The pressure to legalize the sport of mixed martial arts in Ontario is at an all-time high this week as the entire country of Canada prepares to watch one of its own, Georges St-Pierre, defend his UFC Welterweight Championship at UFC 111 on Saturday.
The fight is the most significant sporting event of interest in the country since Canada won The Gold in Men’s Ice Hockey at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in late February, and the savvy media and fans of Ontario have used that attention to draw awareness to their local plight on a national scale.
Everyone in the country is talking about MMA in Ontario. The local media are writing articles daily on the hypocrisy of the provincial government, the merits of the sport, and the excitement of the impending fight on Saturday. MMA is a hot topic of conversation around the water cooler, and the fans also did their part by turning out in droves to support the UFC’s 111 Q&A this week.
Even the national media got in on the act. First, was that TSN – the Canadian equivalent of ESPN – will also pick up MMA Live for airing. Then came the string of polls on nearly every traditional news website like CBC, CTV, and CanadaAM, all posing a single question: should MMA be legalized?
What do you think the answer was?
Premier McGuinty might argue that MMA isn’t on the top-three wish list of every household in the province, but if he doesn’t do something quickly, MMA may very well find itself on that list. Why? Simply for no other reason than the lay people are sick of hearing about it and want the issue resolved.
It bears mentioning that this pressure isn’t likely to go away any time soon, either. The UFC’s next show in Canada is only seven weeks away (UFC 113 in Montreal), and the thousands of already vocal MMA fans are bound to hit a fever pitch by May 8th. A date when it’s expected that 40% of the 20,000 in attendance (that’s 8,000, Premier McGuinty…) will be residents of Ontario, spend their hard-earned, oft-taxed cash on hotels, food, transportation, and alcohol in another province.
“The fight is the most significant sporting event of interest in the country since Canada won The Gold in Men’s Ice Hockey”
Say what?
Sorry, but a random hockey game/curling tournament/Raptors game etc gets 10x the coverage here.
While there may be more coverage of other sporting events, I think it is safe to say that collectively this has people right across the country extremely excited. Vancouver is buzzing about their up coming show, Ontario was worked up this week thanks to the media tour, the praries have long shown solid mma support and Quebec always loves watching their native son go to battle.
I agree with the article. This is the largest event since the olympics. The nhl and nba don’t draw the same level of interest for one event (ie. one hockey game) across the nation that a GSP fight does. The female world curling championships recieve much more coverage on television than this event, but that doesn’t mean that more people are interested in its outcome or viewing it over the fight.
Hopefully coverage will continue to increase becuase there certainly is a demand for it.
^
That’s just the skewed fanboy perspective. Its one thing to wish that MMA/GSP becomes mainstream but its not reality.
GSP is well known among young people and i’m sure that you and your friends are buzzing about the fight but the average Canadian doesn’t even know who he is.
Like it or not, but a regular Canucks, Canadians, Flames, Leafs games get much more media. So does figure skating, curling, baseball spring training, Raptor games, Tiger Woods news and a bunch of other crap gets way more exposure.
Canadian media has come a long way. But half hour MMA news shows and some mention of the fights on the Score and Sportsnet sportcenter type shows (TSN will probably mention the result) and maybe one or two articles in the newspapers does not overshadow all the other sports that get regular coverage.
I can’t wait until someone points out that GSP is a reigning two time Canadian athlete of the year LMAO.
Those games get much more media in what regard?
Perhaps locally, but you’re absolutely mistaken if you think anyone in Toronto is going to give more press to a Canucks game on Saturday night than the GSP fight; likewise in Vancouver with a Leafs game and the GSP fight.
Count the number of articles in traditional newspapers alone that covered Dana White in Toronto on Tuesday: Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun, Toronto Star, Winnipeg Sun, Winnipeg Free Press, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Sun, Vancouver Sun, etc.
That’s one little Q&A session. Not to mention all the articles talking about the rise of independent promotions, expos, and regulation debates. Just wait until Sunday and Monday morning; especially if GSP is victorious.
Don’t try to tell me that any of those newspapers covered any of the random sporting events you mentioned in an equal manner. I might be down in the US, but I certainly haven’t lost touch with my country. Nor am I about to post something out of sheer “fanboy-ism.”
The Brier might have had more press in aggregate, but this one single event will do more to swell national pride and interest than anything since Sid’s winner.
So you don’t even live in Canada but you can safely say that this is the biggest event since the Winter Olympics for Canadians?
I just browsed both the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star sport sections (in print, where it counts) and a day prior to the event (friday) they have ZERO mention of the UFC event. The two largest newspapers in Canada have decided that the MLS is a bigger story then saturday’s fight.
The bottom line of this article is that if you compare how many people knew about GSP vs Serra 2 (about 2 years ago), to how many people knew about GSP vs Alves (less than a year ago) to now, and how many people as a percentage of the population of sport fans across Canada then you have to agree that MMA is getting bigger in Canada.
I agree with you that hockey and what not gets more air time, but as a country, GSP represents all of us, whereas the TML represent only Toronto, the Flames only represent Calgary etc, etc.
Did you not notice that 8000 people are gonna be driving to Montreal May (including me :D) just to see the UFC, I bet there is at least another 12000+ people in Ontario who live close enough to Ottawa or Toronto, who would like to go, but ticket costs + gas + food + hotel = too much. I can guarantee that any venue in Toronto or Ottawa would sell out. If you don’t like it as it seems that way, since your here opposing the widespread of MMA in Ontario and Canada, then you don’t have to be one of the people that go to the Vancouver card, or Montreal, or a hypothetical one in Ontario.
I went to get a haircut earlier today, (I live just outside of Toronto), I walked in wearing an extreme couture shirt, and a elderly lady asked me who I thought was gonna win the fight tonight.
Conclusion: MMA is bigger in Canada, bigger in Ontario especially, and will continue to grow, and eventually it will be getting similar broadcasting time to the NHL and the NBA, there is no stopping it.
Living in Canada, I’d have to agree with the lack of coverage amongst the mainstream. I have yet to see an article in our local newspaper or local TV news about the event. I did read an article in the Globe and Mail about legalizing MMA which is great but not mentioned about the fights tonight. I’ll be watching and a bunch of friends as well. But it’s always the same group over the years and not many new guys added to the bunch. MMA has peaked regardless of what anyone wants to say and I’m more than fine with that. The less big the sport gets the better off we are lest we become like boxing.
P.S. Antonio, you are kidding to think MMA will ever get the overall coverage that the NHL, NBA, Baseball or Football will get. Even at the amateur level, these sports get more coverage.
P.S.S. – I like the article, Kelsey, people like you are what make our sport respectable and someday I hope you get to write articles for a major publication.
Guru,
I appreciate the support and respect your opinion.
I’ll have my MBA in little over a year; don’t plan on being a writer for very much longer. 🙂
Kelsey