Colonel_Reb
Hall of Famer
Here's a pretty good article I just got of MSN. Here's the link for it because there are several attached articles you might find worth reading.
http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/5373408?GT1=7934
Like it or not, UFC on verge of explosion
Dave Doyle / FOXSports.com
Posted: 7 hours ago
Once branded as human *******fighting and plagued by its own blood-soaked marketing, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the sport of mixed martial arts almost collapsed before it ever really got started.
Ultimate Fighting Highlights
Watch highlights of Chuck Liddell, Rich Franklin, David Loiseau and other UFC fighters.
The sport, a unique blend of wrestling, jiu-jitsu, boxing and kickboxing, was banned in much of the country in the late 1990s.
But through a combination of aggressive new ownership, sanctioning in pivotal states, and a hot cable television product featuring charismatic stars, UFC is undergoing a successful image remodel.
"We're not for everyone, and we don't try to be," UFC president Dana White said. "If you don't like fighting sports, great, this is America, that's your right. All we ask is that people understand what we are."
One thing is quickly becoming understood  mixed martial arts is heading for the mainstream of American sport, whether or not the mainstream is ready. UFC is coming off the biggest event in its history, UFC 57 on Feb. 4, in which light heavyweight champion Chuck Lidell defended his title against former champion Randy Couture.
UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell is the biggest star in mixed martial arts. (Josh Hedges/Copyright Zuffa, LLC)
The show drew a sellout of 10,301 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for a paying gate of $3.3 million; another sellout of 2,000 watched the fight at the site on closed-circuit TV; and early pay-per view estimates are 350,000 buys. A live fight special leading up to the show on Spike TV on Jan. 16 drew more viewers than a much-hyped Miami Heat-Los Angeles Lakers game on ESPN the same night.
In fact, nearly 4,000 people showed up for a midweek weigh-in. Contrast that to when Liddell and Couture first fought in 2003, when there were just over 4,000 paid admissions.
"I'm kind of surprised with how fast this has all happened," said the 37-year old Liddell. "People are finally starting to understand what we're all about."
Yahoo even reported that its second-most requested topic in their search engines the weekend of Feb. 4-5 involved Ultimate Fighting, with "UFC results" among the most popular topics. Only that weekend's Super Bowl XL received more inquiries.
If fight fans needed to go online and search for results of the fight  which was not covered by traditional outlets like the Associated Press  that would seem to suggest mainstream media are missing the boat on a sport with a big following.
"There's a huge buzz about the sport right now," said David Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, who has covered the sport since its infancy. "Old sports editors are set in their ways, and I don't think they'll ever get it."
This is in part because many probably still remember the sport's original surge in popularity, which nearly caused it to be legislated out of existence.
The first UFC event was held in Denver in 1993. It was conceived to answer the age-old question of which fighting discipline was the strongest, a question that sold tons of newsstand karate magazines over the years.
"They didn't know they were creating a new sport," said White. "It was supposed to be a one-off event, but it ended up being so successful they did another."
Rules of the octagon
Nothing frustrates people in the mixed martial arts community more than the misperception of the basics of their sport. "Once a reporter asked me what it was like fighting someone 50 pounds heavier with no referee," said Ultimate Fighter Alex Karalexis. "And I said 'That's not what I do' and explained the rules. Then I picked up the paper and it talked about how I fight to the death with no ref against people 100 pounds heavier."
UFC conducts its bouts under rules that are becoming widely accepted as industry standards in commission states. Here is a partial list of UFC do's and don'ts:
What's legal
Punching
Elbowing
Kicking and kneeing standing fighters
Wrestling takedowns and throws
Olympic judo-style chokes
Submission joint locks
What's not
Head butts
Eye gouging
Hair-pulling
Groin strikes
Strikes to the spine or back of the head
Kicking, kneeing or stomping a grounded opponent
Holding the fence for leverage
Throat strikes
UFC quickly became successful as a pay-per-view attraction in the mid-1990s. But a backlash grew against the nascent sport's Wild West atmosphere, which often produced grizzly visuals. A relative lack of rules led to sideshow-type spectacles, such as a fight between 150-pound martial artist Keith Hackney and 600-pound sumo Emmanuel Yarborough; and another fight in which Hackney repeatedly punched martial artist Joe Son in the groin before Son submitted.
