THERE’S a new show in town, and from the looks of it, Mixed Martial Arts (“MMA”) now has enough going for it to become a serious player in the sports & entertainment segment on television and event property parameters. The rise of MMA in India might be similar in many ways to the rise in popularity of professional wrestling promotions (WWE, WCW and TNA to name a few), with one significant difference – MMA is real, and no part of it (the pre-fight promotion aside) is hyped or staged.
It takes skill and ability: elite athletes in martial arts, combat sports, and contact sports alike, have given MMA a shot, and many have shown the resilience to adapt and succeed in one of the most gruelling of sports that athletes have ever experienced.
Today, MMA, led by the flagship promotion – the Ultimate Fighting Championships (“UFC”) has overtaken professional boxing and associated sports, in terms of popularity and revenue alike. MMA is now literally the next big thing, and India will be the next big target demographic and fan base.
MMA has a huge advantage over other combat sports – it brings into its fold ancient and current martial arts from across the world, so in terms of sport dissemination, there are few countries if any, where MMA would not have a brand recognition possibility.
Take into account the citizenship and fan-base of the current champions and superstars in the UFC. Anderson Silva, the pound-for-pound MMA king and reigning middle-weight champion is from Brazil, as are Wanderlei Silva, Vitor Belfort, Gabriel Gonzaga, and Jose Aldo to name a few. Dong-Hyun Kim is from South Korea, Cheick Kongo is from France, Michael Bisping is from England, Yoshihiro Akiyama is from Japan, Mirko ‘CroCop’ Filipovic is from Croatia, and the legendary Fedor Emelianenko is from Russia. There are many North Americans who have staked a claim to the greatest MMA fighters in recent years, including former and future WWE stars – most notably Brock Lesnar who even became the UFC heavyweight champion a few years ago. There are many superstars in MMA, but none bigger than George ‘Rush’ St. Pierre, who is the current welterweight UFC champion, and is a French-Canadian from Quebec. With the debut of the UFC in China at UFC 153 in Macau, where Cung-Le an American of Chinese origin staged a huge upset by knocking out Rich Franklin (a future hall-of-famer), the UFC and MMA are all set to make a global splash.
And here’s where India may soon figure in MMA’s growth and popularity, especially that of the UFC. The television channel Sony Six has gotten behind the UFC by dedicating 2-3 hours every day to show some of the all-time great fights, as well as broadcasting the UFC’s pay-per-view events live and free-of-charge. To watch a UFC card live in New Delhi, India was something unheard of less than a year ago, and for someone who watched the promotion in the U.S. and Canada in its fledgling days and onwards, to have the UFC make a concerted effort to grow and expand in India is exciting to say the least.
But fan adrenalin and excitement aside, there is one major positive for the UFC and MMA for its India initiative – the presence of untapped talent with already stellar credentials to join and excel at MMA. One of the biggest challenges in emerging Indian sports (especially one that isn’t a seven-letter word starting with C and ending with T), is the inability to find success among Indians at the international level, or to succeed in finding a superstar not just of Indian origin, but an Indian resident & citizen.
MMA could have the answer, because it incubates and promotes athletes with stellar achievements in boxing, free-style & Greco-roman wrestling, taekwondo, karate, and judo to name a few. If there are a few emerging sports where India is a serious contender and has Olympic medals and stars to prove it, then names such as Vijender, Sushil, and Yogeshwar should immediately come to mind. Each of these athletes could make a serious splash in MMA/UFC if they merely decide to give it a serious shot and broaden their skill sets. And then one can only imagine the impact that the UFC could have in India, and vice versa.
It will have its challenges of course, and I foresee a serious challenge coming from the broadcasting of real, jarring violence on prime time television, in a notoriously squeamish society such as ours. Unlike the WWE, there is nothing staged, so the real blood, sweat and gore will have its challenges from a legal standpoint: broadcasting, insurance, outside-the-ring litigation, and of course public interest litigation and lawsuits questioning the impact such a sport would have on the young and/or impressionable viewership. Also, it will take well-structured information dissemination and a concerted effort to build knowledge and brand awareness of what MMA and/or the UFC really entails, including a fan-friendly tutorial explaining the types of martial arts skills that are employed by the elite fighters in each bout.
Already, the Indian promotion – Super Fight League – deserves an honourable mention as it aims to blend the developing Indian fighters with event promotions that include crowd-pleasers such as Bob Sapp and Bobby Lashley (formerly of the WWE).
With Mary Kom as the brand ambassador of this promotion, and enough entertainment pizzazz, the initiative will need to weather the somewhat oblivious current fan-base and aim to educate the target audience – the timing of the UFC’s agreement with Sony Six couldn’t be better from that perspective.
Yes, the sport is bloody and violent, but it also takes into account skill, athleticism, endurance, and strength, along with the respect afforded to ancient martial arts that span centuries. And each fighter has had experience with national-level or Olympic level competition in their respective martial arts or combat/contact sports.
As a fan and follower of MMA, I had written about the future of MMA in India on 1st October 2009 in one of my first articles for
Well, the future is now, and it’s best that none of the masterminds behind these promotions let this opportunity slip.
Judging from how the sport has grown and exploded, it’s unlikely that the Indian market will remain somewhat ignored. Count on its impact, and prepare for the ‘Rush’ that the sport brings to Indian fans, and, of course, future champions.
