Does the ufc heavy marketing hurts fighters?

Bangkok ready d1

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Its pretty clear the ufc has its favorites when it comes to marketing ( especially british fighters) and this dudes often get an early push in competition. Since the name of the game is you pick your poison a lot of this guys end up losing, till is a good example.
I have no doubts he's a good fighter and probably at the very least top 10 in the mw division even if at the very bottom, but on sherdog he's a bum cause he lost to the very best of the division. Is this only a sherdog phenom and we are all haters of the company man or does this marketed fighters losing really affect how they are viewed by the average fan?
 
The average fan pays attention only to what the ufc marketing shines in their face

Till is a good example, even the average British fan has no idea what Tills recent record even is, he’s just a star because that’s what the ufc shows him to be.
 
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Sometimes the UFC favorite is not pushed to compete against the best.

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Sometimes the UFC favorite is not pushed to compete against the best.

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O Malley has even come out and said that he is on a fixed contract so why risk losing to ranked guys when he gets paid the same to fight easier fights.

Kind of hard to blame him there.

The UFC has some structural issues, the way they use matchups to manipulate fighters is fucked up as evidenced by the thread on negotiation tactics.
 
I think it's a double-edged sword. The marketing push that some fighters get increases their earning potential, but it can also set them for serious backlash if/when they lose.

Using Till as an example, what would've happened if Till was given a slower and steadier push up the ranks like Adesanya and Whittaker had? Instead, because the UFC seem so invested in seeing him do well, Till is 1-2 against the best fighters in the division, with his last lost being especially ugly. Had he gotten the chance to fight away from the spotlight against guys like Gerald Meershaert, he could be in a much different spot.

Then, you have the opposite problem, as well. Sean O'Malley is benefitting in some ways from the marketting push, but he's being set up to fail by NOT taking on higher ranked guys despite having all of the hype pushed on him. If he has another loss like he had with Vera, fans might not want to give him another chance.

I suppose in the short term, having the push from the promotion is nice, but unless the fighter getting the push does the most with the opportunity, it can really blow up in their face. In hindsight, I think Conor McGregor handled it the best of any fighter possibly could.
 
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