In the past few years, mixed martial arts has enjoyed remarkable commercial success. Some fans imagine that its popularity is a result of its vast technical superiority over traditional martial arts styles. But neither MMA techniques nor training methods are particularly innovative; much of what you see in the competition ring was pioneered decades or even centuries ago.
The recent success of the MMA product is best explained with a sociological model, not a technical one; and this model predicts an inevitable fall from grace. MMA will decay, like every style before it, into a traditional martial art.
MMA and the Product Lifecycle
MMA is more than a martial art, or combination of arts; it is a multi-million dollar industry. It is a product sold on pay-per-view television and in training halls across the United States and the world. And like any other object of commerce, it is subject to the product lifecycle.
Credit: Nate Bailey
The lifecycle model defines the different stages that all products travel through on their journey from birth to death. These life stages are marked by shifts in market awareness, profitability, and competition; and most importantly, by a migration in the psychology of the consumer.
Philosophically speaking, today’s MMA is an expression of heterodoxy, a rejection of traditions gone stale. As such, this modern style has attracted many of the best and brightest fighters: men and women who, in an earlier age, might have practiced a purer form of Judo or Taekwondo. In the language of business, these people are known as innovators and early adopters.
The vanguard of every product adoption curve is composed of such consumers. Statistically, these individuals are younger, richer, and more risk-tolerant than the marketplace as a whole. They prove a product’s potential, escorting it from obscurity to commercial success.
MMA: A Tradition in the Making
Pokemon and Digimon
Entering the this stage of rapid product growth, competition floods the marketplace. Producers introduce variations on the product, to target the mainstream and low-end consumer, with the goal of maximizing income. After Pokemon, we got Digimon; similarly, the UFC concept has been extended to dozens of televised MMA competitions and reality shows.
As the novelty and quality associated with the art starts to fade, early adopters will be the first to abandon it. Transitioning out of the growth stage into maturity (market saturation), MMA will be directed by a very different psychology.
Late adopters of any product are by definition conservative and risk-averse. They reject change, and embrace the familiar. These are the consumers of “traditional” martial arts products, and MMA producers will adapt to suit their tastes. To do anything less would be bad business.
So, industry marketing teams will re-discover the values of “discipline, respect and honor”—as profitable euphemisms for non-threatening social stability. Unpredictable elements of the authentic traditional practice, such as free sparring, will be de-emphasized. After-school “kiddie MMA” will rise to prominence.
Big business will choke the vitality out of modern mixed martial art, but we should not shed a tear for its demise. This is the circle of life, and hasn’t every decrepit traditional art we recognize today followed the same course?
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17 responses so far ↓
1
Thomas
// Dec 1, 2007
I suppose that the death of MMA, as with all things, will be inevitable. However, the question lies in when and for what purpose. Right now, I’d say we’re still in the Early Adopters phase, maybe barely into the Early Majority phase. Boxing, by comparison, I feel has reached the Late Majority or Laggards phase, and has taken about two hundred years to get there. So how long will it take for MMA to reach the same state? Due to the unparalleled complexity of the game (I doubt any other sport is so free-form), I imagine we may be well into the twenty-third or twenty-fourth century before it starts to fade away.
2
Chris
// Dec 1, 2007
Is boxing dead? By our modern standards, no–but those 18th and 19th century boxers who never knew the Marquess of Queensberry rules might have a different opinion.
I don’t think the technical complexity of MMA will lengthen its mainstream lifecycle, because as I tried to explain above, this is not a technical issue. Society is changing faster than ever before, and attention spans are shrinking.
3
Thomas
// Dec 2, 2007
Well, I suppose the question is just how long do you think MMA’s mainstream lifespan will be? Society is changing faster than ever, and it can be argued that the free-form and unpredictable nature of MMA matches suit the current niche for combat sports. The biggest demographics for MMA are males in the early 20s, which leads me to believe that it will continue to grow and develop, sticking around for quite some time.
Side-note about martial arts lifespans: Do we consider traditional martial arts dead as well? It is inevitable that things will change, as you explained with boxing. The real training methods and environment for traditional gong-fu, karate, and taekwondo have all disappeared, and real qigong has all but vanished. Traditional art forms will never last forever, no matter how hard we try to keep them alive, because they’ll always change as time goes by.
4
proponitis G
// Mar 25, 2008
do a bit of research and you will find that MMA is actually the oldest traceable martial art in the world originally known as pankration.
and yet you say it will become a “traditional martial art” what a joke MMA already has a firmer base in tradition than any other martial art that we know of other than boxing and wrestling
5
proponitis G
// Mar 25, 2008
648 B.C till 2008 A.D thats 2656yrs and still going strong.
but maybe one day it will reach the “late majority” stage
6
Chris
// Mar 25, 2008
proponitis G, this article is based on a distinction between Mixed Martial Arts techniques and the MMA commercial offering. As you noted–and so did I in the very first paragraph–MMA techniques are centuries-old. Why then is MMA marketed as an alternative to “traditional martial arts”?
