Why is Stipe not as popular as the other HW champs?

[honzo]

Like Dana said: "promote yourself".
Dana also calls himself a promoter so i don't get the logic there.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

Cain ? His popularity boomed when he manhandled the "special kind of fans" favorite in Lesnar and he's been riding that wave ever since. I mean, his "dominant" era includes 2 wins agains JDS and 2 against Antonio freaking Silva. Imagine if that was Stipes run, he would be getting even less respect.

But after Cain beat Brock he did not take all of Brock's fans and fame with him. Brock is the most popular UFC HW of all time, when he was champ all his PPV's were 1 million or close to it. When he was beaten his fans and the casual tuned out. Cain was never a popular champion. And with all the injuries he has been largely forgotten.

 

[AdamantiumPimmel]

It's because he doesn't wear his belt in his free time.

 

[Son of Werdum]

HW is in the dumps right now. Wins over people like Hunt and Overeem don't mean what they once did despite them still being ranked highly. Overeem, for example, is still top 5 despite KO losses to Ngannou, Rothwell, Bigfoot, and fucking Travis Browne.

Plus Stipe got KO'd by Struve who is seen as a bit of a joke, right or wrong. Either way it's real hard to see him as the "baddest man on the planet" after watching the awkward dude who always gets brutally KO'd finishing the most dominant UFC HW champion of all time.

Add to that his gravelly, mumbly voice and humble demeanor and he is a nightmare on the mic. It's something that doesn't bother me but sure bothers Dana when looking at dollar signs.

I don't mind Stipe but I can see why he is in the position he is in. Some of the factors are his fault, some like the weakness of the HW division are not.

 

[DarkneT]

Actually came in to post this. His voice is the problem and this is not a joke.

It's really hard to promote him becaue he doesn't sound neither scary nor interesting

Awesome dude, has amazing sense of humor but on the mic it simply isn't working.

His post fight with joe
I honestly don't know what he said

 

[croshad]

But after Cain beat Brock he did not take all of Brock's fans and fame with him. Brock is the most popular UFC HW of all time, when he was champ all his PPV's were 1 million or close to it. When he was beaten his fans and the casual tuned out. Cain was never a popular champion. And with all the injuries he has been largely forgotten.

It's true that Cain doesn't have the PPV numbers but i was talking about respect, not showmanship. Cain gained a lot of fans with that win, who support him no matter what. He is constantly being touted as the HW goat everywhere, unlike Stipe who can take out 6 contenders in a row, break a defense record and still has to go to the post fight presser blowing his own horn to earn respect. I find Stipe's run much more impressive. We don't know what might have been with a healthy Cain but we have what we have.

 

[Sapp]

I don't think it's really that much of a promotional issue by the UFC. Stipe just doesn't seem to have any intention (or ability) to put himself in that position, and that's OK, it's his prerogative.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

It's true that Cain doesn't have the PPV numbers but i was talking about respect, not showmanship. Cain gained a lot of fans with that win, who support him no matter what. He is constantly being touted as the HW goat everywhere, unlike Stipe who can take out 6 contenders in a row, break a defense record and still has to go to the post fight presser blowing his own horn to earn respect. I find Stipe's run much more impressive. We don't know what might have been with a healthy Cain but we have what we have.

I really don't hear anyone talking about Cain. Or when they talk about him, it is only about the injuries and inactivity. He has fought twice in five years at this point. The UFC HW division never was the sexy division or the high selling point for the UFC, until Brock came around. At one time Tim Sylvia was champ, and they brought in Randy out of retirement to juice it up. WW with GSP, MW with Anderson and LHW with all the stars from Pride were the star weight classes. HW has largely been an afterthought for some time. Stipe is a great fighter, i am a fan but his popularity is about on point with others that held the belt not named Brock Lesnar.

 

[Plutoburn]

because when stipe opens his mouth, you can literally see the double digit IQ.

....not me, but it turns a lot of people off.

Really that simple? I find Stipe to be in comparable level of articulation with Chuck Liddel, but his popularity doesn't seem to suffer from that.

 

[Dirge]

It's definitely the UFC's fault. He seems like a standup guy that doesn't take crap. Pretty sure if the UFC feels they can't manipulate him they way they want, he will not get the push he needs.

Personally I'm a huge fan. He's a decent polite guy that doesn't talk shit and also happens to be insanely tough.

Shertards that aren't fans of his are likely because they are so busy pointing out that he lost to Struve years ago, they forget that plenty of top fighters have had losses.

For Anderson Silva it was the Ryo Chonan loss, for GSP it was Matt Serra, for Matt Hughes it was two losses to Dennis Hallman, for Wanderlei Silva it was Tito Ortiz... etc.

It's a combat sport, anyone can lose on any given night if everything aligns perfectly.

Not to mention in the Struve fight, Stipe took a huge eyepoke right before the strikes that brought him down. An eyepoke that he wasn't given time to recover from.

