Whoops, sorry.
I'll edit that after this, lol.
Found the article I was reading, and while they aren't always the brightest of the bunch, I agree a bit with this one...
Taken from MMATorch.com
BENT: UFC Not 'UNICEF' wrote:
Fedor Emelianenko is a great, great fighter. Perhaps the best heavyweight ever, clearly the best heavyweight not named Lesnar and even in that dream fight it is a lock he would open as a heavy betting favorite. However, Fedor has never drawn dime one in this business and is not a name known to most, if even many, of the very fans lining the Zuffa wallet today. You could combine the PPV sales of BOTH Affliction cards he headlined and add to this total the number of sales the Pride event from Las Vegas in 2006 did, and this gross number looks downright gross when compared to any of the recent UFC PPV events. Fedor is a superstar fighter indeed, but he is not a superstar, nor is he marketable.
Fedor cannot speak English and he doesn't even look menacing. Selling him as the baddest man on the planet to the non-hardcore fans is going to be no easy task. Telling these fans that he decimated Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski will only elicit shrugs from fans who tell you that if those two mattered that they would have still been in the UFC.
Fedor never makes very large sales from his fights, because only a small majority actually know who he is. Great fight, terrible sales. And, being that UFC IS a business, it only makes sense for them to toss aside the fights the fans want and do what is profitable. Tragic, but its needed...I think.
wrote:If Fedor waltzes in and beats Brock it suddenly lends credence to the argument that maybe the UFC doesn't have the world's best fighters and gives others hope if they wish to compete. Perception is reality, and Brock Lesnar is considered the best heavyweight in the world by the largest portion of fans. Fedor coming in and stomping him down would not boost Fedor to Brock levels but rather take everything down a notch and cause fans to question the validity of every other champion.
The only way this becomes a win for the UFC is if Brock were to defeat Fedor, and the only win this gives Dana is the last word over all of the mouth breathers who have railed on about how Fedor is the best in the world. They would no longer be able to claim as such, Dana could without a doubt declare the best heavyweight in the world is the UFC champ and yet this would do very little to make his company any more money than that which they are making as it stands. Hardcore fans will tell you that Fedor vs. Brock is a dream match and they are correct. They will also tell you it would be the biggest box office draw ever but they would only be partly correct.
Full article here:
http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish ... 2969.shtml
Its terrible, but the "perception is reality" bit is true. I never paid much attention until recently, but the UFC ads act as if there is no other MMA organization. UFC has some of the best fighters, but whether or not they have THE best is arguable...
This little thing M-1, DREAM and Strikeforce have going will be nice (especially since the fights SHOULD air on Showtime. Now, only if I got Showtime...
) but the more and more publicity they get, the more UFC is going to pump up their advertisement campaign. Eventually, I think they will come to the same end as the others and Fedor will be left with either coming to the UFC on a MUCH lower payroll than he could have or be forced to go into some backwoods organization.
I'm by no means trying to start a Dana White bashing contest, because he really has brought UFC to the public and he has done a very good job of it. Granted he does some under-handed things quite often, but thats how businesses go. The choir boys won't make it.