And if so, have you noticed that ESPN’s coverage of late has been going steadily downhill?

Repeats of main events at 12am, no midweek repeats, no MMA Live and TUF is also relegated to the am hours. I’ve emailed espn and ufc uk about it but have recieved no word back in over a month.

Am I alone in this observation? Seriously considering cancelling my subscription.

I love a bit of UFC, but tend to watch online so can’t comment on the ESPN coverage. I’m not so keen on the new TUF live format though, it just hasn’t grabbed me like previous seasons.

I thought it was blocked online in the uk? Do you hide your ip or something?

Dana White & Zuffa hate ESPN, they did a negative piece on fighter pay recently. Their contract is up in August & with UFC & FOX link up in the USA it looks like Sky could get it.
The fastest growing sport around, it definitely needs more tv time.

I might have guessed. I probably should cancel my subscription and save myself a tenner a month then if it’s not going to improve.

I agree the cost for the coverage they give is pretty poor.
There is quite alot of good fighters coming through BAMMMA at the minute, saturdays bammma was very good watched it this evening, certainly worth a watch if you can get hold of it. Tom watsons fight was very good.

the new madonna album or what ravers rub in their gums?

Yeah I reckon it’s moving to Sky. They’ve seriously cut back their boxing coverage and the UFC stuff gets a lot of viewers here. Downside will possibly be PPV for mega fights.

The thing that really annoys me is the way they schedule overseas events to show at the normal time in the US. The Japan event started at 10am in Japan so it could be shown at primetime in the US. Given how far MMA has fallen in Japan, that doesn’t do much to try and raise its profile. I haven’t looked at the Sweden card yet but I assume it’s on at daft o’clock to ensure it fits in with US schedules

BoardinBob

Yeah I reckon it’s moving to Sky. They’ve seriously cut back their boxing coverage and the UFC stuff gets a lot of viewers here. Downside will possibly be PPV for mega fights.

even if they were ppv, it’d probably still work out cheaper than paying £120 a year and not watching anything. I honestly can’t remember the last event I watched – whatever one they replayed before 12am. It’s absurd and they are obviously just burying it deliberately. I’ve tried posting on ESPN’s facebook page too but I just get deleted instantly.

What’s the sense in repeating a 3 hour event on the sunday if viewers still have to stay up until 3am to see the main event? how many people with jobs can do that? Bugger.s

Sky have said they won’t do PPV due to poor boxing sales. Dana has also said he wants to move away from PPV.
PPV has never been well received in the UK particularly events at 2-5am.
I’m pretty sure it’ll be on sky sports 1 or perhaps a new channel like sky sports UFC that would be an extra sub.
With the ever increasing number of events, PPV would be a disaster.

maybe if they go to sky they might lift the ban on online uk service.

I miss pride 🙁

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30__BgbTqPw[/video]

I miss pride

+1,000,000

Pride ruled! 8)

As long as UFC sticks to the same format, it will never come close to pride.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoHZpNX9nQc[/video]

Judging by those videos, I can see why Pride has finished.

Judging by those videos, I can see why Pride has finished.

Pride finished because it was linked to the Yakuza and the scandal toppled them

Nothing to do with the violence

Pride finished because it was linked to the Yakuza and the scandal toppled them

Nothing to do with the violence

Which frankly amazes me.
😯

If those videos were anything to go by.
That aint entertainment.

And as for the fighting itself.

Pride ?, may be.

Honour ?, definitely not.

Very sad.

That aint entertainment.

Correct. It’s not entertainment.

It’s WAR!

Boxing over MMA everytime.

I can’t even see how its MMA.

Stamping your opponents head while they are semi concious and lying on the floor.

Thuggery and I’m amazed its permitted, yet alone broadcast.

I’ve lived cheek by jowel with people who fight like that in the alley way and back streets, and go to prison if they get caught.

Its grim to see it and the aftermath, the mess made of the victims.
To admire it, glorify it, etc.
Is just sick.

