Conspiracy theories aren’t limited to Presidential assassinations, alien visitation, and Michael Jackson’s death. Mixed Martial Arts may have its own power players looking four moves ahead on the big chessboard for a massive windfall, and I’m not talking about Affliction. Enough has been said about that. Mark Chalifoux and I team up to play Woodward and Bernstein with a bag of chicken bones to get to the bottom of the story. Don’t ask us who our Deep Throat was.

Issue #1 – Now that UFC 100 has come and gone, what’s the next big milestone for MMA?

Kelly-It would be easy to use the Zuffa’s numbering system and say UFC 200 is the next big milestone in MMA, but there are other events that will take the sport to the next level. Although New York sanctioning MMA, breaking into the Mexican market, and signing Fedor are all big goals for the UFC, I think establishing a sustained presence in Japan is the Holy Grail for White and company. But they have significant obstacles to overcome before that ever happens. First off, in Japan MMA is family entertainment, which is why they don’t approve the use of elbows and disdain cuts. The Jim Miller – Mac Danzig blood bath at UFC 100 that resembled a scene from The Shining would not go over well. For that matter the Octagon has a stigma attached to it from the early UFC days as being brutal, so the Japanese networks would almost certainly want Zuffa to abandon their trademark arena. Lastly, Japanese audiences love the freakshow fights that we’ve all come to regard as pure humor here in the States. Would Dana White and Joe Silva be willing to stage such superficial events like Hong Man Choi versus Jose Canseco, install a ring, and ban elbows? Sure. And Gary Busey has a shot at nailing UFC ring girl Arianny Celeste. Until that happens the plausibility of the UFC having a prolonged presence in Japan is as likely as Kojak doing a Head and Shoulders commercial.

Mark- That’s depressing. The big milestone is gaining a foothold in Japan but it will never happen? Thanks for the buzzkill. Why not just say the next big milestone for the UFC will be to hold the first MMA event on the moon? I think it’s clear, and has been for some time, that the next milestone for the UFC, and even bigger than UFC 100, is making the jump to network TV. That’s the biggest obstacle between the UFC and legitimacy right now. The mainstream media is acknowledging MMA more but not as much as they should. Having some prime-time specials on one of the major networks is the only thing that can bring the UFC to the next level. The fans will increase, the coverage will increase, and everyone will be happy. No casual sports fan is going to want to shell out 50 bucks to watch the Super Bowl or to watch the BCS title game. And soon enough, the casual fan should be able to watch at least a few big UFC events every year. The thing that distresses me about a TV deal: Dana White says it’s not a huge priority. It looks like the UFC is more focused on global expansion. If that’s the case, then Japan will be big for the UFC but I think they are taking the smart route and building up the rest of the globe first. There’s too much competition and the UFC would have to make too many...