Is Competition Good For MMA?

The sport of mixed martial arts has become very popular in the past ten years due to an avid fan base and appeal of the sport itself.  Ultimate Fighting Championship or UFC has been established as the main global brand and premier league for the sport where the best fighters often ply their trade.  Throughout the years various leagues or promotions of mixed martial arts tried to compete with the UFC but eventually ended up being bought out by the UFC or went bankrupt. 

The history of mixed martial arts leagues and their rise and downfall is nothing uncommon in the realm of sports.  The NBA of basketball had competition from the ABA back in the 1960’s and 1970’s for dominance of the sport.  Two different leagues with their own brand of stars and style of play each attracted their own fans.  The ABA though was unable to compete with the marketing machine of the NBA and could not acquire the revenue that the NBA obtained.   In 1976, the NBA eventually became the premier league of basketball when the ABA merged with them.  The ABA of course has been long since forgotten since their name has never been tied to the NBA since the merger, only one league survived.  The 1976 merger of the NBA and ABA echoes the exact results of the UFC-Pride merger.  Pride was the main competitor for the UFC during the 1990’s and was seen as the better league.  Pride though was unable to financially compete with the UFC and their expanding global brand over mixed martial arts.  The UFC in a sense became mixed martial arts to the casual fan.  In 2007, the UFC eventually merged with Pride and imported Pride’s top fighters into the UFC.  Pride suffered the same fate as the ABA 31 years later.

The question for this article “Is competition good for MMA?”.  Is it good for mixed martial arts to have the best athletes and fighters in one league?