Issue 082

December 2011

Perhaps Dana White isn’t as crazy as we thought. The UFC president has long claimed that mixed martial arts – or more accurately, the UFC – will someday become the world’s biggest sport. Count me among those who, despite being a staunch supporter of MMA, believed that was a goal just a little too lofty to reach. But after witnessing the impact of the UFC during its recent trip to Brazil for UFC 134 – also known as UFC: Rio, thanks to a substantial financial investment from the government of Rio de Janeiro – I’m slowly changing my tune.

Perhaps I should have known to expect what happened in Brazil. After all, some of the writing was on the wall. Rio’s 14,000-seat HSBC Arena sold out in a matter of minutes, and White revealed in the weeks leading up to the event that some 350,000 people were online trying to purchase tickets when they first went on sale. But once actually in the country, it was evident the surging interest in UFC 134 was about more than a few passionate fans eager to witness the UFC’s return. Instead, this was about the cultural home of the sport welcoming the UFC to a place it always belonged – but this time with the blessing of an entire nation.

There were thousands who gathered on Rio’s famed Copacabana beach – in the rain, no less – for UFC 134’s open workout session, hoping to catch a glimpse of middleweight champion Anderson Silva hitting mitts or legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira shadowboxing. There were the hoards of credentialed media members packing into a covered tent like sardines in a tin can, pushing and shoving each other as they jockeyed for a position next to the event’s key fighters, ensuring the relatively mundane routine of pre-fight interviews was immediately transformed into a buzzing mosh pit normally reserved for rock concerts.

Then 24 hours later, the same media scrum packed into the Copacabana Palace Hotel, one of South America’s most exclusive properties, to witness a multi-lingual press conference complete with booming music and a laser light show. White, himself, fending off the questions all centered around the importance of the UFC’s return to Brazil.

This was a moment in history. “Everything I’ve said over the last 10 years is coming true,” the UFC president told me afterwards. “When we make promises, we deliver. This thing is still growing, and it’s going to be just as popular as I’ve promised all along.”

But the real show came on Saturday night. Concerned about the notorious Rio traffic, I went to the venue three hours before the night’s first fight. But instead of the empty parking lot I find at most U.S. arena’s hours before a UFC event, I was greeted by hundreds of fans, chanting and cheering as they waited to get inside for the night’s festivities. And while the in-Octagon action of UFC 134 certainly didn’t fail to deliver, the raucous crowd – loud, boisterous and boasting main-event-level enthusiasm starting from the night’s very first fight – served to provide an atmosphere unmatched by any previous. During the night’s post-fight press conference (also packed and buzzing with energy, by the way) White even proclaimed the crowd the loudest in UFC history.

After watching the passion of the people in Brazil, it’s a little easier to believe in White’s vision for the sport. The ‘virus’ that is the UFC continues to spread, and with each new (or renewed) market, the passion seems to grow stronger. If Canada is indeed the Mecca of MMA, as White contends, then Australia must certainly be the Jerusalem of the sport and Brazil its Vatican City.

The UFC may never overtake soccer as the world’s most popular sport. Kids in remote villages around the globe will not likely stop kicking around a coconut in favor of applying armbars on their neighbors. But when the UFC rolls into town, it remains a spectacle – a traveling Super Bowl or Champions’ League Final, each and every weekend that’s coming to a town near you. 

White and his team have discovered a way to take the greatest moments in sports, whittle out all the meaningless regular-season boredom and deliver a play-off caliber event every time. Rapid sell-outs, booming merchandise revenue and an entire roster of athletes that are just making their way into mainstream awareness offer the perfect blend of opportunity and potential. 

India and China are both on the UFC’s radar, and when the UFC returns to Brazil in 2012, it’s expected to do so at a 100,000-capacity venue. What other American export could sell out venues on every continent around the globe? Could the NFL, NBA or Major League Baseball earn similar results? Not a chance.

The biggest sport in the world? As the great Muhammad Ali said: “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”

By John Morgan, former Fighters Only World MMA Awards ‘Journalist of the Year’