massive ppv event this saturday, no fans around here?

there arent many UFC posts these days though the big events usually draw a few posts. Im pretty sure there was something the last time Usman beat Coby and when Izzy fights

---
"though time has passed, im still the future" (c) black thought

a few years ago i had ufc fight parties pretty regularly. now my friends never really call me to get together.

when dana/ufc brag about having the biggest year ever...its because of the broadcast/content deals (espn, bt sport, etc). thats where 85% of their revenue comes from. theyre not crushing ratings/ppv.

there was a bump in interest during the beginning of the pandemic. but that was because it was the only show going.

now theyve come back down to earth...except for events with their 1 true star (mcgregor).

the first usman/masvidal fight did over 1 mil with no sports counter programming during the pandemic. but the rematch card, with THREE title fights and the first american card with a full audience in attendance since the pandemic, did 200K LESS than the original usman/masvidal card (which pulled the main event together in only 6 days).

one of the summer ufc cards, which had the hottest young star in the org (adesanya), 2 title fights, and the return to the octagon of nick diaz, barely did 500K domestic ppv buys.

the ufc didnt even release (or leak) the last ngannou ppv rate. and that was his biggest and most hyped fight ever. safe to assume, the number was underwhelming.

and the last mcgregor fight, dana said the pre-buys were outpacing any card in ufc history and he was estimating a 2+ mil ppv buy rate. after the event, he had to humbly admit that the event was now looking at something closer to 1.6-1.7 mil. nothing to sneeze at (and any other fighter or boxer would kill for those numbers) but far below what they had been anticipating. which means a lot of fans sat out the event and didnt convert in the end.

as much as *i* like the ufc and watch just about every event in some way, a lot of people just dont care about shit like an usman/covington rivalry. and up and coming 'stars' like sean omalley, islam makhachev, and paddy pimblett arent exactly getting anyone outside the hardcore fanatics excited lol.

it's really hard to find fighters to root for or even care about. Maybe I shouldn't care about their shit outside the ring, but Jon Jones, Colby, Conor, Masvidal, on down the line are all pretty insufferable. The rest are just average run of the mill troop loving patriots. I'm not expecting fighters who rep bernie bros or whatever, but it's like hanging out with that annoying uncle who is always interjecting stupid politics. Like 'i thought i was just chilling and watching a fight, and now we're doing this shit?'

Dana also treats the talent as utterly disposable, so all around it just feels pretty gross.

Chael, Colby, and Connor all popped big by leaning into racism.

I still check if there's interesting fights from time to time, but don't have the same level of fandom I used to.

In a generation of swine, the one-eyed pig is king.
-Hunter S. Thompson

i don't think he will win another fight ever again. but that aside, i don't pay attention to how much dana / the ufc is reporting for earnings. it is well established that dana is a complete douche who under pays his fighters. personally, it has nothing to do with the enjoyment/entertainment i get from watching. i don't tune in for the personalities, and although that adds some flavor sometimes, it's the last thing i'm personally keeping an eye out for when tuning in, although it is really satisfying watching a loud mouth get starched (masvidal).

i think the level of skill is increasing and i'm pretty excited about the current fighters and the new up and comers you have already mentioned, except for islam, this man puts me to sleep with everything he does. i'm sure he may be a decent draw in dubai but he has no chance anywhere else. he may be the most boring top level fighter ever, even his face puts me to sleep. another fighter to keep an eye on is jiří procházka.

this weekend, i can't call chandler vs justin but I think justin can do this if he survives the early onslaught, then, i got rose and usman. how about you?

but being such a blatant pipeline to the right wing has done a lot to put a cap on interest

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

>but being such a blatant pipeline to the right wing has done
>a lot to put a cap on interest

Not everything is politics in life god damn

the facts of what it is

are different than your preference

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

you're working off of two batshit ideas

1) that the UFC is a conduit to the extreme right (seriously, what?)

2) that the UFC's alleged decline in popularity is a result of being a conduit to the extreme right

there's ZERO evidence to support either of those two claims.

The UFC roster has never been more diverse, and the sport is as popular as it's ever been overall despite not having a silver bullet A-list draw at the top. You don't know what you're talking about, it's that simple.

also I didn't claim it declined in popularity (though it has, but not in the timeframe I'm talking about)

I said its popularity is capped.

there are black republicans and women republicans in congress, you want to tell me about the diversity of the lineup there and what that means about it not being right wing?

the only time someone would use that as an argument is when they know the facts are against them.


www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

its spot as a must watch combat sport. Boxing was making too many
pay per view fights, and a lot of those fights, even though they
were good fights, they weren't worth the pay per view cost. That
caused boxing to lose its core fan base, as well as casual fans.
A lot of those fans crossed over to watch MMA because it had become
very entertaining.


