So here we are. The Monday after the week before. Exactly seven days since the annual New Year’s Eve MMA extravaganza in Japan and only nine days on (although it already feels much longer) from North America’s attempt to recreate their own version. Whether you’re the kind of socialite who tries to catch UFC shows at your friend’s house or the type of sociopath who mirthlessly downloads every example of men fighting which makes it way onto the internet - surely everyone has struggled to keep pace with the relentless speed with which the sport is moving.

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What’s more is that these crazy few days are merely a microcosm for the year that went before it, and not just in the ring. It is a rarely a weekend that goes past now where we do not have a card featuring high-profile fighters to look forward to. As 2007 ended we find ourselves watching as numerous companies desperately strive to get noticed on the MMA landscape. UFC, M-1, Elite XC, HDNet Fights, The IFL, BodogFight and Strikeforce all have big shows planned for the near future and this is just in North America.

In the East, K-1 continue to promote grand events and now we see what looks like the re-incarnation of Pride rising from the ashes in the form of Sengoku. Also it’s not as if Shooto, Pancrase, DEEP, GCM and the others went anywhere. Just because they garner little attention in the English speaking media does not mean they are without merit. For example, 2007’s lightweight and welterweight ‘Cage Force’ tournaments provided some of the sport’s highlight moments of the past twelve months, with England’s Dan Hardy and Yoshiyuki Yoshida specifically making a name for themselves.

Inside the ring, 2007 produced a number of stories. Quinton Jackson arrived in the US and made his presence felt by first defeating Chuck Liddell for the light heavyweight title and then successfully defending it against Dan Henderson in one of the fights of the year. Nick Diaz shocked the world by submitting the world’s number one lightweight, Takanori Gomi, with a gogoplata (just imagine typing that sentence at the end of last year). Matt Lindland moved up two weight classes to face the most dominant force in MMA today in the form of number one pound-for-pound fighter, Emelianenko Fedor. JZ Calvancati steamrolled his way through a field of top K-1 lightweights to be crowned Hero’s champion for the second consecutive year. The UFC returned to the UK with an event that saw Gabriel Gonzaga reduce 15,000 fight fans to an awed silence as he knocked out Mirko ’Cro Cop’ Filipovic with a thunderous high kick.

Outisde of the ring, the UFC acquired it’s main worldwide competitor with their purchase of Pride FC. Pro Elite began bring companies from around the world under one promotional umbrella, one of which - Cage Rage - secured a television contract with Sky Sports to broadcast their events in the UK. Fedor kept the world guessing as to where his next fight would be taking place, until eventually it was revealed he would fight a seven foot tall Korean rapper in a bout which would be televised live by Mark Cuban’s high-definition network in the United States.

Again, I could go on listing news stories left and right but the point of all this is not merely to list everything that has happened in recent history, but merely to point out the magnitude of events and news stories occurring in such a dense time frame. If the earlier-mentioned sociopaths who try to keep up with everything they can are struggling then what hope do the once-a-moth PPV viewers possibly have?

They can turn to the television to try and keep up. If they do then they will be greeted with ‘Inside MMA’. This is an enjoyable show but not one without flaws, specifically the unavailability of UFC footage and also the apparent unwillingness to discuss event that take place outside of their own continent (apart from those which air on the same channel).

Failing that, they can divert their attention to the print media. Daily newspapers appear to be realising that people want to read about combat sports but often their coverage (specifically in the UK) turn into nothing more than UFC fluff pieces which may just as well have been written by Thomas Gerbasi. Magazines try their best and there are some very good products out there, such as Fighters Only and Gracie Magazine. The problem remains that the frenetic pace at which stories develop in MMA mean that monthly publishing deadlines wreak havoc and despite the best efforts of the editors, you would sometimes find yourself reading about major events four-to-five weeks after they occurred if you purely relied on the newsstand for coverage.

So to the internet, everybody’s favourite. Well there’s no doubt that everything is reported in some way or another. The problem is that unless you subscibe to twenty-three different RSS feeds and have the time to check them every couple of hours then before you know it you’re swamped with over a hundred stories and the temptation is all too great to close the browser and live in blissful ignorance.

Sites such as ‘MMA Weekly’, Sherdog and Zach Arnold’s ‘Fight Opinion’ do sterling work in their breaking of news items but where is the analysis? What about the real-life ramifications of the words they are typing? The rest of the internet is polluted by various blogspot addresses fighting over themselves to break the scoop about the fifth and final prelim on an upcoming Fight Night card with no thought for the bigger picture.

This, we hope, is where the new Total-MMA.com comes into play. In the two and a bit years since we published our first newsletter, we have become associated with providing hard-hitting insight and analysis.

The aim now, and in many ways the next evolution of the project, is to provide this service in daily format. Henceforth, you will find a new article on the site every single day. The difference being that we are looking to provide something that we don’t see being done elsewhere.

We are looking to both document and analyse the history of the sport as it happens. We wish to provide a snapshot in time so that people can look back on our work in two year’s time and really get a feel for what the mood was on any given day. In addition to this, in an effort to keep with tradition, every two weeks we will collate the articles and publish them in our traditional newsletter format which can be stored privately by yourself. Come this time next year you will have 24 publications containing over 350 features (as well as additional pieces such as fighter interviews) and complete documentation of the year that was.

I’m probably not doing as good a job of explaining what we are as I have done of explaining what we will not be, but all we ask for is that you give us a chance. We aim to make this the only site that any fan need check to keep abreast of the key issues affecting MMA worldwide on any given day. It’s not going to happen overnight and there will be a growing period as the writers get used to the format, but we have complete faith in what we are undertaking and those who have chosen to be part of it. We hope that you find us a valuable companion to your MMA viewing and have as much enjoyment from reading and discussing our views as we do publishing them.

See you tomorrow.

Total MMA

Also in the news on 7th January 2008:

- Matt Serra confirms he will defend his UFC welterweight title against Georges St. Pierre, in Montreal, in April 2008.

- Paul Daley announces his opponent for the ShoXC card to take place on Friday 25th January 2008 and screened on Showtime in the US. He will face Sam Morgan, formerly a contestant on The Ultimate Fighter who is also coming off a recent loss to Cung Le. Eddie Alvarez, formerly of BodogFight, will compete against Hawaiian Ross Ebanez in the main event of the show.

- Dave Meltzer claims that Bob Meyrowitz, one of the original co-owners of the UFC, has an interest in starting a new mixed martial arts promotion in partnership with events organisers Live Nation.

- ProElite.com (who, if anyone, should really have the scoop) report that Tank Abbott will fight Kevin ‘Kimbo Slice’ Ferguson on February 16th. James Thompson will fight Antonio Silva at the same event.

- Rumours persist that current ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ contestant Tito Ortiz’s next bout will be against rising star Lyoto Machida, possibly to take place in May 2008.

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