Mixed Martial Arts: From Freak Show to Mainstream Sport?
August 25, 2008 by stergeron
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Mike Calimbas. If you would like to submit your own piece to Ploomy, Click Here.
When some people think of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), the first thought that comes to mind conjures up images of violence and ‘human cockfighting’ ala John McCain 1995.
What those people fail to realize is that with the grassroots efforts of promoters, legislators, fans, and fighters alike, MMA has become one the fastest growing sports in the world today.
The signs are everywhere. Think boxing and follow the dollars. Gary Shaw, one of the preeminent boxing promoters of his time is now consulting EliteXC, the home of street fight legend Kimbo Slice. Donald Trump is now co-investing in MMA in with Tom Atencio’s Affliction. And Floyd Mayweather, the consensus baddest pound-for-pound boxer on the planet, has now retired from boxing. Rumor has it that he’s getting involved in a different combat sport now…
So how is MMA rising from blood sport to mainstream? A few different reasons:
- The foresight of Dana White and the Fertittas of Station Casino fame to invest in a taboo event for the long-term. In 2001, they bought the struggling UFC when it was banned on PPV, illegal in 43 states, and in danger of folding altogether. Zuffa’s first event sold less than 4,000 tickets and did $215k out of the gate. In 2008 so far, the UFC has made over $20 million at the gate and over $125 million in PPV buys. This is all after Zuffa sunk $40 million in operating losses with the UFC while legitimizing the sport to fans and governing bodies alike.
- Spike TV. Their decision to co-invest with the UFC in reality television brought about “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2005. The exciting finale of that first season, Stephen Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin, drew an impressive 1.9 rating and was the singular moment to bring MMA into the public eye.
- Continued efforts by new investors. Yes, the UFC is the flagship of MMA much like the NFL is for professional football. Yet without the interest of other organizations to invest in the sport, MMA may have been a flash in the pan. With promotions such as Affliction, EliteXC, and Dream coming into existence, Mixed Martial Arts is growing as a legitimate sport and not just one brand. As a result, fighters have options on organizations to work for, new distribution and revenue channels beyond the Pay-Per-View model are flourishing, and MMA is seeing increased visibility and profitability at the local and regional levels as well.
So what is the future of the MMA?
MMA has already made its network debut nationally with EliteXC on CBS, dominating the interest of the coveted 19-34 male category. Industry leader UFC and perhaps other organizations are certain to follow with network television deals. Interest from television sports giant ESPN further legitimizes MMA.
Likewise, the mainstream press has already shown interest. You’ve seen Kimbo on the cover of ESPN, Dana White in Muscle & Fitness, and so much more. Rachelle Leah, the oh-so-hot UFC ring girl, is posing nude for an upcoming edition of Playboy. And many from Jim Rome to John McCain are now prostelyzing MMA as a legitimate sport to the masses.
As the visibility and success of these fight promotions increase, so will the quality the fights themselves. This is no longer “bar room brawling.” Olympians such as Matt Lindland, Hidehiko Yoshida, and Rulon Gardner have already tried their hand in MMA. Looking forward, elite athletes from this year’s Olympic Games will assuredly make the jump from Beijing to an MMA training camp as well.
So what do YOU think? Will MMA join the ranks of boxing and football as a mainstream sport or fade back into obscurity?
About the Author
Mike Calimbas has been following Mixed Martial Arts since 1993. He has been training in martial arts for 12 years and is a BJJ blue belt under Eric Williams of Elite MMA in Houston, TX. Mike has also served as an official for amateur TX MMA event Lonestar Beatdown. In his very little spare time, Mike hits on drunk women and sits by the pool with the DNC. For more info on Mike and the rest of the ninjas, go to dncworldwide.com.
photography by LeeBrimelow
I’m sorry, but MMA is frankly not a legitimate sport in my book. Sure boxing married the WWF and had a baby name MMA, but it’s a joke. The fans are the same people who go to Nascar with their KFC buckets and cheer at monster truck rallies.
I think it represents everything that is wrong with American sport. It’s one step closer to that movie ‘Running Man’ or that video game ‘Smash TV.’ The combatants are joke characters for the most part and in real life have very little redeeming qualities. I have nothing against the people who watch this bloodbath and cheer it on, but to bring your kids….c’mon. Go watch ‘Faces of Death’ or spend sometime at an emergency hospital to get your kicks. I don’t know who is more messed up, the athletes (who were all troubled kids, got picked on, are from divorced parents) or the fans (who were all troubled kids, got picked on, are from divorced parents).
andrew m.- just to let you know ,i do not watch nascar or monster trucks.I am a well educated doctor who teaches and trains people in mma.It is one of the most real sporting events and i am sorry you do not appreciate its uniqueness.
