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[smoogy]

By Adam Morgan

Does the UFC know what it’s doing? I know they’ve got a monopoly on the sport and they’re “expanding into international markets,” “breaking into the mainstream,” and every other cliché you could possibly think of for making it big.

But how big are they? Since UFC 71, there has been little to no buzz surrounding the UFC or any of their events. There was no buzz here in the U.S. for UFC 72. That card didn’t deserve buzz because it was really awful with the exception of one fight. On paper it was bad, in reality it was worse. I can deal with there being no marketing for that event, no hype.

UFC 73, however, is another story. On paper, we have the most talent filled card of the year. Two titles, the lightweight and the middleweight, will be on the line. A contender matchup between Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans, a fight that could mean so much to each of their careers. The debut of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in the UFC. The undercard fights alone on this card could make up an entire Ultimate Fight Night card.

All this talent and no hype whatsoever. You haven’t seen Sean Sherk, Hermes Franca, Anderson Silva, or Nate Marquardt on the cover of any magazines this week. You haven’t heard anybody on PTI or Around The Horn talking about UFC this week. You haven’t heard jack.

Why?

I don’t have the answer. I guess it’s hard to market Nate Marquardt, who can be considered boring by some. It’s also hard to market Anderson Silva, an unbelievably exciting fighter, who doesn’t speak any english. It’s also hard to market Nogueira when you have provided him with no push. In fact, it’s hard to market any of these guys when you give them no push.

I also have to wonder if the UFC is too busy trying to expand internationally to care about pushing their U.S. cards. This wouldn’t make much sense, but then again, neither do a lot of the things that UFC chooses to do. Just a thought.

On the recent UFC 73 Countdown on Spike TV, Joe Rogan claimed that it’s going to be crazy in Sacramento. How crazy can it be when reports are that the place isn’t even going to be sold out? How does this happen? The best card of the year, possibly ever in MMA, and the place isn’t a sell out?

How do you let this happen? This card is better, top to bottom, than UFC 71 could ever have thought about being. We haven’t seen 1/4 of the marketing that UFC 71 received. Why? Lacking star power?

Whose fault is that?

When you only push a handful of guys, you have a card like UFC 73 that is very appealing to hardcore fans, but very disinteresting to the casual fan. This is an obstacle the UFC needs to overcome.

They have to convince every fan to buy every pay-per-view, and not just the ones with the UFC made superstars or else it will always be a niche sport, never mainstream.

http://www.fightopinion.com/2007/07/...he-hype-train/

I think he overstates the lack of marketing for this fight, but he's right on about how the UFC needs to give more push to some of these semi-stars.

[Clint]

At the same time though, I think they risk looking bad when they try to push too many people (they end up with Herring or Crocop incidents).

Sometimes I think it's better to just let the fans figure out who deserved the hype themselves. But that's just my opinion.

Although I would have thought that they would have tried to push the Tito-Rashad beef a little more in commercials and such.

[Dork8503]

they only market a few fighters prob for the reason so they can keep a leash on shit.

I mean you have break out stars who make it on their own.


You can bet anything if Nate wins the title in a 5 round boring ass dec he will get no marketing at all and you can bet they will put him against Franklin an if Franklin cant beat him give him Filho.

Fact is Nate is one of if not the most boring fighter in ufc mw.

Also I am sure they think Tito alone can sell this card and to be honest Tito can sell this card good, but with more advertising this card could have been huge and built around Tito because he is a huge draw.

[mauladala]

Wasn't Tito and/or Rashad just on the Hotlist on ESPNews?

[drop toe hold]

this card sells itself, 2 title fights, nogeria's debut, i dont know why but tito still sells

[eazye76]

I guess ESPN only covers UFC when Chuck fights(other than small shit on ESPNEWS)

[poike]

In my opinion, if there's anything that could bring MMA down, it's articles and thoughts like that. If you aim at the stars, you might end up in the treecrowns -- when the crowd still look at stars they miss what just landed in the treecrowns. Like that guy. He seems to be taking the MMA-news and MMA in news as if it was big like professional boxing, NBA, NHL or any other big sports-organization in the states. It isn't. At least not yet. UFC can't make the "big news on CNN" each time it has a PPV.

And the hyping of fighters. I hate it. It's like every time someone is hyped he gets upset by someone lesser hyped and known by the mainstream fans. I mean, let the fights themselves do the hyping -- not some young PR-people thinking of cool taglines to the next event.

[pillow]

I think Anderson Silva COULD be popular. He dances, he can finish fights. I love the guy, despite not speaking English. All of the people I watch the PPV's with are fans as well. The things he said to Rich Franklin after he beat Jason MacDonald were perfect.

I don't think a person's inability to speak English is that big of a hindrance really. Look at early Arnold and Jackie Chan movies, and nowadays Tony Jaa movies I suppose.

[Doggage]

I think the UFC is doing what they can for this card. Tito was on The Hotlist, and ESPN News is showing the weigh-ins live like they did for UFC 71. I personally wish they would pump Big Nog a little more because I can't wait to see him in the octagon. That's my only complaint.

[WadoKai]

You guys make it sound like the UFC isn't doing enough to hype their events. The fact remains that they're going to bring in over a million dollars at the gate, and anywhere between 20 - 30 million in PPV revenue. The fighter payout for this PPV will probably be around 1.5 million.

So the UFC is laughing either way. They're coming out way ahead. They've got a fanbase that is serving them well, and they're still appealing to that loyal demographic with a solid fight card.

This card has Tito on it as far as "stars" with name recognition in the USA. But, he's not fighting for a title, and most people are only giving him a 50/50 chance of winning. So why use his name to really push the event when the fight doesn't put him in #1 contendership and he's coming off a loss with another decent chance here at losing? If he gets by Rashad and gets into title contention, THEN use his name recognition to draw a crowd, a la Chuck / Tito 2. He's not gonna vault Rashad to stardom if Rashad beats him, because Rashad has the personality of a chloroformed quadraplegic.

UFC 74 will get a huge push because Couture is on it, and when Liddell comes back you'll see more big marketting. If they really spend the money to market the PPVs with the big names, it'll be more effective and get exposure for everyone on those cards.

It's hard to market a MW champ to Americans when he doesn't speak English, because they're very clearly hung up on one's ability to speak said language. Sherk could be marketted, but imo, the guy needs to defend his title successfully here, then get another title defense in before 2008 before he's solidified as a great and actively defending champ.

UFC 73's been marketted well to the same base that the UFC has marketted every PPV to that hasn't had a Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, or Ortiz title fight.