SB Nation User Blog: AJB

Kaufman Potentially in Vs. Tate, Still 135lbs. of Awesome

AJB — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:43:08 -0000

So MMA Weekly has the low down on something I mentioned in the comments section of the Kim Couture/Meisha Tate article yesterday: Sarah Kaufman (8-0) has contacted Strikeforce with the offer to step in for Couture. Kaufman, who trains at Zugec Ultimate Martial Arts in Victoria, BC, under Adam Zugec, was out of action for over a year. After she defended her HCF title with a second round TKO of Molly Helsel in March of 2008, the HCF folded. Kaufman was promptly signed by EliteXC, but that promotion, too, folded. Kaufman then signed on with Palace Fighting Championships, but was delayed from fighting for lack of an opponent, until she finally stepped into the ring against Sara Schneider (who agreed to the fight after two previous fighters pulled out) on April 23. Now, Kaufman may be set to fight again only three weeks after her latest victory. From the article:

Sarah Kaufman on Thursday afternoon told MMAWeekly.com negotiations were underway to step in for Couture at the May 15 event.

Strikeforce officials and Kaufman's representatives have agreed to the match-up, and contract details are being ironed out, said Kaufman.

Kaufman, currently undefeated in MMA with eight professional wins, was one of the contracts acquired by Strikeforce in a purchase of ProElite assets last September. She made her first post-buyout appearance last week at Palace Fighting Championships: Best of Both Worlds 2, where she stopped Sara Schneider with strikes in the second round.

I should note (not for the first time) that I train at the same facility as Sarah, and she has choked me out at least five times. I should also note that I am a huge fan of Kaufman, and not just because she is intelligent, well spoken, friendly, and fun; she's also a stone-cold badass in the ring, and she showed it in her last fight. Because very few were able to watch the fight, I've included a run-down.

The description from MMA Weekly of Kaufman stopping Schneider doesn't really do justice to what happened in that fight. I am lucky enough to have seen the tape, and I remember at one point thinking that it looked an awful lot like a bear mauling a deer. And that is not a knock against Schneider; she fought with a lot of heart and technical skill, and pulled out every trick in the book, including two spinning backfists (one of which connected), and several different looks on takedowns. But Kaufman's hand speed, power, and under-rated ground game made all the difference. Schneider was unable to take Kaufman to the ground except by pulling guard, and promptly discovered what seven previous opponents already knew: guard or no guard, it's a bad idea to let Kaufman get top position. Even as Schneider repeatedly tried for sweeps, Kaufman calmly used body position to maintain her base while raining brutal blows down on her opponent. In the early going, Schneider was mixing in submission attempts while trying for sweeps, but the battering took it's toll. By the end of the first round, Schneider was almost totally defensive on her back; by the second she was almost immediately covering up.

However, the biggest difference in the fight might have been a knee that Kaufman delivered from the clinch in the late first round. Kaufman's stand-up was crisp from the opening bell, and she consistently made more contact than Schneider; but more than accuracy or volume, Kaufman's shots were in a different class as far as power. Kaufman came straight up the middle on most of her punches, tagging Schneider in the mouth repeatedly. Despite not having a reach advantage, Kaufman's aggression and speed allowed her to straight rights to find their mark even when Schneider attempted to jab or push kick to create space.

via i551.photobucket.com

Eventually, unable to bring Kaufman down with shots from the outside and eating punches up the middle, Schneider clinched with Kaufman. Kaufman immediately shifted her offense and slammed a knee into Schneider's midsection; the impact was audible even on the video. Schneider immediately dropped to the mat, briefly attempting a single before again pulling guard again. Despite ending up on the bottom, this was probably a smart move: Kaufman and Zugec felt that a second knee from the clinch probably would have ended the fight, and it really seemed that the combination of the knee and earlier ground and pound had sapped most of Schneider's energy. Were the rounds five as opposed to three minutes, the fight likely still would have ended. Following the break and another short period of stand-up exchanges, the fighters hit the mat again and with Schneider shoved up against the ropes, Kaufman pounded out her opponent with a barrage of shots to the head that Schneider could no longer hope to defend.

via www.sherdog.com

Incredibly, the smile that Kaufman is wearing in the first picture never left her face. She simply loves to fight. For that alone, a scrap with Meisha Tate would be very entertaining. But I think I can be forgiven if I don't give Tate much of a chance in this one.

