Hello, hello fellow readers. Happy new year for all of you who already stepped in 2015. and for all those who are yet to do so, I say happy new year to you too.
So this was rumbling around my head for quite some time now. It's basically my opinion on how to deal with UFC's presence in the mma scene and what do I see as potential for other organizations to exploit to their advantage. I'll make a habit of posting more often, so expect moar stuff in the coming days. Until then,this is your soon to be favorite MMA blogger, Armbar, saying;
Good fight and good night!
Good fight and good night!
Know thy enemy
Strength in numbers
Show me the money
Thinking long term, it should become a must that a shift of focus in talent signing takes place. It should go form experienced but pricey veterans to inexperienced novices for starting pay in order to allow them to grow as a fighter and as such get bigger salaries. For example, in 2008. a young, up and coming 2-0 HW fighter with a rich amateur wrestling background and a very promising future made his UFC debut. Making short work of his first opponent a 10-2 Brad Morris, the young wrestler scored a first round TKO. The quick skirmish got him a cool 14,000$ (7,000$ for showing up, 7,000$ for winning). Not bad,right? That same fighter would later go on and win the UFC HW gold, gathering an (almost) UFC exclusive 13-1 fight record. The fighter in question, is of course the UFC HW champion Cain Velasquez. In 2013. Cain's fight against Junior Dos Santos made him an estimate of 400 000 $. Think of it this way. The rule for signing fighters should be the same as signing porn stars; get them while they're young hot and willing for as little money as possible. Now, I should make it clear that when I say "for as little money as possible“ I mean it in a „nice“ way. Fighters should get paid what they deserve to be paid, no excuses. They put their bodies on the line. train their asses off and lets be honest. Getting punched in the face isn't exactly a dream job. However, investing more in yet to be developed fighters has proven to be a more cost efficient method rather then investing in developed veterans. Which bring me to my next point.
If WWE can do it, why can't I?
A long rant reaches an end
UFC is an mma powerhouse growing bigger and badder with each passing day, and ass such it has turned into a multimillionaire dollar business that is now getting an exclusive sponsorship deal with Reebok. It is where the top mma fighters come to prove their worth, be the best and beat the best. It should come to no surprise that other companies have tried to reach those levels of success, but ended up short handed in the end. From the legendary Japanese Pride FC to America's own Strikeforce, all thought they had it figured out how to compete with the business giant but at the end just got absorbed into the ever growing UFC. It would be more than fair to say that the UFC is „unbeatable“ when it comes to success, but that title is harder to maintain then all of it's championship belts combined. The global mma scene is following UFC's steps closely and breathing down it's neck. While the drop in overall product quality outside of Zuffa's umbrella is very real and visible, the competition has been picking up serious momentum in the last few years and the quality is catching up with the „top dog“ pretty quickly, and with that, a window of opportunity presents itself.
Strength in numbers
Co-promotion, a word meaningless to the common man, yet it causes groaning, eye rolling and sarcastic laughter of UFC's boss, Dana White. The sheer concept is unheard of in the UFC and it is believed that it is one of the main reasons why Pride's unstoppable Russian HW champion, Fedor Emelianenko, never reached an agreement with the UFC. The embracing of the concept would prove to be more fruitful in the long run,and here's why. Roster sharing would allow pitting best fighters of „x“ organization against best fighters of „y“ organisation and with that a whole new world of match ups opens up. Rivalries, rematches, trilogies, „against the odds“ shocking victories, super fights… etc. All memorable and marketable moments which can be used to promote your brand in the long run. The hesitance of „sharing your toys with others“ is understandable since it opens up the possibilities of top fighters getting injured and possibly pulling out of fight, fighters losing value, demanding more money etc. but those risks are all possible even without co- promoting. Those are all reasonable risk that come with the job. The main thing to keep in mind here is that the goal is to keep the fans happy and put „asses in seats“. Because happy fans will transition into loyal fans who will watch your shows and buy your product and possibly, maybe, even pick you over UFC at times. Further more, the concept isn't something new. Russia's M-1 Global has a history of co- promoting with other organisations and they have spread well beyond the confines of their motherland in Russia. They now have held hundreds of events in Russia, China, USA, Japan and just about everywhere else in between. Further more, the Russian based organization isn't the first one to hold a shared event. In 2002, the long gone but never forgotten amongst mma fans, Japanese Pride FC held a co- promoting event called "Pride: Shockwave Dynamite!". The event saw the best from the world of kickboxing(K-1) and mixed martial arts( Pride FC ) square of against each other in an event that, to this day holds the record in martial arts event with the attendance of 71, 000 people!
My way or the highway(?)
