The New York Times Fashion and Style section this week had a feature entitled, “The Fight Club Generation.” The article details the fascination of MMA with youths to young adults.
The article which reports at a regional MMA card in Atlantic City focuses on youth interest in mixed martial arts. The article refers to the movie “Fight Club” which starred Brad Pitt and Ed Norton as the inspiration for many fans of MMA today. Not sure if this is actually true of most young MMA fans as that movie was filmed in 1999. The mainstream popularity has only occurred in the past few years. The article later devolves with comparisons to the XFL and “The Godfather.”
But, it also identifies, that in general, most people 35 years of age and older are not fans of the sport. In fact, the NY Times states that horse racing and figure skating are more popular than MMA in this segment.
Payout Perspective:
Getting past some of the minutiae in the article, one of the interesting takeaways coming from it is looking at how young fans get interested in the sport. TapouT and Cage Hero are just a couple brands that have marketed MMA toward kids. Last October, Cage Hero rebranded itself with an eye toward kids. Having just attended a Jiu Jitsu tournament today and seeing so many kids under 10 in the sport one can see that grappling, and to a greater degree, MMA is a growing sport. With MMA taking off, it will be interesting to see if the UFC begins to reach out, with more targeted campaigns, to the under 18 demographic.
It’s not growing since grappling in it’s purest form is not a money making endeavor.
Grappling within itself will KILL MMA’s mainstream popularity that is for sure.
Horse racing and Figure Skating? Really, did they poll men 35+ in Ky and women 35+ in Montana that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard thats not even in the UFC’s demographic. What an up hill battle for the UFC in NY but I know they can get it done.
Grappling won’t kill MMA’s mainstream popularity. Grappling is already a part of the sport and MMA is very popular and still growing. The only way grappling might kill the sport is if lay-and-pray wrestlers dominate exclusively. Unfortunately for many lay-and-pray specialists guys like Anderson Silva and Jose Aldo have something to say about that.