MMA, without a doubt, is quickly rising in international popularity as a legitimate combat sport.
Is it a legitimate, as in legally sanctioned, sport? Yes, though not in all parts of the world; heck, not even in all parts of the United States, the UFC’s home country. (“Start spreading the news,…”)
Is it popular? Ah, you know it. Though what’s popular can be, and often is, equally notorious to the same number of people. Think Rush Limbaugh.
Accepted by the mainstream? Well, here’s where it gets murky: just how do we qualify or quantify “mainstream acceptance”?
By mainstream, I’ll limit its boundaries to the market of people who are generally allowed in most societies in the world to make major life decisions: 18 years old and up, men and women.
Regarding “acceptance,” well, my apologies, but I prefer a more tangible and measurable term: patronage. (Again, I’m sorry for the semantics.)
Patronage is objectively measurable in pay-per-view buys, gate attendance, membership in MMA online forums, subscription to MMA magazines, journalists on the MMA beat, companies sponsoring MMA organizations and fighters, number of television networks covering or showing MMA events, and other factors subject to cold statistics.
UFC President Dana White believes that the TV deal with Fox will capture and convert more fans for the UFC, and for MMA in general. And he believes MMA will reach mainstream status in two years.
He says (from Greg Beacham's MMA headed to mainstream with 'Warrior,' TV deals):
We won't be mainstream until we don't have to explain what we're doing - what the holds are, what the basic rules are. But people can learn about MMA in a lot of places now - on TV, in the movies, and with everything we do. We're getting there, and we're going to be there soon.
Now, let’s find the bar of mainstream patronage that the international MMA community aspires to reach.
Should we pore over the records of the international professional boxing industry and find out the all-time record-high profits that our sister sport earned in a year? Then, upon official confirmation, we set out to surpass it?
Just how far or near is MMA to enjoying mainstream patronage?
In lieu of finding the most appropriate standard, we know for certain that MMA—its bull charge led by the UFC—is growing by leaps and bounds all over the globe.
And since growth of mainstream patronage entails making the sport as inclusive as possible, either MMA recruits more from its male 18–34 demographic, or goes beyond it.
Spreading across the mainstream—becoming a predominant religion rather than just being a small esoteric cult—also involves progressing along the lines of certain values and ethics of modern society at large.
Take gender equality, for instance. MMA already has its share of women fighters and champions, but have they fought inside its most exalted arena, the UFC Octagon?
Arianny Celeste has been walking in circles inside of it, Kim Winslow has been refereeing within the confines of its mesh wall, but have women fought inside of it? No and there is nothing in the works yet.
This oversight remains to be addressed. Granting Gina Carano a short interview during UFC 141, and televising glimpses of Strikeforce Champion Miesha Tate and challenger Ronda Rousey in UFC 143 are appreciated. But they are mere token gestures to women fighters who’d rather be in the cage than out of it.
MMA, just like boxing, will never conquer every nook and cranny in the world, for this and that reason (or politician). But it can add another milestone to its growth and boost its mainstream patronage further by having women fighters compete in the arenas of its vanguard organization that is the UFC.
You’ll see, when watching Tate and Rousey's athleticism and warrior spirit inside the octagon is no longer a pipe dream.
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