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I've caught a bit of heat over the last few days about my opinions on fights being poor-making decisions. Some of the fights I disagreed with were as follows:
Robbie Lawler vs Ben Askren
Kevin Lee vs Islam Makhachev
Yoel Romero vs Paulo Costa
...and a new one just popped to mind, and that is Israel Adesanya vs Anderson Silva.
The whole point I'm trying to make in most of these cases is that the whole point of any promotion, Matchroom Boxing, UFC, Bellator, WWE, TNA etc. is to put your product in position where it's easier to make your athletes into profitable entities.
In the Pro Wrestling world it's presumed that the promotion just creates stars out of thin air, but for anyone who has watched the product over the years, we know that isn't always the case. Do you think the WWE made Daniel Bryan into a star? I don't. They gave him a platform to perform, but his hard work and overall likability made him into a star, not the booking, not the politics, just him and his performance - this is much like the likes of Nick Diaz. Nick already has the ground work and the buy-in, so they should be shoving money down the guy's throat to try and make him a star, but because he's not industry made, they cut off their nose to spite their face and say no to millions of dollars just based off ego. Look at Roman Reigns. He has "the look", he's related to The Rock, he has been forced down viewers throats for years now, but is still booed out of arenas because people don't like him. He's not a heel either, he's not supposed to be booed, people just don't like him. That situation reminds me of Sage Northcutt, a handpicked guy who just had the package in the UFC's eyes, but it just never translated, nobody wanted to ride that train.
It makes no sense to do Israel vs Anderson unless you know Israel is going to win. The glory of promotion in general is that you're supposed to somewhat hide your intentions though, promo like this is so obvious that it's almost off putting. What are they hoping for here? They hope that Anderson fans will tune in begging for one more night of The Spider? Any intelligent person knows that Israel will probably dance around a 43 year old Anderson and take a decision here, and hey he may even knock him out if he dares to risk it all - but what happens if Anderson wins? You will absolutely bury a rising star, all for what? Poor matchmaking? Nobody wanted this fight, the fight is a shtick, a "dream matchup" because they are both lanky, black, creative strikers, no real super fight dream-match implications at all, it's a total fallacy.
The UFC need to start thinking long-term with these fights. I don't want squash matches, I don't want rising stars to get "an easy ride", but I want the right fights, stop risking their whole aura on bullshit "gimme fights in disguise" like this one for Israel.
Israel just beat Derek Brunson inside of a round by stylish KO, give the guy Jacare, Weidman, Romero - someone that gets him to a title shot next. The division is fairly shallow, he has gone from fighting Vettori to being pretty close to the top in light speed - and people are buying in, so just keep him going, don't step him back.
Thoughts? Do the UFC really know how to promote?
Robbie Lawler vs Ben Askren
Kevin Lee vs Islam Makhachev
Yoel Romero vs Paulo Costa
...and a new one just popped to mind, and that is Israel Adesanya vs Anderson Silva.
The whole point I'm trying to make in most of these cases is that the whole point of any promotion, Matchroom Boxing, UFC, Bellator, WWE, TNA etc. is to put your product in position where it's easier to make your athletes into profitable entities.
In the Pro Wrestling world it's presumed that the promotion just creates stars out of thin air, but for anyone who has watched the product over the years, we know that isn't always the case. Do you think the WWE made Daniel Bryan into a star? I don't. They gave him a platform to perform, but his hard work and overall likability made him into a star, not the booking, not the politics, just him and his performance - this is much like the likes of Nick Diaz. Nick already has the ground work and the buy-in, so they should be shoving money down the guy's throat to try and make him a star, but because he's not industry made, they cut off their nose to spite their face and say no to millions of dollars just based off ego. Look at Roman Reigns. He has "the look", he's related to The Rock, he has been forced down viewers throats for years now, but is still booed out of arenas because people don't like him. He's not a heel either, he's not supposed to be booed, people just don't like him. That situation reminds me of Sage Northcutt, a handpicked guy who just had the package in the UFC's eyes, but it just never translated, nobody wanted to ride that train.
It makes no sense to do Israel vs Anderson unless you know Israel is going to win. The glory of promotion in general is that you're supposed to somewhat hide your intentions though, promo like this is so obvious that it's almost off putting. What are they hoping for here? They hope that Anderson fans will tune in begging for one more night of The Spider? Any intelligent person knows that Israel will probably dance around a 43 year old Anderson and take a decision here, and hey he may even knock him out if he dares to risk it all - but what happens if Anderson wins? You will absolutely bury a rising star, all for what? Poor matchmaking? Nobody wanted this fight, the fight is a shtick, a "dream matchup" because they are both lanky, black, creative strikers, no real super fight dream-match implications at all, it's a total fallacy.
The UFC need to start thinking long-term with these fights. I don't want squash matches, I don't want rising stars to get "an easy ride", but I want the right fights, stop risking their whole aura on bullshit "gimme fights in disguise" like this one for Israel.
Israel just beat Derek Brunson inside of a round by stylish KO, give the guy Jacare, Weidman, Romero - someone that gets him to a title shot next. The division is fairly shallow, he has gone from fighting Vettori to being pretty close to the top in light speed - and people are buying in, so just keep him going, don't step him back.
Thoughts? Do the UFC really know how to promote?
