Help Save MMA, Buy the Jan. 24 Affliction Card

My fellow B/R patrons. I'm going to try to keep this short. I'm increasingly displeased with how the UFC is wielding their ever increasing power and how it's affecting MMA.

There's an old saying, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

I believe this is the case with Dana and the Fart brothers. The more they seem to control of the MMA landscape, the more I see it being bad for the fighters:  Bad for the fans and bad for the future of my favorite sport. 

The UFC is a business and like all businesses they aim to make a profit, the more the better, but that has a fine line.

I'm a home builder and contractor by trade. I own three companies now, and two of them are construction companies. The third is an Internet marketing company that focuses on marketing for contractors, Realtors, landlords and pretty much anyone involved with real estate. Because of my third company, my construction companies are doing OK right now while most contractors and builders are dying on the vine.  

Since I have work, many subcontractors are calling me daily pleading for some of it. The natural thing for me to do is to go with the guys who are willing to do it for less and make more profit for myself. I'm not ashamed of that, in fact, I love getting good deals, but right now, I've got guys so desperate that they're willing to do it almost at a loss. While the capitalist in me sees that as just more profit, the man in me knows there's a limit and a point where I can't sink.  

I won't let someone do the work for so low of a price to where I know it's self-destructive for them. These are good guys who do good work who just happen to be in a very tough spot. To take advantage of them is wrong.

That's what the UFC has sunk to doing now. Roger Huerta is a prime example. They won't let him fight his last contracted fight until he signs an extension with them. He can't go anywhere else until this current contract is completed either (ask Randy). So they have put him in the spot where he either has to take their poor offer with ever-increasing demands or he can't fight professionally anymore. That is what becoming the only real game in town does to an organization.  

Do you really think he's been training and fighting for all these years to make it to the top, almost get a title shot, and then decide to throw it all on hold to pursue modeling and acting??? No way you have to strike while the iron is hot, and he knows that.  

After he's done fighting for sure. After he's made a name for himself with serious marketability sure. After he's become a champ and cemented his fight legacy sure.  

Not now, though. He doesn't want to stop fighting yet, but walking away from his fight career and the UFC appears to be the lesser of two evils for him.

This is only going to continue to get worse until athletes decide that they don't really want to fight in MMA because their options are slim, and they can't do well in the UFC.

Remember what Brock cited as the reason he went into the WWE? He couldn't make any real money in MMA then. I'm afraid that if Dana has his way, athletes will go back to viewing MMA this way. Then the sport will decline, as it declines we'll lose interest, as we lose interest then sponsors, even more athletes, casual fans, everyone will begin to leave and MMA could be in a downward spiral.  

Some of you might think, "No way. No matter what happens MMA is here to stay the way it is now."

That's what several of my business associates thought about the housing market. One of them bought a brand new Ferrari F430 Spyder in '05. In '08, he lost his personal home and is homeless now. He used to have over a million dollars in cash in the bank. That's how fast tides CAN change in any industry, MMA included.

The best way to avoid this, in my opinion, is to support other fight promotions, give them the power to acquire good fighters, and make the UFC actually have to woo the fighters over with good pay, good terms, good benefits, and RESPECT. Randy had it right when he decided to take a stand against the UFC, but unfortunately no one else had the balls to stand beside him and he couldn't do it alone.

Buy the Jan 24th Affliction card, encourage your friends to watch it, especially one's who are new to MMA or only know the UFC. This is the fuel for our sport.

If we take this a little serious now it will never become serious later.  We need to be the catalyst because just like Randy, a handful of fighters can't do it alone. Only our $$$ will make a difference to the Danas and the Shaws.

Thanks for reading the entire rant. I hope you enjoyed it, and take it to heart.