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Kiss of Death
Location: Perpetual wind and sorrow
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Here is a pretty good article about the growth of the sport. Excuse the length but I think it is relevant to the discussion.
http://www.twincities.com/ci_7487616...nclick_check=1
Quote:
Ultimate Fight Championship brings mixed martial arts from bloody barnyard brawls to the big time
BY BRIAN MURPHY
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 11/17/2007 10:36:54 AM CST
Related
* Ultimate Fighting
* Training for a fight
* For fans, each fighter is a story worth sharing
* The Ultimate Fighter next door
* As mixed martial arts explodes, is Minnesota missing out?
Estranged boxing fans, wrestling aficionados and the morbidly curious are swarming to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The circuit of mixed martial artists that Arizona Sen. John McCain smeared as "human cockfighting" 11 years ago has transformed into America's fastest-growing professional sport.
Tonight, UFC 78 in Newark, N.J., features the latest pay-per-view showcase of the world's premier fighters, and millions of mixed martial arts fans are expected to watch.
Now sanctioned in Minnesota and 30 other states and stretching across the world, mixed martial arts is filling the combat-sports void once dominated by boxers Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, then Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler, and then even Mike Tyson, but now wants to give you Evander Holyfield.
Again.
"How horrible is boxing when you're promoting a guy seven days from his 45th birthday in the best fight of the year?" said mixed martial arts fan Steve Doherty of Fridley while watching UFC 77 last month.
Mixed martial arts combines boxing, wrestling, kick boxing, Muay Thai and jujitsu, and fighters in the five weight classes can win by knockout, submission or judges' decision. UFC, with 90 percent of the world's top fighters under contract and a turbocharged marketing machine, is steamrolling the competition and servicing post-baby-boom generations eager to invest in extreme entertainment.
Events featuring top UFC fighters earned $223 million in pay-per-view in 2006, more than World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling ($200 million) and boxing ($177 million). Showcase fights routinely dominate cable television ratings among young males.
Among men ages 18-49, advertising's golden-goose demographic, the June 23 Season 5 finale of "The Ultimate Fighter" outdrew Fox's baseball coverage of the New York Yankees vs. Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants, NASCAR on ESPN2 and an HBO boxing match.
UFC 75, broadcast Sept. 8 on Spike, was the most-watched UFC event as 4.7 million
viewers tuned in. More men 18-49 watched the fights from London than any college football telecasts that day.
"As far as (television) ratings go, the only thing bigger than us is the NFL," boasts UFC President Dana White, the face of the sport and a former boxing promoter.
White and his bosses at Zuffa LLC of Las Vegas are going global after acquiring Asian rival Pride in March. UFC has planned about a half-dozen fights in Europe and Australia next year while promising to produce mega bouts between the world's top fighters.
"It's what fans have been waiting for forever, the chance to see who is the best in the world in each weight class," White said.
Quite the buzz for a sport largely ignored by this country's major newspapers, network television, blue-chip corporations, even ESPN.
The UFC's underground popularity and grass-roots support reflect the violence of the sport and its evolution from unregulated barnyard brawls to government-sanctioned events that sell out hockey arenas.
Celebrities who occupied ringside seats in formalwear for Tyson-Holyfield are showing up at UFC fights in T-shirts and jeans.
Those caught on camera include actors Michael Duncan Clarke and Leonardo DiCaprio, tennis super couple Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, and porn star Jenna Jameson, who is dating fighter Tito Ortiz.
Judging by the TV ratings, pay-per-view revenue and sold-out arenas, and legislatures in two-thirds of the United States, the debate about whether mixed martial arts is too barbaric and should be outlawed is finished.
As the UFC eagerly points out, published medical evidence suggests mixed martial arts, with shorter bouts and the option for fighters to "tap out" during submission, is safer than other combat sports, including boxing.
The UFC is a torchbearer for the mixed martial arts phenomenon, and how it manages higher expectations and closer scrutiny could determine whether this new sport flourishes or settles into a popular niche.
ANYTHING-GOES CARNIVAL
Founded in 1993, UFC version 1.0 aimed to solve every barroom argument about who would win a bout between a wrestler and kick boxer, or a jujitsu artist and a boxer, if the combatants were tossed into a steel cage.
Marketed to bloodthirsty fans as an anything-goes carnival, the sport pitted sumo wrestlers against lightweight boxers. Overmatched martial artists became tomato cans for experienced pugilists. Biting and hair pulling were prevalent, with enough groin shots to make Homer Simpson blush.
McCain, an Arizona Republican and former boxer, attacked the UFC and tried to banish the sport. In towns the UFC toured, politicians swiftly ostracized the fledgling league, which continued to barnstorm under the radar.
By the end of the decade, the outrage reached the boardrooms of pay-per-view carriers who pulled the plug on founder Bob Meyrowitz.
With no television deal and its reputation in the gutter, the UFC needed new leadership. Meyrowitz sold the brand for $2 million to White and two friends, casino moguls Frank Fertitta III and his brother, Lorenzo.
In January 2001 the trio launched UFC 2.0 as a legitimate reincarnation of its badass self. Paramount to the makeover were sanctioning and safety precautions.
White solicited counsel from Larry Hazzard Sr., respected commissioner of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board. Weight classes were created along with the of Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, which state sanctioning bodies subsequently have adopted.
The structure weeded out street thugs and made the sport more about tactics.
One-dimensional fighters were forced to learn other disciplines to thrive. Technique and strategy matched brutality and brawn, although absorbing punishment remains vital to survival. Pay-per-view returned after a three-year blackout and introduced more stylized rumbling in the octagon ring to new fans.
