The UFC is not getting behind any of their champions, instead promoting contenders

[FrankieNYC]

You don't have to like something in order for you to do it. Also, fight promotion isn't just interviews and sound bite -- a lot of it has to do with how stories are woven by the promotion. Unfortunately for us, the UFC's storytelling technique is heavy-handed and formulaic, and with the amount of money they are about to make with ESPN, that isn't going to change.

Excellent post

 

[Fedor>Cain]

Stipe isn't my favorite fighter so don't try to play that shit.

all i'm doing is pointing out how retarded it is that you think he's "boring" because he's not a big talker. he's a fighter, not a fuckin talk show host. him having more defenses than any other HW champion ever should make him marketable, him knocking out most of the guys he fought in the past several years should make him marketable.

UFC is the PROMOTION, Dana White is the PROMOTER, Stipe is the FIGHTER. Stipe fights, UFC and Dana promotes. not the other way around.

i never once said Stipe should be a top draw, but he definitely deserved more promotion, by the PROMOTION that he works for.

explain to me what was so great about Ngannou that he deserved all the promotion over Stipe during the build up to their fight? because of his riveting shit talking right? LOL the guy can barely speak English, so tell me again, how was he so deserving of the big promo push?

the answer is: HE WASN'T.

Ngannou got the push because he ....KO'd Arlovski and Overeem? LOL who hasn't KO'd those guys? not to mention the fact that Stipe knocked both of those guys out before Ngannou.

we all know, Ngannou got the push because he looks like a movie villain's henchman and they wanted Stipe out of there.

the other takeaway here is, that you said you need a great personality to get the big push from UFC, but Ngannou's push proves the exact OPPOSITE. Ngannou has an even more boring personality than Stipe, and hasn't really done anything special besides beat guys Stipe already had beaten.

Lol..we are talking promotion dollars here.

If a fighter has a boring personality, wme probably isn't going to promote them because they can't draw causals.

Deal with it.

Wme already has you hook line want sinker. They don't give a rats ass about people like you me and the dozens of Stipe/mighty mouse fans out there.

 

[Fedor>Cain]

Really? There are tons of ways you can promote a guy. If you have an everyguy, promote him as that. The point of promoting is to tell people you have a great product. The job of the promoter is to get people interested.

Dana has the easiest job in human history. No matter who wins the fight, the UFC wins. Yet Dana insists on looking at it as a win-lose proposition and put all his eggs in one basket. He plays a game rigged so he cannot possibly lose and still lose. Basically, his only job is to not stick his hand in the pot of bubbling tomato sauce. Yet he insists on doing it, over and over.

Not saying I always agree with Dana on who he promotes and who he doesn't.

But it should be obvious to anybody that a mid 30's HW champ who wasn't anything special leading up to his title run, probably isn't going to last long.

And he isn't very marketble to begin with.

So why waste tons of money promoting a champ that's probably not going to be champ 3 fights from now?

From a marketing standpoint, it makes sense.

 

[FrankieNYC]

From a marketing standpoint, it makes sense.

In a way I agree but in a way I don't.

The way UFC is set up, you are correct.
They are set up as a content provider that makes a shitload of guaranteed money off of mediocre (as far as interest content)
Then they have the few big PPV's that are gravy to their bottom line.
So as they are constructed now, you can certainly argue that putting a few million behind a guy like TJ might not make fiscal sense.

But if they were constructed differently and had more emphasis on belts, it could be different.

 

[chairman11]

Ngannou was destroying people and Till had just stopped Cowboy as well as decisioning Wonderboy. The hype was deserved, they just got beat

You are completely missing the point about not promoting there champions. I don't think anyone has a problem with hyping contenders but the champ should be hyped up as well

 

[g*r*b]

Not saying I always agree with Dana on who he promotes and who he doesn't.

But it should be obvious to anybody that a mid 30's HW champ who wasn't anything special leading up to his title run, probably isn't going to last long.

And he isn't very marketble to begin with.

So why waste tons of money promoting a champ that's probably not going to be champ 3 fights from now?

From a marketing standpoint, it makes sense.

Yet lasted longer than any other heavyweight champ in the company's history. By that standpoint it doesn't make sense to market any heavyweight.

 

[Lemmy Caution]

Not saying I always agree with Dana on who he promotes and who he doesn't.

But it should be obvious to anybody that a mid 30's HW champ who wasn't anything special leading up to his title run, probably isn't going to last long.

And he isn't very marketble to begin with.

So why waste tons of money promoting a champ that's probably not going to be champ 3 fights from now?

From a marketing standpoint, it makes sense.

It doesn't make sense building one fighter up as a monster and not also building up the other guy. I'm not saying the UFC should take Stipe on a world tour. The worst example is Cain and JdS. I understand that Dana wanted to build up Cain, but there was no reason to diss JdS. The fight turned out to be a fluke, but for Dana to treat his new champ like this does not help the UFC.

