Why is this a big deal you ask? Pornography in this country rakes in over $12 billion dollars a year.The 25th Annual AVN Awards Show is taking place tonight, January 12, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Just two weeks ago I was sitting down in this same venue preparing for the trilogy of St-Pierre vs. Hughes and the long-awaited Liddell vs. Silva slugfest. It’s only fitting that the biggest MMA show of 2007 and the 25th installment of the AVN’s will take place in the same arena just two short weeks apart. The same aisle that saw Chuck Liddell walk out to his trademark DMX entrance song on New Year’s Eve weekend will be the same aisle that Amy Reid will look to take home the title of “Best Female Starlet of the Year” later tonight.
The AVN Awards Show are achievement-based awards dedicated to recognizing the best products and most talented individuals that have contributed to the advancement of the adult entertainment industry. AVN Award recipients are determined by a vote of qualified industry peers and fellow professionals. The integrity of this process, together with a broad-based voting population, makes the AVN Awards the most credible, respected, and recognized awards in the adult entertainment industry. The AVN’s are commonly referred to as the “Oscars” of porn as some of these categories are analogous to industry awards offered in other film and video genres, while other AVN awards are specific to pornographic film and video.
Now with that being said, the reason for this feature isn’t as simple as promoting tonight’s event, but also to discuss the parallels that pornography and mixed martial arts run, as well as the support that the porn world has lent to the meteoric rise of MMA in recent years. To put it simply, MMA and porn kind of go together like hamburgers and french fries in this country, and most others. Not solely due to the obvious huge male fan bases, but they have a huge crossover with the actual fighters and starlets themselves, especially here in Las Vegas. OTM’s resident fight guru Brittney Skye is a well-known adult film star and an AVN Awards Show winner herself. She’s also one of TapouT’s featured spokesmodels and a diehard MMA fan. Seeing Brittney at a MMA event is just as common as seeing Anderson Silva tee off on an opponent. She’s been a regular attendee and supporter at major MMA shows for years, which includes the UFC, IFL, K-1, EliteXC, and both PRIDE shows in Las Vegas. Her support of MMA doesn’t stop at just the fact that she’s a fan and promo model either.
Many other people have been influenced by Brittney’s devotion to the sport as well. Tracy Lee, owner of NapkinNights.com and CombatLifestyle.com, began regularly covering MMA events and fight after-parties once Brittney introduced her to the sport. Tracy can now be seen all over the country, giving extensive media coverage and exposure of MMA to her hip, young audience, while she’s at the actual events and always at the ensuing after-parties. Jenna Jameson ended up meeting her current boyfriend and business partner Tito Ortiz, while attending a UFC event with Brittney’s encouragement. Jenna Jameson and Tito Ortiz now exemplify the MMA-Porn connection perfectly. Meanwhile, Brittney’s other close porn star friends, such as Nadia Styles, Lanny Barby, Shyla Stylez, Gina Lynn, and Teagan Presley, are all now avid fight fans and advocates of MMA as well.
Why is this a big deal you ask? Pornography in this country rakes in over $12 billion dollars a year. To put that into perspective, porn revenue is larger than the revenues of all professional football, baseball, and basketball franchises combined. It’s also double what the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC equal. If you consider the fact that the vast majority of porn and MMA consumers are men, this exposure, through these girls’ devoted efforts means nothing but good things for the growth of MMA, as it’ll surely lure some of that $12 billion into the other industry that their coveted starlets love, MMA. So this weekend, as it’s done in early January every year, the who’s who of the porn industry and many other industries, such as MMA, will descend upon the Las Vegas Strip and put the “sin” in Sin City, as they honor the 25th anniversary of the AVN Awards Show, which honor the porn industry’s best and brightest talent in nearly 100 categories.
Check out the OTM Forums to discuss the AVN Awards Show and read some of the funny related stories from Joe Rogan, Scotty 2 Hotty, and others: http://www.onthemat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4311