Market Forces Are Damaging The Development of MMA

Mixed Martial Arts is often referred to as a sport in its infancy but interest in MMA has expanded at a far greater rate than the sport itself has been able to develop. In any other mainstream sport the emphasis is almost entirely on ability with marketability a secondary consideration. In MMA the opposite seems to apply and as a consequence cards are becoming clustered with fighters well past their prime.

Ability should be the sole criteria for success in any sport but in MMA it seems that reputation can far outweigh actual ability as a consideration in the minds of the match makers. MMA is in danger of losing its competitive edge because up and coming talent is being ignored at the expense of veteran fighters who come into the cage with an established reputation.

The UFC has an increasingly ageing roster of fighters with the likes of Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell and even Renzo Gracie still guaranteed spots on the upper echelons of pay per view cards. These men have all made a tremendous contribution towards the sport but I find it difficult to believe that there are not young prospects out there who, given the opportunity, could make more of an impression on the existing MMA scene.

Anderson Silva, widely regarded as the best pound for pound mixed martial artist on the planet, came in for heavy criticism after a lacklustre victory over Damian Maia recently. Silva's next opponent will be the UFC's number one middleweight contender Chael Sonnen. Sonnen harbours reservations of his own about the match making infrastructure in MMA,

"There is no competitive architecture in MMA. You want to know who the best wrestler is? Go watch the Olympic Games. Everybody with a heart beat is welcome to compete. there is a process, a competitive architecture which constantly gets broken down until there is one man standing on the entire planet."

He contrast the process which athletes have to go through to establish themselves as the best in their respective disciplines at the Olympics with the process, or lack of one, in the UFC at present,

"I remember when the UFC lost Tito Ortiz and everyone thought this would be detrimental. Within six weeks Dana White built up a character out of a guy called Andre Arlovski and made him into the greatest most feared fighter of all time. He dumped all sorts of money in all sorts of media and it caught on like that. The fans widely recognized Andre as the most feared fighter in the world but the truth was that he was 8 and 4. All four guys that beat him were bums and all the eight guys that he beat were mid card at best but because Dana White says Andre is the best he became the best. That's the brilliance of the UFC."

Sonnen is a highly intelligent individual who harbours political ambitions. His aspiring political carer appears to have given him an astute understanding of how to manipulate the media as he has come out with a series of deliberately derogatory comments about Anderson Silva recently. Sonnen is not your typical trash talking fighter and he is clearly aware that he needs to do more than just win fights if he is to form an indelible impression in the minds of the UFC match makers.

His campaing of concerted criticism has been extremely effective as Dana White made the unprecedented decision to announce Sonnen as Silva's next opponent within days of the debacle that was Silva's fight with Damian Maia. Sonnen believes that you cannot progress in the UFC on mere merit alone,

"The UFC doesn't work that way. There are no rules to get into the UFC. You can be a great fighter and never get a UFC contract, you can be the best fighter in the UFC and not have enough draw power to get on the main card or you can be on the main card and not have enough fans behind you to get you into the main event.

That's the business side of it that's not the fault of the UFC and a lot of people don't understand that, they fault the UFC for that. This is a business first. The UFC has got to turn a profit and people have got to understand that. I am using the UFC as an example but for any show that is the primary goal."

Sonnen's own record was, until recently, fairly unremarkable. Before joining the WEC, which is affiliated to the UFC, he was 19-8-1. In his fights for the WEC and the UFC he has gone 5-2. Would Sonnen have risen to become the number one contender had a more regulated match making infrastructure been in place? I don't think so and I get the impression that Sonnen himself doesn't think so either.

Headlining a UFC card is, short of winning an actual UFC title, probably the ultimate accolade for a mixed martial artist. Yet earlier this year Mark Coleman, aged 45, and having lost five of his previous nine fights found himself headlining a UFC pay per view show.

In doing so Coleman was standing in the way of every single unsigned light heavyweight fighter in the world. I find it impossible to believe that there are not better fighters than Coleman currently operating on the fringes of the UFC. Coleman won the UFC Heavyweight Title in 1997 and the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix in 2000. Despite these career highlights coming more than a decade ago they are still deemed sufficient to allow Coleman to continue depriving younger, better fighters of Octagon opportunities.

In most major sports there is some sort of a tournament or league format from which one clear winner will emerge.There are also normally satellite tournaments, sanctioned by a governing body, which will dictate who gets to participate in the major leagues or tournaments.

The vast number of independent promotions in the world of MMA make it much more unlikely that such a system could be adopted effectively. I personally like the Grand Prix or tournament format which the now defunct Pride operated and which Bellator also uses. While the selection criteria to enter the tournament is still subject to opinion it means that the eventual winner is selected according to ability alone as opposed to external factors such as a fighter's media profile or marketability.

One of the most outspoken critics of the UFC has been former middleweight champion Frank Shamrock. He thinks that market forces will ultimately prove to be a positive influence on the sport,

"When MMA gets on primetime the whole business of MMA is going to change and the market is going to force the best fighters to fight each other. Eventually that point will come, fans will demand it."

Shamrock's comments were made several years ago but with rival organizations continuing to jealously guard their most marketable assets his prediction does not appear particularly prescient.

I will leave you with the words of Chael Sonnen,

"Who is actually the best fighter in the world? I know guys who are great fighters but you wouldn't even know their names. They are in the practice room right now, they haven't been given their shot. So are we seeing the best fighters against the best fighters? No. But the real truth is nobody knows who the best fighter is."