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Obstacles facing MMA/UFC: CTE/concussions & legitimacy of sport
By Zach Arnold | May 18, 2011
A couple of items I wanted to bring up here and you can pick & choose what you would like to comment on.
First, a new article that I would recommend you read titled Sports Television Ratings See Huge Growth; UFC Left Out Of The Party. A lot of the points raised in the article are points that my old friend Zack Nelson mentioned a couple of years ago when he told me that MMA had jumped the shark and that things were only going to go downhill.
In essence, the article addresses whether or not Zuffa is experiencing a growth in ratings & legitimacy or if things are stuck in neutral.
Second, Eddie Goldman produced a new episode of his radio show talking about the issue of CTE, concussions, and combat sports. This is an important topic because what he brings up on the radio show (which I encourage you to listen to in full) is something that boxing & MMA will have to address in regards to head trauma. As more scientific research is done on the brains of deceased athletes, we are learning more and more about important issues that folks like Ivan Trembow & Dr. Margaret Goodman have addressed in the past. However, the media spotlight is growing on this matter because across sports like football & hockey, concussions are being scrutinized.
“The lessons of this really have to be considered by those in combat sports. Boxing isn’t going to consider anything, it’s a pretty amoral and corrupt culture and it’s willing to go to its death as a sport rather than change. I don’t see much of a different culture in MMA and since that’s been growing and more money has been coming into it, people haven’t been considering this. But wait until the effects of MMA, which has a more lot striking now than it used to, start to become public and wait until the issue of CTE and brain trauma starts to be considered by the Internet-savvy people around MMA. Hasn’t happened, yet, but I think it’s going to happen at some point in the near future.
“I think what’s likelier to happen rather than banning with these sports is that those that can change will try to change a little bit and they’ll lose viewership, they’ll lose sponsors, they’ll lose networks along the way and they’ll hope to hang on as smaller niche sports. We’ve seen a lot of sports decline: boxing, baseball, horse racing, and so forth. We’ve even seen the WWE decline to a certain extent where so many people have died in that, although the mainstream media refuses to honestly really look at how dangerous that type of acting really is.”
The truth is that most people who want to watch boxing & MMA currently are not clamoring about the issue of concussions in combat sports. Drug usage is also not considered an important topic because many fans assume that fighters, like football players, are going to use whatever they have to in order to deliver superhuman-type performances for fans paying their salary. I wish fans did care more about CTE, concussions, and drug usage (steroids, HGH, EPO, etc.) but I cannot turn a blind eye to the current fan atmosphere in combat sports.
Eddie argues that if promoters and power players in the respective combat sports don’t address the CTE issue soon, there may be significant damage to financial bottom lines & scope of their respective sports.
“What this could mean for MMA is that it’s elevator ride to the top may stop, may get stuck somewhere midway. Because the mainstream media gives MMA a pass to a certain degree but not when prominent people start turning out to be vegetables, when top athletes start showing the signs of CTE, of the dementia pugilistica that we see in boxing, and if and when and I think a lot of people believe it’s more of a when than an if, some prominent fighter dies live in a nationally or internationally televised Mixed Martial Arts card. Remember, it’s only a short period of time that MMA has gotten any legitimacy and that legitimacy is only in most of North America. It’s still illegal in New York, it’s still illegal in France, it’s not accepted in Germany, in Japan it’s been tainted of course by the yakuza scandals, and it is growing in many, many different countries but it’s far from being a part of the culture, it’s far from being entrenched in the economic and political institutions, it’s still has a rather tenuous existence including on television in the United States where major networks do not want to show Mixed Martial Arts events.