In Dana's case, there's only praising a fighter or throwing him under the bus. As disgusting as it was, I can at least understand rationale for why Dana threw GSP under the bus. GSP was out. Stipe, JdS, etc. are not.

 

[Gamer2k4]

Champions are champions for a reason, because they're better than everybody else. This seems lost to WME who keep promoting one and done contenders.

They promote contenders because they need to give people a reason to watch the fight. If the general perception is that the champions are better than everyone else (as you said, and as it should be), then why should people watch the title fights? The champ is just going to win and keep the belt, right? By promoting contenders, you've got people looking for an upset, or at the very least a competitive fight. You've got people thinking the contender is bringing something to the fight that all the previous ones overlooked, and that they stand a chance where the others didn't. You've got intrigue and anticipation, and that's what sells fights.

 

[MikeyB]

Wme doesn't know what they bought. They thought it was pro wrestling.

 

[Rapshepard]

Boring personality. You can be the most boring ass fighter on the roster and get paid if people like you.

Stipe didn't even want to promote himself for fucks sake.

It amazes me that people are so biased towards their favorite fighters that they think that they should all be draws. Stipe sounds like a 70 grandma who smokes when he talks. You can't promote that shit.

He is just a boring average guy. Average champ too. Beat up on old fighters. Cormier wrecked him in less than a round coming up from a lower class.

GSP didn't do much self promotion, has a boring personality, and isn't exactly smooth voiced. Yet they found a way to market him. When you have a blue collar fire fighting champ like Stipe, you should be able to sell that. You sell him as the anti-McGregor, the relatable guy who doesn't need the trappings of fame. The type of guy who is world champ, but still works at the fire station because he loves his job and community.

They don't even make good use of the sports talk shows Fox Sports have. They seem to only know how to sell loud mouths and folk with a built in demographic

 

[FlowchartRog]

Ngannou was destroying people and Till had just stopped Cowboy as well as decisioning Wonderboy. The hype was deserved, they just got beat

He overwhelmed a shopworn 155 pounder, as a self proclaimed light heavyweight, and got a gift decision against Wonderman in one of the most boring fights ever. The hype was not remotely warranted. It was obvious he'd get crushed by Woodley, the fact that he was a slight favourite is mindboggling - goes to show what the hype machine can do.

Ngannou was more deserving of the hype. He turned out to be terrible at the highest level, but he was crushing people effortlessly and just looked like a beast.

 

[skylolow]

TS the real reason is because many of the UFC champs aren't very charismatic and have already made it to the top. A lot of them are like Woodley and are hard to get to damn thing to promote......
DJ reign fans didn't really tune in and the UFC tried to do everything to get fans to care.
TJ/Cruz/Garb....they got some run.
Aldo/Max....Aldo mainly talks about retiring or leaving and Max has been injured. But the UFC was trying to push Max.
155...I feel all the guys recently that held the belt have been well promoted and the champs worked well with the UFC.
Woodley....doesn't give a shit about promoting and it's like pulling teeth to get him to do it.
MW...belts been passed around quite frequently so hard to promote much there. But the guys with the belt and conteders all have been fairly active with fans and promoting.
Cormier...has been great and the UFC has been great to him.
Stipe when he had the belt was just pissed at the UFC. But the UFC had him in Modelo commercials and did a lot to promote him but Stipe is about as blah as can be.


But the young hungry guys are mouthing of daily and winning so that is why we hear so much about them. When champ does run his mouth like a Conor they get a ton of attention. Guys like Chael, no belt but draw well and it had very little to do with the UFC. A lot of promoting is put in the fighter's hands. Once a fighter can get fans to care the promotion can then help them if the fighter wants to continue to promote.

 

[Roljo]

Ngannou was destroying people and Till had just stopped Cowboy as well as decisioning Wonderboy. The hype was deserved, they just got beat

No it was not, yeah Ngannou had one great win against Overeem but they were portraying him as the next Tyson... When Stipe had baten a lot of great fighters. Till beat past his prime cowboy who was like 30 pounds lighter, the fight against thompson (i felt he one) but it was really close where not much happened and he hadn't shown anything great during his previous fights.

 

[Organic Damage]

Why do you have to get behind a champion? As long as you aren't burying your champ like Dana loves to do... The belt is its own promotion -- whoever is wearing it gets the rub by default.

In fact WME knows this, because they kept creating interim titles to give contenders the rub and boost PPVs. Unfortunately when everyone is holding a belt, it devalues its worth. Which WME also knows.

 

[xentreos]

They need balance. Promote your best fighters regardless of position. It’s almost like the ufc doesn’t know who it’s best fighters are at times.

 

[ReadWrite]

If White doesn't like Stipe and Woodley, two fighters who pissed on their boss, don't cry if they fail to get promoted.

 

[El Fernas]

Hyping a challenger to pull the upset is great for business imo, how many people paid for Floyd fights only to see if it was the time he was going to get beat, its the same here.
With Ronda she was the former champ and the draw, it was clear they wanted her to win, champ or challenger.