My interest isn't what it once was. Becoming like WWE. Too many fighters, side drama shows and watered down cards.
With that being said there is still a lot of good left in the UFC, just curious to see how the addition of women's fighting does in the UFC. Women's combative sports hasn't really been a big thing and I'm not sure that making a main event PPV is going to help the UFC.
They should have jumped straight into a TUF series with the women to introduce the title fight with Rousey, it would have been a great way to build momentum, they are nervous about the reception they will recieve from the fans.
They are taking a conservative approach instead of going all-in and starting with a Female TUF, these are the types of dynamics that are beginning to erode the MMA scene from within. The growth spurt is over now and we need to see how the industry will even itself out, but the key to the explosive growth was in fact those high risk all-in moves that were made in the last ten yrs. I thinknow with minimal training and pro exposure womens fighting will appeal only to the hard core fans who have the technical knowledge to truly appreciate what the women are doing on more than a tangible level, I believe the fanbase is now so huge and diverse that they will miss the % of the target market they needed to make womens fighting work for them, the majority are relatively new fans who might not be able to get over the biases related to female combative competition and with combat sports more than any others if you get a bad taste in your mouth as a fan you wont return as its easy to leave when you have no committment beyond the show you are watching, seeing women get bloodied up without having the fan perspective and knowledge to appreciate the commitment and professionalism they display will turn many away, they should have started with a TUF to indoctrinate fans more first. History will tell us what the best route was in a few years.