Don't see how the rise of the UFC has much to do with what the Hearns could achieve with RL. UFC has become what it is today because the Fertittas backed themselves & basically bought out all the competition which would be like the Hearns going out & taking over the NRL & RU then telling all the top talent your playing for SL teams now, it's not going to happen is it

Jesus. It was an example of how a sport when marketed and developed can reach heights. Only took 25 years to become global. How did they do this? Via creating stars within the company that people want to see.
Did they buy out the comp? No. There's Bellator OneFC etc all doing well.

Dana White is the first to admit as well they had quite a bit of luck to get where they are today. When Pride was still going and took over the UFC as the No.1 MMA organisation, the Fertittas bought the dwindling UFC in 2001 & they were losing money hand over fist for years. He tells a story about the brothers coming to him and wanting to pull out because they'd literally sunk $34 million after they bought it for 2 million and it wasn't getting any better and wanted to sell.

Then a couple of things happened, in 2005 the UFC went to Spike TV to sell them an idea of a reality TV show based around MMA and a contest to sign to the UFC at the end. Spike wasn't even interested, so the UFC offered to produce it cost-free for them, it was their last roll of the dice and cost them millions to do. After the 1st season of TUF and especially the final fight between Bonner and Griffin it started to create a load of hype and got signed for another few seasons. after that new fans started to buy PPV's that had never before but it was still behind Pride's huge events. Then in 2007 Pride lost its TV deal in Japan because of links with the Triads came to light. The UFC swooped in and bought Pride at a knockdown price and the vast majority of it's best fighters moved across, making it truly the place where you could see the best versus the best. That's really where they started to become what they are today imo. Along the way, they also bought Strikeforce, WFA, brought in lighter weight fighters with their purchase of the WEC and then introduced women to their ranks, funnily enough only a couple of years earlier Dana White said it would never happen.

Just shows you need luck, things to go your way and then take advantage of them, plus also willing to take the odd chance. Also, it helped being bankrolled by a couple of brothers who are billionaires that own Station Casinos to get where they are now.

still think the UFC was better when the gracies ran it

Why on earth would Rugby League get involved with people who seem to be able to market minority sports!! Crazy!!

Agreed, Sky ruined it enough. Tickets should be no more than a fiver. Whilst we are at it, get rid of Catalans, Toulouse and Toronto. No more nicknames, names on shirts or coloured boots. Instead of play offs, the team finishing top gets a brass tankard. Fans obliged to scowl throughout, and tut if Wigan don't score 50.

Well, you joke, but plenty seriously claim we'd be better off with no 40/20s, corner flag coming into play for try-scoring, and winter rugby on mud-heaps.

40/20s reward poor offence and penalize great defence

Corner flags make flying tries more spectacular due to the skill factor that's needed not to touch the flags

40/20s encourage fast rugby. They were introduced to stop wingers and full backs allowing the ball to roll out of play and slowing the game down. Any rule that speeds the game up is a positive.

I’d go further and say if the ball is kicked dead from within the 20m zone the the restart is on the 20m line. However if the ball is kicked dead from outside the 20m line, the defending team restarts with a tap from where the ball was kicked. That would encourage teams to keep the ball in play more and speed the game up even more.

So if they are so great and speed the game up so much how come we see so little of them every season

Because they’re not easy to execute. It requires the team with the ball to get in the right part of the field, the player before it to win the collision and get a quick play the ball and then an accurate kick against a defence who will do all they can to stop it.

I remember the first time Wigan played a game with that rule in force. Andy Farrell kicked one with his first touch of the ball and Wigan scored from the re-start. Afterwards, some whinging letter-writer in the Rugby Leaguer said something like 'looks like the new rule has found another way to make it easier for Wigan to win games'.

Except that Faz never kicked another in his entire RL career, and in truth, I can probably count on one hand the other Wigan players who have kicked them since.

So, I think that underlines your point.

I still enjoy the old UFC's when Rorion Gracie and Art Davies was in charge, they were good days to discover and then get into this new sport but tbh after a few events the Country and some people in power really turned against it and it was never going to be considered a 'sport' until it had proper sanctioned rules, that didn't involve, headbutting, groin strikes, gouging and weight classes etc - it made it look to the average guy like a cockfight. Rorion and Art only had the company till about UFC 5 where they sold it to SEG.

I remember at the time of UFC 1/2 I was teaching kickboxing and one of my students lent me the videos, I thought it was the craziest thing I'd ever seem (who can forget Keith Hackney literally pummelling some dude in the nuts one fight, the most painful thing I've seen, tbh couldn't have happened to a nicer dude in Joe Son, now doing time for some awful crimes. A Boxer competing with one glove on, high-level karate guys getting demolished by this skinny Brazillian, even a Sumo wrestler turned up. in those days as much fun it was to watch it was definitely a bit of a joke. Saying that it what was the thing that eventually made me seek out BJJ classes, as hard it was to find a place in the mid-'90s. Interestingly although Royce won those early events, he was considered the weakest of all the brothers and their father wanted Rickson to compete.

Yeah, those old days were fun and new but they'd become a bit boring and tbf it wasn't until when the Fertitas bought it and especially Lorenzo Fertitta, because he'd been a member of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and knew his way around that side of the game, it what that which really made the sport legit in the US and the thing it is now, whether you like it or preferred it when it was more underground, It's crazy though that even with the success that New York until recent wouldn't even sanction MMA events till 2016.

The salary cap is killing the sport. Clubs have no real incentive to try up their income as they cant spend it on world class players. Likewise the big money sponsors are put off as they want their brand to be across the chest of a household name not little Jimmy who came through the academy and showed great promise at Wigan St Pats. In its current format, the cap stops teams from prospering and growing and keep the game stagnant and unattractive to big investment.

It's all a ploy to so Leeds can be successful, as is having no reserves grade, The game is dying thanks to the machinations of Gary Hetherington and his beautiful wife