Fickett Falls, MMAA Rises: News and Analysis

AJB — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:47:28 -0000

Promoted from the FanPosts by Kid Nate.

First, the news (courtesy of MMA Mania):

Over the weekend, at the 4 Bears Casino and Lodge ("4 miles west of New Town, ND" - yeah, but where the heck is that?), an MMA card by the name of Beatdown 4 was held. It featured UFC vets Branden Lee Hinkle, and everyone's favourite internet wordsmith, the immortal Drew Fickett. Many would assume that fighters good enough to have danced on the big stage would mop the floor with regional guys; many would be wrong.

Hinkle, best known as the guy who beat up Sean Gannon at UFC 55 (and subsequently got demolished by Jeff Monson), actually appeared to be the underdog heading into his match. His opponent, Chris Tuchscherer, came in as a 15-1 legitimate heavyweight. His lone loss is unfortunately one that (a very few) people remember him from: he was decisioned by Travis Wiuff as part of the YAMMA debacle. But that aside, Tuchscherer has some skill, is a big man and trains with the suddenly-relevant Minnesota Martial Arts Academy (MMAA). He stopped this one in the 4th round, winning by TKO to run his record to 16-1 (6 subs, 6 T/KOs).

In the co-main event, Fickett, most recently in the news for dropping fights like flies and getting into giant pissing contests with promoters on the internet, dropped a decision to Nik Lentz, who also trains out of the MMAA, and who moved to 15-3 with the win. More on this after the jump.

Now the analysis:

For a small-scale regional show, there sure are a number of interesting story lines here. Let's skip Hinkle losing by TKO, because it is simply not all that surprising; he's shown to be a journeyman talent on his best days, but he's a throw back (like most Hammer House guys) to the days when you could win an MMA match by wrestling hard and being tough. That those days are long gone is news to no one outside of Hammer House. But in relevant news...

Fickett Loses Again

The graph attached to this fanpost by JCS_FM (which was my inspiration for writing this post in the first place) now has a new low point, and shows the shocking decline of Fickett. I think we are at the point with Fickett, much like with Ken Shamrock, that he has stopped being a punchline and almost become a punching bag. A rather limp one. It's too easy to beat on him, and the fun has gone.

Let's keep in mind, here, that his opponent, Nik Lentz, is no world-beater. This isn't a young guy out of nowhere who will set the world on fire in the future. Nick Lentz is the definition of a middle-of-the-road fighter. (This is not to bash Nik Lentz. I mean, he has 15 more victories than I do.) Fickett, on the other hand, was at one time one of the highest regarded welterweights in the game. He is responsible for one of only three losses on Kenny Florian's record, defeated Josh Neer and Josh Koscheck in the UFC, and beat Dennis Hallman back when it still meant something. Flat out, Fickett is too talented to be losing to Nik Lentz at a backroads casino show in North Dakota.

MMAA Represents

via www.cagetoday.com

Suddenly, people are talking about the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy as a legitimate, or even top-tier, camp. Brock Lesnar turned a lot of heads when he refused to leave Minnesota for his training camp coming up to his bout with Randy Couture. The general impression was that Minnesota simply did not have the resources to put on a good camp, either in terms of expertise or in terms of simple numbers of actively training fighters. How quickly people forget that, pre-Greg Jackson, no one was flooding Albequerque to brush up on their fight game...

Fightlinker has a piece (that quotes the Wertheim article over at SI) that talks about Brock's reclusiveness, and his willingness to bring top talent to him. It's absolutely true, too: prior to the Lesnar-Couture fight, trainers in my neighbourhood (Victoria, British Columbia) were getting calls offering to be flown down to Alexandria, Minnesota (not a direct flight, I imagine) to be part of Lesnar's camp. One of the side-effects of this that hasn't been mentioned is that those experts are bringing up the quality and capacity of training at the MMAA generally. Unlike in free market economics, this rising tide does seem to be raising all boats. There is a small but building buzz around Tuchscherer and some of the other prospects at the MMAA, though we have yet to see how much is also the hype that Lesnar brings with him.

