Celebrity Deathmatch : MMA goes Hollywood.

Years ago, I had a friend who was a huge fan of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Not the Zuffa owned Ultimate Fighting Championship, but the original Sephamore Entertainment Group (SEG) owned one. The one that featured discipline against discipline, 3 minutes for 2 matches and 3 rules : no biting, no eye gouging and no groin shots. As the sport progressed, he seemed to evolve with it, watching new favourites like Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell and Andrei Arlovski. Then one day, after the second season of the Ultimate Fighter, it all stopped.

I asked him a little while later "Why did you stop watching MMA?"
his response : "Its too Hollywood now".

I wasn't sure if I understood the answer. I mean, sure I wasn't such a huge fan of the early UFCs that featured endless ground non-activity (The first one was UFC 7, the brawl in buffalo, where i thought 2 fighters were playing footsies. This is before i could truly appreciate MMA friends). But I thought that with the rules, weight classes, and equipment would lead to easier sanctioning which would lead to greater appreciation of the sport.

I was right, wasn't I?

Over time, we would see celebrities in the crowd for MMA cards (Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin James and David Spade were early frequent visitors. I even remember Mandy Moore being a few rows in front of me when I went to UFC 83 in Montreal). We would also see fighters cross over onto the silver screen (Couture, Cung Le were the pioneers of that. At some points Rampage, Georges St. Pierre and even Don Frye were acting). So much that the sport had changed that just a few years ago, it was a disgusting thought for an MMA fan to have a known wrestling champion become a title holder in a legitimate sport, yet in 2008 Brock Lesnar changed that. Gina Carano went from being in a title headline fight to acting in a big budget picture directed by Stephen Soderbergh (The dude who directed the 2000 classic "Traffic").

Now, most recently, Steven Seagal has come out with Anderson Silva (and claimed he taught the UFC middleweight champ his "front kick" the finished off Vitor Belfort with in his last fight), and Arnold Schwarzenegger showing up at the Strikeforce : Columbus show last weekend, talking in an interview with Showtime about his love for MMA. Describing it as "Sports and Show Business", you could tell that the former "Governator" was just as confused as the interviewer when it came to the topic. Granted, the card, headlined by a Light Heavyweight title contest between then champ Rafael "Feijao" Calavante and Dan Henderson, was made to coincide with the "Arnold Classic", a fitness and health expo that has been originating in Ohio for years (from long before the time the former bodybuilder decided to run for office). So for the action film star to show up, take pictures with the Strikeforce girls and hang with Strikeforce Lightweight Nick Thompson, wasn't all that shocking.

So, where is MMA going? Does all this exposure mean it is now firmly entrenched in the minds and bodies of the average civilian, becoming a part of what we all know as "Pop Culture"? How many celebrity athletes will follow in the path of Jose Canseco, who decided he wanted to try his hand (only to get smashed and cower like a little girl against Hong Man Choi)? Will we get Sylvester Stallone in the Octagon to face Randy Couture? or realistically, will Wesley Snipes step in the cage to fight Joe Rogan (a fight that had been talked about for years before Snipes' recent incarceration).
On the other hand, Isn't MMA now legal in just about every State outside of New York? Aren't Fighters paid more? Aren't they now looked at as regular athletes, and not "human cockfighters" or "barbarians", who went in there just to rip each other's heads off? Did the UFC not just sell out 50,000 seats at the Rogers Centre for UFC 129 on April 30th?

Looking back all those years ago, that conversation between my friend and I. He said he had no interest in MMA then because it was "Too Hollywood". I thought the exposure was movement in the right direction. It turns out, He was right.

MMA has gone too Hollywood.
But I was right, too. From the savage beginnings it has come, to what it is now, Life is indeed good for all things MMA. I wouldn't have it any other way.