gazh

Fanfare as in he would unquestionably be Englands MMA goldenboy, probably Bisping X2 in popularity.

The Netherlands has a population of 16M, England has 50M, on top of that MMA is much bigger in England than it is in NL.

So yes, tis a shame cos he would garner alot more fanfare if he was English.

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kantowrestler

So is Bisping the MMA goldenboy right now or does that fall upon Hardy or Daley? As for MMA in the Netherlands obviously kickboxing is more popular. If he identified himself as English he probably could!

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The Emoticon Guy

tkoshea

MMA is not mainstream enough a sport in UK for anyone to be the goldenboy just yet.

IF Overeem was English he would probably be loved by mma fans over here, but currently mma is no where near big enough to suggest he would be a huge star over here.

Matt Skelton was an unknown until he took up boxing and the most famous MMA fighter in the UK is Alex Reid....I think that says all that needs to be said about the current standing of K1 and MMA in the UK.

It's growing, rapidly, but don't kid yourself into thinking it is huge here just yet.

kantowrestler

Well it's obviously more accepted in the UK then it is in Germany. The media is very hostile towards it over there. Also K-1 may not gain too much more popularity in UK unless someone saves it!

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The Emoticon Guy

gazh

MMA's popularity in the UK is difficult to gauge, i agree it isn't a top-5 sport here (yet) but it's not too far away and has a dedicated following, alot of shitty local UK shows are getting 1000+ per show.

Alex Reid is the most well known purely because of the tabloid coverage of his non fighting career, so i'd say Bisping is by far the most well known 'for' MMA, but Alex Reid is much more well known in general than Bisping.

An English world champion in an American organisation would defiently push the sport forward by at least a couple of years here, but all this talk is balls anyway, Overeem isn't English.

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Rauno

This thread still going strong?

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tkoshea

Yea but that's my point.

MMA is still a very marginal sport in the UK, ok since ESPN/Setanta bought the rights to UFC more exposure has increased its popularity but at the end of the day still it is very low down the sporting food chain in the UK.

The average person hasn't got a clue who Bisping is (or hardy or Daley) only really people who are mma fans (of which there are still not many)

If you stopped and asked 100 people in the average street how many of them would know who Michael Bisping is?

Ask them who David Haye is and many more would know.

If Overeem were English and we had our own heavyweight champion I am not sure it would make much difference, not until the sport itself grew in stature over here (if it did) Carl Fogerty was world champion for years but whatever type of motor bike sport he did never became anything more than a minor sport in the UK.

Right now Darts is a bigger sport than MMA, so is snooker and Phil Taylor and Ronnie O'Sulivan are both bigger names/stars than Bisping is or Overeem would be right now even if he was English.

The best thing for MMA's growth in the UK is for the UFC to start putting on more shows here, or at least using some bigger names for the cards (instead of giving us all the skud cards that no one would pay pay per view for it the states)

But like you say, Overeem is Dutch so who really gives a fuk

Anyway I am off to Amsterdam tomorrow maybe I;ll run into him and tell him to work on his British accent and lay claim to his English roots if he wants a bigger fan base world wide

kantowrestler

So right now you are saying that British MMA fighters have a similar status that American MMA fighters used to hold in Japan. They were not known in the mainstream but in Pride in Japan they were superstars. So basically Americans are more likely to know who Bisping or Daley or Hardy are!

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The Emoticon Guy

tkoshea

Hardly anyone aside from mma fans would know who they are.

My dad is a huge sports fan for example, I have even made him watch mma numerous times but if I asked him who michael bisping is he wouldn't remember him.

It is growing though and it has received some more mainstream exposure (been in papers and is on the ESPN network, even late night replays of the british fighters shown on terrestrial tele) but people are kidding themselves if they think it is already a big sport here and the fighters are well known to the general public yet.

Personally I kind of like it being less mainstream, but I think the sport deserves to grow in stature and the fighters deserve to be paid the types of money mainstream sports stars get.

I don't want mma to go the way of boxing though, where the biggest fights never (or hardly ever) happen and people duck each other frequently to protect their record and money earning potential.

Also personally, if I was an mma star I'd rather be famous only in the US so when I am there I can live the lifestyle but back home I can walk down the street as a normal guy without the hassle of the UK press and general public.

Heres a quick example, a guy that works for me has the ESPN channel which holds the exclusive UK rights to UFC fights. He is a massive sports fan, season ticket holder at Wasps rugby club big football fan yet he has never watched UFC and knows it only (like most UK people) as 'Cage fighting' and many people still have the old school view of it being a brutal sport or the old chest nut of 'human cock fighting'.

kantowrestler

That is how it used to be in America about ten years ago. I can definately see how MMA isn't mainstream. ESPN exposure is good though!

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The Emoticon Guy