It's too expensive for most people to afford to follow the big events in North America unfortunately (although I often watch alone and order just about every card). It's great how many free UFC shows you can get on cable now, but the PPV model will be the biggest barrier to entry.
It's too expensive for most people to afford to follow the big events in North America unfortunately (although I often watch alone and order just about every card). It's great how many free UFC shows you can get on cable now, but the PPV model will be the biggest barrier to entry.
I think that by just looking at every major city in the U.S, will tell you that MMA is and will never be anywhere near the rest of the major sports.
When I look around cities I see gym's struggling to stay open and make ends meet (save for a select few). Meanwhile on the other side of town there are about 20 ball diamonds 20 football fields countless courts and a few rinks with a helluva lot more kids participating in countless numbers of leagues idolizing and hoping to be the next Jeter, Jordon, Pele, Zidane, Crosby, Lebron, ect... Comparatively there aren't near as many kids packing themselves into gyms hoping to be the next GSP, or Anderson Silva.
The fact is and will always be that those other sports are supported by parents and society as a means for kids to learn valuable life lessons and those that excel and work hard/have money tend to become pro. The pool of talent for producing freak athletes (entertainers) in these other sports crushes the talent pool the UFC can draw from simply because parents are never going to consent to letting their sons/daughters aspire to take up a profession where you get punched in the face for a living. That barrier is what will always handcuff the UFC. If there were millions of kids developing their talents to be UFC fighters then the sport could handle a larger roster, more weight classes, have more fight cards available for free, ect....
I understand why White has to say these sort of things (he's the pitchman for the UFC and the Grunting Idiot in Chief who appeals to the knuckle dragging, "Just Bleed"/Ed Hardy/Tapout" MMA fan cohort) but there is simply no way that MMA will ever be anything but a fringe sport, skirting respectability.
First of all, MMA has just begun to slip into the mainstream, and with being in the mainstream comes mainstream scrutiny, such as the NHL, NBA, MLB, NFL, FIFA, Formula 1 and all other truly "major" sporting enterprises go through.
Anyone who has ever fought or even trained at a serious gym knows that the fight game is filled to the brim with scumbags, pimps, felons, and all around dregs of humanity who latch onto new and upcoming talent, hoping to drain them for everything they are worth. I'm not sure how happy the MMA world or the UFc would be to see Marc Fainaru-Wada or Selwyn Raab asking questions about MMA luminaries like Jamie Levine. (just a scummy name that comes to mind)
Furthermore, martial arts are not a fundamental part of the upbringing of American or European children - kids will play hockey, soccer, football, basketball, baseball or a dozen other sports on the playground and in after school programs, but I can assure you that there will never be a large scale MMA extra-curricular program for high school aged students. Boxing has fundamentally dealt with this same issue, and has justly struggled as less and less young people grow up boxing.
Lastly, (I should say this is not the final knock on MMA, just the final one I feel like typing out) MMA is simply too violent of a sport for modern parents to ever allow their children to participate in. The "helicopter parents" of the 1990's have continued to soar, perhaps even closer to their studiously watched and manicured children, and there exists no universe where a helicopter parent will permit their darling faberge children to be punched, wrestled and submitted for an hour after school. While the NFL is the current "American Pastime" (actually, sports betting and fantasy football are the real American pastime, but please don't tell anyone...it's a secret) the brass of every football organization is dealing with the impact of continued concussion research and the advancing notions among experts that collision based games such as football are unhealthy for developing brains.
If high school football stands to go the way of high school boxing, what chance does high school MMA have?
MMA has a long way to go here in Australia. It's way behind Aussie Rules, rugby league, rugby union, and even football. In the rest of the world it's never going to over take football.
Also, with two multiple page threads on why people who don't trane shouldn't be allowed to wear mma related clothing, the sport could potentially stall due to self-righteous hipsterism among current fans.
I like UFC's popularity right where it's at right now actually.. We get a good # of fights each month & the new generation of young fighters coming up all seem ready to take in-cage performance to the next level. It will never be the biggest sport in the US or the world (or anywhere near it) in the next 50 years, but who knows what the world will be like farther down the line. I'm actually afraid of it getting too popular bc going mainstream seems to pussify everything ( look what the NFL has done to its product recently). I'm here wishing they fought in a ring w soccer kicks/stomps/knees & downward elbows to a grounded opponent legal yet the more mainstream it gets the opposite will occur.. First thing to go would be elbows who knows what would be next
CRMartin11 - MMA isn't even the most popular combat sport. Let alone all out sport.
I agree with FrateCart that MMA will never surpass football (soccer). The UFC should focus on being the #1 combat sport. Boxing still beats them by a lot.
I don't find this statement to be accurate. I feel Boxing lost its foot hole long ago with all the corruption we saw in the 90s. Boxing is only still around IMHO because its propped up so heavily by Vegas.
DRevan - I agree 100% that it will be the biggest sport in the world.
First off....Mexico.
And if you've read about recent media deals....shit just got real there.
Brazil...is nuts.
Canada/US is strong.
And the absolutely untapped ???? potential of CHINA.
Stop.
CHINA?
India...etc?...
This shit is JUST getting started.
And this ...
So based on two places football is already huge and China, a country where they've recently started a major football league and started paying top dollar for international stars? This is your reason why MMA will be the biggest sport in the world? Solid logic there guys. For example, Fluminense play at the Maracana which holds almost 80,000. Their average attendance is approx 50,000. That's for one team. The league is 20 deep and the games are weekly. How you ever think MMA is going to overtake that is beyond me.
Whats with the claim that its the fastest growing sport in the world? is there any evidence for this?
At best MMA could become no2 in North America in a few decades, thats about it. MMA has a long, long, looooong way to go before it can even touch Boxing worldwide, let alone Soccer.