Boxing has since made a lot of championship fights available on
cable, and with espn and fox sports expanding its boxing coverage,
a lot of fans that they lost to MMA have gotten back into watching boxing.


Also, when PBF retired from boxing, there was a void left in the sport,and other than Canelo, there weren't any boxers to really
carry the sport. The rivalry between Fury and Wilder, and a new
golden generation of highly talented fighters such as Tank,Teofimo,haney,and Shakur have given new life to the sport.
They are now household names in the boxing world.


MMA is suffering from what boxing used to suffer from. They put
too many of their top fights on PPV, and they don't have any big
rivalries or names to pull in casual fans. Rhonda Rousey,
Gina Carano, Chuck Lidell, Rampage Jackson, and George St. Pierre
were highly entertaining and household names to the casual MMA fans. Even people who didn't watch the sport knew who they were just by seeing them on talk shows, and they were household names to the
casual MMA fan.


The organizer of the sport shouldn't be more famous than the
fighters or the product itself.

ALL HAIL THE KING of LOSING: LEBRON
Bulls | Bears | White Sox | Yankees | Notre Dame | Illinois | Chelsea | Real Madrid

in the ufc, on any given night, an underdog could beat a champion

in boxing, a lot of top fighters pick bums on the way to the top and keep picking fights they know they can win, there are obviously a few that don't do this often, but it happens frequently and fighters like canelo are guilty of it

If I'm not mistaken, ESPN pays the UFC an upright cut of money regardless of PPV buys, which is the main reason Dana was alright with ESPN+ being the sole place to purchase PPV cards.


I have to imagine ESPN is losing a ton of money since not as many casual fans care about the sport compared to when the Fertita Brothers owned Zuffa and the promotion had personalities that helped make selling the cards much much easier.

"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.

the little bit of coverage of seen on the deal kind of suggested that ESPN probably got a pretty decent deal. It drives subscribers and live viewership - both of which are pretty hard to come by.

In a generation of swine, the one-eyed pig is king.
-Hunter S. Thompson

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

<---
Fuck a sig, my presence is enough.

extremely hollow and uninteresting to the casual fan.

<--- Big Baller World Order

conor had the biggest and loudest personality of them all

izzy has a big personality and gets tons of amazing top shelf promo

>massive ppv event this saturday, no fans around here?
One of my favorite champs of all time.

Has become such a well rounded fighter with a balance of fighting smart and not just being a point fighter. As bad as Colby looked early on, I told my boy when round 2 ended, he should’ve gotten him out of there.

Most fighters who eat hat much shit and get dominated like that through two can’t ever turn the tide. Cody is good.

On that note I can’t believe so many people were vocally cheering for Colby. If you are vocally cheering for that dude I’m just gonna assume your a racist.

At least those who were cheering Last night were vaxxed racists lol

---
"though time has passed, im still the future" (c) black thought

He was getting tapped but he never got buzzed like he did against Gilbert Burns

I need to hear a round table conversation with Gaethje, Rose, Usman and Trevor Whitman. That man has helped those three ascend to another level, and they win fights intelligently but still fight with a violent spirit.

>He was getting tapped but he never got buzzed like he did
>against Gilbert Burns
>
>I need to hear a round table conversation with Gaethje, Rose,
>Usman and Trevor Whitman. That man has helped those three
>ascend to another level, and they win fights intelligently but
>still fight with a violent spirit.

He never feared it but in the late rounds he felt it. He was never close to getting stopped but look like he definitely got stunned or was stunned that he got hit and felt it lol.
It could’ve also been a combo of his gas tank wearing down, but he wears not being tired well.

---
"though time has passed, im still the future" (c) black thought

And the broadcast narrative that Kamaru had to win round 5.
Looks like on two scorecards he didn’t have to and the fight was written by the time the 5th started unless Colby could KO.

I agree with the first and third scorecard. IMO you could’ve scored 3 for Colby, but he didn’t do enough there either and Kamaru still had the more effective shots. The wildest score I think is scoring round 5 for Colby

https://www.reddit.com/r/MMA/comments/qol534/ufc_268_official_scorecard_kamaru_usman_vs_colby/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf



>>He was getting tapped but he never got buzzed like he did
>>against Gilbert Burns
>>
>>I need to hear a round table conversation with Gaethje,
>Rose,
>>Usman and Trevor Whitman. That man has helped those three
>>ascend to another level, and they win fights intelligently
>but
>>still fight with a violent spirit.
>
>He never feared it but in the late rounds he felt it. He was
>never close to getting stopped but look like he definitely got
>stunned or was stunned that he got hit and felt it lol.
>It could’ve also been a combo of his gas tank wearing down,
>but he wears not being tired well.