A lot of fighters that fit right in UFC's ranks skill and performance wise choose not to in order to try other things(kickboxing, grappling.... etc.) besides mma or just fight in more than one mma organization and test themselves against the best across the globe, which, as I pointed out, UFC isn't all that happy about. Which makes sense from their perspective, since they keep their fighter loyal to their brand and they are powerful enough to have such negotiation leverage over every fighter. No matter how big of a star he may be. However, that opens up fighters to injuries and over training due to long and grueling training camps. Moreover, the fighters are just wasting the precious time they have to compete at their best, just waiting for fights. Signing fighters that want to be freelancers and just travel the world doing what they love (which is beating people up for money) allowing them to fight outside your organization would make the fighters happy and maybe even convince them into signing an exclusive contract with your brand over time. Also this way you have active fighters who are sharpening their skills while they don't have a fight scheduled under your banner and by doing so they can even potentially even bring in fans from other contact sports who will in turn watch your product.
Show me the money
Thinking long term, it should become a must that a shift of focus in talent signing takes place. It should go form experienced but pricey veterans to inexperienced novices for starting pay in order to allow them to grow as a fighter and as such get bigger salaries. For example, in 2008. a young, up and coming 2-0 HW fighter with a rich amateur wrestling background and a very promising future made his UFC debut. Making short work of his first opponent a 10-2 Brad Morris, the young wrestler scored a first round TKO. The quick skirmish got him a cool 14,000$ (7,000$ for showing up, 7,000$ for winning). Not bad,right? That same fighter would later go on and win the UFC HW gold, gathering an (almost) UFC exclusive 13-1 fight record. The fighter in question, is of course the UFC HW champion Cain Velasquez. In 2013. Cain's fight against Junior Dos Santos made him an estimate of 400 000 $. Think of it this way. The rule for signing fighters should be the same as signing porn stars; get them while they're young hot and willing for as little money as possible. Now, I should make it clear that when I say "for as little money as possible“ I mean it in a „nice“ way. Fighters should get paid what they deserve to be paid, no excuses. They put their bodies on the line. train their asses off and lets be honest. Getting punched in the face isn't exactly a dream job. However, investing more in yet to be developed fighters has proven to be a more cost efficient method rather then investing in developed veterans. Which bring me to my next point.
If WWE can do it, why can't I?
Finding guys that will be the next Cain Velasquez or Jon Jones is not an easy task. You have to know where to look and have someone who knows what to look for. This is something a former fighter or at least, someone who's been in the fight business long enough to recognize potential when he sees one, should do. Professional wrestling business juggernaut, WWE, have this problem solved with their development territory brand „NXT“. Firstly, they have their own scouts(seasoned pro wrestlers who can spot talent) who travel around the world and recruit untouched lumps of coal that they later on shape into the shinny diamonds that pro wrestling fans get to see on their tv's . Once the talent reaches the development brand they have former pro wrestlers that coach them and help develop up and coming „WWE superstars“. With that they have a steady influx of fresh, young superstars that are ready for when they get „the call“ to step up to the big show(pun intended) , which in this case are WWE's "Smackdown" and "Raw" brands. Now taking this concept and using it on mma would do wonders in terms of( using the same analogy as above) spotting lumps of coal that will become shinny diamonds later on in their careers, and sweeping them right under the competitions' nose. That way you secure yourself that once the fighter reaches full potential he just moves up to the „big leagues“ and continues to prove why he thinks he's the best while never actually leaving your company. That's not saying that famous and older fighters should be pushed aside. You need viewers and for the viewers to come you need recognizable faces, star power. A 3-1 20 year old rookie won't bring in the casual viewers no matter how hard you try. You also need someone that the young guys can fight in order to take a step up in competition and fame. Case in point, Fabricio Werdum. He was (and still is) a great grappler and a experienced but mediocre mma fighter, who never quite broke into the top 10 of his division. He had fame, but not that much, outside of the sports' fan base.Then one night in 2010, on June 26th, he did the unthinkable, and gave Fedor Emelianenko, the long reigning heavyweight, his first stoppage loss. The win gave him almost instant fame and recognition which accompanied with his previous record was more then enough for UFC boss Dana White to give him a second chance in the UFC, even though he suffered a decision loss to Alistar Overeem shorty after fighting Fedor.
A long rant reaches an end
Doing exactly the opposite of what Zuffa is doing now might prove to be the best way to beat them at what they do best. In order to develop yourself as a leading mma organization that can become as big and fierce as UFC is now, you have to win the fight before it even starts. You have to be the intense staredown before the fight, the better training camp that makes the difference in the ring. Because that way you won't burn out and the UFC won't just end up waiting you out and getting your best fighters and turning your organization into stock footage, like they did, so many times before.
Final Thoughts
( I swear)
WWE's owner Vince McMahon recently stated that one of the main reasons his company won the famed "Monday Night Wars" in the 90's was a different approach to business philosophy from the rivaled company. McMahon stated that his competition(Ted Turner's WCW) was trying to put WWE out of business and hurt their company. While McMahon was trying a overall better product and make the company better. Which is exactly what this should be. Not a war, but a growing process.
Final Thoughts
( I swear)
WWE's owner Vince McMahon recently stated that one of the main reasons his company won the famed "Monday Night Wars" in the 90's was a different approach to business philosophy from the rivaled company. McMahon stated that his competition(Ted Turner's WCW) was trying to put WWE out of business and hurt their company. While McMahon was trying a overall better product and make the company better. Which is exactly what this should be. Not a war, but a growing process.
