Issue 075

May 2011

Today’s mixed martial arts landscape is a product of history. But, what if that history had followed a different course? Explore MMA’s alternate realities with FO.

What if Zuffa never bought the UFC?

January 2001 – Station Casino owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta join up with Dana White to buy the near-bankrupt Ultimate Fighting Championship from Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG) for $2 million. Through the next ten years the UFC and the sport of mixed martial arts booms in the Western world. But, what if White and the Fertittas had never bought the original UFC?

Mike Goldberg, play-by-play announcer for 17 consecutive Ultimate Fighting Championship events, turns to a seemingly stoic SEG owner Bob Meyrowitz during the opening presentation of the 35th and final UFC telecast. Addressing viewers (those in attendance will find out when they return home after the event), Meyrowitz announces the closing of the UFC and describes his pride at co-founding what was once a successful venture. Since the start of 2001 ten months ago, he’d been forced to downscale the operation heavily and run the UFC on a pittance while aggressively shopping the SEG-owned company to a handful of suitors – all of whom had now withdrawn their interest. Even business tycoon Donald Trump made brief inquiries; he had some familiarity with the brand due to its recent appearances at his Trump Taj Mahal venue in New Jersey. Upon hearing the news, the sherdog.com and Underground forums are flooded with sentiments of sadness. 

Although for some weeks there’s talk of a ‘joining together’ in order to purchase the UFC, ultimately it comes to nothing. UFC talent such as Randy Couture, Jens Pulver and Pat Miletich disband to try their luck in Japan under the Pride or Rings banners while many others find their way onto the up-and-coming California-based King of the Cage promotion, which immediately benefits from the added roster power. Remaining local to California and borrowing established big-name stars such as Tito Ortiz and Kevin Randleman for its quarterly big events, KOTC starts to do solid business. Other small-scale promotions throughout the US and Canada find steady gate numbers with a modest, though loyal and passionate, clientele. In the Midwestern US the Monte Cox-run Extreme Challenge thrives, while in Europe the Holland-based 2H2H (or 2 Hot 2 Handle) is making solid money off Dutch crowds starved for televised MMA. In early 2003, a few months behind schedule, the London-based Cage Rage starts up, capitalizing on the hunger for the sport in the UK. 

Though no promotion has the finances to effectively promote their cards to the mainstream, physical and internet-based word of mouth fosters constant die-hard interest. By March that same year, after lobbying by KOTC and the two-year-old World Extreme Cagefighting, sanctioning for mixed martial arts is secured in Nevada – thereby opening the door to glitzy Las Vegas cards. The combined forces of the companies had found a supporter in former commissioner of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and Station Casinos president, Lorenzo Fertitta. The movement piques the interest of Fertitta, who had been a fan of the UFC during its eight-year run. After consulting with his brother and CEO of Station Casinos, Frank Fertitta III, the pair successfully makes an offer on World Extreme Cagefighting in April. 

As ever, the blogosphere is vocal on the acquisition. Some are negative, questioning whether WEC co-owners and incumbent promotion co-president Reed Harris and Scott Adams were right to sell. But, the majority of net writers are positive, recognizing that major investment from the deep-pocketed Station Casinos could be exactly what the sport needs to finally tip it over the edge into pop culture. To back up their views they direct hundreds of thousands of mouse cursors to a well-thought-out argument from a passionate, profanity-inclined, part-time blogger who goes by the name of ‘Boston’. Those deep into the online MMA cliques, however, know him as fitness instructor Dana White.

What if Royce Gracie hadn’t won the first UFC event?

November 1993 – Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Royce Gracie submits boxer Art Jimmerson, shoot fighter Ken Shamrock and savate competitor Gerard Gordeau to win the first UFC tournament and make history. But, what if Royce didn’t defeat all comers and prove the strength of jiu-jitsu?

