The Wrong Kind of Big
Chael Sonnen vs. Jon Jones is shaping up as the biggest fight in UFC history. Not in the octagon and not at the box office, but in the political arena.
The Wall Street Journal published an editorial on Friday illuminating the games that Zuffa and the culinary union have been playing as New York state has considered legalizing MMA. The Journal's editorial board -- a group that looks with jaundice at almost every union -- takes Sheldon Silver to task for ostensibly allowing the Las Vegas culinary union stop New York city and Buffalo from holding events that would supposedly generate economic activity for the state of New York.
There is reason to doubt that UFC events in New York would boost the economy at the $16 million dollar level claimed by Zuffa, but that's not the point. It is unclear if the $16 million number considers the possibility that the two hundred bucks spent on a UFC ticket that supports Dana White and Jon Jones might have been spent at a local bar or restaurant (thus providing greater benefit to the local economy) if UFC keeps running their events out of state. This fight isn't about New York's money. It is about believing or not believing in unions.
The other political controversy to bubble up surrounds Chael Sonnen's language in promoting his last two fights. Sonnen has been accused of race-baiting in certain realms of the sporting intelligentsia.
Accusing Sonnen of race-baiting follows the following logic: White MMA fans are upset that black athletes have been dominating MMA the way they dominate football and basketball (and possibly upset about a host of broader social change in American culture). White MMA fans know that using the n-word or calling a fighter a monkey is out of line. So white MMA fans instead will read Sonnen's ridiculing of Silva's Brazillian culture or Jones' partying with white women as validation of their natural feeling that non-whites are inferior to whites.
A treatise on whether it is fair to conflate race with culture when commenting on Sonnen's behavior will be saved for another time and place (read: the author's next long drive with fellow amateur sociology connoisseur Todd Martin). The point is that it has become a point, and it is distracting from the business of UFC 159.
Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen will do less business than expected. Pay-per-view numbers will not come close to the original expectations for the fight and will fall well short of the recent Diaz vs. St. Pierre show. The reasons are myraid, ranging from Sonnen's desire for a television career to a lack of belief that Jones can lose. Political controversy is not responsible for the lack of business, but it in this case it hurts.
Unsaid in both the Wall Street Journal editorial and the essay accusing Sonnen of race-baiting is the fact that both issues may not have been raised if not for the UFC's desire to run the event in the New York market. New York is the media center of North America and New York writers like to imagine themselves as culturally relevant intellectuals. Issues like race and worker's rights are red meat for writers from either political persuasion. A sporting event in lowly Las Vegas or San Jose may be unworthy of scrutiny. A big-mouthed wrestler from West Linn, Oregon polluting the refined tastes of the city with his unenlightened views on others' cultures is red meat.
Eric Bischoff loved to say that controversy creates cash, but it is hard to imagine that this jaunt to the big city will line the pockets of the principles in the way they once hoped. At this point MMA is still a little bit too pro wrestling-ish for the mainstream online media's sensibilities. Running shows in the New York market invites UFC's enemies on to the stage, and at this point UFC could do without that kind of attention.
The Wall Street Journal published an editorial on Friday illuminating the games that Zuffa and the culinary union have been playing as New York state has considered legalizing MMA. The Journal's editorial board -- a group that looks with jaundice at almost every union -- takes Sheldon Silver to task for ostensibly allowing the Las Vegas culinary union stop New York city and Buffalo from holding events that would supposedly generate economic activity for the state of New York.
There is reason to doubt that UFC events in New York would boost the economy at the $16 million dollar level claimed by Zuffa, but that's not the point. It is unclear if the $16 million number considers the possibility that the two hundred bucks spent on a UFC ticket that supports Dana White and Jon Jones might have been spent at a local bar or restaurant (thus providing greater benefit to the local economy) if UFC keeps running their events out of state. This fight isn't about New York's money. It is about believing or not believing in unions.
The other political controversy to bubble up surrounds Chael Sonnen's language in promoting his last two fights. Sonnen has been accused of race-baiting in certain realms of the sporting intelligentsia.
Accusing Sonnen of race-baiting follows the following logic: White MMA fans are upset that black athletes have been dominating MMA the way they dominate football and basketball (and possibly upset about a host of broader social change in American culture). White MMA fans know that using the n-word or calling a fighter a monkey is out of line. So white MMA fans instead will read Sonnen's ridiculing of Silva's Brazillian culture or Jones' partying with white women as validation of their natural feeling that non-whites are inferior to whites.
A treatise on whether it is fair to conflate race with culture when commenting on Sonnen's behavior will be saved for another time and place (read: the author's next long drive with fellow amateur sociology connoisseur Todd Martin). The point is that it has become a point, and it is distracting from the business of UFC 159.
Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen will do less business than expected. Pay-per-view numbers will not come close to the original expectations for the fight and will fall well short of the recent Diaz vs. St. Pierre show. The reasons are myraid, ranging from Sonnen's desire for a television career to a lack of belief that Jones can lose. Political controversy is not responsible for the lack of business, but it in this case it hurts.
Unsaid in both the Wall Street Journal editorial and the essay accusing Sonnen of race-baiting is the fact that both issues may not have been raised if not for the UFC's desire to run the event in the New York market. New York is the media center of North America and New York writers like to imagine themselves as culturally relevant intellectuals. Issues like race and worker's rights are red meat for writers from either political persuasion. A sporting event in lowly Las Vegas or San Jose may be unworthy of scrutiny. A big-mouthed wrestler from West Linn, Oregon polluting the refined tastes of the city with his unenlightened views on others' cultures is red meat.
Eric Bischoff loved to say that controversy creates cash, but it is hard to imagine that this jaunt to the big city will line the pockets of the principles in the way they once hoped. At this point MMA is still a little bit too pro wrestling-ish for the mainstream online media's sensibilities. Running shows in the New York market invites UFC's enemies on to the stage, and at this point UFC could do without that kind of attention.
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