Velasquez vs. Dos Santos: Great Fight Won't Make MMA Mainstream

While boxing’s most recognizable name fights tonight (as always) on pay-per-view, mixed martial arts looks to grow its brand with a big-name free-TV match. UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez defends his title in a nationally-televised showdown with Junior Dos Santos.

MMA is putting its best foot forward in what should be an extremely well-matched contest between two of its highest-profile fighters. Unfortunately for UFC and the sport at large, it faces an extreme uphill battle in its transition from niche attraction to mainstream sport status.

In the first place, the very enterprise of MMA as a combat sport turns off a significant portion of fans, even those who tolerate or embrace the violence of more traditional sports like football and hockey. The fact that causing harm to the opponent is a goal rather than a means will always preclude a certain percentage of fans who enjoy other sports from embracing UFC.

That same antipathy is a crucial part of the decline of boxing as a major sport. While other factors—the move to PPV exclusivity, the lack of recent big-name Americans—have lowered boxing’s profile, a substantial portion of the problem is that the once-revered fight game can’t excuse its brutality in the same way other sports can.

MMA isn’t helped any by the steep learning curve it presents for a novice fan. The very complexity that aficionados applaud—the balance between strikers and grapplers, the enormous variety of legal moves—means that most new arrivals will take a long time to get up to speed and appreciate the action they’re watching.

Putting an intense, highly competitive fight on national television is a great move for MMA, but the sport faces a very long road to mainstream recognition, if it ever gets there. No matter how good tonight’s bout is, it will only represent one step in the right direction.