Mixed martial arts is growing about as fast as Under Armour athletic gear: At about a 1000% clip in the past few years. It's getting so popular that there have become "crossover athletes", like wrestling's Brock Lesnar, boxing's Tommy Morrison and football's Johnnie Morton. Haven't noticed? Well that's due to the fact that the sport doesn't have a highest level, an NFL or NBA, so to speak. Of course the UFC will tell you they are king, and they may be #1, but the K-1, guys or the Pride cats will beg to differ. Then there's Bodog and IFL, also with a bunch of dudes that lay it on the line. That's just way too many factions, and leads to confusion as opposed to debate over who the best really is. Someone is going to have to do a Vince McMahon Sr. to make this even more popular. Mr.McMahon's dad created a national wrestling federation at a time when the promotions were all regional. Selling this idea was easier than getting all of the various MMA factions on the same page will be, but here's how it could be done: First and most obvious is for the total unification of the factions into one "NFL" type of league. You could then regionalize the sport with multiple fights with popular fighters from certain areas, i.e: Diego Sanchez (Alb., NM) along with newcomer Tommy Morrison (Okla.), with Guy Metzger's dojo here in Dallas being the region's headquarters, could have fights in Texas, Oklahoma City, and Colorado. Rich Franklin (Cinn., OH) could join Stephan Bonner (Ind.), Matt Hughes (Iowa) in an Midwest and Ohio Valley tour, while newcomer Brock Lesnar (Minn.) and Rashard Evans could do a Minnesota/upper peninsula swing. Tito Ortiz (Ca.) and Hong Man Choi (S.Korea; He's the green haired, 7-3 365 lb. giant pictured holding the trophy ), along with some help from Ken's Shamrock's Lion's Den dojo of fighters could do a west coast/Arizona series. It could all culminate with a series of title fights in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or any large venue along the eastern seaboard. A Superbowl, or World Series, whatever catchy name you want to call it, would be the culmination of the season and a springboard for the next season. Now, most of the fighters I just mentioned are with the UFC, so the most likely real scenario would be them getting all of the best fighters (Choi, Mighty Mo, Bob Sapp and the newcomers Lesnar and Morrison) to sign with them, and using their deal with Spike TV, to unify this thing and declare real, undisputed champions. It may never happen because of the factions' inability or desire to get together, with the reason being that people like choices, so let's leave it as is. They'll continue to get the hardcore fan, (hell, my 18 yr old son is a black belt and wants to be an MMA fighter at Metzger's gym this summer, as do some of his friends) but if they want everybody, they have to have absolute champions, not the alphabet soup of title belts that pro boxing has become.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
CM's plan to fix MMA
Mixed martial arts is growing about as fast as Under Armour athletic gear: At about a 1000% clip in the past few years. It's getting so popular that there have become "crossover athletes", like wrestling's Brock Lesnar, boxing's Tommy Morrison and football's Johnnie Morton. Haven't noticed? Well that's due to the fact that the sport doesn't have a highest level, an NFL or NBA, so to speak. Of course the UFC will tell you they are king, and they may be #1, but the K-1, guys or the Pride cats will beg to differ. Then there's Bodog and IFL, also with a bunch of dudes that lay it on the line. That's just way too many factions, and leads to confusion as opposed to debate over who the best really is. Someone is going to have to do a Vince McMahon Sr. to make this even more popular. Mr.McMahon's dad created a national wrestling federation at a time when the promotions were all regional. Selling this idea was easier than getting all of the various MMA factions on the same page will be, but here's how it could be done: First and most obvious is for the total unification of the factions into one "NFL" type of league. You could then regionalize the sport with multiple fights with popular fighters from certain areas, i.e: Diego Sanchez (Alb., NM) along with newcomer Tommy Morrison (Okla.), with Guy Metzger's dojo here in Dallas being the region's headquarters, could have fights in Texas, Oklahoma City, and Colorado. Rich Franklin (Cinn., OH) could join Stephan Bonner (Ind.), Matt Hughes (Iowa) in an Midwest and Ohio Valley tour, while newcomer Brock Lesnar (Minn.) and Rashard Evans could do a Minnesota/upper peninsula swing. Tito Ortiz (Ca.) and Hong Man Choi (S.Korea; He's the green haired, 7-3 365 lb. giant pictured holding the trophy ), along with some help from Ken's Shamrock's Lion's Den dojo of fighters could do a west coast/Arizona series. It could all culminate with a series of title fights in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or any large venue along the eastern seaboard. A Superbowl, or World Series, whatever catchy name you want to call it, would be the culmination of the season and a springboard for the next season. Now, most of the fighters I just mentioned are with the UFC, so the most likely real scenario would be them getting all of the best fighters (Choi, Mighty Mo, Bob Sapp and the newcomers Lesnar and Morrison) to sign with them, and using their deal with Spike TV, to unify this thing and declare real, undisputed champions. It may never happen because of the factions' inability or desire to get together, with the reason being that people like choices, so let's leave it as is. They'll continue to get the hardcore fan, (hell, my 18 yr old son is a black belt and wants to be an MMA fighter at Metzger's gym this summer, as do some of his friends) but if they want everybody, they have to have absolute champions, not the alphabet soup of title belts that pro boxing has become.
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6 comments:
Nice read with some original thoughts. Don't forget about the golden gloves traditions of SA and Ft. Worth.
you should head this up
i believe in you
btw Johnie Morton got knocked the FUCK OUT!
You know, My Aunt is totally into UFC (I believe I've mentioned this before) and I too would likely be interested but it just seems too much like the WWE when ever I see the "previews."
They need to work on their PR to draw in a broader crowd and being more "unified" would likely help in that department.
Thanks E P. I could use a career change. As far as the promotions of the fighters go you should see this South Korean dude, his intro is WWE like and then some. He's awesome.
Not only did JMorton get knocked out, it was quick. K-1 promised Lesnar vs. Choi, then stuck some other dude in there for Lesnar to beat. They can't be doing shit like that on PPV.
that right they cant
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