UFC - Ultimate Front for Consumerism

I know it's been awhile since my last blog. I finally landed a part-time gig and so I've been a bit more busy as of late. Since I'm working now, this blog's title should really be something like Blog de Semi-Employment, but I don't want to change the URL and confuse all my readers, so the Blog de Unemployment it shall remain. In case you're wondering, I won't be blogging about my new job (good or bad) because I don't want the thought of them reading this to influence what I write and it's not that exciting anyway. On to more exciting things...

So the other weekend I had the pleasure of attending a UFC viewing party and seeing this "bloodsport" for the first time. I must admit I was a bit disappointed and even dismayed at how this once-illegal sport has become the hip new way to plug one's business and/or product. There were logos everywhere, even on the fighter's shorts. The next time I want to order condoms online, I know exactly where I'm going because this company's brand is indelibly etched in my mind after seeing it on every other fighter's ass: CondomDepot.com. One winning fighter even used his victory speech to proposition Donald Trump, who was sitting in the audience, to sponsor him because there was "plenty of room" left on his shorts. If he really wanted to make some dough, I thought, there was also a lot of virgin skin on which to put a nice, big Donald Trump tattoo.

I thought I was going to see a bloody, no-holds-barred battle to the (almost) death. Instead it seems that this sport has tamed its early "no rules" stance with a million and one rules (weight classes, timed rounds, etc.) that make the events more palatable (and profitable) for sponsors and pay-per-view stations. Surely this has made the sport safer and increasingly popular, but I would say also all the more bland and corporate. I was hoping for blood, guts and excitement and instead I came away with an unconscious yearning to drink Bud Light and buy a Harley-Davidson.