Moosin, Shine Fights Show How Far MMA Still Has to Go

If we are to use the success of organizations outside of the UFC and Strikeforce as a barometer of sorts for the growth of mixed martial arts, what we have seen the last couple of weeks is a bit of a mixed bag.  Two days ago, the curiously-named Moosin: God of Martial Arts event went down, with former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia finishing an exhausted Mariusz Pudziankowski in the main event.

The attendance was estimated at 7,000, which isn’t bad.  The event was also the first pay-per-view MMA event to take place in Massachusetts, as Moosin MMA beat the UFC to the punch on that particular issue.  The UFC will come to Boston, MA for the first time in the company’s history for UFC 118.

Obviously, things went far better for Moosin MMA than they did for Shine Fights, who had the rug pulled out from under them when the ever-slimy Don King got an injunction to prevent the appearance of main event fighter (and professional boxer) Ricardo Mayorga.  Still, if we read between the lines, what do these two events tell us about mixed martial arts at this point in the sport’s ever-evolving history?

Actually, you don’t have to read too far into anything to see that if you aren’t the UFC or Strikeforce, it is hard to sell the sport of MMA on anything bigger than a local level without some sort of gimmick.  Shine Fights 3 was supposed to feature a professional boxer making his MMA debut.  Moosin: God of Martial Arts featured a former strongman who was the only competitor ever to win the title of “World’s Strongest Man” five times.  It’s not as if these promotions were depending on, you know, actual MMA fights between experienced fighters to sell their cards.

In a way, these types of events, which may at first seem more like sideshow attractions than legitimate competitions, are quite good for the sport.  Fighters who unfortunately do not have the relative security of being signed to a top promotion can get the chance to make some decent money, and the use of newbies to MMA like Mayorga or Pudziankowski can attract new fans to the sport, too.  Of course, it isn’t all rainbows and sunshine, as Din Thomas would probably tell you right about now.  Thomas, who was supposed to fight Mayorga at the Shine Fights event, lost out on half of his fight purse (Shine will apparently pay the other half to him) and who knows how much sponsorship money as a result of the cancellation of their event.  Hell, why does a quality fighter like Thomas have to resort to facing a professional boxer as a headliner for an all-but-unknown organization, anyway?

The plethora of struggling promotions and fighters busting their respective behinds to get a decent payday outside of Zuffa’s gates just indicate that the sport still has a long way to go.  Many noted that the success of the WEC’s largely-unbranded “Aldo vs. Faber” card showed that the sport can sell itself without the use of recognizable brand names, but I beg to differ.  That event was sold with the help of preliminary fights aired on SpikeTV, complete with all of the staples of a UFC event, from Bruce Buffer to Joe Rogan to Mike Goldberg.  Even during WEC telecasts leading up to the pay-per-view, the commercials that aired to hype the show used only comments from Dana White and Rogan, rather than WEC officials or commentators.  Whether the microphones that Rogan and Goldberg were holding as they welcomed us to the pay-per-view broadcast had UFC (or WEC) logos on them or not, that was essentially a UFC pay-per-view, albeit with smaller fighters than usual.

While fighters and fans alike unquestionably benefit from the large volume of smaller promotions and the occasional off-brand pay-per-view offering, it’s hard to celebrate how far the sport has come when so many fans still perceive MMA to just mean “UFC”.

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Tags: Din Thomas, Mariusz Pudziankowski, Moosin MMA, Moosin: God of Martial Arts, Ricardo Mayorga, Shine Fights 3, Tim Sylvia