Isn’t MMA supposed to be fun?

This column originally appeared on the Bloody Elbow Substack on Sunday, February 11th. Become a paid Subscriber to get more work like this straight to your inbox.

The UFC’s run to regulation has become a cornerstone of the Zuffa story. It’s probably less spin than Dana White gives most of his memory when he talks about how the Fertittas bought a promotion not just one the brink of collapse, but one that could barely find a state that would sanction their brand of ‘no holds barred’ violence.

Truthfully, of course, the UFC had started running toward regulation well before White & Co. stepped in. It didn’t take many events for the SEG owned version of the company to realize that their dojo-heavy tournament style wasn’t going to last. The increasing number of wrestlers and professionally trained athletes opened up the likelihood that some member of the strip mall Karate black belt contingent would get seriously hurt in a no-rules tournament format.

As such, figures like ‘Big’ John McCarthy and Jeff Blatnick and Joe Silva started putting together rules and regulations for the Octagon in conjuction with the ABC and State Athletic Commissions. No Groin strikes, no headbutts, no fish hooking. Gloves became more the norm, etc. etc.

The Zuffa era of MMA

What Zuffa brought, more than anything, was an understanding of the politics of regulation. An ability to lobby. The right money, connections, and a set of new rules already in place paved the way for MMA to become an officially recognized sport and eventually a normal part of the American sporting landscape (if still something of a niche interest).

Along the way, however, there was another, less celebratory outcome from the UFC’s success and eventual market dominance. Namely, the blanding of mixed martial arts. NHB, for all its faults, really was the true sandbox of combat sports. Fighters with limited understandings of the potential for true fighting given room to test themselves with few limitations. Can the TaeKwonDo guy really stay off the ground? Can the BJJ guy force someone to grapple? Can the ninjitsu guy actually disappear?

Insistance on gloves and wraps, credit for top control, and a flat playing surface with cage walls all helped emphasize a wrestle-boxing archetype. Nevermind that wrestlers were also training at a much higher level than most traditional martial arts.

I don’t want to say that the MMA meta would have looked dramatically different had the UFC taken a different path—or not have become the market dominating juggernaut that they ended up as—but it’s hard not to feel a bit like we’re in the most McDonalds version of MMA possible today.

Dogfight Wild Tournament

That’s what made Dogfight Wild Tournament such an amazing breath of fresh air this week. If you haven’t already seen it, you can watch the whole thing for free, right here. A once-annual fight promotion from Spain that ran their second ever grand night of wild action riffing on an MMA theme. In a lot of ways, it feels like a Fight Circus sister, but where the Thailand-based organization really goes off the deep end using combat sports as inspiration for wacky fun & games, Dogfight is built on much more simple lines.

However it might be categorized, it ran on one important ideology: What if fights were unpredictable and fun?

Of course, it goes without saying that a big part of what allowed the promotion to get as weird as they did this past Friday was Spain’s lack of regulation. We got a 1 vs. 5 ‘survival mode’ fight where one trained fighter had to take on five opponents one at a time. There was a 3-on-1 fight that just might go down as the most fun fight of 2024. We had 2 vs. 2 action, and a ‘Bloodsport’ tournament, complete with curved fighting platform. The kind of stuff that state regulations would almost certainly put the kibosh on if this card had been in the US.

Did all of it come off perfectly? Absolutely not. One of the opening round winners got hurt and the Bloodsport finale had to be cancelled. The no-rules MMA fight ended with a bevvy of unanswered blows to the back of the head and an insistance from the loser that he get an immediate rematch (which the winner totally should have taken, but wussed out on). And there were some pacing and production issues standard to a company only barely getting off the ground.

MMA needs to be fun

But, the important thing was that it felt like an experiment. It felt like an attempt to do something new and fun with fights again. A big part of what made MMA the thrill it used to be was its circus aspect. Modified rules fights, combat sports legends from other disciplines trying their hand against seasoned MMA pros. Shootboxing, combat jiu jitsu, Senegalese wrestling, hand-to-hand combatives? The world is full of creative opportunities that create entertaining chaos.

This isn’t an argument against plain old MMA. I still like what the sport is as it exists now plenty. It’s been codified enough to start growing some real high level technique all its own and a meta that’s unique to MMA. But moments like these are something of a wakeup call. A reminder that there’s a whole other reason I got into this stuff and it’s one I’d almost entirely forgotten.

I’m not just here for the power or the violence or the beatiful expression of form. I’m also here for the hijinks and the fun. Boxing has been owning that lately with their celebrity fight cards and the MMA/boxing crossover bareknuckle arena (which I have other problems with). It was hard not to think, when Jake Paul and Nate Diaz fought in 2023, that 15 or 20 years ago MMA would have gotten that fight, but it doesn’t have the cajones for that kind of fun anymore and it shows.

I don’t need it every day, but it’d be awfully nice to see a little more weird come back to this sport. Dogfight Wild Tournament was exactly the right cure for what ails my MMA soul.

Bloody Elbow merch available

Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.

Zane Simon

Zane Simon is a senior editor, writer, and podcaster for Bloody Elbow. He has worked with the website since 2013, taking on a wide variety of roles. A lifelong combat sports fan, Zane has trained off & on in both boxing and Muay Thai. He currently hosts the long-running MMA Vivisection podcast, which he took over from Nate Wilcox & Dallas Winston in 2015, as well as the 6th Round podcast, started in 2014. Zane is also responsible for developing and maintaining the ‘List of current UFC fighters’ on Bloody Elbow, a resource he originally developed for Wikipedia in 2010.

More from the author