UFC Fight Night 223 attracted a lot of commentary for all the
wrong reasons. It finally caused many to call out the promotion for
how pitifully weak its main events and overall cards have become,
especially for fight nights relegated to the ESPN+ app.
I first wrote about this trend three
years ago after UFC on ESPN 10, which was headlined by
Cynthia
Calvillo vs.
Jessica Eye.
I argued that that was a new low point for a UFC main event and
time hasn't altered that judgment, as neither combatant has won in
the three years since, with Eye going 0-3 before retiring and
Calvillo currently on a five-fight losing streak. With this
increasing dissatisfaction, is there an opportunity for the second
largest MMA organization,
Bellator MMA, to take some ground from the UFC?
Surely, all they have to do is put on better events with better
fighters? No.
Say what you will about the UFC, but they know what they're doing.
As I noted a few weeks ago,
the plan is ingenious from a
business perspective. All the UFC needs in order to fulfill its
lucrative ESPN deal is a certain amount of content. Quality doesn't
factor into it. Sure, there is an incentive to sell pay-per-views
and tickets for their bigger shows, but even then, past the main
card, or in some cases, just the top two fights, it is as generic
and forgettable as any Fight Night. However, for the shows at the
Apex or in smaller markets there is no incentive to put on any
quality fights, and we can observe the results.
This also applies to individual champions. It doesn't matter that
Bellator's
Vadim
Nemkov is the best active light heavyweight in the world and
would be a significant favorite against his UFC counterpart,
Jamahal
Hill. The power of the UFC brand and logo mean Hill's fights
will be watched by far more people, and the event Hill headlines
will make a bigger gate than a Nemkov match in Bellator, never mind
the PPV buys, a market that the No. 2 promotion can't even crack.
Why else do you think the UFC was so comfortable allowing their
reigning heavyweight champion
Francis
Ngannou to leave? They could have anointed previous champion
Stipe
Miocic as the new belt holder and his next fight would be more
successful than Ngannou's debut in any rival promotion. The value
of the UFC logo surpasses the individual value of all but maybe one
or two fighters,
Conor
McGregor and
Jon Jones.
So if card quality and fighter quality don't matter or change
anything, what the hell can Bellator do? Are they doomed to lose to
the UFC the same way that Scott Coker's previous promotion
Strikeforce did, despite what turned out to be fantastic talent
with a slew of future UFC champions and legends, including
Daniel
Cormier and
Ronda
Rousey? I have two ideas, both centered around the same theme;
namely, to separate itself from the UFC as much as possible.
Change the Way you Market and Present Your Product
The way the UFC presents its product is stale. It's uptight, trying
to ape the coverage of mainstream sports like football and
basketball. It's also lazy, with the same dull video packages
featuring a fighter training in the gym, talking about their life
struggles, and/or love of their family. It's corny, with some
crappy cover of a played-out, popular song for their pay-per-view
commercials. Most of all, it's more boring than the rematch between
Carla
Esparza and
Rose
Namajunas.
I've written before about how the
UFC can fix this, but Bellator can steal those same ideas. Look
at what
Pride Fighting Championships did back in the
day and how they presented legends like
Wanderlei
Silva and
Fedor
Emelianenko. Did we EVER see video segments featuring those
men's families, or looking sad when talking about their upbringing?
No, because the goal was not to make them normal or relatable. That
s--- is for ordinary mortals! I want top fighters presented as
larger-than-life, cool bad asses, and that's exactly what Pride
did. Silva was “The Axe Murderer,” an intimidating destroyer who
would head-stomp you into oblivion if you looked at him funny.
Emelianenko was a cyborg, an unflappable killing machine. Compare
that to how differently the UFC would depict the great Russian
heavyweight. They would show off what a nice, mild-mannered family
man he was and perhaps his devotion to the Eastern Orthodox church.
That may be a lot closer to the truth, but the whole point of MMA
promotion is to sell us on a fantasy. Why do you think McGregor is
so damn popular? Bellator's current marketing is too similar to the
UFC's. It needs a complete overhaul.
Do Unique Things the UFC Doesn't
To Bellator's credit, they understand this and are doing it to a
certain degree. They hold grand prix tournaments, calling to mind
the glory days of Pride. Similarly, they cross-promote with
Rizin Fighting Federation for New Year's Eve
cards. They hold events in unique locales like Hawaii. This is all
very good. However, it's not enough.
How about holding some cards not in a cage, but a ring or
experimenting with different round lengths? What about holding
events in Asia where knees to a downed opponent, soccer kicks, and
head stomps are all legal? This may all sound crazy, but that's
because so many promotions are stuck in the rigid, “serious sport”
mindset that the UFC is using. Smaller rivals, however, can't
afford to do this, or else they will be dismissed as ersatz copies
of the genuine article—and yes, that includes Bellator. Above all,
one should remember that MMA is the greatest sport ever invented
and thus deserves to be depicted in the most amazing, thrilling,
and fun manner possible. If one wants to take some territory from
the UFC, they should seek to bring that out in their product,
contrasting it with the increasing dullness of the largest MMA
promotion.