It has recently been announced that the main event of inaugural UFC on FOX event will be a heavyweight title fight between champion Cain Velasquez and challenger Junior dos Santos.
Saying this fight is important is the understatement of the century since the fight may well kickoff a new era for the UFC and MMA.
What is this era? MMA’s Golden Age.
A “golden age” can be a somewhat nebulous idea, especially when there is such rampant nostalgia for the days of Pride Fighting Championships and legends of old still pervading the MMA community.
Some, such as Bloody Elbow’s Matthew Roth, believe that the Golden Age was the heyday of Pride, and it went into its death throes at UFC 132 with the crushing defeat of Wanderlei Silva at the hands of Chris Leben.
Roth stated that this year could mark “the death of the Golden Age of Mixed Martial Arts,” since the bulk of “veteran fighters have slowly become worn out and unable to compete at the highest levels,” and will eventually disappear from MMA as a whole.
A more erroneous claim could not be made.
The Golden Age of MMA is not about to die, but about to be born!
The UFC will soon make its debut on the illustrious FOX network which will be headlined by an epic title bout between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos. This broadcast will reach millions and convert a legion of people into MMA fans.
In addition to this, these new fans will not be forced to bear the weight of ideological baggage from the Pride vs. UFC debates of old.
With only one clearly superior organization, debates such as that are over; how can there not be a Golden Age for MMA when the UFC espouses the virtues of the sport across the earth to more fans than ever before?
Furthermore, the athletes that will enter the sport will be of a higher caliber. Jon Jones is a phenom at only 24 years old. Why? Because he has NFL-caliber athleticism (he has a brother who plays for the Baltimore Ravens).
Soon, even more athletes will choose to pursue the purest form of competition, MMA, over more arbitrary sports like football. Thus, the incoming crop of fighters will be far superior to the legends of old in every way.
This fact has an added benefit besides increasing the level of competition: Fans will be able to see these prospects enter the UFC from Day 1 and follow the entirety of their dominant careers.
This will create super-legendary fighters since tens of millions will have known them from when they were 0-0 in the UFC until they retired.
Wanderlei Silva may be a legend, but how many were following him since his debut? With the UFC’s anticipated rampant growth due to the FOX deal, more eyes will be on more prospects who have more talent. The fact that people will watch the stars “grow up” will give the fans an increased connection with the fighter, one that few stars ever achieve.
Therefore, it is practically undeniable that MMA’s golden age is at hand. The level of competition will rise since the athletes will get better than they ever have been and with only one supreme organization; the UFC will run the sport like the NFL runs football.
The Golden Age of MMA is indeed at hand. Big fights await the fans, big paychecks await the fighters, and big dreams await the athletes of tomorrow. In the words of UFC announcer Bruce Buffer, “IT’S TIME!”
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