What is hurting the sport the most?
 

Just curious as to peoples thoughts on the sport....there are a few things, I think we can all agree on, that aren't doing the sport any favours. The sport is "over the hump" I think in being repected as a "real" sport, but still has many detractors and people who still see it as a barbarian sport...what do you guys think is the single most detrimental thing to the sport...what is hurting our sport the most right now???

1/ Poor judging...making a mockery out of many decisions...seemingly almost every show.

2/Steroids and other illegal drugs

3/ Shady fly by night organizations failing to pay their fighters...australia and D.R.......

4/Dana White....too much swearing, too many broken promises to fighters...promised title shots etc...cutting fighters maybe too early...

5/Strikeforce...their inability to make any reasonable fights that actually mean anything, turning their titles into meaningless scraps of metal.

6/Lack of significant pay structure...yes many fighters are making a decent living...even a very good living, but many others are only making 5-10 K per fight...some even less.

7/Other.......feel free to add anything else you may feel is a huge negative on the sport

I was hoping to add a poll to this, but it didn't allow me to...mods????

1.- Scoring system

2.- LnP

3.- Some organizations do not promote a fight as a Martial Arts fight, they promote it as a brawl inside a cage.

4.- In-Ring Antics

fix your sig pashak.

Agree and the judges not having any background/ knowledge of MMA in its entirety IMO is the BIGGEST problem that i would say needs to be fixed first...

I have to say scoring for the most part.. Its really hard to bring in new fans when they watch a fight and the judges score it for the wrong guy. They need to do the half point system IMO.

I think long layoffs too. I understand injuries do happen but sometimes guys dont even get a scratch then dont fight for 6 months. Rashad Evans should have already had another fight by now.

1. Dana White: The swearing, Shitting on other promotions, Putting down on fighters, and not acting like a professional.

2. The Lnp: Please Bring back the yellow card system especially when a Greg Jackson fighter is fighting.

3. Scott Coker: These mismatches of catchweights and other weird fights he needs to get his act together if he really wants to match up with the UFC.

2. Casual People that call the sport of MMA UFC

1. Judging: We need MMA judges like maybe the referees that are not ref put them as judges

LnP is not hurting the sport, if you dont like the ground game, go watch boxing. Its not the wrestlers fault he is so dominate, maybe the guy on the bottom should train TDD and BJJ instead of striking. If anything, bring in knees while on the ground.

Dana White is the goddamn Saint,if their ever was one,of MMA. While he might not be the greatest buisness man,or the classiest, hes done more for the sport then anyone, ever has or ever will.

Whats hurting (or holding it back) the most is the lack of serious competition for the UFC and the small number other major mma promotions in general. Because in order to be a professional fighter obviously it takes alot of time & money (not to mention you have to be able to support yourself financially if you get injured). And few promotions pay enough to make it worth that investment, unless youre an absolute prodigy and even then its a risk. So with the short supply of lucrative/viable fight jobs (relative to the demand) theres a lack of guys who seriously pursue fighting, move near a good camp and do all they could to improve.

Also it gives UFC absolute leverage over all their fighters and even fighters who arent theirs. They dictate who gets an opportunity to move up the card and when. They dictates who gets fired after 1 loss or who stays after 5. They even dictate how guys fight in the ring, because should they be too boring they are threatened with losing their jobs (even if they are undefeated champions like anderson) or they are put in limbo. Its very bad for pure competition. I want fights to go their natural course and the outcome be the result of fighters & their gameplan; not the result of what entertains dana the scumbag white.

Sports are entertainment. Without the fans and a system that allows the organizations and fighter to make money MMA would be in the same spot as wrestling. It would have solid athletes but no way to make money and thus no on really caring about it.

If people who have enough interest in MMA to regularly post on an MMA forum say LnP is a problem then it just might be a problem. It obviously if affecting the entertainment value of the spectators when they see one guy holding down another guy and not really doing much else except holding him there.

And if you don't like the ground game watch boxing? Ground was can be exciting, just not when it is a wrestler who doesn't gnp and doesn't have a submission game. The equivalent to a stand up fighter only through 1 jab and then running the entire fight.

True but I wish there were a better name for it. "Mixed martial arts" sounds clunky to me. I usually just call it fighting for lack of a better term.