To any combat sports fan who hasn't been living on the moon, or has not been locked down with a paper bag over their heads, it is obvious that the world of organised combat that we know and love is changing.
Sometimes change within a sport comes from a place of subtlety, like for instance a rule change, like the one not allowing inactivity on the mat in Mixed Martial Arts. Or a three knock down rule in boxing. These types of tweaks to definitely change the sport, however the difference is not often noticed till some time later.
The kind of upheaval we have had in combat sports over the last few years, I think it's fair to say, have been seismic. Meaning they have shaken up the whole community and left us in a place whereby we are questioning if we are about to depart from the traditional paths that have been laid down for us.
At first the question was laughable, but now even the most hardcore combat sports fan has to at least give it some thought, and that question is: Has combat sports changed forever?"
Stage 1 - The May/Mac Transformation
It seems so long ago now, but in reality at the time of writing it was less than four and a half years ago in August of 2017 that Conor Macgregor of the UFC fought Floyd Mayweather one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in history.
For almost the entire build up to that fight most boxing fans laughed at the prospect of such a match up, Mayweather had fought forty nine professional boxers, some of them champions in their own right and he had arguably faced the best his division had to offer and he'd beaten them all.
Macgregor on the other hand had less professional fights, had lost a couple of times and of course, the big elephant in the room, he had fought in an entirely different discipline.
Dana White the president of the UFC originally poo-pooed the idea, stating there was no chance that he'd release Macgregor from his contractual obligations to the organisation.
However, possibly for the first time ever, we saw the true power of the fans. Of course fans have always had an influence in professional combat sports, the 'fight fans want to see' is an oft used statement in combat commentary. This though was different, this was fans of two different sports going at it on social media, each declaring their guy could beat the other, and going at it so ferociously, they literally willed this fight into existence.
Let's remember that nobody is trying to pretend this is the first time such a crossover has happened, the late great Muhammad Ali fought the hugely popular Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki in a bizarrely-ruled exhibition match, which did not work at all.
Then there was James Toney an absolute killer in the boxing ring, whose MMA debut went very poorly, as his opponent finished him in the first round by simply kicking him and then taking him down, the two things that Toney had never trained for.
Mayweather/Macgregor was different though, Macgregor had boxed as an amateur and was considered the best striker in the UFC at the time. He also had tremendous knockout power and finished most of his fights in the first round.
After the fight, once all the dust had settled everyone had to agree that it was a great spectacle and perhaps more importantly made money, thus giving a motivation for the powers-that-be, to make this sort of thing happen again.
Stage 2 - Rise Of The Youtubers
One year and one day after the May/Mac fight, Logan and Jake Paul fought KSI and Deji respectively, with Logan/KSI being the headliner and his brother Jake fighting KSI's brother Deji on the undercard.
The fights were pay-per-view generating a total of 1.3 million buys worldwide, via YouTube and the KSI vs Logan Paul official website. This included over 800,000 live purchases. Making Jake Paul and KSI the largest non-professional boxing card of all time.
All this is on top of the fact that they had a sold out 21,000 Manchester Arena (England) and made around $2.7 million in ticket sales. The estimated revenue for both KSI and Paul was $75 million each.
This means that both men made a purse similar to the one Mike Tyson got for fighting Evander Holyfield and wasn't that far behind what Macgregor got for fighting Mayweather a year previously. This is the professional equivalent of walking into Microsoft and being offered the CEO job, with stock options having only ever worked in PC World selling laptops as a shop sales assistant.
If like I was originally, you're sitting there thinking why-oh-why did two Youtubers I've never heard of make $75 million for boxing each other? It's because of their massive following, Logan Paul has around 20 million followers and KSI has a combined following of around 38 million.
These are staggering numbers, especially when you imagine that a lot of that following is unique, meaning that they don't follow both of them.
So Logan and KSI started a beef, whether it was real or manufactured I don't know and probably never will, but the upshot of it was this mega fight, and with that, boxing and indeed combat sports in general was changed forever.
Stage 3 - Jake The Pretender
After the roaring success of the Logan Paul/KSI fight, Paul's younger brother Jake decided that he liked boxing so much, that he would turn pro around 18 months later in December of 2019.
In January of 2020 Paul took on another Youtuber known as Gib, stopping him in the first two minutes of the first round. A lot of the boxing world were very disparaging of this first fight, however some others cut him some slack, citing the fact that even the greats have to start off fighting nobodies.