Of course, Lesnar is not the only name fighter at the MMAA. Sean Sherk, Kaitlin Young, Nick Thompson and Brock Larson have all been training there for some time. But is just seems like Lesnar has brought some new life - and some new coaches - to the old "caveman workout" pioneered by the Muscle Shark. To be sure, wrestling will remain the forte of the MMAA, but Lesner is a "name" champion in the UFC, a massive draw who is up against a ton of pressure for someone so new to MMA. So long as his camp keeps pulling out all the stops to bring in the best trainers that they can find, all of the pros (and amateurs) at the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy will benefit. Tuchscherer is likely to become one example of a guy who really benefits from the new blood in town, especially given that he is the same general size and shape (read: massive) as Lesnar and is said to be one of his regular training partners. Add in the recent evidence of Sherk's willingness to strike and improved stand-up ability, and maybe it's time to consider that maybe MMAA really has made the leap to the top tier of training. I might even have been too hard on Nik Lentz. War Carnie.

Edit: New information courtesy of Nick Thompson (see comments). Apparently it's the same crew of coaches and trainers as before at MMAA, but that still doesn't change the buzz I'm hearing about that camp becoming a real force and the fighters at MMAA elevating to the next level generally. Which just begs the question: what's changed? I suppose we'll just have to wait and see...

What the Heck is the "SNBCMMA"?

via www.snbcmma.com

Aside from a very messy acronym, that is. Apparently, the fight between Tuchscherer and Hinkle was for the SNMMA Heavyweight Title. If you are anything like me, your first thought was, "Oh great, another WAMMA." However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that "SNMMA" stands for "Sovereign Nations Mixed Martial Arts", while SNBCMMA is the awkward shorthand for a pseudo-athletic council that seeks to work towards improving and promoting boxing and MMA shows held on Indian reserves (or "reservations" for those in the USA). Huh. Now that's something to think about.

(Caution: read the rest ony if you're interested in commentary on the ins and outs of holding MMA events on reserves.)

In my other, other life (not the one where I get paid for being a research analyst for the government, but rather that of the aspiring academic), I'm a political theorist focusing on Indigenous peoples' issues and conflicts with neo-colonialism (I hear you yawning). This sort of development nicely wraps my two major interests together in one package. So, my (very brief) opinion on this: it has the potential to be a very good thing.

So long as reserves are exempt from many laws, they will continue to both provide the opportunity to put on smaller shows which feature newer or lower-tier fighters, as well as the opportunity for unscrupulous promoters to put on half-assed shows without athletic commission interference. The fact is that the majority of reserve communities simply do not have the infrastructure to put on a show by themselves, even if they have a facility. And those that do have the capacity - mostly those with casinos, including the 4 Bears (where this event was held) and River Rock Casino (in Alberta, home to most MFC events) - may still be open to low standards due to ignorance of the MMA game or to being manipulated by promoters. When a fighter was shot in the leg following a show at a reserve just outside of Vancouver about a year ago, many people immediately pointed at the reserve officials for failing to provide proper security. But this failure was only part of the problem; this argument ignores the epidemic level of violent gang activity on many reserves, ignores the poverty that prevents the deployment of full police forces or athletic commissions, and ignores that most tribal politics are incredibly small-scale meaning that band councils (tribal councils for the Yanks) are notoriously trusting of ventures that purport to bring money to the community for low investment. And no one at all talked about the outside business people who show up, cash in hand, and confidently tell the councils about the giant piggy bank that is MMA, without mentioning the difficulty of properly promoting and hosting a card. Something needs to be done to address this, because reserves have long played host to boxing matches, and MMA events are increasing in frequency on reserves across Canada and the USA.

