Bamma 9

I was hoping BAMMA would make a go of it, but they seem content to keep ****ing things up!

 

Well Id rather see Reid get the crap beaten outta him than going down the Bob Sapp route of launching a promotion.

Hopefully they can get their act together and put on some shows that are worth attending

 

What channel in the US?
I dont see nothing.

 

It's on Extreme Sports isn't it? Why can't they show it live atsch Abysmal stuff.

What happened to the SyFy deal? Kong is from my town, would've been good to see him, good win over, admittedly past it, Ninja last time out.

 

It doesnt say anything about it being on HDNet on the guide
Maybe the guides wrong
How long til it starts?

 

I think we should make a British promotion with British and regional championships building prospects against journeymen and each other in a bid to build their profile and experience until they can get scouted by the big leagues.

Regular enough cards, and those not on TV streamed online or downloadable on iTunes for a small fee. Leisure centres and the occasional arena.

But that would be too logical an idea. Let's try and pay out stupid money early and keep cancelling, moving cards and losing it's one World class fighter

 

I'm here live. Its been a really good show actually. More European fighters than normally which has increased the technique levels.

In terms of them as a promotion....I think they never recovered from losing Bravo. That was such a great base for them, allowing them to reach the male demographic they were after. When Bravo went they were kinda screwed. The SyFy move made sense on both sides in theory (big exposure for Bamma, chance to broaden the demographic for SyFy) but they just could never get it to work in practice.

Their ongoing weakness at the box office can't help either - I'm here and there's no way that the NIA is more than two thirds full. I remember talking to Dave O'Donnell and sure he has his agenda but he was saying the reason he doesn't book arenas is that unless you fill them you lose your ass. Given how they've had to cut back on the big international stars, etc it seems he was right.

 

To me there's simply too many people trying to be the top guy in the sport. What you need is some structure to get the likes of Cage Rage/UCMMA, Cage Warriors and BAMMA working together to develop the market in different areas. The problem is that with the UFC now investing so little in growing the sport in this country its not like there's an every growing fanbase that just desperate for more MMA. I know when I was talking to people around the industry for a couple of articles last year there was a lot of pessimism about how things were going.

 

Agreed. Too much focus on trying to be a 'British UFC' when a domestic league and modest setup to facilitate growth would be a much better idea IMO.

The sporadic arena show is doing nothing for the growth of MMA in this country.