A UFC Monopoly Is Good For MMA

The Ultimate Fighting Championship, better known as the UFC has come a long way since the inaugural tournament took place at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado on November 12, 1993. That tournament, which allowed groin strikes, hair pulling, strikes to the back of the head, and even eye gouging; was won by Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter, Royce Gracie.

Between 1993 and now, there were dozens of promotions jockeying for position as the premiere mixed martial arts promotion. There was much conversation between fans, fighters, and promoters alike, about which promotion featured the best fighters. Over time the UFC and Pride Fighting Championships eventually emerged as the two primary promotions. Other notable promotions like Strikeforce, EliteXC, M-1 Global, WEC, DREAM, and Bellator Fighting Championship emerged as well. However, none were able to match the UFC's ability to sign some of the best fighters in the business and slowly become accepted by most state athletic commissions in the United States. Slowly, as the UFC brand continued to grow, MMA became synonymous with the UFC.

As the UFC rose in popularity,  it began to absorb other promotions. Its first conquest was of its closest competitor, Pride; which featured some of the best fighters in the world. This acquisition swelled the ranks of the UFC. But not just with fresh bodies. It increased the UFC claim of, "The best fighters fight here." By April of 2011, the UFC had absorbed WEC and Strikeforce, each bringing a new slew of big named fighters. The WEC merger brought the UFC fighters in the lower weight classes like Jose Aldo and Dominic Cruz. While the acquisition of Strikeforce brought more top tier fighters in the higher weight classes and the two biggest names in female MMA; Chris "Cyborg" Santos and Gina Carano.

Today the UFC boasts a reality television show called The Ultimate Fighter, which began in 2005 on Spike TV. The show has turned out a number of UFC champions and title contenders, but more importantly it helped continue to push the UFC into the mainstream. Now with a 7 year deal inked with Fox, there will be even more UFC events on prime time television. UFC programs air on Fuel TV and FX.

The word monopoly in the United States either takes the mind to the popular board game Monopoly or to its original roots when a "specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity." Thus most governments looks to eliminate monopoly, because fair play and business competition is good for the consumer. I wont argue that, but the UFC isn't a monopoly in a true sense. There are other promotions out there still carrying out and putting on fights. However, the casual fan likely never sees them and is only aware of the UFC. Ultimately, the UFC won a bidding war and a war of attrition. They put on a great show, signed the best fighters, worked faster with athletic commissions, and of course the good old quality marketing and advertising. The truth is, most promotions that could compete, ended up going bankrupt. Those who sold or merged did so because the UFC was a better brand that would actually improve their brand and give bigger pay days to their fighters.

Some would argue that a UFC monopoly will force the price of pay per views up, increase the number of pay per view events, and ultimately hurt the consumers. Yet, today, more than 50% of UFC fights take place on television stations for no extra dollar, other than the cable or satellite bill you already pay. And if we're all being honest, the fights are good fights. Even the UFC heavyweight championship was aired on Fox for free when Junior Dos Santos knocked out then champion Cain Velasquez in the first round. For those who'd say, "only that fight aired on Fox," we say, "the 9 preliminary fights took place on Facebook for free." Then furthering that defense, we'd say that the prelims for the last UFC light heavyweight championship fight were also aired for free on Facebook when Jon "Bones" Jones defended his title against Rashad Evans. And even more free fights will take place tomorrow night on The Ultimate Fighter.

The UFC is unlike boxing because the fighters have to fight who's put in front of them. Light heavyweight champion Jon Jones' last 4 fights have been against 4 of the last 5 light heavyweight champions. He doesn't get to pick and choose. President of the UFC Dana White puts his champions in against the biggest most deserving bad ass 9 out of 10 times. When you're a champion in the UFC, there's no ducking. The guy coming is more often than not the hungriest son of a bitch you don't want to be locked in a cage with. And if UFC fights only took place on pay per view, people would still pay. There are few people who could honestly say that they've purchased a UFC event and thought there money was wasted. Often times the prelims are just as big as the main event.

In boxing you don't have this truth. Fighters get to pick and choose. A Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight should have happened at least 3 years ago. It shouldn't have taken 17 years for a rematch between Roy Jones Jr. and Bernard Hopkins. How did Riddick Bowe get away with dumping the WBC title belt in a trash can on national television rather than fighting #1 contender and eventual undisputed heavyweight champion of the world Lennox Lewis? When Chael Sonnen pushed UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva to the brink of defeat for the first time in 4 years. Chael gets another shot after the two win two fights in a row respectively. There's no begging. Chael deserves it, he gets it. Two others guys already had a chance to do what he nearly did and failed. Silva escaped with a last minute submission to retain his title.

The reason people pay for the UFC is because the promotion puts on the fights that people want to see. There's no begging and clamoring for dreams fights. Dream fights happen in the UFC. There's no begging for drug tests, it's already in place. The fighters in the promotion are paid well and most there aren't fighting for money. There aren't individual promoters unwilling to risk their fighters against the best competition or having the need to build a new stadium to make the big fights happen. We've already got enough stadiums around the world. The only fights that don't happen in the UFC anymore are cross-divisional matches. We'd love to see Jones vs Silva, but somebody's gotta move up or down. But the likelihood that that fight will happen in the UFC is a lot more likely than Pacquiao-Mayweather. Just read here how that fight would have already been made in the UFC.

Do you think a UFC monopoly is good for the sport. Or do you think otherwise.

Until next write..

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