I can’t even see how its MMA.

Stamping your opponents head while they are semi concious and lying on the floor.

Current unified rules of MMA don’t allow for stomping or knees to the head on the ground

Not a fan then solo?

Current unified rules of MMA don’t allow for stomping or knees to the head on the ground

Well, thats something I suppose.

But if I found myself paying to watch fights such as the ones shown in those ^^^^ videos.

I have to seriously ask myself if I was losing my humanity, my dignity, my sanity.
I’d have definately lost my compassion.

Not a fan then solo?

You know what ?, I had no idea that sort of thing was permitted, yet alone portrayed as some sort of sport or Art

So, no, I guess not.

I choose to be Human and aspire to be a civilized one at that.

If you’re a fan, then I guess you don’t qualify.

I don’t watch in on the tellybox but I’ve done a few training sessions and they’re MEGA!!!!!
KAPOW!

Christ that stamping on the head stuff in whatever video I’ve just watched was sickening! Each to their own and all that (my sister went to watch UFC or something recently) but it really does make me feel physically sick to watch.

Any history of fighters dying/ending up as vegetables?

I don’t watch in on the tellybox but I’ve done a few training sessions and they’re MEGA!!!!!
KAPOW!

Now, you see.

I can see the interest in training the way those fighters do.
And in achieving the physical results of training for that type of movement, exercise.

I can even see the interest in testing yourself, your skill against another opponent.

But there wasn’t any skill or discipline in thumping a bloke in the head repeatedly while he lay on the floor.

That aint sport, it aint skill.
Its red blooded rage and shows the perp to be little more than an animal.
imo.

I wouldn’t like anyone to see me behave like that, out of control.

To be fair the video shows the most brutal bits.

you could make a video showing lots of motorsport crashes and no one would question the reasoning behind the sport

Loved this. Mentalness straight from the 1st bell

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqhKkyRvgjA[/video]

Are we posting our favourite Pride HL videos now then?
Here’s mine
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWKjhoHvxD8[/video]
http://youtu.be/zWKjhoHvxD8

Solo, its no worse than what our country does in Your name and with Your tax money every day!
MMA is TWO CONSENTING adults who have trained for and are equipped to take that kind of punishment … and as far as it being Entertainment (maybe not for you) but for many milions of others it is! … and not a gun or bomb in sight (bonus) 🙂

Could someone try and explain the pleasure they get from watching someone repeatedly smack someone else in the face (excluding Piers Morgan natch), I appreciate I won’t understand, but it would be interesting to get a feel as to what sort of emotions it evokes that makes people want to pay to watch.
Just genuinely don’t get it. Does it work a bit like a sexual fetish in that people like being pissed on can’t understand why other people don’t?
BTW I’ve no objection to either being done by consenting adults.

Aw here we go. Someone with no frame of reference sees a video 2 mins long compiled from thousands of fights showing some brutality and cries down with this sort of thing.

Well, you’re too late at any rate. Pride is totally defunct and unified mma rules ban stomping, kicking or kneeing the head of a downed opponent and many other less orthodox techniques.

But there wasn’t any skill or discipline in thumping a bloke in the head repeatedly while he lay on the floor.

That aint sport, it aint skill.
Its red blooded rage and shows the perp to be little more than an animal.
imo.

The stomping aspect of it was, from a martial sporting pov, questionable, but we are talking about highly trained, extremely tough, well paid consenting and fully aware, grown men.

There have been far, far fewer fatalities linked to MMA in comparison with boxing in the last ten years. Whilst it might appear brutal to the complete novice, the refereeing system is much more inflexible. If the referee has to step in once, the fight is over. There is much less room for a punch drunk fighter to be brought back to his feet and subjected to further damage whilst he cant defend himself. Furthermore, submission based victories are not repeated trauma to the head. Furthermore 6oz gloves, while more damaging to the face, protect the hand less, discouraging fighters from unloading their full force and furthermore, a clean strike is more likely to deliver a clean knockout unlike the ko by attrition delivered so often by the large padding in boxing gloves.

