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| Dana White and Brock Lesnar. Photo credit ESPN |
by Lance LeVan
In my last blog, I discussed what the UFC was going to do about their lack of "household name" fighters. These are fighters that EVERYONE know...not just fans of MMA, but soccer moms and business men. These huge names equate to huge Pay Per View (PPV) numbers for the UFC fights. So I wasn't sure how to react when I heard that Dana White and the UFC were considering bringing back Brock Lesnar to fight in the heavyweight division again.
For those of you who do not know him, Mr. Lesnar was a huge star in the WWE wrestling venue a few years back. When he transferred to the UFC, a lot of people scoffed at him and thought it was a publicity stunt. And they were wrong. Granted...he should not have been fast tracked for a title shot, like he was. But he very quickly became a force to be reckoned with. After only 2 fights (1 of which he lost), he won the heavyweight title against Randy Couture. He retired from MMA with a record of 5-3. My point is this: how many retired fighters are we going to bring back, HOPING that they will boost PPV numbers on their name alone...? If one of the boxing federations brought back Joe Frazier or Mike Tyson to fight a current fighter (who is in his prime), there is NO WAY this writer would pay to see that. That's an insult to the fans of the sport. And it's actually kind of cruel. The retired fighter goes in there and gets the shit beat out of them for a few rounds. And for what...a paycheck...?! If the UFC would have put some thought into marketing these new fighters 4-5 years ago when all of their big names were still fighting...they wouldn't be in this predicament now.
For those of you who do not know him, Mr. Lesnar was a huge star in the WWE wrestling venue a few years back. When he transferred to the UFC, a lot of people scoffed at him and thought it was a publicity stunt. And they were wrong. Granted...he should not have been fast tracked for a title shot, like he was. But he very quickly became a force to be reckoned with. After only 2 fights (1 of which he lost), he won the heavyweight title against Randy Couture. He retired from MMA with a record of 5-3. My point is this: how many retired fighters are we going to bring back, HOPING that they will boost PPV numbers on their name alone...? If one of the boxing federations brought back Joe Frazier or Mike Tyson to fight a current fighter (who is in his prime), there is NO WAY this writer would pay to see that. That's an insult to the fans of the sport. And it's actually kind of cruel. The retired fighter goes in there and gets the shit beat out of them for a few rounds. And for what...a paycheck...?! If the UFC would have put some thought into marketing these new fighters 4-5 years ago when all of their big names were still fighting...they wouldn't be in this predicament now.
As always, I am a huge fan of the sport of MMA. I think MMA fighters are some of the best athletes in the world today. But I have to seriously consider spending my hard-earned money on a PPV where I don't know many of the names on the fighter card.
I agree with the no-name cards. There are a few names that a lot of people know (Silva, Velasquez, Faber, St-Pierre, Liddell, Evans, and Rua. I agree that these are not household names, a lot of people will watch a PPV with these names on the cards.
ReplyDeleteI wonder who is going to step-up and be the next big name...?
ReplyDelete