The challenge before the fight: a discussion on rapid weight loss in UFC Athletes (El desafío antes de la pelea: una discusión sobre la pérdida de peso rápida en los atletas de UFC)

This study analyzed some cases of rapid weight loss procedures in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and athletes linked to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), currently the largest promoter of the sport. Therefore, printed sources were used, such as specialized magazines or not; documentaries, television programs, interviews, articles on websites; documentary sources, regulations and protocols. It was noted that the rapid weight loss represents overconformity deviances, which are part of a code of conduct valued by athletes, but sometimes become problematic. The cases listed here obtained relative repercussions in the media and resulted in acute damage to the athletes, financial and marketing damage to the event promoter. There was also a certain malpractice among athletes and teams, event organizers, and the North-American Athletic Commissions to try to prevent extreme procedures for rapid weight loss from occurring more often by putting athletes at risk, causing damage to the event itself. Resumen: El presente estudio analizó algunos casos de procedimientos de pérdida de peso rápida en atletas de Artes Marciales Mixtas (MMA) vinculados al Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), actualmente el principal impulsor de este deporte. Por tanto, se utilizaron fuentes impresas, como revistas especializadas o no; documentales, programas de televisión, entrevistas, artículos en sitios web; fuentes documentales, normativas y protocolos. Se observó que la pérdida rápida de peso se configura como una desviación supraconformativa que forma parte de un código de conducta valorado por los deportistas, pero que en ocasiones se vuelve problemático. Los casos aquí enumerados obtuvieron relativa repercusión mediática y resultaron en daños agudos y crónicos a la integridad física de los atletas, pérdidas económicas y de mercado para el promotor de los eventos. Se observó que existía un cierto descuido entre los atletas y equipos, organizadores de eventos y comisiones atléticas norteamericanas para tratar de evitar que los procedimientos extremos para la pérdida rápida de peso ocurran con mayor frecuencia, poniendo en riesgo a los atletas y causando daños al evento en sí.

O espetáculo das artes marciais. O que estamos comprando?

O Canal Combate apresentando-se como o maior veiculador de conteúdo voltado às artes marciais no Brasil, se consolida como o grande representante midiático do público interessado pela temática. Assim, os conceitos gerados e a visão proferida sobre as artes marciais, influencia diretamente a visão de seus espectadores e consumidores. O objetivo do presente estudo é analisar a grade de programação semanal do Canal Combate e traçar inferências em relação ao real escopo do mesmo. O estudo analisou sua grade de programação compreendida entre o dia 20/07/2020 e 26/07/2020. Os resultados demonstraram que 34% do conteúdo veiculado pelo canal destina-se a lutas do Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), seguido de 19% de anúncios publicitários. O canal combate caracterizou-se como um promotor de lutas de Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), em grande parte relacionadas à empresa UFC, que possui em seu cerne o espetáculo para fins de consumo.

Are the Lowest-Paid UFC Fighters Really Overpaid? A Comment on Gift (2019)

In a recent article in this Journal, Gift (2019) attempts to measure the marginal revenue product (MRP) of individual Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters. According to Gift’s estimates, top-tier UFC Fighters are frequently and substantially underpaid relative to their MRP while “a sizable percentage of UFC fighters generated little to no MRP,” and are consequently “overpaid by traditional measures.” In this Comment, we examine possible explanations for this finding, including various limitations of Gift’s data and methods. We also examine the underlying economics of the sport, in which quasi-fixed broadcast revenue streams, ignored in Gift's MRP estimates, play a large and increasingly dominant role. As Berri et al. (2015 ) have emphasized, comparisons of athlete compensation and standard MRP metrics (even if estimated correctly) are “meaningless” in the presence of substantial quasi-fixed revenues. Critically, Gift assumes zero MRP for all fighters in all bouts in all non-Pay-Per-View (PPV) events. As a result, Gift's method assumes fighters are “overpaid” for the vast majority (75 percent) of fighter-bouts. Even setting this aside, we argue that Gift's use of Google Trends data—at best an extremely crude proxy for a fighter's contribution to PPV revenue—suffers from measurement error, producing attenuation bias. As a consequence, Gift's data and methods are likely to substantially underestimate UFC fighters’ economic value.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 229: Orientalism vs. Occidentalism

Khabib Nurmagomedov versus Conor McGregor Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 229 battle was among the most controversial mixed martial art fights of the past decade. In this study, the author examined how the various popular media outlets from the Eastern and Western world portrayed Khabib Nurmagomedov after UFC 229. The author used Huntington’s (1993) clash of civilization thesis by grounding it in the Orientalism and Occidentalism paradigms to examine the phenomenon. Fairclough’s (1989, 1995) model for critical discourse analysis was employed to investigate the various Western and Eastern popular press and digital media platforms (i.e., newspapers, blogs, and sporting news websites). The author analyzed 57 (Western n = 38, Eastern n = 19) media reports per the inclusion criteria. The study results unveiled conflicting predispositions present in the Western and Eastern media for Khabib Nurmagomedov. This study contributes to the limited knowledge about how a Muslim man athlete with diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds is seen contrarily in the Western and Eastern media. The author discusses the theoretical implications of the study.

