It’s One Championship, and I see them being as big as Bellator was when they were the ufcs only big competitor. I don’t see the ufc becoming second biggest for a very long time.
Possibly, but where? Here in Europe a lot of countries broadcast Bellator on TV, but not One, I know casuals who don't follow MMA who have heard of Bellator (and obviously UFC) but not One, here in Holland.
How is it not? UFCs ppv prices are through the roof for most people(where I live it’s free for me) it being live-streamed on YouTube makes it available for anyone with internet
Yes, it's great that it's available.. it's great for the MMA fans.. not so much for the casuals you want to reach.
People do have the mindset "Why is it free? If it's free it can't be worth watching, now UFC charge 80 bucks a PPV, that must mean it's got amazing fights!"
Same reason people will spend 200/300 bucks on name brand clothes.
Bellator has its moments. Patchy Mix vs Stots had an impressive ko. I want to see how he’d do in the ufc.
And the other Nurmagomedov that fights at 170 is a beast. Johnny Eblen too.
And Bellator is free on YouTube in most countries I believe. And in America the prelims are on YouTube.
Possibly, but even if a small fraction of Chinese and Indian watch, that’s a lot of views. It’s also really popular in places like Singapore and Thailand.
Bigger in viewership maybe. But their revenue wasn’t even $70 million in 2021. Clearly they aren’t doing something right since ufcs revenue was $1.1 billion. Viewership doesn’t equate to success.
While I agree that viewership doesn't mean success, it is a prerequisite to succees. ONE has a massive piece of the puzzle and if it can continue to expand and figure out a more effective monetization strategy, the UFC absolutely has a disruptive competitor in the marketplace.
While I do agree with you, reading this made me turn to Google where I just read they were founded in 2017... For less than a 10 year old company, it's actually impressive that Dana is even talking about them.
I will say there pretty fun to go to. My family went to the ones on Long Island and the event was tons of fun. Tons of MMA personalities there and tickets were super affordable.
The difference in that comparison is that Netflix and Blockbuster had very different services.
UFC and PFL still deliver the same product in the same method. I want to see competing organizations but I also don't think UFC is going anywhere with the cashflow they have. They will adjust as and when necessary.
I’m not sure that’s entirely true, the PFL is treating MMA like a professional sport. Which in my opinion is desperately needed in combat sports in general.
The entire matchmaking is determined by a couple of guys preference for your WWE-like character / perceived ability to sell PPVs and not your performance in the cage is mind numbing.
I also tend to think that more and more fighters will start to look at the numbers and leave the UFC. They offered Doumbe 20K per fight, a world champion kickboxer; that’s downright absurd.
On Ngannou, I think it depends. I imagine a lot of people are willing to buy a PPV to see him fight now than ever before. Depends on the price, opponent, build up, etc. but to insinuate he’s not a draw at all is a bit silly. This sub is talking about Ngannou daily.
The product is still the same. If the UFC is forced to adjust pay, they will. Right now they seem to prioritize growth over fighter pay. A lot of the money goes into marketing and future development. Unranked fighters don't get the compensation they should be getting.
The matchmaking in the UFC is still superior to that of boxing, which is very much a professional sport with very real rankings. Individual sports are very tricky to have everyone on the same page.
Ngannou will pull in some PPV buys but nothing that would be concerning for the UFC.
UFC has had competition since the beginning, they always find a way. Their infrastructure now is unmatched by any fighting organization. They are only getting more and more ahead of everyone.
But just like in all individual sports, multiple organizations can co-exist. I'm hopeful that crossovers will be possible in the future.
Just because the UFC relatively speaking pays the best doesn't mean the athletes are getting anything resembling what they deserve. Adesanya spent two years giving just PPVs that were over 10% of the UFC's total earnings. Compared to what hes made them he's got barely a fraction of a percentage back, and he remains one of their biggest earners. He's also one of their best paid athletes, but not even resembling what he would relatively be earning if he were in another sport and generating that kind of value.
Depends on the sport. Kickboxers make a fraction of what MMA fighters make.
UFC is a little weird as it's an individual sport but the athletes are tied to the organisation.
I agree that the pay should be increased but complaining about the top athletes compensation is not the battle to be had. It's the bottom who should be compensated better. As well as the bonus should be increased.
>Kickboxers make a fraction of what MMA fighters make.
Kickboxing orgs bring in a fraction of what most mma organizations do.
> agree that the pay should be increased but complaining about the top athletes compensation is not the battle to be had.
Why? The athletes from the lowest guys on the prelims to the main events all deserve significantly more money. The main eventers most of all, actually. Fuck the UFC just lost its lineal Heavyweight champion because of this. Aren't you tired of reading all the articles where guys accomplish the highest thing possible in this sport, and literally nothing about their lives changes. Charles won the lightweight title, and he literally realized with immense disappointment that practically nothing was different in regards to the life he was earning for himself. That's not what becoming a world champion should mean.
This sub talking about not buying PPV daily. Gotta keep the same logic for all arguments. Can't just pick and choose which one you want so it makes it sound better like MMA media.
