MMA comes into its own with UFC Undisputed video games

You know you’ve made it when you’ve got your own video game, and boy has MMA made it.

Dubbed the fastest growing sport in the world, mixed martial arts has seen a popularity explosion like no other, amassing a huge following in only a few years.

Sports fans are some of the most rabid fans you’ll ever come across, and they’ll stop at nothing to experience every aspect of their beloved sport, especially ones that put them right in the midst of the action.

Sport video games offer that sort of involvement, and short of stepping into the octagon or ring themselves, video games are the closest that fans can get to experiencing MMA firsthand.

Video-game company THQ heard the call, and joined forces with the world’s largest MMA brand, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, to bring out last year’s UFC 2009 Undisputed, and this year’s UFC Undisputed 2010.

“Several years ago, the UFC had been shopping around the licence for a game,” Neven Dravinski, producer of the UFC Undisputed franchise, told the Straight by phone from Agoura Hills, California. “And it had gone through the possibility of making a game through several publishers and we ended up having a good rapport with them.”

With the licence secured, THQ went about creating a whole new gaming experience from the ground up, and the end result, UFC 2009 Undisputed, went on to be one of the surprise hits of the year.

And while the games themselves are influenced directly by the sport, the games have also proven their place in the grand scheme of MMA.

“I think the game has a very real tangible influence that you can see primarily from an educational standpoint,” Dravinski said. “I think that UFC is very aware that we’re a big part of their plans for global domination. You can see places where UFC may not have programming or a lot of influence and we’re able to penetrate with our global distribution, and we’re essentially educating people around the world about the brand and the sport.”

Dravinski noted one particular incident from earlier this year. “When I was doing the PR tour around Europe for the 2010 product, we had an event in Holland and a guy there who runs a local gym was at the event with his fighters and he said, ”˜Look, when my kids come in and want to learn, I tell them to go play the UFC game because it explains to you why you want to use an armbar.’ He’s even had kids come fresh into his classes and say, ”˜Oh yeah, I know what an armbar is, because I played the UFC game.’ And that sort of feedback is really encouraging.”

Dravinski doesn’t see the sport’s popularity slowing down anytime soon. In fact, he predicts that one day, mixed martial arts will be embraced around the world.

“I do think it will be an Olympic sport as it gets more popular,” he said. “You have all of these elements of the mixed martial arts, like wrestling, taekwondo, karate, et cetera, so it just makes sense that you can put MMA into that same category.”