Why are they not promoting Nunes like they did with Ronda?

[avenue94]

Also, there has to be a second fighter involved to push someone to that superstar status. Who is Nunes rival?

This part is where you would blame Rousey. No individual athlete is obligated to promote their fight really, especially one who had done as much as Rousey. But from a big picture view Rousey did Nunes dirty by doing no promotion for their fight and not elevating her rival at all. That's how you make stars, have them destroy an already established star, but Rousey and WME screwed the pooch there and buried Nunes promotionally.

 

[ryun253]

 

[NDiaz209]

I've never understood how they promote her. If I was in the UFC's PR dept she'd be the guest of honor at EVERY pride parade in America. She should be a gay icon. First LGBT world champ ever and the WMMA GOAT representing a loyal and vocal minority with a ton of expendable income. How do they screw that up?

I think they tried to promote the lgbt thing but it didn't catch on in the lgbt community.

 

[Mcnugget]

The mcamera don’t like her

 

[avenue94]

I think they tried to promote the lgbt thing but it didn't catch on in the lgbt community.

How did they do that?

 

[D 1 Wrestler]

I think you mean Anna Kournikova got more endorsements, Sharapova wasn't from the same generation as Hingis.

Yes her too and she wasn't even very good. Sharapova is good and got a lot more screen time than Hingis

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Nunes is well promoted by the UFC. Every card she fights on they do some little videos about her training, her family, etc. Every time UFC announcers talk about her, they gush about how awesome she is. The UFC maintains a FW division that is laughably bad mostly so she can be a two division champ. They put her in against can like Megan Anderson to help build the highlight reel. For TS to suggest she isn't well promoted is pretty ignorant. She's one of the UFC's most heavily promoted fighters.

As far as why she isn't as promoted as Ronda, there are two main answers, which overlap. It's mainly timing. Rousey was the first face of WMMA. I know to hardcore fans they think of Carano, or Modaferri and other pioneers, but the huge mass of MMA fans as well as the general public only knew Ronda. And her style was very exciting. She was ending fights pretty quickly and dramatically.

The idea that women could be these effective fighters kinda blew the mainstream media away, which is what gave birth to such stupidities as all the speculation of how she would do against Cain Velasquez or Floyd Mayweather. They were asking her this shit on the Today Show and places like that. So it wasn't just that the UFC promoted her so well as that the timing was perfect. The world was hungry for a chick who kicked ass. Once they saw the Rondamania effect, the UFC for sure got behind it with all their resources. It was crazy, and annoying, and without who knows where WMMA would be today, but for sure not as far along as it is.

Rousey also comes off as sociopathic, which seems to enhance fame for some reason. Look at Conor, Chael, and those types of people. Even O'Malley. All weirdly self-delusional, but undeniably charismatic. They produce a love/hate effect in people that pushes their stardom.

 

[blaccbeard]

fuck off you race baiting bitch. People who automatically defer to skin color as an excuse are usually the biggest racists and most mentally incapable people in the world.

lmao, found the butthurt racist Trumptard snowflake

 

[NDiaz209]

How did they do that?

Rogan always talking about it (at first, until he was beating a dead horse). He relationship with her wife was center stage on every UFC embedded. Interviews where they talk to her about it. They didn't put her in pride rallies, but that's going too far. That should be her decision.

 

[Iroh]

Nunes' skin isn't the white shade.

No. They are promoting Izzy a lot.

Also, she’s not American.

Yeah, guess that's why Conor never got that push right

 

[TheNinja]

I can solve this riddle for you TS, but first they definitely have promoted here. T-Mobile commercials, Rogan pumped her up, they've ran hype train promo stuff for her. So I disagree with the premise to begin with, even if it wasn't Ronda level. But:

1. She can barely speak english. People pretend like she can fluently speak it, no she can't lol. She got better but she's still not some fluent, smooth talker.

2. She is boring. In the cage? Amazing, exciting. Outside the cage? Relatively boring. No shit talk, no crazy antics, no promotion really at all from her end. No "character". Her character is being a mom now, a lesbian couple mom. Maybe that excites some woke people, but I don't think many super woke people watch MMA therefore what's the "hook" and appeal?

3. Not "classical" attractive. Not hot. This is me being polite. She's a butch lesbian, that's what she is. Not offense, I like her as a fighter but she's quite literally a masculine side woman. Some people can find her attractive, that's fine, but most don't. There's a reason why PVZ and even Ronda who is also more masculine but still more feminine than Nunes and did have some sexual vibes to her (jeans pic, nude photoshoot, likes men lol).