Sport rebranding: the effect of different degrees of sport logo redesign on brand attitude and purchase intention

PurposeDespite its growth, there has been a lack of investigation on how sport rebranding influences fans and their behaviors. This study sought to examine how a critical aspect of rebranding – logo redesign – influences fans' attitudes toward a sport brand and intent to purchase merchandise bearing the rebranded logo. More specifically, we aim to investigate the influence of varying degrees of logo change and fan identification in relation to brand attitude and purchase intention.Design/methodology/approachAn experimental design, 4 (degrees of logo change) × 2 (fan identification: low, high), was utilized with the sample of 277 participants. The current logo of the Ultimate Fighting Championship was redesigned into three fictitious rebranded logos as stimuli based on different rebranding types.FindingsThe results suggest that color change and revolutionary change generate the most negative attitudes from both high- and low-identified fans, and fan identification is not a significant factor influencing fan attitudes. Regarding purchase intention, low-identified fans are not significantly influenced by logo changes whereas highly identified fans showed similar response to their attitudes.Originality/valueThe findings advance the current body of knowledge on sport rebranding and fan behavior by demonstrating the effects of varying degrees of logo redesign and fan identification levels on brand attitude and purchase intention. Moreover, the current research has important implications for sport marketers on developing effective rebranding and logo redesign strategies.

A Lot of People Did Not Want This to Happen

Using three highly visible promotional videos from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), we perform a critical examination of the UFC’s branding during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first is a recorded endorsement from President Donald Trump, the second introduces the origin of an international pay-per-view series called “Fight Island” and the third is an end of year retrospective of the UFC’s performance in 2020. Employing content analysis grounded in brand psychology and narrative persuasion, we deconstruct the visual communication and story-based elements within this advertising to reveal how the company has adopted an identity of heroic dominance and defiance. This persona is built from a cognitively biased and framed suggestive notion which the UFC uses to market themselves as the lone organization fearless enough to “conquer” COVID-19 through the continuation of live events and overcoming obstacles posed by government regulation and media criticism. Ultimately, we find three dominant narratives actively established from this identity and heavily employed in their subsequent branded content: “Sport Must Go On,” “Unstoppable Force,” and “World Gone Crazy.” We conclude by arguing that the UFC’s branding reifies the tenuous social and political position the young sport occupies by marketing the combat sports company as different than other mainstream sport leagues, through repeated celebration of the Dana White (President of the UFC) as a heroic figure, by their disavowal of caution in the face of a pandemic, and in portrayal of the mainstream media as a jealous enemy.

AUTOAPRESENTAÇÃO CORPORAL DE LUTADORAS DE ARTES MARCIAIS MISTAS (MMA) NO INSTAGRAM

Objetivamos analisar a autoapresentação corporal de lutadoras de MMA no Instagram. Foram analisadas imagens postadas por lutadoras campeãs do Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), considerando a representação midiática da imagem da mulher atleta, a objetificação e a hipersexualização de seus corpos. Para tal, utilizamos um esquema de codificação com categorias para análise de imagens baseado nos estudos de Goffman. Evidenciamos que, em geral, as imagens analisadas não apresentam a tendência, persistente na cobertura da mídia esportiva, de sexualização do corpo das mulheres atletas. As imagens que remetem a essa representação foram observadas nos contextos específicos que envolvem a organização UFC – a marca do UFC aparece com frequência nas imagens postadas por todas as lutadoras. Não evidenciamos representação baseada em normas e expectativas convencionais de comportamento de gênero; as imagens analisadas mostram uma feminilidade plural.

Media Portrayals of Athlete-Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence: An Examination of the Social Ecological Model, Race, and Communication Perceptions

This study examined how participants responded to incidents of athlete-perpetrated intimate partner violence in two separate contexts: one featuring an athlete from a league that is at peak popularity among sports audiences (National Football League; NFL) and one featuring an athlete from an up-and-coming league that currently has a lower standing in professional sports (Ultimate Fighting Championship League; UFC). The authors used the social ecological model to qualitatively analyze participant perceptions about athlete-perpetrated intimate partner violence composite news packages. For the purpose of this study specifically, they centered on 1,124 responses to one of the open-ended qualitative questions asked in a larger quantitative experiment. The authors found that the participants most frequently attributed the perpetrator’s behavior to either individual or relationship-level reasons and that there were differences in the level attributed for participants of different races and ethnicities. They also determined that the participants were more likely to ascribe the violence to the suspect’s job (i.e., athlete) if they were a UFC fighter than an NFL player. Theoretical extensions of the social ecological model and practical implications for journalists, the media, and fans are offered.