SpyreStudios

Web Design and Development Magazine

  • Design
  • Resources
  • Showcase
  • Inspirational
  • Tutorials
  • CSS
  • Resources
  • Tools
  • UX
  • More
    • Mobile
    • Usability
    • HTML5
    • Business
    • Freebies
    • Giveaway
    • About SpyreStudios
    • Advertise On SpyreStudios
    • Get In Touch With Us

Awful Web Designs From 18 of MMA’s Top Fighters

September 14, 2021 by Mike Smith 28 Comments

With Mixed Martial Arts in the mainstream, you’d think that the marketing teams for the fighters would know that their target demographic spend hours every day online and would probably be their biggest promoters. However, judging by the style of the following 18 websites from some of MMA’s top fighters, I’m assuming they didn’t get that memo.

Frank Mir

Chris Leben

Rich Franklin

Sean Sherk

Henry Cejudo

A.J. McKee

Dustin Poirier

Justin Gaethje

Cris Cyborg

Georges St. Pierre

Demetrious Johnson

Fedor Emelianenko

Matt Hughes

Chuck Liddell

BJ Penn

Wanderlei Silva

Mirko Filipovic

Royce Gracie

One even bigger problem I found while researching this post was that some of the bigger names didn’t even have websites up live online (from what I could find anyways). Some of the bigger names did have good websites and it wouldn’t have been right putting them in the list, so if you don’t see your favorite fighter on this list, it’s because their website is ok :)

Anyone else notice the cheesy cage backgrounds and overuse of a fighting stance with one fist out at the camera? Someone needs to jump up and bring these guys into 2021 properly because right now, they’re losing out on connections with their fans and building the proper fan base to ensure they’re a name that everyone wants to see.

Filed Under: Design, Showcase Tagged With: MMA, websites

Comments

  1. Adrian | Rubiqube says

    November 28, 2008 at 8:38 am

    While I do agree that these websites suck, I don’t really think they are loosing any of their fans. I suspect that’s what fans like to see, because most fighting websites look like this. :)

  2. Richard says

    November 28, 2008 at 8:47 am

    While they’re not to my taste, I’m guessing the fans do like the ‘macho’ stuff, as Adrian said.

  3. Ally says

    December 3, 2008 at 11:17 am

    What I would really love to see on these “Awful Web Designs” is the critique that goes along with each page explaining what is wrong and what could be done to improve it. True you did point out the majority that is wrong but it would really be helpful if each one had the individual critique along with what should be done opposed to what was done.

  4. Zinni says

    December 3, 2008 at 1:22 pm

    @ally

    I agree with you, however it is very obvious what is wrong with these websites. Each and every one of them must not have been done by a design professional. I am guessing this is a market that is being served by “the kid next door.”

    Quality as a whole in these site are just not up to industry standards, that is very apparent.

  5. travis says

    December 3, 2008 at 3:56 pm

    Can you list the few that did not make it on the post?

  6. Sioxie Legend says

    December 4, 2008 at 10:21 am

    Alright – now it’s no fair picking on wrestler websites! I mean – do you watch the shows? The websites are perfect in that they reflect the genre and the interface and graphics convey that. I’m not sure how you mean that they suck – if you don’t like the design, well this genre is gawdy and tacky and in your face – so generally the whole genre must offend you.

    That being said – what would you do to change the design? Also when you say a website sucks you need to be specific. Does it suck because the interface is confusing? Do the links work? Does it serve it’s purpose? I don’t think that all these sites suck because they are wrestling sites – if they were sites catering to jewelry or for corporate then yes – they would suck, but the websites in general serve the purpose and are targeted to a certain market. My point is that you cannot have a general critique on any website without giving some feedback. If you think they suck – then point out why. Otherwise it just seems you were in a bad mood when doing the article and out to lambaste a genre that has a hard time being eloquent – to say the least.

    @Zinni

    While you think some things are obvious – it doesn’t matter. A good critique always lists what is wrong and WHY it is wrong. Not just that it sucks.

  7. Paul Romer says

    December 4, 2008 at 5:30 pm

    I see a lot of statements thrown around. Let’s see your website.

