You’re reading this because your a hardcore fan. You would not have found this interesting enough to read if you weren’t. Your interest in MMA tells us you enjoy the sport.
It may be safe to assume you wish the best for the sport. Up to and including main stream acceptance, and widespread coverage not unlike what is seen in most professional sports today.
Point is, we all want growth and what is best for the sport. Problem is, sometimes the head has a way of falling behind the feet.
Things are so fluid in this sport. In some places one man carries an entire promotion on his back, in others one mans doom can spell the doom of the entire organization. In another case the genius of the organization may be its own worst enemy.
What they all have in common with each other and the fans, is the simple fact that all want success. MMA fans want unbiased coverage of events. MMA fans want a fight at Madison Square Gardens. MMA fans want their sport and their fighters recognized, by more than just themselves, for all it has to offer.
One must ask though, is MMA ready for such widespread, and mainstream acceptance? Are the leaders of the sport prepared and qualified to take this sport as far as it is capable of going? Is MMA and all under that umbrella really ready?
Consider our most recent controversy in the MMA world. Suffice to say that cornering tactics in a championship fight were called into question and that one event snowballed into a hurricane of accusations, declarations, and evaluation. In short, a nice shiner for the sport as a whole regardless of the details.
Keep in mind, the details are what found their way to the front page of MSN, while the fight card itself was only mentioned deeper in the MMA Sports section. One week earlier there were three other fights scheduled. Arlovski-Fedor, a fantastic WEC card, and Jose Canseco-Danny Bonaduce a celebrity boxing match.
The latter being the only one to grace MSN’s front sports page. So that is the greasing controversy, and a worthless boxing match trumping the two super fights, and another championship matchup in the WEC, for content worthy of the front page.
That very fact should speak volumes to those of us that adore the sport, and what this sport means to the mainstream.
Is it the news being told here, or just the part that sells. Nothing new right? Maybe so for MMA, a sport very young compared to something like say baseball. Baseball has an instruction manual on how to deal with dilemmas, where as “vasolinegate” seemed to catch everyone in MMA off guard even GSP.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last week, youve seen the witch hunt for Alex Rodriguez. One man on a list of 104 gets outed and everyone wants to crucify that man, all the while conveniently forgetting about three little numbers 1,0, and 3. Right or wrong, Alex should be standing in a line, not hanging from a crucifix. That crucifix is selling copies and getting hits on the web though, so its the only one you’ll see.
We perpetuate that.
Controversy sells, we all know that. MMA has gone relatively unscathed from large scale issues like steroids, or scandal. It’s had it’s peaks and valleys, but the more attention it gets, the more those valleys will be scrutinized and explored for our benefit, the more we will want to know, the more they will feed us, the good and the bad.
We are vultures (the fans). We love to watch from the sky, waiting for a straggler (our heroes) to fall behind and fall prey to the wolves (Journalists). As soon as the wolves take them down, we swoop in and pick the bones to quench our hunger. This judgement of others who live in the spotlight makes it easier to offset our own insecurities by rising above their shortcomings. Conveniently forgetting about our own.
Back to MMA. Are we the vultures ready to pick the bones of our most beloved of athletes? After this most recent development concerning GSP and his corner man, I’m willing to say not just yet. GSP is the Arod of MMA lets face it. While what happened in GSP’s corner a few weeks ago wasn’t steroids, boundaries were tested and glory gained in the process, and no one is ready to lynch him just yet.
Don’t take that the wrong way. Its only to say even in the face of adversity most loyal fans want facts, honesty, and hopefully closure. The rest of the world reads a headline that says GSP greased in championship fight, on their way to the classifieds or whatever they picked up the paper for that day.
They wont be so kind to mainstream contraversy once the sport is more well known. They will call for his belt, they will call for his soul, and we will watch every minute of it thankful it isn’t us up there with our mistakes on display for the world to see.
Could MMA withstand an Arod or Clemens type controversy, if the darkest secrets made the fans question the integrity of the sport?
Another detour on the road to mainstream MMA might be a man who really is the face of the sport. I usually don’t bash Dana White and don’t intend to here today. I will take it upon myself to point out a very blatant fact though.
The man talks like a drunken sailor, and leaves little to the imagination about where he stands and where you stand in proximity. Its fun to watch, but this man is single handed leading our sport into tomorrow.
Is Dana really the man we want at the helm of the sport, opening the door? I’m not challenging that he isn’t, I’m just saying the guy is rough to put it gently. He has taken the sport to new heights but his take it or leave it, screw you attitude, combined with the power he has in this sport is enough to invite unwanted attention. Drama is what will follow that attention folks. The front page.
In closing, MMA’s inevitable rise to the top of the mainstream opens the door for more than just meteoric success within the sport. It opens the door for many great opportunities that will benefit the sport. Widespread scouting, accessibility, Weekly fights, ESPN, more local shows, The Olympics? Endless possibilities.
Somewhere in that endless array of possibilities, lies a pack of wolves waiting for a straggler.
MMA is still so pure in a time where many of our great sports have been tarnished by spy gate, officials gambling, steroids. It is so simple, two men enter and test each others will to decide a winner. No amount of odds can predict it, no system can measure it, its raw, it is rare, it is still ours.
I don’t want to see our champions crucified. I don’t want to see a leash on Dana White. I definitely don’t want my beloved sport to be so popular that some schmuck with an opinion thinks it should be changed, or worst stopped, because he didn’t take the time to get involved and learn a thing or two about it.
True fans love MMA just as it is, even if they would change a thing or two if they could be Dana for a day. True fans don’t need an explanation. True fans will take the time to break it down and make up their own mind. True fans will spend hours arguing about it on the Internet. Everyone else is just passing by and judging about something on sight they couldn’t care less about.
Maybe the mainstream wouldn’t be so great after all. Lord knows we’ve not been swimming in it this long, why start now.
