Issue 131
August 2015
Gareth A Davies MMA and Boxing Correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, London, UK remembers the good old days of looking back on major events.
Few people like to look back, and in MMA, the ‘good old days’ weren’t always all that good. Many, many things have changed for the better.
No doubt we’ll be casting our minds back in a decade and shaking our heads about a time when the sport, and the organizations, largely turned a blind eye to endemic, systemic use of performance-enhancing drugs. Plus a host of other things like just how many fighters lived a subsistence level lifestyle.
In many ways, MMA fighters still belong to the ‘poor class’ in sport. Scruffier cousins in other ‘minority’ sports still earn much more. And as we all know, the men and women many of us admire deeply train and fight, quite literally, to gristle and bone.
But in the vein of looking back, just for a moment, wasn’t there a time when we savored events, both in the build-up and in the aftermath, during water cooler moments. Especially the huge UFC numbered events.
I thought the UFC 187 card was back to the very best. A couple of years ago it might have been talked about for weeks. Yet given the rushing tide, the fight organization moved on quickly to its next event in Brazil a week later, and it was quickly forgotten.
But truth is, four years ago, we would have dissected the matchmaking, execution and ramifications of UFC 187, some might say, like the old days.
Consider this: it had a bearing on title implications in flyweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. Chris Weidman made a massive statement. Don’t we all want to join his club now?
The heavyweight slugfest between Travis Browne and Andrei Arlovski was thrilling, and the sportsmanship afterwards emotionally stirring. Then it had Daniel Cormier – in my view not roundly appreciated by some fans – breaking Anthony Johnson after two rounds. A huge statement performance.
It smacked of the game plan Eric Del Fierro wanted for Alex Gustafsson. Problem was that ‘Gus’ couldn’t grind Johnson, who really is a scary beast early in a fight. But once that hugely muscled frame is made to work, he loses heart. Cormier might not be the most talented fighter on earth, but grinding he has.
My point here is that to create big, big occasions, takes time. But there should be time to digest it afterwards. I’m still talking about it to new fans. It was a great advert for the sport.
Roiuse-Cyborg teasing
The most lucrative fight in MMA right now is Ronda Rousey vs. Cris Cyborg. We’re all waiting for it. In some ways, it has the same on-off nonsense that Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao had in teasing fans until it finally generated 4.4 million pay-per-view buys. And it wouldn’t surprise me to see the UFC keep teasing that one out until early 2016, or even late May, but it may well reach the same levels that Georges St Pierre, Brock Lesnar and that era brought in.
Rousey-Cyborg should break the two million mark, and let’s all be honest, even though the weight-cut will stack it in Rousey’s favor, we all want to see it.
Teething time with Reebok
The Reebok uniform deal fascinates me because so many different fighters are expressing so many different opinions. But opinion formers may well change the execution of how $70 million is distributed. Should the Reebok fighter pay scale, for example, be based on the number of fights and the ranking? What if a highly-ranked fighter from elsewhere is signed and after one contest is ranked number two?
The UFC has always been about market economy, and perhaps it will come to reflect this in even more detail as we progress. There will always be teething issues.
This was raised by Aljamain Sterling, who’s rapidly making a name for himself in the UFC’s 135lb division. He has three victories in a row, and is already ranked #8 in the weight class. Yet the 25-year-old is in the lowest tier of the sponsorship deal, earning $2,500 per fight until he’s competed five times in the UFC. It will then be doubled to $5,000.
Sterling asked for ‘major changes’ suggesting himself and the likes of Al Iaquinta, Paul Felder, Elias Theodorou, Thomas Almeida and Beneil Dariush, all get the rough end of the wedge. The UFC will be listening and looking at the formulae.
Bottom line is Lorenzo Fertitta wants the UFC to be recognized on the same playing field as the NFL to elevate the value of the brand. Worth repeating, too, that 100% of the money is going to the fighters. We might also remind ourselves it’s effectively putting them into business with Reebok because fighters get a cut of any of their kit that Reebok sells.
Paige VanZant, a Reebok-sponsored athlete, believes the deal is great and it’s the only reason she can pay her rent. Fighters like VanZant, with a USP, are going to benefit over others. Market economy again. We’ll never defeat it. So we must embrace it.
