A Look at Mixed Martial arts and its recent rise in popularity

The sport of mixed martial arts, commonly known as MMA has become very popular in a relatively short space of time. It can now be seen on TV in every home in America, not to mention a lot of other countries as well. Having gone from a spectacle to a recognized and respected sport so quickly is certainly no mean feat, although here have been several driving forces behind its sudden increase in popularity.

The fact that the sport is moving more and more into the mainstream has come largely as a result of the adaptations that it has gone through in recent years. These have been things such as adopting unified rule systems, requiring combatants to use gloves and also banning things such as kicks to downed opponents. This has lead many people who before might have branded MMA as barbaric to become fans.

The fact that boxing and wrestling have both continued to decline in recent years is also another reason for the success of MMA. This has been largely due to the fact that boxing is so fractured and corrupt, and that the largest wrestling company now controls basically the entire industry. Lack of any real competition within wrestling has tended to make the WWE a lot weaker than it once was, and many people think that it has lost its edge. Similarly boxing's lack of big stars, particularly at heavyweight in recent years has meant that MMA as been able to absorb a lot of disillusioned fans of both sports.

The UFC alone is responsible for a lot of the popularity of MMA in the United States, being the largest and most influential promotion around at the moment. They were instrumental in making a lot of the changes that stopped MMA being purely something designed to shock audiences and instead made it into a real sport.because of their popularity and practices, a lot of the smaller companies have tended to follow in their wake, and the overall scene is a lot different because of this.

The UFC was the first mixed martial arts company in recent years to secure a TV deal, which means that certain shows and events are broadcast on the spike TV channel. This channel, aimed at the 18-30s age bracket has been instrumental in hyping and advertising the UFC and its product for several years. The end result of which is that the sport as a whole has become more and more popular, before this there was very little mixed martial arts exposure on TV, meaning that attracting new fans was difficult.

After the initial successes of the UFC, helped along by its reality show the ultimate fighter, more and more companies were finding their way onto TV. Although not all of them could negotiate a prime time channel spot, and a lot of them folded soon afterwards. However today there are several companies such as the WEC, which airs all its shows live and free. There are also other promotions which are available on pay per view, which along with the increased awareness that the sport now has, can achieve considerable buys.

Some of the recent success of the UFC is also down to the fact that it has become a global brand, having put on shows in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Brazil and Japan. They also apparently have designs on putting on shows in a variety of different countries in the coming years, and are also in the process of developing TV deals abroad as well.

In some ways, the MMA explosion has only really happened in the United states, as countries like Japan and South Korea already had MMA scenes of their own. In actual fact until its eventual implosion due to mismanagement and yakuza connections, the Japanese promotion PRIDE FC was thought by many to be superior to the UFC by most people. Events in Japan can regularly see attendances upwards of 50,000, which dwarfs the largest American attendances, which are even now only around 20,000.

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Will MMA Become as Corrupt as Boxing?

Mixed martial arts is an increasingly popular sport, which due to its basis in combat has drawn many similarities to boxing. However many fans are concerned with the fact that MMA is seemingly even more susceptible to corruption than boxing, which has faced huge problems of this nature in the past. Although there have been few recognized corruption incidents in MMA thus far, the risks of these problems arising as the sport becomes more established are ever growing. Leading many people to conclude that it is seemingly only a matter of time before they are encountered.

Because of the fact that boxers to some extent have to put together their own fights, they are often protected from fighters who would prove too difficult for than at any one point in time. The reason for this is that they usually have managers and advisors who are protecting them due to the fact that they are making money from them. This symbiotic relationship is usually only lucrative so long as the fighter keeps winning, and so often it is in the best interest of the management team of a fighter to hand pick their opponents.

Although hand picking opponents is in some ways dishonest, mixed martial artists are often robbed of this luxury for the most part of their careers. There are a few top fighters who can to a degree pick and choose their fights, although the vast majority are simply told who they are going to fight. The reason for this is that they are contracted to a particular organization for a set number of fights, meaning that until the contract is honored, they usually can't fight anywhere else, or at all without permission. This essentially takes away MMA fighters bargaining power and means that they have to fight whoever the parent company tells them to.