Even though Logan Paul now only fights exhibition matches, apparently with no-knockout clauses written into the contract. And Jake Paul has turned pro and trains like an actual boxer, even going as far as selling his mansion so that he can concentrate on boxing. It is Jake that gets given the tougher time by the boxing public.
The main criticism that has been levelled at Jake is that he is not even fighting boxers. He has fought a basketball player and a couple of retired MMA fighters and always picks smaller guys.
It is the fact that he is handpicking people he knows he can beat. Ben Askren was a UFC fighter who was known for his wrestling and being on the receiving end of the fastest UFC knockout in history, when Jorge Masvidal delivered a perfect flying knee to his face.
Even though Paul fought Tyron Woodley, a former UFC welterweight champ and someone with genuine knockout power. Unfortunately for those wanting to see Paul get knocked out, Woodley was gun shy and just didn't throw enough punches, which was arguably why he had lost at least three of his four most recent losses.
Next up for Jake is the brother of heavyweight king Tyson Fury, Tommy.
Tommy Fury has also just turned pro and is perhaps best known outside the world of boxing for appearing on Love Island. A show which, as far as I can work out, people vote for you because you're going to have sex on camera.
The difference with Fury and Paul is Fury has fought actual boxers and of course he is a Gypsy. Anyone who has ever spent time in the UK around Gipsies knows that they are fighters. If you are a Gypsy boy, it is unlikely you would have reached your fifth birthday without having had several fights.
The Paul/Fury fight has interest in it because love him or hate him, Paul has charisma, is very good at winding people up and is pretty funny. He has put a clause into their fight that if Fury wins, he'll get a half million dollar bonus, but if Paul wins, Fury has to legally change his name to Tommy Fumbles for a period of one year.
Come on, you've gotta admit, that's pretty funny.
Final Stage - The Triller Triads
Most people believe that if Jake Paul does lose to Fury in their upcoming bout, that it's all over for the Youtuber. That sentiment may be true, but I would argue that even if that were the case, Paul has still done his bit to change the sport.
On Saturday night Triller Promotions, the company behind all the aforementioned drama, held a unique event called the Triller Triad Combat, whereby a team of mixed martial artists fought a team of boxers. The rules of the event were such that fighters were allowed to grapple and punch from within the clinch, so-called 'dirty boxing'.
Add to that spinning back fists and Superman punches (though how you'd get an effective Superman punch in a ring, I don't know), a hybrid fingerless glove and a triangular ring and voila! You have a new hybrid sport.
And here's the thing, it wasn't terrible. The rule changes actually made it so that team MMA actually stood a chance, so much so, that they won! The score was 11-4 for MMA.
The stand out bout was the one between Platinum Mike Perry the ex UFC star and Michael Sears in an intense nine round war, with Perry coming out the split-decision winner.
Of course being Triller, the promotion that allowed Viktor Belfort to beat up on a 60-year-old Evander Holyfield, we still had a fight that shouldn't have happened.
Ex-UFC legend Frank Mir fought Kubrat Pulev in a horrible mismatch. Pulev's only two previous losses had come to world champions, Klitschco and Joshua, whereas Mir has had a string of losses and whose best days are considered at least a few years behind him. There was no way on Earth, a Ju-Jitsu fighter, albeit an accomplished one, was ever going to beat Pulev.
Mir took about three punches and the fight was over, even Pulev had to pull back and look at the referee as if to say; look, I can hit him again if you want, but come on I'm not trying to kill the guy.
But if we overlook that travesty of a fight, the format was good. It kind of took the best of the UFC's Ultimate Fighter series and boxing's The Contender and mashed them together under a new rule set, in one glorious night of organised violence.
I wasn't sure about the triangular ring at first, but you know what? It kind of worked, it reminded me that I was seeing something new, I was sailing in unchartered waters and I liked it. The fights were good quality apart from the last one, but as a new spectacle I think this will work.
Of course it will depend on how much they made on it, but even if the Triad event doesn't happen again, nobody can deny that combat sports now looks very different from what it did just five years ago.
Is it for the better? Only time will tell, but one thing's for sure, Jake Paul and Triller Promotions are here to stay.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? IS THIS AN EXCITING NEW ERA FOR COMBAT SPORTS? OR CAN'T YOU WAIT UNTIL THIS MADNESS IS ALL OVER?
AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
Cryptogee