What makes for a succesful Mixed Martial Arts Promotion? The easy answer is popularity and money. Usually they go hand in hand but how does a promotion acheive high veiwership and a hefty income? Is it the fights? To some extent the actual fights are a big componant. How about the production? Also a big componant. But the largest componant of a succesful organization is the fans! Lets face it. There have been alot of promotions that have great fights and great production but still somehow don’t make it. So what gets the fans?

Talent! While there are a lot of “fans” of the UFC by itself, I would ask how many fans would there be without the big names? In our last article we wrote about the dominating market share that the Ultimate Fighting Championship has in the world of MMA. While that is the truth it got me thinking about what it would take for a smaller promotion to overcome that dominance. If there is any answer to that question I beleive it is in the “big names” in the fight world. I opened my recent issue of FIGHT magazine  and page after page there are nothing but high profile fighters. This might seem obvious but it reminded me how much momentum the fighters themselves carry.

Can one fighter change the fanbase of the sport to a new promotion? I don’t think so. If not then how many would it take? If the top 50 big named fighters left the UFC for Elite XC all at once, would the fans switch? I think as long as the production was high and the fights were good the answer is yes! If  that is a possibility then what is the magic number between 1 and 50? How many top level fighters does it take to establish an organizations crowd draw? Two, four, ten, twenty or more? I ask myself this question because recently I read yet another article about a high profile fighter looking at leaving the UFC. While he is not the biggest name or a huge crowd favorite he was the UFC Heavyweight Champion. Tim Sylvia, is just another in a growing line of high profile fighters looking to greener pastures. The story featured here on The Fight Network discusses the news that Big Tim cold be on his way out the door after his next fight.

How many does that make? Not quite 50 but the numbers are adding up. With the recent discussions and rumors of fighters looking to join other promotions including Randy Couture, Andre Arlovski, Fedor Emelianenko and Tito Ortiz we are looking at a cast of characters with a large fanbase. Add to that the fighters that are already on the rosters that draw big crowds including Kimbo Slice, Gomi, the Shamrock brothers, Nick Diaz and others then you are looking at a possible test for the UFC in the near future. What if all of these fighters landed in the same promotion? Would the NEW Heavyweight division make the UFC Heavyweight division seem irrelevent? How many would it take? What is the magic number?

Does the fact that Elite XC is getting on mainstream TV play into this? Can they get the big names, put on the big shows and become the featured name in MMA? How about a 50% market share? Time will tell, but it seems to me that if the UFC doesn’t find a way to keep the big names as part of the BIG show then they risk losing them to the “smaller” shows. How many times can that happen before size doesn’t matter?