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

[First Day UFC Intern]

She's been fighting MMA longer than most people realize, since '08, and hasnt gained much attention from fans of the sport. Thats not a good thing.
I doubt it is because she is foreign, her english is good enough, is it her style? It seems the UFC has a champion who has an extremely fan-favorite fighting style, more so than Ronda and Barber, but not the "sweetheart" looks they had with the past champions.

i dont think its about personality either, Ronda sounded like a 6th grader who was determined to show the world she could do what she wanted.
Eric Cartman-ish, if you will. Why do people latch on to a bitch but can’t get on board with a wholesome woman like Nunes? Not calling Ronda a bitch but her persona was that of a bitch.

The UFC is supposed to be the ones doing the promotion. The whole thing is so unfairly balanced against the fighter. Bad money, bad contracts, forced to wear Reebok/Venom and then you are supposed to act like a total dickhed like Colby Covington
or an absolut pos like Conor if you want to get paid properly.
Its totally unfair to expect the fighters to do the main share of promotion when they get paid so poorly.

Nunes' skin isn't the white shade.

Nunes isn't that feminine to appeal to the broader population.

And she isn't exactly charismatic too.

I may get criticized for this but a problem with Shevchenko is that she's quite boring too personality wise.

Every time you do media work or interview - you need to show who you are - to present a story that can get audience / MMA fans hooked into beyond your accomplishment inside the octagon.

Here I would like to applaud Chimaev for his octagon performance pairs with his media persona (I mean before COVID stunted his hype trajectory a little).

Female fighters in my opinion are too peaceful, and lacked bravado - that can make people riled up behind you.

There are reason why people like Jones or DJ to does not necessarily have solid fanbase among people who you would like to refer as casual like Conor and Khabib.

I mean you don't need to watch MMA to know about Conor or Khabib. Their aura penetrated headline and generating millions views rather easily. You can like or hate either one of them - but they are must read story - because you care about narrative surrounding their lives - beyond their status as combat sport figures.

 

[Starman]

She's been fighting MMA longer than most people realize, since '08, and hasnt gained much attention from fans of the sport. Thats not a good thing.
I doubt it is because she is foreign, her english is good enough, is it her style? It seems the UFC has a champion who has an extremely fan-favorite fighting style, more so than Ronda and Barber, but not the "sweetheart" looks they had with the past champions.

i dont think its about personality either, Ronda sounded like a 6th grader who was determined to show the world she could do what she wanted.
Eric Cartman-ish, if you will. Why do people latch on to a bitch but can’t get on board with a wholesome woman like Nunes? Not calling Ronda a bitch but her persona was that of a bitch.

The UFC is supposed to be the ones doing the promotion. The whole thing is so unfairly balanced against the fighter. Bad money, bad contracts, forced to wear Reebok/Venom and then you are supposed to act like a total dickhed like Colby Covington
or an absolut pos like Conor if you want to get paid properly.
Its totally unfair to expect the fighters to do the main share of promotion when they get paid so poorly.

Because she’s ugly.

 

[TheVenom]

casual viewers seemingly only care if the female fighters are attractive.

 

[Dan Torrance]

No they promoted Jones very hard from the beginning. They only backed off after he started doing stupid shit like drunk driving and committing hit and runs. Before that Dana never said anything but compliments about him, he was clearly meant to be their new posterboy.

 

[Dan Torrance]

The way she beat Ronda was too vicious for the Ronda Bandwagoners.

It struck the cord of a man beating down a woman, that's not the reality, but that's how it felt and the reality is that's not really something many people wanted to see again.

 

[z99]

She's too nice. People talk about how they want respectful and humble fighters, but that just doesn't sell.

It's the same thing with Stipe - doesn't matter how vicious he was in the cage, he was a goofy friendly guy outside of it and that's not what people want in their HW champ.

GSP?

 

[HavokHarmon]

It was just a different situation, in a variety of ways. Ronda was the inaugural women’s champ in the UFC and she was really the pillar of women’s mma in general when it got picked up by the biggest organization in the business. Being undefeated and a former Olympian also helped a lot, as did just being American.

But honestly I think that women’s mma now is just different than it was when Ronda hit the scene. They no longer need one woman to carry all of women’s mma.

 

[dominicanjudo8]

The UFC pushed Cain and Jones harder than almost any other fighter. You could say Conor but he self promoted himself and the UFC only started pushing for him after he already had a big following.

Besides Brock I don't remember another HW being pushed as hard as Cain

 

[dominicanjudo8]

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?

They didn't the mainstream media doesn't want anything to do with a lesbian who doesn't see herself as oppressed plus supported the orange man.

