FOX is likely to replace UFC with WWE TV

[TheIrishPsycho]

It honestly feels like watching 2 random people off the street.

No one promoted themselves.

They hold up divisions for no reason or retired fighters wanting to come back.

Revolving door fight promotion,

Just keeps turning onto the next fight..

Combat sports are a spectacle - the big fight should be a circus, an event to remember.

It seems to me, the "sport" got too big too fast and tried to expand to mainstream a little too quickly and as a result - crushed itself.

 

[IrritatedTomcat]

 

[Brueskie]

Like any business that's floundering, the UFC needs to downsize. Cut lots of fighters, cut whole divisions, have fewer cards.

 

[111293]

I

My interest in MMA in general has been on life support for a few years now. I used to watch every event from every organization, every Countdown/Primetime show, would read MMA magazines, listen to MMA podcasts, etc.

Now half the time I don't even know who's fighting on the next card. It will be Saturday morning and I'll look it up and be like, "Oh shit, such-and-such is fighting tonight." I still watch, but not as much or with the enthusiasm that I used to, haven't watched a Countdown show in probably a year, I consume very little MMA news, and the only podcast I still tune into is the Co-Main Event.

I don't know if the sport changed or if I changed. Or some of both. But it's just not the same these days. I've tried to find ways to reinvigorate my interest but have been mostly unsuccessful.

My opinion man is that’s normal. I’ve been a fan since the 90’s and I’ve gone through my phases.

I think with any sport it’s the story lines that draw a persons interest. I don’t necessarily mean “drama story lines” , but feeling like you know or can relate to a fighter makes a big difference.
Obviously that’s why ESPN (which I don’t watch) always tries to focus on the personal part and garner interests .

Like I said man, I’ve had my phases and although I’m not as super pumped for a lot of the cards nowadays, I still am on here a lot , and listening to Luke Thomas show and MmaJunkie on XM, and Rogan podcasts and Ariel etc etc.

The cool part about it back on the old days is that it was like a club that most people didn’t know about . In a way it’s still sort of like that. I can barely find 2/3 people that know or want to talk about MMA.

You sound like a real fan, it will come back . Ok weird, long talk over . Sorry up late after drinking monsters

 

[sss133]

Wrestling can be fun to watch if you have good characters and story lines. Same as tv/movies. Problem is all the characters and stories suck now. Stone cold Austin the rock days were amazing.

It’s funny the amount of people that crap on wrestling but would suck Austin and Rocks toes.

WWE targets kids. It’s a pretty huge market probably overall more profitable in terms of tv market. And they still get 10k in arenas weekly.

 

[Metheus]

The UFC has a sport problem.

They dont have a season like football, baseball, hockey etc so they have to work on a full year schedule. They also have to sign their top stars to at least a few big spots a year to bring in the revenue and keep the fans happy. They have doctor enforced healing down time after a fight. If they are like Cain they have doctor enforced healing times after a training session. The roster isnt promoted like the WWE roster. Certainly no one is selling Giblert dolls at the events or selling "Notorious" shirts at Newbury Comics or Hot Topics. So there isnt as much visual advertising.

WWE has a streaming model and PPV system that works for the fans. If you are on their "fight pass" you get the PPVs right then, not 3months down the road. They have continual storylines that might get altered by actual injury but not really changed overall. If you go to an event you will more than likely be able to see and interact with one of your favorite stars. You know no one is pulling out of a PPV with an injury. Its a safe, sports oriented story based show that people can tune into day after day or week after week and get the same steady product.

That MMA fans get so triggered by a sports-based fictional show that they have to shout to everyone they can see that "its really fake, who watches that crap" makes me laugh so hard. Such insecure fans for a niche sport.

And this from someone who hasnt watched more than 10 mins of wrestling in almost 30 years but has watched thousands of hours of MMA.

 

[Vil7]

 

[rerun406]

The commercial breaks on the free cards really are fucking brutal. It takes SO fucking long to get from one fight to the next that I rarely watch those cards live anymore.

It's too easy to just DVR them and fast forward through all the bullshit.

Amen. I DVR the fuuuuuu outta UFC every chance I get. And yeah being able to fast forward is a major plus. And of course I'll tack on an extra 1/2 hr to hour to make sure I catch all the fights (if main event drags)

whoever invented DVR is a frikin genius. **on that note, that's why HBO/Showtime have a big edge with combat sports, yes you pay a premium for those channels .. but no commercials

its more like a drama/tv show then a sport... which also confuses me as to why FOX would want to broadcast a non-sport. To be honest I think Fox trying a bargaining tactic to get UFC to bite and take their offer of 250m or w/e it was.

Underlined I feel the same way. The reputation of FOX will take a hit if they air WWE. Heck look at the XFL, aside from it being overall shit quality, simply being known as McMahon's football league hurt their credibility and that trickles down

John Coachman an on air personality (who was with ESPN for a while and is now back with WWE) had a lot of time establishing credibility in the sports world on ESPN, because he spent time under the WWE.

Like any business that's floundering, the UFC needs to downsize. Cut lots of fighters, cut whole divisions, have fewer cards.

True, but will Dana's ego allow it? Probably not

It’s funny the amount of people that crap on wrestling but would suck Austin and Rocks toes.

WWE targets kids. It’s a pretty huge market probably overall more profitable in terms of tv market. And they still get 10k in arenas weekly.

