MMA is surging in popularity. With PPV buys that exceed 700,000 for one event, there is money to be had. Showtime, HBO, FSN, and all the media outlets are scrambling to get their thoughts, and hooks, into MMA. What is driving these traditional media outlets to embrace this once reviled sport and will it be a fleeting love affair?
The interest by the mainstream media is swelling. Look at articles popping up around the nation. MTV, SpikeTV, Houston Chronicle, OC Register, LA Times, NY Times, Fox Sports, 60 Minutes, Showtime, HBO, and even ESPN are starting to dip their toes into the MMA waters. Whether it is show creation or MMA coverage, all these sources have expressed interest in the "newly" found sport. (tongue in cheek there)
The recent interest by main media is definitely not directly due to the hardcore MMA fans. Those have been around since '93 and although their numbers have swelled incredibly, they are still a small drop in the bucket compared to the masses of non-hardcore TV viewers. The sudden interest is due instead to the surge in interest by non-fighting viewership.
This isn't to say that the hardcore MMA fans aren't partially responsible for the surge. It takes a large grassroots following to feed a surge in interest for anything AND to maintain that interest for the long haul. Fringe viewership has fickle interests and without the excitement of a large hardcore segment, the interest level tends to die away after a short time.
So what will keep the love affair alive when other combat sports and entertainment such as the WWF/WWE and Boxing have failed?
Lets first examine these other venues and their apparent pitfalls.
Boxing has been around for ages. It's popularity swelled in the 70's and 80's but has since fallen off the maps. It still has a niche hardcore crowd but those seem to be anchored by an older group. The younger crowd is being siphoned off by MMA. Boxing's fall from the graces of the masses came because of many reasons. The explosive popularity and growth in the 80's fueled a money boom that spawned many different disparate Boxing Associations. These different associations fractured the small corp of great fighters and watered down the talent pool by isolating each group of fighters. "World Champions" were a dime a dozen. Not only that but the fighters became isolated. Propped up on their pedestals, they became inaccessible to the lay man. The brash and inconsistent egos of the promoters also got in the way and helped to isolate the everyday viewer from the sports icons that were fighting in the ring. Viewership started to drop which caused a decrease in money possibilities and limited the skill pool even more. Money broadens the skill pool. Lack of money limits the skill pool. Too much money and the lack of proper management can also weaken the skill pool through fracturing and isolation.
MMA faces this same danger right now. Money is pouring in, the MMA associations are multiplying, and the fighter pool is going to be stretched. UFC and PRIDE have already shown a disposition towards not playing nice with each other which can lead towards isolation of the fighter talent pools and eventual stagnation if new high quality talent is not introduced. The UFC is especially hostile towards non-UFC associations because the talent pool is relatively small right now and they want the whole pie. They have attempted to consolidate the current assets by purchasing various smaller MMA organizations and this should alleviate some of the talent isolation in the short term but with more and more money involved, stratification and fracture is inevitable. Can these different organizations play nice together enough to alleviate talent dilution?
One thing that hasn't happened yet with MMA is fighter isolation. Just about every MMA fighter that you meet is very humble and accessible and the promoters nowadays realize, for the most part, where their bread is buttered. The fans feel ownership to varying degrees because the fighters are very fan friendly. The reality shows on TV also help to a varying degree with the feeling of ownership because the fan base think they see who their fighter is and "connect" with the TV persona put forth. This could change if the money amounts get too enormous but there are no indications that this will be the case.
Professional Wrestling, i.e. WWF/WWE is not dead. However, it is waning with a big portion of their normal crowd currently jumping on the MMA bandwagon. If MMA is actually successful in making the big jump from PPV to the mainstream channels that wrestling usually dominated, then that could further damage wrestlings position. Wrestling suffers from a couple things that leads to disenchantment from the fring viewership. Over-dramatization, Rematch sickness, and a general de-sensitization caused by over-the-top moves.
MMA, and especially the UFC, needs to be wary of these pitfalls also. The UFC is notorious for doing rematch after rematch. Anybody see Silvia vs. Arlovski 3? What about GSP vs. Hughes 2? Can't forget our latest comer Liddell vs. Ortiz 2. There's only so many rematches a crowd can stomach before they become dis-interested. If you want over-dramatization, just take Ken Shamrock vs. Ortiz 3. They had a heated rivalry that resorted in pushing and chair throwing at weigh-ins. After the third bout however, they made up, played nice, and admitted that everything was "just business".
All is not lost however. The UFC has just recently acquired various high-level contracts from the WFA and all of the WEC to hopefully solve their re-match sickness problem, at least in the short term. Another league, the International Fight League (IFL), has gone back to its sport roots by promoting teamwork in an effort to spur interest, rather than dramatic wrestling-style "storylines". The IFL has also introduced the concept of a regular schedule, fighter salaries, health benefits, all the things that normal sports athletes in basketball, football, baseball, and soccer enjoy.
So can MMA as a genre survive as a successful mainstream sport? Sure, I think it can. There will be ups and downs but MMA is here to stay. They just need to learn from the past and avoid the pitfalls that both Boxing and Wrestling have stumbled upon. Avoid the talent pool fragmentation and isolation. Learn to play nice with other organizations. Prohibit Liddell vs. Ortiz 100. Avoid over-dramatization to the point of obscuring the beauty of the sport in the ring. If MMA can leapfrog all these issues, then it can truly become a mainstream sport. So in the immortal words of Big John McCarthy: "LETS GET IT ON!!!"