UFC Signs with FOX - Is it now too much?

[MMAPride Scott]

Was wondering whether having a second brand might not hurt

 

[bkozican]

I always looked at the UFC as the top of the top.......Its not really that anymore is it ??

Low tier fighters (world class in their own right) are main event material now days.

 

[Crimson Azure]

Was wondering whether having a second brand might not hurt

That sort of goes against what the UFC has done. They have nurtured other promotions like WEC until the divisions were strong enough to move them into the UFC or purchased other promotions & merged them quickly like Strikeforce into the UFC.

I think the free to air events or fight pass events are going to be that second tier but remain under the banner of the UFC. The benefit is they get exposure they normally wouldn't & they can promote the hell out of PPV through these which as we know tend to be the better events, name wise.

 

[MMAPride Scott]

Yeah I guess what happens is they are using guys to headline these weaker cards that really should be popping up PPV for example cub v stephens would of been a good PPV starter. I guess for someone willing to shell out for PPV they don't want them watered down. I think TUF needs to go also

 

[BradWCE]

Way too many UFC cards IMO. The closer we get to UFC 175 the more I realise that it's not really that good. Weidman/Machida is amazing. Rousey is always good to watch but nobody thinks Davis will win. Hall/Santos & Brimage/Doane on the main card, meh. I guess if they still had Sonnen/Wanderlei or Sonnen/Belfort it would look a lot better.

Just think how good UFC 175 would be if 2 of the 4 cards this weekend and last weekend weren't happening. Get rid of the Stephens/Swanson card and the Edgar/Penn card.

UFC 175's main card could look something like this:
Weidman/Machida
Rousey/Davis
Edgar/Penn
Swanson/Stephens
Struve/Mitrione

PPV's are way too watered down. It was evident when the Jones/Henderson PPV had to be cancelled because of the main event falling through and watering down of PPV's has only gotten worse. With Aldo out at UFC 176 that card will be an awful PPV card unless they somehow get an awesome fight to headline.

By all reports UFC 174 did terrible PPV numbers (I've seen maybe even less than 100,000). That would be the lowest they've done in the last 8 years. There's probably a whole bunch of reasons that add up to cause such low numbers but it's clearly not good.

I don't think they can reduce the amount of events too much now that's it's blown out this far. I'd prefer the amount of events to be substantially less but there would be too many problems with them doing that now; such as having to cut heaps of fighters and no doubt issues with Fox.

 

[Jab]

Bump.

Discussion from the 175 thread made me remember this thread and maybe the discussion can be continued here.

It seems that the signing of the Fox deal has come at cost to the UFC, that being the PPV. They're still trying to find the balance between the two but they can't build a PPV around 1 title fight, this isn't boxing. They will be forced to drop their price or lose people to the internet streams.

 

[Nickos66]

It's bizarre - most of the free cards have better lineups than the PPV cards in recent times - with the occasional exception. There have been some absolutely dismal numbered (PPV) events in the last year or 2.

 

[BradWCE]

I don't think most of the free cards have better lineups than the PPV cards. The PPV cards are still more often than not the better cards.

I'm just looking at the cards from UFC 168 onwards. There's been 8 PPV and 19 non-PPV shows. Without having a close look I noticed a bunch of the free cards that aren't as good as any of the PPV cards. These include 4 TUF finales, the New Zealand card, the Singapore card, the Shogun/Henderson card, the UAE card, the London card, the German card and even the Dublin card. That's more than half of the non-PPV events.

 

[MMAPride Scott]

they are not as good as the PPV but the PPV are watered down but they are going to be long gone is the days when the UFC only did 12 cards a year and every card was stacked as

 

[Barry Roundhouse]

you could argue that the main FOX cards have been better than the ppv's.. not better at the main event level but from top to bottom they have been better.. 178 is defiantly giving back to the paying customer tho.. that card is STACKED!! wowee I can't wait

also for the growth of the sport signing with fox and the fight pass cards have been a neccessary in the world wide expansion of MMA. makes me happy thinking about where this sport will be in 10 years! 10-15 years ago people didn't know if there was going to be a sport to watch in the future

 

[Sharks On A Plane]

Just saw the recent schedule, seriously WTF is actually going on with this organisation?

Aug 17 - Bader v Saint Preux
Aug 23 - Bisping v Le
Aug 24 - Henderson v Dos Anjos
Aug 31 - Dillashaw v Barao

The vast majority with very thin undercards (I'll still watch them regardless but this scheduling really needs to be looked at).

The Souza v Mousasi undercard (Sept 7) is actually reasonably interesting so looking forward to that one at least...

 

[Barry Roundhouse]

Just saw the recent schedule, seriously WTF is actually going on with this organisation?

Aug 17 - Bader v Saint Preux
Aug 23 - Bisping v Le
Aug 24 - Henderson v Dos Anjos
Aug 31 - Dillashaw v Barao

The vast majority with very thin undercards (I'll still watch them regardless but this scheduling really needs to be looked at).

The Souza v Mousasi undercard (Sept 7) is actually reasonably interesting so looking forward to that one at least...

what's the issues? just looked at all those cards and they are exactly what I expect from them.. some real fun fights coming up too.. we could go back to 12 cards a year at $55 a pop stacked from top to bottom... but I'd rather what we have now... lots of the most exciting sport on the planet

 

[red+black]

I agree that the PPV cards can be disappointing. Too many events, too many fighters.

I struggle to get too excited about a whole fight card these days.

 

[Barry Roundhouse]

I agree that the PPV cards can be disappointing. Too many events, too many fighters.

I struggle to get too excited about a whole fight card these days.

there model changed... they wernt gunna grow without it...

what we have now is neccessary! Le v bisping is a weak card in terms of names but u can sure as hell garrentee these Asian fighters who "don't deserve our viewing" will give it there all! that's all I ask

 

[Nickos66]

there model changed... they wernt gunna grow without it...

what we have now is neccessary! Le v bisping is a weak card in terms of names but u can sure as hell garrentee these Asian fighters who "don't deserve our viewing" will give it there all! that's all I ask

That, and the local market will pay through the nose and still gladly lap it up. No complaints from me as not every card can be a star-studded barnburner. Too many big "must see" cards just gives you a bit of a "blockbuster hangover" anyway, or whatever Mick called it at the time.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

That, and the local market will pay through the nose and still gladly lap it up. No complaints from me as not every card can be a star-studded barnburner. Too many big "must see" cards just gives you a bit of a "blockbuster hangover" anyway, or whatever Mick called it at the time.

Haha, the old blockbuster fatigue.... what a wank that was!

 

[Nickos66]

Injuries aside, this card sucked well before Barao had to pull out.

This article pretty much nails it.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/8/30/6086531/ufc-177-fight-card-whats-at-stake

Short answer: nothing.