The younger kids/families demographic is a better one to target. I can't crap on WWE too much (as I did watch)

my issue is mainly with the overall quality, and how part timers (The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Batista, Goldberg) can seemingly just jump up off the couch and into the main event. Which shows how poor the talent pool is when they're relying on past names from the early to mid 2000s

But I get it, it's nostalgia and the big names get people interested and more interest=more viewership

**I just hate reading all the whiny fans .. because if they were really that dissatisfied with the product they wouldn't watch.

 

[aokimasaru]

I've been watching WWE a lot lately just because of Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss. MMA is kinda boring these days.

UFC has a big problem with their matchmaking. I have said this multiple times: UFC needs to feed bums to popular fighters and they should stop rushing a fighter's career just because they get KOs or incredible subs. When a fighter's value has risen significantly then they can put them as a main event against an experienced fighter.

Look what happened to Sexyama. He was fed to killers like Vitor. UFC didn't realize that he IS a celebrity in Korea and Japan. Dong Hyun Kim is also a celebrity in Korea but UFC doesn't know that. Man these new owners (WME-IMG) are supposed to be a talent agency and they don't know one of their fighter is popular in Korea. The best they could do right now is give Tyrone Woodley a spot in TMZ. ROFL. Meanwhile Sexyama and Dong Hyun Kim have their own TV show in KBS and MBC - Korea's top 2 TV stations.

 

[FrankieNYC]

I've been watching WWE a lot lately just because of Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss. MMA is kinda boring these days.

UFC has a big problem with their matchmaking. I have said this multiple times: UFC needs to feed bums to popular fighters and they should stop rushing a fighter's career just because they get KOs or incredible subs. When a fighter's value has risen significantly then they can put them as a main event against an experienced fighter.

Look what happened to Sexyama. He was fed to killers like Vitor. UFC didn't realize that he IS a celebrity in Korea and Japan. Dong Hyun Kim is also a celebrity in Korea but UFC doesn't know that. Man these new owners (WME-IMG) are supposed to be a talent agency and they don't know one of their fighter is popular in Korea. The best they could do right now is give Tyrone Woodley a spot in TMZ. ROFL. Meanwhile Sexyama and Dong Hyun Kim have their own TV show in KBS and MBC - Korea's top 2 TV stations.

Your last paragraph just proves the point that I been making for a long time.
WME are not involved in day to day as much as people think.
they make corporate decisions.
They should be more involved as far as talk shows, crossovers, etc, but they don't get involved.

 

[Ilovepizza]

 

[Ysgramor]

really? Didn't think WWE still had mass appeal in 2018.

I mean I was really into it ... back when I was 14-15, but now it's pretty hard to maintain my interest.

You do know they are other children that grew up to be that age right ?

 

[Sakuraba7]

Revolving door fight promotion,

Just keeps turning onto the next fight..

Combat sports are a spectacle - the big fight should be a circus, an event to remember.

It seems to me, the "sport" got too big too fast and tried to expand to mainstream a little too quickly and as a result - crushed itself.

I don't like how its one promotion too big, and we end up with a whole bunch of mediocre events and fights. I don't even buy the whole "all the best in one promotion" bullshit. The UFC doesn't farm talent, they get it from other promotions. So they can't have ALL the best talent in the world, and the ones they do have are being promoted horribley. Great fighters lingering on Fight Pass, or fighting scrubs and can't get ranked opponents, while mediocre fighters take up slots on primetime wasting all that exposure.

And Bellator I can't take seriously. They're putting zero effort in acquiring overseas talent and more into padding their roster with has-beens of yesteryear. From the sport perspective, and high quality MMA, Bellator has become completely meaningless. I don't know what's the deal with Coker, but he seems to have a blacklist on fighters from the North Caucasus. The few Russians they do have are all teammates of Fedor. Its like if a boxing promotion was signing American talent but barred Blacks and Hispanics. How do you bar the dominant contingent?

There was a moment in time where you could watch UFC (on Spike), Strikeforce (on SHO) and Sengoku, DREAM, K-1 (on HDNET) all at the same time. Not to mention Affliction, WEC and M-1 Global. It was a great time to be an MMA fan. I prefer a scenario with 3 major orgs, not 1. If they only hold 1 event a month, you still get 3-4 high quality events every single month instead of a whole bunch of mediocre cards which is the norm now.

MMA media don't even cover foreign promotions anymore. ACB and FNG could easily be stand-ins for Dream and Sengoku, but neither gets any coverage. Nor does M-1. In the years following the FOX deal, they just stopped covering overseas MMA outright.

 

[DiegoLunes]

I don't see why they couldn't have both but Fox has done a terrible job with the UFC.

 

[rerun406]

You do know they are other children that grew up to be that age right ?

yeah I'm well aware .... but who's to say this current generation will embrace wrestling?

 

[codfather]

I really don't get the hype around WWE.
Maybe it's because I am european but I just don't understand the concept of fake wrestling and why people are interested in watching something like this.

WWE is huge in the UK and Ireland.

 

[MC Paul Barman]

I really don't get the hype around WWE.
Maybe it's because I am european but I just don't understand the concept of fake wrestling and why people are interested in watching something like this.

Pretty sure it's popular in some European countries.

 

[capnlarge]

The WWE runs their events on Mon, Tues and Sun, while the UFC primarily runs events on Saturday. There's no scheduling conflict and there's a lot of cross-over in the demographics. I can see Fox wanting both on FS1

 

[Oliver Clothesoff]

I'll believe it when I see it happen. Sounds like a negotiating tactic to me. Pro Wrestling is a joke.