Quote of the Day 2: Money WAMMA Belt Edition
by Luke Thomas on Jun 30, 2008 3:13 PM EDT
in MMA News
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Print"Many fighters and members of the media have spoken out about the need for a sanctioning body to create undisputed champions, but until a real solution is found, it's clear that an organization that is going to play keep-away from two of the world’s top MMA leagues is the answer.
WAMMA will blame UFC for not participating, but Zuffa’s refusal to participate was anticipated from the beginning, and no solution seems to exist.
You can’t blame WAMMA for having a goal, but the execution of their championships leaves much to be desired. The organization ultimately hopes to promote the sport and help determine the best of the best, but in moving forward without a real plan in place, all they’re doing right now is adding more confusion to the situation."
-- Mike Chiappetta, who is clearly having the same reservations as your's truly. I cannot for the life of me see what kind of believable long term plan WAMMA can possibly have.
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Without the buyin of the UFC
and even EXC they can’t succeed. That was the thing that bothered me about the interview I did with them. They talked about how the titles have to be fought for and defended against top 10 fighters. Then said that if they can’t get UFC fighters that they’ll just have to find other fighters worthy of an undisputed world title fight. But some divisions are completely owned by the UFC. The Light Heavyweight, Welterweight…etc. You can’t claim that someone is undisputed when they’re not even in the top 10 of your own rankings.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
"The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls and looking like hard work." -- Thomas Edison
by Brent Brookhouse on Jun 30, 2008 3:20 PM EDT reply actions
Its all about money
I do not for one minute belive that WAMMA is in this to further the sport of MMA. They want to be the govening body so they can charge fees to belong and make a buck off the disorganization of the indiviual promotions. Well, I don’t blame the UFC for not paying another firm to tell them what they already know, that Anderson Silva or Georges St Pierre are the undisputed champs of their weight classes. Would it be nice to see Anderson and Cung Le fight or GSP and Jake Shields? Sure it would, but it isn’t necessary either. And in the case of Jake, it will probably eventually take place. Jake has made rumblings the last several months about wanting to fight in the UFC. The bottom line is Wamma is not needed and they are attempting to make themselves relevant in a market that does not need them right now.
by strictlymma.com on Jun 30, 2008 3:50 PM EDT reply actions
I agree completely
Why would Dana give these guys free money.
To be fair...
I directly asked them about charging fees to fighters and promotions and they said that they do not now nor never will charge fees to either. They make their money off of sponsorship.
Now if that changes we can roast them for it. But for the time being they have said that this is not ever going to be the case.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
"The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls and looking like hard work." -- Thomas Edison
by Brent Brookhouse on Jun 30, 2008 5:49 PM EDT up reply actions
Sponsors
It was a good interview, but you should have pressed them harder on their sponsorship angle. It gives the UFC absolutely no reason to adopt their model:
“Our business model and our revenue stream come strictly from our sponsors for the WAMMA belt or for sponsoring the events themselves along with the promoters.”
So let me get this straight. The UFC’s supposed to adopt this new WAMMA belt which nobody’s ever heard of, give them free promotion, while at the same time helping WAMMA bring other MMA promotions to the attention of the casual fan? And while they’re at it, the UFC’s supposed to let WAMMA rake in money from their own sponsorships, watering down the prominence of the UFC’s own advertisers?
The UFC already has all of the top WW and LHW fighters, as well the top MW and LW champs in Silva and Penn. That right there gives the UFC belts more credibility than all of the other promotions combined.
So all WAMMA wants is for the UFC to undermine their own market dominance, while giving up advertising revenue, all for something that the UFC practically already has? That’s a damn hard sell, and all you could respond with was, “Great news”?
Great news...
...was directed more at the sanctioning fee aspect. If you were to believe the word on the streets (forums) WAMMA was already charging sanctioning fees. I am quite anti-WAMMA.
I went well over the agreed upon amount of time we had for the interview…I couldn’t push them on everything I wanted to.
I did, however, make it pretty clear that without the UFC buying in they can’t succeed. And I see no incentive FOR the UFC to buy in other than to appear more “fan friendly” to the hardcores in creating cross-promotional bouts.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
"The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls and looking like hard work." -- Thomas Edison
by Brent Brookhouse on Jun 30, 2008 11:59 PM EDT up reply actions
Boxing parallels..
I’m pretty ignorant of boxing’s history, and I wonder how did it came to having an alphabet soup for sanctioning bodies. If I’m not mistaken, its a magazine (Ring/s) that has the clout over who’s undisputed champ in boxing. Now, regarding WAMMA. I think, part of the reason that promotions, for the most part UFC, should ignore WAMMA is to entirely avoid the mistakes that Boxing made. And letting WAMMA to have a say on who’s the undisputed champ would open the flood gates for the alphabet soup sanctioning bodies. We don’t want MMA to be a mess like boxing is right now. I’d much prefer seeing UFC become THE major league of MMA rather than having a quagmire of multiple world champions.
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