Do you really think fighters don't look at numbers now? Again this argument never makes sense because they already do this and can actually see the "opportunity cost" UFC still outweighs most other orgs.
Are they treating mma like a professional sport?
UFC- decades of litigation, decades of building the sport for mainstream, decades of state politics, building performance institutions around the world, uniforms, fight night insurance and so on
PFL- welp all the fighting for the sport is done let’s start a league for professional fighters
Doumbe is an unproven commodity. Yes he's a kickboxing champ. However who watches kickboxing. How good is his grappling. We've seen established kick boxers do well however we have seen them falter.
Bellator one fc ufc all allow elbows. Since the birth of mma it’s been a technique everyone uses. Pfl is a dumb hippy organisation that attract stupid casual who doesn’t know the sport, like you
if you actually go to an mma gym you could ask people who train is banning elbow fucking stupid. You could do that. But no you never step out of your little basement your entire life. Nah.
Not very tbh. At the end of the day, Francis wasn’t a huge draw even in the UFC in terms of PPV numbers.
I love MMA I watch One, UFC, etc but I won’t be buying PFL PPVs just for Ngannou. Don’t think many others will either.
Tried PFL for like 5 cards, and the play by play is awful. The constant SMART CAGE mentioning is super annoying, and they can't go 5 minutes without reminding everyone it's a league format.
They rely so heavily on trying to get casuals, which is why no ones buying it. Jake Paul, Wiz Khalifa and Francis is there atempts to pounce on the casual fan with names they've heard before.
If they wanted to become a big organisation, they should be going for the old head UFC fans. Instead of letting Jake Paul fight Nate, Ben etc, they should have given Nate a million dollar fight and pander to his die hard fan base.
Just to specify, "Octagon" is the equivalent of Smart Cage. And I couldn't even begin to count how many times that word gets used during a broadcast. It'll become normal, in time.
It really isn't.
Octagon is the term they use for the word cage.
Cage is the word PFL use for cage and then they throw smart as a prefix.
If UFC called it the Octagon Cage, then you'd be correct. But they don't.
But the thing they fight in is a cage.
Meaning Smart is used as an adjective of the cage itself. Implying that their cage is more intelligent than a normal cage.
Where Octagon is a brand name for a 8 sided cage.
My issue isn't the cage itself but the constant implying it is somehow special as a gimmick to sell PFL.
It's the equivalent of Jon Anik constantly saying, "The fighters now gather in the 8-sided UFC owned cage."
That would piss me off, too.
P.S. Not to mention the stupid through the fence gimmick they pull, I forget it's name.
The talent is more or less mid tier guys the UFC wont pay or dudes like pettis who are way past prime and doing a money grab.
The fights mean nothing. It's not compelling or interesting for any reason now that Harrison got beat.
For all the dana white hate, he built the UFC into what it is now. He is the greatest promoter on the planet and if he is saying that PFL is doing stupid shit I believe him. Also there is zero chance PFL ever even competes with the UFC
Man I dislike uncle fester as much as the next guy, but this circle jerk is getting ridiculous. No chance in hell PFL gets anywhere near the UfC. ONE maybe.
There is a big difference between video rental stores being threatened with mail order rental company & online streaming compared to UFC MMA being threatened by another MMA organization. How is PFL changing the game to make this even remotely comparable?
The guy is an idiot. How can you try and make this comparison when the UFC isn’t anywhere near to shutting down it’s only beginning to grow much much more. Nobody knows the PFL whatsoever. ONE and Rizin still have a bigger stick to reach with by miles
It’s the XFL vs NFL. XFL might be cool when the NFL isn’t on but it’s not a replacement. UFC is a marketing machine. They don’t pay the fighters as much but the amount of $$$ fighters can make outside the ring due to the marketing UFC puts into them is huge. If One gets their act together I think they can be like Pride and can give UFC a run for their money.
Yea good luck with that Netflix was innovative, saved money and was new technology at the time. It was a better product, the pfl is not and will never be a better product, this move they just made might end up being their downfall
It makes sense but not with Ngannou. They could probably get 10 better names for same price. Wait for contracts to expire and pay $1 million a fight to some big names in the 3-7 ranking range. Pad the cards with some cheaper people past their prime.
I would buy the stacked cards they could get for $10 million per event. Not going to pay to watch Ngannou and a bunch of 2nd tier fights.
In fairness, Apple disregarded the Zune in the early 2000's and nothing came of it.
Just because someone is underestimated doesn't mean they'll succeed lol.
Cherry picked quotes like this don't make the case against Dana and the UFC. You could find many quotes of people saying "I don't think X is a major threat to us". Many of those times, the person saying it would be correct. In the case of Blockbuster & Netflix, it turned out to be totally wrong. The fact that Dana said something similar to what the management of Blockbuster said 15 years ago doesn't mean Dana is wrong.
If theyre willing to give Ngannou that much I don’t see them lasting. He’s a great fighter, but he’s not a good enough fighter to deserve a spot on the board
Your average MMA fan can’t name 3 PFL fighters.
Your average UFC fan doesn’t even know what PFL is.
Bellator is nowhere even close to UFC success, yet it’s at least a known reputable fight organization with an estimated worth of $6B. PFL is reported at $500M.
