[Zeke's Chaingun]

Originally Posted by thisisdan

The only way TUF will help MMA is to only present the respectful side of the sport. Quit showing the petty bickering, highshool playground mantality, deviant behavior and focus the positive side of the sport, coaches and competitors.

I disagree. Many of the fighters ARE respectful, and others are not. That has nothing to do with the sport, it has to do with individuals. Hell, some top politicians or top evangelists are looney wacko's, yet they are in gov't positions.
If the UFC draws the attention of the populace, and the populace backs the UFC, it will only help. I think that's what the UFC is doing.

[Odium]

I think that it will help MMA in the long run. MMA:s problem up until now has been that it's unknown outside the hardcore fans, and of you don't know anything about a sport, would you buy the PPV?

What kind of people it attracts is a completely different matter.

[Zeke's Chaingun]

Originally Posted by Odium

I think that it will help MMA in the long run. MMA:s problem up until now has been that it's unknown outside the hardcore fans, and of you don't know anything about a sport, would you buy the PPV?

What kind of people it attracts is a completely different matter.

Exactly. One of the problems with MMA is that it needs to hit mainstream so it can generate the bank to pay fighters what they are worth-which will in turn draw more potential fighters and raise the quality of fighters overall.
MMA has survived off of hard core fans for so long, and to become mainstream changes, adjustments, etc are necessary-and those things are exactly what are going to make the hard core fans angry. I see it as necessary, and we are still seeing great MMA fights, so I'll deal with it for now in hopes that MMA will become mainstream and increase the sport overall.

[black-jack-shalack]

So far this season has been a hindrance IMO. The lack of technicle skill and conditioning is bad. The average person already thinks of MMA as a bunch of guys from the local bar just beating on each other with no skill. These guys are only encouraging that label. I'm just real disappointed with that talent this season.

[Zeke's Chaingun]

There's no such thing as bad publicity.

[Gandhi]

The fact that we have Zuffa trying an active strategy's to make the UFC mainstream is leaps and bounds over SEG, whose may have laid the groundwork but was doing everything at a snails pace.

Will it work pro or con, all very interesting but at the end of the day they have at the very least, a valid approach and no one else is getting into the saddle. Many Geeks, whether it is D&D or the internet or MMA, will always hate to see their turf shared with noobs and will find an angle to bitch about it. I will ignore them.

I will also resist the temptation to try to form some sort of immediate relationship with every UFC decision/outcome and TUF. Remember correlation is not the same as causation. And it will be hard to truly judge a strategy until it has had time to play out.

As far as a fan and athletes perspective here is mine http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=289223

[black-jack-shalack]

Originally Posted by Zeke's Chaingun

There's no such thing as bad publicity.

Really? Then why was the UFC banned from PPV for all those years?

[Zeke's Chaingun]

Originally Posted by black-jack-shalack

Really? Then why was the UFC banned from PPV for all those years?

It wasn't from publicity if that is what you are trying to say.

[Gandhi]

of course it was - it was its own self promoted no rules blood sport approach to publicity WTF

[Gandhi]

WELL phrased articulation of what many die hard fans are thinking but I have to point out that it is wrong in many aspects

Originally Posted by Commissar

One year ago, the Ultimate Fighting Championship had a competitive company. No expectations to live up to, nobody to please, except the hardcore fans that wanted the best champion, not the most marketable. They had a good lightweight division. Then TUF happened.
One year later, the UFC has gotten rid of several of their top fighters, due to losses or grappling-oriented fights.

This TUF no TUF is silly, it’s almost as silly a tying in rapes to ice cream consumption. Every single issue you mention can be isolated independent of TUF.

BJ pen - was not a TUF era but is whined about constantly be sherdoggers

Lind land - this is the second time he has been replaced, for the same reason, for being boring (at least that is the real reason) again if it already happened pre TUF how can it be TUF related?

The release of Frank Trigg is no different than the release of Sean shark (an arguably boring fighter who lost his title shot) except he is a more exciting fighter and therefore got more chances, he got 2 title shots, and he is in a stacked division, again there is no relation to TUF.

Ivan Slavery - this is arguable the only TUF related incident.

Pride cuts fighters all the time, you can't take a bunch of unrelated explainable incidents and call it a conspiracy to replace every good fighter with a TUF guy.

Diego Sanchez is a grappler - all his fights are grappling oriented - this kills your whole grappling oriented fights right there - u need to distinguish Lnp and grappling - many hardcore fans find Lind land boring - it is not just tuff noobs.

As far as losing hardcore fans this is pure statement with no fact - I am a hardcore fan and am going nowhere. Have you done a survey? If half the hardcore fans stay, while the geeks go running to the next underground fad and are replaced by double the new fans, what is so bad about that anyway?

TUF is a farm league; these guys are not fighting for belts and are up against lesser fighters right now. No one is pushing randy, chuck, matt, out the door to make room for these guys. The fighters that have left have left for the same reasons they left one, two, even three years ago. Salaries, losing, being boring - maybe a lot has happened at the same time, but this is really nothing new.

And by the way Pride has way more striking in it than the UFC, which has rules that favor the Lnp wrestler. So I don't get this whole Pride is the MMA purist while UFC now wants striking. Chuck is the champ because he deserves it not because of TUF. He was a take on all comers popular striker way before TUF was around, and it is now his time. Is Randy a striker or a grappler? He should have been a TUF era champ; he was the favorite to win. He got paid more than the champ for his last fight. Hell of a way to discourage grapplers for competing.