The World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts is on the verge of signing a recognized company as its first major sponsor in a deal that will build additional credibility for the start-up sanctioning body.
WAMMA is in late-stage discussions with the undisclosed company for a sponsorship that will, among other marketing tie-ins, brand the organization's championship belts with the company name.
"It's a feel-good sponsor; it's a sponsor that's not going to be able to be criticized by anyone," said WAMMA Chief Operating Officer Mike Lynch in an interview with MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). "We're 99 percent there. It is something that's going to go a long way to forming up our credibility – not only in the sport but with corporate America."
The company is not part of the MMA industry and likely has no current agreements in place with promotions in the sport. Collaborating with WAMMA affords a sponsor the opportunity to test the MMA marketing waters with a largely independent organization, though WAMMA has partnerships in place with Affliction, M-1 and Adrenaline MMA.
"This strategic partnership will go a long way to help convince people that WAMMA is going to be here to stay," added Lynch, who expects to have the deal done within the next few weeks. "This will show that WAMMA is viewed by fans and by corporate America as a credible, legit sanctioning body that is here for the long term."
Long-term viability of MMA's first sanctioning body was something many fans and many in the MMA industry were skeptical of when the organization launched in November 2007. Critics were plentiful. A sanctioning body smacked of boxing and, without UFC buy-in, how could WAMMA find a meaningful foothold in the sport?
However, nearly 18 months later, WAMMA has made significant strides, including its close partnership with Affliction, the crowning of two WAMMA champions and inclusion of its rankings on ESPN.com's "MMA Live." (Disclosure: Four MMAjunkie.com staffers are members of WAMMA's Men's Ranking Committee.)
"We've really done a lot in the short time we've been around," Lynch said. "However, we have many more goals we're pushing towards. We'd like to form more partnerships with promotions. We'd like to gain greater industry acceptance, and we'd like to educate the public and the fighters about what WAMMA's true intentions are."
While striking a connection to the UFC would take WAMMA to another level, it's not happening anytime soon. WAMMA has had a single meeting with the promotion, which was more than a year ago. The UFC passed on the opportunity to support WAMMA. So far, the sanctioning body hasn't needed Zuffa in its corner to survive, though it does make recognizing a complete set of champions impossible. Currently, Fedor Emelianenko at heavyweight and Shinya Aoki at 155 pounds are the only two WAMMA titleholders.
If Affliction were to go dark, WAMMA would lose its highest-profile promotional partner, but even that is a development that the unendingly optimistic Lynch feels WAMMA can weather.
"How big of a loss would it be?" he pondered. "WAMMA would miss them as a cooperative partner. That being said, I think with other groups coming out … we have some important meetings coming up with some of the other dominant organizations. I think there are enough other strategic partners we could find, from Strikeforce, from Bellator (Fighting Championships), from Monte Cox's organization – all those organizations, I think, are going to be around for the long term. If Affliction was to no longer promote shows, it would be a loss but not anything we could not overcome."
WAMMA covets a closer working relationship with Strikeforce, which would give the organization additional exposure and the chance to crown a WAMMA women's champion. However, no agreement is in place to make that a reality.
In the meantime, WAMMA, which launched with the backing of angel investors, is focused on nailing down the aforementioned sponsorship. Privately held WAMMA has gone through a second round of funding, but with the anticipated sponsor revenue in place, Lynch said a third round of financing would not be necessary.
"You're going to see us do a lot in the next year," he said. "I'm happy with our progress to date, but there's a lot left to get done."
Sponsors say little in wake of White tirade – Sponsors know what they are getting when signing up with UFC President Dana White.
They get the most-recognized personality in mixed martial arts, who is generally credited with bringing the sport back from the abyss with his leadership of the UFC earlier this decade. Corporate backers of the UFC also get an immense dose of White's trademark bravado and dialogue that often skews more drunken sailor than sports-league executive.
If he's anything, White is a known commodity. However, even UFC sponsors who do business with eyes wide open had to cringe following White's very public diatribe last week directed at Sherdog.com reporter Loretta Hunt.
In a more than three-minute profanity-fest captured on his video blog, White took shots at Hunt and, along the way, used derogatory terms found offensive by the mentally challenged and homosexuals.
It was White unplugged like never before, and the comments could not have sat well with the UFC's corporate sponsors in Milwaukee and St. Louis. This wasn't White just blowing off steam. This was White going after an individual in a prolonged, abusive verbal attack seldom seen publicly in sports – and never from a person in a role similar to White's.
MMAjunkie.com contacted the UFC's two flagship sponsors, Harley-Davidson and Anheuser-Busch, seeking reaction to White's remarks. Neither company provided a statement. Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson did not return calls, while an AB media-relations representative said the St. Louis brewer was "not commenting" on the matter.
An Internet report indicated that Anheuser-Busch did respond directly to inquires from fans and called White's comments "inappropriate, insensitive and out of line."
It remains to be seen how much harm was inflicted to UFC's sponsor relationships because of White's vocal assault. But, the UFC removing the blog entry from its YouTube channel, followed by an uncharacteristic apology from White, are clear indications that the UFC shifted into damage-control mode and took the controversy seriously.
White's comments are a vivid reminder to companies considering a sponsorship with the UFC that with the promotion they get the good, bad and, on occasion, the very ugly.
