5 Things MMA needs to become a "Big League"
Offline1) One dominant league. I have argued this many times and recently Sixtus got me thinking and thus here is my forum topic. This sport has the potential to grow and now is the time. But in order to be mentioned in the same breath as Nascar, NFL, NBA, NHL ect. they need three little letters to lead them. UFC is the obvious ones as everyone in the US knows what Ultimate Fighting is so the name recognition is already there. One dominate league allows viewers to know when they are watching the best vs the best. Lets face it who wants to watch the best Stock Car drivers in Kentucky that aren't good enough to race Nascar compete? Sure it is good racing and if you live in Kentucky that may be great entertainment but if you wanna watch the best you go to NASCAR more specifically Sprint Cup Nascar. Other sports have failed because of over saturation of substandard product and the inability to have one clear best vs the best league.
Poker and Boxing are the most obvious. Poker was growing huge a few years back but before long you couldn't turn on the tube without seeing poker. We got satuarted with crappy poker. The WPT (World Poker Tour) or the UFC of Poker turned into just another Poker show regardless of the fact they had the best poker players in the world. It would be a travisty if lesser leagues were allowed to pass themselves off as equal.
I am not saying these other promotions shouldn't exist. Quite the opposite. They are required to be a farm league for fighters to compete in make some money and work there way up to the big leagues. To be honest being a farm league would probably be the best hings for some of these leagues. Less pressure to put on big shows and overpay athletes. By become offical farm leagues for the UFC the UFC would also help run them, provide money to support them and help train their futures. Ala the NHL and Junior hockey. They could do this with a transfer agreement.
2) A Single Belt Per Weight Class. With too many leagues the biggest issue is too many Championships. Obviously Affliction likes to think they have the best belt. The UFC says it has the best belt. There must be one. Every young football players wants to win a Superbowl. Every young hockey player wants his name on the Stanley Cup. Every young mixed martial artist has to dream about winning the same belt. It creates tradition and desire. A goal. "My dream is to win the UFC belt" That is needed.
3) The Fighters Must Unite. I know I have agrued the union thing many times but until all the fighters are under some kind of fighters association none of the rest of the ideas in this forum can work. The top league needs to be able to access all the top fighters. If they are all under one union or PA then the top league can collectivly bargin with the entire world fight roster and then we can have the best vs the best.
4) A Council or fight Committee. This is an idea because of some of Sixtus' comments. Right now the stigma of having a one man show that makes all the fight picks and can easily black ball a guy for no good reason...Dana White. Dana White would sit as chairman of the fight committee but it would also include members of the media, fight commission and most importantly the head of the fighters union and possibly some other bodys voted in by the fighters as player reps. This group (because we are all under one umbrella) would decide all rule changes, suspensions and most importantly to fight fans...PPV Matchups. Because guys like Nick Diaz and Josh Barnett are members of the fighers union Dana White wouldn't be able to single handedly stop the committee from giving them title shots or making them headliners of any fight. Because members of the media are there the fans will be represented.
5) ESPN and Major Networks. Obviously to air fight nights but more importantly to grow the sport you need these guys as allys in order to get yourself exposure on the daily sports reels. Shows like Sportsdesk here in Canada need to be airing your highlights. This is starting to happen which is a very good thing. Now the goal is to get MMA out of the 2nd half hour and into the 1st half hour. If the sport grows this will ineviatbly happen.
Comments
Nicely done. I think the union takes care of potential issues with pay while the fight committee assures that the best fighters always fight each other. It could work.
I'm still a fan of competition between a couple of major promotions but this is the first argument that makes me consider the possibility of one dominant league...
Great points SB. A few things in principle that I disagree with...
1.) One League. MMA is dominated by promotions. The UFC is a promotion, not a league. Oddly enough, you described a similar business modle to the IFL. And honestly I like it... fighters had to fight for different camps thoughout the year and the coachs could use different fighters and at he end of the season they fought in a tournament to determine the individual champions.
2.) Single Belt per weight Class. There already is... inside the promotions (unless you are the UFC and you frequently award interim champs along with the current champs ala Sherk/Penn, Nog/Couture, Barnett/Couture, AA/Mir and so on). Just like there is more than one football champion and one basketball champion there can and should be multiple champs inside other promotions. Should the Canadian Football league not hold the Grey Cup and award it's champion because there is the Superbowl that is the 'real' champions? Obviously there is a clear prestige (and monetary) difference between being SB champs and Grey Cup champs... but they are BOTH champions! (Just try to go tell Doug Flutie or Warren Moon that they were not champions).
On your other points, I do agree that there should be some sort of Fighters Association, but dont count on DW ever letting that happen. Just like, dont count on him ever buying in to a committee where anyone outside of a hired UFC employee (or owner) to have direct influence over what fights are made.
I wish the IFL would have been better run... in theory I think thier business model is the one that is the best suited for the American mainstream consumer as it is most similar to a true 'league'. As I mentioned in my other post, currently the UFC's modle is most similar to the WWE...
If Doug Flutie or Warren Moon had the opportunity to win 1 championship in their career...which would they rather win a Grey Cup or a Superbowl? There are championships in every minor league sport whether it be Grey Cup, Calder Cup, Sugar Bowl whatever...these are still worthy accomplishments and anyone that wins them should be honoured but that doesn't mean they can call themselves the best in the world.
Totally agree! Except, they CAN call themselves the best in the world however, they can call themselves anything they want... the FANS decide who is the best in the world - much like MMA now. The only difference in a league (not a promotion), in the NFL, there is 31 owners who the players have the opportunity to appeal to and try to compete for. The UFC can decide they want to say thier organization is the best, but if they fail to sign the best for whatever reason, and furthermore decide not to match up the best fighters, it's their choice directly or indirectly. The model you are describing is/was the IFL. The UFC wants more control to decide fights, who is signed and what is the pay. The NFL does not decide who is signed or what the pay is or the terms of the contract. They put out a perameter and establish who has the right to a draft choice first, etc... but at the end of the day the TEAM OWNERS decide, NOT the NFL. No way DW and the UFC ever go down giving up that control.
As I stated before, I do like what the IFL had going in theory... too bad it had poor management overall. Best of all was the tournament at the end... man I love tournaments!! The UFC as it currently operates and as how DW wants it to keep operating is best kept in check by other promotions trying to lure fighters away and ensure they are properly paid and taken care of. Just look at the UFC salaries for UFN compared to what they were 6-12 months ago.
The biggest problem I have with your NFL to UFC comparison is as a fan I always get to see the best QBs in the world against the best QB's in the world under one unbrella known as the NFL. In your perfect world where we have multiple promotions one the CFL would have Peyton Manning, Fedor and Wanderlei Silva and the NFL would have Tom Brady, Randy and Chuck. In your perfect world we would never get Manning vs Brady for the Superbowl, Fedor vs Randy for the HW title or using a blast from the past Silva vs Chuck. Because you want multiple promotions you limit yourself to not being able to see the fights you wanna see most. That as a fan sucks.
The top league doesn't have to be the UFC it just has to be the one that is without a doubt the best run, promoted and most importantly must be recoginized as the best...right now that would be the UFC but if my plan is followed you could call in whatever you like.