UFC: 5 Reasons Why This Decade Will Be the UFC's Finest Hour

The UFC has enjoyed immense success since Zuffa purchased the company in 2001 but the previous milestones the company has gone through in the last 10 years will pale in comparison to will happen in the current decade.

It will be the UFC's finest hour.

Why? There are five distinct reasons that put the UFC in a position to expand further and grow larger than anyone (besides perhaps UFC president Dana White) could have imagined back in 2001.

What are these reasons and why are they going to guarantee the UFC's success? Read and find out!

The FOX Deal

The UFC's recent deal with the FOX network will be the single greatest catalyst for the UFC's growth this decade.

Simply put, the UFC on FOX will put the product and the brand in millions more homes across the country and therefore dramatically increase its popularity.

If you have a television, you will be able watch without having to pay.

The FOX deal has consequence that will also be a boon to the UFC's progress in this decade which is none other than...

Increased Sponsorship Opportunities

As MMAjunkie.com noted in a recent article, what's more important than the ratings that UFC on FOX receives are the ad buys!

Many companies will seek to put commercials on the broadcast and even more will want to place their brand inside the UFC's Octagon to be associated with the fastest growing, most pure and exciting sport that there is.

Being involved with prestigious brands will only help the UFC gain even more mainstream recognition and, more importantly, the acceptance of society as a whole.

Aggressive International Expansion

Because fighting is intrinsic to humans all over the world, it makes sense that the sport of fighting would be able to achieve popularity wherever it went.

Fighting is part of humanity and of every culture. Because of this, the UFC has the potential to successfully expand to any country it chooses.

A European doesn't know anything about baseball or American football and doesn't want to know; such sports rarely have any appeal over there or in most places outside of the United States.

This truth has been demonstrated by the UFC's successful ventures to Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.

And the UFC, according to MMAjunkie.com, is planning another excursion to Brazil in a 100,000 seat venue as well as a long-awaited return to Japan.

The UFC will continue to grow on an international scale until it surpasses all other sports (with perhaps the exception of soccer) in popularity.

The Changing Media World

Twitter has changed the way the world, specifically the sports world, works.

Now athletes can get into direct contact with their sport's audience and build a loyal fanbase that can follow them even after their career is over and fans can get directly involved with the athletes that they adore.

No sports organization has made better use of twitter and social media in general than the UFC. Dana White checks his twitter regularly during events and the UFC even awards monetary bonuses to the most active fighters on twitter.

As the decade goes on and social media becomes even more important, the UFC's efforts in that department will pay larger and larger dividends.

Aside from Twitter, the traditional media world may change thanks to ESPN's recent snub of UFC president Dana White. A full article about it can be read here. Long story short, large networks like ESPN may end up losing to the likes of online sports media platforms like Bleacher Report.

The Next Generation of Mixed Martial Artists Is Arriving

Early in the sport's history, most fighters were masters of one discipline of fighting and had a moderate understanding of the others.

The next generation of fighters has a new doctrine: excel at everything. The new breed of fighters will be able to do it all, wrestle, box, kick, and grapple with the best of them.

What does this mean for the future of the UFC?

More entertaining fights which will help the UFC's efforts to increase its popularity; a television deal, international expansion, new sponsors, and Twitter can't help the UFC if the fighters are perceived as "lay and pray" artists or "boring" point fighters.

The fighters have always driven the sport and this decade will be no different; the sheer fighting ability and excitement of the new generation of fighters will captivate audiences across the world and make the UFC more grand than people thought possible.

Matt Saccaro is a Bleacher Report featured columnist and avid fan of MMA. For more articles like this and for 140-character insights into MMA, follow @mattsaccaro.