“So, what is this going to mean for the combat sports? Because people in the combat sports see the need to promote this warrior culture, promote these kind of macho events. There’s certainly a large fan base for it and if MMA’s growth starts to become stunted to one degree or another, where are people going to go? What’s going to potentially take its place? Now, there are a lot of different scenarios that you could come up with but one of those scenarios involves getting legitimacy from the Olympic games and also particularly in the MMA world, which again doesn’t seem to understand how things go on in the world in general particularly in the so-called MMA media, there’s not much understanding of how you would get MMA or some limited form of it because you’re not going to have full MMA in the Olympic games or grappling in the Olympics. And I think it’s important to look at the process of how sports get into the Olympics because there’s talk, well, you’re going to have the 2016 Olympics in Rio so let’s get Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in there and all this, there’s a lot of naiveté about how this goes on, about how this process works.”
Eddie went on to discussion how FILA is working on pushing for Pankration in the Olympics and what it will take for MMA & BJJ & other forms of grappling currently not in the Olympic games to break in politically with the IOC. The idea is that having a sport associated with the Olympics will bring enough legitimacy to establish a line of equity of credibility.
Will CTE & concussions become major health & business issues for Mixed Martial Arts in the future and, if so, how much damage will the sport take in the eyes of the public?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 34 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
1) The UFC will still be getting a good TV contract once their deal with SpikeTV runs out. So it really doesn’t matter that much how much growth they have. The UFC will be around for years to come, being easily accessible to fans. As a fan, that is really all I care about.
2) I was hanging around some friends that I don’t see very often. Somehow it was mentioned that I enjoy the UFC. A few of the people in the group talked about how they just don’t like it at all, and did so with a sort of disguisted look on their face. They weren’t mean or uneducated. They just couldn’t really stomach the sport. I think that will always be an issue for combat sports. The brutal nature of the sport is a pure turnoff to a certain segment of the population. This is something that team sports do not have to worry about.
3) Strikeforce has officially been gutted. Which is no suprise. Even if the UFC stays with Showtime in the future, it is likely to be under the UFC name. The sooner the rosters are combined the better. I’m rather annoyed at this point waiting for the sport to progress…. It’s not Zuffa’s fault because of the way the contracts are set up….. Still annoying as a fan.
What happened/changed regarding point number 3? Was there a big change in regards to Strikeforce?
They laid off their workers.A few had a chance to move to Vegas, but the ones who were offered didn’t want to move. So they ended up keeping basicallu nobody. Coker is still around but that’s about it.
Some interesting points raised by Snowden. But for now it looks like the UFC is content to focus on their PPV driven model rather than chasing a network deal.
Maybe that will all change now that it looks like they’re starting to hit ceilings on their PPV growth and they’ve more or less consolidated high level mma in North America.
Another intersting issue I’d like to see explored a little deeper is that while ratings for sports have gone up, what do the ticket revenues/attendance figures over the same time frame look like? With leaps in home entertainment technology (HDTV, all-encompassing sports packages, surround sound, web integration, multi-tasking generation, etc.) I wonder how much of the “gains” in tv viewers is cannabalized from people who are tired of getting gouged to go watch games live (not to mention most average fans being forced to get nosebleed seats that pale in comparison to the HDTV experience at home, when they do go).
I believe ticket sales in sports are through the roof. Football teams are forcing fans to buy the “rights” to purchase the tickets. I forget the exact termonology or how it’s used, but it’s basically just an additional money grab. No different then how you have to pay $80 to join the UFC Fight Club to have any chance at a reasonable seat. Baseball has seen record attendence overall the last few years.
Gone are the days in major sports of getting a nice seat at an affordable price for the family of 4. Perhaps if you are a Minnesota Twins fan that is still an option, but not for Football, Basketball, and popular baseball teams.
A $100 ticket at Yankee Stadium gets you a DECENT seat. Not a great seat. Just a decent one. And that’s the price of one ticket. UFC tickets are outrageous in price. I purchased $200 tickets for UFC 39 and was right on the action. I could see Dave Menne’s eyes rolling back as Phil Baroni KO’d him against the fence. Compare that to a $200 ticket I had for UFC 101, and I was far away from the action in the corner of the lower section over half way up. It was like watching stick figures.
