i mean, yeah its by design. echoing other peoples' comments in this thread - the UFC wants you to know the brand, not the fighters.
In fight quality? I disagree. In popularity? Sure. Rolly and Scrull are fodder for Garcia and Canelo. Inoue, unfortunately, doesn't move the needle. Those cards are name heavy, fight vapid. A typical UFC card is more entertaining than a boxing card which is buoyed by one fight 99% of the time.
At the end of the day, the UFC is trying to do what the NFL is doing with the shield over athletes. Boxing has long been a sport rife with corruption, which it still is, and fight ducking until Turki showed up. Let's not forget that.
Hearn is a snake. He's always going to dump on the UFC. He's always going to irrationally back his sport and his fighters - just look at his commentary on Benn after the Eubank loss from last week. He can eat shit and live.
a typical UFC card is as boring as most typical boxing cards nowadays. lets not excuse the plethora of boring APEX cards. but just like UFC 300, boxing has had great cards recently like Queensbury vs Matchroom and the 2 Beterbiev/Bivol cards (excluding Shakur Stevenson's fight, of course).
boxing is an older sport and so has a more established fanbase by default. its got a professional history going back 100+ years. inherently, that means more opportunities for corruption too. but let's not exclude UFC from being corrupt, because it is. combat sports seem to attract those types of characters.
and the only reason i think Inoue doesnt sell much in the Western world is because he often fights in Japan, so the timing of his fights doesnt fit with Western audiences. this time, he's fighting in Vegas at a time where a lot of people in the West will be able to tune in at a reasonable hour. also helps that Rafael Espinoza is fighting in the co-main event - he's someone that Inoue wants to face if he moves up from 122 to 126 pounds. seems they're trying to set that up eventually if they both win.
oddly enough, the card with Garcia, Teo and Haney is the one i think im least interested in and probably not going to watch. the Inoue and Canelo cards both have more interesting matchups leading up to the main event.
and regarding Eddie Hearn, itll be fun to see his face when Inoue knocks out MJ. Hearn was whining so much about Inoue ducking him and saying he needed to give the belts up to MJ; just ridiculous complaining. i was similarly satisfied when he twice looked bewildered as Usyk out-boxed the fuck out of Anthony Joshua for 24 rounds.
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