There is no denying that over the past three weeks or so, the “mainstream media” finally has turned its attention on the sport of MMA. To be more specific, the UFC itself has been ushered in the mainstream spotlight, not so much MMA in general, but that is beyond the scope of this post. During all the frenzied excitement that came over the MMA world regarding finally getting mainstream media recognition, I personally couldn’t help but stop and think one thing: is mainstream media attention really what we want for MMA? Is being generally accepted and welcomed by the mainstream media and US sporting fans something that is good for the sport of MMA? The more I’ve thought about it, the more I’m not so sure it is.
Several months ago, CBSportsline started the movement by expanding the “Boxing” section of their website to be “Boxing and Mixed Martial Arts.” The UFC has been in talks with HBO for most of 2007 trying to get and television deal in place. This past month, ESPN finally got on board and feature then champion Chuck Liddell on the cover of ESPN The Magazine and announced a media partnership with Sherdog.com to feature MMA content on ESPN.com. Colin Cowherd, host of “The Herd” show on ESPNRadio has been consistently featuring MMA discussion on his show. Not wanting to be left behind, Sports Illustrated featured a cover story on the UFC after their UFC 69 event in Houston, Texas. All this attention was focused solely on the UFC and primarily on the Light Heavyweight title match at UFC 71 between Chuck Liddell and Quinton Jackson.
Since the completion of UFC 71 and the “changing of the guard” in the Light Heavyweight division, the reaction has been mixed in the mainstream media regarding MMA. There are quite a few media outlets complaining that the title fight lasted less than two minutes and didn’t live up to the hype — hype they helped create themselves. Other media outlets are singing the praises of MMA, saying they appreciate seeing a fight that actually ends in a KO and seeing five or more fights that were exciting fights to watch.
Here are my thoughts on why I’m not sure all this newfound attention is necessarily a good thing for MMA. To be perfectly on honest, the sport of MMA was doing completely fine without the mainstream attention. The UFC was doing better as a company than they ever had in the past; pay-per-view buys were at an all time high, fighters were being paid more than ever before for fights and sponsorship, and many new leagues like the IFL, Bodog, and EliteXC were formed and succeeding. The sport was doing perfectly fine being supported solely by “MMA fans,” not “sports” fans, but fans of the sport of MMA.
With the mainstream attention, the sport will also draw the mainstream crowd. That means there are going to be tons of new “fans” drawn to the sport, simply because its the “thing to do” and they don’t want to be ignorant of a mainstream sport. US sports fans tend to pretend that they are “experts” on all the popular sports. We are going to attract those fans that hang out at the sports bar every night and discuss the NFL and MLB ad naseum, pretending that they know what they are talking about when in actuality they really don’t have a clue. We are already starting to see some of that creeping into MMA more-and-more, as is evidenced by many of the MMA forums and websites popping up every day around the internet.
Mixed Martial Arts survived for years without any mainstream attention and that is what made the sport unique and exciting. True long-time MMA fans kept the sport going buy buying pay-per-view events, attending shows, and mostly by contributing to a thriving online “MMA sub-culture community.” As MMA fans, we knew our sport inside-and-out, and MMA was just that — it was OUR sport. We knew the sport, we knew the techniques, we knew the fight teams, we knew the fighters and could recite all the fighters records and past fights from memory. There was a certain sense of “ownership” over the sport, and my feeling is that we may lose that. When MMA is popular to the point that a majority of sports fans know about it and follow it, MMA will become just like any other major sports league in the US. Sure, I and a lot of other hardcore MMA fans will still follow the sport just like we always have, but it will be different; we will no longer have to explain exactly what the sport is to our family and friends and try to explain why the sport is so great and better than any other combat sport in existence.
Maybe all of this is just misguided and misplaced worry and I’m just feeling a little nostalgic after all this mainstream media frenzy. Maybe I just am worried about “losing” this sport and our little MMA community “fan-club” to the general public and what they might do to it. Maybe I’m just concerned that, at least here in the US, as the UFC goes, so goes MMA. The UFC is a business and they clearly are running it as such and trying their hardest to follow the money, no matter where it might take them. I don’t want to be sitting here two years down the road looking back at some bastardized version of MMA and wondering what happened to the sport we all love.
I know this was a rather lengthy editorial, and I encourage your discussion on this topic, so please leave your comments both here and in the forums.
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i can completely agree with you that the media coverage and hype of the sport can comprimise the sport’s true intensions in a sense that the more people it attracts, the more ignorant assh*les who only want to see someone get their teeth knocked out will jump on the bandwagon. these are the jerks who will attend a live event, and turn it into a boo fest. i hate booers. really, if you’re booing a fighter whether you’re not going for him or you just plain don’t RECOGNIZE him (crocop, rampage), not only are you disrespecting the fighter, you’re disrespecting the sport. and thats what you can expect if the ufc keeps over promoting themselves. hey, ill boo o.j. simpson if he ever steps in the ring, or if they dig up hitlers corpse and dangle it on marionette strings to fight someone, yea ill boo him too. i cant complain enough about booers, f*ck you guys. also while mma has always catered to predominatly a male demographic, you notice more and more woman attending these events and thats fine, but as dr j put it, its seems that all the attention the sport is attracting, it is, to some, becoming a fad, and thats how some of these women (like celebrities) are going about it. ask one of the bimbos at a ufc event if they know who tito ortiz or chuck liddell is. im hoping most of them know. then ask them if they know who fedor emilananko, wanderlei silva, ha! randy coutoure is. anyways people who are new to the sport, but recognize it as a competitive art, are what the sport really needs. finally all these people should stick to watching football or basweball.its simple enough for them to follow yet acting like a complete jackass at those events are commonplace and probably encouraged. was the complexity of watching cars go in circles on a track too much for their brains to comprehend? anyways thanx for letting me rant. if i see paris hilton at a ufc fight, then guys, we have a problem.