I’m a fan of MMA (mixed martial arts) first, and a fan of UFC second.My appreciation for the UFC comes from its ability to showcase “A” level fighters. Personally, I'll watch MMA regardless of the organization sponsoring the fight—but not everyone agrees.
The UFC has become “the thing” of today, but what would happen to MMA in North America if the UFC were to become a thing of the past?
The casual fans today aren’t passionate about the sport. They're fans of UFC first, and MMA second.
I can remember when the MMA used to be barbaric and disgusting to some of my girlfriends back in the day. Suddenly those same girls are gathering around the television to cheer on their favorite UFC fighters.
It’s cool now, but you still couldn’t get these new fans to sit and watch an IFL show on Saturday Night.
A huge sign of North America’s lack of appreciation for the sport is the booing during matches that aren't bloody enough. You'd never hear something like that during a show taking place in Japan, where the fans love the sport and understand what they’re watching.
So the question stands: What if the UFC went under? Would all those fans be able to watch another organization with as much interest?
By the end of 2007, UFC will have aired 19 live shows in the last year. We also get an Ultimate Fight Night every Friday, and a reality show that airs once a week.
That's a whole lot of exposure, and it causes the casual fan to only know MMA as UFC.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m not sure whether MMA is the fastest growing sport in North America, or whether the UFC is the fastest growing company.
It seems as if so many of today's UFC fans are just jumping on the wagon—and if things slow down, they're going to jump off and never look back.
For MMA to stay popular, some other companies need to legitimize themselves. M-1 is a candidate—signing the best Heavyweight in the world, Fedor Emelienenko, shows they mean business.
If M-1 can manage to get Randy Couture after his UFC contract is up, they may save the sport in North America by broadening its base.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has also expressed interest in starting an MMA company. Cuban definitely has the money to do it—but it takes more than just money to run a good fight company.
Hopefully Mark will have the sense to assemble a team of professionals who know MMA and the business well enough to get the ball rolling.
In the end, we can only hope that these new companies do well and compete with the UFC. Competition will force the UFC to work harder—and will benefit the fighters by giving them more opportunities to make money.
Most importantly, if Dana White and the Fertittas sink the ship, the whole damn sport won’t go down with them.
16 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Corey Ellis about 1 year ago
UFC is obviously the premier organization in MMA today evere since PRIDE folded. They've done so much for the sport, bringing MMA awareness to North America, the biggest market. I'm definately a big UFC fan. That said, I also take interest in other MMA organizations. Theres always room for competition. Take K-1, who held an impressive event today. Or M-1, who have signed Fedor and rumoured to have him fight Monson soon. Bodog fight, Elite XC, and the IFL are just a few of the other fight orgs that definately have something to offer.
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j hill about 1 year ago
Write something new.
Your story boils down to
a) you want to see the best fight the best
super, so do the rest of us
b) there are fans who watch mma to see knockouts.
crazy.
c) competition between companies is good.
you are a genius.
give us something we don't already know. Tell us why M1 has any chance in hell at competing with the ufc when no one else really has. Give us a reason why fans in the US should stop booing when its common place to boo our most famous athletes when they don't perform as we would like. Give us a reason why the UFC, being the most successful business in MMA should do anything different.
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Dean Fadel about 1 year ago
I asked a question in this article and instead of trying to answer it, you took the negative route. What would happen to mma in North America if the UFC went under? Do you think that everyone who watched UFC and paid for the PPV's would do the exact same thing for M-1? I doubt it, because it's not the UFC, and that's the problem. MMA is MMA, no matter what atmosphere it's taking place in, that's what my article boils down to.
What my article boils down to is the fact that there are a lot of ignorant fans right now. The fact that these arenas are being filled with fans who came to see knockouts, and not an mma competition is a problem. What the story boils down to, is that there are a lot of people who call themselves fans of the UFC and still don't know what the term "mma" is. They don't understand the difference, but yet they are two completely different things.
"give us something we don't already know."
That's the whole point. I stated that a whole whack load of fans of the UFC aren't like you and I. These people don't know what you and I already know. The casual fan doesn't know how educated fans in Japan are. The casual fan doesn't know who Fedor is. The casual fan only cares about the UFC, and doesn't think that legitimate competition could possibly fight anywhere else. The casual fan only knows UFC, and what's the article called? UFC vs MMA.
