to turn that man into a star.
Over saturation. To many fights, and different fighters to try and keep up. Price of PPV. I can not tell you what it cost cause I stopped watching when it hit 50 a month. I may have gotten a few random fights since then but before that I got them all
In the last two years ive only bought cards with CM Punk, GSP and Stipe. He is such a great fighter. In most of his fights he’s out matched and makes a real life babyface comeback.
I like DC but i dont think hes a draw. His opponents tend to be. in ufc, you make yourself like conor or the diaz boys. I completely agree with you.
One thing that might be important to point out is that even though TV ratings are down, the UFC is still in huge demand for live events. There are many markets that they have not been to and some markets could support them multiple times a year. They can’t work like the WWE where they have the same stars working multiple times a week so it’s a bit of a double edged sword. They want to serve hungry live markets but too many shows on TV makes it hard to promote stars and big events.
Not sure if UFC is less popular but I am much less interested in it now for several reasons.
I also think UFC takes themselves a little too seriously and cuts interesting fighters who could still be marketable if you set up interesting matchups. I am glad Bellator exists and is picking these guys who fall out of the UFC up and putting on interesting fights with guys who I have heard of.
Another thing I like about Bellator is their commentary doesn’t bury the fighters and actively tries to put them over. Even if I am watching two past their prime guys slug it out the commentary being excited helps me care about the fight. Contrast that to Joe Rogan burying CM Punk and Jackson with his commentary. Yea I know I’m watching garbage, but can we at least pretend its good?
It’s not special. You can catch a fight flipping through channels or sitting at a bar like every single week now.
It also kills the hype/promotion of special fights. We’re less than a month away from Stipe vs Cormier and we’re still talking the aftermath of CM Punk and Romero. Ngannou vs Lewis would have been a really hyped heavyweight bout a few years ago. Donald Ceronne fights in 2 weeks and who even knows about it?
UFC is severely damaged after their cash cow McGregor loses to both Khabib and Porier.
Ngannou left the company,
While Jones is so old the heavyweight division seems dead.
And I don’t think Adesanya and Volk can generate enough buzz to make the casual fans interested on their fights.
I wonder if Endeavor made the right choice in purchasing the UFC?
But they made a great move in buying WWE.