Do you think UFC cares about nationale diversity in the roster?

[moreorless87]

They care in terms of making money from the markets they target,

The big shift in interest in Dagistani fighters who they previously showed relatively little interest in was likekly due to expanding into the middle east.

 

[Iroh]

No one gives a shit about kickboxing anywhere. The fighters make terrible money. Theres a reason most of the top fighters are going to mma.

It wouldnt matter if every great kickboxer were American no one would still care.

People care about kickboxing in Europe and Asia. The promotions are just scummy and not the best entrepreneurs.

 

[Evangelion]

If I use my own personal rankings as an example of what I think then take LW, I have 32 Americans in the top 100 at the moment (maybe 31, not sure if Al is officially retired or not), so still very well represented but not as high as 50%

Im just not sure why he believes American athletes will just banish from the rankings.

He doesnt seem to have a great reason besides that mma is growing around the world. Which would account for why theres so many great international fighters.

 

[Brolypr]

Super lame, this isn't 1995 anymore, MMA is a global sport, limiting "foreigners" to just 50% ensures we never get close to seeing the "best fighting the best" as Dana claims.

not really.
because there are local mma organizations and events in these countries. They serve as talent farms and dana just picks the ones that seem to be the best.
its more complicated for foreign fighters to fight in the u.s. constantly...especially in these times..unless they actually move down here and stay.
Every country does this...local fans want to root for their local fighters. its the nature of sports. If the event is in mexico you see a lot of mexican fighers. If its in the u.k or brazil. ......etc etc
If anything I see things as getting better...A lot of middle eastern fighters are kicking ass and u.s. fans are actually cheering on them.

 

[SuperAlly]

UFC is a business. They have one concern and that's driving traffic with high promotable fighters at the best price. It sees no color/race

True and not true

The reason Weili got her rematch is race and the money her being Chinese could bring

 

[PhotographyRaptor]

I imagine they have some internal caps on how many Brazilians or Russians they can hire... And they probably try to sign and push American talents since the US is the biggest market

I have a feeling that if they didn't care about diversity, Americans will be overshadowed quickly

Why?

 

[PhotographyRaptor]

True and not true

The reason Weili got her rematch is race and the money her being Chinese could bring

Of course her being really good and probably winning the second Rose fight is just secondary lol

 

[Dog Gynecologist]

The reason Weili got her rematch is race and the money her being Chinese could bring

Nope it's not race but nationality. China wouldn't care about her if she was let's say American from chinese descent.

 

[TorontoTO]

The information is all out there from various sources. They definitely have a cap on Russian fighters too, the managers of Russian MMA fighters have talked about it before.

That's why it's so frustrating when a Russian slot pops up and they sign someone like Grigorii Popov who's not very good.

They must have seen Popov while at the Chinese shows with the UFC PI people since that is the only explanation why he got signed.

 

[TorontoTO]

not really.
because there are local mma organizations and events in these countries. They serve as talent farms and dana just picks the ones that seem to be the best.
its more complicated for foreign fighters to fight in the u.s. constantly...especially in these times..unless they actually move down here and stay.
Every country does this...local fans want to root for their local fighters. its the nature of sports. If the event is in mexico you see a lot of mexican fighers. If its in the u.k or brazil. ......etc etc
If anything I see things as getting better...A lot of middle eastern fighters are kicking ass and u.s. fans are actually cheering on them.

Not really the "best". He picks the ones who have connections to influential MMA agents like Ali mostly.

 

[pamirec]

All about money. Nothing, but business. As usual.

 

[campbecc]

We'll never know the true answer to this since America is over represented compared to other countries

He said athletes, the US team is dominate in the olympics and that's without government funding.

 

[frederick]

You'll make a fine diversity officer in some HR department somewhere, TS.

 

[surgeyou1]

Yes. International expansion is very important to them and you need to find some international stars.

 

[rear naked ankle pick]

i dont get it, why would UFC do that if all people are equal?

 

[PPVpoints]

they care about new markets in different countries

Yep this. That is why Conor worked so well for them. Much easier for a small country like Ireland to get behind one fighter and throw money at their products than a country like the US, where UFC fighters are on the bottom of the totem pole as the real sports stars are much more appreciated by the fans. Thats why GSP was so loved because Canada don't really have any real sports so the fans all got behind him. So again, it is much harder for the US as a whole to back a certain fighter, since sports stars from MLB, NFL, NBA, MLS, NHL all are way above them.

 

[You Will Vote For Dreyga]

Where do you get these numbers for their plans from?

Oh, I'm sure there are caps. I'm just wondering where he, or all the various sources you speak of, get their numbers for their plans for Chinese and Mexican fighters from? Has the UFC released these numbers officially?

Sounds legit but where are you getting this info?

Read Below

There's not one official source they've written down but it's based on stuff they've said in press conferences etc. I've heard Dana say the Chinese fighter number, I'm not sure where the Mexican number is from.

They repeat these numbers all the time in multiple interviews/podcasts on the subject so the examples below aren’t the only source.

The information about 50% Domestic and 50% International is out there but its in interviews from way back when they were expanding to international territories so they done digging to find.

But you can Google the roster list, they have a chart for country of origin and fighters. And you can count the International vs Domestic shows on the lemur past annual calendars it is a 50/50 breakdown

“Right now, we’ve got about ten athletes on our roster from China. We wanted to create a facility that would do all of the things that the Vegas facility would do, but would also increase that number from ten to, say, 70 or 75 athletes.”

https://www.sportspromedia.com/inte...i-training-centre-lawrence-epstein-interview/

Mexico City has been chosen as the location for the third Performance Institute, with the UFC planning to open that location in 2020. The goal is to add as many as 30 to 50 athletes to the UFC roster from Mexico and other countries in Central and South America over the next several years.

https://www.sporttechie.com/ufc-performance-institute-sporttechie-awards-sports-technology

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Yep this. That is why Conor worked so well for them. Much easier for a small country like Ireland to get behind one fighter and throw money at their products than a country like the US, where UFC fighters are on the bottom of the totem pole as the real sports stars are much more appreciated by the fans. Thats why GSP was so loved because Canada don't really have any real sports so the fans all got behind him. So again, it is much harder for the US as a whole to back a certain fighter, since sports stars from MLB, NFL, NBA, MLS, NHL all are way above them.

lol @ calling baseball a real sport.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Read Below




They repeat these numbers all the time in multiple interviews/podcasts on the subject so the examples below aren’t the only source.

The information about 50% Domestic and 50% International is out there but its in interviews from way back when they were expanding to international territories so they done digging to find.

But you can Google the roster list, they have a chart for country of origin and fighters. And you can count the International vs Domestic shows on the lemur past annual calendars it is a 50/50 breakdown

“Right now, we’ve got about ten athletes on our roster from China. We wanted to create a facility that would do all of the things that the Vegas facility would do, but would also increase that number from ten to, say, 70 or 75 athletes.”

https://www.sportspromedia.com/inte...i-training-centre-lawrence-epstein-interview/

Mexico City has been chosen as the location for the third Performance Institute, with the UFC planning to open that location in 2020. The goal is to add as many as 30 to 50 athletes to the UFC roster from Mexico and other countries in Central and South America over the next several years.

https://www.sporttechie.com/ufc-performance-institute-sporttechie-awards-sports-technology

Mexico/Central America is more achievable as due to Entram gym mainly there's more and more fighters from that region that are approaching the required standard. With China there's just nowhere near 70 fighters of the required standard at the moment without significantly reducing the overall quality of the roster to allow them to compete.

 

[PPVpoints]

lol @ calling baseball a real sport.

It is 10x the sport the bush league UFC is.