For both baseball and the UFC, I find that I can go once a year or once every other year and be happy. I get my fix of the live experience, and then go back to the TV happily. For the Yankees, I get to see the stadium with monument park. The atmosphere can’t be matched. For the UFC, you get to see the weigh-ins, Q&A, and just feel the vibe of the fight fans so much better.
But like I said, I can do each of them on an every other year basis and be happy. Yet I had college friends who couldn’t get enough of the live sporting experience. So to each their own.
@ 45 – Interesting re. baseball/football sales, didn’t realize they were so hot. I do know the NBA (pretty much any team thats not NYK, Lakers, Celtics, Heat, Bulls..usual suspects) and NHL (for NHL mainly the sunbelt franchises and the pitiful ones like NYI, NJ) are struggling mightily, and to me it makes sense when you can watch 6 games at a time in HD for $300/yr.
Pro sports have priced out the average fan who used to go to every game…now they go to like 3-5 games a year.
“Football teams are forcing fans to buy the “rights” to purchase the tickets. I forget the exact termonology or how it’s used, but it’s basically just an additional money grab.”
I believe it’s called a “personal seat license”, which for some ridiculous price gives you the privilege of purchasing season’s tickets for a particular seat(s). A nice double-dip of getting $$ out of the fans, but IIRC, the holder has the right to sell the PSL to someone else who wants to purchase tickets for the seat(s) if they no long want to get bent over for season’s tickets.
MMA should not be a sport in the olympics. It would become too watered down. Plus most of they guys competing professionally won’t do it, when they can make a lot more money fighting professionally. BJJ or submission grappling should be in the olympics. I would prefer it non gi, but gi would be fine too. As long as the olympics have boxing, wrestling, judo, bjj(if added), and even TKD… combat sports are represented enough.
MMA like Boxing is’nt ever going to get huge ratings because the big stars, who the fans are interested in fight on Pay Per View.
This would only change if a network was prepared to pay a considerable amount for say a GSP fight that would be in the same ballpark as what the UFC makes on PPV and why would the network risk shelling out $20 million when they could get similar ratings for something much cheaper.
The UFC like Boxing does’nt have many stars, so it’s not like you can run it in a season either.
I don’t think you can compare what MMA does when someone dies to what boxing does. MMA has not had a televised death, and certainly hasn’t had a death of a notable fighter who would get headlines. If someone died on a UFC pay per view, I think they’d be so paranoid it was automatically going to start “the dark ages II” with John McCain on their asses that they’d jump to take action. Boxing promoters know they are an institution and it really doesn’t matter. UFC is run by guys who battled through the war to get MMA accepted and still have “it could all go away” in the back of their minds.
I really believe concussions are a sports writer and sports media-obsessed-fan issue. The reason it’s not a huge issue is because the average person will say “Well, these guys make millions of dollars playing football or hockey or fighting, so that’s the risk they take.” And sports leagues live to satisfy writers, not fans. They live in a bubble where they read major sports writers and think their opinions, no matter how out of step they are with real people, are the new rule of law and they will be in trouble if they don’t give them what they want. I’m not saying regular fans don’t want safety, but they’re not going to threaten to boycott the sport they love if they aren’t as safe as they’d like. Look how all the concussions in the NFL that cost guys at least a week were never highly trending compared to other big NFL stories.
Sonnen’s indefinite suspension was upheld by the CSAC.
Sonnen made himself this bed based on a pile of lies and b.s. thinking he’s smarter than everyone else. Couldn’t have happened to a “better” guy. What a goof. #winning
I find his license denial very amusing, but I feel sorry for him if he really can’t compete. Plus, the guy was hilarious.
Perhaps Anderson can sleep easier now.
Yeah he won’t have to fight a rematch with a guy he tapped out who was juiced to the gills.
His nights just got a whole lot calmer!
Leave it to the CSAC to find even more ways to top themsevles and show just how full of crap they are everytime there’s one of these hearings. They should have just had the vote and saved everything else because that was a waste of everyones time. This was a bigger sham than even their already bogus appeals process, seriously how can there be anyone out there that still takes them seriously is beyond me.