McCain, busy on the presidential campaign trail, has backed off his earlier condemnation. He did not return calls to his Washington, D.C., office but a spokeswoman told the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post in June the senator was "very glad to see the changes" in the UFC.
"I felt the sport had a great deal of potential, with a little tweaking of the rules," said Hazzard, who has a mixed martial arts background. "That's when they really put their promotional machine to work."
'THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER'
Fans and analysts point to a handful of seminal fights marking UFC's ascension.
Pick one of the three light heavyweight classics between hall of famer Ken Shamrock and Ortiz. Couture and Chuck Liddell, the Ruth and Cobb of the sport, have clashed three times, with Liddell winning twice.
Yet nothing has done more to promote the UFC than its reality series, "The Ultimate Fighter," which debuted on Spike TV in January 2005. White calls the show his sport's "Trojan Horse" for its sneak attack on the public.
Now in its sixth season, "The Ultimate Fighter" houses 16 combatants from wide-ranging backgrounds in Las Vegas and puts them through a six-week boot camp and fighting regimen to earn a six-figure contract with the UFC.
Viewers became hooked on the tales of perseverance, hard knocks and ordinary lifestyles fighters shared on camera.
In April 2005, Spike became the first North American cable network to broadcast a live mixed martial arts fight. Light heavyweights Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonner pounded each other for three rounds before Griffin won a close decision.
UFC talent scouts were so impressed, they also awarded Bonner a contract as more than 2.6 million people watched the Season 1 finale.
"That fight was so phenomenal, it was being compared to Hagler-Hearns," said Kevin Iole, a Yahoo! Sports columnist who has covered mixed martial arts for seven years. "That fight got a lot of people interested and put UFC into the mainstream by attracting a lot of non-MMA fans."
Television ratings continued to set UFC records and break barriers this year among the coveted advertising demographic of men ages 18-34. A May cover story in Sports Illustrated was another conventional booster shot.
Still, White fiercely guards the business model of the UFC, a privately owned company SI valued at more than $100 million. Last month, he ended negotiations with HBO Sports because he did not want to cede the production control UFC has with Spike.
"Nobody can do it better than we can, I don't care how many Emmys they have," he said.
White's bluster notwithstanding, a deal with the premium cable giant is imperative to expanding the sport's market share. Madison Avenue remains on hold as the UFC seeks A-list sponsors who make automobiles, razors and light beer to underwrite the brand, instead of Mickey's Malt Liquor, Toyo Tires and Xyience energy drinks.
In recent months, the UFC vacated its comfort zone on the West Coast to host pay-per-view sellouts in Houston and Columbus, where gate receipts set records for each arena by grossing a combined total of more than $5.5 million.
New Jersey, which is playing host to UFC 78 tonight at the new Prudential Center in Newark, is on pace to sanction almost 40 MMA events this year, compared with just seven boxing matches, according to commissioner Hazzard.
Minnesota started sanctioning MMA in July, and the UFC is talking to Target Center officials about bringing a pay-per-view event to the Twin Cities. But the local gravy train is still stuck at the station.
Clashes between promoters and the resurrected boxing commission have made staging smaller fight cards at civic centers and amphitheaters challenging. That does not bode well for a small state agency that must be self-sufficient by next summer.
In September, a hastily organized promotion under the fledgling World Fighting Championship banner drew only 3,500 people to Target Center, which seats 19,000.
A shooting in the arena's lower bowl marred the event. No one was injured, although one fight was delayed about 25 minutes as police cordoned off a crime scene.
It was an ugly sight even in a room full of tough guys.
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As noted in the article it took 40+ million dollars than boxing, and was only outdone in the ratings by the NFL. Also brining in 5 million viewers for bouts on cable is really impressive.
Oh and Strange Famous here is a special article just for you, an article about this dishonorable sport, backed by medical evidence stating how it is safer than your beloved boxing.
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Violent and bloody, you bet - but so far not deadly
BY BRIAN MURPHY
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 11/17/2007 12:17:24 AM CST
For all its nouveau, Vegas-style glamour, the UFC is in the professional combat business. Mixed martial arts fighters wearing 4-ounce open-finger gloves - with the power to throw punches, knees, kicks and elbows - means ample blood shed in the octagonal ring.
Compared with other striking sports, though, MMA is considered safer because it limits blows to the head. No UFC fighter has died from injuries suffered in competition, and no MMA-related deaths have been reported in the United States.
Dr. Gregory Bledsoe, a professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins University, authored the first study of MMA injuries, published July 2006 in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine.
He analyzed 171 matches involving 220 fighters in Nevada from September 2001 to December 2004. Knockouts occurred at a rate half the reported 11.3 percent in the state's boxing matches.
The opportunity to attack an opponent's extremities with arm bars and leg locks, plus extended periods of grappling, lessened the risk of traumatic brain injury, Bledsoe concluded. Facial cuts and bruised and broken hands accounted for more than 60 percent of injuries reported at ringside.
Trash-talking bravado and tough-guy personas are common traits of boxing and MMA, yet submission is the one distinction that separates the sports at their core.
When Roberto Duran waved "No mas" and conceded victory to Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980, he was vilified as a quitter and had to fight to defend his purse and manhood.
Dr. Michael Schwartz, president of the American Association of Ringside Physicians, monitors boxing and mixed martial arts matches in his home state of Connecticut. Through the brutality of both sports, he sees grace in a MMA fighter tapping out of untenable circumstances without being stigmatized.
"You cheer because you love the winner, you respect the loser and everybody goes home without serious injury," he said.
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__________________
To win a war you must serve no master but your ambition.
Last edited by Mojo_PeiPei; 11-19-2007 at 08:28 AM..
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