Mixed Martial Arts Is a Sport. UFC Is Not.

Headline catch your attention?  Good.  Now before you judge, I don't mean that the UFC do not have athletes or promote MMA (the sport).  But the UFC is not a sport, it is a promotion.  Just like Don King Productions, Top Rank, Golden Boy, or Main Events.  A promotion that has done very well for itself.  But there are other promotions around the world.  You may have heard of a few of them (Strikeforce, DREAM, M-1, King of the Cage, etc.) or not.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has done a great job at promoting themselves.  They have built their "brand" and lots of people pay $55 a month for a pay-per-view.  For that $55, a viewer usually get to watch five live fights spread out over three hours.  That is correct!  Three hours of pay-per-view.  Good deal, right?

A quick look back at UFC 101.  The PPV broadcast featured five fights with a total of 52 minutes, 46 seconds of fighting action.  The highlights featured B.J. Penn destroy Kenny Florian for three and a half rounds before finally putting him out of his misery.  Anderson Silva, who some consider the best fighter in the world, gave us 3:23 of cage time before knocking out Ultimate Fighter TV star Forrest Griffin with one jab.  A jab thrown while stepping away.  Griffin was so embarrassed by his performance that once upright and alert, he sprinted to the locker room.

What else did a viewer get to see during the other two hours of the broadcast you ask?  Commercials of course!  I'm not going to list them for many reasons.

So for $55 you got to see about 53 minutes of fighting.  The math isn't hard here.  That is about a $1 per minute.

One example you say.  Ok, let's look back at UFC 98.  Your $55 got you 54 minutes, 34 seconds of cage action there.  Top fighters like Lyota Machida, Matt Hughes, Drew McFedries, Chael Sonnen, and Frankie Edgar were all victorious on this card.  Three solid fighters, one possibly great fighter, and one fighter who was great.  Worth $55 and two hours of commercials?

But the UFC have done so much for the sport you say?  Yes, they have done many good things for MMA.  Bringing the sport to cable television via The Ultimate Fighter reality show was good.  You can also find MMA information on ESPN.com and highlights on SportCenter.  That is because of the UFC, right?  Actually, ESPN partnered with Sherdog.com quite awhile back.  Sherdog?  Dana White hates Sherdog!  Banned them from reporting live video at weigh-in events so they could do that exclusively themselves.

The UFC is expanding their brand to England, Germany, Australia, Mexico.  For the first time, UFC will appear in these countries they tell us!  Um, I think all of these countries has seen MMA before.  They have not been blessed by half-rate pay-per-view cards that are broadcast on cable television by tape-delay in the United States.  But it's the UFC...

Now before you start sending me hate mail or posting nasty comments please remember that I am a huge mixed martial arts/combat sports fan.  I watch fights all the time and will watch UFC 102 tonight.  Whether it is on cable television (ESPN, SpikeTV, HDNet, Versus, Showtime, HBO, etc.) or the internet, I like watching fights.  But I will not give Dana White and his promotion $55 or $45 or $5 to watch their brand with a few fights squeezed in-between.