My Take On: MMA & Mainstream Media

It feels like only yesterday when I watched my first MMA event - which happened to be the original UFC Super Fight. After watching, I realized that this sport could only be on PPV due to the sheer amount of violence it presented. Since those days, the UFC obviously has come a long way – not only in terms of fights but also in allowing MMA to transcend the moniker of a “barbaric” sporting event. While the sport has numerous organizations and tons great fighters, the success of sport has always hinged on fans and it crossing over into the mainstream. The UFC slowly started getting real sponsors like Harley Davidson, Burger King and a host of others. MMA was slowly gaining acceptance and companies were embracing the promotion the sport got their products. Companies like BSN, which aren’t usually widely heard of, are a perfect example of MMA helping them become known in mainstream media. Now when I enter a GNC and see a Syntha-6 bottle it has a little UFC logo next to it. It is things like this that help move the sport forward.

Nowadays, you open a magazine and you see MMA fighters (both male and female) endorsing products. Whether it’s t-shirts, supplements or apparel, Mixed Martial Arts has become a viable marketing machine that captures the key demographics for a lot of products across the board.

Let’s not forget that MMA is now seen on broadcast TV, thanks in part to the now defunct EliteXC, as well as StrikeForce, which broadcasts on CBS. In addition to that, companies like Fathead are now acknowledging MMA fighters as “mainstream” athletes with “mainstream” appeal. You can now hear names like GSP, Fedor, Gina Carano, Chuck Liddell and many others mentioned in the same sentences as athletes like Michael Phelps, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade. This shows that combat sports other than boxing have now assimilated themselves into today’s sports coverage and beyond. 

Here are just a few examples of how MMA is now part of mainstream media.

StrikeForce Fighter Gina Carano on the cover of ESPN along with the likes of Dwight Howard and Serena Williams.

Former light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson seen in this Nike Ad also was joined but fellow athlete Lance Armstrong.

UFC welterweight champion GSP is now an Under Armour athlete and he joins Michael Phelps,Brandon Jennings and others in “Protecting This House”

 

Fathead recently announced that they would add UFC fighters to their wall graphic offerings .UFC fighters getting the Fathead treatment are

• BJ Penn
• Brock Lesnar
• Georges St-Pierre
• Jon Jones
• Anderson Silva
• Nate Marquardt
• Junior Dos Santos

Pretty soon MMA will share equal billing with other mainstream organizations like MLB,NHL,NBA and NFL and it’ll be sooner rather than later.