SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
June - 2015
33
outside North America, Brazil,
and some parts of Western Eu-
rope), a lot of top calibre talent
has gone all but ignored by the
MMA fanbase (and to some ex-
tent the MMA media), especially
when it comes to drawing up
the ever popular fighter ranking
lists. Since most of those focus
on a top ten, or top fifteen, get-
ting deeper into the rank and file
may seem a little pointless — but
as the sport grows, it is becom-
ing more and more crucial.
What do rankings really mean?
Well, for a fighter in the UFC, they
almost meant how much spon-
sorship money a fighter would
receive from the promotion’s ex-
clusive deal with Reebok, though
that was changed recently to
tenure. Outside the promotion,
however, rankings, and the issue
of notability, can mean increased
pay for fighters, and a shot at
fighting for a larger promotion.
In short, being ranked, and even
having a wikipedia entry, can
get a fighter to the next level, as
rankings and notability should —
yet as the sport has pushed into
new territories (Russia, Poland,
Asia), a decidedly western bias
has taken root.
It goes something like this: surely
the UFC (and to a lesser extent
Bellator and the WSOF) have all
the top fighters in the world,
because they’re the big promo-
tions, right? They’ve got big tele-
vision deals in the U.S. and else-
where after all.
Yet exposure doesn’t determine
quality, and that’s something
that far too many parties in the
MMA game don’t seem to get.
Which takes us back to the KSW
example: KSW, thus far, hasn’t
had a lot of exposure outside
Poland. Yet the reverse is also
true: until recently, the UFC, the
world’s largest MMA promotion,
didn’t have much exposure in
Poland. In the same way that ca-
sual fans of the fight game say
“I’m a UFC fan” or “I want to
train UFC,” fans in Poland would
say “I want to train KSW” and “I
follow KSW.” The initials are just
as synonymous with MMA in Po-
land as the UFC is in the west.
That situation is changing, espe-
cially with Joanna Jjedrzejczyk as
the UFC women’s strawweight
champion, but that’s a more re-
cent development.
Again, exposure and popularity
don’t dictate the quality of fight-
ers — but when you have a thriv-
ing MMA scene in a region that’s
untapped by the major (western)
MMA promotions, you need to
start to reconsider the whole
“the best fighters are in XXX
promotion” argument. Especially
when you have the likes of KSW’s
Bedorf, Ben Askren, Satoshi Ishii,
Bibiano Fernades, and others all
outside of the “big three” North
American MMA outfits. Bedorf
doesn’t even qualify for a Wikipe-
dia page as he hasn’t appeared in
one of the major North American
promotions (only the UFC and
Bellator are considered reputable
enough for that), despite having
wins over the likes of Rolles Gra-
cie Jr., Oli Thompson, and now
Graham — all of whom actually
do qualify. Of course, the same
issue can sometimes befell even
UFC fighters: thanks to the same
asinine judgment about which
fighters matter, even Rin Nakai,
contracted to the UFC, is denied
entry in the crowd-sourced en-
cyclopedia, despite having held
multiple titles in smaller promo-
tions.
Now, to be clear, this isn’t an
argument claiming that some-
one like Bedorf, or Ishii, would
suddenly dethrone Cain Velas-
quez. Yet they’re unquestionably
undervalued because, frankly,
to most fans, it’s out-of-sight,
out-of-mind. If they don’t know
a fighter’s name, regardless of
how many wins they have, the
question is quickly “who have
they beaten? I don’t know any
of those guys.” As if there aren’t
plenty of great fighters across the
globe we all haven’t heard of.
What all this comes down to is
a matter of perspective: as most
fans know, any fighter can win
on any given night. So how
highly should we hold rankings
that focus only on the North
American-based promotions and
maybe throw in one or two top
names from elsewhere at best?
And should we start pushing,
as fans (and especially those of
us with voices and platforms to
push the idea) for more cross-
promotion between fight outfits
in different regions of the globe?
There’s no easy answer. The only
thing that is certain is that the
sport is still growing — and these
issues will continue to creep up.