And yet you and Sonnen expect us to take Sonnen seriously.
I agree the CSAC sucks, but at least they got it right. Now we don’t have to sit through a Sonnen vs. Bisping – TUF for “#1 contender”. Now that would be a total joke/sham/waste of everyone’s time.
Except they didn’t get anything right, they only thing they’ve done is continue to prove that their entire system is a joke and they have no credibility.
So yeah all of these people celebrating and declaring that justice was done in the end, are supporting a corrupt and damaged system that’s going to hurt mma in the long term.
This goes beyond Sonnen at this point it’s about mma being in the hands of inept morons, sorry if I don’t see that as a good thing.
The guy lied. That is indesputable. But an indefinite suspension on top of him already being out for 10 months? This is over the top…
…and money laundering shouldn’t fall into their decision making process. It was a non violent crime no matter how profile he is. The government handled it by giving him the punishment deemed appropriate by the court system.
This honestly is a sad day for me, because these commissions continue to make up for inadequacies in certain areas by “grandstanding” in others.
I honestly wish Zuffa and the UFC would just say fuck it, and run Chael on a show in Texas just like Arum did with Margarito.
I don’t think it’s over the top at all.
He indisputably lied/perjured himself before the commission and tried to pull another AC under the bus, put forward ridiculous “medical evidence” and “doctor’s testimony” about the need for TRT, while having a 16.9:1 ratio when the typical ratio is 4:1. And he did all this in order to get a reduced suspension (6 months vs. 1 year). Now that “new evidence” has come forth that he totally perverted the hearing process and lied about permissions from another reputable AC to get a reduced sentence, it’s over the top to reassess what happened?
First, he should be under indefinite suspension or at least be refused a license until there is proper documentation and medical opinion proferred as to the need for this TRT, the extent of the TRT and proper provision of the TRT that he “needs to get out of bed” so that he’s not like a “93 year old man” (bull f###ing s##t). And if he in fact does require this TRT, then he shouldn’t be able to use it to boost his levels up to 4+ times the normal levels he’s supposed to be bringing himself up to. Instead we should just say, ah well…he sorta served some time, and he’s trying to claim some exemption he’s never utilized before – we trust it will all take care of itself?
The guy is a troll, he thought he was smarter than everyone else and could just skate through the process after he blatantly cheated in a championship fight by pulling the B.S. he did to impress internet fans…my heart bleeds purple piss for this dickhead.
No not at all.
In those paragraphs that you wrote there is only one point that is proven: He lied about his discussions with Kizer on the use of TRT. Other than that pretty much everything you wrote is an opinion, the first of which is completely inaccurate.
“Now that “new evidence” has come forth that he totally perverted the hearing process and lied about permissions from another reputable AC to get a reduced sentence, it’s over the top to reassess what happened?”
It’s not new at all. Kizer didn’t wait until last week, last month, or even until after the hearing (the first one) was over to call bullshit on Sonnen’s testimony. He said it during the hearing that it was a lie and he never had any discussion over the topic with Sonnen himself. Nothing about that is “new”. The CSAS could have readdressed that at any point. They didn’t, and they waited until this conviction on a federal money laundering charge was finished to parlay it with the conviction to make their case. Only it is far past the 6 months they reduced it to in the first place.
They’re the ones who never asked for any sort of documentation past what Chael provided to them in the first place. That is not under question at all at this point, or they would never have reduced his suspension in the first place. They obviously took the doctor at his word in the first hearing. No matter how stupid that was, it doesn’t merit revisiting 3 months past the deadline of the suspension they implemented.
We should get some documentation on here about what TRT levels/ratios are normal and what aren’t. Because I’m not sure if those two ratios that you put forth are cut and dry numbers. I remember reading after the hearings process that those ratios didn’t have anything to do with how high of a level testosterone was at in your body, but more to do with the amount in the particular tests. This was another point of contention brought up during the first hearing by the CSAC. It was obviously not good enough to cause any ruckus than because, again, they reduced the suspension.
