15 Reasons Casual Sports Fans Should Give MMA a Chance

Not everyone is a serious sports fan.  Some people watch them for relaxing entertainment and some to have something to talk about with their friends.

Such fans can enjoy watching thing like the Super Bowl,but they aren't about to make a fantasy football team or look for breaking news on their favorite players.  They just enjoy watching physically gifted people do things that most regular people can't.

MMA is starting to peek through to the casual sports fans, in part because of social media and also because of a network deal and it is probably only a matter of time until it is accepted by most of them.

Here are 15 reasons casual sports fans should give MMA a chance.

Anything Can Happen at Any Moment

In football, if there are 40 seconds on the clock and one team is down by three touchdowns, everyone knows they are going to lose.

In basketball, if there are 15 seconds on the clock and a team is down by eight points, the clock is just run out because it is over.

In MMA, it means that somebody could get submitted or knocked out.  Just because someone has won most of the fight doesn't mean they are going to win.  

As shown in the photo above, Chael Sonnen was half a round away from beating Anderson Silva and winning the middleweight title, when the champion slapped a triangle choke on him and won.

There was less than two minutes in the fifth round.

That means that Silva had lost over 23 minutes of the fight and roughly a little over 90 percent of the fight. In any other sport, if that was the case, Silva would never have had his hand raised.

No Lockouts

It looks like the NBA lockout is over.  Finally, after almost losing a full season of the sport, it seems like the players and the owners were able to sit down and work together to find a way to make a deal.

Fans were forced to watch as millionaires fought over percentage points and quibbled over amount of revenue given to each side.

In this economy, that might have been a slap in the face.

And in MMA, it doesn't happen.

For better or worse, fighters don't have a union and since there are no teams, every fighter is out for themselves.  If one fighter feels he isn't being paid enough, he can negotiate with a promoter, but others won't follow his lead.

That means that fans won't have to wait to see the sport they love be postponed while its key players fight, metaphorically speaking, over the almighty dollar.

No Seasons

Unlike football, basketball or almost any other sport, MMA doesn't have a down time.

There is no set date when training starts because fighters should always be training.  No one gets to take time off because if they do, another person will keep going so that they can take that top spot as the best in the world.

MMA fans may not get to see their sport every week, but they do get to see it 12 months a year.  Knowing that there is always a matchup to look forward to is something most fans can't do.

There are plenty of sports fans who anxiously count down the days until their sport returns to TV.  

MMA, luckily, isn't one of them.

One of the Most International Sports in the World

Soccer comes closest to this.  

When the World Cup takes place, most people all around the globe take notice and cheer their teams on.

North America has never really been caught up in this as much, though, and so it is one continent away from being a truly international sport.

But everyone knows what fighting is, and even if a fan doesn't know the technical aspects of each move or submission, getting to see someone knock out or submit another human being still sends a bolt of electricity through a crowd.

Rules need to be explained in most sports.  The rules for hockey and even curling need to be mentioned to new fans, as there are limitations on what those competing in the sport can do.

However, anyone in the world can be put in front of a TV which has MMA on and inherently know what is going on.  Some of the moves and techniques might be new to them, but the idea is as old as humanity itself.

And when someone gets knocked out, no one needs to translate it.

Almost Anyone Can Do It

You can't get into football unless you are big-boned and probably weigh over 200 pounds.

You have a good chance of not being able to play basketball if you measure less than six feet.

The same thing applies for most sports.  Unless you were born with the right genetics, there is no need to apply to play at the top level.  It just isn't going to happen.

In MMA, fighters can be without six-packs, and range all the way from 125 pounds and 5'4" to 265 pounds and 6'5".  It is a sport that almost anyone with four functioning limbs can do.

And sometimes combatants don't even need that.

MMA is a sport that a fan can go from being on the couch and watching to being an active participant in a matter of months.

And with enough effort, that fan can even become a world champion.

In contrast, the only way most fans will win at football is by winning their fantasy league.

Ring Card Girls

Is this a shameless slide to show half-naked women?

You bet.

Most sports have cheerleaders who walk around in skimpy outfits.

The picture above is a better explanation of this than anything I could write.

Besides, most of you probably aren't even reading this.

One Champ Per Division and They Hold the Belt Until Beaten

The team that wins the Super Bowl last year doesn't immediately get to play for it this year.  Just because they proved they were the best doesn't mean they get to jump over other teams.  They have to prove that they are the best all over again if they want to win the Super Bowl again.

In MMA, the champ who wins the belt gets to keep it until someone takes it from him with a victory.  That means that if a fighter beat the best in the world in 2009, he will be the best in the world going into 2010 until someone can prove otherwise.

That means that fans can always know who the best is.  There is no guessing and no effort that needs to be put in to seeing who might be the best in 2010.  It's already out there.