Worse, then-UFC owners Semaphore Entertainment downplayed the inherent skill of the athletes and instead played up the carnival aspect, promising and delivering blood gore.
"I had a debate on Larry King Live with them at the time and told them in no uncertain terms we couldn't sanction them unless they changed their rules," said Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada athletic commission. "They really dug in their heels in trying to avoid regulation, and they paid for it."
New York banned the event in 1997, and many of the nation's athletic commissions followed suit. Facing pressure from the likes of Arizona senator John McCain, major cable providers pulled the plug on UFC.
"Honestly, they deserved to be banned," White said. "They made every mistake possible. It wasn't healthy for our sport."
Through the late 1990s, the sport limped by on satellite dish, staging shows at Indian casinos and in the few non-commission states that didn't specifically ban it.
"If someone has an issue with all combat sports, if they're in favor of banning boxing and kickboxing and mixed martial arts, then at least I can respect their consistency, even though I disagree with them," Meltzer said. "The thing that bothers me is the way mixed martial arts was singled out. There's never been a single death in a sanctioned MMA event."
UFC was on life support in the late 1990s, when Semaphore sold the company to Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III, owners of the Station Casinos, in 2000 and brought along White to run the ship.
"When we bought the promotion, it was something that came from the heart," White said. "Every indicator at the time said this was a bad business move, something you couldn't make money in. We took a gamble because we loved the sport and knew the following was there."
The sport's turnaround began in earnest when it received sanctioning from the Nevada athletic commission in 2001 (New Jersey had given its blessing the previous year).
Long gone were the groin strikes and other dirty tactics. Referees were given far greater leeway to stop fights. Fights were set at five, five-minute rounds for title fights and three five-minute rounds for the rest, with judging instituted in the event a fight goes the distance.
"We got together with the people who run all these groups and told them there needs to be a uniform set of rules, like with boxing or any other combat sport," Ratner said. "The people at UFC have complied with everything we've asked of them."
Unlike previous ownership, the present UFC administration embraces government sanctioning as the key to the sport's legitimacy.
"We welcome the commissions," White said. "The old owners ran from regulation; we want it. Like boxing or football or any contact sport, that most important thing is that we take the care to protect the fighters' health and safety."
Of course, the blessing of a key commission wasn't going to revive a sport left for dead on its own. Enter White, a Las Vegas native who cut his teeth promoting boxing in Boston.
"He deserves a ton of credit for making the sport what it has become," Meltzer said of White. "He's the Vince McMahon of his generation."
Nevada sanctioning helped bring cable pay-per-view back on board, but only hardcore fans remained. The next step was getting back on television.
"I mean, it was ridiculous to me.," White said. "Television was at the point that they had people eating donkey (genitals) in prime time, and you're telling me there's no room on television for our sport?"
Bridging the gap was Spike TV's ,The Ultimate Fighter reality show, which is finishing up production of its third season. The show features would-be UFC fighters training in the Nevada desert, guided by UFC stars like Liddell and Couture.
"It was a way to phase on to television without going straight to showing the fights," White said. "Once people started to see what these fighters do  how much time they spend in training, what level of skills you need to make it  that helped break down the stereotypes about our fighters and helped the people see them as all-around athletes."
The show has helped the public gain an understanding of what the sport has evolved into. Fighters need to be cross-trained in all relevant disciplines; a puncher who can't wrestle will be taken down with ease; a wrestler who isn't versed in submission holds will find himself on the wrong end of a submission lock on the ground; and everyone needs to watch out for someone who can kick.