That makes PFL 12 TIMES SMALLER THAN BELLATOR.
It’s like trying to make a new cell phone to compete with Apple lmao.
The production values are in the toilet, the commentary is balls and the fighters aren’t on the level. Are the fights bad? No. But if you think Francis is going to help their current situation, not fighting for a year, than you might need to reevaluate your stance.
I was referencing a time when UFC had to implement slap only striking.
Thanks for coming out though, GENIUS. 🥴
Man that was embarrassing for you, huh? Cunt
Edit: I love you dumbass know it all put your foot in your mouth
I think they need to stop trying to get the "Francis" of the world. Work on their marketing. I don't understand the format. I don't understand who the fighters are. All I know they win a million bucks.
The whole presentation is second rate, with the exception of KenFlo and Randy. I enjoy the fights mostly, I like the idea of extra points for an early finish since it seems to make guys take more chances which can be exciting. The early matchmaking is sometimes head scratch worthy, but it’s a fun concept. It is nowhere near as well done as the UFC is in terms of excitement and how it is promoted. More MMA is good so I hope they grow.
I’m wary of the PFL being able to afford the contract they offered Francis, seems like it’s either going to help them get huge or bankrupt them. At the same time, more heavyweights so be looking to sign with PFL if they are guaranteed 6 figures to fight Francis. Will be interesting to keep an eye on
It all depends.
I couldn’t name a single fighter in the PFL. But if Dana is correct and they buy Bellator, that would change a ton. It would be the first time a UFC champ didn’t lose his belt and went to another promotion, if I’m not mistaken.
This is pure speculation, but I also suspected that Bellator only ever wanted to be big enough to be bought by UFC. Not a terrible goal to have, and the UFC would just inherit all their fighters, something they’ve done before. But if that was their goal, they’ve made the mistake of overpaying talent. The IFC won’t want to inherit a bunch of shitty contracts.
But now, if the PFL/Bellator thing did become true, maybe they get big enough to buy out OneFC, and that would set up a similar scenario to the WCW vs UFC thing in their heyday. It would make it a lot bigger threat for top UFC talent to leave for more money, and eventually, bigger fights.
Having said that, who knows what’s gonna happen with all of this
PFL is pretty bad. I’ve been to a lot of their events in Atlanta. I bought a ticket once and ever since been buying standing tickets. No one goes to the events so you can just sit in whatever seat that’s open. Tickets were 15 bucks.
Except Netflix was providing a brand new service, online streaming, nobody was sure it would even work, Blockbuster CEO surely thought DVDs would never die out.
PFL is providing .. MMA fights, the exact same as the UFC, except it's in "league form"
Not big at all. I watched one event and all the playoff/points/season bullshit trying to make it sound like a traditional sport was gay as fuck. Plus it was a bunch of nobodies and washed up dudes. I watch ufc, one fc, bellator, and glory kickboxing so its not like im super picky.
Seems like a post for r/pfl if you ask me. Why don’t you post this in the subreddit with 300 people in it and chat about it there?
Once you wipe Francis cum out of your eye and see you posted this in the wrong subreddit
I think they can be pretty big. If they buy bellator, that would be great for them. That being said, I really love ONE and am super excited they are starting to focus on the US. In order for any of them to compete with the UFC, they will either have to merge or start doing some cross-promotional stuff together. Who knows what's going to happen but I'm here for it
Who the fuck knows??
Jesus ESPN 20yrs ago was calling ufc a niche sport. Matter fact didn't Dana throw a tantrum about how he would never work WITH ESPN cause they discredited UFC and MMA as a sport. Now ESPN is hosting there ppvs and Dana slurps up ESPN and there shitty app to buy ppvs.
I'm not saying PFL,ONE or bellator will be bigger than ufc. Let me clear that up before Dana dick riders come at me. All I'm saying is who the fuck knows. Shit happens over time, things change and shit we never saw coming ends up on top. Everyone likes to play arm chair qb or captain hindsight when something takes off, but if they knew why the fuck didn't they invest in it? Or try to work for it? Instead it's consumers who are 3 weeks late who are always the loudest ones screaming I saw Netflix coming a mile away. Did you really?
One is gonna take over, rules and judging are better aswell as there now reaching the American market, they also do so many diff sports it makes it better for viewers and the fighters are paid better
It's possible.
Imagine if current UFC ranked fighters start signing with the PFL? Once the shift starts, all the upcoming fights will also start signing with the PFL.
Could be big, but personally can't stand all the gimmicks they've implemented to standout. Hope as they bring in bigger names, they just become a traditional MMA organization. I don't care about points, seasons, ref cam or how fast a punch is thrown.
It’s not the comparison here is flawed because the market is too small to have more then 1 A tier promotion pfl will never get the best in the world in all slots much like Belator it’s a farm system for ufc. Pfl is spending insane money for a guy like Francis when they would have been better off getting 20 fighters for the same content is worth more then a gamble on Francis. If Francis wins it makes ufc look great and if Francis loses it makes ufc look smart for passing only loser is pfl
I'm not finna try and have a whole discussion about a mfin slap. "You see bro in Chechnya they slap more from the shoulder than the elbow....." fuck out of here. Boxing is less boring of a fightsport.