It is constitutionally and legally impossible to impose state, province or regional athletic commission authority on reserves. I believe it is also ethically undesirable, but that's another argument; the simple fact is that reserves are bureaucratic "islands", largely disconnected from the surrounding jurisdictions. This leaves them in a regulatory vaccuum, and the nature of the North American political system is one that abhors a vaccum. The ideal solution would be for voluntary compliance with accepted protocols for putting on an MMA event - having enough medical staff on hand, pre-fight medical testing, post-fight drug testing, use of the unified rules, and so on - and for transparency in this regard. Voluntary compliance requires someone, whether motivated by pride, profit, or the need for something to do on a Sunday afternoon, to step up and pursue the issue. It also requires cooperation across band/tribal lines, because the only thing more frequently lacking than the capacity to put on top-shelf shows is the experience of doing so, and you simply cannot legislate that. SNBCMMA may be trying to accomplish this. Here are the Mission Statement and Vision Statement taken from their website:

Mission Statement:

The mission of the Sovereign Nations Boxing Council (SNBC) is to develop, promote and regulate the sport of boxing in a fair and professional manner to federally recognized tribes. (SNBC) will provide all participants involved with professional boxing the respect, moral and ethical treatment expected from a professional organization that is dedicated to serve as a role model for the great sport of boxing. (SNBC) will develop and oversee a
fair and ethical ranking system along with titleholders. Sovereign Nations Boxing Council brings to light the fact that tribes are sovereign nations and will re-enforce that fact throughout the existence of the (SNBC). (SNBC) is committed to serving the communities and advancing the lives and economic situation of all Native people, as well as, all professional boxers in a positive and professional manner.

Vision Statement:

(SNBC) seeks to become a major professional boxing organization uniting native tribes within the sporting community all the while maintaining its mission statement. (SNBC) is determined to have titleholders and rankings parallel with the established world boxing organizations. The (SNBC) will set up a crises fund to aid the professional boxers that are part of the (SNBC) with assistance to the best of its ability. Develop an annual convention to address recommended changes in rules and regulations for (SNBC) and participants. The annual convention will also serve as training grounds for potential boxing judges, referees, commissioners, promoters, and casinos entering the sport of boxing or MMA.

(The website also features several sections and statements directed specifically towards MMA.)

If mission and vision statements were worth money, the SNBCMMA would already be rich. As of now, there are only two or three partners in this scheme (none in Canada, contrary to hopes of the SNBCMMA), so it's impossible to say whether or not there is any potential here. But one can hope. I plan on making some phone calls and doing a full length article on reserves, regulation and MMA in the near future, and these guys will hopefully feature prominently. Unless they choose not to talk to me, which will tell me something too... I'm not getting my hopes up for now, but at least the idea looks good.

That's a lot of analysis.

All that from a small town show in North Dakota. There's no such thing as a slow news day in MMA!

The "Best" MMA Match

AJB — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:37:59 -0000

Okay, enough with the griping about "bad matches". Let's talk about the best.

An MMA match can be considered "good" or "bad" for a lot of reasons. Kid Nate made me think of the irony that Griffin-Bonnar is considered one of the "best" MMA matches ever - from an entertainment and significance standpoint - and also one of the "worst" - from a standpoint of technique, having a clear finish, and so on. So just for fun, I wanted to name my idea "best" MMA matches... in 4 different categories!

Most enjoyable to watch: Randy Couture def. Tito Ortiz (UFC 44)

via lh3.ggpht.com

I hate Tito Ortiz. I can't stand him. I never got his "thing", I always thought he was fairly boring and one dimensional, and I could never grasp why he always ran his mouth so much. Maybe it's because I was the kid who got bullied when he was young, and Tito struck me as a typical bully: brash, loud, simple, and absolutely no threat to someone big enough to respond to the demand for lunch money by saying "make me". However you slice it, at the time of this fight Tito was at a high. People were raving about his striking (it was and is average at best), his cardio (overrated in hindsight), and so on. Randy was supposed to be roadkill for Tito after going 1-2 in his previous 3 fights, losing the HW strap to Barnett, losing in the 5th round to Rodriguez, and despite shocking the world against Liddel, his age became THE storyline. Everyone knows the story from there: Couture becomes the first person to take Tito down, and does it about 8 times in the fight. He nearly subbed Tito twice, outstruck him standing, and capped the fight off by spanking him in the closing seconds... literally. Tito's yelling and swearing in frustration was music to my ears. For me, this fight was the most enjoyable because it was great to see the bully get bullied.