Wrestling throws are one facet of mixed martial arts, as UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes demonstrates on Frank Trigg. (Josh Hedges/Copyright Zuffa, LLC)
"When you first see the clips, if it is something you have never seen before, the visuals can be jarring," said welterweight fighter Frank Trigg, a former University of Oklahoma wrestler who has been featured in a UFC main event. "People have always had the idea that boxing is the 'proper' way to fight. So it takes time to understand the differences between what they're used to and all the subtleties of that go into a ground fight."
Another important piece of the puzzle fell into place when California recently legalized competition. The sport has long been West Coast based, but the Golden State was the final major holdout among Western commission states.
"The way I look at it, there were lots of underground shows, shows on Indian reservations, where the athletes weren't getting proper medical attention," said Armando Garcia, executive officer of the California athletic commission. "The sport has grown to the point where we need to make sure things are on the up and up."
All indications are that California is becoming a hotbed for the sport. The first UFC show in the state, UFC 59 on April 15, sold out the 18,000-seat Pond in Anaheim in two days before a single fight was announced  and that's with the cheapest ticket at $50 and no seats in the lower bowl priced under $200. An independently promoted show in San Jose headlined by Frank Shamrock vs. Cesar Gracie on March 10 is expected to draw more than 10,000 fans.
Industry speculation has it that such high-profile success could lead to the remaining mixed martial arts holdout states in the East, like New York and Maryland, getting on board.
"My guess is that every state with a commission that has its act together will legalize the sport eventually," Ratner said. "They're starting to understand this is just another combat sport."
If the notion of protecting fighters doesn't get remaining commissions to change their tune, another factor might.
"Wait until the commissioners in New York and other places get a load of the gate the show in Anaheim," said Meltzer, who served as a judge on two UFC shows in the late 1990s. "And Nevada is bringing in a ton of money on these shows."
Either way, the principals involved say the perceptions of the sport are changing.
"I always knew the sport would get big if we were given the opportunity," Liddell said. "The interest was always there in the underground, it was a matter of getting the chance to show what we can do in front of a bigger audience. We have, and the people have responded."
Dave Doyle is an editor for FOXSports.com.
http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/5373408?GT1=7934
Like it or not, UFC on verge of explosion
Dave Doyle / FOXSports.com
Posted: 7 hours ago
Once branded as human *******fighting and plagued by its own blood-soaked marketing, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the sport of mixed martial arts almost collapsed before it ever really got started.
Ultimate Fighting Highlights
Watch highlights of Chuck Liddell, Rich Franklin, David Loiseau and other UFC fighters.
The sport, a unique blend of wrestling, jiu-jitsu, boxing and kickboxing, was banned in much of the country in the late 1990s.
But through a combination of aggressive new ownership, sanctioning in pivotal states, and a hot cable television product featuring charismatic stars, UFC is undergoing a successful image remodel.
"We're not for everyone, and we don't try to be," UFC president Dana White said. "If you don't like fighting sports, great, this is America, that's your right. All we ask is that people understand what we are."
One thing is quickly becoming understood  mixed martial arts is heading for the mainstream of American sport, whether or not the mainstream is ready. UFC is coming off the biggest event in its history, UFC 57 on Feb. 4, in which light heavyweight champion Chuck Lidell defended his title against former champion Randy Couture.
UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell is the biggest star in mixed martial arts. (Josh Hedges/Copyright Zuffa, LLC)
The show drew a sellout of 10,301 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for a paying gate of $3.3 million; another sellout of 2,000 watched the fight at the site on closed-circuit TV; and early pay-per view estimates are 350,000 buys. A live fight special leading up to the show on Spike TV on Jan. 16 drew more viewers than a much-hyped Miami Heat-Los Angeles Lakers game on ESPN the same night.
In fact, nearly 4,000 people showed up for a midweek weigh-in. Contrast that to when Liddell and Couture first fought in 2003, when there were just over 4,000 paid admissions.
"I'm kind of surprised with how fast this has all happened," said the 37-year old Liddell. "People are finally starting to understand what we're all about."
