Five Things UFC Fans Hate About The UFC - Joe Chacon's Blog

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Joe Chacon's Blog

Five Things UFC Fans Hate About The UFC Stuck

Posted on June 27, 2012 at 03:13 AM.

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We love our sports, but there are always things we hate about them.

I'm around the UFC more often than not. Aside from all the reading and writing I do pertaining to the UFC I'm also a huge fan who has gripes just like the rest of you.

With my finger on the pulse of the UFC community, here are five things that you the fan have continuously told me you hate about the UFC.

Honorable Mentions:

UFC Referee Kim Winslow
Talks of Fedor Coming to the UFC
UFC on FOX Theme Music
Urijah Faber's "butt-chin"
Jon Anik (UFC/FOX Commentator)

5. Hearing Fans Boo When A Fight Goes To The Ground
I understand people throw down a ton of money to watch a UFC fight in person. Fans, both old and new, need to realize that every fight is not going to be a slugfest. Some of the best fights to watch are those in which the guys are countering each other on the ground.

If you are eight beers deep and can't see what's going on inside the Octagon then I understand why you're booing. It appears boring. You want the guys dropping bombs on one-another. However, for the fans that understand the sport you know better. You know when guys are just stalling on the ground and you can respect the art of the ground game when you see a battle for position.

More often than not, however, the crowd starts booing whenever a fight goes to the ground and stays there for more than two minutes.

Again, if nothing is going on then they should be stood up. Just remember, this isn't boxing, MMA is a very complex sport that has a ton of subtle arts to it which impact each fight greatly.

4. Comparisons To Boxing
This goes to both boxing fans and MMA fans.

On nearly every UFC sports story that hits a notable sports website, the comments always lead to why boxing is dying. There is no mention of boxing in the article, but some bonehead will post something mature such as UFC>Boxing. The whole conversation derails from the article and people go back and forth about what's better.

Breaking news: Both sports can co-exist and are entirely different. MMA is not going to kill boxing, if boxing does die it will because of its own doing.

The sport of boxing isn't going anywhere. Both sports will complement each other for many years to come.

3. Early Stoppages
Early stoppages infuriate fans and immediately provide a buzz kill to an otherwise exciting fight.

The best referees in the UFC are Herb Dean, Josh Rosenthal, Dan Miragliotta, Ives Lavigne, and John McCarthy (although McCarthy works UFC fights very infrequently nowadays).

If one of those five referees is not working a fight, the chances for some sort of bad stoppage increases exponentially. Heck, even with those great refs in the Octagon there is a chance we will see something that kills an otherwise great night of fights.

2. Pay-Per-View Fees
The cost to order a UFC PPV is now $60. If you order it in standard definition I think it's about $5 less expensive.

"Back in the day" when the cost to order the fights were less expensive and there weren't as many UFC events, it was justifiable to order just about everyone.

Now even the hardcore fans are having a hard time keeping up with the costs to order every UFC PPV event especially considering many times there will be two PPV's within the same cable/satellite billing cycle.

There are other options:

Head to your local Buffalo Wild Wings (or other sports bar) and pay a $10 cover.
If you aren't able to watch it live, don't order it and record. Just purchase it the following day and save about $12.
If you are lucky enough to have a UFC Gym near you (Los Angeles area and Hawai'i) you can walk in and watch the fights for free (as of this writing).
Of course you can always have friends over and split the cost however many ways you can depending on who shows up.

1. Injuries
Injuries have plagued just about every card so far this year in the UFC. It has been so bad that last week Dana white encouraged fighters to lighten up a little bit in camp and not be so intense.

Injuries are so frequent that when a fight card is announced most fans reserve some excitement because they anticipate somebody to pull out due to an injury.

God help the UFC if either Anderson Silva or Chael Sonnen break a bone within the next week.

Sometimes it's hard to say you hate something about the sport you love. Here's your chance to vent. What do you hate about the MMA and the UFC?

Joe Chacon is a staff writer for Operation Sports and a MMA featured columnist for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.

Comments

# 1 N51_rob @ Jun 27

Good read, it did seem like you took a couple of underhanded shots at boxing though. But none the less good read.

# 2 cattlekiller @ Jun 27

I used to be a huge UFC fan , but it has changed drastically.
If you ask me what I dont like about?
I would say is its name , "Ultimate Fighting Championship" it really is not what the name imply s anymore.
I really think they should change the name.
I do respect the fighters from what skills they have.But no longer does the better fighter win the fight.
A lot of people view fights differently , but when a fighter avoids the other until the end of a round then takes the other fighter down and holds him for 15 secs then repeats for 2 more rounds and is called the "Ultimate fighter" I think is a little overboard.
A lot of changes are needed if the sport whats to continue as a sport.
The judges use the same scoring as boxing for a sport with many more ways of effective scoring how can a 10 point must system work for someone who controls both ground and stand up?

I understand the sport is still pretty young , but watching now after watching when it 1st came on the scene it has nothing to do with who is the "Ultimate Fighter" anymore.
Way back in the Ruas vs Oleg 1 fight ,Don the Dragon Wilson said something that I will always remember when calling the action "you cant have a Ultimate fighter who does not want to fight", well UFC has proved him wrong many times over.

# 3 okstate19 @ Jun 27

Rarely do I comment on front page "articles" at OS. In fact I rarely comment on any kind of article, regardless of the site it's on.

But I wanted to say I've been reading your pieces since they started popping up on the front page. It seems like you're getting better and better with each one. Keep up the good work, and keep providing OS with some informative, entertaining pieces Joe.

As for the subject matter, I'm really not a big UFC guy at all. My UFC fandom has been pretty sporadic for the past few years. I know little about the sport, and am a fan of only a few fighters as I'm familiar with only a few guys on the UFC roster.

I guess I'd like to see the UFC incorporate some tournament-style events like in its early days. I think that'd be entertaining. I agree about the early stoppages. I've watched about 8-10 ppv's and have seen a couple that really ruined the overall feel of the ppv. They need to do something to further demonstrate the personalities amd styles of fighters I'd say. That's one of the reasons I don't really follow it. Most of the fighters just seem generally the same to me.

# 4 Joe Chacon @ Jun 27

@okstate19 I really appreciate your feedback, thank you. With regard to tournaments in the UFC, the closest we've seen to that recently was the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. Of course that was a tournament that spanned over the course of a year.

The UFC is also in the midst of a four man flyweight tournament to determine it's first flyweight champion. But it's nothing like the tournaments you are referring to.

Fighters in most states receive an automatic 30-45 day medical suspension immediately following their fight for precautionary purposes.

I look forward to crossing paths down the road with you once again, okstate.

# 5 riichiieriich @ Jun 27

There are other ways to watch these overpriced PPV events...message me if you'd like to know.

# 6 GreatScot @ Jun 27

I agree with your comments about the referees except Yves Lavigne. He is aweful. He is one of the worst for early stoppages. I've even heard him apologize to a fighter before after an early stoppage. Granted, better early than late, but fighters careers depend on competent refereeing.

# 7 StefanK @ Jul 2

@okstate19 and @Joe Chacon in regards to the tournament mention, don't forget about Bellator. They also still do tourny style the same way Strikeforce does. I actually prefer that style over the UFC's "depends on your personality and how much Dana White butt you kiss" method.