Are us TUF noobs now the seasoned longtime MMA fans?

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I first got into MMA when I watched TUF 5 on Spike TV.

I thought it was awesome and I got all my friends to watch it and started ordering PPVs at my house.

I basically missed Pride. I came in at the end of it, and went back and watched a whole bunch of Pride fights and highlight reels on YouTube.

That was almost 12 years ago.

I order every pay per view and I trained off and on for a few years but never really got very far. I was taking training more seriously right before Covid but then Covid happened and my gym is shut down, probably forever.

I remember the hype behind Rashad and Rampage when they sold a million PPVs.

And I’m on Sherdog every day.

Are most people here from TUF?

I sure as hell didn’t watch UFC 1. I was a baby then.

People like you are still casuals to me.

 

[metal7555]

If yer a good teacher at introducing people to MMA, and they are noobs after more than a year, then failed you have. We started with VHS bootlegs in the late 90's, but no one gave a shit (outside of our small group) until TUF. The rare people knew of Chuck/Ortiz and that was about all.

It was until I was sitting in chat playing fucking WoW (yup, also how i met my mrs) in 2006, and it lit up with "holy shit are you watching this" -- regarding the Forrest/Bonnar fight. Was reading here (lurking) and others for years, but I finally was like... VINDICATION MOTHER FUCKERS. So I tapped, and signed up.

I also feel like far more have been banned or rage quit that were from or before that era lol. If anyone can look at a thread of like 20 legit pages of comments, I'd venture to guess their join date is 2007 or later because of Brock, Connor, etc.

 

[Make Sherdog Great Again]

Unless you started watching Vale Tudo in the early to mid 1900's you're a n00b in my book.

 

[cheesus]

Conor noobs are the new TUF noobs, around 2015 there was a surge in new sherdog accounts

 

[KesaGatameOToshi]

I feel bad for everybody that missed Pride. Pride was 10x the org UFC will ever be. Pride was real quality.

Pride's highest recorded Buyrate is Pride 32 with 30,000 buys.

https://www.tapology.com/search/mma-event-figures/ppv-pay-per-view-buys-buyrate

To put that in perspective, Ortiz Vs Lidell 3 did 40,000 buys and Bellator 120 did 100,000 buys.

I like Pride, Igor vovchanchyn is one of my favorite fighters and Sakuraba Vs Gracie might be the most important fight in the history of MMA but stuff like this is absurd. Pride was good for what it was and does deserve a bit more credit then the UFC gives it and to be fair, it does have the highest (alleged, the Yakuza might have pappered the gate) live attendance in MMA history but it was not perfect and it certainly wasn't better then the modern current day UFC.

The technical aspect of the sport has evolved massively in the last decade. Just look at BJJ.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

If you didn't rent UFC VHS tapes at blockbuster then you are a noob .

I did that but I can top that: I actually watched UFC1 on some decoder in my friend's basement. Was horrified how ugly an actual fight looks like as I thought it should look like kung fu movies.

So you should all look up to me.

 

[TRYHARD 2001]

You're all noobs.

Gaze on my join date and despair.

#RICKSONBYARMBAR

 

[TRYHARD 2001]

Pride's highest recorded Buyrate is Pride 32 with 30,000 buys.

https://www.tapology.com/search/mma-event-figures/ppv-pay-per-view-buys-buyrate

You have to keep in mind the Pride business model wasn't based off of a North American PPV model. It was Japanese tv that appealed to an overwhelmingly Japanese audience and at its height was the most successful and powerful MMA organization ever. The UFC surpassed it many moons ago, but that really speaks to the power of the American economic juggernaut alongside Zuffa's and now Endeavour's pursuit of a truly global market.

If you're comparing the relative success of the two companies by PPV buyrate you're kind of missing the point. Mind you, in reality there is no comparison between the two; the UFC of today is the biggest combat organization the world has ever seen while Pridfe was the biggest of 20 years ago.

 

[xHeadx]

In...

 

[Substance Abuse]

TUF 1? Lol

 

[Garnet_StrongerThanYou]

Conor noobs are the new TUF noobs, around 2015 there was a surge in new sherdog accounts

I wonder if they stayed fans.

 

[Figgy]

There have been a few newb surges over the years. Conor and Brock brought quite a few. After Brock almost all those WWE personalities became mma experts.

 

[chiefwiggum]

Sure You now possess the knowledge of a teen who watched sports for a decade.

 

[Blue Slime]

There was a time on Sherdog that you literally could NOT find a thread without someone calling someone else a "TUF n00b." Man, those were the days.

 

[BlackNathan]

Never really was into TUF and couldn't afford pay per views back in those days. I loved watching re-runs of events and the ultimate knock out DVDs but didn't consider myself a diehard until I started watching WEC. Urijah and Miguel were gods and it was all free(almost). Of course got into the UFC a little later, but I was a bigger fan of WEC until it got absorbed.

 

[Char Jawz]

I had watched some of the early UFCs on DVD but I really jumped on board 100% when TUF 1 premiered on Spike TV.

I definitely consider myself a veteran after following MMA religiously for 16 years now. I went through the catch up phase of all the previous MMA stuff I missed too, like earlier Prde cards and stuff. I'm down with the history now. lol

 

[The Kraken]

I remember MMA discussion before trolling (the arrival of which was sort of glorious, though).

 

[Fioretti]

You're still noobs in my eyes.

Roger that.

 

[The Chosen]

On Sherdog probably not

 

[2004 account]

Tuf noobs are the original cashews here on SD. Before that, fans understood there was a whole world out there of obscure mma, you just had to dig.