UFC 129: What Will Be Missing and What It Means for UFC and MMA

Sponsorships are one of the key sources of revenue for fighters as well as promotions. MMA sponsors have run the gamut from tire manufacturers like Toyo Tires to more well known brands such as Bud Light.

While there has been some conflict over sponsorships in the past—Affliction previously being banned as a sponsor as well as TapouT briefly being banned if they continued to sponsor Fedor Emelianenko—there has not been anything on the level of what has been announced recently by MMAjunkie.com:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has seized several on-line poker sites including well-known MMA sponsors FullTiltPoker.com, PokerStars.com, and AbsolutePoker.com. The owners have been charged with fraud and illegal gambling.

Because of this, these sponsors may well be missing at UFC 129 in Canada.

Fighters will obviously be hurt the most by this development; sponsorships often account for a large portion of what a fighter makes. Without these sponsors, the fighters will have to scramble to find others or make less money.

Aside from the fighter's wallets getting a bit lighter, there is a long-term consequence that none have mentioned.

With the departure of the on-line poker sites as sponsors, there will be a vacuum that needs to be filled. This is an opportunity for new, less sordid sponsors to enter the MMA world and in doing so help to give MMA a more positive image.

When those outside MMA's main demographic of males age 18-34 see illegal gambling websites as sponsors of the sport, it is very possible that their misguided view of MMA as a low-brow "sport" of brawlers is reinforced.

If new sponsors were to arrive, it may help give the sport more credibility with those in different age groups or sexes and thus fuel the growth of the sport. The news of the seizure of the poker sites is therefore bittersweet.

On the one hand MMA has lost a sponsor that was one of the most recognized and popular in the sport. But on the other hand, perhaps MMA has outgrown such sponsors and can now seek those with a higher standing in society.

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