 Which of these things contributed most to the lowered audience for UFC?
UFC's flameout from national sensation to total irrelevance is a tragedy of American sports, a cautionary tale of prudishness, heavy-handed politics, and cultural myopia. UFC allowed, even promoted, all notions of bad sportsmanship: kicking a man when he's down, hitting him in the groin, choking. UFC's caged matches revolutionized the idea of fighting. "UFC immediately debunked a lot of myths of fighting, of boxing, karate, kung fu. It showed the reality of what works in an actual fight," says Dave Meltzer, editor of Wrestling Observer . The UFC spawned a new breed of "mixed martial artists." UFC's promoters predicted that it would supplant boxing as America's martial art. UFC fell victim to cultural determinism about what a fight is.
 Misconceptions about the safety of the sport drove political spats that kicked UFC out of the spotlight
 The better fighters were too expensive, so when they moved abroad the fanbase fell through  The scoring system defeated the purpose of the no-holds-barred sport which made it less exciting to watch  Other sports became more popular, and UFC ended up as another fad, leaving the fighters to return to their original combat sports  Misconceptions about the safety of the sport drove political spats that kicked UFC out of the spotlight