When you’re someone who watches MMA fights religiously, sometimes you love the idea of seeing every new fighter that makes their debut, enjoy watching certain fighters on the undercard that don’t get much attention, or maybe you just love analyzing every single little detail in a fight.
However, this dedication might also get in the way of many other interests you have.
Recently, the UFC’s new parent company, WME-IMG, has decided to lessen the number of fights it airs per month. This is a big change, seeing as how, for the last two to three years under the Zuffa banner, there would be a UFC fight almost every single week. Sometimes, there would even be two events in one weekend. In a rare occurrence, there would sometimes even be two events in one day on opposite ends of the world. Now, with the new ownership of the biggest MMA organization taking over, they’re cutting down on the workload for the immediate future.
Well, as an MMA fan, this affects my life greatly.
Ever since October 2014, I haven’t missed a single UFC event. I’ve managed to catch at least 90 percent of the fights, missing just a few here and there. Unfortunately, this has come to a detriment, when I have to miss everything else that’s going on in the world, such as other sporting events that I really wanted to watch, because I’m watching six or seven straight hours of fights.
I’m a huge MMA fan, but I’m also a fan of every single mainstream sport. I hate missing all of my other teams play while an entire day is spent on a UFC event. Additionally, it’s hard to get pumped to watch an event sometimes. Seeing people get punched in the face isn’t exactly a common thing for most of us. I feel like, every now and then, you have to prepare yourself ahead of time to witness it, because it just gets so exciting so fast and you have trouble taking it all in at once. Other times, you’ll end up watching a string of boring fights in an event, where you almost regret even bothering. Personally, I watch no matter what, but it’s hard to get into it in some situations.
Then again, some days I’m incredibly excited just to focus on MMA, regardless of how boring or exciting the fights are, because I’m really looking forward to that particular event. It usually helps when the main card features multiple great fighters, or if there’s a really good feud between two fighters, which not only riles up the fans, but in many ways the rest of the fighters on the card, too.
I guess the one thing to realize is you’re not always going to be fully prepared to do anything unless you have some kind of routine down. I know I don’t, because I have so much else going on. For some of us, we have to really get ready and prepared, while for others, it comes naturally to put our minds into gear to watch.
Either way, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for this sport, and I’ll always consider it a unique experience to analyze everything that goes on in a fight. It’s one of the few sports out there where two people are competing one on one and you really never know what’s going to happen. You also feel like you’re seeing something new every time.
That’s what makes it a real joy, and I can only embrace the opportunity of witnessing the unknown.