Issue 061

April 2010

The main event is no longer sacred. After years of reverential treatment, a worrying epidemic has spread across mixed martial arts, and it threatens to break the majestic aura that surrounds a headline bout. Its name is the ‘co-main event’.  

The final fight on a card should be something that’s exhilarating to even think about. It’s akin to a film’s last car chase; the boss at the end of a video game. It’s a fight of greater importance than any other booked that night. It’s the cornerstone of the fight industry and should be preserved at all costs. 

Recently, prominent events have seen great undercard matches slapped with the unnecessary haphazard titling of ‘co-main event’. Josh Koscheck’s fight with Anthony Johnson from UFC 106 had that treatment, while UFC 103 had Cro Cop vs Dos Santos. UFC 107 was topped by the fantastic lightweight title fight between BJ Penn and Diego Sanchez, but with a co-main event of the comparatively weaker Frank Mir vs Cheick Kongo. While the latter was a very interesting fight indeed, to deem it a co-main event is ridiculous. 

In music, two bands might co-headline a tour only if they are of equal stature or draw-power. In theory, either band could end the evening without upsetting the balance or fans. This couldn’t be applied to the events mentioned earlier. If a fight is a co-main event it should be as important and exciting as the main event. 

While in essence this application of appendages doesn’t affect the quality of the fights themselves, it’s the principle of the matter. Why would a promoter, such as the UFC, choose to intentionally misrepresent the significance of a bout? Purely for promotional purposes. Although you can’t blame a company for trying to generate interest in a fight by giving it a flash billing, many fans find the activity almost offensive. A fight like Mir-Kongo is simply not of the same distinction as Penn-Sanchez, and it’s obvious to even an outside observer.  

Although it might not have the same effect to refrain from using the co-main event status, where’s the harm in simply leaving a fight on the undercard? In a time where fans are growing detrimentally fickle when it comes to fight cards that don’t feature overwhelmingly important main events or title fights, is this distortion a smart tactic? It seems foolish to goad the wallets of overly vocal die-hard fans.  

There are obvious exceptions. UFC 100 featured two bouts that shared the main event, and rightly so. St Pierre-Alves and Mir-Lesnar were to a certain extent interchangeable, and either could have headlined cards separately. UFC 111, headlined by St Pierre-Hardy with Mir-Carwin as a co-main event, is another example in that both fights are of near equal importance. These are co-main events that have the tag for the right reason: relevance.

The legacy of the main event is also frequently defiled via another method. Strikeforce is one of the worst offenders for shuffling fight cards in such a way that it diminishes the importance of its own title belts, and breaks fans’ unwritten requirements for a headline fight. Inside three of five events, the Californian company have placed a fight contesting one of their own belts below a main event that had no Strikeforce title attached. Yes, booking the fighter or fighters that are the biggest draw in the main event is basic matchmaking, but placing a title fight underneath a three-round headline completely diminishes the relevance and importance of that belt in the eyes of fans, and confuses the relevance of that main event.  

Having fans respect champions is one of the greatest necessities for any promoter, more so a company that is looking to grow its stock by establishing respect for their fighters. If there’s a title being contested it should be the marquee matchup. If people care less about Gilbert Melendez’ fight for the lightweight title against Josh Thompson than seeing Cung Le demonstrate his sanshou, the promoter may have misjudged where the weight of the marketing priorities should lie. How can a main event hold mystique year after year when it is diluted with theatrical bad-blood bouts or over-hyped squash matches?  

A fight card that delivers unexpected quality is fantastic. Such is the volatile nature of mixed martial arts, any fight can become a classic whatever it’s billed as. Though that’s proven, it’s not the booking of these specific matchups with their unrealized potential that is the issue; it’s the unworthy tag of ‘co main event’ attached to them. Exaggerating an interesting fight between borderline contenders into a co-main event translates as patronizing and insults the intelligence of a fan base. The rich heritage of true main events shouldn’t be watered down like that.