Let me take a moment or two, if you will, to reflect on whether the UFC is truly turning MMA into a sport, or is purely a promoter out to make as much money as possible. Let me mull over whether it could successfully do both things. While I’m there please allow me to dip my toe into the debates on performance enhancing drugs, the Reebok deal and the UFC’s matchmaking.
PED POLICIES AND TITLE SHOTS – THE CONTRADICTION
A couple of weeks ago the UFC managed to excite the MMA community by announcing a new program to help educate around, and stamp out, performance enhancing drug (PEDs) use. The mission is simple: make sure people are aware of the consequences of taking PEDs and make the penalties so severe you’d be crazy to even risk using them in the first place. It is safe to say that the plan looks solid.
There will be random testing in and out of competition at a much more frequent rate. There is no mercy for would be cheats. I, for one, am glad to see the biggest promotion in the sport working with the athletic commissions to make the sport more ethical and safer for the clean competitors. I think we can all agree that we’d feel more comfortable supporting and buying in to the promotion and the sport knowing that it was fair and the athletes were competing on a level playing field. This promotion of fairness and sportsman like behavior is surely what the UFC hope will ease MMA’s transformation into a mainstream entity.
The UFC might be coming down hard on PED users but as a promotion they overlooked light heavyweight contender Ryan Bader –- who is on a four fight win streak — for a title shot for a more popular fighter, Alexander Gustafsson, who is coming off a loss. What is the point of spending millions to level a playing field you will ignore? I’d like to start by stating an obvious point: Gustafsson vs Daniel Cormier is a much more exciting fight than Cormier vs Bader. Personally I feel that Gustafsson has a much better chance of defeating Cormier than Bader does.
It appears that the world, by large, agrees with me. But does that make it the right thing to do? From a business sense, I understand that Gustafsson vs D.C. will easily sell more pay per view packages than D.C. vs Bader and it certainly looks like the UFC are confident that is the case. As a fan, I’m more excited to see Gustafsson vs D.C. as that has the makings of a real striker vs grappler match up that could blow the barn doors off with the right promotion. I mean we would host it in… Stockholm? Anyone?
Now Ryan Bader might not be winning in a sexy stylish fashion but he is winning. He doesn’t have the fan base or the draw of Gustafsson, at least his previous numbers have yet to suggest he does. The UFC is a business. They are in the business of promoting. They will surely want to promote the biggest fights they can and make as much money as possible. So if that is the case why care about the sporting side of mixed martial arts at all? Why not just promote and support the spectacle?
I really cannot understand the commitment to cleaning up a sport you will corrupt for your own profitable gains. The UFC sells out arenas on entertainment and the thrill of a knock out not the thrill of a passed drug test.
Why spend millions of dollars cleaning up a sport so that you can allow the athletes the chance to compete on a level playing field and then don’t show respect to the process of earning a title shot? The UFC has publically confirmed that they do not have a financial benefit for administering so many drug tests however it is ‘The right thing to do for the sport’. Is giving someone coming off a loss the chance to fight for UFC gold right for the sport? I don’t see how it is.
COMPARISONS TO OTHER SPORTS ARE SIMPLY WORDS WITHOUT SUBSTANCE
The UFC constantly compares itself to other sports such as the NFL and the NBA. If the NFL ignored the Patriots 13-3 record and instated the 8-8 Dolphins in the Super Bowl because they figured it would be a better match up, how would the league respond? Everything would go to hell. The Patriots earned this right. The Dolphins didn’t. The records speak for themselves.
Now I understand that prize fighting does work differently to a more traditional sporting structure but this is a gross overlooking of a potential contender. 4-0 in your last four fights or 2-2 in your last four fights, who deserves the shot? Yeah I went the 4-0 guy first too. I don’t think it is criminal to lean towards WWE territory but you have to eventually make a choice.
It is fair to say that the UFC doesn’t owe the sport of MMA anything. It is perfectly within its rights to put on the fights that it wants and make huge sums of money ignoring any stat it chooses in favour of electrifying the crowds and selling pay per views and making a fortune for the owners. But the promotion doesn’t seem to want to be just about the entertainment, it seems to want to build a sport. They believe that in growing the sport and educating the masses around that, they are set to make even more money in the process. They have signed huge TV deals in the United States and Brazil to help them along. So who minds if they cut a few corners along the way?
There is another dimension to the debate. The UFC recently announced a uniform deal with Reebok. The news of the deal has, for the large part, riled and bothered fighters. They can no longer get sponsors and make money through that avenue but rather are paid to wear Reebok in a tiered system designed by the UFC.
