- Joined
- Jan 23, 2017
- Messages
- 16,740
- Reaction score
- 34,223
As far as I'm concerned, I'd like the UFC to be a legitimate sport where skills and achievements dictate pay, matchup's and fighting for the titles. That being said, Dana will surely tell us when asked about releasing guys like Nikita Krylov and Kyoji Horiguchi that " they weren't elite fighters, they didn't move the needle " but clearly places elsewhere do value them and a lot more than the UFC does. Kyoji Horiguchi may not be popular in America, but I doubt Cody Garbrandt is popular in Japan either. How are MMA fan's okay with discriminating against foreign fighters on the grounds of business and embracing the preference towards North American, Latin American and Native English speaking fighters? You're going to neuter the very sport that you love with this ignorance.
Anyways, fighters like Mairbek Taisumov are believe it or not, very popular. He has nearly 225k Instagram Followers, he hangs out with the Chechen President Kadyrov, he's on national Television, people in Chechnya buy him 200,000 Dollar Cars. By all accounts he's more popular than most fighters in the UFC, but because the UFC shows no interest in signing major TV Deals in Russia, doesn't put on shows in Russia, and sticks to a PPV based product which is only purchased by American's, Mexican's and Canadian's...along with a focus on American based Television networks it's going to be impossible under these circumstances for foreign fighters to " move the needle ". It doesn't mean they don't have worth however.
A fighter like Mairbek who's 28 years old, 5-1 in the UFC, 4 fight win streak all by knockouts is a lot more popular than you might think. He actually appeals to several demographics, the Middle Eastern and Islamic demographic, the Russian Demographic and the Kavkaz demographic. The UFC told him they'd get him a VISA and they've failed to do so for over a year now, when he asked about getting a fight on a Europe card Joe Silva said " there's no room on any of the cards " and that was 6 months ago, he hasn't been injured. If he were American he would not be treated like this and such treatment will lead to much of the non North American and Brazilian talent in the world signing to other promotions rather than the UFC.
The UFC is looking at things often from a short term gains perspective, just because they fail to target and connect with international fan bases doesn't mean fighters from those area's are worthless. The irony is, fighters from the Caucus got so popular without any support from the UFC, they'd be even bigger draws if they actually tried to connect to the Russia demographic, much more popular. Same goes for fighters in Japan like Kyoji, the UFC makes little to no effort to grow the sport in Japan, to sign top Japanese fighters, to promote Japanese fighters and they hardly put cards on in Japan, let alone good cards....
To me, this is the single most worrying thing going on in the UFC along with fighter pay and the Reebok fiasco and I hear little to no mention of it from fans ever. Whenever I try to bring it up I usually hear the " UFC is a business and fighter X doesn't sell ". They fail to see everything this entails though and they also fail to see how fighters like Kyoji Horiguchi, Khabib Nurmagomedov or fighters from elsewhere really could sell and be stars if only they'd restructure their business in some ways and have a more world wide vision.
These fighters deserve better.
Anyways, fighters like Mairbek Taisumov are believe it or not, very popular. He has nearly 225k Instagram Followers, he hangs out with the Chechen President Kadyrov, he's on national Television, people in Chechnya buy him 200,000 Dollar Cars. By all accounts he's more popular than most fighters in the UFC, but because the UFC shows no interest in signing major TV Deals in Russia, doesn't put on shows in Russia, and sticks to a PPV based product which is only purchased by American's, Mexican's and Canadian's...along with a focus on American based Television networks it's going to be impossible under these circumstances for foreign fighters to " move the needle ". It doesn't mean they don't have worth however.
A fighter like Mairbek who's 28 years old, 5-1 in the UFC, 4 fight win streak all by knockouts is a lot more popular than you might think. He actually appeals to several demographics, the Middle Eastern and Islamic demographic, the Russian Demographic and the Kavkaz demographic. The UFC told him they'd get him a VISA and they've failed to do so for over a year now, when he asked about getting a fight on a Europe card Joe Silva said " there's no room on any of the cards " and that was 6 months ago, he hasn't been injured. If he were American he would not be treated like this and such treatment will lead to much of the non North American and Brazilian talent in the world signing to other promotions rather than the UFC.
The UFC is looking at things often from a short term gains perspective, just because they fail to target and connect with international fan bases doesn't mean fighters from those area's are worthless. The irony is, fighters from the Caucus got so popular without any support from the UFC, they'd be even bigger draws if they actually tried to connect to the Russia demographic, much more popular. Same goes for fighters in Japan like Kyoji, the UFC makes little to no effort to grow the sport in Japan, to sign top Japanese fighters, to promote Japanese fighters and they hardly put cards on in Japan, let alone good cards....
To me, this is the single most worrying thing going on in the UFC along with fighter pay and the Reebok fiasco and I hear little to no mention of it from fans ever. Whenever I try to bring it up I usually hear the " UFC is a business and fighter X doesn't sell ". They fail to see everything this entails though and they also fail to see how fighters like Kyoji Horiguchi, Khabib Nurmagomedov or fighters from elsewhere really could sell and be stars if only they'd restructure their business in some ways and have a more world wide vision.
These fighters deserve better.