IanMunro – Member

Could someone try and explain the pleasure they get from watching someone repeatedly smack someone else in the face

Pretty poor troll but I’m game. Could you explain the allure of watching 22 millionaire, whore mongering racist simpletons chase a pig skin in an effort to put it in a net? That perplexes me.

Pretty poor troll but I’m game. Could you explain the allure of watching 22 men chase a pig skin in an effort to put it in a net?

Here Here! 😀

That perplexes me.

Me too.

Once saw a vid on you tube of these weird people on pushbikes ( mountain bikers I think hey we’re called ) and all they were doing was falling off and really hurting themselves. I think it should be banned……

MMA is not for everyone.
Some of those clips are a bit brutal, kicking & stomping a downed opponent is banned now, quite rightly I think.
MMA is a serious sport by people who are masters of their sports.
The current heavyweight champ is also the world kickboxing champ.
There are world champion Jiu Jitsu, karate, Judo, wrestling, boxing, aikido & taekwondo guys.
It’s a combat sport, like boxing but safer. You’re not getting hit in the head hundreds of times.
Only 1 medically unfit man has died in the MMA ring.
More than 70 have died in a boxing ring.
There is so much more to MMA that most people don’t see, the subtle jiu jitsu moves and the work that these athletes put in among them.
People have always wanted to engage in physical combat & people will always want to see it.
I guess it’s just human nature, it’s hard to ignore the inner chimp!

muddyfunster – Member
The stomping aspect of it was, from a martial sporting pov, questionable, but we are talking about highly trained, extremely tough, well paid consenting and fully aware, grown men.

At the time I used to watch Pride I was against the head kicks, but in hindsight, the benefit was that it levelled things between stand up fighters and wrestlers. How often with the UFC style rules do you see a grecco or a BJJ fighter bring the match to the ground, for a load of tedious rolling about. Boring, and anyway actually I can’t remember seeing any injuries other than cuts resulting from head kicks.

As for it not being an art – well i’d disagree. It was amazing to see a for example a kick boxer or Muay Thai fighter pitting their skills against a BJJ fighter. It’s a subtle sport that doesn’t come across in highlight videos.

retro83

How often with the UFC style rules do you see a grecco or a BJJ fighter bring the match to the ground, for a load of tedious rolling about. Boring, and anyway actually I can’t remember seeing any injuries other than cuts resulting from head kicks.

I enjoy the ground game quite a bit, and have a half decent understanding of it having had some training. So I certainly don’t think taking the match to the ground, by default, is boring. Certainly sometimes you might get an inferior fighter neutralizing the fight with his ground game – a very basic fighter with good wrestling stiffling a striker for example, but you could just as easily argue that the striker needs better takedown defence, or better bjj, as an offensive ground game might make someone think twice.

I think as the sport evolves at such a rapid rate, one dimesional fighers will struggle, and this sort of stalemate will become less common. Whilst I don’t think head kicking, and stomping were totally unacceptable, they would’ve needed much tigher controls and definitions which would be very difficult to referee. EG. One headkick to a semi conscious downed opponent could result in death if the figher was not able to defend himself – better not to take the chance of that happening.

Stomping, whilst is sounds even more viscious, and looks worse is probably less dangerous. Padded floor, bare feet etc, and generally not a move you can freely execute with impunity. I think it looks worse than it is – much worse, and for that reason it’s not compatible with modern mma. They would seriously turn off most uninitiated fans, as you can see just from this thread.

If you really want to talk about rules and banned moves, take headbutting. I’ve watched dozens of old gladiator challenge fights and vale tudo etc where these were legal, they really changed the dynamic of standup fighting, dirty boxing, and most importanlty the clinch, really neutralizing a lot of judo and bjj takedowns. But….it’s such a bloody and cut making technique that every fight ends up getting stopped by cuts. No real damage or venom in it, it just cuts the other guy up.