The initial figures released by the UFC are significantly less than many fighters claim they can earn gathering their own sponsors. The UFC have suggested that the fuss is over nothing. They state that the NFL has a uniform agreement and on the field all players must wear the branded jerseys. They cannot simply go and wear whatever they choose.
SPORT vs SPECTACLE IN THE UFC
The UFC are the NFL of mixed martial arts. It is a claim that they have worked hard to earn. The UFC is also quick to compare themselves to other major American sports leagues or rather they are when it suits them. I’m not convinced you can hide behind uniform deals and heavy handed PED eradication processes for independent contractors, but then make the fights you want rather than the fights that make sense for the sport.
The ‘Big leagues’ just cannot get away with picking the match ups they want. They have to sell and market and promote the best of what presents itself. We would all rather watch another Steelers vs Cardinals Superbowl over the one sided Broncos vs Seahawks debacle, unless of course you were a Seahawks fan.
I understand that you can’t take performance enhancing drugs in the NFL and expect to remain punishment free. I understand the desire to make your promotion the league leader in what is right and what is wrong within your sport. Just don’t get in the way of the competition. Let that be natural. Within a sport, drug testing, equality, fairness and uniform are all part of an athletes responsibility and an organisations prerogative, however – within entertainment does it make a difference?
For MMA fighters and promotions the athletic commission in each state randomly tests the athletes and hands out fines and penalties, but they don’t regulate overseas. When it comes to overseas events the UFC handles the testing themselves. Not too well either, isn’t that right Cung Le? But I ask you, does the average fan, the mainstream fan the UFC are reaching for with the FOX sports deal and the likes, even care about PED use? I don’t know that they really do.
I know I spoke up earlier that I was pleased to see an effort being made to clean up the sport. I do believe that if we are going to follow a set of rules then the penalties for cheating and endangering others in the process should be severe and really hit people where it hurts – the wallet. I think it is safe to say I don’t care about PEDs but rather a fair system for each competitor. If I had invested in this as a fan knowing PEDs were used I could’ve and would’ve still found myself drawn to watching two human beings at the top of their game.
WHAT IF WE JUST GAVE PED USERS A FREE PASS
Would turning a blind eye to PED testing prevent the UFC growing? I don’t think the hardcore MMA fan thinks that the UFC can really go ‘Mainstream’. I don’t think it can go beyond a certain level and we may be already there – it will just reach this level in other territories too. In the current climate, two men or women in a cage fighting until one is knocked out or is forced to tap out is still a brutal concept to most people. They just don’t get a kick out of it.
Nobody likes to see unfair advantages in any sport. But what if both competing parties were allowed the use of PEDs in equal measure? Would we still watch knowing that both competitors were using steroids to look better, fight harder and train longer? Pride Fighting Championship existed and flourished under allegations of steroid abuse and match fixing. It was always seen as a freak show in this country but I suspect if the product was tailored for Western audiences a la the UFC then it would’ve probably enjoyed the same level of success outside of Japan.
One reason the UFC has for wanting sport over spectacle is that FOX sports wouldn’t want to broadcast steroid abusing brawlers. It is possible that Reebok wouldn’t want to associate itself with what many view as cheating – whether or not the rules of the game allow it. Maybe these business associates and partners don’t want to see Ryan Badar vs Daniel Cormier when they can see Alexander Gustafson vs Daniel Cormier? Without the money coming in the whole ship could sink.
I probably wouldn’t be even writing this article if the ship went down. But the UFC has built that mindset into the foundations. They chose this path. It wasn’t forced upon them to over-regulate. Bellator MMA doesn’t do the extra testing. They leave the commission to do commission things and focus on promoting. The rates on Spike seem to suggest the audience is alright with that being the lay of the land.
And so after debating the why and the how, I am no closer to a real answer as to what the real and true goal of where the UFC is heading with all this. This is the UFC’s ship and I am just a passenger. But as a fan, a consumer, I can’t understand going to such an effort to stop an unfair advantage going to one athlete over another when you are going to hand out those advantages yourself. On that I call double standards.
I’d like to see the UFC steer the ship one way or the other because right now it feels rudderless. Am I supporting a growing sport that is pushing the boundaries of athletic integrity and promoting the best fighters on the planet? Or am I watching an entertainment promotion that picks the fights it wants and wins by money through keeping me glued to my seat? Personally I am in favour of the former but I could certainly see myself getting behind either outcome. I get a sense that most people feel the same. I get a sense that eventually I might get an honest answer.
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