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I think this is one more interesting topics, outside of the actual fighting, in MMA. There's so many different sides of the story in the sponsorship market. And it's a bit of the Wild West because the sport is so new, it's growing so fast and there's not really a comparable model to replicate from.
The difference is that none of the apparel companies sponsoring fighters or events are even close to the blue chip level like Nike, Adidas, or Reebok. Everybody and their mom is trying to rub some nickles together to see if they can be the next TapOut. The market seems flooded and those companies just don't have the same kind of leverage. It will be interesting to see if the current model leads to securing apparel sponsors on this level or if it discourages them. Securing Bud Light and Harley Davidson shows, at least in my opinion, that they are making a lot of the right moves with event sponsorship.In a million years, you would never get away with this is other sports. I would like to see Nike, Adidas, or Reebok be told how and where they can spend their sponsorship dollars. It would never happen.
