Tina Turner said it best when she sang “we don’t need another Expo, we don’t need another Reebok…all we want is life beyond the Octagon.”
Recently I wrote my experience at the latest UFC Expo during Fightweek in Vegas and I concluded that it had generally become a lacklustre affair. See the problem is in the name itself “Expo”. An Expo brings to mind companies showcasing their latest wares while marketing executives stand around, plucking their chins and looking thoughtfully as they say “can I get numbers on that?” Yeah it’s got a dreaded feel of corporate about it, while trying to entice the average MMA fan with the promise of fun.
Well the Expo is a con, but the wrong kind of con, because what we need is an actual con, as in a convention. In short what we need is an MMA Con, and so I present my idea for
MMA CON 2016 in July Las Vegas.
At this point I’m going to point out that I have no organisational skills in leisure or tourism so I have no idea how what I propose can be carried out or even it’s viability. This is a total fantasy like the ones I have about the Goth lady on NCIS, or the one where I’m in a bar standing over a bloody and unconscious Matt Hughes and saying “I gave you every chance shitkicker!”
It’s just an idea of what I think an actual MMA fan event could be with a little imagination.
Now first up you’ll notice I called it “MMA” Con, that’s because it can’t be a UFC event. This isn’t a knock on the corporate leanings of UFC, but what I envision has to be geared towards the fans and done by people who still have the naïve passion of fans. It has to have an outlaw, alternative feel to it and the first step to that is giving back a platform to all the clothing ranges such as Tapout, Fightchix, Venom etc which have banned from the Expo. Already we’re setting the convention up as something rebellious and with a “let’s do the show right here in the barn” philosophy to it.
But it still has to be held in Vegas in July and during Fightweek. That is when the highest concentration of fans and potential attendees are going to be together.
It’s now a tradition during Wrestlemania weekend for independent promotions to run shows in the same city and a yearly alternative Wrestlecon (not dissimilar to what I’m proposing here) is now a firm fixture on the wrestling calendar.
The beauty of fight week is that it also brings in large numbers of fighters who are there just as fans or to support their friends or team mates who are on the shows. This is where you’re going to get your Q&A guests and meet and greet appearances from. You’re obviously not going to get your UFC roster stars, but you’ve got great talkers beyond that. Try to get people like Bas Rutten, Chael Sonnen, Tito Ortiz and seek out those who are on the outs with grudges against the UFC who are going to be edging and relish the chance to spill some beans of what it’s like working for the bald Satan. Imagine the interest if the timing was right and you’d got Stitch Duran to appear last month.
Now if only we had a stable of awesome, charismatic, kick ass women in town around convention time. Oh wait! Invicta hope to be making their shows a yearly tradition in Fightweek. Get Shannon Knapp on board and invite as many of those ladies to appear in some capacity as you can. Why queue to get autographs of the Octagon girls when you could be getting photos with actual bonafide women fighters?
Ever heard Julie Kedzie and Tonya Evinger being interviewed? They are legends of the sport and entertaining as hell, stick them on a stage with a mic and I guarantee they’ll deliver.
So what are fans going to be browsing over as they walk the convention floor? We’re going to have stalls, but not just exercise supplements, we’re going to have things MMA fans are actually going to want to buy. We’re going to invite merchandisers, stalls selling action figures, stalls selling memorabilia, stalls for artists doing their own MMA paintings, authors selling their own self published MMA books. Hell lets be creative, get stalls of cupcakes decorated with MMA legends face on them, who could resist a Chuck Liddell doughnut? Jewellery, music, if you’re selling something that’s got a MMA feel we want you here.
There’s an incredible amount of passion and creativity shown by the MMA fan community when expressing itself whether it being through art, writing or radio and it’s this that a convention should be showcasing.
One thing that struck me at the UFC Expo was fans walking out empty handed. Not at ours we want fans going in with tons of Vegas holiday money and waking out with not just smiles on their faces but with bags and bags bulging with MMA related shit.
And free shit as well. We want you visiting the Bellator stand, the Invicta stand, the WSOF stand and coming away with free posters, t-shirts, dvds and people saying “wow, we didn’t get all this at the UFC Expo.”
Since we’re going for the alternative feel, let’s get the alternative media in. Give space over to the top MMA podcasts presenters, hell let them set up their equipment and record a show in the building talking to fans and let their listeners know what a great time they’re having and how they should be there for MMA-Con 2017. Ever wanted to meet the people behind your favourite MMA shows and sites, do that right here.
HOLY SHIT LET’S GET TOMMY TOEHOLD HERE!!!!
There’s going to be an atmosphere to MMA Con. We’re going to have screens showing non fightpass matches, we’re going to have live rock bands, it’s going to be noisy, it’s going to be lively. We’re going to have a comedians doing MMA themed routines, screenings of the latest independent MMA documentaries. Perhaps we can host an annual MMA awards ceremony (ok middle of the year may be a bit of a weird time to do that but you get the idea)
Maybe we’ll even get live fights.
In truth there’s nothing ground breaking in what I’m suggesting. Sci fi and comic conventions have been getting larger and larger for years, with fans dressing up as their favourite chracters and meeting their idols and having a great old time of it. And before anyone looks down on these fans and says “well they’re just nerds, we’re sports fans” just take a look at people queuing for hours to get a photo with George St Pierre while wearing their UFC sponsored T-shirts. We’re all passionate fans cut from the same cloth and if thousands of people were willing to pay fifty dollars to get into the Expo wouldn’t you think those same people would pay to get into something that was actually fun?
There’s an incredible amount of passion and creativity shown by the MMA fan community when expressing itself whether it being through art, writing or radio and it’s this that a convention should be showcasing.
Sure, there is going to be difficulties. UFC is likely not going to take kindly to some upstart piggybacking on their big week and will possibly throw a few wrenches in the way. Maybe it couldn’t all work out as I’ve detailed, but the idea is there. Call it an Expo, a fanfest, a convention or whatever, Fightweek needs an event that celebrates the fans who follow and make the sport what it is. In other forms of fandom it’s the fans that have driven the direction and tone of their own events. Fans began showing up in fancy dress and so the events embraced the cosplay craze. It’s the work of passionate fans that mans the booths. Organiser’s recognise what the fans are coming for and have tailored their events accordingly. I don’t think UFC do that with their own Expo, so it’s time for those who have the fans in mind to take charge and give those that travel to Fightweek what they want and what they deserve.
Maybe it’s a dream, but as someone once whispered to that guy from Waterworld “If you build it, they will come!”
