German Media brands MMA "Blood and Circus"

The UFC's expansion into Germany hit a snag when local politicians used the event as cheap fodder to drum up support for their reelection campaigns. 

UFC officials shrugged off the harsh rhetoric. After all, the sport has gone through the same thing in the United States. While there was no John McCain figure who came out to brand the sport "human cockfighting" local politicians did ban minors from attending the event. 

Now that UFC 99 has come and gone, how are the German media portraying the event? Not very well according to Sherdog,

Editors were texting headlines like "Blood and Circuses" (Berliner Morgenpost), "Cologne Cage Fight Pleases International Mob" (Die Welt) and "Bloodstain on the Canvas" (Süddeutsche Zeitung), and while the majority of coverage surrounding UFC 99 was rather negative, there were a couple of surprisingly well-researched articles written within the past 48 hours.

Many editors and reporters citing the bloody Stefan Struve fight as the norm, declaring that the fighters are Roman gladiators and the fans are a blood thirsty mob. 

It should be stated that not all press was bad as several publications actually did some research as oppose to repeating slogans as fact.  

Of course we know that these statements are the farthest thing from the truth besides being blatantly hypocritical. If anyone is familiar with European soccer then you know that important soccer matches often lead to riots (as pictured above). I am fairly confident that the MMA fans in attendance at UFC 99 did not go World Cup on us and torch the city in disgust. The German political and media opposition just illustrates the massive hurdles the UFC and MMA have to overcome every time it enters a new market. Maybe that international expansion that Dana White trumpets will be far more costly and take far longer than anyone anticipated.