It’s time to take the UFC seriously

On Saturday November 12th, the UFC (‘Ultimate Fighting Championship’ for the uninitiated) had its first broadcast on FOX, marking an historic turning point for the organisation as it steps into the mainstream and does battle with sporting giants in the US, such as the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.

The televised bout was a Heavyweight title fight and ended in a 64 second knockout – probably less than ideal in terms of viewing pleasure but certainly an arresting introduction to the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and a welcome change from interminably dull 12-round decisions that are so frequent in boxing, MMA’s older, grey-haired, limping brother.

MMA fighters, as the name bluntly suggests, are trained in a mix of the world’s martial arts, most notably boxing, kick-boxing, Muay-Thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and wrestling (both Freestyle and Greco-Roman), and must utilise all of these in their efforts to win inside the UFC’s trademarked Octagon (an eight-sided cage – again, fairly self explanatory. Fighters tend not to mince their words.)

If this all sounds rather barbaric, it’s not. From its birth in 1993 as an almost no-holds-barred cockfight, the UFC has developed into a slick, streamlined organisation with more rules than you could shake a stick at. (Although quite why you would is beyond me. Get out more.) Think of the UFC, if you will, as the Premiership of MMA. (Or the BNOC of the MMA world, for those of you who go in for such things/have literally never seen a football game.)

There are several top level British fighters in the UFC’s rostra, including Terry Etim, Dan Hardy, Che Mills and Michael Bisping, the latter being one win away from a shot at the Middleweight title and the seemingly indestructible champion in Anderson Silva. And yet the British media coverage of the UFC is minimal (read: virtually non-existent). A quick search on the BBC website reveals that the last article in the sports section actually about MMA is dated October 13 2008, with a similar search on The Guardian website revealing nothing more than reviews of the UFC videogame.

And this with the UFC having sold out Birmingham’s LG Arena last month, providing them with a new revenue record. I simply do not understand the reticence of the British media to recognise and accommodate an avid fan-base of men aged 18-34 who will literally lap up any piece of UFC/MMA news they can. And they are an incredibly active and well-informed fan-base, too – a vast majority practising some sort of martial art, and always ready to debate about the intricacies of technique, game-plans and match-ups.

The UFC franchise is worth roughly 2.5 billion dollars, which makes it the most valuable sports franchise on the planet. That’s more than the New York Yankees, more than the Dallas Cowboys, more even, I’m afraid, than Manchester United. Talk about a smack in the face. But my confidence in MMA and the reason I implore the British media to jump on the bandwagon before it’s too obvious that they’ve got on at the last stop, without a ticket, is this (and please forgive me waxing lyrical here): MMA is the purest sport on earth, a distillation of every reason that we as a race watch sport. Life is a dogfight; we get nothing in this world that we do not fight for, tooth and nail.

And I’m not talking about general concepts like the ‘Fight against Cancer/Racism/Anti-Semitism’ etc. Of course these are valid concepts, but I am talking here about life on the individual, personal level. We are born, we fight for what we want, and then we die. It is how we fight that makes us who we are. In the immortal words of Primo Levi, “Guerra è sempre.” (What? I warned you I would wax.) This is the appeal of all sport: the application of skill, determination and intelligence to defeat one’s opponent.

MMA is the modern purification of all of this, in the way that Roman gladiators and boxing used to be, and this is the reason for its success. So you can keep your putting balls in nets/holes/over lines. Scrap the bullshit. I’d rather watch two people (yes, there are women in MMA, for those feminists among you) kick each other in the head for what they want. If you agree, great – come have a chat, I’ll make tea. If you don’t, great – come have a chat, I’ll be the one in the UFC hoodie…