Mixed martial arts had a tremendous year om 2009.  The UFC put on more fights, garnered its largest attendance levels and generated the most revenue in the history of the company and the sport.  Everything was clicking on all cylinders and mixed martial arts is on the cusp of a breakthrough.  All of this in spite of a struggling economy

Happy New Year UFC

With all the success, Dana White and his organization have still not reached the pinnacle, that being reaching a mainstream sports audience.  To reach that “tipping point”, as defined by Malcolm Gladwell in his famous book, White and the UFC must make a few changes to its business to make mixed martial arts.  Once those changes are implemented, the unstoppable force will come into line and take MMA mainstream.

The following are a few New Year’s Resolutions for the UFC to consider that will finally get mixed martial arts into the mainstream.

Resolution #1 – Pay The Fighters

If the UFC is the elite promotion, then it should pay fighters correlative to the gate.  Over the course of 2009, many other promotions are sharing the proceeds at events at a much higher rate.  Bellator Fighting Championship guaranteed its tournament champions $150k over the course of three fights.  Strikeforce’s recent Evolution event featured on Showtime paid out $481k on a gate of $634k (76% of gate went to the fighters).

In contrast, Zuffa took in $818k at WEC 41  while paying out salaries of $216k or 26% of gate.  For UFC 106, they took in a live gate of $3.00M and paid salaries of   $1.02M, or 33% of the gate.   At UFC 104, they took in a live gate of $1.9M and paid out $922k, or 48% of the gate.  These revenue figures do not include PPV revenue and sponsorship fees.  When included, this doubles to triple the gross receipts.  What we can surmise is that fighters appear to be getting about 10%-20% of revenue. The remainder goes into Zuffa’s pockets.

The UFC needs to begin improving its payouts into the 75%-100% neighborhood of live gate.  The fighters are being paid peanuts in relation to the revenue they are generating.  If improvements don’t occur, expect more defection like that of Dan Henderson in 2010.

#2 – Fine Tune or Cancel “The Ultimate Fighter”

The original concept of The Ultimate Fighter served as a launching pad for the organization in 2005.  It introduced the sport to new fans and found a special recipe of connecting the fighters personally with the fans.  The most recent season jumped the shark and has shown that the reality show is not about creating a training ground for new fighters, it’s just Big Brother in a cage where losers of the fight are banished from the house.

Not since 2007, Season 5, has the show produced a quality contender.  The focus has shifted to personality rather than fighting ability.  Season 10 epitomizes the problem.  While scoring record-level ratings with its media barrage of Kimbo Slice, his time in the house helped him little and he displayed why he should not have been considered for the show during the TUF 10 Finale.

Either the show needs to return to its roots of seeking out talent or the UFC should shut it down.  The Ultimate Fighter is part of the branding of MMA, and the circus-like stench of the show lowers the sport to the ranks of professional wrestling.

Resolution #3 – Make The Best Championship Fights By Cross Promoting

The UFC’s biggest issue for 2010 is the lack of bonafide championship belt matches.  Outside of the light heavyweight division, there are no interesting championship bouts on the horizon.  Anderson Silva, George St. Pierre, BJ Penn and Brock Lesnar are head and shoulders ahead of their competition.  Simply put, who is left in the UFC for these guys to beat?

Fans want to see Lesnar hook up with Fedor Emelianenko.  They want to watch Penn hook it up against Shinya Aoki or Eddie Alvarez.   They are aching for GSP to fight Marius Zaromskis or Jay Hieron.  Or how about Anderson Silva against Jake Shields or Gegard Mousasi?

For the good of the sport, the UFC must break its stance on cross-promotion that will help the sport as a whole breakthrough.  The upcoming “Dynamite” event in Japan that pairs DREAM and Sengoku’s best fighters is the road map for the future.  If the UFC’s champs are truly that great, then what is the issue?

Resolution #4 – Expand The Number Of Fighters Under Contract

While the UFC has expanded the number of events it hosts, the number of new fighter signings have not increased at the same rate of growth.  This has left the UFC to regurgitate the same fighters over and over again on its PPV broadcast.  You can really only enjoy so much of the same guys until it gets old…and old quickly.

The great thing about combat sports is the belief that there always somebody coming up the ladder behind you to take your belt.  As noted previously, none of this is happening in the UFC.  The champs stand at the top and the contenders are a few rungs below, not one.  This can only be turned around by signing new fighters and developing them.

Recent contract cancellations for Jake Rosholt and Brock Larson are key examples of bad judgment by the UFC.  These guys were thrown to the lions immediately and tossed out with the garbage after two losses.  If you want to develop fighters, black marks eventually have to occur on their record.  Every UFC champ has a blemish on their record.  Its better these blemishes occur in the UFC rather than elsewhere.