Message to the UFC and MMA Promoters: Don't Build Fights, Book Them

I wonder if the UFC would make him vacate his belt and just move to 205? It would kill title defenses if he fought at 205 and defended the 185 strap.

What happens if he become just another 205er, do you ruin his legacy because the fans want it? If he goes 3-3 at 205, all the luster is gone. I am not sure where I sit on this.

205 sounds better than a GSP fight to me.

Is predictable

It’s not always about Dana….fighters and managers have a say as well.

Really good article.

There’s value to “building” fighters but not fights. While I think Strikeforce handled Fedor in a really stupid way, I do understand why they wanted to build Fedor to an American audience before putting him in ‘big money’ fights. From a business perspective, it wasn’t the worst strategy… you want to maximize the number of viewers for the biggest fights you can put on, and neither Fedor nor any other Strikeforce HW is a huge draw to American audiences. Hell, Kimbo (for EliteXC) and either Bobby Lashley or Herschel Walker are probably the biggest draws for MMA on CBS.

Also, people are confusing “building fights” and promoting/hyping/advertising/building a fight that’s already been booked. By “building fights,” Rossen and Nate mean booking a series of fights with the angle that they’ll end in the fight we really want to see. Hence the failure of Gracie-Shamrock at UFC 2 and Wand-Chuck in Pride. Those fights that we wanted to see didn’t happen because of the fights leading up to them (Gracie quitting the tournament and Chuck getting beat by Rampage).

I think it’s a gamble for both sides or anyway you try to do it..

Building fights up is a calculated gamble.. But the honesty of just booking the fights at their earliest availability also has a lot of risk vs. reward too..

It’s a double edged sword in sense.. You risk it either way you try it.. What’s good for business isn’t always whats good for fans and vice versa..

But speaking from a pure fan standpoint.. I agree with Nate.. For our own selfish reasons we don’t like being put on hold or waiting.. lol

I agree with your artile but one thing…

“Move Silva up to light heavyweight, forget about sacrificing GSP to him”

Are you kidding me?

I understand that Silva would be a favorite, but not even an all too heavy one.
If you can walk into a cage, GSP can take you down.
If anyone can last 5 rounds consistantly in MMA, his name is Georges St Pierre.
And if you an spend the best part of 6 consecutive rounds in BJ Penns guard and not ever be in an real danger, you can be confident about rolling with Silva.

Silva would be favorite if the fight ever happened, but sacrificing GSP to Silva.
Pull the other one!

Neither one is enough of a draw, unfortunately. Velasquez vs. Nogueira did a very poor PPV buyrate by UFC standards despite Velasquez’s status as an undefeated title contender prospect and Nogueira being a legend who’d just rebounded with a win over Randy Couture. Dos Santos is not a bigger draw than either of those guys. They would be losing a Heavyweight Title fight and the much larger buyrate that could bring by having them fight each other, instead of having Velasquez get the next fight, and the winner of Nelson/JDS get the shot after that.

GSP wont fight anderson silva until he’s cleaned out the 170lb division and created a legacy for himself. Spencer wont let him near silva and he’s not really ducking him… the guy is in a weight class 15lbs heavier. In boxing people move up and down a few pounds… 15 pounds is huge percentage wise and they only use hands from a physiological perspective.

Silva is not going down to 170.

the 205 lb class is still going through the motions with identifying a dominant champ so there’s no fight title fight at 205 that is currently more marketable or available than Anderson vs CHael or Anderson vs Vitor.

The UFC needs to keep putting on cards. Without a long-term plan, it becomes a lot more difficult to have consistently interesting cards. One of the UFC’s keys to success is to retain followers through consistently delivering solid product, and to have solid undercards as part of that product. The actual issue, which the UFC handles well and Strikeforce does not, is to have matchups that have the potential to build either fighter, regardless of who wins.

Example: why is Cain waiting for a shot and JDS fighting Nelson? Because Cain-JDS knocks off one contender, while JDS-Nelson can only create a contender; either JDS puts on a show against a decently known TUF winner, or Nelson wins over a legit contender. With Cain-JDS, it’s a good/great fight among 2 guys in the mix for the title, but it also means that no matter what, one of them is pushed back.

On the other hand, Strikeforce’s mistake is that they could only match up Fedor with a fat tire salesman and a UFC washout – neither of which become compelling challengers on their own if they win. The problem isn’t attempting to build fighters or fights, it’s doing it in a way that assumes an outcome.

Further, while GSP-Silva would be huge, keeping them in their divisions gives a series of title fights with guys (at least GSP, haven’t seen if Silva has started to draw) who could carry a card even if they were matched up with a scrub. 2 fighters, each a champion and an untarnished draw across multiple cards makes more money than one superfight.

This is using Strikeforce’s poor planning to indulge in a bunch of short-sighted fantasy booking.

and the first thing that comes to mind is “Jesus, I didn’t realize how fuckin’ BIG Wand’s noggin was.”

Dana White needs to quit screwing around with Anderson Silva — possibly the greatest pure talent in MMA history, and also a man who has shown he MUST be challenged in order to deliver a good performance. Move Silva up to light heavyweight, forget about sacrificing GSP to him, and let Silva fight the biggest and best that division has to offer.

And if Anderson Silva wins the title at 205? Hell let’s see how he does at heavyweight.

Somebody is finally listening to me, And Anderson!

Here’s a message to wannabe promoters, leave the running of a billion dollar business to the guys who actually know what they are doing.

Nothing I find more annoying than writers telling the UFC how to run their business, when they would be bankrupt if they were the one’s making the decisions and not Dana and company.

If by “building fights” you mean putting together a bunch of arbitrary preliminaries before the best fight (see GSP/Silva) then I agree.

If by “building fights” you mean making guys earn their title shots, then you need to remember that this is a sport, and guys need to earn their spot.

(And I’m still mystified as to why people think Fedor/Overeem would have been a big fight. Between the two Werdum was a bigger name than Overeem in the US, having had several fights in the UFC while Overeem… beat some guys at 5 AM on HDNet? Had big muscles?)

Even at their worst, most opportunistic moments, Zuffa’s match making still contains some shred of sport relevance. Is Toney vs. Couture a freakshow? I’d say so. But it’s result will have at least some implication at LHW whichever way it ends up. Can’t say the same about Strikeforce or a lot of Japanese cards, which I would accuse of “building” sometimes and “protectionism” even more.

I think comparing sport metaphors are completely worn out, so here’s another one. Nobody really wants to see the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, but if they win the games they get the shot. Same thing in the UFC/WEC. While marketability certainly plays a role in their match-making, results and achievements are the real deciding factor. It sacrifices short-term profits for long-term brand quality and I think it’s the right mindset, even if it delays/deprives fans of their fantasy matchups.