Saturday morning, I woke up knowing that UFC 75 was most likely going on in England at the very moment I stepped out of bed. Normally, I would rush downstairs to the computer, immediately check the results, and brag to the MMA fantasy leagues how well my picks "owned" everyone. But not for UFC 75. Since it was a free event on SpikeTV and I had been shelling out cash to see all the other notable MMA events such as Art of War, ShoXC, and UFC 74, I was glad to save a little coin to see the event on tape delay. I grabbed a cup of coffee, some breakfast, watched some television, some college football, my beloved Northsiders, the Chicago Cubs, and then finally settled in for UFC 75. During the day, I received some phone calls from friends talking about the event coming up that evening. A few decided to drive down and got there about an hour before the event started. As I sat outside cooking up some brats on the grill, holding a beer in my hand, an unbelievable question shot through my ears. "Who the hell is Dan Henderson anyways? "Rampage" is going to kill this guy, I don't even know who the hell Henderson is, must be some shitty can." It was amazing to me. I was completely dumbfounded by the question. I proceeded to explain that Dan Henderson was an Olympic team wrestler in Greco-Roman. He had an unbelievable record of 22-6 in his entire MMA career with notable wins over Wanderlei Silva, Vitor Belfort, Kazuo Misaki, Murilo Bustamante, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Murilo Rua, Renato Sobral, and Gilbert Yvel. He's the current welterweight and middleweight PRIDE Champion, first MMA fighter ever to hold both titles at the same time.1 To my surprise, my buddy didn't really care. He'd never heard of him, therefore he declined to really let a guy of this caliber into his world of MMA. He just figured Quinton would destroy him in the first round. He didn't know who any of those notable wins were except for Wanderlei Silva, and my friend hasn't really seen any footage on him either. He just knows through hearing me speak of him that he's a great fighter. What's the problem here? My buddy is a typical casual MMA fan who's directly in the demographic that the UFC is aiming for. He's a bit amped for the fights, but I'm unbelievable nervous about the light heavyweight championship. I know the two guys are unbelievable fighters, I've seen nearly all of each fighter's past fights, and I know what's on the line here. He has no clue, no real excitement, and completely discounts Henderson due to the fact he hasn't seen any of his fights, and knows nothing about him. This brings me to my big question: What is the UFC doing wrong in their marketing department?
UFC 75 Unified Belt? Where?
The big question when Dan Henderson was given the title shot against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was what was going to happen to the PRIDE belt now that Zuffa, UFC parenting company, had bought PRIDE Fighting Championships. First, it was that the belts were not on the line.2 Then a few days later, the belts were going to be unified.3 It seemed the rumor went back and forth, back and forth. Finally, it was assumed that the belts would be unified and MMA would have it's first undisputed Light Heavyweight champion of the World. Did anyone really see that? No. Once the post-fight interviews were over, there was no passing of the guard, or belt, no big extravaganza that we used to see at the PRIDE Grand Prixs with the musical score blaring and the streamers falling from the rafters. Henderson didn't even come out with the PRIDE belt on. None of his entourage was carrying it, the commentators didn't even mention it. Why was it not a factor all of the sudden? Dana, can you answer that?
Two ideas come to mind. First, the whole PRIDE acquisition and organization could just be a huge confusion to the casual MMA fan. The UFC may be trying to stray from the boxing arena with the IBF, WBA, WBF, the list goes on. Instead of confusing fans with the thought of two organizations, one being acquired by another and now there being a type of "playoff" to determine who will be the champion under a combined organization, the UFC decided to create all this hype in the MMA media, but ultimately leave it out when it mattered the most. Secondly, maybe the UFC really just didn't think the U.S. audience really cared. As a hardcore fan of MMA, I loved PRIDE. PRIDE was an organization full of spectacular fighters, spectacular knockouts, and spectacular events. I feel the same way about the UFC, and I was very excited when Zuffa bought PRIDE. But the excitement is no longer there for me anymore. The fight was great, but the UFC really acted as if it was just another day, another dollar made. They shoved Dan Henderson aside and touted Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. I love Jackson's skill, his fighting, his personality, but I really thought the UFC dropped the ball by shoving Henderson aside like that. For such a meaningful fight, the UFC made it far from that.
Personalities
What can be done to really make the UFC's marketing more educational to the fans? What can be done to make the fans really learn the game, learn who the fighters are, learn how important some of these fights can be, and ultimately make the fans even more excited about the events? One huge idea that has already been brought up in the MMA community is the idea that these fighters are not showcased enough. Personalities are not shown enough. When we get a dose of Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, we love it. Stephen Quadros did an interview with Jackson during his show on the Sherdog Radio network awhile back, and he noted that he found it odd that many people did not know how unbelievably funny Quinton is, and charismatic he is when people are around him. He was very funny during the post-fight interviews, funny during his radio interviews, and overall just a likeable guy outside the ring. But a lot of people don't know that side. They say "Man, he looks like a bad dude, a real crazy lunatic..". Fact is, he may look that way, but he is a serious professional MMA fighter who works hard and respects many of his opponents. Why isn't the UFC marketing his personality more? Chuck Liddell was successful with the MMA faithful for knocking people out. That was all he did, he knocked people out, and everybody loved him for it. He's soft spoken and not very outlandish when speaking in interviews. So, what happens when you market a guy that not only knocks people out, but is funny, likeable, and generally good for the sport? I'm going to stretch an idea and say that probably ten times the revenue that Liddell has brought in over the years.
