Brent Brookhouse: Matt Hughes was one of many who claimed that Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier’s brawl was “bad for the sport.”
So, I pose the question to you, Bloody Elbow staffers. Is the brawl actually “bad for the sport?”
I submit that the idea is fairly ridiculous as there is no measurable way for it to be “bad.”
Interest in the fight is at an all-time high, I have no doubt that the brawl will lead to increased PPV buys, so it certainly wasn’t bad for business. Boxing has proven this a million times over.
No one of any importance is claiming that the sport should be banned because of the incident. The fighters will be fined bu it’s not as though the bout won’t happen.
And we can probably stop acting like there’s a large portion of the population for whom the jury is still out on the sport. It has been high profile enough and available in enough formats (especially with MMA having been on network TV for many years at this point) that I really doubt it’s going to change too many hearts and minds.
So, speaking only in terms of a one-off situation (obviously a brawl a month would be a real issue), is there any case that this is actually measurably bad for MMA?
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