# Growth of MMA



## Chris Griffiths (May 12, 2010)

Hi guys im not sure if anyone has ever done any revision into this, I am bascially in need of some stats and figures proving the growth of mma in the UK. Anything and everything will be good.

I have ppv figures for UFC but these are worldwide.

Even somthing like the number of gyms now doing mma in the uk, number of mma events per year anything really. Ive drawn a blank with most of this.

The exact question I have to answer is - how much is mma worth in the uk? and - how many mma enthusiasts are there in the uk?

Thanks for any help in advance!


----------



## Agentman (Jul 1, 2010)

I couldnt provide any statistics other than nto say that its much bigger than it was ten or fifteen years ago but despite its growth I would still consider it to be in its infancy in the UK.

From my personal experience very few people still know about, are fans of or really understand what MMA is. There is still a dismissive attitude and alot of the myths and stereotypes still persist. The sport is still struggling for legitimacy and is still something that with very few exceptions accross the nation seems to be practiced out of sweaty back rooms in gyms.

I think part of the problem is that the British have a very dogmatic attitude towards personal combat and martial arts. We are not a martial culture and seem to have an attitude that fighting or even learning to fight is somehow uncivilised and something we shouldnt do, ergo weve never really developed an interest in anything other than boxing on these shores and even that is considered to be an example of brutality rather than art, the pasttime of the ill educated working class. Other previously popular styles of fighting in the UK such as catch wrestling have long been dismissed, are rarely taught and viewed historically as either a brutal back street Victorian era bloodsport or the showy specticle of carney folk.

In Japan or Brazil combat is considered an art, In America it is something that is embraced in schools from a very young age but in the UK 'fighting' in all its forms still carries the stigma of being a 'bad thing' no matter where and how its practiced or by whom, that is unless its been neutered into some kind of harmless body exercise suitable for children and old people with no actual physical conflict.

Until we change our attitude towards the martial arts on a national level we will never produce great mixed martial artists and we are literally decades behind our closest competitors in this respect.


----------

