Debate: You shouldn't make fights where one party has nothing to gain.

[loyalyolayal]

Thats only to please you. Not what they SHOULD do. Mayweather won the game by fighting the right guys at the right times,and laughing all the way to the bank. What he has done is VERY smart. There is definitley benefits from not just doing whatever the UFC tells you to do. They dont always have your best interests at heart.

Yeah, well you should also be VERY good and talented with stars aligning and all that shit to reach that level. You assume 99.9% of fighters are in that sphere where they have enough clout and leverage to either pressure their promoter/employer or create their own.

 

[Twc]

Your argument takes into account the point of view of the rising star. If cards only had fights that were beneficial for both fighters there wouldn't be many fights.

Fighters are paid per fight, so if they turn down any fights they don't get paid. For your example of Kevin Lee, he just lost to Raging Al. Why would anyone in the top 5 in the division want to fight him? They're already in title contention and Lee just dropped in the rankings after his loss. The risk of fighting him and losing is much greater than the reward. Beating a top 5 fighter would potentially get you a title shot. Beating someone near the bottom of the top 10 who would now have lost 2 fights in a row doesn't look nearly as impressive.

 

[Elway7]

I've caught a bit of heat over the last few days about my opinions on fights being poor-making decisions. Some of the fights I disagreed with were as follows:

Robbie Lawler vs Ben Askren
Kevin Lee vs Islam Makhachev
Yoel Romero vs Paulo Costa

...and a new one just popped to mind, and that is Israel Adesanya vs Anderson Silva.

The whole point I'm trying to make in most of these cases is that the whole point of any promotion, Matchroom Boxing, UFC, Bellator, WWE, TNA etc. is to put your product in position where it's easier to make your athletes into profitable entities.

In the Pro Wrestling world it's presumed that the promotion just creates stars out of thin air, but for anyone who has watched the product over the years, we know that isn't always the case. Do you think the WWE made Daniel Bryan into a star? I don't. They gave him a platform to perform, but his hard work and overall likability made him into a star, not the booking, not the politics, just him and his performance - this is much like the likes of Nick Diaz. Nick already has the ground work and the buy-in, so they should be shoving money down the guy's throat to try and make him a star, but because he's not industry made, they cut off their nose to spite their face and say no to millions of dollars just based off ego. Look at Roman Reigns. He has "the look", he's related to The Rock, he has been forced down viewers throats for years now, but is still booed out of arenas because people don't like him. He's not a heel either, he's not supposed to be booed, people just don't like him. That situation reminds me of Sage Northcutt, a handpicked guy who just had the package in the UFC's eyes, but it just never translated, nobody wanted to ride that train.

It makes no sense to do Israel vs Anderson unless you know Israel is going to win. The glory of promotion in general is that you're supposed to somewhat hide your intentions though, promo like this is so obvious that it's almost off putting. What are they hoping for here? They hope that Anderson fans will tune in begging for one more night of The Spider? Any intelligent person knows that Israel will probably dance around a 43 year old Anderson and take a decision here, and hey he may even knock him out if he dares to risk it all - but what happens if Anderson wins? You will absolutely bury a rising star, all for what? Poor matchmaking? Nobody wanted this fight, the fight is a shtick, a "dream matchup" because they are both lanky, black, creative strikers, no real super fight dream-match implications at all, it's a total fallacy.

The UFC need to start thinking long-term with these fights. I don't want squash matches, I don't want rising stars to get "an easy ride", but I want the right fights, stop risking their whole aura on bullshit "gimme fights in disguise" like this one for Israel.

Israel just beat Derek Brunson inside of a round by stylish KO, give the guy Jacare, Weidman, Romero - someone that gets him to a title shot next. The division is fairly shallow, he has gone from fighting Vettori to being pretty close to the top in light speed - and people are buying in, so just keep him going, don't step him back.

Thoughts? Do the UFC really know how to promote?

I agree with your sentiment but not your examples lawler gets right back into upper echelon with win same with askren. Silva/israel is for title shot. But i think a perfect example u should have used is pettis/thompson

 

[MPD-Psycho]

You sound like a butthurt Silva fan afraid to see his idol get starched and KO'd in glorious brutal fashion.

I don’t want to see him end up like Chuck Liddell, which is a reasonable view point.

Get outta here with personal insults.

 

[gevoudane]

I think fighters who miss weight should be in a almost nothing to gain situation. If the fighter who didnt make weight wins its a NC, but if the fighter who did make weight wins s/he gets the win and the fatty gets an 'L'.

 

[613]

so they should be shoving money down the guy's throat to try and make him a star, but because he's not industry made, they cut off their nose to spite their face and say no to millions of dollars just based off ego.

You can't push a guy who loses every time he faces a good fighter. Nick has never proven to be worth close to what he wants.

 

[IDGETKTFO]

I don’t want to see him end up like Chuck Liddell, which is a reasonable view point.

Get outta here with personal insults.

This is Sherdog bro, come on join date 2007, haven't you learned anything by now?

 

[Meathead Jock]

How does either Robbie or askren have nothing to gain from this fight in your opinion?

I don't opposed to what you're saying but I don't agree with you that one of those two fighters has nothing to gain

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

No.
I mean if mcgregor hadn’t knocked Aldo out in 13 seconds he would be above Silva due to pure resume

Well outside of that one blip - he is finishing his career strong. It's not like he was fooling around and got caught - he was over emotional and went in chin first on a straight line and got caught.

He came back to absolutely school and beat up Frankie. Gave Max two hard fights and if not for max's chin and size come fight night he would have probably beaten Max and regardless of losing twice to max went down fighting instead of running or giving up.

His last two fights he's been the underdog and finished both opponents. Took Jeremy's biggest shots to come back and finish Jeremy. And tore through moicano with ease.

I'm an Anderson fan as well but he has not aged well and should not really be fighting a young killer like israel.

Jose is gonna finish on top and on is terms (if he does indeed retire after his contract ends).

 

[MPD-Psycho]

This is Sherdog bro, come on join date 2007, haven't you learned anything by now?

Oh well. I guess I didn’t expect it from what I thought was a harmless post. If I was trolling on purpose then it’s another story.

 

[ifindgifsforjackslack]

Got to,second paragraph where you started making comparisons to WWE.

When real fightings marketing is getting compared to wwe (big muscles for the year old kids) we have a serious problem on our hands.

 

[IDGETKTFO]

Oh well. I guess I didn’t expect it from what I thought was a harmless post. If I was trolling on purpose then it’s another story.

This is a brutal place. We're all thavages that would eat your children. No post is safe here.