To anyone who hasn't seen UFC 97 and is planning on watching later...

**Loose Cannon** · 04-25-2009, 09:57 PM

Agree with everything Rob is saying here. Hey, I argued the thing about Lesnar getting a shot before, but looking back, what a great move that was to give him the Title shot.

I know you guys would like for MMA to be this legite sport and steer away from things that are used in Pro Wrestling. The problem is that MMA is a National company, with TV deals, with advertisers, with sponsors. It's at the level where Business (PPV buys, merchandise, ticket sales) comes first and sometimes it will be at the expense of "deserving" fighters. It's just the nature of the Entertainment Business

MMA is not baseball, it's not soccer, it's not football and it never will be. MMA is Sports Entertainment. It's home base is Las Vegas. There's a lot of theatrical elements to it and that's needed for the sport to stay on top on a National Level. It needs it's crop of exciting and charasmatic fighters to pull fans in.

There's a reason they came up with the Ultimate Fighter TV show. It wasn't just to try and find great fighters. It was to introduce casual people to the next crop of stars in the UFC. The viewers got to see thier personalities outside of the Octogon and that's a huge part in selling tickets. When people can relate to fighters to where you really care if "fighter A" wins or loses, that's money in the bank all day long.

04-25-2009, 09:57 PM	#22
Loose Cannon I'm all there is Posts: 31,811	Agree with everything Rob is saying here. Hey, I argued the thing about Lesnar getting a shot before, but looking back, what a great move that was to give him the Title shot. I know you guys would like for MMA to be this legite sport and steer away from things that are used in Pro Wrestling. The problem is that MMA is a National company, with TV deals, with advertisers, with sponsors. It's at the level where Business (PPV buys, merchandise, ticket sales) comes first and sometimes it will be at the expense of "deserving" fighters. It's just the nature of the Entertainment Business MMA is not baseball, it's not soccer, it's not football and it never will be. MMA is Sports Entertainment. It's home base is Las Vegas. There's a lot of theatrical elements to it and that's needed for the sport to stay on top on a National Level. It needs it's crop of exciting and charasmatic fighters to pull fans in. There's a reason they came up with the Ultimate Fighter TV show. It wasn't just to try and find great fighters. It was to introduce casual people to the next crop of stars in the UFC. The viewers got to see thier personalities outside of the Octogon and that's a huge part in selling tickets. When people can relate to fighters to where you really care if "fighter A" wins or loses, that's money in the bank all day long.