MLB, the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL all have showcase events during their season to highlight the biggest stars of their respective sports leagues!
While the UFC is considered the next major league sport, they don’t exactly have an All-Star event to showcase their athletes, but should they? It would have to be unique and of course, it would have to include events that are not prevalent to injuries.
Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway took to Twitter to voice his thoughts on the matter after another epic NBA All-Star game this past week.
- “Watching NBA all-star weekend and it’s always so sick. Got me wondering tho what can we do to add to international fight week? What’s our versions of dunk contest and 3 point contest? What skills challenges can we do? What celeb games can we do? Celebrity BJJ matches?”
I mean why not? There has to be a way to showcase the skills of these athletes and give the elite stars an opportunity to really put on a show of skill for the fans, and to add a little friendly competition to the roster no matter what the weight class.
Last year Quintet Ultra Took place. It was a grappling super match between competitors from the UFC, Strikeforce, PRIDE, and WEC. People loved it. The only injury that took place was Cub Swanson tore his ACL, which definitely sucks, and may take a grappling tournament out of the running to be part of an All-Star event because obviously we don’t want the athletes to sustain injuries that could stop them from doing their job of fighting inside the octagon.
Of course, we can have the punching machine that measures the pounds per square inch of power a fighter uses when they hit the bag. It doesn’t matter what weight class you are in, this would be something everybody could do and some smaller guys could probably do better than the heavyweights. Sometimes the highest score on one of these machines has nothing do with strength, and everything to do with technique. It would definitely be interesting.
An obstacle course of sorts featuring a 10 station circuit of things that these athletes do in the gym. Tire flipping, battle ropes, kicking a moving target, and so many other things could be done.
This could be a way for fighters to compete for some cash prizes which would supplement their income and I don’t know one fighter who doesn’t want more money, especially if they can do it competing against other fighters in skills competitions where the possibility of an injury is slim to none!
Holloway suggested possibly doing it during International fight week which I think is a brilliant idea! He also mentioned adding celebrities to it like the NBA All-Star game where celebrities take on other celebrities. Not sure how to incorporate celebrities into this, but I’m sure there is a way.
If the UFC puts the effort in and really thinks about this, they could add their own version of an All-Star game to their ever-growing sport, and I think that the fans and the fighters would be into it.
This sport of mixed martial arts has continually evolved as it has become mainstream in the last few years, and yes it is mainstream today.
Doesn’t it then make sense to continue the evolution and add some kind of skills challenge/All-Star event to International fight week? I think it does.
Now we will just wait and see if the UFC maybe starts thinking about doing it, who knows, maybe quite possibly even this July for International fight week 2020!
I think Max Holloway is on to something here, let’s hope the UFC is listening and considering doing something like this!
Christopher James has been in the MMA industry for 15 years, Working as a ring announcer for promotions like the XFC, Island Fights, Combat Night and Fight Nights Global during his career. Chris’ love for the sport and the athletes that partake in it led him to writing and doing face to face interviews with the athletes he admired and respected. Chris isn’t conventional by any stretch of the imagination, he has his own style, and takes pride in not being a “cookie-cutter” member of the media. Unique and sometimes controversial takes are what he brings to the table, forcing folks to think a little differently about the world of MMA. He also has a love for music as he has been a dj for 25 years and his love for music gets brought to the MMA world when he gets his guests to sing on his weekly show Cage Side with Christopher James which can be seen Wednesday nights on FACEBOOK LIVE, and soon via podcast.