« Ontario indicating an embrace of MMA regulation in the future | Home | Dynamite 12/31 Saitama Super Arena »
What are the most interesting and important MMA stories from this decade?
By Zach Arnold | December 23, 2009
I am working on a list of the Top 5 most fascinating and important MMA stories that I wrote extensively about this decade. I will reveal the list in a few days and do so in detail and why they were so interesting to cover.
Going through all the MMA history of this past decade, what would you rank as your Top 5 most interesting and important MMA stories to you for this past decade? Think about it for a few minutes before hitting the reply button…
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 22 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
5. Champion and challenger in lightweight championship fight @ UFC 73 both test positive for steroids.
4. Fedor refuses to sign with UFC after Affliction ceases MMA event operations.
3. Brock Lesnar enters MMA and quickly becomes one of it’s biggest box office attractions.
2. PRIDE’s involvement with crime network becomes public, they lose their TV deal and end up being purchased by UFC.
1. The rise of MMA as a spectator sport and the UFC as a fight organization.
– Unified Rules created by NJ
– Fertittas buy UFC/gets it sanctioned in NV/gets back on PPV
– Pride’s rise (Sakuraba vs Silva 2 selling out Tokyo dome, NYE wars, Shockwave 2002, Grand Prix’s)
– Pride Yakuza scandal and downfall
– TUF
– Elite XC MMA on prime time national TV on a major network
Got to agree with Zack. Although I would change TUF to “TUF marks the beginning of MMA’s mainstream acceptance.”
*1. Pride’s fall
2. Standardization and growth of the unified rules (nearly all 50 states have legalized MMA now, and almost all places with places have regulatory schemes)
3. Maturation of the sport as a style, diversification required for the serious contenders and the start of fighters displaying real dedication to not just training but studying new disciplines, traveling the world to do it, and integrating that into their own coherent individual styles
4. Ubiquity of MMA in the non-mainstream media, rerun fights on basic cable and network television late nights drawing well, PPVs selling a million buys, the sport-specific print media, HDNet and ESPN (online)’s dedicated shows, the blog phenomenon
5. I think the story right now is either about the rise of fighter pay (I did the math, Nate Diaz made nearly half a million bucks in disclosed pay and bonuses in the last 18 months…that’s more than I thought he would have made) or something about the persistence of the “hall of fame” fighters, like Coleman and Couture, who I don’t really want to watch but they just won’t go away, and sometimes I get the feeling that they’re like crazy grandpa and we just can’t stomach putting them in a home because when they’re lucid and on their game they remind us of how things used to be.
Pride’s demise. That story was crazy and the more that came out the more you realised how crazy that company was. Secondly seeing the lack of response from various websites when Pride lost there tv deal and then reading the response from fans on forums was laughable. So much denial!!
The UFC buying Pride was a big deal as fans and writers were so excited about the possible dream matches and the UFC getting to Japan. Didnt last long though lol
Not sure about Top 5, but 3 of them are:
1) The Ultimate Fighter – This is a multi-layered story. This is a show that Vince McMahon had a chance to stop but didn’t, and it ended up hurting his PPV business. This is a show that saved SpikeTV from almost certain death after Monday Night RAW left. It is also a show that really started the popularity of the sport in North America. And it created so many stars in both the fighters and the coaches.
2) As others have stated, the fall of Pride. There are so many reasons why that company went wrong. While having a lot of exciting fights, they did a lot of bad things during it’s peak that ended up hurting it when the popularity when down. But the company still had a solid fanbase before it lost it’s TV deal over the scandal.
3) Brock Lesnar…. Yes, one man can be a news story. If somebody told me in 2000 that a former Pro Wrestler would get 1.72 Million PPV’s on a UFC PPV, and he would be a legit fighter…. I would have laughed. What this guy has done for the sport has been amazing. Since his coming to the UFC, not only has he become a huge draw, but the entire bar for what is a good PPV buy in the industry has completely changed. 300,000 for Ortiz/Griffin would have been a major success 2 years ago, now it is considered a failure when anything shy of 400,000 is considered bad. This is mostly the Brock Lesnar effect. He brought new fans to the sport who continue to watch it to this very day.
If I think of another 2 I will post them, but those are the biggest 3 news stories in my opinion of this decade….
I would agree with most of whats written above however,one story that has not been mentioned yet is,why Fedor has not been fighting in the UFC.
He has been the most dominant fighter of the decade and with the massive growth of MMA in North America,it was thought that he would sign for the world biggest MMA company,the UFC. We hear so much about what happened from both sides but to get an unbiased report from you would be excellent.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and all that, you fuckers with your lists and whatnot. I enjoy interacting with you guys and the site. May we continue on here for a long time.
