What are the main reasons that you don't like watching MMA?

[Quiksilva]

I'm more of a casual fan watching UFC/MMA. Mostly watch the big-name fellas like Adesanya, Pereira, Makhachev, and the list goes on. If it's a big name that I know of, I'd definitely tune in if it doesn't clash with another Boxing event scheduled on the same day and time. I'll pick Boxing over UFC/MMA.

[KidDinamita]

Me personally I dont like the style how they fight, because I prefer the boxing technique, and when they go on the floor grappling to me its even worse. I believe thats why Conor got so much exposure, because he had a lot of standing fights and his technique was always nice to watch.

[stellen]

When they go to ground, grappling, hugging, making out. Its a really pathetic spectacle. I'd much rather watch Judo at the olympics than that crap.

[PerfectJab]

Boxing was always no. 1 but I was also interested in MMA for about 1 - 1,5 years.
I quit basically for 3 reasons:

1. Came to realize after watching many fights that a LOT has to do with just sheer luck. Swinging punches at each other, one connects and the other drops and goes into fetal position (very unmanly). Then the winner is declared the greatest fighter in the world...

Technically, from a striking point of view it is just horrible. Grapplers throwing hands basically.

2. The lack of knowledge of both MMA fighters and fans.
They think they understand other styles because they call themselves MMA'ers. But in reality MMA just stands for Mediocre Mixture of Arts
Anytime you hear an MMA fighter talk about boxing, you realize they have absolutely no clue about the complexities of both technique and strategies of boxing. Baffling ignorance.
Just watch YouTube clips of (obvious self-taught) MMA-coaches teaching boxing technique. They just have no clue but that doesn't stop them in confidently talking absolute rubbish.

3. Forced tough-guy act
There is a massive inferiority complex. (I actually heared an MMA'er say about boxers "they think they are better than us"
They always want to convince and remember everyone how tough they are.
Boxers show post-surgery photo's just to show all went well
MMA'ers (both man and women) just lóve taking pictures to show open wounds and every severe injury just to show how 'tough' they are. No other athlete does this.

[The D3vil]

1. I don't like their fans, they're even worse than boxing's fans
2. I don't like watching REAL wrestling. There's a reason pro wrestling is fake, it's because real wrestling is garbage to watch
3. Did I mention that I can't stand their Alt-right ass fans or Dana White's clown ass?

[baroidi]

I watched MMA since UFC1 all the way till Pride ended. It was something new in combat sports, especially with the early UFCs. It was a real eye opener to see what was actually effective with as little rules as possible, but I always found the ground game really boring. There's no doubt that MMA is the closest to a real fight, but from a sporting event, I enjoy purely standup fights.

[YoungManRumble]

The buttsniffing.

[dannnnn]

3. Forced tough-guy act
There is a massive inferiority complex. (I actually heared an MMA'er say about boxers "they think they are better than us"
They always want to convince and remember everyone how tough they are.

This is true. I've noticed this a lot with MMA fighters, even high profile ones, which is weird to be successful and yet still so insecure.

I like MMA though. I'll never be as interested in the subtleties of it in the same way I am with boxing, but for pure entertainment it's great. I've also got to say that the TV broadcasts (I'm talking UFC here) absolutely blow boxing out of the water. Ten minutes of down-time between each fight (and that's including the post-fight interviews). Some ads, the package for the next fight starts rolling and then the fighters are walking out, it's a really well-oiled machine from that standpoint.

Boxing is horrendous by comparison, even now. They showed Hamzah Sheeraz and Ammo Williams gloved up and hitting pads in their dressing rooms immediately after the previous fight finished and it was still a good half hour before they made their ring walks. Why?! Nobody cares what Darren Barker thinks about the last fight, just get the next one on! I lose interest in all of the talking heads and go off to do something else for a bit. I missed most of the Bivol fight because of that.

[BustedKnuckles]

I started watching ufc from it's inception, from the very first championship. It was a real freak show back then; we all grew up on Kung Fu movies and really had no idea how ineffective most martial arts actually are for real self defense.

A bunch of nth-degree black belt guys got hammered. I remember one guy broke the HUGE guy's nose (huge islander or sumo), and he was as surprised as anyone. Then Gracie came into it, and as boring as he was to watch, especially the superfight with him v Shamrock, bjj was clearly effective and quickly embraced, along with the idea that a balance of striking and grappling is best. It really turned the American view of martial arts on its head.

I watched for years as an angry violent teenager, then a soldier. Had stacks of that stuff on DVDs.

Over time I wanted to break from violence that characterized my first decades. When I came back to combat sports, I decided not to get back into mma stuff.

So the short answer is, the violence is over the line for me. Say what you want, punching is violent. Kicking in kickboxing is violent. But something about a dude hooked on top of another guy and just full pounding him on the face, nearly gloveless, is too much. Then it's not a sport anymore, it's just gladiators who would probably kill if you let them.

Fwiw, I don't watch bare knuckle boxing or ****** people who have nothing better to do than stand with their hands at their sides and let grown men slap them unconscious.

A bit of a trip back in time there.

[TMLT87]

I generally prefer MMA by a bit but in recent times I think boxing has been edging it out. With these Saudi fights and even outside of them we have been getting bigger fights more frequently than usual imo. Then on the other hand 4+ years after Covid hit the UFC is still running half their cards out of the ****ing Apex center in front of a dozen people. Then theres been relatively long running issues like the UFCs oversaturation, average card quality declining tons, way too much time and attention given to womens fights, the lowering finish rate, the more sterile corporate presentation compared to how it used to be etc etc. Its certainly a long, long way away from its peak which was the mid 00s through early 10s. Having said that, they do still have a handful of really big cards a year, and its hard to beat when you get them and they deliver.