Muscled American Ken Shamrock leaps off the relatively slender and unconscious gi-glad Royce Gracie. The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Brazilian referee had intervened just seconds earlier after Royce went limp following a remorseless barrage of punches from a mounted Shamrock. At ringside, the Gracie clan is aghast. The cheering Denver crowd is indifferent; the pajama-wearing Brazilian didn’t look like much of a fighter anyway. In Brazil, exponents of jiu-jitsu are shell-shocked while luta livre fighters rejoice – seeing a BJJ torchbearer lose is a victory in a long-running war between the martial art factions. 

A tired, though electrified, Shamrock goes on to submit Gerard Gordeau in the tournament finals, as the Gracie family console each other in Royce’s dressing room. An impromptu summit, headed by Gracie jiu-jitsu founder Helio, immediately decides upon the family’s representative in the sequel event. Rickson, deemed the most skilled jiu-jitsu fighter of the entire family, will regain the Gracie honor at UFC 2 in March 1994. The seasoned and strong brother of Royce runs through the competition at the tournament, although opts out of UFC 3 over a dispute about money and instead trains for the similarly structured Vale Tudo Japan 1994. A sufficiently remunerated Rickson returns at UFC 4 and subsequently eases his way to a second tournament victory; the popularity of jiu-jitsu begins to spike in the US. 

However, the large rival shoot-fighting community, new but staunch supporters of Ken Shamrock, claim the art is no match for their style. The dispute is finally settled at UFC 5. Rickson deliberated about appearing at the UFC event (a film production company had offered to follow Rickson at Vale Tudo Japan 1995 held two weeks after) but reasoned the importance of his appearance at UFC 5 was too significant. In the first-ever UFC superfight title match Shamrock taps to Gracie’s gi-utilizing choke. The ten-minute masterclass cements BJJ’s legacy. Nevertheless, for years after, the fighting community bickers over whether jiu-jitsu or shoot fighting is the best base for what is eventually known as mixed martial arts. Ignorance on both sides toward learning the other’s style ultimately slows the development of the sport.

What if Nike started sponsoring mixed martial arts in 2008?

February 2008 – The UFC announces super-brand Bud Light as a primary sponsor of its events, just as it did with Harley Davidson a month earlier. But, what if Nike, the biggest name in sports apparel in the world, had jumped on board with the UFC at the same time?

In the world of blue-chip business nothing goes unnoticed. Upon hearing of two behemoth brands in Bud Light and Harley Davidson striking sponsorship deals with the UFC, in mid-February Nike holds detailed talks about whether to jump in bed with the latest youth trend. Statistical analysis suggests there’s substantial profit to be made and, despite minority boardroom opposition that deems the sport too brutal for the Nike image, the company begins talks with the UFC. 

The Nike tick adorns the center of the UFC Octagon by April’s UFC 83: St Pierre vs Serra 2. The blogosphere had worked itself into an excited lather upon learning of the speedily agreed pairing in mid-March – all predict a massive upswing year for MMA even though in reality it will see the sport turn on itself. 

The fevered response of the Bell Centre crowd, and GSP’s emphatic win, encourages Nike to dip further into the sport and outbid the comparative small fry of TapouT for sponsorship of a selection of the UFC’s best. The media, more focused on Nike’s relationship with mixed martial arts than MMA itself, begin to discuss how the world’s largest sports brand is obliged to enforce a safer environment. The ludicrous concept of combatants wearing special helmets picks up steam, though is roundly rejected by UFC fighters. 

Throughout 2009, MMA experiences a renewed legitimacy as fighters become familiar faces to the worldwide public via regular Nike advertising campaigns across print, broadcast and digital media. The sudden strides create a backlash, however. Certain sectors of fans rebel against Nike’s insurgence and a trend against wearing or using Nike gear flares. 

Still, sales are unmarked. By 2010, Nike is slowly becoming synonymous with the UFC; the Nike tick joining the UFC logo on fighter gloves has subliminally blended the two entities. In the industry, all the talk is of a new Nike-produced shorts reserved for the brand’s endorsed fighters. Panels of an advanced frictionless cotton blend are used on the sides a rear of the shorts, with a matte material on the front. The intention is to give the wearer an advantage when slipping out from underneath opponents on the ground and reduce the amount of purchase an opponent can gather shooting for a double leg. Ambiguity over whether the shorts constitute cheating dominate verbal jabs between Nike’s fighters and the less fortunate. As 2011 breaks, all-American car company Chevrolet announces its immersion into mixed martial arts via an unprecedented avenue: buying out the famous Dan Henderson-owned Team Quest fight team. The new Ford Team Quest might be the first, but it isn’t the last.

