UFC Fight Night 139 in Denver provided some unmistakable proof that MMA has come a long way in the 25 years since UFC 1 hit the same city in 1993. So what have we learned? Retired UFC and WEC fighter Danny Downes joins MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes to discuss in this week’s Trading Shots.

* * * *

Fowlkes: Maybe you noticed something different about Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night 139 broadcast, Danny. The graphics, the music, the old school logo – all of it was intended to remind us that the 25th anniversary of UFC 1 is on Monday. And, man, what a ways we’ve come since then.

I recently went back and re-watched that first event. Not only is it always surprising to be reminded just how poor that first broadcast was, it’s also a shock to think about how much the actual fighting has changed in a quarter-century. Obviously, UFC 1 was a different beast. It selected not from the best of the best, necessarily, but from the craziest and the most reckless. Plus, it was very clearly designed to showcase the supremacy of the Gracie family and their jiu-jitsu.

But still, as I watched Yair Rodriguez inventing new techniques against Chan Sung Jung on Saturday night, I had to pause and appreciate the growth. It even made me wonder what the world of martial arts would look like today without the UFC (and other MMA organizations).

If this hadn’t become a sport that changed rapidly as it climbed out of the primordial ooze, would we still have a fractured combat sports landscape of strip mall karate studios and totally ineffective art forms and fake black belt wannabes touting their deadly skills? Did the last 25 years truly change martial arts forever?

nt"

Downes: That’s definitely true. The “Human Stun Guns” and strip mall McDojos still exist, but all of them tout a “mixed martial arts” program now. I remember being at Duke Roufus’s gym 14 years ago. Then it was a strictly Muay Thai/kickboxing gym. The popularity of MMA made it slowly add a jiu-jitsu program and then an MMA fight team. The rest, as they say, is history.

I would go further than saying MMA has changed martial arts. I’d say that it’s had an indelible impact on popular culture. Affliction jeans and movies like “Never Back Down” may not be the kind of contributions we’d like to remember, but they happened. Jason DeLucia never became a household name, but MMA has produced superstars like Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor.

There’s no doubt that a lot has changed from UFC 1 to UFC 230. The caliber of athlete and the level of skill don’t even compare. It’s not even even like comparing NBA players from 1993 to those of today. It’s more like comparing Bob Cousy to Steph Curry.

I do wonder, though, if the core of the sport is any different. The first UFC event was about spectacle. The modern UFC product may embody it in different ways (e.g CM Punk or the McGregor/Aldo world tour), but it’s essentially the same, isn’t it? Isn’t that part of the problem with the current malaise with fans? Where’s the added spectacle?

Fowlkes: That’s a fair point, but you have to take into account the changes in the audience and their expectations. What qualifies as a spectacle now is very different for today’s fans than it was for the weirdos who showed up to McNichols Sports Arena back in 1993.

Back then, just having an event like that qualified as spectacle. No one knew what to expect. Even the people involved didn’t seem entirely aware of what it would be like, as evidenced by the immediate confusion when the very first fight was stopped after a man got his teeth kicked out. We were so blown away by the lack of rules and the style-versus-style aspect that we didn’t even need to know any of the people involved in order to get excited. Those days are gone.

Now our spectacles revolve more around the specific personalities. You can only get so far by doing weird stuff with the rules or the fighting surface or the set-up (though bare-knuckle boxing suggests that you can still generate a little heat that way), and if you do the wrong weird stuff you have to face the backlash of a protective fan base that still fears the consequences of some unscrupulous promoter giving the sport a bad name.

Still, it’s true that maybe we kid ourselves at times about what this is. When the UFC tries to make it look like other mainstream sports, stuffing everyone in Reebok gear to “clean up” the look, we complain about the cookie-cutter homogeny of it. When it rolls out this regular weekly schedule, we get bored by the constant low-level hum of the machine.

We still need a hint of spectacle to get us interested, but the spectacle has to come from the people – not the idea. We’re used to the idea. We get it and like it, or so I’ve heard, largely based on the structure of our DNA or whatever. But pro fighting still needs to feel a little like a wild and strange and borderline out-of-control event. So where’s it supposed to go from here?

Downes: Maybe we get one of the Paul brothers to fight? I agree that the spectacle portion of MMA has become more about personalities than the contest itself. The rule set has become unified enough that there aren’t a lot of things to modify. Even in Japanese MMA, the circus that attracts us has to do with Gabi Garcia fighting an aging politician rather than the concept of an MMA fight.

There was a time when watching an MMA event on TV was a monthly occurrence. One of the biggest appeals of “The Ultimate Fighter” was that it allowed us to watch a single fight on a school night! Now it’s easier to watch cage fights than a “Law & Order” marathon. It’s like when we, as a culture, decided to put bacon on everything — the excess numbed our senses.

The early indications for the ESPN/UFC partnership look like we’re in for more of the same. It will help grow the sport further, but ubiquity and mainstream appeal are not synonymous. I suppose in some ways that’s a greater accomplishment than early fans could’ve hoped for. Then again, is it something we’ll celebrate? Or will we just shrug our shoulders and shuffle indifferently onward?

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie contributor who has also written for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on Twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.