SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
August - 2016
19
PR and notoriety load. It
ends up being easier to
build up other athletes by
putting them in the lime-
light when a star is head-
lining the card. The other
side of the coin, however,
is that people watch this
sport particularly because
regardless the level of
knowledge or experience
one possesses, any individ-
ual match can be entirely
unpredictable. All it takes
is one punch, kick, slip &
fall, cut over the eye, bro-
ken foot, or common cold,
to completely swing a fight
in any direction.
While the UFC as a pro-
motion is by no means
starved for super stars in
this current era, many out-
siders are coming to the
sport and wondering what
the quality of competition
is at the moment and will
be going forward. Many
of these people have been
brought into the fray out
of curiosity after the no-
tice of the large sale of the
promotion (the $4 billion
sale finalized after signa-
ture event UFC 200). They
hear stories and see vid-
eos of Ronda Rousey tak-
ing down opponent after
opponent in less than a
minute to retain her title.
The memories of Ander-
son Silva’s long run are still
fresh in their minds. When
one takes a step back and
realizes that the athletes
that knocked those leg-
ends off their perches not
all that long ago have al-
ready been knocked off of
the top of the mountain as
well. And coincidentally, so
have those who followed.
Meaning that two of the
most watched divisions in
recent history have seen
unprecedented turnover
at the top of the rankings.
This means that the casual
fan does not have time to
learn the ins-and-outs of
each new champion be-
fore they are no longer the
champion. That can disen-
chant fans from taking the
time to learn about them
in the first place, prevent-
ing them from becoming
super-stars and causing a
vicious cycle. The UFC may
end up having a bigger su-
per-star problem because,
well, they have a super-
star problem.
Now, in all reality, that’s
not a fair way to look at it.
What this could, and in all
likelihood actually means,
is that the talent in MMA
is getting better. The pools
of quality coaches, camps,
and athletes are getting
deeper around the world.
The fact that when some-
one takes a title belt there
is someone of quality wait-
ing for them posing a le-
gitimate threat, just shows
that the sport is success-
fully growing in the right
ways.
What does that really
mean? It means that die-
hard MMA fans have even
more athletes to learn
about and highlights to
watch. For the casual
MMA fan? It means that
they have a better chance
at knowing someone who
is involved at a high level,
because the sport is grow-
ing in new regions, gaining
traction across this country
as well as the world. Seeing
that growth, which is lead-
ing to parity, should only
help the sport and other
organizations not named
UFC, and that is something
that needs to be celebrat-
ed instead of being looked
down on. The more stories
there are to be heard, the
more people that are get-
ting involved for the right
reasons, the better off the
sport is for the long term.