Yahoo even reported that its second-most requested topic in their search engines the weekend of Feb. 4-5 involved Ultimate Fighting, with "UFC results" among the most popular topics. Only that weekend's Super Bowl XL received more inquiries.
If fight fans needed to go online and search for results of the fight  which was not covered by traditional outlets like the Associated Press  that would seem to suggest mainstream media are missing the boat on a sport with a big following.
"There's a huge buzz about the sport right now," said David Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, who has covered the sport since its infancy. "Old sports editors are set in their ways, and I don't think they'll ever get it."
This is in part because many probably still remember the sport's original surge in popularity, which nearly caused it to be legislated out of existence.
The first UFC event was held in Denver in 1993. It was conceived to answer the age-old question of which fighting discipline was the strongest, a question that sold tons of newsstand karate magazines over the years.
"They didn't know they were creating a new sport," said White. "It was supposed to be a one-off event, but it ended up being so successful they did another."
Rules of the octagon
Nothing frustrates people in the mixed martial arts community more than the misperception of the basics of their sport. "Once a reporter asked me what it was like fighting someone 50 pounds heavier with no referee," said Ultimate Fighter Alex Karalexis. "And I said 'That's not what I do' and explained the rules. Then I picked up the paper and it talked about how I fight to the death with no ref against people 100 pounds heavier."
UFC conducts its bouts under rules that are becoming widely accepted as industry standards in commission states. Here is a partial list of UFC do's and don'ts:
What's legal
Punching
Elbowing
Kicking and kneeing standing fighters
Wrestling takedowns and throws
Olympic judo-style chokes
Submission joint locks
What's not
Head butts
Eye gouging
Hair-pulling
Groin strikes
Strikes to the spine or back of the head
Kicking, kneeing or stomping a grounded opponent
Holding the fence for leverage
Throat strikes
UFC quickly became successful as a pay-per-view attraction in the mid-1990s. But a backlash grew against the nascent sport's Wild West atmosphere, which often produced grizzly visuals. A relative lack of rules led to sideshow-type spectacles, such as a fight between 150-pound martial artist Keith Hackney and 600-pound sumo Emmanuel Yarborough; and another fight in which Hackney repeatedly punched martial artist Joe Son in the groin before Son submitted.
Worse, then-UFC owners Semaphore Entertainment downplayed the inherent skill of the athletes and instead played up the carnival aspect, promising and delivering blood gore.
"I had a debate on Larry King Live with them at the time and told them in no uncertain terms we couldn't sanction them unless they changed their rules," said Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada athletic commission. "They really dug in their heels in trying to avoid regulation, and they paid for it."
New York banned the event in 1997, and many of the nation's athletic commissions followed suit. Facing pressure from the likes of Arizona senator John McCain, major cable providers pulled the plug on UFC.
"Honestly, they deserved to be banned," White said. "They made every mistake possible. It wasn't healthy for our sport."
Through the late 1990s, the sport limped by on satellite dish, staging shows at Indian casinos and in the few non-commission states that didn't specifically ban it.
"If someone has an issue with all combat sports, if they're in favor of banning boxing and kickboxing and mixed martial arts, then at least I can respect their consistency, even though I disagree with them," Meltzer said. "The thing that bothers me is the way mixed martial arts was singled out. There's never been a single death in a sanctioned MMA event."
UFC was on life support in the late 1990s, when Semaphore sold the company to Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III, owners of the Station Casinos, in 2000 and brought along White to run the ship.
"When we bought the promotion, it was something that came from the heart," White said. "Every indicator at the time said this was a bad business move, something you couldn't make money in. We took a gamble because we loved the sport and knew the following was there."
The sport's turnaround began in earnest when it received sanctioning from the Nevada athletic commission in 2001 (New Jersey had given its blessing the previous year).
Long gone were the groin strikes and other dirty tactics. Referees were given far greater leeway to stop fights. Fights were set at five, five-minute rounds for title fights and three five-minute rounds for the rest, with judging instituted in the event a fight goes the distance.
