FanPost

MMA in 20 years (if Boxing, NFL or NBA are any indicators)




I'm going to keep this brief yet to the point! Which is not my style I know. So lets get right to brass tacks. Will there be any Caucasian MMA Champions in 20 years? MMA is a brand new sport, it's just over 20 years old now. As fighters make more money we're seeing more and more African American athletes, especially in the US, drawn from other sports like Football and even Basketball. So lets take a quick look at those two sports or rather those two sports leagues, the NBA and the NFL. When those two sports leagues were still relatively new, the majority of it's players were Caucasian. The landscape has drastically changed over the last 40 years. Now both sports are clearly dominated by African Americans. When the sport of boxing was relatively new, most Champions were Caucasian until Joe Lewis came around. Poor Max Schmeling never stood a chance and allot of people lost allot of money that night.

Right now the top 3 Light Heavyweights in the UFC are Jon Jones, Anthony Johnson and Daniel Cormier (not necessarily in that order) All 3 are either African American or Bi-Racial. The best two fighters on earth are Jon Jones and Demetrious Johnson. That's probably because neither of them tapped out in the last 12 months but I digress. Back in November of 1993 Art Jimmerson wore just one boxing glove in the octagon when he tapped out (for no apparent reason) to Royce Gracie. Though Patrick Smith did do fairly well @ UFC 1, he made it to the quarter finals where he lost to Ken Shamrock via heel hook. For the next ten years Kevin Randleman and Gary Goodridge were two of the few yet dominant African Americans willing to fight another man in a cage, with no or limited rules, for relatively little money. Maybe Caucasians are just a little bit nuts but hundreds of them like Josh Barnett would fight basically for free just to fight.

However, what makes the UFC and MMA in general unique is that it's a global sport. Every race, ethnicity and country are represented equally. This isn't just the United States and Canada or athletes that defected from the USSR. Not to say everyone has the same opportunities but once you make it to the UFC you do have an equal chance of winning. Regardless of who you are or where you come from. At least Id like to think so until Conor McGregor came along. The fact is he's so popular he can literally pick and choose who he wants to fight. He can choose people like Chad Mendez who aren't even ready to fight because they make more money fighting Conor than they've ever made. Nate Diaz was more than likely injured when he re-matched Conor but the money was likely too much to pass over. Alvarez should have fought Khabib but fighting Conor paid more. In the end it was Eddie who paid for that poor decision. Enjoy the money though Bruh!

To quote Depeche Mode from their 1983 album Construction Time, "The Landscape is changing"!

Some facts..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_NBA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_players_in_American_professional_football

http://www.mmamania.com/2013/11/16/5109964/ufc-1-story-art-jimmerson-lone-boxing-glove-mma

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