Charles loves MMA and has been following MMA for more than 15 years.

Are you tired of discussing and arguing about MMA with the same friends or none of your friends are hardcore MMA fans? MMA forums can provide a great avenue to share and exchange ideas with a wide range of fans from different parts of the world. You can get the chance to meet some great people online and engage in entertaining discussions as well.

Sherdog, The Underground, and Reddit MMA are the 3 biggest MMA forums on the internet right now. Having been part of these forums for quite some time, I must warn you that they are not for the faint-hearted. If you take offence easily and can't seem to ignore people when you need to, you wouldn't last a day in these forums. Be prepared to encounter trolls and not fall for their bait. Their main aim is to make your life miserable on these forums if you let them.

Depending on your personality, you would fit perfectly into Sherdog, Reddit MMA or The Underground. These forums operate very differently and attract different fans. Based on my personal experiences on these forums, I would try to outline some of the pros and cons associated with them. I must emphasize again that the information given below is solely based on my personal experiences and may differ from user to user.

Sherdog Forums

Pros

It is the most visually appealing MMA forum.

It has a very active forum and generates a very high traffic.

It has a belt system in place that motivates members to participate more in the forums with the lowest and highest belts being white and plutonium respectively.

It has much more drama and fun and can make one have a good laugh.

Cons

It has a lot of troll threads and can make it difficult to find relevant threads.

Be prepared to encounter a lot of ignorant and mean people.

Be prepared to hear the term "manlet" being used to describe men in the Featherweight, Bantamweight, and Lightweight divisions. They refer to these guys as midgets because they are normally 5'10" and below. It might go up to 6'0" depending on their mood.

Most people here think very less of Women's MMA and feel they should get rid of it.

The belt system can make some people think they are better because they post often.

Sometimes an attempt to have an actual discussion can get drowned out by trolling.





Reddit MMA

Pros

It has much more serious MMA discussions.

It has very few troll threads as moderators do a great job of screening out irrelevant threads.

It has a downvote system that helps members to clean out trolls and spammers from the forums.

Professional fighters and MMA specialists sometimes drop knowledge there.

It provides links to social media, gifs, videos, and gives you the short digestible version of MMA news in a much more approachable and easy to manage way than other forums.

Cons

People are sometimes scared to post opinions that are not in tune with the hive mind for fear of getting downvoted. It therefore creates an echo chamber where people say what the hive mind wants to hear.

There is not much drama and hence there is less fun.

Sometimes when someone doesn't like what you say, they just downvote and move on leading to a lack of actual discussion.

Be prepared to receive a lot of smart-ass comments.

It has a lot of casual MMA fans.

The Underground

Pros

It is a more mature forum and full of passionate fans.

The most active UFC and MMA fighters post there. This attracts a wide spectrum of posts from some of the best trainers and fighters in the business.

It has a very strong and large community that supports each other.

It has an arrow system that helps members reward good posters with green arrows by upvoting.

Cons

It is poorly designed and not visually appealing.

You have to pay for basic privileges like posting pics and GIFs which you can do for free in other forums.

The site's performance could be greatly improved as it sometimes plagued by crashes and bugs.

The arrow system sometimes turns into a popularity contest where members make threads and comment on what they perceive will get them voted up as opposed to how they actually feel on a subject.

You can easily see that these forums are designed to attract MMA fans of different personalities. If you are the fun-loving type who enjoys having a good laugh and do not take yourself too seriously, then Sherdog would definitely be the right place for you. If you would like to have interesting discussions with hardcore MMA fans, then The Underground is the right choice. However, if you prefer serious MMA discussions where you would encounter very few trolls, then Reddit MMA can cater for that.

If you have had any different experience from participating in these forums, please let me know in the comments section below.





© 2016 Charles Nuamah

Shane Adelaide from Adelaide on September 15, 2016:

Well said Charles...Thanks for Your thoughts.

Charles Nuamah (author) from Germany on September 15, 2016:

Hello Wild, I have visited your forum and I like what I have witnessed so far. There is a strong sense of community and the technology is indeed state of the art as you mentioned. You guys still have a bit of work to do in attracting more members and increasing your traffic. People generally like to post in forums where they feel they would get the most engagement. You guys are still relatively new and I believe if you continue with what you are doing you will definitely get the numbers. All the best.

Shane Adelaide from Adelaide on September 13, 2016:

Great stuff Charles....Look forward to Your thoughts.

Charles Nuamah (author) from Germany on September 13, 2016:

Thanks Mieshas. Would definitely check you guys out.

Shane Adelaide from Adelaide on September 13, 2016:

Dear Mr Author

Please check us out @themmacommunity.com

Then we can get this list reorganised.

We have lots of Q and As/Auto refresh fight threads and we truly have a great community..Please come and check us out and see for yourself. We make all new members welcome.

Cheers mate.