| BUMS give their A-OK to the UFC |
Reported by the Grand Island Independent.
I’m back from a covert job assignment.
I was allowed to watch the inner workings of the Bureau of Universally Mainstreamed Sports (BUMS).
This top-secret organization determines which sports are worthy of mainstream media coverage and which are relegated to page 8 or 15 seconds on "SportsCenter" every other year.
This assignment required a trip to the BUMS’ official Bunker Inside a Seaport in…well, I shouldn’t name which state. Just call it the BUMS’ East Coast BIAS.
The BUMS’ workload picked up tremendously the past few months. That’s because the debate raged on whether to give the Ultimate Fighting Championship all-out approval or not.
Some sports — football, baseball, basketball — have been loved by the BUMS for decades. Some — soccer, figure skating, boxing — get temporary approval about once every four years for a resurgance.
And then there is the rarest of events. That is the BUMS allowing a previously niche sport to enter the mainstream.
It’s obvious that the UFC has done just that. The mixed martial arts promotion suddenly found its highlights leading off "SportsCenter" and its fighters featured as cover stories on both "Sports Illustrated" and "ESPN The Magazine" over the past month.
This came after years of being ignored by most unless someone wanted to proclaim the UFC as too barbaric and just another stone along the path of the downfall of humanity.
So why the mainstream lovefest now for UFC, the most popular of the MMA organizations?
Some might think it’s because the sport is now more civilized than it was in its just about anything except decapitation goes early days.
But it’s been almost eight years since rules and weight classes were added to make it more of a strategic battle than just brutal all out violence.
Simply, the BUMS agrees that money talks.
A surge in UFC popularity came along with the debut of the reality show "The Ultimate Fighter" on Spike TV.
This show sucked in even the reality TV haters with it’s simple premise. Men are fighting for a UFC contract, literally.
Each week, two step into the Octagon and one advances. One is elimated. Pretty basic sports concept there.
And it’s better than most reality TV options where the person who eats the most cockroaches moves on. If "America’s Next Top Model" adopts the Octagon elmination mode, I guarantee I’m just one new viewer that show would gain.
With new fans acquired due to "The Ultimate Fighter," now in its fifth season, the pay-per-view buyrates kept increasing. New cities hosted the monthly events with large arenas selling out even with tickets costing three figures.
With that interest showing, it’s tough for the big boys of the reporting world to ignore a sport, even if it’s one they used to look down upon.
The question now looms — is the BUMS’ approval permanent? Is the UFC the latest NASCAR to make it big and stay?
Or will the popularity fade and the UFC only turns out to be the latest sports fad, destined to be thought of like the USFL and the 1970s Houston Astros’ uniforms?
The UFC seems to have a lot of things going for it. It has that violence and physicality that appeals to that much-sought-after male 18-34 demographic.
It has big, charismatic personalities. It has a limited number of champions. Boxing probably remembers the days it had those.
But what will the final verdict be? That’s for me and the BUMS to know and the rest of you to find out.
| " | The question now looms -- is the BUMS' approval permanent? Is the UFC the latest NASCAR to make it big and stay? |