What if Chael Sonnen beat Anderson Silva at UFC 117?

August 2010 – Silver-tongued underdog Chael Sonnen ground ‘n’ pounds UFC middleweight king Anderson Silva for the majority of their 23-minute title fight at UFC 117 before submitting to a last-gasp triangle in the fifth round. But, what if Chael Sonnen had taken the belt?

As the round clock ticks to ‘3:00’ in the fifth stanza of the UFC middleweight title fight between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen at UFC 117, ‘The Spider’ swings his legs toward his American opponent’s neck and arm. The Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, roars in surprise as the defending champion begins to lock in a triangle. But, an exhausted Sonnen manages to right his posture in Silva’s guard, rotate his upper body to the left and shrug himself into side control. Deflated, Silva’s attempts to scramble from the wrestler are blocked by the cage until the fifth and final air-horn blast signals the end of the fight. 

Lungs burning and eyes watering, Sonnen collapses to his back, one judges’ verdict away from being the UFC middleweight champion. At the post-fight press conference a bruised and grazed Chael glows with his newly won title belt propped up in front of him. Dana White delivers another sound bite: “This is, without a doubt, the biggest upset in the history of this sport.” 

For days Internet message boards unceasingly chastise Silva, marveling 

at how obvious the man’s weakness was. But, just over six weeks later, news breaks that Sonnen has failed a drugs test – the wrestler had high levels of testosterone for the bout. Before the week is out, the UFC strips Sonnen of the belt and sets up a contest for the vacant strap. Nate ‘The Great’ Marquardt, fresh off a win against Rousimar Palhares, will take on Anderson Silva. 

Being the 185lb champ in a period of heightened interest in the sport, Sonnen’s positive test is far bigger news than usual. As a result, Dana White has to bat down questions from ESPN, USA Today and Fox Sports. But, while the fighting world is split on whether to admonish Sonnen, his soundbite-friendly smack talk matched to his new dark-horse image has created somewhat of a counter-culture icon. The Team Quest fighter does the tour of risqué talk shows and late-night social commentators. It’s all met with chagrin by UFC brass who are concerned associating positive drugs tests with the company is a taint that will never wash out. The view is backed up by the mainstream sports press constantly hammering the story as veteran writers finally get a clean shot at the upstart sport’s chin. Investigative reporters descend on West Linn, Oregon, suspecting that 

there may be more skeletons in the real estate dealer-cum-Republican politician’s closet…

What if Fedor Emelianenko had joined the UFC?

October 2007 – The hottest free agent in MMA, Fedor Emelianenko, decides against signing with the UFC due to the Las Vegas company’s unwillingness to co-promote with M-1 Global, a promotion owned by his management team. Instead he opts to work as a free agent under the guise of being signed to an M-1 promotion. Fedor takes fights in events held by clothing company Affliction and then ultimately Strikeforce, but, what if ‘The Last Emperor’ had originally signed with the UFC instead?

The much-hyped EA Sports MMA video game hits shelves in October 2010 to muted fan reaction. Its cover stars Alistair Overeem and Nick Diaz, though cult heroes, struggle to ignite the imagination of the wider populace. Who can blame them? They’d already gorged on cyber superfights between Fedor Emelianenko, Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez in UFC Undisputed 2009 upon that game’s release 17 months earlier. Now, via the UFC’s 2010 title, gamers are eagerly pitting ‘The Last Emperor’ and Brock Lesnar in virtual contest. The pair’s upcoming heavyweight title fight at the 110,000-capacity Cowboys Stadium in Texas for UFC 121 – Lesnar being the defender of his gold -– is expected to be record-breaking business. 