"We got together with the people who run all these groups and told them there needs to be a uniform set of rules, like with boxing or any other combat sport," Ratner said. "The people at UFC have complied with everything we've asked of them."
Unlike previous ownership, the present UFC administration embraces government sanctioning as the key to the sport's legitimacy.
"We welcome the commissions," White said. "The old owners ran from regulation; we want it. Like boxing or football or any contact sport, that most important thing is that we take the care to protect the fighters' health and safety."
Of course, the blessing of a key commission wasn't going to revive a sport left for dead on its own. Enter White, a Las Vegas native who cut his teeth promoting boxing in Boston.
"He deserves a ton of credit for making the sport what it has become," Meltzer said of White. "He's the Vince McMahon of his generation."
Nevada sanctioning helped bring cable pay-per-view back on board, but only hardcore fans remained. The next step was getting back on television.
"I mean, it was ridiculous to me.," White said. "Television was at the point that they had people eating donkey (genitals) in prime time, and you're telling me there's no room on television for our sport?"
Bridging the gap was Spike TV's ,The Ultimate Fighter reality show, which is finishing up production of its third season. The show features would-be UFC fighters training in the Nevada desert, guided by UFC stars like Liddell and Couture.
"It was a way to phase on to television without going straight to showing the fights," White said. "Once people started to see what these fighters do  how much time they spend in training, what level of skills you need to make it  that helped break down the stereotypes about our fighters and helped the people see them as all-around athletes."
The show has helped the public gain an understanding of what the sport has evolved into. Fighters need to be cross-trained in all relevant disciplines; a puncher who can't wrestle will be taken down with ease; a wrestler who isn't versed in submission holds will find himself on the wrong end of a submission lock on the ground; and everyone needs to watch out for someone who can kick.
Wrestling throws are one facet of mixed martial arts, as UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes demonstrates on Frank Trigg. (Josh Hedges/Copyright Zuffa, LLC)
"When you first see the clips, if it is something you have never seen before, the visuals can be jarring," said welterweight fighter Frank Trigg, a former University of Oklahoma wrestler who has been featured in a UFC main event. "People have always had the idea that boxing is the 'proper' way to fight. So it takes time to understand the differences between what they're used to and all the subtleties of that go into a ground fight."
Another important piece of the puzzle fell into place when California recently legalized competition. The sport has long been West Coast based, but the Golden State was the final major holdout among Western commission states.
"The way I look at it, there were lots of underground shows, shows on Indian reservations, where the athletes weren't getting proper medical attention," said Armando Garcia, executive officer of the California athletic commission. "The sport has grown to the point where we need to make sure things are on the up and up."
All indications are that California is becoming a hotbed for the sport. The first UFC show in the state, UFC 59 on April 15, sold out the 18,000-seat Pond in Anaheim in two days before a single fight was announced  and that's with the cheapest ticket at $50 and no seats in the lower bowl priced under $200. An independently promoted show in San Jose headlined by Frank Shamrock vs. Cesar Gracie on March 10 is expected to draw more than 10,000 fans.
Industry speculation has it that such high-profile success could lead to the remaining mixed martial arts holdout states in the East, like New York and Maryland, getting on board.
"My guess is that every state with a commission that has its act together will legalize the sport eventually," Ratner said. "They're starting to understand this is just another combat sport."
If the notion of protecting fighters doesn't get remaining commissions to change their tune, another factor might.
"Wait until the commissioners in New York and other places get a load of the gate the show in Anaheim," said Meltzer, who served as a judge on two UFC shows in the late 1990s. "And Nevada is bringing in a ton of money on these shows."
Either way, the principals involved say the perceptions of the sport are changing.
"I always knew the sport would get big if we were given the opportunity," Liddell said. "The interest was always there in the underground, it was a matter of getting the chance to show what we can do in front of a bigger audience. We have, and the people have responded."
Dave Doyle is an editor for FOXSports.com.