Has MMA peaked?

[Hebrew Hammer]

I'm not convinced it's peaked, it's had a great long run, over a decade of growth. What is has suffered from is a loss of big names stars to retirement and inactivity.

GSP has been out until recently, big personalities like Lesner, Randy Coutoure, Tito Ortiz, etc have all retired. Some of the potential superfights are not happening like Jon Jones vs Silva. In my opinion, they've suffered from a lack of compelling match ups in the promotional phase. I'd like to see a legends division for older fighters...its silly to match them up against the top younger fighters expecting a great fight...it rarely happens but I would like to see them battle each other.

They also had to cancel one event recently.

There are still some up and coming fighters of note, just saw this brazilian leg bar submission animal who has potential, the Diaz bros always put out good fights. Maybe a resurgence of big time boxing fights has drawn away from it?

[mooyingmantis]

I predicted it on this forum about 2 years ago. In my four plus decades of training I have seen many MA fads come and go.

Some gyms will survive and prosper. I wish them well. MMA has had a good run and has brought some life back into MA in general. It has also brought back realistic training to some schools that had lost it and shattered some widely held myths about the "lethalness" of some techniques.

I can't wait to see what is the next "must learn" martial art.

[Hebrew Hammer]

I very rarely share an actual opinion around here, but in my not so humble opinion, MMA is the worst thing to happen to Martial Arts in the last two centuries.

Why do you say this? Maybe for Traditional Martial Arts...it certainly has seemed to marginalise them at least in the US or to make them ask some serious questions about their effectiveness/training.

[Kellen Bassette]

The reason I was drawn to early UFC's was:

1) It didn't have wieght divisions

- You could have a 150lb guy fighting a 400lb guy!!!

2) No GLOVES!!!

3) Not everybody looked "COOKIE CUTTER" the same. i.e. as if they focused on MT and BJJ ect ect.

- So you got to see a traditional karate \ Kung fu \ " whoever " guy fight someother strange matchup.

- That's makes for something very exciting to see.

4) The only 2 rules back then was No Biting and No Eye Gauging. Bring it back to those 2 simple rules +....
- Allow head butts again
- Allow Small Joint manipulations again

and finally bring back the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIJLEmITPtg


of Jo Son getting punched repeatedly in the NUTTS. Hahahah


OH AND P.S. .... OLD UFC's were Bracketed Tournys, meaning you had to fight 3 times in one night just to win the whole shebang.

Problem with the freak show fights is you can't get that stuff accepted in the mainstream. UFC wanted to go legit so they did.

But look at the new promotions and fighters getting signed..I really think Dana White wants more style vs style, or fighters who aren't cookie cutter...that's what UFC really needs and I think we'll see it.

I think MMA has been a good thing for MA. I consider it good for traditional MAs as well. It's forced people to reexamine their training methods and it's bringing hard sparring back to TMA which IS a traditional training method! So much of what passes as TMAs isn't traditional at all, in their so called sparring or conditioning, it's watered down to the point of total castration to make it acceptable for children, the weak, the old and the lazy.

MMA has forced some TMA schools to bring back traditional ways that they had left. Others never lost their way and still others close their eyes, cover their ears and live in their fantasy land.

[Lebaufist]

It only lasted as long as it did because it played on the macho desires of young adult males.

They ignored that it is inherently boring to watch by pretending it was the ultimate in manliness!

I would rather watch WWE than MMA. It is inherently funny and entertaining and knows it's pretend as an inside joke. MMA doesn't know it's a joke!

I agree, and I'll add that one of the biggest problems with MMA is the culture. Dana White IS the problem. His type anyways. He's like the Fidel Castro of MA. MMA could use a dose of maturity in reporting as well. That has been comedian from "News Radio", Joe Rogan, needs to go too. As those "young males" grow up, even they get tired of assholes making snide comments as a rule. The ones that don't go to bullshido.net.
Its not about more violence, its about more sportsmanship. And its also about not force feeding it on every corner of TV. Songs get overplayed and sidelined, so do TV shows.

[Robinhood]

Its just entertainment for the most part, so adjust the rules to make it more entertaining, not boring.

Tap outs are boring, maybe make it 3 tap outs and you win, standing eight counts would be good for those lucky punches. Time limits for holding on to each other etc., less ground and pound, that is lamb too.

Get rid of White and Rogan, they are like leaches sucking on the sport.

[JamesC]

Like mantis, I'm over it.

[Syn7]

I predicted it on this forum about 2 years ago. In my four plus decades of training I have seen many MA fads come and go.

Some gyms will survive and prosper. I wish them well. MMA has had a good run and has brought some life back into MA in general. It has also brought back realistic training to some schools that had lost it and shattered some widely held myths about the "lethalness" of some techniques.

I can't wait to see what is the next "must learn" martial art.

Ok, so how many more years do you figure then? Since you "called it" and all.

