On Sunday, the UFC is asking customers to part with $49.95 for a fight featuring Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino against a fighter named “who?”.
You may think I’m being a condescending jerk by saying that, but if you toggle over to the UFC’s event page right now you will find the company doesn’t even have a photo for Cyborg’s opponent (her name is Yana Kunitskaya, for the record)
Even UFC president Dana White, the man who is supposed to be selling this fight, clearly had no idea who this woman was when announcing the fight on Fox Sports.
When you look up and down Sunday’s UFC 222 card, which is set to take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, there are a few interesting fights.
The aforementioned championship headliner should be fun for as long as it lasts, and Frankie Edgar will fight Brian Ortega for the right to face streaking Hawaiian champion Max Holloway later this year.
Is it worth the near $50 price tag, though? That’s for you to decide but I’m willing to bet for most the answer will be a resounding no.
This isn’t the first less-than-staller pay-per-view offering served up by the world’s most prominent fight promotion either.
Just three weeks earlier (yes, three) the UFC put its event from Perth behind a paywall, and early estimates suggest it sold a paltry 130,00 units.
If you were to mash both of those pay-per-view offerings together into a super card, it would look a little something like this:
UFC women’s featherweight championship bout: Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino vs. Yana Kunitskaya
UFC interim middleweight championship bout: Yoel Romero vs. Luke Rockhold
Featherweight bout: Frankie Edgar vs. Brian Ortega
Heavyweight bout: Mark Hunt vs. Curtis Blaydes
Heavyweight bout: Tai Tuivasa vs. Cyril Asker
Now that’s a fight card that would catch the fan’s attention. But with the present-day model of events, a less is more approach is no longer viable.
The Nevada-based promotion has promised a bunch of fights to pay-per-view outlets and television networks. If that weren’t enough, UFC also needs to create content for its own digital streaming service so fans can continue to justify the $9.99 charge to their credit card each month.
Under this model, each fight card feels less compelling than the one that came before it and public interest appears to be at it’s lowest point in well over a decade.
Plain-and-simple, combat sports is a star-driven industry and right now the UFC has none.
Ronda Rousey just threw a bloke through a table on a WWE event so that rules her out. Jon Jones is still facing a possible four-year suspension after a third run-in with the drug police, Georges St. Pierre has ‘retired’ again, the Diaz brothers have shown no interest in returning, and Conor McGregor is playing hardball at the negotiation table.
With the box office attractions out of the picture, the new matchmaking team, consisting of Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard, is attempting to put together champion-versus-champion fights in hopes of selling anything above the basement level of units.
Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic will defend his title against light heavyweight kingpin Daniel Cormier in July, and there is a persistent rumour that 135-pound titlist TJ Dillashaw will next challenge pound-for-pound and flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson.
Both of those fights are outstanding but neither is likely to convince more than a few hundred thousand to open up their pocketbook.
At this stage, the company must be praying for McGregor to strap on a pair of gloves at least twice in 2018, or else this year will, by any metric, be considered a disaster.
James Bakker
Roar Rookie
I really wish they just made this a free fox sports show with edgar v t-city as the headliner, that wouldv'e been a great show, we wouldnt have to shell out 60 bucks and would be rewarded for our fight pass subscriptions. I've heard that even if a PPV does badly they still usually make more than fox sports shows but I wish they focussed a bit more on quality over quantity with their PPVs like back in the day. I also feel as though the Reebok deal is a hindrance on creating stars as everyone just looks the same. like that episode of the simpsons where they get school uniforms.
shirtpants
Roar Guru
Khabib has publicly spoken about his lack of marketing, particularly Russian MMA in general. Taking an event there in September is a step forward. Mackenzie Dern is the next big athlete they'll push; but she is highly credible. Can't wait to see her this weekend. Yeah CM Punk is another joker, trying to pull in the WWE fans.
