Rematches: The bedrock of MMA

(Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

UFC 100 is on the horizon and anyone who is remotely interested in MMA, or even wrestling for that matter, is talking about Lesnar vs. Mir. The main event of the biggest UFC show of all time is also home to, arguably,the biggest rematch of all time.

So, it’s Brock Lesnar Vs Frank Mir. The UFC Heavyweight Champion Vs The UFC interim Heavyweight Champion for the right to be called the Undisputed UFC Heavyweight Champion.

And yet, a large part of the hype is built around the fact that this is a rematch. Mir won last time out, many feel in controversial fashion and, no doubt, Brock is looking for redemption. It’s a huge selling point.

The list of great rematches in MMA is pretty extensive -

• Rampage Jackson/Chuck Liddell
• Georges St-Pierre/BJ Penn
• Forrest Griffin/Stephan Bonnar
• Minotauro Nogueira/Fedor Emelianenko
• BJ Penn/Matt Hughes
• BJ Penn/Jens Pulver
• Matt Hughes/Georges St-Pierre
• Matt Serra/Georges St-Pierre
• Rich Franklin/Anderson Silva
• Urijah Faber/ Mike Brown
• Robbie Lawler/Scott Smith
• Mark Coleman/Shogun Rua

I could go on for some time but you catch my drift. All of these had something in the first fight that made people want more…and what the people want, the people tend to get.

Clearly the circumstances play a part but, in the grand scheme of things, rematches are an incredibly important part of the business. Rematches provoke rivalries, rivalries bring hostility and hostility creates interest (people watching, buys etc)…and there’s nothing a MMA company wants more than interest.

People want to know if a big win was a fluke, a one-off, or whether someone was just better on the night. People also want to see the big names go at it as often as possible.

The fans want to see their favourites given the opportunity to avenge a loss. The majority want to see a fight with a disputable finish (contentious decision, early stoppage, even split decisions etc) given the chance to make it right.

On the majority of occasions rematches bring a higher level of anticipation - has the loser changed his game, will the winner be complacent, was it a lucky KO, cage different to ring etc, etc - all these factors contribute to a fight people are eager to see.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?