As the sport of MMA continues to grow at a high rate, so does the UFC. As it used to take years for stars to emerge in the sport, now it seems like each month, there is a new elite fighter to watch.
With the growth in talent over the past few years, the UFC has had to put on more events each year, but with injuries, it seems many of the cards have been slight letdowns in the eyes of fans.
So, what should the UFC do? Only have events when they have a number of big-name fighters available? Only on one condition: create a UFC minor league system.
Instead of featuring the young up-and-comers on Facebook prelims and on the bottom of cards, create a minor league to feature these young guys so when they come over, they are already known by the fans.
When Zuffa purchased Strikeforce, this was the first idea that popped into my head. Strikeforce is full of young, but not quite UFC-ready talent, so Dana White will use Strikeforce to keep these guys active and maybe even send some of the UFC younger talent to get some higher ranked fights under their belt.
That was not the case.
Strikeforce is averaging only one event every three months right now, and even Dana White is starting to wonder what to do with this investment. I’d say use it!
I know Strikeforce, Zuffa and Showtime all are under contract, but when that ends, Zuffa should get Strikeforce events to go down once a month on either FX or Fuel and only feature minor league talent.
This would be a great way to introduce future talent in the major weight divisions, introduce some young and talented featherweights, bantamweights and flyweights, and possibly even start bringing the women’s division into the limelight.
There is no way fans are going to buy a pay-per-view of minor league fighters, but featuring an event on free TV once a month is a great way to bring in new fans as well as turning the regular fan who only watches fights when they’re on free TV into hardcore fans.
I’m not saying the UFC will do this, but to me, it seems like a great idea. I love MMA, but I hate seeing White and Joe Silva have to throw events together overnight basically just because they have four cards in one month. I believe creating a minor league system will be very beneficial to the future of both the UFC and the overall sport of mixed martial arts.
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