Most fun technical matchup: Anderson Silva def. Rich Franklin (UFC 77)

via img235.imageshack.us

I was tempted to go with Maia/Macdonald here because I'm a sucker for a great ground war. But really, Macdonald's escapes were very impressive, but he showed not just poor wrestling but terrible decision making to REPEATEDLY go to the ground with the best submission artist in MMA today. On the other hand, Franklin did just about everything right against Silva in their rematch... and still got smashed. Remember when he started throwing combos at Silva, and the Spider dodged every shot like he was Neo? Or how about the way that Silva threw strikes with his fists, elbows, feet and knees... from the clinch? Franklin is a good striker and his gameness in this fight is really overlooked. But Anderson put on an otherworldly striking clinic that left me with the impression that the baddest man on the planet was also the middleweight champion of the UFC.

Most satisfying finish: Georges St. Pierre def. Matt Hughes (UFC 79)

via www.mmasplatter.com

Things you should know: 1) I'm a huge GSP mark; 2) I can't stand Matt Hughes (though I recognize his skills, dominance and legacy as being among the all-time best). That being said, this fight is cemented in my mind for one sentence: "TAP TAP TAP!!!" That's all that needs to be said.

Best "Did I honestly just see that?" moment: Fedor def. Mirko CroCop (PRIDE Final Conflict 2005)

You all remember this one, right? Fedor pushes forward; CroCop backs him up with a couple of stiff strikes. Suddenly there's that gap; you know, when there just enough room between the two fighters that it's the perfect distance for Mirko's killer kicks. In the blink of an eye, he unloads a head kick and hits Fedor flush. Boom... I think it took me about 20 seconds to comprehend that what my brain expected to follow - Fedor crumpling to the canvas - not only didn't happen, but that Fedor didn't even blink. The look of... confusion? ... fear? ...whatever it was on Mirko's face was classic, and Fedor's legacy as being "part machine" was cemented forever.

Your turn: your "best" fight (for whatever reason, in whatever category), and why!

Sport Illustrated Archive Piece on Evan Tanner

AJB — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:26:44 -0000

For some strange reason, I persist in reading mainstream sports sites, including Sports Illustrated. Every once in a while, they do produce a good story. Currently on the Sports Illustrated front page is an archived story about Evan Tanner. This is a story which, I believe, appeared in print a while back but is up on the website for the first time.

There isn't much new here, but it's a good read. There are some interesting and saddening connections to some of the other tragic events in MMA history, such as this tidbit:

In March 2006, in what would be his last fight for two years, Tanner won a first-round submission victory over Justin Levens (who, ironically, would die along with his girlfriend in November '08 in what is being investigated as a murder-suicide).

The author also pins down the specific purpose of Tanner's trip into the desert. Apparently, he was in equal parts motivated by a woman and treasure (which many of us can probably relate to):

...Tanner was trolling MySpace for travel blogs when he stumbled across the musings of Sara Tuominen, an Arabic linguist from Washington State who works for the U.S. government as a translator Iraq and Afghanistan, among other countries, and blogged about her experiences in Saudi Arabia. From late June until Tanner's desert trip, their MySpace message correspondence ran longer than some novellas....
As part of his growing interest in Sara, Tanner became engrossed in one of her hobbies: treasure hunting. He started researching the desert east of his new home outside San Diego and discovered the 19th-century legend of Peg Leg Smith's lost gold, nuggets strewn atop a desert butte. Tanner decided to make a series of trips into the desert -- the first alone, the next with Sara....

On his Spike blog, Tanner mentioned his planning for the adventure but claimed that his goals were not material. "I'll have to portray our adventure as spiritual in nature, to avoid being institutionalized," he told Sara.

I had never heard this angle before; Tanner's claim to be looking for "treasure" as he wrote it on his blog is common knowledge, but this bit is new. It could just be the style, but it feels as if the author is cherry-picking particular evidence of Tanner's motivations to make the best possible story. However, the fact remains that no one really knows what was going on in Tanner's head except Tanner.

It's an interesting article nonetheless, and I recommend a read. It's still important to note that this is coverage of MMA in a mainstream publication which - despite dealing with a tragic event - paints the sport in an honest light. The other fighters are shown as compassionate, thinking people, and fighting as a career is basically excused from any part in Tanner's death. The last couple of paragraphs are some of the best, so maybe there is still hope that, somehow, Evan Tanner's life story ends well.

