When I was growing up, the sports landscape in this country was quite different than the one we see today. Baseball was still America’s game, with mustachioed men in high socks leading the league with 23 home runs and “firemen” completing three-inning saves. The NFL juggernaut was still gaining momentum with a league full of tough guys who still had to take jobs in the off-season to make ends meet. The NHL was a cute little regional product played by Canadian kids with funny accents and funnier hair. The NBA was still showing their championship games on tape delay. The PGA hadn’t been “Tigerized” yet and people still watched tennis. But what I remember most from that time, and what many of today’s SportsCenter generation don’t realize or fully grasp, is the pomp and circumstance that still surrounded the “sweet science.”

This was long before the days where your only boxing fix came from a 2:00 a.m. featherweight bout on ESPN Deportes between two guys you’ve never heard of. In a time when great bouts were shown almost every week on free TV and not saved for the one halfway decent pay-per-view each year — boxing was the sport of kings.

At the same time boxing was still relevant, another “sport” began to gain mainstream momentum on the American culture. After “Thunderlips” tossed Rocky out of the ring in a clear homage to a classic fight between Gorilla Monsoon and Muhammad Ali, professional wrestling, still considered a sport at that time, was another weekly staple on televisions across the country.

Sadly, in the last decade, the popularity of both boxing and the more appropriately labeled “sports entertainment” brand of wrestling began to lose its place on the radar of many. While wrestling enjoyed an exceptionally prosperous decade in the 90’s, boxing was getting buried deeper and deeper into the sports section. That is, except for in the world of video games. Even today, boxing and wrestling franchises continue to be developed and score well with consumers. Perhaps it’s nostalgia. With the average gamer far closer to my 30-something age than the stereotypical pimple-faced basement-dweller that the mainstream media wants to attach to our hobby, maybe it’s the middle-aged guys who want to go back to their childhood favorites that are buying the games and keeping these franchises afloat.

While I still long for the days of Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler, Ricky Steamboat and The British Bulldogs, over the past few years I have become absolutely captivated by a sport that fills that void left by both boxing and wrestling — mixed martial arts.

MMA, or “Ultimate Fighting” as it is often mislabeled, combines the skill and discipline of classic combat sports like boxing, judo and Olympic wrestling, with the over-the-top personality and pageantry that would make Vince McMahon sit up and take notice. The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) has become a legitimate powerhouse in the sports industry over the past few years. Fighters like Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, Anderson “Spider” Silva and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson are becoming household names and the UFC brand can be found on everything from T-shirts to action figures. Pay-per-view buy rates are growing every month and the league has almost single-handedly turned Spike into a viable cable channel.

During the early days of the new millennium, the marketing machine behind the UFC tried to expand the brand with a series of ill-fated gaming titles on consoles like the Dreamcast and original PlayStation as well as all of the available handheld units of the time. But, back then, like the sports itself, they found only cult success and small following.

With the explosion of MMA and specifically the UFC, it was only a matter of time before the gaming industry stepped in. And, unlike before when only small development houses would try to replicate the action in the octagon, with the recent announcement of UFC 2009 Undisputed, the fight for boxing and wrestling fans’ affection is now being taken to our virtual world.

UFC 2009 Undisputed is being developed by Yuke’s Osaka and published by THQ — the same team that brings you the wildly successful WWE Smackdown series — and has instantly jumped to the top of many gamers’ and gaming publications’ lists of the most anticipated games of next year. The game will boast an impressive roster of over 80 of the UFC’s best and brightest as well as many of the personalities that have won over so many fans to the sport. And, while only a small amount of media has been shown at this time, with nearly a year of development time still ahead, UFC 2009 Undisputed may burn brighter than nearly any sports game next year.

Experts and fans can debate all day. Is MMA bigger than boxing? Is the UFC just human cock-fighting? Would the emergence of a great heavyweight return boxing to its former glory? Did pro wrestling die when the WWE got so big that it bought the competition?

As a sports gamer, there is no debate: There’s a place for all three. And despite the fact that the sports gaming genre has gotten away from this recently, when there is competition — the big winner is the gamer.