MMA’s Mistakes Avoided – At Least Until NOW
Published by Charles Jay on June 8th, 2008 in Operation Cleanup

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I was thinking the other day – What would I do if I was just sitting down to start an MMA organization and wished to avoid the kind of mistakes that were made by people in the boxing world? Clearly boxing has hit quite a few potholes, and mixed martial arts, for the most part, has been an effective counter-strike to that kind of paradigm.

* One of the things one would do is try to stage more COMPETITIVE FIGHTS. You just can’t have an atmosphere where you have “laydown” fights in front of a TV audience. You can’t promote fighters and make matches strictly on the basis of an agenda. Insulting the audience in that way is something you may never be forgiven for. When you are in front of a TV camera, you have to put your best foot forward, to borrow an oft-beaten phrase. The opponent-types just won’t do. There are always going to be favorites and underdogs, but theoretically, you always want to go into a fight not knowing for sure which side is going to win. That practice has gone out the window in boxing, but it has been preserved to a considerable extent in the UFC.

* I’d be looking to avoid the very SILLY PUBLICITY STUNTS. Everybody likes excitement, but there is a tendency to go overboard and to stay there. As far as the pre-fight and post-fight press conferences, boxing has already beaten the “spontaneous” altercation to death. But I see this coming to MMA, like at the press conference after Kimbo Slice’s fight. Gary Shaw of Elite XC has certainly been around to witness a lot of these in boxing, and although I’m not making any accusations, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think he or his charges may have instigated some of them. Believe me, if he sees that it is effective, he’s likely to keep encouraging it. So you might as well get ready for it.

These days in boxing, the extra-curricular brawl is almost obligatory. The culture of mixed martial arts seems to have been to inject a little more dignity into the proceedings. Over-aggressiveness at the press conference usually doesn’t enter into it. But maybe that culture is about to be changed, and not for the better, I might add.

* I’d want to steer clear of the idea of the SANCTIONING ORGANIZATION in the sense that it is applied in boxing. I will definitely go into this in more depth at a later time. For the moment, let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that we are talking about the kind of “governing body” that is “open for business,” so to speak; not an independent board but a rogue collection of individuals whose sole purpose is to generate sanctioning fees (and large ones at that), which would customarily lead them to doing things that may facilitate the best interests of the promoter but be in conflict with the best interests of the sport.

Mixed martial arts admittedly has its own issues with the UFC and its contemporaneous role as promoter and sanctioning body. But as of yet, this idea of the so-called “independent” organization that is a de facto extension of the promotion has yet to infiltrate the world of MMA (I haven’t examined WAMMA enough to say anything yet). However, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen soon. As a by-product of building and steering certain fighters toward a desired status (Kimbo?), DO NOT discount the possibility that you are going to be seeing them in the near future, when a transplant from the boxing industry, who understands how impressive an alphabet soup title might sound, wants to get things done by going through that kind of “channel.”

* I would commit myself to engaging in a little LONG-TERM THINKING. In boxing, it is much more about getting the money NOW. It’s all about taking the money and running with it. From what I have observed in boxing over the past 25 years, very few people in that business have operated in such a way as to lay the groundwork for the future development of the sport, not just for their own particular enterprise. That’s called a contribution. It means you’re giving a little, and most folks in boxing only want to take. They want to exploit the moment at hand and couldn’t care less about what happens five minutes into the future.

That, as I see it, and I don’t think I’m being harsh, is the fundamental difference between the UFC and an outfit like Elite XC. The UFC could have done a lot of things in an exploitative fashion. They could have injected a lot of clowns into their organization and turned it into a cartoon. They could have continued to put over Tank Abbott, but he didn’t represent their idea of what the MMA athlete should be. They could have padded Brock Lesnar’s slate with a bunch of crowbars and lesser-lights in order to work their way up to some phony crescendo. They could have created a a whole bunch of WWE-style personas and had them screaming at each other at press conferences and on the air. They could have signed Kimbo if they wanted, and BELIEVE ME, if they really wanted, they could have outbid anyone for him. They could have done a lot of things to make a cheap buck here and generate a cheap thrill there.

But they didn’t. And you know why? It isn’t because they never thought of any of that stuff, but because they knew that after the bomb went off and dust cleared, they would still have to be around. In other words, they had long-run interests to worry about.

And before we go any further, all you’d have to do is go back into my archives to know that I’m not an operative or a shill for the UFC.

But whether you’re an interested party or not, you can tell that in the UFC, they love the sport. They LIVE the sport. The guys at Elite XC do not love the sport. They do not live the sport. I have to believe that if the quick money was in arm-wrestling contests, that’s where they’d be. And they would probably bring somebody like Kimbo with them.

Their interests are at odds with true fans of MMA in that as far as they’re concerned, it’s strictly a business proposition. That’s really the only kind of sensibility that could create a Kimbo Slice. It’s about lining pockets in the short run, and to hell with the long run.

Than again, that’s precisely what can be expected of an organization that was started by a couple of slimy scumbags out to pull a stock scam. According to a recent article in Barron’s, the organization’s founders, Florian Homm and Todd Ficeto, bilked investors for millions of dollars in a pump-and-dump scheme that netted them – you guessed it – some quick cash and let bewildered shareholders pick up the pieces (more on that to come).

If you’re a REAL mixed martial arts fan, is that the kind of mentality you’re board with?

What kind of sport is this going to be?