The Re-Emergence of Story Lines in MMA?

Ever since the entrance of the UFC into the main stream sports scene, President Dana White has made it very clear that he wants to keep mixed martial arts from becoming more of a spectacle similar to that of the WWE. By remaining focused on the competition, athletic talent and a system of rules to not only keep fights fair, but also safe, mixed martial arts would be considered a legitimate sport rather than just a sideshow of bloody street fights. With this structure, mixed martial arts soon became one of the fastest growing sports in the world. But it now seems that the very thing which allowed the UFC to prosper, may in fact be holding the sport back.

Let's take a quick look back at the so called "Golden Days" of MMA. When Pride FC was still putting on incredible shows in Japan, and the UFC was only putting on events every few months, as opposed to now where it seems to be every couple of weeks. Now when you think back to Pride, what do you remember? Is it CroCop winning the Open Weight Grand Prix in '06? Or Shogun winning the MW Grand Prix in '05? We think of Gomi's domination of the LW division from '04-'06 and the rivalry he had with Chute Boxe. Or thinking way back we have Sakuraba vs the Gracies. Or Rampage vs Chute Boxe. The seemingly fabled meeting between Fedor and Cro Cop.

My point is this. While people remember fights, the things we remember most are the stories. They gave us reason to look forward to matchups, reasons to be excited for certain fighters. Even when you think back to the early days of the UFC, you wanted to see Royce Gracie go in and rip someone's arm off, and most times he would do it. You would want to see Tank Abbott lay fists on someone's head. When UFC finally became main stream, we have the Liddell - Couture Trilogy, the Liddell - Tito Ortiz feud, the Tito - Ken Shamrock rivalry.

But most of all, and the number one reason why UFC reached the level it has today, is due to the Ultimate Fighter season 1. While the show is heavily criticized now for it's reality TV aspect, the first season was focused much more on the training and fighting, aside from the antics of Chris Leben, Josh Koscheck and Bobby Southworth. Watching this show, people became accustomed with fighters and had a reason to actually root for these guys when they saw them fight. When Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar met in the final, not only did they put on one hell of a brawl, but people actually knew who these guys were, as opposed to watching two randoms go at it. Shortly after that fight, the UFC received much more media attention and slowly began to grow into the titan it is today.

Now, with that being said, it's fair to say that much of what got mixed martial arts popular in this world was the different story lines people could follow. In today's current state, we have very few, if any interesting story lines. Sure, the Ultimate Fighter is still on, but after over ten seasons, it has become ridiculously repetitive and as I mentioned earlier, people criticize the show for choosing fighters who are more camera-ready rather than based on their talent. The most recent "rivalry" I can remember was Rampage vs Rashad in May, and that bout ended up being somewhat of a dud. The last so called "super fight" between GSP and BJ Penn also ended up fizzling out, as GSP basically laid on Penn and slowly worked him over for 4 rounds. Due to this, it is hard to truly be excited or interested for an upcoming bout, aside from the two fighters "matching up well".

While the UFC continues to keep their organization more focused on the competitive aspect, other organizations have finally begun to branch out with the reintroduction of tournaments. Once a staple in the Pride organization, tournaments are rarely seen anymore in mixed martial arts. Dana White has always been against the idea, I personally don't know why. Other promotions have finally embraced the idea. Bellator FC recently began airing tournaments for each division, with the eventual winner becoming the champion of their respective division. The next the season, the winner of the tournament would face off against the prior season's champion. Although they have only been around 3 years, Bellator has grown tremendously while putting on exciting fights.

With Bellator's almost instant success, it's easy to see that the tournament format is appealing to fans. This is also evident by the fact that everyone loved most of the tournaments which were put on in Pride. Strikeforce FC CEO Scott Coker realized this as well, and recently announced that their organization is putting on a Heavyweight Tournament. To tell you the truth, this is probably the smartest thing they could have done at this time. While their HW division is very strong, it doesn't have all that much depth. This tournament will cover roughly three events, allowing the organization to find more fighters for their other divisions and bring up their prospects as well.

But, before we start getting too excited, let's take a closer look at the Strikeforce "Tournament" which has received so much buzz over the past few weeks. The bouts are currently scheduled as follows.

Bracket 1

Fedor Emelianenko vs Antonio Silva

Alistair Overeem vs Fabricio Werdum

Bracket 2

Brett Rogers vs Josh Barnett

Andrei Arlovski vs Sergei Kheritonov

Now while this does look very exciting, as it is full of great fighters, someone recently pointed out that this is only one way of looking at these upcoming bouts. Here's another way

Alistair Overeem vs Fabricio Werdum for the HW title.

Fedor vs Silva for the #1 contender shot.

On a seperate card, we see Rogers fighting Barnett, and Arlovski fighting Kheritonov, with the winners each moving up in the division.

The next title defense, for example, say we see Overeem against Fedor for the belt. Elsewhere on the main card, for example let's say Barnett and Arlovski fight, and so on til one of them is the ultimate champion.

So you may be reading this saying, "Yea, that's what a tournament is...", but my point is that the UFC could have been doing this same thing for years and generating much more buzz around their fights than they have been. Let's jump back to 2007, LHW division. Now at the time, technically, this tournament unfolded...

Bracket 1

Rashad Evans vs Chuck Liddell

Forrest Griffin vs Current champion Quinton Jackson

Bracket 2

Lyoto Machida vs Tito Ortiz

Thiago Silva vs Antonio Mendes

Rashad and Lyoto were the ultimate winners, with Lyoto winning the tournament and becoming champion. Now while this was dragged out over a couple of years, the UFC EASILY could have put these fights a little bit closer together and marketed this as a HUGE LHW tournament. You can honestly go back even further than this also, making it a 16 man tournament rather than 8, featuring bouts like Rashad vs Bisping, Chuck - Wandy, Forrest - Shogun, Rampage - Hendo, Machida - Sokoudjou, Thiago - Houston Alexander, etc.

What I'm really getting at here is that the whole idea and format of a "tournament" is nothing more than just a simple marketing ploy. For some reason, people absolutely love the idea of a tournament. I don't know if it's because we're so accustomed to sports which feature seasons that end with a playoff system and ultimately determine a champion, maybe this is why we like seeing one mine stand out at the end above all else. Whatever it is, the idea of a tournament or playoff has always intrigued fans, and now that it is becoming more and more popular, I think it's about time we saw the UFC incorporate it into their bouts. Honestly, I just pulled that LHW tourney out of my ass but it makes sense, and it's a solid 8 man tournament top to bottom, excluding maybe Antonio Mendes.

By putting on more tournaments, I believe MMA will continue to grow and expand by drawing the attention of more and more casual fans. What would you rather watch, a card featuring 5 independent bouts, or a card where we get to see who will be winner of the 2011 lightweight tournament? See, it just has such a nicer ring to it.

Here's to hoping that 2011 brings some change to the face of MMA, and by God let's hope they change the scoring system somehow.