  8. Mike Smith says

    December 4, 2008 at 6:08 pm

    @Zinni – thank you :) My thoughts exactly and why I did this article. It’s definitely a niche that is underserved. When I did the post, I found 8 fighters with the SAME layout, done by the SAME “sports marketing” company. the only differences were colors and their pictures.

    @Sioxie Legend – They are not “wrestlers”. It’s not the WWE. Mixed Martial Arts is real fist to face combat. :) For my reasons why the websites suck, please refer back to the comment Zinni made. The sites are not nowhere near close to web standard and they all look like a 1995-1996 version of a website. It’s about to be 2009 and they should step up their website quality in my opinion.

    @Paul Romer – http://blogthememachine.com is my portfolio.

  9. Sacha says

    December 31, 2008 at 2:05 am

    It’s always nice to see designers who like MMA (or at least write about it). It seems like those two demographics don’t overlap much (at least, judging from the terrible design generally associated with MMA).

    While I agree that they pretty much suck, some of them (Tim Sylvia, Diego Sanchez) at least make good use of photographs, which is something most websites could learn from.

    The sad thing is that all of those websites were probably made by professionals. But most people just don’t have enough design education to select a good designer. I’m currently building a website for a friend who does submission wrestling. I hope it’ll be nicer than those.

  10. MMA Gear says

    January 29, 2009 at 10:47 am

    MMA is often behind in terms of design.

    Many fighters simply do not make enough money to bring in top talent in regards to web design… or their website is basically designed by a training partner or agent for free.

    Many fighters also do not know how to market themselves online. I believe that this will change as agents wise up to online media. Unfortunately, the fighters themselves have very little time for well… anything… if they are not preparing for a fight they are in the gym teaching students and giving seminars. I would cut them a break :)

  11. MMA Gear Guide says

    March 3, 2009 at 9:25 am

    Yeah, I don’t think that a pretty website is a fighter’s top priority, however, these website do look bad. I think that eventually we will see some sites that are a little bit better executed. But honestly, if the site has great content then the design doesn’t really matter as much. Great topic by the way, I wonder what other industries have this design issue.

  12. MMA Magazine says

    March 31, 2009 at 4:35 am

    Most fighters first build it themselves then once they get sponsored it gets done professionally. Like chuck liddells for instance. It is clean and professional for sure. I know there is a market for MMA Web design if anyone decides to get into that.

  13. Jeff Presley says

    June 4, 2009 at 12:19 am

    Agree with Adrian’s first comments. But if anyone needs a professional site look us up, i teach at the mid-south’s best MMA school. The current tapout with Rampage has Slay and I doing a series of moves. Look at our portfolio and get some help with your site :)

  14. Clayton Shumway says

    July 9, 2009 at 6:38 pm

    I agree with the fact that the designs probably to hit their target audience…which is NOT me, haha.

  15. Gavin Elliott says

    July 20, 2009 at 4:14 pm

    MMA is going to be one of the largest sports in the world in coming years. Dana White and the guys at Zuffa have taken the UFC out of the under-ground where it was for a while and back in to public view.

    I believe that the UFC/MMA/BAMMA (United Kingdom version of the UFC) is lacking massively in terms of online appeal. The UFC has hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for it’s own online marketing, yet the fighters themselves lack in the whole brand building / online market place. This should be changed.

    One fighter who knows how to use online media is Matt Hughes ( http://www.matt-hughes.com/ ), he blogs regularly about life / fighting and his book writing, events etc.

  16. Jon Phillips says

    August 18, 2009 at 9:08 pm

    Well, one thing’s for sure, I’m pretty happy to see that Georges St-Pierre got a website redesign, what a huge improvement! :)

  17. Mike Smith says

    August 18, 2009 at 11:39 pm

    Yeah. Urijah Faber and Rich Franklin both updated theirs in the right direction as well.

  18. Jonathan Stevens says

    February 8, 2010 at 10:52 am

    Are those graves on Anderson Silva’s page? As in, he’s implying that he’s going to KILL people?

    Quite an image.

  19. Cheryl from thatgirlisfunny says

    May 3, 2010 at 10:35 pm

    Maybe you’re so picky because you know what good web design is supposed to look like. I’m a big mixed martial arts fan. I guess I notice if I like the site design, but really, I’m more interested in reading what the guys have to say. Now that it’s 2010, many of these sites have been updated.I don’t think the UFC kicks in any cash for the guys to buff up their sites.

