UFC Should Kick It Up a Notch on Ring Entrances

The UFC is the unquestionable lord of the MMA ring. So I ask you...why can't they be a force for good, rather than evil? Benevolence, rather than tyranny? 

If you're anticipating a red-meat screed about fighter pay or a polemic about monoplies, I am here to disappoint you. I only discuss the hard-hitting issues. That's right. The Elephant in the Room can't hide from me. Come into the light, Dumbo. Today the talk is about ring entrances.

Because if I have to watch one more ring entrance where the DMX or late-90s techno song comes over the PA system while the guy strides to the ring wearing Ed Hardy knockoffs and his best dogface mug, I am going to FLIP OUT!

I may have overstated that. I may not flip out. But I miss the old showmanship. I miss Pride. I miss Tito Ortiz at UFC 50. Hell, I miss Barncat McCrory and that thunder metal he used to come out to. 

Old-school ring entrances, with their pyrotechnics and metal gangplanks and over-the-top soundtracks, consistently delivered the goose prickles. Yeah, yeah, I know it's a lot like pro wrestling. But if you're using ring entrances to help you differentiate the two things, then I don't know what I can tell you. Does a ring entrance somehow make an MMA fight less real?

Even those hardcore types who insist on insisting that ring entrances are irrelevant because they don't have any bearing on the fight still can and should admit that a good ring entrance helps a fighter establish his personality (Wanderlei Silva, Royce Gracie and Jacare Souza in Pride all come to mind). It also cranks up a notch or three the volume knob of entertainment, which last I checked was the purpose of the business.

Zuffa-owned Strikeforce does it. Pride made it a science. Why can't the UFC do it?

If you want to talk ring entrance showmanship among the current UFC crop, the Diaz brothers do it pretty well, as does Matt Hughes. Tom Lawlor, "Mayhem" Miller and a few others are certainly gifted showmen, and it shows in the thought and effort they puts into their walkouts.

But these entrances are good almost in spite of themselves, as the fighter charisma carries the entrance, not the entrance itself or any larger institutional thought or investment.

So how do you turn it around? I know where you start. You start with Lenne Hardt.

UFC 144 in Japan would have been a great time to bring back Pride's exuberant ring announcer, but UFC President Dana White said he didn't want to evoke Pride too much. OK, fair enough. Even though I'm not entirely sure why that would be the case since there really isn't a great deal of competition between the two anymore now that Pride is just a bunch of ashes in an empty petroleum jelly jar somewhere. Why not use nostalgia to your advantage to win a few hearts and minds, and make a better show in the process?

And even if it's not Hardt, you could get somebody to do the same thing. You could create your own UFC ring entrance concept. The UFC is certainly creative enough in other areas. Why is it not in the area that introduces its fighters to viewers?