The Society for Creative Anachronism has been doing this since 1966. They have created whole new medieval kingdoms and societies through out the USA. They have kings, dukes, knights, courts and even wars between kingdoms. They strive to accurately recreate the best of medieval life while ignoring the worst. Sort of a cross between serious historical recreation research and Monty Python.

According to an article in Forbes, when MMA first started the belief was blood and guts was what attracted people to MMA over other sports such as boxing. Then the analysis of box office sales showed that what attracted people to MMA was the same reason as boxing, wrestling, etc. People want to see their favorite fighter win. This meant that if he was unable to fight due to injuries, his fans stopped watching until the was able to fight again. So stricter rules were imposed to minimize serious injuries.

BTW historians believe that 70% of gladiatorial fights ended with both sides walking out of the arena. They have found historical records of free Romans becoming gladiators under contract to fight for a certain number of years and then retiring with a big pay out. So gladiatorial fights were no where as deadly as Hollywood portrays since free Romans chose it as a profession.

Indeed, and gladiators had big fan followings, if the various portrayals in 'Age of Treason' and 'Spartacus' (TV series) are at all accurate historically. I believe the original author of 'Age of Treason' did make a big effort to be so.
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There may have been a difference in the way gladiators were treated before the Spartacus Rebellion ('Third Servile war') in 71 BC and after. But what I'm reading about Gladiators in Wikipedia seem to confirm this, big money was tied up in ownership of gladiators and they had substantial followings, both individually and in respect of their gladiatorial training houses.It all sounds a lot like Premier league football to-day, not to mention what MMA aspires to.
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The adoption of Christianity put an end to it all, of course, so it's a test of the fidelity of a nation as to whether they will revive it or not. I suspect that restoration and the consequent race to the bottom is inevitable with to-day's jaded tastes, saturated as they are by choice. You can imagine what television would do with it. Who will be first?

Oddly enough, they only sell Budweiser. Must be because it's their sponsor.

Unfortunately such mistakes are becoming all too common in TE articles about America. They seem to have hired a new bunch of inexperienced Brits to write about America.

They DID jack up the prices - this was already the most expensive UFC event in history, even before the secondary market got in on the act.