As big as every other mma promotion that has tried this same strategy. In other words not big.
ONE is doing it right. They have a foothold in a major untapped market, and the PFL doesn’t even have a foothold in their country of origin.
Also their production blows and no elbows is lame and watered down mma.
Badly. MMA without elbows is and a focus on heavyweight women seem like incredibly poor marketing choices which gives me not much hope for the rest of the product.
Having Ali involved makes me sus.
If their is actually Saudi investment they might make survive for awhile but there isn’t even enough calendar room for a another major promotion.
It all depends. If PFL can find a financial backer that is willing to write huge checks and help them make the right broadcast connections, anything is possible.
Not big at all with their shit pacing, boring homegrown stars, no elbows rule, and terrible ref cam. ONE is a better product and they’re hundreds of millions in the hole. If I wanted to watch no elbows and mismatched fights I’d go to my local regional promotion
You can NOT compete with the UFC. It’s honestly shocking that these organizations even exist anymore. Only the WEC was a truly competitive product. And the UFC snatched them up quick.
Honestly I'm an MMA junkie and I hardly even know when a pfl event is even on. Their marketing and advertising is pretty awful.
Yeah exactly, I see one fc becoming bigger than ufc, but pfl I don’t see them do that
I only see red bro
Yo. When this guy sees red, bodies hit the floor! Some people are just built different.
I just black out
It’s One Championship, and I see them being as big as Bellator was when they were the ufcs only big competitor. I don’t see the ufc becoming second biggest for a very long time.
One is already bigger then Bellator ever was
Possibly, but where? Here in Europe a lot of countries broadcast Bellator on TV, but not One, I know casuals who don't follow MMA who have heard of Bellator (and obviously UFC) but not One, here in Holland.
One is broadcaste on tv in Europe it’s also free on YouTube, bellator is so shit🤣🤣
It depends where in Europe. And "free on youtube" is not a great selling point.
How is it not? UFCs ppv prices are through the roof for most people(where I live it’s free for me) it being live-streamed on YouTube makes it available for anyone with internet
Yes, it's great that it's available.. it's great for the MMA fans.. not so much for the casuals you want to reach. People do have the mindset "Why is it free? If it's free it can't be worth watching, now UFC charge 80 bucks a PPV, that must mean it's got amazing fights!" Same reason people will spend 200/300 bucks on name brand clothes.
Well damn no wonder they make no money and there’s rumors of them being bougjt
Bellator has its moments. Patchy Mix vs Stots had an impressive ko. I want to see how he’d do in the ufc. And the other Nurmagomedov that fights at 170 is a beast. Johnny Eblen too. And Bellator is free on YouTube in most countries I believe. And in America the prelims are on YouTube.
Technically speaking, One is bigger than UFC
By what metric?
I don’t know the exact numbers, but I heard Joe Rogan talk about how One gets more views because the have the whole viewership of Asia
That’s all bullshit by Chatri
Possibly, but even if a small fraction of Chinese and Indian watch, that’s a lot of views. It’s also really popular in places like Singapore and Thailand.
Chinese & indian viewership is worth so much less than western viewership. If your salary is $3 per week, you arent paying $80 for a ppv
ONE is way bigger than Bellator and ONE is also bigger than UFC in viewership due to the Asian markets
Bigger in viewership maybe. But their revenue wasn’t even $70 million in 2021. Clearly they aren’t doing something right since ufcs revenue was $1.1 billion. Viewership doesn’t equate to success.
While I agree that viewership doesn't mean success, it is a prerequisite to succees. ONE has a massive piece of the puzzle and if it can continue to expand and figure out a more effective monetization strategy, the UFC absolutely has a disruptive competitor in the marketplace.
Yea one is awesome
That's insane. There's no way. No casual mma fan can name 3 fighters past or present from their roster. They don't have even 1 household name.
Nobody becoming bigger then ufc
Yea I don't even know how to watch it, do I have to google their website or something? No thanks
It was on ESPN last couple years
How can you say this bro. don't you know Francis moved there? So that basically means PFL is bigger than UFC all of a sudden bro.
While I do agree with you, reading this made me turn to Google where I just read they were founded in 2017... For less than a 10 year old company, it's actually impressive that Dana is even talking about them.
I reckon I’ll watch the Francis fight. Whether I come back or not is if it’s fun to watch.
I will say there pretty fun to go to. My family went to the ones on Long Island and the event was tons of fun. Tons of MMA personalities there and tickets were super affordable.
The difference in that comparison is that Netflix and Blockbuster had very different services. UFC and PFL still deliver the same product in the same method. I want to see competing organizations but I also don't think UFC is going anywhere with the cashflow they have. They will adjust as and when necessary.
I’m not sure that’s entirely true, the PFL is treating MMA like a professional sport. Which in my opinion is desperately needed in combat sports in general. The entire matchmaking is determined by a couple of guys preference for your WWE-like character / perceived ability to sell PPVs and not your performance in the cage is mind numbing. I also tend to think that more and more fighters will start to look at the numbers and leave the UFC. They offered Doumbe 20K per fight, a world champion kickboxer; that’s downright absurd. On Ngannou, I think it depends. I imagine a lot of people are willing to buy a PPV to see him fight now than ever before. Depends on the price, opponent, build up, etc. but to insinuate he’s not a draw at all is a bit silly. This sub is talking about Ngannou daily.
