There have certainly been some glorious times in recent months for all of us involved and interested in the vast world of mixed martial arts.
 
Being closest to an organization like the Maximum Fighting Championship, I have seen the progress and rise in profile of the MFC to becoming one of the elite promotions in North America with nothing but room to grow. It obviously was a great 2008 for the MFC, while such former notables like Elite XC and the IFL racked up staggering amounts of debt and ultimately folded under the carnage their management had created. And of course, it was another banner year for the biggest show in the world - the UFC.
 
But while the pay-per-view numbers soar, the ratings on cable grow, and the payouts get bigger and bigger, the sport of mixed martial arts seems to have some amount of crisis to deal with - that being the sudden cause for concern for the mental and physical well-being of its fighters. I’m not talking about the guy who gets his nose broken or gets choked out. There have been several - in fact, far too many - cases in recent months where fighters have gone astray, be it through their own fault or through the fault of others and the results have been horrific.
 
Case in point. Quentin Jackson. He loses a very close decision for his title but worse than the defeat is the aftermath when he plows his 4x4 through traffic and takes police on a wild chase. It’s discovered afterwards that he is fatigued, mentally unstable, and practically starved … basically a ticking time bomb.
 
Case in point. While always a free spirit, Evan Tanner pretty much surmises his own death by writing a blog to the effect that the desert travel he is about to embark on could be a fateful trip. Tanner dies alone in the wild. Bizarre doesn’t begin to describe it.
 
Case in point. Justin Levens. Struggling financially and suffering through a suspension for drug use and depression caused by the death of a friend - fellow fighter Jeremy Williams - Levens and his wife are found dead of an apparent murder-suicide.
 
Case in point. Justin Eilers. A family squabble on Christmas Day results in the heavyweight being shot in the chest by his stepfather, a former deputy sheriff. Bickering started out between Eilers and his ex-girlfriend and in the end, an eight-year-old boy is left without his father.
 
Case in point. Josh Neer. Instead of pulling over and facing the music, an allegedly drunk Neer eludes police on a high-speed chase and causes a hit-and-run accident before ultimately being arrested and thrown in jail. Quite the New Year’s Day.
 
Are we looking at merely a blip on the radar, a seemingly unattached string of events that unfolded in a short time period that highlight dreadful actions? Every professional sport goes through these stretches. For a while it seemed like every other day one NFLer or another would get locked up for everything from carrying a concealed weapon to heinously stuffing a dead body into the trunk of his car. There are periods that hit the NBA hard as well - brawls in the stands, shots going off in nightclubs, and drug arrests. The NHL goes into a rut with acts of violence on the ice to current and former players getting arrested for drunk driving.
 
So there are those blips everywhere from time to time.
 
But could this outbreak of sinister events in MMA be just the tip of the iceberg? The Levens case could be an argument gone wrong or it could be the result of deeper issues such as the dementia, brain damage and loss of control exhibited in such horrifying fashion as the Chris Benoit murder-suicide case of two years ago. As someone who was close to that incident, I can say that it was alarming and frightening to learn greater details of that case as time went on and it is not without reasonable expectations to assume that such a tragedy could happen again.
 
For Jackson, perhaps it was merely a crazy set of circumstances, but maybe someone close to him should have been keeping a better eye on him in the days leading up to and certainly following that fight. Posses and entourages are great but they should do more than just look the role on the walk to the ring. Maybe someone in those groups should actually give a hoot about their man and actually take some sort of care of him.
 
As for Neer, well, that can probably be chalked up to just plain stupidity. Eilers - probably a clear-cut case of anger and guns being a deadly combination. And Tanner, maybe again, a case of someone close to him should have taken on some responsibility but then again, perhaps he was too far gone by his own accord.
 
No one will have all the right answers all the time. But the MMA world should take note of what’s happening in and around it. This isn’t the sport that it was 5-10 years ago - something buried under the rug that few knew about. It has hit the mainstream in a big way and is now definitely seeing some mainstream issues arise.
 
The first thing that will happen if things don’t get corrected (or at least monitored in a better way) is that all the mainstream attention from advertisers, media, sponsors, and fans will dry up leaving MMA with its head just above water and in severe risk of drowning (for evidence, see boxing). The other thing that will happen is that the current crop of younger, faster, and better fighters will never be replaced. There won’t be a new crop of sensations making names for themselves in the next five years if the sport of MMA can’t keep a level of dirt from leaving an unforgiving stain.
 
WHAT LIES AHEAD: There is a good bet that the MFC’s next card - MFC 20 on Feb. 20 - will be stacked thanks to a rematch for the welterweight title between champion Pat Healy and challenger Ryan Ford. The arrival of Bryan Baker, Solomon Hutcherson and Rory Singer also give the MFC some hope to ignite its once-proud middleweight division. But could there be even more on the table? It is still in the discussion stages but Paul Daley, who made such a splash at MFC 19 by destroying John Alessio and handing the veteran his first-career knockout loss, could be making a triumphant return to fight in his second straight featured superfight. If Daley does return and Healy makes it two in a row over Ford, that could set up a Daley-Healy showdown and a rematch of their own fight from 2005 which Healy won by second-round submission.