Mike Florio please tell me the Steelers are re-signing Heath Miller!

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Dana White's claims that the UFC will be bigger than the NFL has caught the scorn of one Mike Florio, 

Though White claims he's not trying to come off as a promoter (fail) or a lunatic (semi-fail), few if any businesses reach their full potential with a captain who dabbles in such overt promotion and/or semi-lunacy.  The connection between the leader's oversized personality and the ultimate ceiling on the sport's growth might not be obvious or linear; but the reality is that a guy who would be so foolish as to publicly challenge Goliath to a slingshot-free cage match will, eventually, say, do, or fail to do something that will necessarily put a finite limit on the success of the endeavor.    

Before you flame Mike Florio for being old (he's got to be over forty) and out of touch (get these kids and their damn ultimate fighting off my lawn!) realize this, he is a former lawyer who has built the most succesful NFL blog in the United States. Besides having dozens, if not hundreds of league sources, Florio is routinely guests on sports talk radio for the inner workings of the NFL and his blog, ProFootballTalk.com, has become an official partner of NBC Sports. The rise of ProFootballTalk within the blogosphere and sports media is a truly remarkable phenomenon that many Internet writers aspire to. 

Let's parse some of Florio's arguments and points (for those looking for a witty comeback skip to the end).

Mike Florio's statements should give MMA fans insight into what the corporate world (a world dominated by older gentlemen and lawyers) expects as reasonable action from the head of a company. While we as MMA fans may enjoy White's bravado it doesn't endear him to the elderly oligarchs of corporate America. We could debate the need of such alliances to expediate growth and how White hinders or helps such growth, but for the moment let us accept Florio's rhetorical flourishes against White and move on to more substantive topics. 

Florio accurately points out the absurdity of Dana White's comments when compared to the big sports of the United States and the world. Soccer, or football for the international readers, is far and away the most popular and most lucrative sport in the world. When one compares soccer's status around the globe to the UFC's, soccer is not merely in another stratosphere it is in another Galaxy. Probably Andromeda. Case in point, the 80,000 fans who showed up to watch Cristiano Ronaldo try on a jersey or the $130 million (£80m, €93million) that Real Madrid paid Manchester United just for the option to negotiate with Ronaldo. Truly mind boggling numbers for the world of mixed martial arts, could the UFC even draw 80,000 fans to UFC 100? 

It is easy for Florio to make the same conclusions about the NFL and the UFC. Consider that the average NFL franchise is worth a billion dollars, which is the equivalent of the entire worth of the UFC. Now that is not including NFL television contracts and licensing agreements to Reebok or Electronic Arts. Once you consider those facts it is easy to see how a devout NFL follower would scoff at such a statement as ludicrous. 

Of course it should be noted that the modern conception of the NFL, signified with the NFL-AFL merger of 1970, is 39 years old and the sport itself is over a hundred years old. The modern era of mixed martial arts, signified by the "Unified Rules", is only nine years old and the sport is barely in its teens. Such growth and expansion is even more remarkable when you consider the fact that it wasn't until 2005 that the UFC started to make money.

However, the whole point of Florio's article was to bash the UFC for claiming to be pursuing international expansion more effectively than the NFL In this respect Florio significantly failed. He simply brushed off the UFC's international record without any examination or comparison. 

First let us look at the NFL's international record.

The NFL did launch a European league in 1991 but in 2007 the NFL decided a water-down version of its product was no good and folded the league (at least that is the NFL's version of events). Since the death of NFL Europa there has been a steady stream of international games, two in London and one in Mexico City. While this is the equivalent of the NFL putting their little toe in the shallow end of the international pool it demonstrates that they understand the need to expand the product overseas. 

Once comparing the NFL's international record to the UFC's any reasonable person would conclude that the UFC is expanding their foreign beach heads far more quickly and efficiently than the NFL especially considering that the NFL has a head start.

Since the Zuffa era began the UFC has held events in four countries outside the United States, three of which were outside of North America. International expansion for the UFC began in 2007 with UFC 70. In the past two years the UFC has held seven fight cards in the United Kingdom with an eighth scehduled to take place later this year. Far more than the single pre-season or regular season game put on by the NFL in London. The UFC has also held an event in Ireland, two in Canada (where they broke the North American MMA attendance record) and this year they held their first event in Germany. The UFC just signed television deals in China and Mexico and launched both Japanese and Korean language websites. 

Look up and down the UFC rosters and you see a plethora of foreign fighters who excite American, Canadian and international fans. Just look at the top four pound-for-pound fighters. Two are Brazilian, one is French-Canadian and the other is Russian. The appeal of the UFC and mixed martial arts is far more international than American football in part because of the presence and acceptance of many martial art forms throughout the world. The fact is that the world doesn't look at martial arts as Hollywood fodder for bad action movies (Bloodsport) or feel-good kid flicks (Karate Kid) as some, nay, many Americans do.

Finally Florio fails (no semi-fail here)  when he resorts to some old time homophobic attacks by saying, 

I watched it [UFC] once.  And one phrase kept coming to mind.

"Dude, get a room."    

Ah, the classic "No Homo" defense. Not sure if that is immiscible in court but whatever, he's the lawyer.