I f you did more research you would find a large number of college grads that participate in the sport. yes i do let my kids watch it and they have also trained but from a self defense position.
i am sorry you do not like the sport and maybe rythmic dance is more your style but try taking some jiu jitsu classes and you will be hooked.
Well,
I guess if you want to stereotype mma as such you are definitely entitled to your own opinion. Lets look at it from another angle. I am a pro fighter. My parents are still married. I was never picked on… ever. I have a college degree, and had several semesters on the deans list. I have never been arrested. I also hate KFC lol. I do agree that this sport should like most other violent movies, sports, and the news be monitored from small childrens viewing. There are bad people involved in every organized ANYTHING in the world. Not just mixed martial arts. So why pick on mma? It is a great sport that any regular joe can attempt. You dont’t have to be 6 foot 9 to do it. It gives another chance for an athlete that has different attributes to be in the spotlight. If your going to hate it then please respect it, and realize that it is a melting pot of different personalities, sizes, races, religions, countries, and upbringings. We don’t ask you to love our sport, but just give it the respect it deserves.
Just like your pop culture references, your frame of mind is also stuck in the past. The MMA of old (no holds barred, no weight classes, etc.) has long been replaced. MMA is a growing sport that has had it’s fair share of issues but has continued to evolve into a SPORT that people from all demographics and socio-economic backgrounds can enjoy.
I have to assume from your gross generalization of MMA fans as Nascar fans and fast food enthusiasts as well as your idea that all fighters are former delinquents that you’ve been living under a rock for the past 15 years. I’m sorry the list of jobs held by fighters in the past meet your minimum qualifactions for respectable moral fiber. After all, who would dare look up to a police officer or fire fighter, a soldier who has fought for your freedom, men with degrees from Ivy League schools, people with fancy letters like M.D. or ph.D after their names and even a high school math teacher! You must watch the more admirable athletes in the NFL (oops), NBA (not there), NHL (please. . .) or MLB (nahhh). . .unless you’re focusing on golf (no drunks or wife beaters there).
Of course, you can’t trust me. . .I’m just a poor, uneducated lonely waste of a man with chicken grease on my hands that society gave up on years ago.
I’m sorry im a little shocked that someone who tries to come off as being so educated can miss the whole point of this sport. I also like how you lable us all as basic toothless hicks with messed up and troubled lives. Well lets take a look at something for a number of years now the divorce rate has floated around the 4% mark. Now you factor in the population of this country which is some place north of 300 million and you have a lot of kids coming from single family homes. Now you also say something about troubled kids and ones who got picked on. Well last time i checked there isn’t a human alive today who hasn’t been troubled at some point in their life or who has been picked on for something in their life. So please use some better information to back up your points here.
I also like how you pointed out that the people who watch the MMA events are as you said KFC eating NASCAR loving Monster Truck fans. Wow are you really saying that MMA is bad for American sports cause as you see it the people look like the same type that cheer for Monster Trucks and NASCAR and who eat KFC? Well dam son you might as well throw Baseball, Football, and Basketball into that category. While we are at it lets just throw any sport in the history of this country into that same group cause they also have KFC eating people in the mix. Hell why not the whole world since KFC is in almost every country in the world as well as China. I guess you are going to say that a sport like MMA which has a following in China, Japan and a host of other countrys is whats wrong with American Sports as well?
So in the future if you think about making a comment on something please know it and understand it before you lable it. Short of that you are just another person who speaks out the end he sits on. As a whole the MMA community is a lot better for the youth than those sports like boxing or football where their injury rates are much higher. Read a medical study about youth boxing and football and how badly injured the kids are from those sports. Then take a look at wrestling compaired to a principal of MMA Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and see that far more kids are hurt wrestling than from BJJ. Its a community that takes care of each other and one that i see far more people in shape attending the events than those on the side lines at a football game. Most fans of the sport are also students of the sport we don’t just sit on our butts and cheer. We take an active role in the progression of the sport.
BTW i thought the article was a good read only one thing i thought Shaw left the EXC or did he stay on?
I am a former wrestler/amateur fighter. Andrew M., I hate to say it but you are wrong on this.
MMA might not be for you, but it is a sport nonethless. We had a live event out in San Jose a while back and the event was attended by all walks of life.
Whether you like it or not, MMA is a sport. If you don’t like it, avert your eyes and don’t just hate on it and it’s fans.
