[Asmonius]

I lost a lot of interest in MMA, in general now that it became so..... Normal.

It's the frequency of the events. Back in the days, every upcoming event was huge, you waited for it, always a bunch of huge fights and great iconic fighters.

Over time, more and more content was created, more events, more fighters, TUF and Contender seasons.

It's not special anymore. At least that's my perspective.

Unfortunately it's been this way for over a decade. I mean we are literally a generation since TUF, almost as long since the end of PridFC. UFC has been "mainstream" since just before UFC 100 and the rise of Brock Lesnar. Not long after we started getting "fight night" and all the non-numbered cards flooding the event list.

For years there were orgs like WEC, Strikeforce and Bellator in the west to watch to get out of the mainstream…. then they all got bought up. At least in the east we have Rizin and One. Both put on spectacular cards… but don't have the best fighters in the world. Especially at higher weight classes.

Fortunately the "normals" only following casually watch and only know a handful of fighters (including Connor McGregor) And they are fare weather fans. So they are easily ignored as the shy away when you begin talking in depth or about history.

A lot of it is definitely the state of MMA post-Pride. Pride had a different ring, different rules - 10 minute first round honestly lead to a lot more finishes and more excitement, and smaller things like Pride's gloves being better for strikers. Since the end of Pride you've also sadly seen this focus on cross training instead of having different martial arts styles clash and see whose training reigns supreme, which was the entire point of the original UFC events.

But the oversaturation of events has been brutal as well. UFC's original tournaments were every 5 months or so, the PPV formula later on was every 2-3 months so you had something to anticipate. But when there's a show every week, and you're just selling PPVs on the name value of fighters the sport really lacks hype - particularly when there aren't those huge charismatic stars that have become so few and far between. Even as someone who's watched UFC and Pride from their respective beginnings, it's wild that the sport is still growing when so much of the what made it fun has faded.

 

[TaySan]

My issue is that I don't know any of the fighters enough to care, especially when most of them are just some random Caucasian Muslim dudes. There's no story to follow like in the WWE to get invested

 

[Arkam]

My issue is that I don't know any of the fighters enough to care, especially when most of them are just some random Caucasian Muslim dudes. There's no story to follow like in the WWE to get invested

They all have stories/lives/careers. You just have to spend 5min looking them up. Comparing them to WWE jackasses is supremely gross. (And the fact that you use "WWE" instead of WWF is sad on an entirely different level)