Do a bit of research on psychology and market segmentation, and you will find the answer.
7
Chris
// Mar 29, 2008
Ultimate fights expand to include kids (March 27 2008, Associated Press)
8
GSP
// Jun 21, 2008
I think society molds the martial arts to be what it is, where as in Canada, USA have different training methods compared to South East Asia like Cambodia where head spiking and neck twists are still being practiced as culture. I think now that the western world is taking in all types of martial arts and putting in a melting pot you get a product that isn’t true to its form, just as jiu jitsu from judo and muay thai coming from pradal serey. The old form is lost and you have a new product which will become mainstream and then watered down cause of what society views it, just what I see now in some MMA schools. MMA will become a mainstream sport and martial arts will be a fitness training routine and killing arts like traditional pradal serey which is meant for killing in the battle field will only be taught to keep the tradition alive and never become a sport.
9
Chris
// Aug 17, 2008
From In the Guard MMA News:
10
Robdog
// Dec 9, 2008
I believe MMA is noted as a TMA alternative due to it being most likely that any long term traditional martial artist would easily be able to implement a portion of their previous studies to the MMA art, dependant upon the style practiced. I guess this is encouraging to martial artists that have been training some time and don’t want to learn an entire new skillset.
The evolution of MMA isn’t mentioned at all in this article either; MMA has evolved incredibly over the last 10 years. Started out with grapplers being at the top of the food chain, then ground n pounders (wrestlers with striking) then turned into strikers preventing being taken to the ground. These days if most fighters don’t look after and train in all ‘ranges of fighting’ ie. striking, clinching and ground fighting then they don’t have a well laid out skillset and will most likely lose to someone that does. I guess this leads to the question of if this ‘martial art’ is due to die out like some kind of marketed product then what will follow it in the martial art/sport fighting world? In my mind I can’t see a predecessof MMA unless we evolve to have extra limbs or we take on aliens of different body structures
as I’m sorry to say it but time and again it’s been proven to be the most effective and efficient sport fighting as it encompasses all ranges and scenarios of a 1 on 1 fight within a ring, hmmm unless they re-introduced biting or eye gouging or something.
I don’t believe MMA will die out quickly at all…extreme sports aren’t very old but they appeal to a certain demographic, I don’t think a up and coming sport (it’s not even up and coming anymore) should be looked at the same way as a marketed product.
11
Chris
// Dec 9, 2008
Robdog,
If you’ve ever seen an aboriginal hunter chase his dinner for miles, barefoot, across the open savanna, then you know that “extreme sports” activities have existed for thousands of years. So what is new? The marketing, commercial sponsorship, and other corporate trappings. What was once an small-scale, life-or-death endeavor is now largely a mass profit-making exercise. This is an interesting analogy for mixed martial arts.
On the topic of evolution, consider the Dodo bird. It was extremely well-suited to an extremely restricted environment: the island of Mauritius. After predators started to violate island’s natural boundaries, that bird didn’t last much longer. What are the boundaries of modern MMA?
12
Brent Emery Pieczynski
// Nov 24, 2009
There are even risk-adverse people inside of Tai Chi, with the Tai Chi set doing part of the physical-training. The body is also trained with push-hands, which will reveal stiff-spots and limp spots. I’ve fallen during practice, which only revealed my need to address stiff muscles.
The people which want the largest quantity of students, will need to modify all of the items to the lowest risk possible. That largest group size possible, will have a portion of people which will intentionally injure other people. This liability-level caused by a large crowd of students, will cause such a heavy-restriction on techniques, ’twill cause Tai Chi to appear as more-brutal.
13
nate
// Dec 22, 2009
Quick Point to clarify the model displayed talks about rate of adoption, not total market size, that talking off you are discussing is tailing of of NEW interest. The early adopters and others leaving is a completely different concept.
14
b
// Jun 28, 2010
sorry guys to disagree but the only thing i am impressed by with mma ufc and the others would happen to be the training unfortunatley that rarely translates to fight time say what you want about boxing but is is the science meaning thetraining is theory and the fight is application get it? not taking anything away from tthese gentlemen but one question why is it when the fight goes to the ground we now call what used to be just mount and pummel to ground and pound somehow validating what is just street fighting you know the same thing we did in grammar school jump on top of the kid and beat them down i dont remember needing an instuctor for that.. none the less it just proves a couple things most want to see this human form of cock fighting and as i have noticed at the gyms i check out from time to time everyone wants to be a tough guy !! but the funny thing is the tough guys i speak of cant take a shot just wither after a punch in the face say what you want about boxing ,but you train to take a punch it is an eventuality, simple plan train eat sleep then apply your training in real time like the fight.
15
Marcus
// Jul 18, 2010
Now almost 3 years later, this article was spot on. The adoption curve has many uses besides economics, and we have already seen a change in how MMA is headed.
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