The Return of the Open-Weight Tournament
Jake Rossen Feb 18, 2010
If your knowledge of MMA fails to pre-date 2005, you might be
struck by the absolutely guttural and sleaze-infested nature of
events in the mid-1990s. When John Wayne Bobbit is a celebrity in
attendance of note, things are clearly not about to enter their
boom period.
Still, there was a primal kind of appeal in fighters with limited skills jumping -- and then sometimes crawling -- out of the ring, devoid of any concerns over size or aptitude. Periodically, a promoter who has grown tired of having a savings account will mount an effort to duplicate that environment: Rio Heroes, a bare-knuckle event streamed from Brazil, was a highlight. Now there’s the Optimus Fighting Championships, a UK venture that will attempt to match 16 fighters in an open-weight elimination tournament this April 18. (Minimum scale tip is 185 lbs.) The bracket will unspool over several shows.
Is this stupid? Of course it’s stupid -- not only because you’re appealing for nostalgia in an audience that wasn’t all that big to begin with, but because Optimus doesn’t even have the courage of its convictions. If you’re going to retard the evolution of combat sports, at least go whole-hog and do a single-night tournament. Diluting it goes nowhere.
1990s MMA is no more. Better to accept it and move on, particularly if you plan on upsetting Hasbro in the process.
Still, there was a primal kind of appeal in fighters with limited skills jumping -- and then sometimes crawling -- out of the ring, devoid of any concerns over size or aptitude. Periodically, a promoter who has grown tired of having a savings account will mount an effort to duplicate that environment: Rio Heroes, a bare-knuckle event streamed from Brazil, was a highlight. Now there’s the Optimus Fighting Championships, a UK venture that will attempt to match 16 fighters in an open-weight elimination tournament this April 18. (Minimum scale tip is 185 lbs.) The bracket will unspool over several shows.
Is this stupid? Of course it’s stupid -- not only because you’re appealing for nostalgia in an audience that wasn’t all that big to begin with, but because Optimus doesn’t even have the courage of its convictions. If you’re going to retard the evolution of combat sports, at least go whole-hog and do a single-night tournament. Diluting it goes nowhere.
1990s MMA is no more. Better to accept it and move on, particularly if you plan on upsetting Hasbro in the process.