In response to Andrew M.-
Maybe before you start insulting the fans as well as the practitioners of the sport, you should stop by an MMA gym and talk to the people to get the facts. I am not only a big fan of this SPORT but also training in the hopes that some day soon I can start competing as well. Most of athletes that I have had the honor (yes HONOR) of meeting and associating with are people of the highest character quality. When I first started, the people from my gym welcomed me with open arms though I had no background in the sport and nothing to bring to their gym but another person enthusiastic about training. They are genuine, honest, and very caring people who treat others with respect and kindness. Now perhaps my gym is an anomoly but I highly doubt it because I have visited other gyms and found the same to be true there as well. Every sport has a few athletes that set a poor example (Just look at the NFL’s Michael Vick and others who have landed in jail. Or what about Kobe being accused of rape? I could go on but why bother? The evidence speaks for itself) and MMA is no different. However, most of the people I have met within the MMA community are wonderful people.
Also, I fail to see where your claim about divorced parents has any affect on a person’s character. With the divorce rate in our country at an astonishingly high level (when last I looked a couple has a greater chance of getting divorced than staying together), it doesnt take much effort to find someone who’s parents are divorced. Just because a person’s parents were happier apart than together, that doesnt make them bad people.
I seem to recall a time where boxing was considered a “freak show”, “not a legitimate sport”, and that “it represent[ed] everything that is wrong with American sport”. Football went through something similar. It was considered a ‘college sport’ and not on par with baseball. When it tried to transition to a pro sport it was met with staunch resistance. Traditional Martial arts and wrestling was met with animosity as well. Yet now, all these are loved (a few Martial Arts, wrestling, and boxing are Olympic sports now) and children are encouraged to participate in them, stating the fact that it builds character, teaches dicipline, as well as teaching children to be part of a team.
And to answer those who state that children cannot learn any of that from MMA because it is not a team sport, there is no dicipline involved in hiting others, and so on and so forth, here’s the truth about it you dont see when you watch it on TV or at a live event-
You CANNOT train alone successfully. There is almost ALWAYS a team that particular fighter is from. A fighter needs people to spar and grapple with, as well as a coach or trainer to watch their technique (and yes there is a LOT of technique involved) and point out where they need improvement. Usually there is a group of pro fighters that work together and help eachother improve with some begginers and intermediates alongside to learn and work their way up to the pro level.
Because you are mixing different people with different personalities, you have to learn to get along and work with eachother. Not everyone is going to like eachother but you have to learn to coexist. Everyone wants to see their teammates do well because it reflects positively on their gym and on them because of their involvement with the gym. So obviously it DOES teach teamwork.
As with any sport where there is the potential for injury, there is a code (not always spoken but always present) of etiquett that the athletes obey especially when sparring or grappling. The goal of it is not to injure your teammate so obviously you have to exercise a good bit of restraint while working together. It is considered improper and unacceptable to do a submission full speed or kick someone full force because of the potential to possibly end a fighters career (a broken knee or torn tendons can ruin any athlete, not just an MMA fighter). Those actions bring about a reprimand and if the behavior does not stop, a person can run the risk of getting banned from the gym. A person MUST learn to be diciplined and learn to exercise the proper amount of restraint when sparring with his teammates to avoid injury.
A fighter also learns that there is always someone better than you. Even an undefeated figther had to be taught his skills by someone! Every fighter strives to be the best but knows that there is someone out there that can beat him. When they do lose, they have to lose with grace and congratulate the other fighter or they run the risk of being chastized.
Obviously MMA can be just as beneficial to children as football, boxing, or any other sport.
People who insult MMA obviously do not have a real understanding of it. Go to an MMA gym, talk to the people, get the facts. Fear and hatred come from a lack of understanding, so learn.
It will never reach the heights of Baseball, Football or Basketball or Hockey. Those sports have stadiums and are firmly anchored in the fabric of American tradition.
MMA is cool, but it is still a traveling circus that gets folded up after the matches and put back on the semi on its way to the next city. It will always be a sport on the fringe. It will always be a bit too extremem, a bit too gruesome, and a bit too barbaric for the wholesome family values of the big networks. There’s a reason why it’s on SpikeTV. There’s a reason why ESPN won’t touch it. There’s a reason why it will always be a bit amateurish. Why?
Because there’s just something that feels a little unhealthy about people beating each other into a pulp and cheering it on the entire way. Violence will win over some fans, but it doesn’t have enough there to grow into a top sport in the U.S.
Violence? Do you honestly feel MMA is more violent than NFL Football? No way. Also , you do realize CBS has already shown 2 events and that ESPN actually does MMA stories now? Boxing and football have MANY more fatalities and injuries than MMA, if it never takes hold on the big stage it wont be because of actual violence or danger, but of the PERCEIVED violence. Heck like 15 people dies last year doing equestrian events.
The reason ESPN hasnt touched it yet ( so far as showing a full event)may have more to do with being owned by ABC and its rival showing events than any violence issues.