Zombie EXC Sighting: What does this mean?

AJB — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:02:53 -0000

I feel like someone in a horror movie, who knows that the undead have shambled by, but are at a loss to explain how or why. I suppose one could classify this as a "rumour", since I'm no more credible than any other anonymous poster on the internet. But regardless, this is true to the best of my knowledge, and it's my hope that someone can help make sense of this.

Yesterday I was down at the gym, talking with our head trainer. His second-in-charge is a pro fighter who had signed with Elite just prior to their going under. Thankfully, she didn't get caught up in the ugly mess that is the contract situation around EXC at the moment, because she never actually fought for them and her contract wasn't set to become active until the first fight. So, after sitting on the shelf for months, she finally agreed to another contract, this time with Palace Fighting.

This is where things get strange: The day after she agreed to her new contract, someone from Elite called her manager to say that they had heard about her new contract, and they weren't happy. Apparently, they think very highly of her and still want her to fight for them, and they won't make a stink about her taking one fight with another organization while she waits (how magnanimous of them), but they made the point of reminding her that she does have a contract with EXC.

How would they know about her new contract, when there hadn't been a press release? What is with the none-too-subtle threats, considering that her contact with EXC isn't even a valid contract (and everyone is aware of it)? Who was the person who actually made the call, and who do they think they are fooling? The only theory that anyone has put forward on this situation that makes any sense (and I'm not a fan of it, though it could logically follow through) is that CBS has decided to take over EXC, and that all of this other nonsense was an effort to both buy time and lower what they would have to pay for the product. In this theory, there are CBC staffers and contractors preparing infrastructure and keeping an eye on assets behind the scenes. I think that's more than a little bit of a stretch, but I'm at a loss to explain this.

Thoughts?

Randy Couture Undergoes Surgery; Fight With 'Minotauro' Nogueira on Hold

AJB — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:44:19 -0000

Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Cannon Jacques.

Josh Gross over at Sports Illustrated is reporting that Randy Couture has turned down a fight with Nogueira for the first half of 2009 due to recent surgery on his elbow. The problem? Apparently, 16 cm (!!!) bone spurs:

A pair of abnormally large bone spurs were removed from The Natural's elbow on Thursday. While training for his failed UFC heavyweight title defense in November against Brock Lesnar, Couture aggravated the joint, which was mined for a pair of 16-centimeter spurs.

That's no small injury to rehab from, and as seems to be the comment associated with everything Couture does these days, age is not on his side. Here's hoping he has a speedy (and full) recovery, especially since he seems to want the fight with Big Nog, eventually:

Asked if he desired a fight with the 32-year-old Nogueira, the longtime Pride heavyweight champion who was stopped for the first time in 38 fights by Frank Mir on Dec. 27, Couture answered simply: "yes."

I think the Randy-Nog fight is a natural, and one that the fans want to see. Considering the staph infection and the beating he took at the hands of Frank Mir, I don't see Nog having much of a problem waiting until the summer of 2009 for the match-up... though the fans may not find it quite as easy.

Tea, Crumpets, and Triangle Chokes - MMA in the UK

AJB — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:21:26 -0000

It is no secret that the UFC has been trying to “crack” the UK market for some time. Anyone with a long enough memory will recall Ian “The Machine” Freeman, a native of Sunderland, completely annihilating Frank Mir in England back in 2002. But there’s much more to the story of MMA in the UK than the UFC’s infrequent visits, which begs the question, what is the state of professional MMA in the UK?

