Will need to watch both fights again but from memory I seem to remember Stipe being able to back off and get away from Francis’s shots much easier in the first fight because of the bigger cage.
In the second fight Francis seemed to able to catch him much easier because there was much less room for Miocic to back off into.
I was definitely surprised at how much easier Stipe was to hit in the second fight even with the smaller cage.
Thought he would be much more elusive and wait for Francis to slow down before strategically breaking him down.
I’ll need to watch it again as well, I haven’t thought much on that one in a while. Just thinking stylistically it seems like a better thing for Stipe to have a smaller cage to fight Francis
Maybe for some people here in the states, yes. And I don’t necessarily have any anecdotes myself. But for others I feel like “casuals” want MMA to more closely resemble a “sport” with different aspects regarding fight gear, TV production, commentary, etc…
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as things started to become more uniform, the sport got bigger and bigger. It certainly helps a ton that ESPN has been their hype machine, but it’s hard to say where they would be without them at this point. I do wonder how many fans the UFC has that are fans because “it’s cool” to like the UFC.
Again I’m not saying I prefer the current landscape of MMA with unified rules, uniform shows every weekend, etc…I’m just saying I think the way it is now has allowed to be as popular as it is. I love the UFC but I don’t enjoy watching any organization as much as I do ONE.
If I had it my way, I would have wanted an in-between PRIDE and UFC org (PRIDE style but in America, or PRIDE doing shows in the US) that had a mixture of unified and PRIDE rules, still had the walk outs and spectacle feel, and was done in a ring. And an MMA that grew the way it did in the mid 2000s, but didn’t get as popular as it is now. I don’t like there being shows every week, and would be more than happy to have one show per month with less fighters and more stacked cards.
I agree. I presonally prefer soccer kicks being legal too. I just don’t feel the general public or “casual” the UFC is looking to attract can handle watching a guy get kicked in the face on the ground. It’s pretty violent for the average person. Even though it’s the same as kicking somebody standing up.
I have said this story before on the old UG but doubt you would remember it but my first ever experience of MMA was in 2003 with the Pride middleweight Grand prix.
It was absolutely incredible to me at the time and I was amazed at what I saw. It also forever cemented in my head that Pride was way better than the UFC after seeing what Rampage did to Chuck.
If the Gustaffson vs Manuwa UFC fight night card was my first ever experience of watching MMA I would not have become a fan that’s for sure. Most of the fights were boring point fighters and a boring stale theme and confusing rules for a newcomer.
I admit I’m biased with my viewpoints but from my perspective most of the people I know who loved MMA before the 2010’s no longer watch over here.
Even though I get the UFC legally for free I barely watch it anymore either. Will occasionally watch a big card but those are few and far between these days.
I’m not denying that the UFC is doing better than ever in America but since they don’t release official PPV numbers I get slightly sceptical at some of the claims made by the organisation as to it’s ever soaring popularity.
It’s funny after all the shit Dana talked about Boxing and how their biggest fighters and champions hardly fight yet the exact same shit has happened to the UFC.
Stipe has fought 6 times in the last 8 years
Jon Jones had fought 9 times in 11 years.
If your biggest stars are fighting less than once a year how is that going to drum up interest from fans?
In Pride the fighters were far more active and therefore created much more interest and excitement.
Sorry for the rant I’m just so frustrated at what I feel has been the UFC ruining the sport of MMA that I used to love so much.
This is so true. We were all excited and optimistic for the future and how MMA would eventually become accepted and mainstream, but then we got it and it wasnt what it was cracked up to be. Now we get cards almost every weekend most of them throwaway, shit tons of divisions, relatively sterile production values, WMMA on almost every card, UFC pride month merch, fighters constantly wanting to run off to boxing etc etc.
I’m amazed how many Americans still seem to be fans considering how much their PPVs actually cost.