    It’s cool that you collected these images – it’s like web history for MMA :D

  20. Freestanding Heavybag says

    June 3, 2010 at 1:52 pm

    lol. It is funny watching the design, but maybe that is really how they market themselves.
    I don’t think they should linger in the design too much. Fans won’t actually care.
    As long as they take a little step at a time to a better web design.

  21. Karate Mart says

    June 12, 2010 at 11:17 am

    Some of these sites look pretty good for basic profile websites, but a lot of them could use a little bit of design help. You would think that any one of these fighters could find a fan willing to design their website professionally for free. Whoever designed Frank Mir’s banner did an excellent job.

  22. Darren Hoehne says

    June 16, 2010 at 9:07 am

    I got to agree that they are not the best. At the end of the day they are at least on the web and have some sort of presence.

    Take it easy!!!

  23. sir jorge says

    July 29, 2010 at 3:47 pm

    wow those designs are pretty bad

  24. MMA Gear says

    July 31, 2010 at 11:04 pm

    Haha.. some of those actually aren’t that bad.. Are all of these their “official” websites though? Some of them look like they were just made by fans and whatnot. I mean, it’s hard to believe that a guy who has Gatorade and Under Armor endorcements (GSP) would have a website that was THAT bad..

  25. Matt DeRosa (MMA school owner from NYC) says

    August 11, 2010 at 8:15 pm

    I can’t really say I’m surprised with how awful some of these sites look. Just because a group of people get together and call themselves a ‘marketing team’ doesn’t mean they have braincells.

    I think most of the fighter’s that let these people run their websites gave their ‘marketing teams’ the green light on the layout, so they are too blame as well :)

  26. Luke Richardson says

    September 23, 2010 at 8:34 am

    It amazes me that some of the bigger fighters don’t have live sites up and running, but it does kind of seem like MMA and martial arts generally are a bit undeveloped when it comes to branding the stars of the sport. I know UFC is massive and it’s made superstar millionaires out of a lot of its fighters, but the development of the profiles of fighters is tiny in comparison to the development of profiles in the music industry, for example.

  27. Martin Bean (MMA web designer) says

    September 27, 2010 at 11:37 am

    Last year (2009) I formed Your Fight Site, a web design and graphic design agency targeting the MMA (and professional wrestling) markets. So far, we’ve been pretty successful in carving out a niche. We’re experienced, having worked for larger companies, let maintaining prices affordable to those who aren’t quite as big.

    People don’t mind paying for good design, and we’ve never had a shortage of work due to good word-of-mouth from our past clients.

  28. Jonathan Hinshaw says

    March 28, 2011 at 9:31 pm

    This article is 2 years old and nothings changed. I just thought I would restart the conversation as it seems there’s been no real influence in the past 24 months. It’s unfortunate, but I believe if it’s going to change, someones going to have to set the bar. It’s still pretty low…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please prove you're human *

Recent Posts

  • 31 Fresh Design Elements for Spring and Easter
  • 10 Templates for Music Concert Flyers
  • How to Build a Web Scraper Using Node.js
  • Best PHP Books, Courses and Tutorials in 2022
  • How to Get Your First Web Design Client

Archives

  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008

Categories

  • Accessibility
  • Android
  • Apps
  • Art
  • Article
  • Blogging
  • Books
  • Bootstrap
  • Business
  • CSS
  • Design
  • Development
  • Ecommerce
  • Fireworks
  • Flash
  • Freebies
  • Freelance
  • General
  • Giveaway
  • Graphic Design
  • HTML5
  • Icons
  • Illustrator
  • InDesign
  • Infographics
  • Inspirational
  • Interview
  • Jobs
  • jQuery
  • Learning
  • Logos
  • Matrix
  • Minimalism
  • Mobile
  • Motion Graphics
  • Music
  • News
  • Photoshop
  • PHP
  • Promoted
  • Rails
  • Resources
  • Showcase
  • Tools
  • Tutorial
  • Twitter
  • Typography
  • Uncategorized
  • Usability
  • UX
  • Wallpapers
  • Wireframing
  • WordPress
  • Work

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

SpyreStudios © 2022