Full Contact Talk: MMA discussion

EliteXC and Showtime just released a viral marketing video that is viral on more negative levels than just clever spam. As I have written many times in the past, professional mixed-martial-arts is a sport and its athletes are some of the most hard-working men and women in the world. These athletes deserve promotion and marketing that elevates them within the greater mainstream sports world to build an expanding and long-term audience. Not to mention higher paychecks and bigger sponsorships down the road. Yet EliteXC continues to promote MMA in an ignorant freakshow package.

I will never fully understand why an MMA organization such as EliteXC feels compelled to market controversy and cheap thrills for a momentary spike in viewership. Clearly EliteXC is attempting to snag the attention of that chunk of people who watch “Girls Gone Wild” videos and scan the internet for videos of bum fights, prison riots and bully attacks. And this approach to marketing is as much a sign of a desperate company in search of ratings as it is a company that simply does not understand mixed-martial-arts in the first place.

The argument from those few who continue to defend EliteXC for bringing new fans to MMA falls upon mute ears in the aftermath of this latest promotional video. Does MMA really need bouncing boobs, over-rated brawlers and embarrassing production quality to bring the sport to the masses? I ask, at what cost will the pursuit of these so-called new fans effect the greater mainstream expansion of mixed-martial-arts? Currently, such marketing tactics do nothing more but make a mockery of a combat sport that only recently climbed from the depths of darkness and opposition.

In comparison, if the NFL, NBA, NASCAR or any other mainstream professional sports organization created marketing videos focused mainly on close-up shots of breasts, these organizations would be squeezed through the moral ringer on network news programs across the dial. And such consideration should be taken when marketing a sport like MMA that only recently crawled out of the shadows of catch phrases such as “Human Cock Fighting.” MMA deserves respect and its not going to get such respect as long as trash television hangs on to its metaphorical chokehold.

Equally and even more sadly, EliteXC’s latest marketing approach cheats the percentage of talented athletes within its own ranks. Gina Carrano is an amazing female fighter who can potentially expand the sport of MMA into demographics never touched before. But is it fair to Gina to promote the organization she represents with a video haze of soft pornography and cheap violence more worthy of a backyard brawl? Its embarrassing and wrongly diminishes female fighters contributions to the sport.

Gary Shaw recently resigned from EliteXC but his Vince McMahon approach to MMA marketing still holds strong making the organization the WWE or XFL of the mixed-martial-arts world. Shaw’s son now runs the show but his father clearly still has his ear. It’s quite amazing to think that Dana White and the UFC battled for years in the depths of bankruptcy to save the sport of MMA and deliver it to a larger audience by 2005. Then a mere three years later, EliteXC with its unfortunate CBS television deal has grossly vandalized the image of MMA and threatens to drag the sport back into the dark ages.

Score another foul against Showtime and EliteXC.

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Tags: EliteXC, Gary Shaw, Gina Carrano, Kimbo Slice, Vince McMahon.