My article wasn't about people liking knockouts, it was about people needing to realize that just because there wasn't a knockout, it doesn't mean fighters didn't give them what the show really is all about, and that's mma. Please read and comprehend before you decide to tell me what my article boils down to.
Thank you for your comments though, and I also thank you for the suggestions of other possible articles. I'll keep those in mind when trying to capture the attention of fans who know everything already.
Peace
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Dean Fadel about 1 year ago
The above comment is intended for J.
As for Corey. You're right. I can't deny what the UFC has done for the sport in North America, and hopefully that will make things easier for these other big companies to step into the limelight. Let's just hope that when these companies do put on a show, people don't avoid them just because it's not labeled as a UFC production. Fedor vs Monson should sell out an arena, but I don't know how many pay per views it will sell. Randy vs Fedor is a whole different story though.
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bugmenot bugmenot about 1 year ago
"If [M-1] can manage to get Randy Couture after his contract with UFC is up ... they will save this sport in North America because it proves that UFC isn t the only company that can put together a good show with top tier talent."
I don't see how multiple leagues will save MMA as a sport in North America. Before you say the boilerplate "competition is always good", consider the following precedents:
1) There is a single league for all major team sports (NBA, NFL, MLB, etc)
2) There is a single dominant league for most individual sports (NASCAR, F-1, PGA, ATP, etc)
3) Boxing's decline resulted in part from champions split across an alphabet soup of organizations (5 at current count)
4) You will not see the best fight the best if they are split among orgs
5) Multiple orgs with different rules & different brands confuse the viewers, dilute the quality of matchups, and sap interest in the sport
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Dean Fadel about 1 year ago
I can see what you're saying for sure. The NHL, NBA, MLB, and NFL are the big leagues and all their respective sports need. Correct me if I'm wrong but even though there was seperate boxing organizations, they still managed to have champion vs champion, and this happened often did it not?
Many say that rising PPV prices, shows lacking a quality under card, and poor judge's decisions-such as when Julio Cesar Chavez got pummeled by Pernell Whitaker in 93, only to gain a draw-all had a lasting negative impact on boxing. Promoters of boxing failed to realize that they weren't the only platform which was capable of putting a man vs man in such a fearsome way.
"5) Multiple orgs with different rules & different brands confuse the viewers, dilute the quality of matchups, and sap interest in the sport"
I think that options aren't just good for the fans, but it's good for the fighters. It will eventually raise the amount of money that they get paid, and it will put mma in a position where it doesn't have to depend on the UFC. If there was no other legitimate company in North America that produced high quality mma, then if something were to happen to the UFC like what happened to Pride, then mma in North America would be on hold.
In the end you've made some solid points and it could be looked at in so many different ways. I just hope that the UFC is able to handle all this talent that they've got under their roof. Yes, it's amazing that there are so many fighters right now in the UFC and we're gonna get to see some great matches, but at the same time can they keep them all happy? Their heavyweight champion has walked out on the company, and it could be the beginning of a trend. For UFC to be the only legitimate company in North America will hold back a lot of great fighters who deserve to be in that top spot, but don't get the chance because how many people are under contract with the them. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, thanks for reading my article and responding with some useful information and not negativity.
Peace
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Glenn Arseneau about 1 year ago
I agree 100% with bugmenot...in a perfect world there would only be one league, be it the UFC or something else. Multiple champions who are contracually obligated to not fight each other is a waste...
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Corey Ellis about 1 year ago
You guys are looking at it all wrong. One big league would certainly seem to be the best road, but consider; rival organizations put a fire under to owners' asses to make the best cards to beat out their competition. If every good fighter was in one big league, where does the excitement go? When rival fighters fight in different organizations, it builds up anticipation for the day when those fighters will finally meet. Look at Wanderlei vs Chuck. Tension has been building for that fight for the better part of ten years, and now, it's probably the most anticipated fight ever. Gaurenteed ppv sales through the roof just to see that fight. If they had done that fight 8 years ago when the rivalry was first provoked, sales wouldn't have been nearly as high. Consider how much interest there was in signing Fedor. That type of uncertainty is what keeps the sport exciting.