The only question fans have to ask is if the same fighter will hold that spot by the end of the year.

There Are No Teams to Break Down

From point guard to quarterback, teams need to be broken down from their defense to their offense and depending on the sport, special teams sometimes.

MMA is simple.  

Who are the players?  These two guys.

What is their offensive and defensive capabilities?  What they have shown in their fights.

How impressive do they match up in these categories? Just compare wins and losses and the amount of knockouts and submissions to the amount of times they have been knocked out or submitted.

Just to analyze one team might take as much effort as it would to analyze one entire fight card for MMA.

Time that could be spent doing other things.

Interesting Personalities

Every sport has players with strange and funky quirks about them.

MMA has a few more than others.

This might have to do with the sport itself.  Most don't ask their participants to go into a cage and then proceed to be punched in the face by another human being.  In fact, it is generally discouraged in some and penalized in others.

In a sport where men routinely get there brains scrambled by other men, there has to be a little bit of craziness present; otherwise, they would be too sane to get into the sport in the first place.

From fighters like Nick Diaz to Quinton Jackson, MMA has its stars who sometimes make fans scratch their heads.

But it makes for good TV.

The Best Fights Get Made on the Top Level

This happens with most sports, but not with boxing and since casual fans might have to choose on a Saturday night between the two, MMA usually wins.

That isn't to say that boxing isn't worth watching or that the sport is dull, but the best fights don't always get made and when they do they are routinely on premium cable or pay-per-view.

Most of MMA's top events are pay-per-view as well, but the cards are stacked, usually shown at the local pub, and there are times when free fights are seen on TV and they usually have great fights as well.

Casual fans will most likely never turn on one card without at least getting one spectacular fight or finish.

It isn't a promise, but it is a very good guarantee.

Especially since most events have delivered in the past.

MMA Is a Sport Meant to Be Watched with a Group

Because MMA has so many pay-per-views, it is either watched at home by a group of friends who split the cost or in a pub with fans crowding the place to capacity.

Either way, a sport is more electric when watched with others than when watched alone.  Fans feed off each other and the more people in an area, the more that come together, the more that the event will feel exciting and like a big event.

Plus, it is a way to make memories with friends and even find new ones who were once strangers.  Love of great fights makes fast friends out of anyone.

Whether watching from home, pub or bar, fights just seem to get bigger and more exciting when seen in groups.

And after experiencing fight night that way, it's hard to go back to seeing them alone.

Usually on Saturday

Not everyone has the traditional Saturday-Sunday weekend, but most do.   That means that most of the fights end up in the middle of the weekend.

Unlike Sunday or Monday night football, most fans can drink to their hearts content on Saturday night because even if they get a hangover, they can sleep it off on Sunday.

If the fights go late or if they scream their voice hoarse?  No problem, they can relax and catch up on the needed sleep the next day.

It might not be the most ideal date for all Americans, since some have to work jobs in retail or other professions that involve night shifts or Saturdays, but most of the American economy is run on a 9-5, Monday-Friday business model.

That makes having fights on Saturday not only lucrative, but healthy for the fans who want to stay up and see them.

Changes Constantly

Fights aren't the only thing that change in MMA quickly.  A dominant win or a definitive loss can change the landscape of an entire weight division and even sometimes the pound-for-pound list.

A fighter can go from being in the middle of the pack to being near the top of the heap with an emphatic knockout or a rare submission that isn't seen every day.

It makes it so that MMA stats and rankings need to be constantly reevaluated.

It means that fans will usually see new faces in the sport every year and new fighters on the posters.

It also means that the same matchups and styles will not be seen every time out.

Their Are Always New Prospects

In other sports such as football or baseball, fans are always looking for the next blue-chip prospect who is in high school or college.  The problem is that some of these players might decide to not go on to do something outside of the sport.

That means years of waiting will be wasted by fans who were hoping to see those young men take center stage in whatever league or team they hoped they might get drafted to.

In MMA, any prospect that shows up on fans' radar is already a professional fighter.  That means that there is no chance that the fighter might switch sports, but that he might just fail to live up to expectations.

That is part of the danger fans commit to when they start picking prospects as future champions, but MMA fans will spend less time investing in fighters who are years away from being in the big picture than other sports fans.

The Sport Is Continuing to Grow

The UFC just made it onto the FOX network.

MMA is still illegal in New York.

And many different foreign nations like Germany have set up roadblocks for the sport because of bias or lack of information.

The sport is still an infant and even though it is growing fast, it has room to get bigger.

The best part of being a fan is knowing that you get to see it grow and growing with it.  

It is something that most established sports haven't done in decades and something that most fans won't get to experience with them.

And it's just another way that MMA is different from all the rest.