Do Fight Fans Even Like Fights Anymore?
Marquee names and major events still draw eyeballs, but more and more, it seems like a large portion of the fight-loving population is less interested in the action inside the Octagon
Are people — fight fans — more interested in everything surrounding the UFC, its athletes, and its events than the actual fights themselves?
Every day, MMA Twitter is alight with discussion about topics ranging from fight announcements to fighter pay; from rankings and pound-for-pound discussions to the latest tabloid fodder and collection of misguided and deleted tweets from stars like Conor McGregor and Jon Jones.
There are technical breakdowns, pre-fight interviews, post-fight interviews, deep dives on stories never told, and all kinds of other avenues to explore, but there just doesn’t seem to be that much genuine interest in the fights themselves and the impact they have outside of the biggest events and biggest names.
I decided to write about this yesterday as I laid out the 87 impressive performances that have taken place inside the Octagon this year and feel forgotten by the masses to me, but the idea is something I’ve been thinking about in some form for quite a while now.
Ryen Rusillo, currently of The Ringer and formerly of ESPN, has spoken many times about something similar when it comes to the NBA — how large segments of the basketball fanbase are more interested in offseason transactions, debating all-time lists and in-the-moment Top 5s, plus sundry other elements, than they are tuning in to watch Hornets vs. Cavaliers on a Wednesday night.
Fewer people are watching for signs of development from a second-year guard and recognizing the importance of a good win on the road in the middle of February on the second night of a back-to-back. Folks just want to see clips of their favourite players, which celebrities were at the game and what they were wearing, and get off their takes about big picture talking points, none of which require you to actually sit down and watch the action on the court.
They embrace the NBA through the nooks and crannies that are most interesting and appealing to them, only wading in to watching actual games when marquee teams are squaring off or the stakes are highest. Even then, many seem keen on The Finals wrapping up quickly in order to get to the stuff they really care about — the draft, free agency, trade szn, and the like.
Games are consumed in highlights and Josiah Johnson’s memes and Twitter reactions, and niches have been carved out around what players wear to the arena, 2K, NFTs, and myriad other things.
UFC fandom and consumption feels similar to me.
There is a great deal of attention committed to everything from who said what to whom on social media, fantasy matchmaking, and fighter pay to arguing about GOATs, fight announcements, and talking about the biggest moments from the biggest fights. But when it comes to watching the UFC equivalent of Hornets-Cavs on a random Saturday afternoon in November, an increasingly large number of people that identify themselves as fight fans aren’t particularly interested.
And let me be clear: I’m not passing judgment — the shift is just endlessly interesting to me because as much as I care about a bunch of the niche stuff, I also really want to watch shows like UFC Vegas 43 from start to finish and find value and importance in a bunch of those results, which now makes me feel like an outlier, rather than part of the populous.
While I don’t view every statement from every star as newsworthy or even containing much value — Paul Heyman’s response to Ariel Helwani last week when they were discussing AEW and Heyman drew the analogy to Dana White’s comments on WWE perfectly sums up the way I feel about these types of news stories — I get that those things drive traffic and conversations, especially when Conor McGregor is saying wild things or someone like Daniel Cormier is offering his thoughts on how the lightweight division should be booked.

And I get how important and interesting and compelling so many of the other elements that seem to be discussed and debated prominently these days are to a great number of people, I’m just at a loss when it turns out that the progression of divisions, the development of athletes, and the many different avenues leading towards championship matchups and marquee fights aren’t nearly as important, interesting, and compelling to a vast number of people.
The thing that has long been confusing to me — and maybe I’m thick — is that for years, the argument has been that back in the day, all the fights you saw mattered: they moved an athlete forward in their respective division and you knew there was a good chance that if they won, you would see them again in another meaningful fight three, four, six months down the road.
That still holds true today, although there are more athletes, divisions, and events, and more roads shuttling competitors forwards and back in their respective weight classes.
It seems like the heft has become the thing that has turned a lot of people off, or at least prompted them to care less about the matchups that lead to big fights and focus almost exclusively on the biggest fights themselves.
Where they used to track fighters that were three or four fights away from title contention, now it’s one or two fights, unless you’re a tenured star or an ultra-talented newcomer generating a great deal of buzz within the MMA Twitter community.
Once again, I get it — paying attention to all of this is difficult, especially when you’re also paying attention to everything else that’s happening in the combat sports space, plus everything else you enjoy, and dealing with work and life and everything else — but it’s still a fascinating shift to me because it genuinely feels like even though the amount of coverage and consumable information has continued to grow and expand, the actual interest in what transpires inside the Octagon on a week-to-week basis and the impact of those results has dwindled.
Am I wrong?
Events that lack marquee names get diminished and dismissed in the build to Fight Night, with greater focus being committed to what’s missing than what is set to transpire and how that could impact things going forward.
Fighters with two, three, four or more good wins are deemed “unknowns,” while others with a larger social media presence and fewer quality victories are talked about like superstars and sure-fire contenders. Yes, I’m talking about Sean O’Malley.
Nostalgia acts like September’s 17-year-old rematch between Robbie Lawler and Nick Diaz garnered far more interest and attention than several of the impactful pairings positioned before it at UFC 266, even those neither is likely to compete for much longer and several emerging contenders took critical steps forward before the veterans stepped into the Octagon.
Reacting to what happens and telling the stories of many of these athletes after big wins has become the norm, but even that often feels like more of a one-off than the start of a prolonged engagement with those fighters. People pay attention when they pop into the wider consciousness, but as soon as they’re replaced by someone or something else — and someone or something else always comes along — they don’t get mentioned again until they pop back into the wider consciousness.
And I honestly think it’s a big part of why, despite the level of talent in the UFC being at an all-time high, there being more quality fights and impressive performances on a weekly basis than ever before, people — fight fans — care more about the peripheral elements than the actual fights themselves.