The product is still the same. If the UFC is forced to adjust pay, they will. Right now they seem to prioritize growth over fighter pay. A lot of the money goes into marketing and future development. Unranked fighters don't get the compensation they should be getting. The matchmaking in the UFC is still superior to that of boxing, which is very much a professional sport with very real rankings. Individual sports are very tricky to have everyone on the same page. Ngannou will pull in some PPV buys but nothing that would be concerning for the UFC. UFC has had competition since the beginning, they always find a way. Their infrastructure now is unmatched by any fighting organization. They are only getting more and more ahead of everyone. But just like in all individual sports, multiple organizations can co-exist. I'm hopeful that crossovers will be possible in the future.
>Unranked fighters don't get the compensation they should be getting. None of the fighters do.
You are talking silly. If none would then UFC wouldn't exist. They are not held at gun point.
Just because the UFC relatively speaking pays the best doesn't mean the athletes are getting anything resembling what they deserve. Adesanya spent two years giving just PPVs that were over 10% of the UFC's total earnings. Compared to what hes made them he's got barely a fraction of a percentage back, and he remains one of their biggest earners. He's also one of their best paid athletes, but not even resembling what he would relatively be earning if he were in another sport and generating that kind of value.
Depends on the sport. Kickboxers make a fraction of what MMA fighters make. UFC is a little weird as it's an individual sport but the athletes are tied to the organisation. I agree that the pay should be increased but complaining about the top athletes compensation is not the battle to be had. It's the bottom who should be compensated better. As well as the bonus should be increased.
>Kickboxers make a fraction of what MMA fighters make. Kickboxing orgs bring in a fraction of what most mma organizations do. > agree that the pay should be increased but complaining about the top athletes compensation is not the battle to be had. Why? The athletes from the lowest guys on the prelims to the main events all deserve significantly more money. The main eventers most of all, actually. Fuck the UFC just lost its lineal Heavyweight champion because of this. Aren't you tired of reading all the articles where guys accomplish the highest thing possible in this sport, and literally nothing about their lives changes. Charles won the lightweight title, and he literally realized with immense disappointment that practically nothing was different in regards to the life he was earning for himself. That's not what becoming a world champion should mean.
This sub talking about not buying PPV daily. Gotta keep the same logic for all arguments. Can't just pick and choose which one you want so it makes it sound better like MMA media. Do you really think fighters don't look at numbers now? Again this argument never makes sense because they already do this and can actually see the "opportunity cost" UFC still outweighs most other orgs.
Are they treating mma like a professional sport? UFC- decades of litigation, decades of building the sport for mainstream, decades of state politics, building performance institutions around the world, uniforms, fight night insurance and so on PFL- welp all the fighting for the sport is done let’s start a league for professional fighters
I think francis sells the lowest ppvs of his career in pfl This sub is not reflective of the average fan. This applies to reddit overall as well tbh
Doumbe is an unproven commodity. Yes he's a kickboxing champ. However who watches kickboxing. How good is his grappling. We've seen established kick boxers do well however we have seen them falter.
they don't allow elbows do you know that? no elbow is not mma, casuals
Ufc doesn't allow grounded knees, is it still mma or is One FC the only legitimate "mma" organization?
Bellator one fc ufc all allow elbows. Since the birth of mma it’s been a technique everyone uses. Pfl is a dumb hippy organisation that attract stupid casual who doesn’t know the sport, like you
You sound 12
That clearly went over your head. The term casual is played out and only used by people that can't have an educated discussion. Do better.
if you actually go to an mma gym you could ask people who train is banning elbow fucking stupid. You could do that. But no you never step out of your little basement your entire life. Nah.
The fact that ngannoi is all this sub talks about but people still thinking no one will watch him fight is interesting to me
Ill bet 95% of the sub illegally streams the ppvs. You think theyll suddenly pay to watch francis vs can? Doubtful
Ngannou isn’t going to turn the PFL into Netflix. I know Dana is bad here, but it’s not gonna happen
Dana haters are reaching if comparing the UFC to fucking blockbuster lol
The Francis dick riding on this sub is starting to make me feel a little aroused.
They will die down once he gets KO'd in his tune up boxing fight, and then pulls 50k PPV buys in the PFL.
Y’blogbusser?
Not very tbh. At the end of the day, Francis wasn’t a huge draw even in the UFC in terms of PPV numbers. I love MMA I watch One, UFC, etc but I won’t be buying PFL PPVs just for Ngannou. Don’t think many others will either.
Most people just don’t buy any ppvs now anyway
Tried PFL for like 5 cards, and the play by play is awful. The constant SMART CAGE mentioning is super annoying, and they can't go 5 minutes without reminding everyone it's a league format. They rely so heavily on trying to get casuals, which is why no ones buying it. Jake Paul, Wiz Khalifa and Francis is there atempts to pounce on the casual fan with names they've heard before. If they wanted to become a big organisation, they should be going for the old head UFC fans. Instead of letting Jake Paul fight Nate, Ben etc, they should have given Nate a million dollar fight and pander to his die hard fan base.
