It’s quite obvious that UFC and MMA has been exploding over the past couple years. I haven’t seen such fast growing interest since the poker boom 5 years ago when Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP and everyone and their mother was learning poker. After that it was poker everywhere you looked. Especially on TV. Any excuse a network could use to have a poker related show, they did. With MMA having the same boom I am starting to see the same trends begin to happen. We have Bully Beatdown on MTV where bullies are taught a lesson by B-list (no offense) MMA fighters. We have Rampage Jackson accepting a role as BA Baracus in the new rendition of the A-Team, and it’s fair to say that this is probably the biggest role to date performed by a MMA fighter. We have Chuck Liddell on Dancing with the Stars, the first MMA fighter to do so. Even Nickelodeon which is a kids network jumped on the bandwagon with an iCarly episode called “ifight shelby marx”, and not only was the show a success it pulled in the highest ratings EVER for the show.

Now it’s of course not fair to say that exposure is a bad thing. Exposure is great way to grow any up and coming sport. So the question is now, is the fast growing exposure of MMA a potential concern? The reason why I ask this is because like poker there are adverse effects that happen when ever the exposure begins to hit a critical mass. In this case the adverse effect is the sort of “drawing out” of fighters and figures from the UFC into the world of television and movie entertainment. While the biggest examples of this are Rampage and Chuck you even have Big John McCarthy who now is a referee for Bully Beatdown and we have no real assurance that he will be returning to the UFC. Not only that the lower tiered fighters that they use on Bully Beatdown may end up liking being on the show more than they like being in the ring.

Now one could make the argument that these are the exceptions and by no means the rule, and I would say this argument is fair. However, the trend can’t be ignored. There is a reason why fighters would opt to go with a television or movie opportunity instead of fighting in the ring. The reason is simple, money. Rampage said it best, he has a family to think about and the movie allows him to make money while at the same time not having to compromise his body. He said himself he doesn’t want to fight forever, his body is not built for that. I am willing to believe that a larger population of the fighters in UFC also share this sentiment even though they do not speak of it out loud.  Another key example is Dana’s critique of Big John saying that you should be a referee not for the money but for the love of the sport, which would lead us to believe that Bully Beatdown had better financial incentive.

When we look at the evidence in this way it leads to a very scary picture. The theory is that with the exposure of MMA happening and showing no signs of slowing, more and more networks will attempt to get on the gravy train by putting on more MMA themed shows. If these shows pull in the viewers (as they will) that the advertisers are looking for, then there will be big money in the television and movie industry for big name fighters. As a result big name fighters will be more than happy to hang up the gloves if it means earning coin without having to break bones, leaving only mediocre fighters to pick up the slack in what remains in the fighting pool. Could this be the beginning of the end? I hope not, but this emerging trend is by no means anything to shrug off as just a phase.