Lapsed Fandom

It just dawned on me that we're coming up on the 5-year anniversary of my finally giving up following the UFC. I used to be one of the most dedicated hardcore fans, spending almost every Saturday night — with depressingly few exceptions — watching events that would run 8+ hours. Once I broke the habit, the momentum I had built up dissipated very quickly. (It also helped that I had a lot more options in my social life, so I had a lot of things I could do when I wasn't watching barely-ranked middleweights stink up the UFC fight warehouse.)

At some point, I really need to put all my thoughts and feelings about my MMA fandom into writing. I haven't completely stopped paying attention, but these days my focus is on the business side of things — the TKO revenue extraction machine. Similar to pro-wrestling, one ascends to the final form of diehard fan when they stop following the product week-to-week but still care about earnings reports and buyrates.

I'm hoping to get a rough draft put together over the next few weeks. This feels like a necessary step in fully moving on from what used to be a central fixation in my life.