I am about to make a bold statement right now that will likely get me in me more hot water than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s “cheek-to-cheek” performance at the funeral of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez this week (if you have no idea what I am talking about, go on TMZ.com). So here it goes: I am utterly confident the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) will surpass boxing and may even usurp established national icons, such as baseball and football in the foreseeable future based on MMA’s staggering growth predictions alone. At a bare minimum, MMA will steamroll over figure-skating and cardboard tube dueling (Yes, this is a real sport: http://www.tubeduel.com/) by 2014.
MMA is projected to grow into a multi-billion dollar industry within a few years and is considered the fastest growing sport in the world. To give you an idea of its growth potential, MMA recently went mainstream when the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) organization “officially” evolved from the lunatic fringe of the sports world to a Fox TV rights deal, reportedly worth $100 million annually for seven years¹. The growth of MMA is commendable, and its established rules and regulations have shattered the idiosyncratic and anachronistic notions of a certain senator who once compared the sport to “human cockfighting.”
I’ll never forget when I witnessed Brazilian Royce Gracie use his unprecedented jiu-jitsu skills to famously decimate fighter after fighter who weren’t schooled in grappling and submission fighting in the early 90’s. Gracie fought against often much larger opponents who were practicing established martial arts including boxing, kung-fu, karate, judo and tae kwon do. He unequivocally demonstrated to the world of combat sports that it was indeed possible to beat opponents who were much larger, stronger and muscular than the average person. It was then and there I realized the importance of constantly evolving to be the best in any given arena.
Until that point, my adulation of the “Ultimate Fighter” consisted of one Ralph Macchio painstakingly deploying endless hours of wax-on, wax-off on Mr. Miyagi’s 1950 canary yellow Chevy convertible. Don’t get me wrong, Daniel-San’s flawless execution of that infamous Crane kick on Johnny’s poor head at that cinematic finale still sends shivers down my spine. But here’s the cold hard truth; Had Ralph Macchio used that flash-dance inspired crane kick on Royce Gracie back at UFC 1, he would have had the silly headband he wore on his forehead, instead wrapped around his neck and used to choke him out.
In the end, the true appeal of MMA comes down to its forceful evolution of prior one-dimensional martial arts into a multi-faceted, multi-disciplined combat sport that constantly demands its athletes equally evolve or be left in the dirt like a discarded Karate Kid 3 VHS tape. There is a reason why the elite fighters in MMA are considered the crème-de-la-crème of athletes in the world bar-none. I am vehement in my conviction that you won’t find a better specimen that embodies the rare blend of unrivaled athleticism, strength, agility, intellect and uncanny propensity for formulating and executing intricate game plans like you would in MMA.
The same comparison can be made for the ever-evolving, ever-changing and ever-converging world of technology. High-tech companies offering goods and services that are deemed a one-trick pony and fail to stay competitive, will also find themselves in the same category as B-movie actors like Jean-Claude-Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren with their straight-to –DVD films (with the exception of the Expendables 2 which deserved an academy award). Emulex is the MMA athlete of the tech world for the simple reason that our hardware and software solutions push the envelope for innovation, scalability and performance. Just ask our competitors (who won’t be named). Continue reading…
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