Despite the fact that both of these matchmaking models work in most cases, MMA leaves more room for corruption. For example if the matchmaker is told that a certain fighter should lose, then they can hand pick any opponent for that fighter that they want in order to make this happen. A boxer would have the power to turn this fight down flat, although a mixed martial artist usually has no option but to fight someone tailor made to beat them. Obviously this doesn't happen very often, but the fact that it can happen and that the truth of the matter would probably never come out means that corruption is rife within MMA.

Similarly the natural progression of a fighter towards high profile or championship fights is often subverted from the natural order. In theory a boxer or martial artist has to fight their way to the top of the rankings in order to get a title shot, usually defeating several opponents with top ten rankings within the division to get there. In boxing, the ruling bodies are usually in charge of these rakings, and so if a fighter gets to the top of the rankings in one organization artificially, (i.e. without having to face any other highly ranked fighters). Then the rankings of the other ruling bodies will reflect this and the fighter wont be universally ranked.

In Mixed martial arts however the rankings and title shots are decided within each promotion, meaning that often skilled but not exciting fighters are left waiting while fan favorites are pushed to the top. A good example of this would be Brock Lesnars title shot in the UFC. Having only recently taken up the sport of mixed martial arts, Lesnar was allowed a title shot after only three professional fights, one if which he lost. However the reason for this unprecedented rise is seemingly due to the fact that he was previously a WWE wrestler, and so can attract a huge fan base already.

Similar examples are going on all the time, particularly in the case of deserving fighters having to wait while more exciting fighters are given title shots ahead of them. Another couple of UFC examples of this would be Yushin Okami in the middleweight division, and Lyoto Machida in the light heavyweight division. Both were seemingly put on the sidelines because of the fact that they weren't necessarily exciting to watch, despite the fact that they were both the next ranked contenders.

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Upcoming MMA Prospect Jon Jones

One of the more interesting fighters in the UFC is upcoming mma prospect Jon Jones. The man opened eyes with his last fight against Stephan Bonnar where he showed a variety of unorthodox throws and strikes. Today I want to talk about the things that he brings to the cage and why people are saying this man could be a future champion.

So what exactly does upcoming mma prospect Jon Jones bring to the mat that seperates him from the pack? Well for starters he has a freakist 84.5 inch reach advantage which is unheard of at heavyweight let alone at the lightheavyweight. He probably will have at least a 6-8 inch reach advantage over every fighter in the UFC at that weight class.

At just 21 years old upcoming mma prospect Jon Jones couples that amazing reach with a college wrestling background to make him a very dangerous opponent. Imagine in a few years when he gets some experience under his belt. He is fighting Jake O'Brien on the undercard at UFC 100 and that is a deceptive fight for Jon Jones. Jake O'Brien was a heavyweight that has dropped weight to compete at 205 and he has a very good wrestling background. I don't know much the fights early in his career but Jake O'Brien will be one of his first opponents that has more strength and wrestling ability. He could take this fight to the ground and make him fight to try and win a decision.

If upcoming mma prospect Jon Jones happens to get past Jake O'Brien I wonder what fights could be in his future. Perhaps a fight against someone like Steve Cantwell would make sense for both fighters. Either way the future is very bright for upcoming mma prospect Jon Jones.

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MMA Prospect Stefan Struve

I doubt many people seen upcoming mma prospect Stefan Struve fight against Denis Stojnic at UFC 99. They sure missed one hell of a fight. The man they call the Skyscraper towers above all his other opponents with that 6'11 frame. So what does Stefan Struve bring to the cage and what does the future hold for this young man? That is what I want to talk about today here in this article.

There are several factors that make mma prospect Stefan Struve one of the more interesting fighters on the rise. The most obvious one the fact that he stands at 6'11 and is still growing into his body. Here in a couple year if he can add some weight onto that frame you might be looking at someone to be reckoned with in the heavyweight division. The other real important thing to keep in mind is that this young man is only 21 years old and already has amassed a 17-3 professional record.

Even though he was still seen as a mma prospect Stefan Struve already had wins over former UFC fighters Colin Robinson and Mario Neto before joining the UFC. Joe Silva and Dana White sure didn't do him any favors by putting him in there against Junior Dos Santos in his very first fight. While you can argue that the stoppage may have been a little early Junior Dos Santos was just too much for Stefan Struve in his first UFC fight. I'm shocked that Joe Silva would sacrifice such a good upcoming mma prospect in a fight that way.

