Interesting Article on MMA

By Zach Arnold



I’ve been absent. Maybe you noticed. Friends (and enemies) did. Perhaps some of you didn’t. Good for you. Sometimes, real life beckons and you have to deal with issues outside of the MMA bubble. That’s where I’ve been the last 45 days.



While I’ve paid attention to everything that has happened in the industry and stayed (somewhat) in the loop, the recent absence has kind of forced me to step out of the information bubble and look at the MMA scene from a distance. What I see is not very encouraging for the sport’s long-term health unless dramatic changes are made by UFC.



The UFC may be making solid cash, but you don’t lose 40% of your EBITDA without some major problems. Cancellations & injuries helped dig the hole but there is a much larger issue at play here. The UFC has done its fighters and itself a major disservice with the brand-first approach. There are simply too many television & internet fights and too much of a “random guy A vs. random guy B” vibe. Nothing is special any longer. This vibe discounts all of the hard work & sacrifices made by so many who are chasing a dream that only the top 2% in the sport can attain. The pool of cash is shrinking unless you are a big name or made yourself into a big name outside of the sport (see: Brock Lesnar). I’m extremely concerned about this. The industry continues to rely too much on either casino cash or dark money and the pool of dark cash has evaporated in a hurry. Once PRIDE left the scene, so did a lot of the loose cash in the Asian fight scene. Morally and ethically, I support what police & politicians have tried to accomplish on this front. But the damage has been very real to combat sports, even deeper than I first thought.



Bellator’s success feels largely independent of UFC right now. It may last a few years and go away. It may last longer. I don’t think Bellator right now really is expanding the pie. What I do think Bellator’s November show in San Diego proved is that they can win over some disgruntled UFC fans and also bring in the casual MMA fans who simply haven’t kept up with the current scene. Any time some of the older fighters can continue getting pay days, that’s a good thing. As long as those fighters are still in good enough physical shape and are not in danger of permanently damaging their bodies, then there’s nothing wrong with veterans getting fights. At the same time, I will be interested to see if Bellator & Spike can get the star rub onto guys like Will Brooks and make them into household names. The UFC will undoubtedly poach Bellator’s top stars with higher frequency. Bellator will be able to survive as long as they are able to attract some big names and mix them onto cards with fights of importance and value.



The UFC, on the other hand, needs a complete reboot. From the production values to the matchmaking, there needs to be a dramatic overhaul and it needs to be done fast. 45 shows a year is putting so much pressure on the production staff that it simply does not allow the hard-working employees any time to breathe or gather their collective thoughts. It’s backbreaking work. Burt Watson and others get paid a respectable wage but it’s not nearly enough for all of the turmoil they have to manage & put up with. Dana White is skipping more and more shows. There’s this processed, antiseptic, automated feel right now for the UFC product that feels stale, old, and unimportant. Even the current 115-pound female version of The Ultimate Fighter on Fox Sports 1 is underwhelming in presentation.



In pro sports, you fire the GM and the coach when you need to shake up the scenery. There are also off-seasons where the athletes have a chance to catch their breathe and regroup. The UFC suffers from the worst of both worlds — ownership can’t remove itself from the scene, isn’t willing to make dramatic changes, and they have no desire (like WWE) to implement a seasonable format. Every time you compare a UFC event to a college football or pro-football or NBA game, it will always feel like a last-place sports product for importance.



UFC management has become the one thing they mocked a decade ago — conservative.



I enjoy Mixed Martial Arts. I have great respect for the athletes who have so much at risk in attempting to accomplish their professional & personal dreams. I also know that the industry’s long-term shelf life has some real question marks and I’m not sure the power brokers in Las Vegas fully understand the gravity of the current situation they are facing.



I’m not sure ESPN gets it either by hiring Chael Sonnen to be the face of their MMA coverage. You go from Josh Gross & Mike Fish exposing the industry’s testosterone plague to hiring the poster child of said plague and making that person the face of your MMA coverage.



The more things change, the more they stay the same.


http://www.fightopinion.com/2014/11/25/health-of-mma-ufc-bellator/

Any thoughts/opinions on the article?

I think it's pretty good and I agree with alot of what the author says.

great article

UFC won't listen though..... onto to 45 events next year #thetimeisnow #worlddomination

TeamJohnPerretti wrote:By Zach Arnold
The UFC may be making solid cash, but you don’t lose 40% of your EBITDA without some major problems. Cancellations & injuries helped dig the hole but there is a much larger issue at play here. The UFC has done its fighters and itself a major disservice with the brand-first approach. There are simply too many television & internet fights and too much of a “random guy A vs. random guy B” vibe. Nothing is special any longer. .......The industry continues to rely too much on either casino cash or dark money and the pool of dark cash has evaporated in a hurry.