It only costs a tiny fraction of what they pay to watch all the UFCs over here in the UK and it still isn’t worth it to me.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to have more active fighters and champions and decent cards full of people I actually want to watch. Like it used to be before the Fox deal.
Unfortunately they know they can get away with it. I’d LOVE to go back to a time where it was like 20 cards a year because that was the sweet spot for me, but its never gonna happen.
Another issue the UFC is facing in regards to its popularity in America is the drastic shift in the demographics of the fighters. When the UFC initially got popular like 80% of the champs and main eventers were American, now it feels like theres a lot more American representation in boxing at the high levels than MMA, with way better prospects on the horizon too.
If they kept PPVs stacked I personally wouldn’t have minded the oversaturation as much.
Variety is the spice of life and I think it would have much more fun and interesting to have the free cards under the StrikeForce and or WEC banner and keep UFC cards as PPV only.
However from a corporate point of view that would make little sense.
I agree with you regarding the point about American fighters in the UFC but I feel this could be negated somewhat by having interesting fun to watch fighters and champions being much more active and creating more interest and excitement.
They should all be fighting minimum every 4 months at least. That gives them a month off from their last fight and enough time for a 12 week training camp. Neither of which are usually necessary anyway especially after a straightforward fight with an early stoppage or submission.
I’ve read of so many Americans like you saying this over the past 5 years.
That’s one of the reasons why I’m really sceptical of all these claims about the UFC’s ever soaring popularity. Especially as they don’t release official PPV numbers.
Boxing in America has been dying for awhile now. MMA seems even more moribund at this point. Dana refuses to promote a fighter to the point they become bigger than the UFC.
I think they still have some solid PPVs here and there. The next 3 are good. But its the fact that theres now 3-5 throwaway Apex/Fight Night cards between every needle mover numbered card. Obviously you dont NEED to watch them, but I think psychologically when you start skipping cards like that its a slippery slope to just not giving a fuck at all anymore. But then trying to watch it all requires a ridiculous time investment with most of your time spent watching something that isnt even all that rewarding, its a recipe for burnout.
I know some people would think its crazy to want LESS of something you like, but I really do miss having 3-5 week gaps between each card. I liked it when most cards felt special. That + being relatively easy to follow was one of the biggest benefits MMA had over boxing back in the 00s when it initially started blowing up. Then came the oversaturation and shit tons of divisions.
I dont think they could even if they wanted to tbh. They clearly wanted O’Malley to be something he wasnt capable of being, to the extent of giving him preferential treatment.
They definitely arent doing anywhere near as many PPV buys as they were in the late 00s/early 10s, no chance. And obviously they’re holding so many events in the Apex nowadays so no gate. I guess higher PPV and ticket prices plus crazy flat fees from ESPN or whatever could be offsetting that and bringing them in tons of revenue though. But revenue doesnt necessarily perfectly correlate with actual popularity.
Unless I had something incredibly important sunday or monday I would always stay up all night in the UK to watch a UFC card.
Then I just recorded it and watched the next day. Then I would just skip to the main event. Then I just stopped watching full stop apart from the occasional good card.
My interest MMA has never really recovered since.
Back before oversaturation I used to really enjoy watching M1, Strikeforce and Bellator as they were like appetizers before the main course of the UFC.
Everything being UFC UFC UFC makes it really stale and repetitive to me. Especially given how stale and boring the production values are.
A stacked UFC PPV card once or twice a month supported by free TV events under the Strikeforce and or WEC brand would be my personal preference.
Also being Jimmy Smith back!!
Agreed and if ESPN hadn’t paid them such a generous amount of money I’m wondering where they would be now financially given that PPV numbers are almost certainly down from where they were 10 years a go.
Like I said before anecdotal but no-one I know cares about MMA like they used to. So I would be genuinely surprised if the sport is actually more popular than it used to be.
This reminds me of some interview in Black Belt magazine in the early 80s where the dude being interviewed saying how soon, all the kickboxers were going to rise up and beat the shit out of all the boxers.