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Floyd Mayweather to compete in MMA?

Floyd Mayweather Jr has reportedly been considering a move into MMA after having beaten most of the fighters at or around his weight in boxing. Whether this idea will ever come into fruition still remains to be seen, although it would certainly draw fans from both sports to see how it played out. Many people have stated that this might simply be nothing more than hot air from Floyd, who is seemingly looking for his next challenge after publicly retiring from boxing again.

One thing that might be holding Mayweather back from actually moving into MMA is that he would likely have to take a significant pay cut for doing so. While the fights he might be involved with will likely generate similar amounts of money in terms of viewers and sponsors, mixed martial artists get a much smaller percentage of the total than boxers do. Although he will be able to command decent money, perhaps even millions, it will likely be a lot of risk for little reward when he can make more money more easily through a few more boxing matches.

Another of the main concerns that Mayweather probably has is that his style of boxing probably isn't going to work that well in mixed martial arts. The defensive and grinding style that works so well for him in boxing would be largely nullified in mixed martial arts, where opponents could simply take him to the ground if they were being beaten on the feet. Also Mayweather's lack of one punch KO power means that although he would still be effective on the feet, when kicks are also factored in, a more complete fighter could embarrass him. Taking a kick on order to land a knockout blow is all very well, but without power this tactic rarely works.

The other major worry that Floyd's handlers probably have out of this is that he would tarnish his reputation somewhat if he were to lose in mixed martial arts. Still undefeated in boxing, Mayweather can potentially become an all time great so long as he can keep this record in tact. However entering a new sport means that a loss at some point is a lot more likely. This would not only undermine his skills as a fighter rather than just a boxer, but also undermines boxing itself. If one of the bets pound for pound boxers in the world loses in mixed martial arts, then it makes boxing look inferior to mixed martial arts.

In reality this tells you little about which sport is better than the other, as a mixed martial artist would be similarly pulverised in a boxing match. However the way that the sports hype themselves up, MMA would have ammo for claiming superiority over boxing for many years to come, which could hurt the image of boxing as a whole. Whether Mayweather is concerned with this or not is unknown, although surely he must have some loyalty for the sport which made him his millions, and has been his way of life since he was a kid.

Similarly the chances of him actually being successful in mixed martial arts would be fairly small as everyone would already know his strengths. Mixed martial artists aren't going to try to stand with a world champion boxer, and he would probably be quickly taken down and submitted in every fight as a result. As good as he might be able to get on the ground, the lack of any experience at present means that he would still be a long way behind the better fighters, many of which have trained since they were very young.

Historically boxers who have entered the world of mixed martial arts have done very badly, even those who have cross trained extensively. One of the main reasons for this is that the stances used in boxing are often focused on exposing as little of the body to being punched as possible. However the stances in MMA are a lot more open, and are more concerned with being to avoid being taken down, as well as blocking kicks. Breaking the habit of a lifetime in regards to stance would mean that Mayweather, like all boxers would be very vulnerable in MMA.

Whether Floyd is being serious about his potential foray into mixed martial arts is yet to be established, although he has already dipped into the world of professional wrestling in the form of an appearance in the WWE. In this appearance he was seen to apparently bloody the nose of the Big Show, a man who stands at over seven feet, and close to 500lbs. The fact that Floyd is a welterweight means that this appearance was probably limited to just that. As smaller wrestlers rarely get as much of the limelight as the huge hulking monsters which make the show more impressive due to their size and power.

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Are Former Pro Wrestlers Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley taking over UFC and MMA ?

Several years ago if you told me that a couple former pro wrestlers would be in mma and more specifically the UFC then I likely would've laughed at the thought. Well here we are today with former pro wrestlers in Brock Lesnar and Bobbly Lashley drawing big numbers and holding their own in the cage as well. Is this the next wave or the future of mixed martial arts?

In just four fights Brock Lesnar has put himself on the map and earned the respect of mma and UFC fans around the world. Even though he is just 3-1 many people forget that he is actually the current UFC Heavyweight Champion. He earned that belt after beating experienced veterans Heath Herring and Randy Couture.