Those would be the main 3 reasons. I don't mean to offend in any of them, and those are all simply truths. It's like asking, why do they promote Colby Covington, Jorge Masvidal, and Nate Diaz (zero real titles combined, one interim) MORE than Jan Blachowicz or Petr Yan?

I wonder. Again, same reasons: 1. can't speak english; 2. Boring personality wise, humble, respectful mainly; 3. well...lol won't speak on this one.

To me that's the biggest one. She's pretty quiet outside the cage whereas Ronda was going on talk shows and saying stupid shit. She was doing photoshoots and TUF and talking about fighting men.

The other big thing was Ronda was the first really big woman star for the UFC and MMA. Sure you had Gina and Tate and Cyborg and a few in Japan but to many casuals MMA=UFC and Ronda was the first big woman for the UFC (no jokes about her weight please).

 

[TheNinja]

In the history of female sports only hot AND good ones get really famous. Sucks for them but that's how it works.

Mostly true but not entirely.

Martina Navratilova & Billie Jean King

 

[avenue94]

Rogan always talking about it (at first, until he was beating a dead horse). He relationship with her wife was center stage on every UFC embedded. Interviews where they talk to her about it. They didn't put her in pride rallies, but that's going too far. That should be her decision.

Yeah, that's just run of the mill promotion. You don't get credit for that, they do the same with every fighter ("Mr./Ms/ Facepuncher is fighting for their family, blah blah blah"). Notice how they put Rousey, not Nunes on the Ellen show back in the day.

And pride rallies wouldn't be going too far. The UFC shouldn't mandate them, but incentivize things like that. Hey, we'll cover transportation and per diem, and here's 5 grand for sitting on the float or showing up and waving or whatever. That kind of stuff goes a long way. The UFC is owned by a Hollywood talent agency, these kind of things are a no brainer.

No. They are promoting Izzy a lot.

It's just a basic fact that promoting black athletes is harder and they have narrower paths in combat sports. You can't separate race from marketability, it's just the way things are for now. Or to ground it in a concrete example, you'll notice that the UFC picked Michael Chandler for their Black History Month spot over black athletes like, ya know, Amanda Nunes.

To me that's the biggest one. She's pretty quiet outside the cage whereas Ronda was going on talk shows and saying stupid shit. She was doing photoshoots and TUF and talking about fighting men.

That's what media training and talent development is for. It's not a cure all but it goes a long way. How do you think it works in Hollywood, it's not like every movie star is born a media natural out of the gate. That's why agencies like WME would have A&R kind of departments.

 

[Iroh]

It's just a basic fact that promoting black athletes is harder and they have narrower paths in combat sports. You can't separate race from marketability, it's just the way things are for now. Or to ground it in a concrete example, you'll notice that the UFC picked Michael Chandler for their Black History Month spot over black athletes like, ya know, Amanda Nunes.

Wasn't Chandler like the only 1 out of like 4 or so fighters they promoted. And I don't see it in any way as objectionable. There are a lot of stigmas attached to raising a kid of a different color especially a white guy raising a black kid. Black month should be about positive interracial relations, and not just black and exlude everything else. So the Chandler choice makes all the sense to me, instead of 4 somewhat interchangeable stories.

Why is it harder do you think?

 

[No Skill Gap]

Yeah, that's just run of the mill promotion. You don't get credit for that, they do the same with every fighter ("Mr./Ms/ Facepuncher is fighting for their family, blah blah blah"). Notice how they put Rousey, not Nunes on the Ellen show back in the day.

And pride rallies wouldn't be going too far. The UFC shouldn't mandate them, but incentivize things like that. Hey, we'll cover transportation and per diem, and here's 5 grand for sitting on the float or showing up and waving or whatever. That kind of stuff goes a long way. The UFC is owned by a Hollywood talent agency, these kind of things are a no brainer.

It's just a basic fact that promoting black athletes is harder and they have narrower paths in combat sports. You can't separate race from marketability, it's just the way things are for now. Or to ground it in a concrete example, you'll notice that the UFC picked Michael Chandler for their Black History Month spot over black athletes like, ya know, Amanda Nunes.

That's what media training and talent development is for. It's not a cure all but it goes a long way. How do you think it works in Hollywood, it's not like every movie star is born a media natural out of the gate. That's why agencies like WME would have A&R kind of departments.

Wait, since when was Amanda Nunes black lmfao

 

[Rovert]

I've never understood how they promote her. If I was in the UFC's PR dept she'd be the guest of honor at EVERY pride parade in America. She should be a gay icon. First LGBT world champ ever and the WMMA GOAT representing a loyal and vocal minority with a ton of expendable income. How do they screw that up?

