MMA formed out of Brazil's Vale Tudo scene and later Japan's experiments with crossing over fake pro wrestling into real combat sports in spots like Pancrase, where Bas Rutten made his name, before rising to international prominence in Japan's Pride FC promotion, which had very diverse representation on its roster. UFC was originally more or less a marketing gimmick by some of the Gracie family to promote Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Stateside by having skinny Royce choke out all challengers in open weight, no-rules fights like the Vale Tudo events in Brazil since Americans had fuck-all submission grappling skills at the time (aside from the small contingent of guys who were going to Japan to fight in the proto-MMA scene there e.g. Ken and Frank Shamrock), and the UFC wasn't the top MMA promotion for ages, until Pride FC had yakuza ties exposed publicly, lost its financial backing, and got acquired by the Fertitta bros and scuttled. Also the WEC merger to legitimize and unify the lighter weight classes.
The UFC spent a long time as a promotion with an uncomfortably trashy casual fanbase, yeah. There were always those ultra cringe moments when some non-US white guy would be fighting, say, a Brazilian guy and the dumbass crowd would start chanting "USA USA" for the white guy and I'd want to RNC the whole audience. Almost all the hardcore MMA fans were looking outside of the UFC for a long time. And, fast forward to today, sure, we have some of that classic dumb shit again with USA chants for Conor because white guy. Yeah, it's embarrassing.
Regardless, MMA is much, much, much closer to open rules fighting than Queensbury rules pro boxing is. That's not disputable at all, never mind with some kind of racial argument about the UFC fanbase being dumb white trash Trump voters giving Conor too much of a chance against PBF under boxing rules? Certainly a lot of fucking tragically hilarious idiots apparently bet the farm on Conor here, and they deserve to lose their money, but what in the world does that have to do with MMA as a combat sport compared to professional boxing as a combat sport? Nothing.