I work in media and I admit I love me some UFC/Prime/Elite etc.
The real reason why MMA won’t go any where higher than SpikeTV is because sponsors/advertisers won’t touch this with a 10 foot stick. As long as the only sponsors are online poker sites, it won’t fly.
Andrew pretty much what everyone else has said, there are tons of examples such as Nick Thompson who is a Minnesota Law School Graduate.
Timothy its on ESPN magazine and on their website, its on FSN , and CBS. The reason Baseball, Football , and Basketball are so popular is because they are team sports. Which allow for stadiums. Its a business that has long be organized and well funded.
If you want to talk about barbaric talk about football where a 340lbs man with pads on crushes a 160lbs receiver. NFL players average lifespan is 55. Randy Couture (high calibur MMA fighter) is 45 and still competes. Helio Gracie who competed when it was no holds barred is 94!
The only issue I have with MMA is the advertising for it because it gives ignorant people the wrong idea, but I understand what grabs peoples attention. What keeps them staying is the heart and skills it takes to compete.
Again MMA has hit prime time with two showings of the EliteXC as well as IFL making it to prime time tv all be it on CW i think. Still ESPN has done stories on MMA and SI has done a cover story a few times about MMA with Roger on one of their covers. Look MMA like it or not is gaining a foot hold in the American culture and its starting to make waves. Right now those waves aren’t well recieved the boxing community hates us but who can blame them we have stolen 40% of their viewers, according the SI.
I love that tim points out that MMA will never be as big as Football or baseball or hocky or basketball cause they have stadiums. Well Tim maybe you are right but time will tell however in the mean time just cause we aren’t there yet doesn’t mean we aren’t a real sport. Its funny every talks about the violence in MMA but do you know that more kids in high school and college die from cheerleading than from MMA? How about boxers, there was a recent study done that says even with headgear youth boxers are still at a high risk for brain damage. MMA has its risk and its injurys don’t get me wrong but to make it seem like its something you find in the parking garage @ 2am on a sat night is crazy. MMA is not for everyone just like any sport and there are people who call football and boxing violent sports. We all see things with different eyes and just cause you don’t understand something doesn’t make it that less important.
Not everyone is willing to stand there and let someone punch them in the face, just like not everyone is willing to pick up a rifle and go over sea’s and stand face to face with people who wish you dead. Not everyone is willing to put on a badge and strap a pistol to their waist and walk around protecting our streets. Not everyone is willing to run into a burning building and save lives. Its those same type of men who enjoy this sport of MMA who fight and who watch these violent barbaric ameturish matchs. Its clear those who are against it will never see it in the same light as those who are for it but at least we are educated on what we speak of can you say the same? No you repeat the same things that you hear other people say, yet you haven’t taken the time to walk into a MMA school and talk to the people you call barbaric KFC eating NASCAR watching Monster Truck fans.
Andrew M - I respect your opinion, but you are one of the uninformed non-mma fans who felt the need to comment on a topic you know nothing about. I have no problem with that, but I think you seriously underestimate the type of individuals who train and enjoy wacthing MMA events. I am currently in Bible School, training to be a pastor, while working a full time job in IT. I am married, haven’t been divorced, and neither were my parents. I was not picked on as a child, but I stood up for those who were - including my sister. My children, ages 4 and 6, both have started traning with the goal being #1. self defense and #2. fit for life. I challenge any parent of a sedentary, obese child to place their kid in BJJ or some other martial art and see if they do not at least get in shape and live a happier, healthier life for it. As others have responded, take a class and then let us know what you think.
@CJ Cruz - Shaw is out as front man but still consulting. CBS is taking on more and more of the operations side of EliteXC. They are putting the money in and their ownership stake keeps growing so its only natural for that to happen.
not so sure i like that CBS is taking on the front office workings but in time i guess we will see how that plays out. As long as CBS listens to the MMA community it shouldn’t be much of an issue. I still like UFC over EliteXC but i’m hoping for some big things out of the CBS partnership i think that might help to silence these nay-sayers.
I read all your comments and I still think MMA is not a sport worth paying for. This is not a forum and I don’t believe in flaming, but I respect your opinions as I hope you respect mine. I’m one guy who just thinks the sport is a joke. You will not change my mind. I don’t care that you are a doctor, have kids or blah blah blah. I just don’t liek the sport.
And yes, I did a few sessions of Krav, but it doesn’t mean I am anymore qualified to say that the sport is a joke. My biggest gripe is that the sport has no class across the board. From the fans, to the competitors to sponsors, there seems to be a common thread which unites anyone who likes this sport in any way………and that’s lack of class.
And yes, I will have to avert my eyes.