Still, it’s the result of a sequence of events none could have predicted three years prior. It was then Emelianenko decided to lend his signature to a UFC contract after M-1 and Zuffa came to an agreement regarding the sticking point of co-promotion: events would retain their UFC title free of M-1 logos, although the Russian company could douse Fedor in M-1-emblazoned clothing and were allowed to negotiate, and profit from, UFC television deals in Russia. Furthermore, the management team-come-fight promotion secured a deal-clinching undisclosed cut of profits from pay-per-views headlined by Fedor. Dana White called it “a small price to pay to keep all those internet geeks off my back” at the time. 

Of course, Emelianenko’s arrival into the UFC meant Hall of Famer and then-UFC heavyweight champ Randy Couture finally had the fight he, and fans, wanted. ‘The Natural’ later revealed that, as a result, he chose not to issue his retirement from the promotion as he had previously considered. The awaited Emelianenko-Couture contest in early 2008 saw Randy work Fedor against the cage for five rounds to take the decision. The master of gameplans capitalized on it being the Russian’s first bout inside a walled enclosure – all his previous 30 fights were in rings. 

Following Fedor’s first legitimate loss, M-1 encouraged the UFC to find a safer fight for their suddenly devalued star. Each stable eventually agreed on a fighter 1-1 in the UFC at the time: Fabricio Werdum. A shocking first-round triangle submission loss to the Brazilian saw a reinvigorated Emelianenko pour money into a new training team while Couture went on to face Brock Lesnar in another mega-money title fight at UFC 91. Though Couture lost by TKO, a focused Last Emperor went on a two-year, four-fight tear of first-round finishes to re-establish himself as the UFC’s number-one heavyweight contender. He eventually strips Brock Lesnar of his title by first-round Hail Mary KO before 58,000 fans in Texas on October 2010.

What if Pride hadn’t gone bust?

April 2006 – In Japan, an interview with former K-1 Hero’s promoter Seiya Kawamata in Japanese tabloid Shukan Gendai exposes a scandalous relationship between Pride FC and the yakuza. It begins a downward spiral of negative press that sees the iconic promotion lose fans, a broadcast contract with Fuji TV and deals with investors. In March 2007 the organization is bought out by Zuffa, owners of the UFC, and is ultimately shut down the following October. But, what if Pride’s yakuza links were never revealed?

In 2011 the UFC is struggling for legitimacy in the eyes of hardcore fight fans. Though the mass market of 18–35-year-old males is still paying in their thousands to see the company’s top-drawing fighters Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin, the die-hards aren’t convinced: they’re busy championing Mirko ‘Cro Cop’, who’s been consuming mid-tier heavyweights for years, as the best pound-for-pound fighter 

in the world. But little do they know what sadness and horror will unfold.

The Croatian head kicked and ground ‘n’ pounded that honor – and the Pride heavyweight title – away from Fedor Emelianenko on New Year’s Eve 2006. He’d turned down a contract with the UFC just weeks before. While Pride can boast big names like Wanderlei Silva, a re-acquired ’Rampage’ Jackson and ‘Shogun’ Rua, the UFC struggles with its lack of internationally recognized stars. 

Today, vocal forum users do give the UFC some quarter when it comes to its recently consumed WEC divisions at bantamweight and featherweight. Still, they remind the UFC that absorbing WEC at the tail end of 2010 had been widely labeled as a panic move by pundits. The new WEC champions, the UFC say, will help prevent a repeat of the 2009 and 2010 that saw injuries and a shallow roster leave over half of the 28 pay-per-view events without a title fight.

Unbeknownst to these endlessly arguing Internet dwellers, Japanese news outlets are currently aflutter with reports of a foreign Pride fighter rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds. The location is unknown but the assailant and motive is. Blurry video of a notorious mid-level yakuza enforcer being bundled into a police vehicle is looped on TV screens while reporters tell of how bystanders heard the fighter screaming about refusing to fix a fight before a scuffle and the consequent gunshots. While Pride would ultimately try and distance itself from the incident, the damage had been done. Countless stories of links between Japan’s number-one fight night and organized crime fill tabloids for months. It is the beginning of the end for the seminal promotion…

All our ‘What If..?’ stories are entirely fictional and intended purely for entertainment purposes!