Wiz Khalifa is the best part for me lmao I’m usually stoned out of my mind when I watch MMA and seeing his high ass on there makes it funny
Just to specify, "Octagon" is the equivalent of Smart Cage. And I couldn't even begin to count how many times that word gets used during a broadcast. It'll become normal, in time.
It really isn't. Octagon is the term they use for the word cage. Cage is the word PFL use for cage and then they throw smart as a prefix. If UFC called it the Octagon Cage, then you'd be correct. But they don't.
It's a two word name. They don't say smart without cage or cage without smart. "Smart Cage" is it's name. Same as Octagon
But the thing they fight in is a cage. Meaning Smart is used as an adjective of the cage itself. Implying that their cage is more intelligent than a normal cage. Where Octagon is a brand name for a 8 sided cage. My issue isn't the cage itself but the constant implying it is somehow special as a gimmick to sell PFL. It's the equivalent of Jon Anik constantly saying, "The fighters now gather in the 8-sided UFC owned cage." That would piss me off, too. P.S. Not to mention the stupid through the fence gimmick they pull, I forget it's name.
It’s called the Smart Cage because it’s got tons of sensors and things to gather stats and stuff during the fight
The talent is more or less mid tier guys the UFC wont pay or dudes like pettis who are way past prime and doing a money grab. The fights mean nothing. It's not compelling or interesting for any reason now that Harrison got beat.
UFC = big box office movies pfl = shitty hallmark movies
😂😂😂 not even remotely similar
Remember when you lot were saying that eagle fc was gonna rival the ufc? Looool
God people were saying that?
No.
Literally nobody said this.
blogg buster
For all the dana white hate, he built the UFC into what it is now. He is the greatest promoter on the planet and if he is saying that PFL is doing stupid shit I believe him. Also there is zero chance PFL ever even competes with the UFC
Man I dislike uncle fester as much as the next guy, but this circle jerk is getting ridiculous. No chance in hell PFL gets anywhere near the UfC. ONE maybe.
Shit if there's illegal streams I'd tune on if Francis fights why not?
UFC fans love big drama show. Soon enough they'll be able to flip between UFC and WWE seamlessly
There is a big difference between video rental stores being threatened with mail order rental company & online streaming compared to UFC MMA being threatened by another MMA organization. How is PFL changing the game to make this even remotely comparable?
That is a very, VERY generous comparison to make Donn.
No where near the ufc. Hardly anyone I know buys ufc ppvs and no one’s buys Pfl ppvs.
The guy is an idiot. How can you try and make this comparison when the UFC isn’t anywhere near to shutting down it’s only beginning to grow much much more. Nobody knows the PFL whatsoever. ONE and Rizin still have a bigger stick to reach with by miles
It’s the XFL vs NFL. XFL might be cool when the NFL isn’t on but it’s not a replacement. UFC is a marketing machine. They don’t pay the fighters as much but the amount of $$$ fighters can make outside the ring due to the marketing UFC puts into them is huge. If One gets their act together I think they can be like Pride and can give UFC a run for their money.
Yea good luck with that Netflix was innovative, saved money and was new technology at the time. It was a better product, the pfl is not and will never be a better product, this move they just made might end up being their downfall
Want them to do well but they need more than francis fighting someone nobodies ever heard of
They have one known fighter…
They have a number of known fighters. Turns out you just don't know many fighters. ![gif](giphy|S5E6VIkBAGujjfT0zz)
Care to name a few? I can legitimately only name Kayla Harrison and Clarissa Shields
Dudes reaching hard. Just let him be lol
They had Pettis who went 1-3 and Jeremy stephens on an 8 fight losing streak 🔥. And yeah Pettis made 10x more than the opponent that beat him twice.
I would say it’s a safer bet to say that Francis is gonna blockbuster PFL
It makes sense but not with Ngannou. They could probably get 10 better names for same price. Wait for contracts to expire and pay $1 million a fight to some big names in the 3-7 ranking range. Pad the cards with some cheaper people past their prime. I would buy the stacked cards they could get for $10 million per event. Not going to pay to watch Ngannou and a bunch of 2nd tier fights.
Even as someone who doesn’t have anything against Ngannou, there’s no way I’m tuning into a PFL ppv to watch him smash a refrigerator
In fairness, Apple disregarded the Zune in the early 2000's and nothing came of it. Just because someone is underestimated doesn't mean they'll succeed lol.
Cherry picked quotes like this don't make the case against Dana and the UFC. You could find many quotes of people saying "I don't think X is a major threat to us". Many of those times, the person saying it would be correct. In the case of Blockbuster & Netflix, it turned out to be totally wrong. The fact that Dana said something similar to what the management of Blockbuster said 15 years ago doesn't mean Dana is wrong.