.......

The UFC, on the other hand, needs a complete reboot. From the production values to the matchmaking, there needs to be a dramatic overhaul and it needs to be done fast. 45 shows a year is putting so much pressure on the production staff that it simply does not allow the hard-working employees any time to breathe or gather their collective thoughts. It’s backbreaking work. ........ Dana White is skipping more and more shows. There’s this processed, antiseptic, automated feel right now for the UFC product that feels stale, old, and unimportant.


In pro sports, you fire the GM and the coach when you need to shake up the scenery. There are also off-seasons where the athletes have a chance to catch their breathe and regroup. The UFC suffers from the worst of both worlds — ownership can’t remove itself from the scene, isn’t willing to make dramatic changes, and they have no desire (like WWE) to implement a seasonable format.

These are the key points to me.
First, I find it interesting that this guy points out that the UFC is funded by "dark money". I mean, it's obvious, but it is interesting that a reporter will just casually point it out. It is even more interesting that he says this pool of money is vanishing. That says that the UFC, inspite of its failing efforts, has a dark pool of money to pull from to keep it afloat. However, that pool of money is vanishing. That is interesting. It means that if the UFC doesn't get its act together, it can quickly die.


The UFC is sameness week in week out. They had were able to replace the gladiator intro, why can't they get rid of "Face the Pain"? Is "Face the Pain" really such a timeless piece of music? But maybe it should stay the same. The UFC is really just the same old interchangeable guys with the same old fighting style. There really is nothing special about it week to week.

About the seasonal format: I have no idea what older combat sports do about that. (How often is there a boxing show?) For MMA, 12 shows a year sounds perfect. If a guy wants to fight more often, then allow for easy sharing of fighters between promotions.

Those are my thoughts on this article.

The author Zach Arnold has been around mma for a long time and has called Zuffa on lots of their BS and broken many stories involving Japanese based promotions.

The website is worth checking out.

http://www.fightopinion.com/

TeamJohnPerretti wrote:The author Zach Arnold has been around mma for a long time and has called Zuffa on lots of their BS and broken many stories involving Japanese based promotions.

The website is worth checking out.

http://www.fightopinion.com/

Thanks! When I first clicked on the article I thought it was just another bloodyelbow site. Didn't realize it was full of great articles like this! Thanks!

One of few people who dare to speak the truth. Zuffa is flooding the market with their shit and that turns people off. The question is if this is good or bad though. UFC signs all the best from other promotions but in the long run this will be their downfall. One huge Disappointment about Zuffas dominance is that almost every promotion is now a Zuffa wannabe.

Sometimes I feel it´s best if the whole sport goes down and the athletes concentrate on traditional combat sports so those can grow again.

Excellent article! Some absolute truth spoken there.

I think when it comes to real talk about mma. Coverage that is not bought/controlled by Zuffa there are three places to go.

Right here....Eddie Goldman....
and
http://www.fightopinion.com/

Zach is a good guy. We've been back and forth on Twitter and his site over various zuffa things for a long time. I've shared a few things with him and introduced him to our network of friends (Eddie, June White, and others) by including @FightOpinion in my communiques for subversive internet ops against Dana & the Fertittas.

As part of my white hat ops has been regular submissions of zuffa/fertittas/dana-exposing information (mob/personal/financial/political/etc) to all the major MMA news media people for years. They do not acknowledge for obvious reasons but they've been made aware of many things that are now being reported by them. I don't want to take credit... but I'm sure this has had some role a least in starting to wake them up.

TeamJohnPerretti wrote:I think when it comes to real talk about mma. Coverage that is not bought/controlled by Zuffa there are three places to go.

Right here....Eddie Goldman....
and
http://www.fightopinion.com/

Yeah, Zuffa has much of the media under control.  Always glad to have G-MMA and Eddie speaking truth.  I will have to check out fightopinion some more. Hopefully more will follow.

i like zach and eddie they are the few that tell the truth about the zuffa empire unlike a certain other journo who has the same name of a famous mermaid

westcott123 wrote:i like zach and eddie they are the few that tell the truth about the zuffa empire unlike a certain other journo who has the same name of a famous mermaid

Lol, Ariel the little mermaid.

that is good a  one i despise that guy when the day some one clocks him i am going to do this