I agree with all of them, but there is another story worth mentioning that isn’t quite as big……the very first Strikeforce show. When it happened, most people on the east coast knew nothing about it, and then, lo and behold, they got a crowd of over a legit 18,000 fans, most of them paying (I think only a little over 400 of them were comped) and it got both the highest attendance and highest PAID attendance (I think it still has that record, but in terms of actual human beings in seats it got beat out a few times since then) for a show headlined by Frank Shamrock vs. a debuting Cesar Gracie. Who would have thought a non UFC or a non PRIDE event to get a crowd like THAT on their first show?
The intermingling of MMA with pro wrestling in Japan. And Antonio Inoki’s boner for throwing pro wrestlers in MMA matches, and said wrestlers getting slaughtered in the process (see Nagata, Yuji).
I might have more later…
NJ recognizing and regulating the sport.
The Ultimate Fighter
The end of Pride
Fedor Emelianenko
The marketing of Brock. Kimbo and Gina
Inspired by this topic:
http://blogs.chron.com/fighting/2009/12/the_stories_that_defined_the_d.html#more
1. Fertittas get involved in MMA: Without them and Dana White, this sport would still be dying a slow death. Some may not like that, but I think it is true. Their combination of money and connections couldn’t have been matched by any other investor. Lorenzo Fertitta had the juice to get the promotion into Las Vegas. From there, pay per view followed. UFC 33 was the first show in Nevada and also the first show that most Americans had the option of buying. It seems strange to think about, but at the dawn of this decade most of us couldn’t get a UFC PPV at all. Now the sport resides comfortably on network television and cable networks like SPIKE have made it their flagship programming. None of this is possible without the Fertittas.
Snowden;
Actually, most of that was Dana White’s doing. The Fertittas were just the money guys. Dana White, who was childhood freinds with Frank III and Lorenzo, talked them into buying the UFC, and then that led to Dana White getting 10% ownership and president of Zuffa. But the Fertittas were just as important.
1. SAKU-ROYCE-I
2.THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER
3.KIMBO
4. BROCK
5.PRIDE DIES
IN NO ORDER
The Fertittas influence went much further than just providing the money. They had connections within the NSAC which allowed the UFC to operate in Nevada again, and they came up with the idea for TUF.
There might be others who could run the UFC as well as Dana does, but I don’t think there’s anyone that could be a replacement for the Fertittas and what they brought to the table.
1. Zuffa buys the UFC after using NSAC ties to vote down sanctioning to drive down price.
2. UFC rivals boxing and WWE on cable and PPV.
3. MMA gets on prime time network TV.
4. Rise and fall of PRIDE.
5. MMA kills Puroresu.
An interesting story was… Pat smith finding a brother he never knew he had, and who is also a mma fighter at a mma show.
I don’t believe there was ever a vote. But the Fertitta’s definitly had influence. And despite that corruption (which it was), it ended up being best for the sport in the long run.
I’ve talked to everyone involved from Zuffa, to Ratner, to SEG people, to reporters, etc. I don’t think there was any conspiracy theory and there was certainly never a vote.
I think MMA killing off Pro wrestling in Japan was more of a suicide-pact.
“1. Fertittas get involved in MMA: Without them and Dana White, this sport would still be dying a slow death.”
This sentiment is played out as much as the Zuffa myth. At least specify dying “in North America.” At the time the Fertittas bought the UFC, the sport was flourishing and having its golden age in Japan.
“This sentiment is played out as much as the Zuffa myth. At least specify dying “in North America.” At the time the Fertittas bought the UFC, the sport was flourishing and having its golden age in Japan.”
The Zuffa myth became Zuffa reality shortly afterwards. Imagine the worldwide state of MMA had the UFC not been there to pick up the pieces of PRIDE.
They didn’t have an official vote but they all agreed not to hear their case to allow sanctioning for several years. On the board were: Lorenzo Fertitta, Marc Ratner, and even Gina’s dad Glenn Carano. So it’s just a coincidence that they denied petitions from 1997 until 2001 to sanction MMA? Without even offering a “if you take these things out we’ll consider it” offer? That’s sabotage IMO. I’m sure they didn’t plan on buying UFC in the 90s obviously, and that was all showing favoritism to boxing. But they stiffed SEG for a whole year when they were desperate to get into Las Vegas at a time when Dana White was involved with Chuck Liddell and was plotting on putting together money to buy it (originally under Dana White Enterprises which flopped so he went with the idea of bringing in Lorenzo and Frank.)
As for SEG not appearing angry about it, I haven’t read your book to see what they said (no offense, I’ve heard nothing but great things about it, I just never got around to getting it.) but it doesn’t surprise me they wouldn’t trash the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Nobody in business likes to look bitter over a bad deal so it’s not surprising they didn’t air any grievances about it to a writer. Especially since I am assuming YAMMA was still alive when you talked to them.