It's not going anywhere, this I guarantee. There will always be ups and downs, but the real fans are loyal enough. It's the people who just want to see KO's that are walking away. They will always come and go, it's their nature to always be on the next fad.


I say we bring back some pride rules into N American MMA. No knees or kicks on the ground is retarded. The only one that maybe i understand is the full on face punt or stomp. But even then, is that any worse that being hit with a massive standing round kick? The stomp is worse coz of the whole head on the ground thing. At least with the punt your head has somewhere to go, which GREATLY reduces the effect of the impact.

Another thing about N. American MMA that ****es me off are the breaks and the standups. Two guys grappling and boxing on the cage, and some **** ref pulls them apart? Some guy is working slowly but surely to his opponents back and the ref is yelling WORK, and then stands them up? WTF, so basically they are giving a striker a better chance to win because fairweather idiot fans want to see KO's? That bothers me. I realize its a business and they have to make money, but it would be nice if people wouldn't COMPLETELY sell out for the almighty dollar once in a while.

[Syn7]

Its just entertainment for the most part, so adjust the rules to make it more entertaining, not boring.

Tap outs are boring, maybe make it 3 tap outs and you win, standing eight counts would be good for those lucky punches. Time limits for holding on to each other etc., less ground and pound, that is lamb too.

Dude, come on! It's only boring to those who are one dimensional and lacking the understanding to appreciate the skills involved. Grappling is boring to people who don't understand it because the nuances are not as visible to the uneducated as some other aspects of fighting. NOTHING worse than being completely shut down by a high level grappler. I love it!

[Lebaufist]

Sorry dude, 30 minutes of Shamrock and Gracie manhugging was BORING!!!

[Kellen Bassette]

Grappling is cool when you can see someone working for a technical submission and his opponent trying to intelligently defend and counter...when it's just "lay and pray" it sucks. Although if your a causal observer who doesn't understand what is going on I could see how submission grappling would be boring, but most real fight fans can see the difference...

As to standing them up, yeah if they're working let them work...don't rob someone who's spent 3 minutes earning that position, but if they're just hugging waiting for the clock to run out then stand them up. I really don't notice too many unjustified stand ups in UFC and when you do see it, seems like it's toward the end of the last round of the headlining fights...you know they're just hoping for a last minute KO...not fair to the fighters, but the fans like it...

[YouKnowWho]

Sorry dude, 30 minutes of Shamrock and Gracie manhugging was BORING!!!

The ground grappling is no different from the stand up grappling. Sometime a stand up grappling may last for over 1 hour. When 2 person's body tangle, none of them can break the other person's grips. None of them can apply any technique, both just wait and hope the other person may make mistake so he can take advantage on. When this happen, it will be very boring to watch.

http://imageshack.us/a/img859/982/deadlock.png

[Orion Paximus]

Why do you say this? Maybe for Traditional Martial Arts...it certainly has seemed to marginalise them at least in the US or to make them ask some serious questions about their effectiveness/training.

right, it made them all adopt philosophies and ideals suited for fighting in a one on one match in a ring with a fence and rules. I know it's an argument as old as time (or 1994) but there it is.

[GeneChing]

I've enjoyed every MMA fight I've attended. I've reported each fight I've been to here - all those Strikeforce fights and that one UFC fight - and every one was thrilling. MMA is here to stay, and I hope it continues to thrive. I hope I get to go to another one soon.

I'm just wondering if it has peaked. Apart from the weakening numbers mentioned on my my first post in this thread, there are other signs. The most telling in my mind was MMA's most successful film to date: Here Comes the Boom. Despite being (as I commented) a huge ad for UFC, it was a satire, and that's one of the signs that a martial fad is over. There's a satire. Remember when Sho Kosugi dominated the movies with ninja flicks in the mid 90s, and then came the satires like Beverly Hills Ninja in the late 90s? Or the resurgence Kung Fu had in the wake of CTHD, and then came Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.

MMA has always been full of itself, which is understandable, given the nature of promoting such events. We also suffer from martial myopia, so we exaggerate the impact. But just take the recent Pacquiao vs. Marquez fight. I read coverage everywhere, even here. I'm sure every sports section had an article. I've almost never seen MMA coverage in the sports section. It still has a long way to go to become accepted as a major sport.

[Jimbo]

I still read the newspaper, and the Sunday sports section rarely ever mentions UFC results from the night before. But the results from almost every other conceivable sport are mentioned.

IMO, MMA will never approach NFL or the other most-watched team sports in popularity, at least in the States. One-on-one combat sports reached their peak popularity with boxing, and since the '90s that deteriorated in visibility big-time. I know people who love watching the concussive impacts of football, but can't stand MMA, seeing it as 'barbaric'. But mostly, it just seems that the dynamic of professional team sports will always equal the greatest excitement for most sports fans.