Kavvy
Guest
I feel like Cody, Khabib and Max are reasonably well marketed but it could be that I am actively seeking content more than an average fan too. Certainly some of the time spent on promoting Sage and Paige and to a lesser extent Ngannou (though I'm on the fence on this for the reasons others mentioned) could have been better used. The rumours of CM Punk getting another fight in UFC - having never gone back to at least fight and win in a regional promotion after how badly Gall (who is far from the elite just yet himself) beat him - is absolute damning for the integrity of the promotion.
Jeff
Guest
I'm a pretty hard core fan and with the quantity and quality of fighters I think there is a big misuse of talent by the UFC going on and they could be much more lucrative and exciting. There could be awesome fights between top contenders and title fights happening all the time. Make the fighters fight based on rankings, fight minimums per year and no ducking other fighters. Making weight would be a priority by giving incentive to next in line fighters to be ready so if a fighter doesn't make weight the fighter that missed weight goes down a spot from their ranking and the next in line takes their spot. Get rid of the Reebok deal and let fighters have their own sponsors, that way the fighters can still make a decent living and the UFC is making money because there's a lot more fights going on, it's a win win.
shirtpants
Roar Guru
I'm not saying it was silly to market him; he had enough in his back story as well as his fists to be marketable but they need long term stars. You want to maximise investments. Another loss and Ngannou is well down the pecking order. He's not a technically good fighter and he wont ever be champion. The back half of the year looks good; Nate Diaz, McGregor, Velasquez, Khabib, Lesnar, Holloway should (here's hoping for the UFC bank balances) all return. Jones could, however unlikely return too. The hardest part is booking a PPV card and having it ravaged by injuries and failed drug tests. It's so hard to find a top quality fighter last minute.
Justin Faux
Expert
I like your comment Andy, and that's all true but unfortunately, this is a business first and foremost and networks just aren't willing to pay top dollar for most prize fights. Jeff Horn would be a much bigger star if his fights were on free-to-air, especially the local fights if they aired in primetime. But Horn is one of the only local fighters that can drive pay-per-view revenue in Australia, so all of his fights will be behind a paywall for the foreseeable future.
Justin Faux
Expert
I'm with Jerry on this one. In fight sports, you have to strike while the iron is hot and that iron was red hot.
Jerry
Guest
I can see the logic in booking Ngannou while he's hot. Heavyweight is such a minefield (cause everyone has knockout power and a lot of them have poor striking defence) that he could easily be knocked out in his next fight and they don't get any proper payday out of him. Plus it's not like there was any other outstanding candidate.
Andy og
Guest
I honestly believe that pay per view is a curse on sports and has been especially harsh on the combat sports .I grew up in a time when we were pulled out of our class rooms sitting in the corridor watching "the greatest" do his thing. His profile was immense and you had a bunch of working class white boys wanting to be the champ. It probably led to a couple of black eyes but the point is we were able to connect to what were working class heroes. We've lost that connection now to the pay wall. Fighters are portrayed as brain dead thugs with little opportunity to reply. Jeff Horn should be a national hero, millions of us should have seen that fight and that boys standing in the community would be profound like Lionel or Fammo. But that opportunity is lost to the wants of the greedy promoters. Bring back free to air title fights, let our boys be heroes again. Most fighters are respectful, dedicated, family oriented and perfect Rosie models. We just need to see them
shirtpants
Roar Guru
You're right which is why their marketing of particular fighters is so important. Where I think they go wrong is not marketing enough people. Stipe is a classic example. Putting all the heavyweight marketing into Ngannou was short sighted. He was never beating Miocic, and all it ended up showing was just how far from the top he actually is. Not a future champ at all IMO. Could do a lot more with Holloway, Garbrandt, Riviera, Gaethje, Khabib... And god damn I'll be annoyed if Lesnar comes back. What an absolute joke.
Justin Faux
Expert
The UFC doesn't have a problem with putting on good fights. The UFC has a problem with putting together fights that fans are willing to pay for in droves.
Kavvy
Guest
They seem to have one good card per every 3 PPV's now days. UFC217 and UFC220 were great, UFC223 looks well worth buying and UFC 226 will be massive, the ones in between are/have been rubbish. There have been fight night cards recently that are better than this week's PPV. Edgar v Ortega will be interesting but that is it.