Why Culture Is Driving Combat Sports Success
HBO’s recent series Winning Time chronicled the rise of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers, a team built through a combination of talent and a unique template that included embracing Black culture, Hollywood and celebrity. This turned around not only a team but an entire sports league: The NBA had been struggling with low ratings.
As Sopan Deb wrote in the New York Times, “Eighties basketball, particularly the Lakers, had a cultural and political poignancy that has influenced the game and the world at large ever since.” If you go to any basketball arena today, there are exclusive clubs with top chefs at the helm and boldfaced names courtside. Most importantly, these venues feel built for the Black players on the court and the Black fans in the venues. The Lakers were perhaps the largest early case study to prove that diversity and inclusion were big business drivers.
Recent high-profile moves by the Professional Fighters League (PFL), All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and an upstart league, Karate Combat, appear to be countering the UFC’s cultural norms by leaning broadly into diversity, culture and hip-hop.
Wiz Khalifa is one notable celebrity integrated into the MMA world as a prominent investor in the Professional Fighters League, an MMA league with a more traditional sports format of seasons. In addition to being an investor, Khalifa also wrote and performed a song, “Million Dollar Moment,” for the PFL at its 2021 Championship event. The event featured Claressa Shields, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and professional boxer. The PFL has a $500 million dollar valuation, with A-Rod among the participating investors, while its viewership has grown to over 160 countries worldwide via some of the world’s biggest platforms, including ESPN in the United States. PFL is currently the No. 2 global MMA promotion behind the UFC.
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In late 2020, the AEW signed breakout wrestler Jade Cargill. Cargill is a former high school and college basketball player who quickly rose to Champion and holds a 36-0 record. Her character is built around her real lifestyle, and her social media features images familiar to fans of modern sports and hip-hop culture. On a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho, Cargill said, “The difference for me that people don’t understand is that in real life, I’m rich, like I am. I don’t want to say it like that, but I mean, in plain terms, I’m rich. I don’t need to do this. I do this because I enjoy it.” In 2021, AEW’s flagship program Dynamite was the No. 1 overall in cable shows for four weeks running, and Cargill’s content over-performs for the promotion versus other wrestlers.
In a similar vein of signings and synergies, Karate Combat is a combat sports league withfull-contact karate and video game-like CGI.Karate Combat recently signed ex-Bellator kickboxing champion Raymond Daniels and the Miami-based fighter Brynnen McIver. McIver was set for his Karate Combat debut on August 27, but he was injured and will be making his debut at a later date. Cult-acting figure Danny Trejo — himself a former boxer — has worked with the promotion since 2019.
Karate Combat has rapidly emerged, along with the PFL, as leading challengers pummeling after the UFC’s market share. With viewing figures increasing by over 100 percent between last year’s third season and this year’s fourth season, the organization became Facebook’s 33rd-largest U.S. sports video content creator.
In each of these three examples, embracing culture has helped combat sports organizations like the PFL, AEW and Karate Combat rise as relevant challenger brands to the UFC and WWE. They have also proven that supporting culture and talent can drive business successes and growth. Diversity and inclusion accelerate growth for combat sports.
