The Future of Mixed Martial Arts: Buissness or sport?

there is no argument Mixed Martial Arts is the fastest growing sport in the world. Sense its beggining it has been catipulted into the mainstream thanks to moments like the Griffin Bonnar fight or the bone crushing knockouts of Chuck Liddel, and even the overseas domination of a character we call the Axe Murderer. In this day and age MMA has been crowned the number 1 extreme sport and even slowly inched its way into sportcenter, and other mainstream media programs.

So now that our beloved sport has burst into the mainstream we have hit yet another roadblock, even though MMA has all the credentials to be considered a sport. Atheletes, competion, rules, and a athletic comission that has the sport on LOCKDOWN, there are questions on its legitimacy as a word renowned sport. with all these things considered doesnt it only make sense to say that mma is a mainstream sport? we could but there is one problem, there are people in power that put the buissness aspect before what really makes sense for the sport. There are a few prime examples, does anybody remember a little event called UFC 91 Couture Vs Lesnar? Although i cannot argue with the results, Brock Lesnar was given a title shot that literally came after a 1-1 stint in the UFC. really?i didnt realize that was all you needed to qualify for the baddest title in the bis. Although Lesnar became a dominate champion he still took a road that was intitled for the promotions finacial gain, not the HW rankings. Another big No-no for the UFC was all the publicity “kimbo Slice” got before he even got into TUF house. we get it, rags to riches, fought on the internet, youtube sensation etc etc. but the UFC used this man for personal gain and through him out after he went 1-1 in the promotion… mind you the same EXACT record got lesnar a title shot, and kimbo thrown out on his ass. i mean where is the fairness in that they used Kimbo for finacial gain and dropped him like a sac of potatoes.

However the UFC is not the only guilty promotion in this respect. Strikeforce has been doing buissnes very similar. After Werdum pulled off the fairy tale ending at strikeforces “fedor vs werdum” card, Scott Coker was at a loss of what to do. He put several options on the table, None of which made any sense for the sake of his companies legitmacy. It was after heavy critism that Coker finally realized that if he wanted his HW title to mean anything Werdum and Overeem must fight, no fedor werdum rematch just yet. But my point is that every chance a CEO gets to make a quick buck, they will reagardless if its for the good of the sport or not. Wether it be Dana White or Scott Coker, Promotions need to make some changes. If we want to be taken seriously as a sport we need to unify and start promoting for the good of the sport and of the fighters. If promotions werent so money hungry deaths like Michael “tree” Kirkham would not have occured.

Although there are many, MANY more examples these are a few of the prime ones