 

[croshad]

I really don't hear anyone talking about Cain. Or when they talk about him, it is only about the injuries and inactivity. He has fought twice in five years at this point. The UFC HW division never was the sexy division or the high selling point for the UFC, until Brock came around. At one time Tim Sylvia was champ, and they brought in Randy out of retirement to juice it up. WW with GSP, MW with Anderson and LHW with all the stars from Pride were the star weight classes. HW has largely been an afterthought for some time. Stipe is a great fighter, i am a fan but his popularity is about on point with others that held the belt not named Brock Lesnar.

Really ? Any time i hear HW goat talk, be it on the internet, amongst the fans or the media, Cain's name is there. The injuries are usually just a meme or excuses for why he isn't the goat. Even now when we've barely seen him in 5 years like you say, he is the guy to beat Stipe or he was the guy to beat Ngannou before Stipe etc.

 

[LockardTheGOAT]

No personality, no charisma, monotone voice, and strangely doesn't give off that "bad ass aura" even though he is one. I like the guy, but I can see why the UFC would deem him unmarketable.

Then again, you never really know what types of people folks will gravitate towards. They should at least give it a shot and promote him more.

 

[POWER2]

1. He talks like mushmouth from the Fat Albert Junkyard Gang.
2. Fighting is his part-time job, and despite it making him lots of money, he hasn't made any attempt to properly promote himself or hire a publicist.
3. He has a boring personality.
4. As soon as a HW w/ a JJ or Muay Thai style AND chin comes along he is going to lose.
5. No one cares about the division anymore.

For all these reasons, he is not bigger.

 

[kflo]

Being a good and exciting fighter who regularly fights everyone they put in front of him is not all the rage these days.

It's all about being an entertaining clown who brags about his wealth.

i'm sorry, but it's always been about more than just winning. always.

 

[Robbie Corleone]

He’ll only get more popular imo.

 

[Harmonica]

i'm sorry, but it's always been about more than just winning. always.

Yes, it's about winning in a spectacular fashion which displays your superior fighting skills...something which Stipe has done many times over.

Reality show drama is for plebes and immature people.

 

[kflo]

It's definitely the UFC's fault. He seems like a standup guy that doesn't take crap. Pretty sure if the UFC feels they can't manipulate him they way they want, he will not get the push he needs.

Personally I'm a huge fan. He's a decent polite guy that doesn't talk shit and also happens to be insanely tough.

Shertards that aren't fans of his are likely because they are so busy pointing out that he lost to Struve years ago, they forget that plenty of top fighters have had losses.

For Anderson Silva it was the Ryo Chonan loss, for GSP it was Matt Serra, for Matt Hughes it was two losses to Dennis Hallman, for Wanderlei Silva it was Tito Ortiz... etc.

It's a combat sport, anyone can lose on any given night if everything aligns perfectly.

Not to mention in the Struve fight, Stipe took a huge eyepoke right before the strikes that brought him down. An eyepoke that he wasn't given time to recover from.

i mean, the idea that the ufc don't want him to be popular because they can't "manipulate" him, doesn't register as absurd to you? why would they want their marquee division to have a champ that doesn't draw just because they can't "maniuplate" him?

 

[Dbreiden83080]

Really ? Any time i hear HW goat talk, be it on the internet, amongst the fans or the media, Cain's name is there. The injuries are usually just a meme or excuses for why he isn't the goat. Even now when we've barely seen him in 5 years like you say, he is the guy to beat Stipe or he was the guy to beat Ngannou before Stipe etc.

I am not seeing that. When his name comes up it is always jokes about injuries and never fighting. Stipe has been more active and dominant than Cain ever was. The record bares that out in the last few years. They are both 12-2 in the UFC but Cain after winning the belt had one year off for shoulder surgery. He lost to JDS by KO when he came back, and then he had his great run in winning the belt back. However the run which featured beating Bigfoot and JDS twice in getting the belt back, was cut short again by a huge injury/layoff and losing badly to Werdum. Since then it's been like 2 years out. He is just a forgotten man at this point. Same age as Stipe 35 but Stipe peaked much later, and has been healthy. Cain has miles and miles of bad training habits and injuries on those tires..

 

[JOLLYjoe]

Which HW champ was super popular?

 

[Fluffernutter]

He is

 

[Plutoburn]

i'm sorry, but it's always been about more than just winning. always.

How about Matt Hughes? He never strike me as someone who is oozing with charisma or having a flamboyant personality. He even came across as a bit of a jerk on ultimate fighter as a coach.

Which HW champ was super popular?

Brock for sure, but the popularity came from his past more so than UFC itself, but at the very least, ex-champ like Arlovski, Carwin, JDS and Velazquez got the push from UFC harder than Stipe is getting, even though Stipe is more successful at least in terms of win/lose goes.