The blue hairs don't even know what an MMA is , and what's that anyway 1-5 % of the population , great target market LOL , they will just be rolling in the cash with such a huge audience

 

[avenue94]

There are a lot of stigmas attached to raising a kid of a different color especially a white guy raising a black kid. Black month should be about positive interracial relations, and not just black and exlude everything else.

"Hey, look at this white guy who really loves Jesus saved this black kid" is going to be uncomfortably close to white savior narratives for a lot of people. And yeah Black History Month is literally supposed to be about Black history. It's in the name. It's not that Chandler's story isn't inherently bad or underserving, but there are dozens of black UFC fighters more deserving of the spotlight there. Just think about how weird it is if you didn't follow the UFC and you turned on the TV and they are talking about Black History Monthand it's just this random white guy talking the entire time. Little weird, no?

Why is it harder do you think?

The UFC's target demographic is white, middle class America. They've consistently struggled to connect with less affluent and more minority markets stateside. And race has always been big in combat sports. The Great White Hope trope exists for a reason, and you even saw shades of it in May/Mac. In practical terms, black athletes tend to be held to a higher standard and are expected to fit either into a completely baby face role (Joe Louis or Jon Jones) or really lean into the heel role (Floyd). It's not entirely dissimilar from how you market other athletes but those roles tend to be much more rigid in combat sports for black athletes.

This has changed some for obvious reasons, but as an example, if a white athlete smoked pot or did coke everyone would be like oh, it was just for fun, it's no big deal. If it's a black athlete, there is more of a chance of that being seen in less flattering terms and it denigrating to stereotypes.

Wait, since when was Amanda Nunes black lmfao

The one drop rule is very much still a thing in American culture. It's a complicated issue, especially given the intersection of Latino and Black, but Amanda Nunes would be considered Black in the American market.
Her mom.

Her sisters.

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

It's just a basic fact that promoting black athletes is harder

This is not a fact. It's an opinion. And it's not my opinion that it is an opinion, it is a fact that it is not a fact.

 

[avenue94]

This is not a fact. It's an opinion. And it's not my opinion that it is an opinion, it is a fact that it is not a fact.

If you want to be exact sure, it's opinion. But there is a mountain of historical evidence pointing to white athletes being easier to market in America than Black athletes, who face peculiar challenges that white athletes don't face. Especially in combat sports. It is what it is, race has a role in marketing and how fighters and fights are sold.

To pick something super specific and relatively inconsequential, white athletes don't have to worry about their hair's natural texture from a PR perspective to the extent a black athlete might have to. All the little cultural and social issues add up.

 

[moreorless87]

I can solve this riddle for you TS, but first they definitely have promoted here. T-Mobile commercials, Rogan pumped her up, they've ran hype train promo stuff for her. So I disagree with the premise to begin with, even if it wasn't Ronda level. But:

1. She can barely speak english. People pretend like she can fluently speak it, no she can't lol. She got better but she's still not some fluent, smooth talker.

2. She is boring. In the cage? Amazing, exciting. Outside the cage? Relatively boring. No shit talk, no crazy antics, no promotion really at all from her end. No "character". Her character is being a mom now, a lesbian couple mom. Maybe that excites some woke people, but I don't think many super woke people watch MMA therefore what's the "hook" and appeal?

3. Not "classical" attractive. Not hot. This is me being polite. She's a butch lesbian, that's what she is. Not offense, I like her as a fighter but she's quite literally a masculine side woman. Some people can find her attractive, that's fine, but most don't. There's a reason why PVZ and even Ronda who is also more masculine but still more feminine than Nunes and did have some sexual vibes to her (jeans pic, nude photoshoot, likes men lol).

Those would be the main 3 reasons. I don't mean to offend in any of them, and those are all simply truths. It's like asking, why do they promote Colby Covington, Jorge Masvidal, and Nate Diaz (zero real titles combined, one interim) MORE than Jan Blachowicz or Petr Yan?

I wonder. Again, same reasons: 1. can't speak english; 2. Boring personality wise, humble, respectful mainly; 3. well...lol won't speak on this one.

She's also never really had a fued take off, Cyborg and Rousey were almost too easy and killed any pontential for hyped rematches whilst Val is in more or less the same situation in terms of not being able to build big interest herself.

Ironically I think the best thing that could happen to Nunes draw wise might actually be losing, especially if its to someone like Tate.