I have been an avid MMA enthusiast and fan. I am proud to say that I was fortunate to see the first UFC back in 1993 on a black box at a friends house. Since then I've been a pretty engaged supporter and have followed every UFC and all fighting in general. I've noticed something recently with the MMA world and it has to do with the presentation of the sport. First of all, I like fighting. So it isn't too much of a concern who I'm really watching as long as the fight isn't a snooze fest. My problem with the sport is in it's presentation and marketing. It's grown stagnate. In the beginning (IMO) it definitely was an individual sport. Fighters were liked, from my perception, for their personalities and fight performances. It was essentially using boxing's methods for presentation. As the sport materialized and the performers got better I've noticed there has been a shift in what works. The UFC has the best fighters. I don't mean on individual fighting ability or merit. They have the best fighters to watch. Unfortunately Bellator, Invicta etc., and really anyone else just don't have the complete packages in terms of talent (with exceptions obviously.) The UFC's current problem is the talent below the top 10 rankings. Anybody who's seen the pre-preliminary fights should have noticed that Joe Rogan and Anik could call the fights without microphones as there is zero audience to drown out their voices. So I see this as no one is really interested in Bill Sanders (made up) from Ohio with a record of 4-1. However, I do see a solution to attracting more viewers to these unknown fighters and really building up MMA as a whole. MMA needs to viewed as a team sport.
I believe it was Ultimate fighter 21, the Blackzilians vs American Top Team that I noticed that there was something there with teams being used in MMA. This was one of the better shows in terms of the fighting. Pride was involved. The fighters didn't really seem to care about making the UFC roster. They seemed more focused on being better than the other team. I thought it was brilliant. These unknown up and coming fighters had purpose to the casual fan. Initially these unknown fighters were exactly that, unknown. If a team was the driving force for promotion, suddenly these unknown's have a fan base simply by association. Super Stars will naturally separate themselves so there is no threat of losing visibility for elite fighters. It's no different than football and basketball. Super Stars become a brand but they are never stronger than the brand of the team. I think MMA should explore this concept. I think fight clubs e.g. Team Alpha Male, American Top Team... they should consider forming professional fight teams separated from their training facilities. Brand these teams and market these teams just like the “Big 4” do. The politics of the teams are handled at the facilities and with whomever is running/owner of the teams. The individual champion would only be a selling asset to these fight teams for exposure and attracting new talent. I understand the concept of a fight team already exists. It's the promotion I think is done wrong. I believe more emphasis on the team and less the individuals would strengthen their brands more than the other way around. Again, Super Stars will always separate themselves so there is no loss to their star power. But the association on the team will help other, lesser known fighters to get fan support they wouldn't normally get.
To market this (I'll use UFC as the example) it's very simple; The UFC needs to remove itself as the face of marketing material. No one is out wearing NFL jersey's with just the NFL logo. I believe the UFC should follow suit. Instead of the UFC/Reebok attire fighters wear with the giant UFC logo plastered all over it (with terrible design's mind you) Team logo's and colors should be the key visuals with a little UFC logo at the neck tag or on the side of the attire. It's no different than any jersey you'd buy from the “Big 4”. The Yankee's are one of the biggest sports organizations in the world and that MLB logo is on everything sold by the team. So there is a natural cross promotion that only benefits both the promotion, the UFC, and the individual team. I believe with teams being the emphasis you get stronger more dedicated followings a long with better rivalries which would ultimately lead to better fights. The logo's of teams, or symbols, would be better to follow (for casuals) than individuals. I believe a symbol is stronger to get followings than individuals. Think of the presentation of fighters having a team logo to get behind. Remove the country flags (the countries can still be mentioned) and have the Teams logo's be in the fore front. Team promotion in MMA helps build up unknown's by having them be a part of something meaningful; in this case teams will naturally have rivalries. There is also a team structure for points and rankings and team champion in all of this.
So this is really the reason I wrote this; the team championship tournament. Again, I'll use the UFC as the sample. Initially I see this tournament as a part of the Ultimate fighter series. I believe the show has grown stagnate and this could be a good platform to test this idea (if all the teams and the UFC get all their ducks aligned with marketing and profit sharing.) 4 teams are selected by the organization to participate. That's on the UFC to determine who. In my example you can see the layout of how it would look. So, 3 fighters for each team along with 3 alternates in case of injuries. Each team will have a fight with the other teams. The example shows with 3 member teams there will be 6 fights to get every team to participate against each team. To choose fights, I thought of a like a lottery deal similar to how the world cup chooses match ups; 4 stations for the teams ping pong balls and each ball has a name. This of course works if every fighter is the same weight. If there are different weight classes being a part of teams e.g. one 145lbs, one 170lbs and so forth, then the weight classes are what are drawn not the team individuals. As you can see from the example, it wouldn't be too hard to make fights at random so no team has an advantage over the other in making match ups. Now the idea is to focus on the team to win. From the example, if women were a part of the team, the gold team wouldn't need to fight every team's woman entrant. What's important is that the team has matched up against every team in some way. Pointing the fights are simple; KO/TKO-10, Submission-8, Majority
decision-5, Split decision-3 (again this can be tweaked). Tie breakers will come down to team over all stats; strikes thrown total, take down total's ect. In the end of all this, the team is crowned champion, they win millions and hopefully fighters get paid more. Now for the UFC (or anyone willing to try this) they can hold sub-tournaments to build up points along with having individuals representing teams build up points to gain entrance into the next team tournament. So, during UFC2--, if Carlos Condit gets a knockout win for his fight, his team JacskonWink gets 10 points for the fight. The team rankings will be a simple table with the top 4 teams gaining access to the team tournament.
So what about the elite? It's easy, teams will now have to think of strategy for fighters and who they fight and when. Champions have to full fill their defense obligations so they are subjected to those time lines. But really these team tournaments won't need the champions or top ranked to participate. There's still money in being an individual so pursuing individual titles still has benefits. These team tournaments are to boost new fighters similar to Ultimate Fighter. With the team oriented focus, there will be naturally more fan investment regardless who fights. So back to Bill Sanders, him fighting for American Top Team against Team Alpha Male suddenly means more. I'm kind of hoping this becomes something. I believe it has a ton of potential and can really change MMA for the better and hopefully get fighters paid more (through marketing and promotion). I think this would really boost smaller promotions if implemented correctly. Bellator had a good idea with their Gand Prix tournaments but time seemed to diminish the hype a long with injuries. This team concept is all done in one night.
NOTE- I know Rose is not a Blackzilian. I could not find a woman representative for that team. Also, I know the fighters used have a bunch of different weight classes. They had the best pictures to use for their teams for the concept that was made. They were used to show team structure.
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