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Opinion & Analysis
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Staff Editorials
PELKEY COLUMN: What's really keeping MMA from reaching the true mainstream
By Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist
Apr 30, 2008, 17:39
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When Dana White and the Fertitta brothers bought the Ultimate Fighting
Championship several years ago, they had a dream that one day people
would look at their product the same way they look at football,
basketball, and baseball. It seemed silly at the time, but since the
incredible surge in popularity they've received the last couple of
years, it seems like the dream is on the verge of becoming a reality.
Across the board, MMA organizations are signing TV deals, and
increasing the number of shows they produce. One can only assume the
UFC will eventually find itself on primetime, network television.
That's the last step, right? Once that happens, its only a matter of
time until two guys will meet at the water cooler Monday morning at
work and say, "hey did you watch the fight last night?" in the same way
they refer to "the game" when talking about Monday Night Football.
Right?
I just don't see it. There's one thing the "Big Three" of sports have
in common that separates them from MMA, and also boxing for that
matter: they end at some point. Every season of baseball, basketball,
and football builds to a climax, crowns a champion, and then has an
off-season to build anticipation for the next go-round.
The lack of an off-season is one of the primary perks of being an MMA
fan. There's always fights coming up to look forward to. It works for
us, and appeals to our "immediate satisfaction" sensibilities. For the
average sports fan it's a different story. What are the biggest
sporting events of the year? The Super Bowl. The College Football
National Championship. The World Series. The Final Four. Those are the
big four, and they're all the penultimate game, and culmination of a
season.
MMA has no season. There's no time to relax after the big game. Georges
St. Pierre regaining the welterweight title will end up being one of
the biggest stories of the year in MMA, but its already come and gone,
and now its time for Penn-Sherk. There's no time to sit back and
reflect on what you just saw. You get the few weeks in between events,
but by the time the next big fight rolls around, the previous gets
pushed to the back of your mind. The closest we come to the end of a
season is when we give out our completely arbitrary, completely biased
End of the Year Awards. That's the equivalent of me naming my own
national champion in college football at the end of the calender year,
because the games just keep being played every week with no end in
sight.
Unfortunately, there's no solution to this problem. We all love the
idea of tournaments, but you can't keep having a tournament every year
to determine the champion in each weight class. That would completely
stunt the growth of your talent pool. Who wants to watch the same eight
guys fighting in each weight class every year?
I love MMA, and I always will, but it's inherent differences from the
true "mainstream" sports are exactly what will keep it from ever
reaching the true "mainstream". It's a harsh reality, but we have to
accept the fact that there's a ceiling on the popularity MMA can and
will gain.
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