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Glenn Arseneau about 1 year ago
The last thing the sport needs is to turn into boxing with 4 or 5 "world" champions who can never face each other unless they jump organizations (or else they carry 5 belts around which is equally useless...which one represents the "real" title?).
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
The pressure to put on big cards and exciting matchups will come from the desire to make money. Big shows make big money. If UFC could, they would have stacked cards every PPV, but there isn't enough healthy & ready talent to do that.
If anything, competition will increase expenses and limit budgets for big shows. The only people who benefit from multiple orgs may be fighters pocketbooks. "Increased choice" sucks when the choices are crummy because the talent pools are hopelessly diluted.
The fans won't benefit and neither will the sport.
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Jen Aniano about 1 year ago
Would football be as big in America if the NFL disbanded and all we were left with was arena football? Of course it wouldn't. That's the point. You need a strong organization to put the sport into the public eye. And you can't compare the IFL to the UFC the premise is completely different and the fighters are not at the level of the UFC fighters. It is like comparing NFL to arena football. The UFC is the most popular because the UFC has the best, especially since the merger with pride. Trust me there will be no one to compete with UFC because the UFC is going to continue to be the place where the best fighters make the most money in MMA. That is the way the cookie crumbles and I have no qualms about it.
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Dean Fadel about 1 year ago
Yes the UFC is the place where a lot of the big fighters are competing, and that's because they have no choice. Other companies are soon going to pop into the picture and offer much more money than Dana White could ever think of offering.
"UFC is going to continue to be the place where the best fighters make the most money in MMA"
I think Randy Couture would say otherwise. A lot of fighters in the UFC are fighting on the main card and only making 2500 dollars. The mere fact that there is no competition for Dana White to worry about is causing him to rip off the fighters because there is no other option. Good business, but that's something the fighters are going to remember when another legitimate organization comes into play, and is putting real offers onto the table.
"Would football be as big in America if the NFL disbanded and all we were left with was arena football? Of course it wouldn't. That's the point. You need a strong organization to put the sport into the public eye"
I can't disagree with you, but the NFL takes good care of their players.
Right now two former Pride fighters are holding UFC titles, and we could possibly see a third with Noguiera and the heavyweight championship. If Pride never went under, fans in North America wouldn't know about these fighters because Dana White and the UFC hides them from us. They don't want anyone knowing that there is talent anywhere else but in the UFC and that sucks for us fans who want to see the best. Dana White doesn't allow Joe Rogan to mention the name Fedor, and that's a shame because he could possibly be one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world. Again, good business on Dana's part, but bad for the fans and those fighters.
(Anderson Silva could be exempt from this above paragraph since he used to fight all over and not JUST Pride)
Thanks for the comments Jen.
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Derek Noppe about 1 year ago
Until some of the other orgs can show case the fights the way the UFC does they will not be able to compete. I am going to repeat what others have said and that is that MMA can not go the way boxing has, that will kill the sport. When you hear someone is the Champ you want to know they are the Champ.
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Tony Williams about 1 year ago
Survive? Hell, this is a product only an idiot could cause to fail.
MMA tells the fans one thing other fighting styles including boxing can't, who is the best fighter on the planet. I firmly believe the world off MMA is here to stay even if the UFC is exists or not.
The key is to having one of these organizations be the unified belt for the world title, and the other venues be the ranking systems that provide title shots.
As for me I feel the UFC is more inline for being able to provide a legitimate belt holder.
As for Randy leaving, that may prove to be a big mistake.
If Fedor were to come to the UFC & win the belt, and chooses to stay in the UFC the fight we all want to see would never happen, that may let Rany off the hook, which is what I think he wants in the long run.
As to the money, it will come. If you ask me it's already here. Dana White just needs to grow the profit base for the fighters more than his own pocket.
The fighters you see today would damn near fight for free. If the money allows fighters to feed their families & train full time the divisions & weight classes will grow, as it expands thoughout the world.
Everything is in place to build the Walmart, Home Depot or Amizon of the MMA organizations. My bets on the UFC. Only greed could get in the way of the next MMA empire.
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Dean Fadel about 1 year ago
Well it looks like this Affliction card is gonna be the company to do what I was saying all along. It's gonna bring competition and show that legitimate fighters can fight somewhere other than the UFC. Time for the fighters to get paid.
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Dean Fadel about 1 year ago
Let's all thank Mark Cuban...
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