For all the talk of competing with the NFL, with basketball, and even internationally with soccer, the UFC showed clearly last night that it wasn’t ready for primetime. It was a promotion and a sport more comfortably spoken in the same breath with “WWE” or “monster trucks” than with “NFL” or even “Nascar.” The meme […]
opinion and analysis
Robinson: The UFC, Walking a Fine Line between Business and Sport
by Zac Robinson, for MMAPayout.com It would seem that Zuffa, owner of the UFC, is in the middle of operation clampdown. I’m referring to the banning of numerous apparel companies (or charging them a fee of $100,000) and now the alleged threat regarding the Electronic Arts (EA) MMA game. In most cases I’m a supporter […]
The Issues of Referee and Judge Certification
‘Showdown’ Joe Ferraro has an excellent piece up at Rogers Sportsnet that details his experience with ‘Big’ John McCarthy’s referee certification seminar, C.O.M.M.A.N.D. (Certification of Officials for Mixed Martial Arts National Development). The course is broken down into three areas and participants require a passing grade of 90 percent (at minimum in all three) to be certified. […]
The Case for Legalization: Quantifying Economic Windfalls
By Kelsey Philpott While I may have argued for a fundamental shift in MMA’s approach to seeking legalization, I’m not naive enough to believe that the economics of the sport do not have a role in the legalization process. The fact of the matter is it’s simply not enough to preach the virtues of MMA as a […]
The Case for Legalization: Debunking MMA’s Safety Myths
By Kelsey Philpott The issue of safety is often raised when people start to discuss the merits of mixed martial arts and probably rightfully so. After all the sport can appear, to the uninitiated, quite dangerous if it’s given only a cursory glance. It’s also hard to fault those individuals: the speed and ferocity of the […]