New Dawn Fades

A chance to watch, admire the distance,
Still occupied, though you forget.

-Ian Curtis, New Dawn Fades

The buzz around the MMA community is the new Sports Illustrated cover for this week. Of course I've posted said cover above. The article is also real nice. Go check it out.

Of course this getting everybody hyped now. Everyone dancing, Singing "calu calai" Making love to their people and throwing big bashes.

The general consensus believes that we've finally won. Victory is ours.

Yet all I see are bodies of the fallen.

Yes, this is a great victory...but not MMA. UFC maybe, but not MMA. If this was a big victory for MMA, we would be hearing about more companies beside the UFC.

At first, I thought this was deja vu. Back in 1987, Vince MacMahon had a total strangle hold on the pro-wrestling industry. He was taking the best pro-wrestlers out of the territories and put them in his league, all the while giving syndicated tapes to local channels to compete with the local promotions in their areas. This two headed beast help popularize...you thought I was going to say pro-wrestling didn't you? No, pro-wrestling was stagnate by the end of '87. WWF is what the people wanted. If you weren't WWF quality back in that time, to hell with ya.

Now we're in 2007.

The same thing is starting to happen now. Don't believe me? Quick, tell me the last local event you were at. Be honest.

None right?

Exactly.

And why not?

It's not UFC quality. Correct. You don't know the fighters. Correct. The promoter doesn't sound like a bald headed fifteen year old. Correct.

Don't feel too bad. I haven't gone to any local events either. Of course, unlike you, I have good reason not to.

If this were about MMA, you'd hear more about the IFL, Pro Elite, BoDog, anybody outside of UFC being promoted. Nah. UFC is the big name.

The UFC can have the worst roster in the history of MMA and people will eat it up because they're too lazy to look around and they'll just lash on the loudest and bright. Just like an angler fish.

And this isn't just MMA. I've seen it happen to a lot of different subjects. Even today.

So when do we start to celebrate?

We celebrate when the sport is fully sanctioned in the US and the world.

We celebrate when jerkwater promoters who don't know the difference between a gogplata to a Go Go Gadget Copter are stopped by the full extent of the law for abusing a clause that affords martial arts full autonomy.

We celebrate when fighters get better pay.

We celebrate when Japan cleans it's act up.

We celebrate when there is stable avenues in the sport for a high volume of fighters.

UFC got on Sports Illustrated. Good for them.

It's just a magazine cover.

PS: NASCAR is Pro-wrestling....but with cars.