I am fortunate enough to have relatives in England, which allows for frequent trips to the “old country”, and being a big MMA fan, I am always curious to see how the sport is progressing, especially compared with Canada and the United States. The UK sporting scene can be difficult for a foreigner to figure out, especially for those used to the North American system. While many MMA fans in North America continue to discuss the pros and cons of a single MMA “major league” – akin to North American sports leagues like the NFL or MLB – sports fans in the UK are well versed in the sometimes labyrinthine complexities of tiered sports leagues, international “friendlies” (which rarely are), and sports like cricket which use rules that are completely impenetrable for anyone who didn’t learn them along with their ABCs. While North American fans might settle down to watch a football game on a Sunday afternoon, catching occasional highlights of other games, fans in the UK are known to watch rotating two to three minute clips of a dozen football (that’s soccer to you) matches simultaneously. The result of a crowded and complex sports scene in the UK is, in my experience, a very high degree of sporting literacy among UK fans. While sporting events have been known to degenerate into riots, this has less to do with ignorant thugs looking for a fight (though that does happen) than with fans who are passionate, involved, and highly invested in their sports. In short, I have come to truly respect the intelligence of the average UK sports fan. So, despite the long standing love of boxing as the primary combat sport in the UK, it does not seem that fans have had much trouble making the connection with MMA. Even casual fans that I spoke to seem to know the basics of what the sport is; I have heard very little of the “human cockfighting” or “no-rules bloodsport” disinformation that is frequently spread around the far side of the Atlantic.

Another major difference in the UK sporting scene is in the realm of participation. Everyone plays football. Everyone. It is not possible to find someone who has not played football at some point. Especially among young men, participation in amateur sports is almost par for the course; rugby, cricket, golf, and even amateur boxing are all considered very common hobbies and pastimes. The same mentality can be seen with respect to MMA. Everywhere I went, I saw signs and advertisements for martial arts training. Everything from ultra-generic taekwondo (“Self-defence! Break boards!” – perfect for all those times when you’re attacked by some lumber), to combined classes in BJJ, Muai Thai, and wrestling, which speaks to a deep awareness of contemporary MMA styles, was advertised everywhere from London to the East Midlands. The importance of this cannot be overstated: those who train MMA tend to comprise a good chunk of the most hardcore and long term fans of the sport. People who are into MMA enough to sacrifice their weekends and their limbs for the fun of participating are also more likely to shell out a few dollars (or pounds) to see a local show, maybe because a friend or training partner is on the card. Though the masses of casual fans are what ultimately make MMA promoters (and some fighters) rich, the hardcore fans have to come first. A promoter will be much more likely to sink money into a putting on a show when fans are visibly seeking out shows; that’s simple market demand, and promoters look for it since it’s a heck of a lot easier than trying to sell a product that no one is looking to buy.

While the density of training of options was not as high as in many North American cities I have visited – for example, in tiny Victoria, BC, there seems to be an MMA gym every five blocks – what was startling was the change from my previous visit, less than a year prior. During my visit during the summer of 2007, there was little evidence that MMA had registered in the consciousness of the UK sports scene. There was no coverage in the papers, no hype about “major” shows (including Cage Rage events broadcast on Sky Network), and it was actually impossible to find a sports bar or pub that would show a UFC pay-per-view (or even knew what that meant). In less than a year, not only has training MMA become a minor trend, but advertisements for both Cage Rage and UFC shows were prominent in the news, there was some evidence that people were actually watching the weekly Cage Rage television show, and I even saw a few Affliction shirts being worn in the high street (which brings up the terrifying possibility of North American meatheads and UK chavs cross-pollinating). As usual, it is not the snapshot that tells the story, but the change over time. The change for me can be summed up by my friend (and my wife’s cousin) Andrew. One year ago, I was showing him online clips of Cro Cop and George St. Pierre, and trying to explain MMA basics to him. This year, just before I touched down at London City Airport, I received an e-mail from him saying, “Too bad you weren’t here last week – there was a big MMA show that we could have gone to.” That, along with the pictures on his Facebook showing him proudly sporting his new GSP shirt, tell one small part of a much bigger story.

While the UFC continues to talk about breaking into the UK market, the fact is that MMA has been present in the UK for a long time. If it seems that UK fans have been slower to accept MMA than North American fans, it should always be remembered that the dynamics of the sports scene in the UK are very different from those in North America. Sports are something to be watched as well as played, and fans are much more likely to want to learn the ins and outs of a sport before flocking to support big shows. UK fans invest passionately in football teams, rugby squads, and likewise in individual fighters; an investment of that kind demands a slower, more thoughtful approach, even from someone whose sole intention is to watch and support. But the end result of a sport catching on in the UK, if the best case scenario for professional MMA comes to pass, is a feverishly committed fan base that turns sporting events into full fledged festivals. Let’s just hope that the brawls are restricted to football; the fighting in the ring is much more fun to watch.