---
"though time has passed, im still the future" (c) black thought

Usman got the first two, Colby got the second two
I saw a lot of folks saying you could give round one as a 10-8 but idk

<--- Big Baller World Order

Round 2 wa s the 10-8.

Seems like judges haven’t fully aligned on what 10-8 means.

He was wobbled twice and almost finished. I’d say that qualifies. If you were essentially saved by the bell, that’s a 10-8

---
"though time has passed, im still the future" (c) black thought

I missed the first 2 mins of that round so I figured something happened early

<--- Big Baller World Order

fuck that dude- big proppers to Usman for beating the shit out of that race-baiting con artist.

---

But hell, what do I know?

If it wasn’t Colby it’d be some other average white fighter. thanks to them I finally know about the Let’s Go Brandon thing

<--- Big Baller World Order

nobody paid attention to him until he took on this incredibly polarizing persona

there are several interviews where he puts that away and he's not as infuriating

he understands the business side well and found an angle to generate sales which will offer him a long and fruitful ufc career, he doesn't give a shit if his opinions irk you either

It's not at all a surprise.

You sure are walking, talking, and quacking like a certain duck.

because i'm able to accurately deduce what he is doing as a 10+ year fan of the ufc?

if it helps you sleep better at night, i was rooting for kamaru because i find colby's shtick annoying and i never bet against the champ

there are plenty of interviews with colby where he is being his true self and he's not the same man he presents to the world

if you're easily moved by public personas than you're going to have a hard time on this planet, but it sounds like you already do

that doesn't say racist shit.

>because i'm able to accurately deduce what he is doing as a
>10+ year fan of the ufc?

We all see what he's doing.
It's an old ass playbook.

The difference is, you think he's "playing".

You don't think his racist dog whistling represent his "true self", and you think his "true self" is him when he isn't talking about tribes sending smoke signals.

You minimize the racist shit, and amplify the "normal" shit, as though they aren't emanating from the same person. You don't get to compartmentalize those parts.

But if he is just playing a part, and not just saying what he actually thinks, then that absolutely makes it worse.

Because that means he's willing to play into dog whistle racism for a buck, and he's selling out the "true" self who doesn't actually think that way. Nevermind the fact that none of this would make a lick of sense, and you'd be bending over backward to defend a racist.

I said that "playing" that racist is worse. your response to me was "nah, he's well respected in UFC, he understands the business side well and found an angle to generate sales which will offer him a long and fruitful ufc career, he doesn't give a shit if his opinions irk you either"

Sounds an awful lot like you are at least ok with that tact, which is tacit support of the tact at a minimum. There's no fence to ride there.

Of course, you then ended with this bullshit:

"if you're easily moved by public personas than you're going to have a hard time on this planet"

Nothing I've said even slightly indicates that I'm "easily moved by public personas". I'm merely observing what he's doing.

BUt the beauty here is, you can clear this up, and say, flat out, that you do not support the racist things he says, condemn them, and acknowledge that the moments where he's not saying racist shit do not undo or cancel the times where he does.

You can actively condemn his racist ways. So what will it be?

it's not that people don't get what he's doing.

He might be an ok friend or family member to some folks, but if his net influence and contribution to the world is stoking up racism and resentment to sell a few more pay per views, then I'm ok saying homie is racist.

In a generation of swine, the one-eyed pig is king.
-Hunter S. Thompson

WWE does gimmicks

Colby Covington saying shit like he's gonna ship Kumaru Usman back to Africa is pretty disgusting no matter how you slice it

as i said, i find his shtick annoying af and was hoping to see him wake up on the canvas

for the sake of discussion, what did you think he said that was undeniably racist?

what do I "think" he said, that's "undeniably" racist?

That choice of "think" and "undeniably" says it all.

We're done here.

You chose the words you chose.

Most of these people speak in ways that allow for plausible deniability.

Oddly enough, a lot like you. The same "who, me?" shit, as though the lack of certain, more explicit terms, makes it not racist.

That shit fools nobody but themselves- and you. Birds of a feather, and all.

Because, the thing is, you hedged like a motherfucker here.

I said:

"But the beauty here is, you can clear this up, and say, flat out, that you do not support the racist things he says, condemn them, and acknowledge that the moments where he's not saying racist shit do not undo or cancel the times where he does.

You can actively condemn his racist ways. So what will it be?"

You said, "i find his shtick annoying af and was hoping to see him wake up on the canvas

for the sake of discussion, what did you think he said that was undeniably racist?"

