CONTACTABOUTFACEBOOKTWITTERPODCAST IPHONE APPANDROID APPAMAZON APPWINDOWS APPRSS
NEW FORUM

GOT THE MMATORCH APP YET?
iPhone & iPad
Android
Kindle Fire
Windows Phone
MMATORCH IPHONE APP

MMATORCH

All the MMA News • Plus Intelligent, Brilliant, Addictive Points of View!
Independently Covering MMA Since 1993 • No Big Corporate Bosses

Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The UFC's Long-Term Plans For Further Domination
Apr 18, 2012 - 10:00:20 AM
HYDEN BLOG: The UFC's Long-Term Plans For Further Domination
DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM
...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!



Staff08Hyden_Main_30.jpg
By: Frank Hyden, MMATorc contributor

Dana White recently said that the UFC would like to have more fight cards in other countries, as a way to increase brand awareness and to give fighters more chances to fight. He even brought up the idea of having two shows at the same time in different places. He said this could lead to regional champions, so you would have a European champion, an Asian champion, and so forth.

My first thought on this is that it sounds great, as it would lead to more fighters and better competition. However, there's also a real possibility that it could breakdown quickly, because it would be extremely complicated to implement. The first question would be how to separate everyone. Do you do it by continent? That would lead to an overabundance of fighters in certain regions, as I'm sure the Europe or Asia regions would dwarf the Australia region.

There's also the problem of how to handle who would receive title shots at the UFC champions? The idea of having regional champions is interesting, and I'm in favor of the UFC running more events, but I think it's just too complicated to actually work as intended. It's a great goal to have, but it would require so much work and risk that it's probably not very feasible right now. It's a good long-term goal to have, and it is do-able, but they need to start laying the groundwork now.

I mentioned this idea to some people I know, and the topic of brand dilution came up. It's much the same way that the NFL wants to move to an 18-game season and how they're on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and sometimes Saturdays. It's about how much is too much? The NBA and NHL seasons are hurt by being 82 games long, and MLB is almost intolerable because of its 162 game season. How does this apply to the UFC running more events?

The different weight classes prevent this from being as big a problem for the UFC. There are eight weight classes in the UFC, and while that's not quite like having eight leagues, it does lessen brand fatigue. Of course, there are still people out there who think the lighter fighters can't compete with the heavier fighters, but once they're introduced to more of the lighter fighters they'll see that their fights are generally much more exciting.

I've heard it said that the heavyweight division is the crown jewel in fighting sports. I disagree. In boxing and MMA, the heavyweight division is cubic zirconia compared to the emeralds and sapphires of the other weight divisions.

The biggest stumbling block to running more shows is that people will get sick of MMA if they see it all the time. That's where the regional part comes in. A large percentage of the fights that the UFC runs would take place in a country other than your own. Let's say that the UFC has five regions. The goal could be to run 30 events a year in each region. The majority of UFC events would be in another country. This would allow the UFC to run many more events, with a lesser chance of brand fatigue for each region.

It's good to hear this from the UFC now, as it gives confidence for their long-range goals. This won't happen anytime soon, but it should happen eventually. Hopefully the UFC has done more than just think about it, though. This idea sounds very pie-in-the-sky, but with a lot of hard work, it can be reality.

Comments and suggestions can be e-mailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com


DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC Fight Night 82
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 148 and UFC on FOX 18
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from WSOF 27, plus thoughts on Frankie Edgar and eyepokes

comments powered by Disqus
HERE ARE EVEN MORE ARTICLES THAT MIGHT INTEREST YOU

SELECT ARTICLES BY CATEGORY
SEARCH MMATORCH BY KEYWORD


MMATORCH CALENDAR OF EVENTS
CLICK HERE FOR LIST OF UPCOMING MMA EVENTS
CLICK TO SEE A UFC VIDEO BELOW

ARTICLES OF INTEREST ELSEWHERE
MMATORCH POLL - VOTE NOW!

Will T.J. Dillashaw and Urijah Faber eventually fight?
 
pollcode.com free polls

Do you think Daniel Cormier will defeat returning Jon Jones to legitimize UFC Light Heavyweight Title reign?
 
pollcode.com free polls

VOTE IN OR SEE RESULTS OF PREVIOUS POLLS

MMATORCH WEEKLY LIVECAST
Listen to the weekly MMATORCH LIVECAST on Blog Talk Radio


MMATORCH STAFF

EDITORS:

Wade Keller, supervising editor
(mmatorch@gmail.com)

Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)

STAFF COLUMNISTS:

Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey


Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.

MORE MMA SITES
CONTACTABOUTFACEBOOKTWITTERPODCAST IPHONE APPANDROID APPAMAZON APPWINDOWS APPRSS
THE TORCH: #1 IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE | © 1999-2013 TDH Communications Inc. • All rights reserved -- PRIVACY POLICY