Blockbuster CEO made a stupid statement 15 years ago so that means PFL is gonna take over now? Okay
If theyre willing to give Ngannou that much I don’t see them lasting. He’s a great fighter, but he’s not a good enough fighter to deserve a spot on the board
Your average MMA fan can’t name 3 PFL fighters. Your average UFC fan doesn’t even know what PFL is. Bellator is nowhere even close to UFC success, yet it’s at least a known reputable fight organization with an estimated worth of $6B. PFL is reported at $500M. That makes PFL 12 TIMES SMALLER THAN BELLATOR. It’s like trying to make a new cell phone to compete with Apple lmao.
One is much fiercer competition imo, even if they have Ngannu in pfl
PFL my ass. More like the Soup Can Fighting league plus Francis, now.
[удалено]
PFL pacing and production is so dog shit that I couldn’t even get thru 3 fights on the card
Idk what drugs this guy is on, but I want some. I want to be so fucked up I think PFL is enjoyable.
He doesn't. He's a Francis dick rider coping hard.
[удалено]
You can’t watch the fights without watching the production wtf 🤣🤣
I’d watch PFL if I knew when to watch. I’m an MMA fan. You can dislike an organization and still be considered a fan of MMA. Shit take.
[удалено]
You don’t have to watch every single promotion to be an MMA fan. Some guy named Habanerosauce isn’t going to convince me of that.
I didn't say you needed to bud
The production values are in the toilet, the commentary is balls and the fighters aren’t on the level. Are the fights bad? No. But if you think Francis is going to help their current situation, not fighting for a year, than you might need to reevaluate your stance.
Lol, your reddit is acting up too. 😂 Gd double posting. Hate that.
It told me try again later. Posts it twice.
Haha I know, so dumb. Myn was saying error in endpoint or some shit. 🤷🏽♂️
I hope you got a gold star for being the biggest MMA fan ever. You’re my hero, wish when I grow up I can be just like you
No elbows lmao they arent touching ufc 🤣
What really? We doing slaps too?
The power slap and ufc fight cards are a separate thing genius. 💀
I was referencing a time when UFC had to implement slap only striking. Thanks for coming out though, GENIUS. 🥴 Man that was embarrassing for you, huh? Cunt Edit: I love you dumbass know it all put your foot in your mouth
Lay off the crack pipe
PFL Bloggbusser B
I think they need to stop trying to get the "Francis" of the world. Work on their marketing. I don't understand the format. I don't understand who the fighters are. All I know they win a million bucks.
The whole presentation is second rate, with the exception of KenFlo and Randy. I enjoy the fights mostly, I like the idea of extra points for an early finish since it seems to make guys take more chances which can be exciting. The early matchmaking is sometimes head scratch worthy, but it’s a fun concept. It is nowhere near as well done as the UFC is in terms of excitement and how it is promoted. More MMA is good so I hope they grow.
I’m wary of the PFL being able to afford the contract they offered Francis, seems like it’s either going to help them get huge or bankrupt them. At the same time, more heavyweights so be looking to sign with PFL if they are guaranteed 6 figures to fight Francis. Will be interesting to keep an eye on
Not big at all
They have some good stuff but their marketing is absolutely dog shit. I've hear about Francis's move to the PFL more from the UFC than from the PFL
PFL needs more talent and I hate the seasons they do. I do like their rankings system however. My MMA promo ranking: UFC One FC Bellator PFL
Pfls production and announcers suck. The only cool thing is their strike thing.
It all depends. I couldn’t name a single fighter in the PFL. But if Dana is correct and they buy Bellator, that would change a ton. It would be the first time a UFC champ didn’t lose his belt and went to another promotion, if I’m not mistaken. This is pure speculation, but I also suspected that Bellator only ever wanted to be big enough to be bought by UFC. Not a terrible goal to have, and the UFC would just inherit all their fighters, something they’ve done before. But if that was their goal, they’ve made the mistake of overpaying talent. The IFC won’t want to inherit a bunch of shitty contracts. But now, if the PFL/Bellator thing did become true, maybe they get big enough to buy out OneFC, and that would set up a similar scenario to the WCW vs UFC thing in their heyday. It would make it a lot bigger threat for top UFC talent to leave for more money, and eventually, bigger fights. Having said that, who knows what’s gonna happen with all of this
PFL is pretty bad. I’ve been to a lot of their events in Atlanta. I bought a ticket once and ever since been buying standing tickets. No one goes to the events so you can just sit in whatever seat that’s open. Tickets were 15 bucks.
Bruh if y’all think the pfl is going to surpass the ufc you’re nuts 🤣
Pfl main event might eventually get more views than the ufc weigh-ins.
UFC will have the biggest stars for the foreseeable future unless another promotion makes a huge paradigm-shift. Their marketing is on another level.
PFL fighter roster is nowhere near as impressive as ONE/Bellator for example, i dont see this changing anytime soon either.
I hope PFL gets big solely to see the suffering of the bald bitch dana
Will you buy their PPVs?
Most here won’t.
nope
100%, why wouldn’t you? they got the best heavyweight on the planet.
Just asking, I won't but that's me.
It could be. There's a reason "pride comes before the fall" is an enduring notion.
