Like or Dislike: 0  0

- Take this one, for example – you say to hire a proven MMA promoter. But there simply aren’t many around. Monte Cox and Scott Coker are about the only ones successful on a somewhat large regional level. M-1 hired Cox, and was gone just as fast as the other fly-by-night operations. The only proven, consistent promoter on a full national level is Zuffa – that is it!

- On another point, one of the reasons why these start-up MMA organizations have too many “Chiefs” and not enough “Indians” is because the person at the top usually isn’t in a secure enough financial situation to handle things on their own. That means they have to add investors and partners, and these people all want a say on the operations of the company. That is hard to get around, because you can’t lure investors and then tell them to keep their hands off what you do with their money.

- Another problem is the fact that UFC created this boom in MMA popularity and created their own audience. That means a late entry into the market is much more expensive now than when Zuffa first began their efforts to grow the UFC. That means you need to have a massive bankroll, as you correctly pointed out, Sam.

A lot of people get excited when they hear names like Trump, Ayre, and Cuban getting involved because these are very wealthy, smart businessmen. However, very wealthy, smart businessmen didn’t get to be that way by throwing away money. Just because they are worth $2 billion doesn’t mean they are willing to light their cigars with $50 million in cash just for fun. Even at $50 million, that is probably severely underfunded at this stage in the game. The UFC spent $50 million trying to grow this sport with no real competitors. Compare that to the fact that Zuffa recently borrowed $350 million this year to help fund their international expansion. The stakes in this game have gone up with the sport’s popularity, and it now costs much more than Zuffa’s initial investment from 2001 – 2005. If these companies had the same forsight as Zuffa back then, then perhaps their road would be a little cheaper. But they weren’t willing to risk $50 million back then on something so untested. Zuffa was willing. Now, it will cost these competitors even more to compete, because Zuffa has raised the stakes of the game.

All I have to say is that the UFC deserves the reward they are now getting. They invested in this sport when it was nothing. They put their fortunes at risk, and spent more time and money than anyone else was willing to do to cultivate an audience for MMA in North America. It will be hard for competitors to take that audience away, and I’m not sure they deserve to by simply riding on the UFC’s coattails. To even secure a place at #2, these organizations need to invest way more than I think they are willing put on the table.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

It seems as though most analyses tend to credit the UFC’s place in the MMA market as simply a “right place, right time” phenomenon. This analysis centers around the idea that the UFC was the oldest brand name in the American MMA market, so when MMA became popular, fans naturally just associated MMA with the UFC name.

The problem with this assumption is that it assumes the rise of MMA as an inevitability, and the UFC’s popularity as an after-effect of this rise in popularity for MMA as a whole. As if, had Affliction or EliteXC happened to have the good fortune to exist around this magical time somewhere between 2001 and 2005, they too would have ridden the shockwave of MMA’s explosion in popularity to their incredible success.

This idea assumes that the UFC is successful because MMA has been successful. The truth is that MMA is successful because the UFC has succeeded in making it popular. Zuffa – Dana White and the Fertitta’s – spent their time and money essentially creating the fanfare for this sport. Despite what internet forum posters would have you believe, Zuffa didn’t just happen along while the internet grew this sport to the point of explosion. The hardcore internet fanbase certainly has a place in keeping the sport alive while it was going through the dark times, but they aren’t the ones that made this sport popular and successful. That credit goes to Zuffa. They spent the money. They did the groundwork. They made the UFC popular and profitable through their efforts. They grew the audience beyond these hardcores. Sure, the hardcore fans came along for the ride, but the small contingent of these people were never enough to make the sport popular. Zuffa made the sport popular, not the other way around. So it is nearly impossible for another MMA organization to come and separate the UFC’s popularity from MMA’s popularity here in America. They are one in the same.

The chief failure of all of these other promotions that come along is that they don’t understand this dynamic. They try to steal the UFC’s market share without realizing that there isn’t much of an MMA audience outside of the audience that watches the UFC, because Zuffa BUILT that audience. It wasn’t there for Zuffa to win over from someone else. Zuffa created those viewers. Unless you are going to spend the time to create your own audience, then you are going to have to out-promote, out-advertise, and out-spend Zuffa by a significant margin to pull their home-grown audience away. It is hard to outspend a company like the UFC by a wide margin when you are making no money.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Some will disagree, but I think at this point the current smaller promotions are just trying to do well enough to attract a buyout by the UFC. Except for one.

When the dust settles, I think only Strikeforce will be a true contender to the UFC. They are doing things right. They never push too far. They know their limits. They keep it small and organized while they grow slowly and steadily. I don’t think anyone else has a prayer.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

I will admit I wrote the guy off(Reis) after watching the Caraway fight and that was a big mistake. The guy is a physical specimen and his stamina is five times what it was in the Caraway fight. So with that being said, I apologize for passing judgement on the guy after my first time seeing him fight. Now my opinion on the guy is with a little work on his striking the sky’s the limit. The guy is still VERY young and only has six fights under his belt so he really has nowhere to go but up. You also have to really take your hat off to Abel Cullum for surviving that storm.

Maybe we need to bring back those Toughman competitions so Reis can learn a little stand up game!

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Other Patrick, Bring on your duel.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Other Patrick, I challenge you to a duel.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0