It's Dana's toy box and he makes the rules....unfortunately no matter how hard he tries he can't make the greater sporting community respect the sport of MMA with that kind of attitude. There needs to be structure, order, transparency, an unbiased and fair promoter of not just a brand but the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Otherwise I fear this sport languishing in the sub-sport category for many years in many sports fans minds even worse a trendy thing watch every once in a while. Something celebrities and college kids amuse themselves with... There are benefits to how Dana and company chooses to run the UFC, but there are also drawbacks.
It's not fair to say that they rely solely on super fights and freakshow matches to grow the brand and the sport, they had put in plenty of hard work and took the time to build a foundation. But I think they underestimate how much foundation there is left to build, or maybe the nature of the foundation that they need to build. I may sound like a broken record, but right now words like RESPECT, DISCIPLINE, HONOR, words almost synonymous with Traditional Martial Arts does not translate as well when you talk about Mixed Martial Arts especially in the context of the UFC. Many fight fans don't care about that shit, but for a sport to claim to represent Martial Arts at it's highest level, and for it to be missing those ingredients seems to give this sport a pretentious air. There are just things you have to translate into a sport like MMA from TMA in order to make it a true Pinnacle of Martial Arts. Otherwise you just have a cage fight. Now don't get me wrong, MMA doesn't have to be as stiff and rigid as TMA, there can be a balance between entertainment and traditional martial arts values, but the UFC does not seem interested in exploring that philosophy...... I think the UFC is now starting to coast on their own hype...just a little bit for now....but the trend does not look promising.
End Rant. Happy New Year!
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You can't process me with a normal brain! ~The Sheen
Scarface: Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you're cool, and fuck you, I'm out!
"I don't call the fighting in my films 'violent', I call it 'action'. An action film borders between fantasy and reality. If I were to be completely realistic in my films, you would call me a violent, bloody man. I would simply destroy my opponent by tearing his guts out. I wouldn't do it so artistically." ~Bruce Lee  |