In the last decade or so, MMA in America and the UFC in particular has gone from virtually illegal to being right on the cusp of being a mainstream sport. As MMA's profile has grown, so has the UFC's domination of the sport. http://sports.yahoo.com/ On the main Yahoo page, there is now a link to an MMA section, though it is labelled "UFC", which says something about the growth of the sport and also Dana White's influence on it. And now this deal with Fox has been signed, which has meant that in one stroke - just like that - mixed martial arts has become a mainstream sport. So where do you see the sport being in 2021? And the UFC? :think Discuss. :good :hat
It will overtake boxing as the premier combat sport, will probably be an Olympic sport or being pressured immensely to be sanctioned as one. The UFC will be the biggest stage of them all and alot more "karate" gyms will have MMA in their name.
Can MMA reach some of the public status and generate some of the same excitement that boxing used to have? Will there be legitimate international rivalries, leading to regular "USA vs Brazil", "UK vs Australia/NZ" type cards? Will the UFC heavyweight champion be widely recognized by the general public and acclaimed as the baddest man on the planet? :hat
In my opinion MMA is already overtaking boxing in excitement simply because the best guys fight the best guys otherwise there goes their job. Yes, it'll only get bigger. I believe so especially if it gets sanctioned as an Olympic sport. Rivalries will be abundant. Sorry but in a street fight I'd already take Cain Velasquez over a Klitschko so yes, he will be the baddest man on the planet.
Agreed. Fighters face challenges. They fight regularly against top competition. Nobody gets to sit on their ass fighting a series of cans until they get a title shot. Nobody writes you off as soon as you lose, you are given another tough fight and you are always only one or two fights away from getting back into title contention. And slowly but surely all the fighters are moving under one tent so there are no ridiculous promotional blocks stopping important fights from happening. Don't know anything about this Olympic stuff, maybe that is worth a separate discussion. Well obviously, but "the baddest man on the planet" is a title traditionally associated with the heavyweight boxing champion. I guess the question is, how long before you ask a random "Who is the heavyweight champ?" and they think of MMA as a sport before they think of boxing. :hat
Well on the way. Godspeed. It's a stretch, but we will see Country v Country very soon on TUF. 10 years is a long time, but I don't see them putting in the effort to match nationality against nationality unless things are really, really going well. Hopefully by the end of the year, and rightfully so. I went to "The UFC" section on yahoo sports expecting it to be all UFC news expect for 2 Bellator articles. Bryant Gumbel will soon have a segment on MMA which includes Chuck Liddell :happy Anarchy, my thoughts exactly.
Yes the UFC heavyweight champion will be recognized as the baddest man on the planet. Especially if his charisma is up to par. Someone with the personality of Frank Mir perhaps? I find him very insightful and entertaining outside the octagon. My hope for MMA is submission and grappling skills achieves the same love and respect as a knockout artist.
And when Australia starts having some good fighters come through, there is a ready-made national sporting rivalry. :hat
How could I forget this? I go through season 9 of TUF every month or so. Those Brits were class :thumbsup Love that show.
It will continue to become a mainstream sport. At the very least it will become like boxing - big business that people don't want to follow closely, partially because the sport isn't built like that and partially because football etc will always reign supreme.
i can see boxing getting worse and worse in relation to big fights not getting made too many corrupt promoters etc etc, mma will be bigger but its growth has slowed of late also there is something very disturbing in relating to wlad klitsckho as the baddest man on the planet
The UFC/MMA will never be bigger than boxing. It simply doesn't have the history or the social acceptance. In addition MMA isn't half as big as fans think it is. The sport is still relatively niche. Granted the UFC have broken into the mainstream but they will be the only brand to do this in the West. Purely because of their business model and economic clout. If the sport get's bigger absolutely it will get more and more regulated. The UFC has already succumbed to regulation in order to make it more palatable. Any more regulation and we'd be looking at Pancrase style Hybrid Wrestling. If you ask me we're only a few notches above that as it is.
