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The End of Mixed Martial Arts?

In the past few years, mixed martial arts has enjoyed remarkable commercial success. Some fans imagine that its popularity is a result of its vast technical superiority over traditional martial arts styles. But neither MMA techniques nor training methods are particularly innovative; much of what you see in the competition ring was pioneered decades or even centuries ago.
　　在過去幾年裡，總合格鬥（MMA）在商業上獲得非凡的成功。有些粉絲認為ＭＭＡ的大眾化，乃是其超越傳統武術的優越技術之結果。然而，ＭＭＡ的技術和訓練方法並不是相當創新，許多你在在賽場上所見的，早在十幾年，甚至幾世紀之前就出現了。
The recent success of the MMA product is best explained with a sociological model, not a technical one; and this model predicts an inevitable fall from grace. MMA will decay, like every style before it, into a traditional martial art.
　　最近MMA商品的勝利最符合社會學模型的解釋，而非技術模型；並且該社會學模型預測了MMA的衰落。MMA將會像先前其他每個形式一樣，衰退為傳統武術。

MMA and the Product Lifecycle
MMA與商品的生命周期
MMA is more than a martial art, or combination of arts; it is a multi-million dollar industry. It is a product sold on pay-per-view television and in training halls across the United States and the world. And like any other object of commerce, it is subject to the product lifecycle.
　　MMA超乎武術或是藝術的結合體；MMA是數以百萬計的工業。MMA是付費電視的商品，也是橫跨全美甚至全球訓練館的商品。並且，就像其他商品一樣，MMA也順應著商品的生命周期。
　　

Credit: Nate Bailey
The lifecycle model defines the different stages that all products travel through on their journey from birth to death. These life stages are marked by shifts in market awareness, profitability, and competition; and most importantly, by a migration in the psychology of the consumer.
　　生命周期模型界定了所有商品由生到死的不同階段。這些生命階段可由市場知覺、獲利、競爭來標定，最重要的，由消費者心理轉變來界標定。

Philosophically speaking, today’s MMA is an expression of heterodoxy, a rejection of traditions gone stale. As such, this modern style has attracted many of the best and brightest fighters: men and women who, in an earlier age, might have practiced a purer form of Judo or Taekwondo. In the language of business, these people are known as innovators and early adopters.
　　哲學上來說，今天的MMA是種異端的表述，是對於過時傳統的拒斥。如此，這現代格鬥形式已經吸引許多最好、最亮眼的選手：受過純種柔道或是跆拳道訓練的年輕的男人或女人。以商業術語來說，這些人被視為改革者或是早期接受者。
The vanguard of every product adoption curve is composed of such consumers. Statistically, these individuals are younger, richer, and more risk-tolerant than the marketplace as a whole. They prove a product’s potential, escorting it from obscurity to commercial success.
　　每個商品適應曲線的開端都是由這些消費者組成。統計學來說，這些人比較年輕，比較富有，並且比一般市場更能容忍風險。

MMA: A Tradition in the Making

Entering the this stage of rapid product growth, competition floods the marketplace. Producers introduce variations on the product, to target the mainstream and low-end consumer, with the goal of maximizing income. After Pokemon, we got Digimon; similarly, the UFC concept has been extended to dozens of televised MMA competitions and reality shows.
　　當商品進入快速成長期，市場上就會氾濫著各種競爭。生產者為了將利益極大化，會瞄準主流和平價消費族群來改變商品。在「神奇寶貝」之後，我們有了「數碼寶貝」；相同地，UFC(ultimate fighting competition)的概念已經擴展到成打的MMA比賽以及實境秀。
As the novelty and quality associated with the art starts to fade, early adopters will be the first to abandon it. Transitioning out of the growth stage into maturity (market saturation), MMA will be directed by a very different psychology.
　　當ＭＭＡ的新奇性和品質開始褪色，早期接受者會是第一個放棄它的人。當由成長期進入成熟期（市場飽和），MMA將會由不同的心理學所引導。
Late adopters of any product are by definition conservative and risk-averse. They reject change, and embrace the familiar. These are the consumers of “traditional” martial arts products, and MMA producers will adapt to suit their tastes. To do anything less would be bad business.
　　任何商品的晚期接受者，在定義上，都是比較保守和厭惡風險。他們拒絕變化，並歡迎熟悉的事物。這些人是傳統武術「商品」的消費者，並且MMA生產者會適應去配合他們的品味。做得比人少會是筆壞生意。
So, industry marketing teams will re-discover the values of “discipline, respect and honor”—as profitable euphemisms for non-threatening social stability. Unpredictable elements of the authentic traditional practice, such as free sparring, will be de-emphasized. After-school “kiddie MMA” will rise to prominence.
　　因此，產業營銷隊將會重新發掘「紀律」、「尊重」、「榮譽」的價值，做為對於無威脅的社會穩定性之有益的雅語。真正傳統實踐的不可預測之因素，譬如說散手（free sparring），將會不受重視。兒童MMA將會愈來愈受到注目。
Big business will choke the vitality out of modern mixed martial art, but we should not shed a tear for its demise. This is the circle of life, and hasn’t every decrepit traditional art　we recognize today followed the same course?
　　大型商業活動會扼止現代綜合武術的活力，但是我們不應為其消亡流淚。這是生命周期，-而且我們今天所熟知的傳統技藝無不是遵循相同歷程嗎？
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資料來源：http://www.martialdevelopment.com/blog/the-end-of-mixed-martial-arts/