The only “new evidence” going against Chael was the federal money laundering conviction. Which, it being a non violent crime, shouldn’t have anything to do with their decision making.
The levels of your
edubs what are you talking about?
1. Kizer was not involved in the CSAC hearing. He was asked by Gross and several other reporters about testimony given by Sonnen to the CSAC and told that his name was bandied about and implicated in the hearing and flat out denied everything Sonnen said. But to the best of my recollection, none of this was offered to the CSAC before they provided their decision, unless they were following Gross on Twitter – so this is “new” evidence to the CSAC hearing.
I agree, this fraud thing shouldn’t come into play, and that’s simply because it’s extraneous and they’ve got him on the perjury committed in order to get a reduced suspension. But to say this isn’t “new” when there’s no way they would have known until after their decision was rendered, whether it was out there on Twitter or not, is being wilfully oblivious to reality.
2. Normal T/E ratio for your average joe is 1:1 or 2:1. The acceptable levels for athletic competition (e.g. WADA, AC’s) is 4:1. He came in at 16.9:1 – that’s so far over the acceptable limits it’s not even funny.
That’s like a driver blowing BAC of 0.32% when acceptable level for BAC is 0.08%.
Ah, my bad. I thought he was at the event, and had to testify. That’s my bad then.
I just think it’s timed just to mesh with his conviction. As you said he was questioned by Gross about it, but that was the very next day, right? I mean why not contact Sonnen the minute you heard Kizer’s statement on the subject? Why wait 9 or 10 months to question him on it?
On the topic of his levels they were presented to the commission and they still reduced the sentence.
If they decided that he lied why not give him another six months from today’s hearing on? It seems to me that the federal money laundering conviction was the basis for the indefinite part.
Sorry I should clarify that I wasn’t trying to challenge you on the t/e levels, just providing the info.
But I agree, the timing stinks and just goes to their ineptness. But in the end he got what was deserved. Otherwise you’ve got a guy not only avoiding meaningful repercussions for cheating then lying under oath at his hearing, but having the red carpet rolled out to benefit from his ridiculousness and being rewarded with lucrative opportunities. At least guys might think twice in the future.
Plus wasn’t part of the indefinite suspension that he needed further proof and back up re TRT. Again something that should have been addressed the first time, but he dodged it partly on the basis that it was all a formality and he’d been cleared in Nevada. Before he’s relicensed he should have to provide a whole boatload of reliable documentation and justification for it being necessary for him to rely on.
“I honestly wish Zuffa and the UFC would just say
fuckit, and run Chael on a show in Texas just like Arum did with Margarito.”Maybe they’ll just do it in the UK (with Bisping)…”business as usual”.
Look at like this.
Chael lied about something a state official said to make himself look better in the short term to the public. What other state or federal official do you know that’s going to let that slide and not make life miserable for the person? And all officials are going to stick together and stand up for another “wronged” comrade. When you can be petty to screw with somebody, you get petty (*cough*Dana*cough*.)
He should have known better, so I have zero sympathy for stupid people. Even if they cut a good promo.
The problem with looking at UFN and TUF ratings is that these programs are mainly for the hardcore viewers, not the masses. Hell, I’m a pretty hardcore MMA fan, and I’ve decided I’m only going to start watching the major shows.
I don’t think being a fan of big event championship fights necessarily means you want to watch random lower level fights.
I the main concern that is not being addressed by UFC and other fighting organizations is the very real risk of serious, if not permanent injury. Just because no one has died in a UFC event doesn’t mean it will never happen; that said, combat sports need to work much harder at rules to protect the fighters, without taking away strikes, kicks or the bulk of a certain fighter’s style.
Pancrase has strict rules about where you can and cannot strike; this should be strongly considered. Actually, I’d love to see pankration in the Olympic Games; to me it is fascinating, the technical aspects of any combat sport, not just the brawl like too many fans seem to think makes for an “entertaining fight.”
