- Joined
- Jul 30, 2006
- Messages
- 170
- Reaction score
- 16
definitely a niche sport. Certainly in America.
Pride would have collapsed. Maybe Strikeforce and Dream would have become the UFC vs Pride of the day instead. Dream had quite a bit of momentum for a while to be sure, and Bellator hadn't really made a huge splash in America yet. Sengoku likely would have tried fighting with Dream but would have been absorbed or something. WEC and Shooto would be dealing with lower weight classes.
You know, sometimes I wonder whether the MMA explosion was inevitable. There was a shift in the wider culture in the early/mid 2000s that continued and intensified today -- more appreciation for aggressive sports, greater acceptance of violence in entertainment, and more interest in emotional, showy machismo that the UFC's marketing tapped into. Maybe it's the flipside of daily life becoming so restrained, sedentary, and disconnected that people needed something a little more primal. Whatever it was, though, I do wonder whether Zuffa would have gotten explosive growth regardless of TUF. Maybe not as fast, admittedly.