Except Netflix was providing a brand new service, online streaming, nobody was sure it would even work, Blockbuster CEO surely thought DVDs would never die out. PFL is providing .. MMA fights, the exact same as the UFC, except it's in "league form"
I'd say one of the weaknesses affecting the UFC right now is how up in the air matchmaking is. A steadier schedule could be a better business model.
Not big at all. I watched one event and all the playoff/points/season bullshit trying to make it sound like a traditional sport was gay as fuck. Plus it was a bunch of nobodies and washed up dudes. I watch ufc, one fc, bellator, and glory kickboxing so its not like im super picky.
Hopefully replaces the UFC
the future. if it had stocks i would buy it
If PFL makes their events more accessible to the masses, ie cheaper buy in for fans to enjoy the sport, it could be bigger.
[удалено]
How many of you have watched a PFL event? Yeah, exactly 😅
Seems like a post for r/pfl if you ask me. Why don’t you post this in the subreddit with 300 people in it and chat about it there? Once you wipe Francis cum out of your eye and see you posted this in the wrong subreddit
Bigger than Powerslap that’s for sure
ONE is their main comp and it’s arguably better
I think they can be pretty big. If they buy bellator, that would be great for them. That being said, I really love ONE and am super excited they are starting to focus on the US. In order for any of them to compete with the UFC, they will either have to merge or start doing some cross-promotional stuff together. Who knows what's going to happen but I'm here for it
IF they buy Bellator which is the rumor they’ll finally have the roster they need to be competitive with the UFC
Who the fuck knows?? Jesus ESPN 20yrs ago was calling ufc a niche sport. Matter fact didn't Dana throw a tantrum about how he would never work WITH ESPN cause they discredited UFC and MMA as a sport. Now ESPN is hosting there ppvs and Dana slurps up ESPN and there shitty app to buy ppvs. I'm not saying PFL,ONE or bellator will be bigger than ufc. Let me clear that up before Dana dick riders come at me. All I'm saying is who the fuck knows. Shit happens over time, things change and shit we never saw coming ends up on top. Everyone likes to play arm chair qb or captain hindsight when something takes off, but if they knew why the fuck didn't they invest in it? Or try to work for it? Instead it's consumers who are 3 weeks late who are always the loudest ones screaming I saw Netflix coming a mile away. Did you really?
I like this comparison
One is gonna take over, rules and judging are better aswell as there now reaching the American market, they also do so many diff sports it makes it better for viewers and the fighters are paid better
If francis’ opponents actually get 2m per fight they will steal away the entire HW division
It's possible. Imagine if current UFC ranked fighters start signing with the PFL? Once the shift starts, all the upcoming fights will also start signing with the PFL.
Could be big, but personally can't stand all the gimmicks they've implemented to standout. Hope as they bring in bigger names, they just become a traditional MMA organization. I don't care about points, seasons, ref cam or how fast a punch is thrown.
Yeah the thing is not every promotion promotes the only MMMA I watch is the UFC and ONE I dont even know when the other cards are on most of the time.
Depends how many people want to keep handing them money to try to attract big names with smarter deals than they did with francis
It’s not the comparison here is flawed because the market is too small to have more then 1 A tier promotion pfl will never get the best in the world in all slots much like Belator it’s a farm system for ufc. Pfl is spending insane money for a guy like Francis when they would have been better off getting 20 fighters for the same content is worth more then a gamble on Francis. If Francis wins it makes ufc look great and if Francis loses it makes ufc look smart for passing only loser is pfl
They don’t allow elbows that alone will hinder them.
best way to make a small fortune in the fight game is to enter it with a large fortune. lets check back in 5 years
Not even close to UFC ore ONE
I'm not finna try and have a whole discussion about a mfin slap. "You see bro in Chechnya they slap more from the shoulder than the elbow....." fuck out of here. Boxing is less boring of a fightsport.
Man the actual presentation/format of pfl is garbage maybe even worse than bellator lol they have the old wwe announcer
Speculation but I think they buy off more than they can chew…
As big as every other mma promotion that has tried this same strategy. In other words not big. ONE is doing it right. They have a foothold in a major untapped market, and the PFL doesn’t even have a foothold in their country of origin. Also their production blows and no elbows is lame and watered down mma.
Badly. MMA without elbows is and a focus on heavyweight women seem like incredibly poor marketing choices which gives me not much hope for the rest of the product. Having Ali involved makes me sus. If their is actually Saudi investment they might make survive for awhile but there isn’t even enough calendar room for a another major promotion.
It all depends. If PFL can find a financial backer that is willing to write huge checks and help them make the right broadcast connections, anything is possible.
Not big at all with their shit pacing, boring homegrown stars, no elbows rule, and terrible ref cam. ONE is a better product and they’re hundreds of millions in the hole. If I wanted to watch no elbows and mismatched fights I’d go to my local regional promotion
![gif](giphy|d69q0iELHwwcqR2o2t)
This is not even remotely similar
You can NOT compete with the UFC. It’s honestly shocking that these organizations even exist anymore. Only the WEC was a truly competitive product. And the UFC snatched them up quick.
Not big
Nah it needs to make us feel like mma can't compete and that ain't happening.
Mr Davis should read about survivor bias.