Bobby Lashley has yet to make that kind of splash but his ability is interesting all the same. Although he is not quite as large as Brock Lesnar he definately has power that most men will find extremely hard to match in the UFC or mma. In his last fight he completely dominated the much more experienced Jason Guida.

When Brock Lesnar steps in the cage to defend his UFC championship against Frank Mir at UFC 98 then we will find out just how far he has come as a fighter. If he can avenge his only loss against a very tough opponent in Frank Mir then people will have to recognize that he is perhaps the next big thing. The future is unclear for Bobby Lashley as he seems to still have some interest in pro wrestling but regardless expect that man to make an impact as well.

Brock Lesnar The Next Undisputed Champion

Bobby Lashley UFC Bound?

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The UFC Heavyweight Division Needs Bobby Lashley

If you have been following mma for the last couple years then I'm sure you are well aware of the rise of both Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley in the sport. Both are former WWE superstars with wrestling backgrounds from high school and college. Regardless of the background both are freak of nature athletes and have been dominating much more experienced opponents inside the cage.

The difference though is that Brock Lesnar is fighting for the UFC Heavyweight Championship at and Bobby Lashley is headlining mid-level cards for probably less than a fraction of what his former WWE teammate is making from Zuffa. Dana White and the UFC need to buckle down and go sign Bobby Lashley before some other organization like Strikeforce or Affliction picks him up and turns him into a star. If nothing else it will benefit them to keep him from fighting somewhere else.

Here recently UFC President Dana White has said that they wanted him for TUF 10 and he refused at the request of his manager. Bobby Lashley is smart he knows he is already worth much more than the contract he would get for winning the Ultimate Fighter. They said he needed to win some more fights before getting a contract offer from Zuffa. Bobby Lashley is 4-0 and has won by decision, tko and submission in those fights. Brock Lesnar was just 1-0 with a win against Min Soo Kim when he was signed by the company.

If you look around at the UFC heavyweight division they are thin on top talent. They have about 6-8 guys that are consistent and the rest are guys shuffled in and out of the organization. After this upcoming season 10 of TUF they will have some more guys like Roy Nelson and Kimbo Slice to name a few. But still it wouldn't kill them to pay Bobby Lashley and bring in one of the best heavyweight prospects in the world. After all who wouldn't want to see Bobby Lashley vs Brock Lesnar?

So keep your eyes open and just maybe you will see Dana White and the UFC do the right thing and sign Bobby Lashley. Then again perhaps they will be content at having Brock Lesnar and allow Bobby Lashley to go become a big star with Strikeforce or Affliction.

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UFC Needs to Motivate Anderson Silva

The UFC Needs to Motivate Anderson Silva With Tougher Fights

If you have recently watched the UFC then you are probably well aware that middleweight champion Anderson Silva is under a ton of scrunity after his last couple fights. After numerous impressive knockouts and submissions he has put on two very boring performances in a row against Patrick Cote and Thales Leites. I think the issue here isn't Anderson Silva but the lack of competition.

If you go back and look at Patrick Cote and Thales Leites what had either done to really deserve a title shot? Sure Patrick Cote had won some fights but did he didn't beat any of the other top middleweights like Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson, Yushin Okami or Nate Marquardt. The same holds true for Thales Leites because his best win was a decision over Nate Marquardt in a fight where Nate won on the cards but due to a points deduction Thales Leites was given the fight.

At UFC 101 the UFC will put Anderson Silva in there at 205 against Forrest Griffin. That is gonna be extremely interesting to say the least. It will likely be the first time that Anderson Silva will have faced a man that big and with that much of a reach advantage. At 185 Anderson Silva was basically been the bigger fighter in every fight.

What sucks though is that he is moving up to 205 when the UFC finally has some guys worthy of a title shot. If Michael Bisping beats Dan Henderson at UFC 100 he has a good argument for a shot. Then you have Demian Maia whom is undefeated and 5-0 in the UFC with all wins coming via submission in the 1st round. Last but not least don't forget Yushin Okami (even though the UFC does it all the time) who is 6-1 in the UFC and has a DQ win over Anderson Silva in the past. Yushin Okami's only loss was a real tough decision loss to Rich Franklin.

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