As for pro wrestling, well, things are not gonna change as long as Vince McMahon is alive. WWE will continue to encourage (ie, force) its wrestlers to juice, because V.M. can’t get the bigger is better idea out of his head. That culture of steroid, HGH and related use is going to remain for a long time, and I’d not be surprised that more deaths don’t result, and I mean a lot of them, in the next ten years.
Back to the head injuries: to be honest, I’m damned if I know how you’d protect MMA fighters from serious injuries, unless you banned closed-fist strikes, knee strikes and heel kicks to the head. What is more/less likely to cause an injury? I don’t know how you would deal with that.
UWF/UWFi banned all closed fist punches to the head, but did allow open hand strikes; they also allowed kicks to the head, except for when a man was down and had both hands on the mat. That’s an example; I think the rules committess are going to have a lot on their plates for the next several years if they are to make MMA legitimate enough for the casual fan to support it.
There’s no way to protect combat fighters from brain trauma. They just have to accept that they’re probably going to have issues in their later years and fans have to accept that they’re basically enabling fighters to get brain damage by paying to watch it. And just accept that they’re grown men and women who can make their own life choices. Or stop watching.
But when Eddie Goldman and people like him believe a more grappling-heavy product is the answer, they couldn’t be more wrong. American fans watch MMA for the striking, and a minority are grappling fans. Of course over the past few years as the new fans from 2005 learned more and more about MMA they’ve gotten a little better, but the day is never going to come where a BJJ tournament is going to draw a huge audience. Just like Grecco Roman wrestling is never ever going to be popular. Only a minority want to see hours of that. Heck, most people can’t even move past how “gay” the two sports look, much less are interested in learning what they are watching.
If striking gets toned down or banned, MMA in America is dead.
What are you talking about – Real Pro Wrestling, NAGA, Grappler’s Quest – all making millions upon millions!
To be fair, NAGA and Grappler’s Quest do VERY well for themselves. Many, many high level fighters got their start by doing grappling tournaments, but I do get what you meant with your comment and you are right, there is a reason grappling tournaments aren’t on ppv. Probably why NAGA’s promoters also put on MMA fights under the Reality Fighting banner.
The point was Goldman is claiming they will be a viable alternative (as in close to or equal to UFC ratings/buys) if UFC ran into problems if someone like Ken Shamrock shows up on TV with brain damage blaming MMA or somebody dies in the Octagon. That is just not going to happen. BJJ tourneys have a cult following that on pay per view would probably do 10,000 buys, and amateur wrestling can’t draw flies on ESPN. American fans have much more respect for striking than grappling. It’s a fact that will never change. Not that grapplers in MMA can’t be popular, but if that’s all that was allowed, UFC would be dead within a year.
Surely brain trauma in MMA won’t be nearly as bad as it is in boxing. I think it’s about 15% of pros who have CTE after their careers. I’d imagine this figure will be less in MMA considering it involves much less trauma to the head and more grappling.
Sadly, it’s not hard to tell what current pros you’d pick to come away with brain damage. It’s the ones who fight with reckless abandon, getting into war after war. Who knows, but I don’t think the more conservative fighters have too much to worry about.
“There’s no way to protect combat fighters from brain trauma.”
I disagree.
There is one incredibly simple way to drastically reduce the amount of brain trauma experienced by MMA fighters …. ban gloves and hand wraps.
The absolute WORST thing that ever happened to MMA from a fighter safety standpoint was the adoption of gloves and wraps.
Ban gloves and handwraps.. that would never fly. I don’t see that as stopping head injuries, as a matter of fact that would lead to more head injuries and even more brutal cuts and breaks.
I agree completely and have brought this up often on Bloody Elbow. Maybe have 1 oz. Gloves just to prevent cuts.
I never want to come off bitter in a Trembow/Goldman way, but cmon…its 2011, almost everything is consolidated, and fans are still expected to pay $55 bucks for Matt “mediocre” Hammil vs Quinton “I don’t even like or care about this anymore” Jackson.