Author: Matthew Saccaro

The UFC has battled numerous foes since its inception in 1993, and even more since the Zuffa buyout in 2001. All those who directly fought the UFC all failed. However, there is still one enemy the UFC needs to be wary of—itself.

The UFC has grown significantly from 1993 to 2001 and astronomically from 2001 to the modern day. From a backwater “sporting” event has come the very sport of the future, soon to be featured on network television.

In its wake, the UFC has left a slew of dead promotions. Organizations such as the IFL, EliteXC, Affliction, the once mighty Pride Fighting Championships and, most recently, Strikeforce have either been crushed by or incorporated into the Zuffa juggernaut.

As the UFC sits only two months away from its FOX network debut and has seemingly entered a global age, it appears as though there is nothing in the MMA world that could possibly topple the UFC’s hegemony over the sport.

This is a flawed notion.

Throughout its growth, the UFC has planted the MMA seed in the United States and in various countries across the Earth. Now, other MMA organizations are flourishing thanks to the UFC’s popularization of the sport.

This is not too much of a problem domestically because the UFC has the U.S. market totally captivated, and the UFC brand name is stronger than an uppercut from UFC heavyweight contender Junior Dos Santos.

However, internationally, this may be a future issue for the UFC.

By igniting the flames of MMA in foreign countries, the UFC has added more destinations that they must visit each calendar year. Unfortunately, MMA fans are not known to be the most patient or forgiving group. Only one UFC event in 365 days just isn’t enough for many fans outside the United States.

Thus, other organizations will rise up to fulfill the demand for MMA that the UFC has created. This is no more apparent than in the case of the British Association of Mixed Martial Arts (or BAMMA) in the UK, a promotion popular enough that a good case is made by Jonathan Shrager for them to be on Spike TV.

In fact, promotions are springing up all over Europe to meet the demand for MMA. It is inevitable that one of these promotions will rise above the others and become the premier organization on the continent.

This process can also happen organically, that is to say, without the UFC ever having visited. Such is the case with the brand new One Fighting Championship (or One FC) out of Singapore. They have only held one show thus far, but they hope to become the “UFC of Asia” and there are several reasons why they might.

The point is, the UFC is increasing the popularity of MMA worldwide. With the ability to hold only so many shows a year due to a finite roster, other promotions will rise up and eventually secure their sector of the world. We will one day have a promotion with total superiority over Europe as well as one with total superiority over Asia.

The UFC may lose local superiority to promotions like BAMMA or One FC because the smaller promotions will put on more shows for their audiences, meaning that these events these promotions hold may garner more attention than the UFC’s events when the UFC is holding the events out of town.

Nevertheless, fighters don’t torture themselves throughout training camp and put their bodies at risk to be champions of BAMMA or One FC, they do it to enter the UFC. That fact will never change.

The UFC also has a significant head start (in basically every department) over any such upstart.

None of this is to say that a BAMMA-type promotion will destroy the UFC or eclipse it in global popularity—that would be heretical. When the UFC comes to town, it will dominate the MMA scene and the smaller promotion will be an afterthought.

To put it bluntly, it’s very unlikely that a regional promotion will escape their continental bounds and engage in a prolonged competition with the UFC.

However, there is still another possible scenario that could give rise to a competitor.

MMA is touted as the “fastest growing sport in the world” by practically everybody. What is to stop a wealthy group or individual from seeing the money train go by and trying to jump on?

This has been tried before by Kurt Otto and Garret Shamus with the IFL, Gary Shaw with EliteXC/ProElite and Affliction with Affliction Entertainment. These ventures were analogous to Ted Turner’s acquisition of professional wrestling company WCW in the sense that they didn’t end well.

Even though the ProElite venture ended in failure and in the departure of Gary Shaw and his son “$kala” (a.k.a. Jared Shaw) from the MMA business, the corpse of the organization has been reanimated by a far more fearsome foe—Viacom.

Viacom is one of the world’s leading media conglomerates and, according to cagepotato.com, they own 20 percent of the resurrected ProElite.

If there is an organization that can outspend Zuffa, it’s Viacom.

Does this mean that the UFC is destined to lose?

Hardly. No one on earth knows more about the MMA business than the brain trust of Dana White and Lorenzo Fertita—that alone is worth Viacom’s billions.

But this does not mean that the UFC can grow complacent! The UFC has created a lucrative business that didn’t exist before—MMA—and whenever that happens there will always be those trying to imitate the rise of the industry’s leader.

By creating the wider market for MMA the UFC has created competitors, but it has so far managed to put them all under their thumb by simply knowing more about the fight business. In the end, knowledge of the fight business is more important than just throwing money at things.

The UFC is therefore like the trunk of an giant MMA tree, it is the center of the tree and other branches (promotions) come from it, but they could not exist without it and could therefore never eclipse it in size or importance.

 

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