Has the Crossover Appeal of MMA Been Overestimated?

There’s cause for concern in the world of MMA. Maybe not outright panic, but definitely concern.

Fox ratings are on the decline, despite the product improving in its most recent incarnation.

Regardless of how one argues to the contrary, the deal to spread the UFC across Fox, FX, and Fuel TV hasn’t been an overwhelming success. Viewership has decreased, and the biggest promotion in the sport isn’t being seen as much as it was when everything was on one network in the Spike era.

That’s not saying it will never get there or that it’s as dire as many think it is, but it’s been a clear step back for a sport that hasn’t seen a notable one in well over five years.

Strikeforce is dying to the point that it no longer feels like can’t-miss television, and no UFC fighters seem willing to go there and take a fight. Unless that happens, it’s not likely to be saved.

Other promotions—aside from Bellator, which is on the rise thanks to an interesting format, an upcoming move of their own to Spike and a reality show of their own when they get there—aren’t even worth talking about.

It begs the question: Has the crossover appeal of MMA been overestimated?

Sure, everyone felt like the UFC getting on the Fox family of networks would cause an immediate explosion in popularity.

The fact that Ronda Rousey is as stunning as she is talented and Gilbert Melendez, until his uninspired win over Josh Thomson, was arguably the best 155 pounder alive, should have been enough to make people curious about Strikeforce.

Really, the sport itself is so exciting it’s hard to see how people wouldn’t want to watch it.

Yet they don’t, and that could be for any number of reasons.

The influence of the UFC is spread too thin. The sport hasn’t grown to the point that people will follow it across three platforms, particularly when such unfortunate naming conventions like “UFC on FUEL TV 3” are being used. Even the hardest of hardcores can’t remember who’s headlining when there are four or five similarly-named events happening over two months, and casual observers are just ignoring it completely.

Strikeforce, never one to draw casual eyes anyway, has nothing to offer now. They’ve been stripped of all but two heavyweights, and nobody aside from Rousey seems interested in promoting for them. Melendez openly wants out, and the likes of Luke Rockhold and Gegard Mousasi aren’t exactly born salesmen. As a result, pretty much no one cares what’s happening with Zuffa’s other marquee attraction.

Then again, maybe the whole sport just isn’t for everyone.

Ignore for a minute that there are more events now than ever before. Ignore that they may be poorly named or watered down in terms of quality. At the end of the day, has the idea of two people punching each other in the face or choking one another unconscious just been overestimated in its appeal?

Try to see it from the eyes of someone who isn’t a fan. If you’re reading this, chances are the inherent violence of the game is understood. Try to see it as someone who doesn’t get that, who only sees two men in a cage doing harm to one another.

That’s not something everyone is comfortable with, especially not those who don’t actually understand the complexity of what they’re watching and see only deep cuts and joints bending the wrong way.

The worst part about that? There simply isn’t a way to fix it. Some people don’t want to watch a combat sport. Period.

Not on pay-per-view, not on free television, not every week, not once a year. Not in a box, not with a fox, not in a house, not with a mouse. Not here or there or anywhere.

They’re just not interested.

So sure, the MMA world can sit around and dissect every detail of the UFC’s new television partnership or the bizarre path of Strikeforce through 2012. Dana White can offer up explanations and rhetoric in response. Fans can discuss where the sport is headed, just as they always have.

But you know what? Maybe the biggest point in all of this is that some people just don’t want to watch a fistfight, and there isn't much that's going to change that.