You find his "schtick" annoying, and then asked what i "think" he said, that's "undeniably racist".

I pointed out what these choices say about you, and you say, "nothing but feelings".

All of which strongly implies that you don't find the things he said to be racist, and that calling his statements racist, is nothing but feelings.

again, you can't help yourself. This shit is overwhelmingly soaked in everything you say, clear as day.

you spend a lot of time composing words that say nothing

just show me a few examples of his racism, it should be blatantly easy no?

That you choose to ignore, sidestep, and deflect them doesn't change that.

you have no case, you like to throw your highly emotional rants around to exercise your fingers. i hope it brings you inner peace, as for me, it just tickles me that you think you have any effect with your vitriol

if you can't find any examples of his racism, then we got very different ideas of racism.

no one on here needs to be doing your homework for you though.

In a generation of swine, the one-eyed pig is king.
-Hunter S. Thompson

however, he should be able to defend his points if he's going to grandstand on them by providing examples. the reason he isn't is because his case is weak.

if you are referring to colby calling blm a terrorist organization, that was a right wing talking point which was shared by black conservatives as well.

blm protestors where setting fire to federal buildings, which in any other scenario would be considered an act of domestic terrorism, hence, the talking point.

what is left? colby being outspoken about his support for police and fire?

none of those things are racist.

In a generation of swine, the one-eyed pig is king.
-Hunter S. Thompson

i've looked and i'm not seeing anything else that is notable, but i may be missing something, help me out please.

https://twitter.com/usman84kg/status/1206339446720741376




www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

I blame the recent elections and the fact that he's a con artist and from nearby my hometown ..?

---

But hell, what do I know?

I don't see why people would prefer boxing over this type of fight. So much happening, exciting till the last second.

___________________
"So this is what everybody's always talking about! Diablo! If only I'd known. The beauty! The beauty!"

but boy was I sweating it out in the 2nd

UFC is on fire right now.

Conor calling out Max...ok pal. Run it and I'll put my mortgage on the Hawaiian.

I guess the next step is Max/Volkanovski 3, which I'd typically be opposed to but I felt like Max won the 2nd one pretty decisively so I'm fine with it.

Besides that I'll gladly watch any fight with Max in it, he's just very entertaining to watch.

Right now though, I'm really looking forward to Poirier vs Oliveira and Gane vs Ngannou. Sweaty palms guaranteed.

___________________
"So this is what everybody's always talking about! Diablo! If only I'd known. The beauty! The beauty!"

not as great a fight as I was hoping.

Gane lost his composure once Ngannou body slammed the fuck out of him in R3. props to Ngannou to just randomly decide "hey i wrestle" down 2-0 and completely turning it over.

i hope Bones can stay out of trouble long enough to get an Ngannou match in.

the fight before it w/ the small dudes was dope af. they were bucking. i didnt see anything else on the card though

<--- Big Baller World Order

I think Francis knew going in it that Gane wasn't gonna be a dude he could just swang and bang and get a highlight KO, and he showed much improved takedown defense in the 2nd Stipe fight, but seeing some of those sequences by him on the ground... yikes, that's a scary fighter.

Not sure if Stipe is planning on coming back for a 3rd fight with Francis, but if he's not I'm not sure who you have Francis defend against next. Lewis (3) fights Tai (11) next, which is a huge test for Tai and honestly I think he wins, but Lewis looked like absolute shit against Gane so I don't think he deserves a shot at Francis after 1 win if he were to beat Tai. Blaydes (4) is next, coming off a win, but Francis KOed him in 1 already.

Plus all the shit with Dana, who seems to just HATE Francis (notice he wasn't even out there to put the belt on him last night, the Tomato was in code RED I'm sure) so I'm sure some fuckery will happen and Dana will pull the "he just doesn't want to fight"

Also Jon Jones can either step up and fight at Heavyweight or shut the fuck up and log off Twitter. But that's a rant for another day.

Wonder how his conflict with the UFC will end. After listening to that interview, I have a feeling Dana bashing Ngannou after he beat Miocic early last year was the beginning of the rift. I'm glad Ngannou is sticking to his principles.

"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.

Dana and Jon Jones hate each other and Dana still has found a way to keep Jon Jones around (even when Jon Jones can't help but sabotage himself)

http://i.imgur.com/vPqCzVU.jpg

Heavyweight in UFC has always been a have or have not situation, but at least with the Jones vs Ngannou fight they have the potential to recapture the mainstream attention they had with the peak Brock hysteria fights like the Carwin bout and Mir rematch

reporter asked dana about rogan and izzy jumped in on full sambo mode like 'joe rogan is my nigga!'.

these dudes make this sport hard to watch.