Are you actually surprised by that? Go and ask any recreational fan who mighty mouse is and I guarantee you that it will not relate to UFC.

The new owners will need to find a way to make that 4 billion back. How exactly will they do that? The 200 card had ridiculous value and it was only 60 dollars in HD. Every time Floyd fights aren't his PPV like 80 or more? If they raise PPV prices that will only hurt them. Piracy for sporting events has gotten amazingly easy. Or you can just go to Buffalo Wild Wings and watch for cheap.

I am a huge fan of Women's MMA but I don't see it being viable long term. Ronda has to be a unicorn to get so many people's attention. The women's belt switches hands so much I don
t see people caring. Now all these brazillian "females" are showing up and good bye American icon of women's MMA.

Social media plays a huge part in MMA but I don't see this new company using it to their advantage. Conor and Nate are really good with their social media but a corporation is going to press conference them to death just like Dana did. I learned a lot about Nate through social media and became a huge fan.

I think UFC could be at it's peak right now. It's best its ever been but once these current stars fade what happens? I think they got an amazing deal for 4 billion. What if Conor loses in August? What if Conor loses to Aldo? How many more fights can Brock have? What if Rousey loses her next fight?

Other stars will born after, like in any sport and even in mma previously with ortiz,liddel,gsp,etc...

Take away Ronda and the womens novelty stuff and how many stars has UFC built the past 5 years?

Conor is the only 1 I can think of.

Some of it is the more the sport develops, it is probably less likely 1 person is going to rule a division.

Trust Ari Gold. He always finds a way to draw the sheep.

I use to think this as well. But the thing about MMA is that it's a fight. The women (top women) are super technical. And they are fun to watch. I think it can and will survive because it's integrated with the men. If women's MMA were a whole separate deal, then I don't see it.

I don't watch Invicta, and I don't know it's history....but it's at least somewhat successfull, right?

We'll see. Women's MMA has been blessed by the MMA God's for having Ronda, Holly, Meisha and honestly Paige VanZant. I think people are 100% comfortable with it mainstream now. Hell it's the best example in pro sports of the Women being as respected as men.


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Tennis

I stand corrected. Me not being a tennis fan totally left that out of the equation. You do have women on the biggest stages in tennis. I was thinking maybe golf but its in that next tier.

Do you think anything is a better example over tennis? I can't think of another

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Gymnastics but it's hard to argue that's a year round pro sport

Definitely not women's golf.

I was trying to figure out how bad the Reebok deal was and I thought that Reebok could have been easily be targeting the UFC's biggest stars. Getting Ronda signed is pretty huge for them and under the UFC reebok deal umbrella there isn't much room for other endorsements. The best comparison I could find to Ronda was some of the tennis stars but mainly Maria Sharapova. Reebok ended up paying about the same amount Sharapova was getting from Nike but they got the whole UFC. They have to pay individual fighters more to do commercials but they are getting them at a huge discount.



At the time Ronda was as big or a bigger star than Sharapova with a much bigger upside.

Yeah....I'm talking the mainstream every year sports. Gymnastics gets popular every Olympics and maybe once a year for the world's. College gymnastics is actually big for a number of programs....that's a sport that women's is more popular than men's actually....

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I am in the camp that thinks the Reebok deal is a huge flop for all involved. The idea of Fight Kits at $80 a pop is ridiculous.

When the fighters were with individual sponsors there was way more merchandise sold as a whole. And you could buy unique tee shirts and other tings. The Conor Mcgregor "stay ready" with Deathrone was brilliant.

I feel like an environment where the fighters can sign and market with different sponsors is wayyyy better. I guess part of this deal, the fighters can't rep other apparel companies, right? Like Steph Curry being with Under Armour but the NBA uniforms were contracted with Adidas (going to Nike next year).

That would be a great marketing aspect for the big names to be with different major companies.

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They actually can, but not during fight week, the fight itself, or any UFC endorsed promotional activity.

I kind of thought that was still the case. I wonder why there are not mainstream guys repping top companies....

Actually, I think Rockhold and Lawler is with Adidas which is awesome.

Obviously Reebok has a handful of top people. But Nike and Under Armour are not really in the game. Jones use to be Nike but that turned to "powder."

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You guys are a much better forum for mma than Reddit. Haha. Although I haven't gone through past posts....so jury is out

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Adidas is the parent company to Reebok

Well....lol.

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The whole conversation is silly because the next GOAT OAT MMA fighter is currently ten years old.

The sport has evolved decades in only twenty years. That's not stopping. The Sage successors are going to embarrass the old guard in athleticism and technique.

They do have other sponsors than Reebok. Miesha Tate for instance is sponsored by Budweiser and saw Rousey in a cringey commercial for Bud light other day lol

We just got wonderboy coming up the ranks. We have the Korean superboy with technical boxing that we may not have seen in the cage before. Page VZ who on top of being hotter than rousey or Tate, is more likable and marketable having just made non fight fans fall in love with her on the dancing show, bisping who even though he isn't liked by many is repping the uk, Brock back on the scene and looking like he might be a contender if his health doesn't eff him up, silva with a bunch of fights left on his contract maybe finally shook off the cobwebs and regained some confidence after the catastrophic horror show injury that happened in the freaking cage (that he gets no reprieve for I guess), Aldo looking great and Conor with an easy excuse for losing his next fight before ramping up the chatter on that one....

Jon Jones is already a faded memory. Rousey could come back or not, the sentiment turned on her anyway because she is bsc. Tate, as much as I iked her as a foil to rousey never had "it". And as stated above, there are kids, boys and girls, who are 10-15 and have been training in wrestling, bjj, and even full on MMA since 4 and 5 who will take it past where it is now.

I think it's got legs still.

Well look at the champion.

Jone Jones , already one of the greatest ever and he basically destroy everyone in the division and his only 28.
There was suppose and maybe still lot of years in front of him, will see.

Exactly the same thing with Jose Aldo at 29 years old, lot of years in front of him with 1 miss step with Connor.

Again with Dominic Cruz, same thing tho is at 31, still very young for an easy 5 years in front of him.

Lawler is 34 so ok, but this division is so stacked it is amazing.
No worry there, especially with wonderboy thompson coming and maybe even GSP coming back.
Love him or hate, he still got a huge name in the business.

155 pounds is stacked as well with some pretty awesome young guy there
like Khabib Nurmagomedov .

Only problem might be the middleweight division, even tho for the next couple years at 31 and 32 for rockhold and weidman it should be fine.

Seriously UFC did not build much because they already have beast as champion and they are young.

I am certainly not worry about the missing stars in the UFC in the upcoming years.

None of those names are stars. Weidman should be, Lawler ABSOLUTELY should be, Jones is about to sit for 2 years, Cruz's and Khabib's styles aren't casual friendly... it's a lot harder than people realize to hit the note of an impossibly fickle public.

Demetrious Johnson in the cage is everything we say we want and can't draw flies.

UFC will be fine. There's always a new star. Brock and Rousey and Conor all still huge. After they leave someone else will be the next big thing.

Yup their model doesn't hinge on stars burning non stop. When one star goes out another emerges. UFC's next big play needs to be improving their subscription based content. The way people are cutting the cable cord these days if they went straight through the consumer they would be onto something. What's the average age of their viewer like 35 years old? Lot of untapped oil out there.