 

[Ghostoftheville]

Nunes is married to a woman that's why.

The whole thing is weird, Cyborg was a bigger draw, more masculine, and bigger than Nunes. Nunes is the most decorated WMMA ever, the most dominant WMMA fighter ever, and somehow soccer mom Holly Holm still gets more attention than her.

 

[HHJ]

lol its THAT EASY is it?

Nunes doesnt even WANT that kind of stardom. You cant force people to be interested in someone,they either are,or they are not. The diehards like Nunes,but there is not much there to show for massive crossover appeal. Dont you think if UFC COULD do it they would? Some people just dont have it in them to be a superstar on that level. Nor want it.

 

[HHJ]

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.

/Thread

 

[ZackZed]

Pretty simple. Unattractive, not talking about sex appeal, but no unique look about her. Bad English and that horrible accent. And bland personality, i.e. here's her every interview, ever - "thank you fans, UFC, blah blah, I fight anyone. Guys, look, these are my coaches, and that one there is my wife"

 

[EYEKICKFACES]

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.

You have a lot of excuses. I'm willing to bet you've been fired multiple times and it's always somehow the company's fault.

 

[avenue94]

You have a lot of excuses. I'm willing to bet you've been fired multiple times and it's always somehow the company's fault.

Never been fired so you're vision is off, sorry to pop your bubble. Not sure why you find it so hard to believe that a company with no real competitors half asses some of their work. That's kind of a side effect of market dominance.

 

[Iroh]

I don't see the point in focusing on what Bob in cubicle 214 wants to do at the UFC when we can see what decisions they make as organization. Your point is silly.

All I said is the UFC has struggled to produce a Mexican star and break into that market for the better part of 2 decades. Keep in mind that Moreno became the fighter he is and champion in spite of the UFC, not because of them. They did him no favors really and simply lucked out here. Or for example matching up Yair with Frankie and nearly permanently wrecking one of their prospects for that market. It's no secret, the UFC kind of sucks at prospect development most of the time.

Again, not every draw needs sell 1 million buys. A draw who doubles the buyrate to 500 or 600k buys is quite valuable. That's an area the UFC has struggled over the past decade.

One of the instances where the UFC properly developed a prospect actually.

My point isn't silly it's exactly what we were discussing. The decision to put Chandler into the black history month, That's more than likely not directly Dana's decision. It could be, but you don't know, yet you assume.

But this discussion has been all but sticking to the original point or even properly addressing my points, so I'm done with it.

 

[avenue94]

My point isn't silly it's exactly what we were discussing. The decision to put Chandler into the black history month, That's more than likely not directly Dana's decision. It could be, but you don't know, yet you assume.

But this discussion has been all but sticking to the original point or even properly addressing my points, so I'm done with it.

Did I say it was Dana's decision? At any, Dana is just shorthand for the UFC, like Steve Jobs and Apple back in the day, he's a mascot or totem essentially.

 

[moreorless87]

I don't really link directly link those two, but one might wonder if the UFC's historical failure to produce a Mexican star and break into that market is related to their bizarre cozying up to Trump and Maga. Which, politics aside, is really questionable to associate with someone so controversial.

The UFC is in a bit of an odd situation really in that it has often pushed for a more liberial fanbase yet a lot of the core market are right wing bros.

You are probably right that going too far pro Trump has damaged the image of the sport quite a bit with anyone but that fanbase.

 

[Iroh]

Did I say it was Dana's decision? At any, Dana is just shorthand for the UFC, like Steve Jobs and Apple back in the day, he's a mascot or totem essentially.

Yes, that's my problem with your arguments, you make general arguments not specific ones.

The UFC in general acts one way, but not every specific instance within the UFC will be in accordance with the UFC's general attitude. Your initial response to me also wasn't relevant to my post. Just because race matters, doesn't mean it's the reason Amanda gets less promotion. They promote based on marketability. Lots of the biggest stars in combat sports are black, so it's obviously not such a detrimental aspect. If she were white she'd still have a seemingly pretty bland personality and wouldn't be attractive. Two of the probably most important factors for a female to be marketable. Her only redeeming factor is that she is a talented and exciting fighter, but that has been shown to not solely carry a a lot of fighters, you need more.

Using Dana as a shorthand for UFC is just as lazy as your generalized arguments you have been making ITT. Dana isn't the UFC, so if you want to discuss the workings of a company, it's good to take that into account.

 

[Humongo]

So you saw no great white hope undertones in May/Mac?

Could you elaborate on this? It's very rare for me to watch promos for fights so I missed it completely. Could you list some examples of undertones of "great white hope"?