The List
I compiled a small list of ideas I had in my head of things that the UFC could do to really amp up marketing, educate fans, and educate fans on the new fighters coming in from PRIDE. Fact is, they haven't done really any good marketing of these guys coming over from PRIDE. They really dropped the ball on it. Instead of really capitalizing on them, I have friends of mine who ask me who Crocop is still to this day even though he's fought in three UFC fights. On to my list:
1. More Personal Fighter Profiles
Didn't they have an "Inside the UFC" show you ask? Yes, they did. But it got cancelled. Fact is, the UFC needs to have some sort of show on SpikeTV every week that highlights a different fighter every week. The NBA has a show like that, the NFL has an entire network devoted to football that has shows like that, NASCAR has shows and a network devoted to that, hell, even the NHL had a show that was actually very good that went in-depth with teams during the season. The UFC had a show like that, but it was axed due to ratings. It's time for a resurrection with some new production value. I've heard rumors about a show in the works called "UFC Lifestyles". Idea doesn't sound bad, but please, don't make it like MTV Cribs, I know the same company that owns SpikeTV owns MTV Networks.
2. UFC Unleashed with a Twist
Instead of doing UFC Unleashed with crappy commentary that just introduces what the next fight is, why don't you take a suggestion from FSN and produce a PRIDE FC/UFC show just like what Jay Glazer and Frank Trigg hosted. The show could show older UFC and PRIDE fights with commentary from the hosts on their impact on MMA, their possibly bearing on upcoming fights in the UFC, and they would also showcase the skills of PRIDE fighters coming into the UFC on SpikeTV. It's an idea I can't believe the UFC has yet to take advantage of since they have the PRIDE FC Fight Library. This gives a lot more exposure to PRIDE fighters coming over.
3. Tune up every PRIDE Fighter
Give all the PRIDE guys ample time to adjust to the Octagon. I know, I know, you want your superfights now, but these guys aren't going to perform their absolute best without some type of tune up. If they lose the tune up, then obviously they weren't going to be doing much in the Octagon anyways. I'm tired of hearing the excuse that the UFC could lose their investment. Listen, every investment has risk. Signing a PRIDE fighter to a UFC contract is a big risk, but you have to be willing to give him some type of tune up before the big name fights can happen. In Mirko's case, a bad investment.
4. Pre-UFC event analysis shows
Sunday morning, the NFL has 4 hours of damn analysis shows on ESPN, ABC, CBS, NFL Network, it's ridiculous. Why can't the UFC have a little hour long show before the event hyping up the fights, going over styles, what to expect, maybe some predictions, analysis of each fighter, etc? Some fans watch these fights expecting a one-sided beatdown. If the UFC would actually somehow show each fighter's strengths, it could make the fight more meaningful in the casual fan's eyes. For example, my buddy has seen Robbie Lawler fight, but never seen "Ninja" Rua fight. For that reason, he doesn't care about the title fight in the EliteXC card this weekend. He's much rather looking forward to the Nick Diaz fight. If he actually knew what to expect from "Ninja", I think he'd be much more excited to see the fight. I think it would really spread the word about the UFC more, and get more casual fans really talking about styles and techniques, just like Sunday armchair quarterback fans do.
5. Major network participation, even if it is small
I'm sure Dana is working on this, but major network participation would be key. Getting a UFC Fight Night like event on ABC, CBS, or NBC would be unbelievable. With the recent ratings that UFC 75 got, I don't know if it's a huge push to actually gain network television's bandwidth when SpikeTV sufficiently did the job, but even getting sports networks to highlight the regular events would be a great push into getting the fights, results, and events seen by the average sports fanatic. ESPN sometimes shows the major title fight highlights, but we need more than that on Sportscenter with more frequency.
6. A little confetti
Would it hurt to make a title unification bout actually meaningful? Pull out the stops. I enjoyed the big runway that fighters got to take during the PRIDE events, but we don't absolutely need that. When Fedor Emelianenko won the Heavyweight Title in PRIDE, and the streamers came down as he was hoisted onto the shoulders of his corner men while he had blood running down from his eyes, as a fan, you could actually see a bit of emotion. He knew he had done something great. That was just for the PRIDE belt. At UFC 75, Quinton unified the belts, and all that happened was some funny comments and the event was over. Come on! You can make a celebration without creating a ridiculous environment.
And for a bit of fun, my wishful thinking list...
Bring in the screaming PRIDE girl
For that old nostalgic calling, Lenne Hardt needs to be signed by the UFC and brought over to scare the casual UFC fans.
Just Bleeds Guy on payroll please
Sherdog's very own Jordan Breen brought nostalgia back during a show where he wanted to know what happened to the Just Bleeds Guy, shown here. He's obviously the numero uno fan of the UFC. When he gets out of jail in 2013, have a contract ready for him.
That's all the ideas I have for right now. I'm somewhat tired of these PRIDE guys getting no love from the UFC. As a hardcore MMA fan, I miss PRIDE very much, but was very excited at the prospect of these super fights occurring in the UFC. But having casual MMA fans have no clue who these guys are even after the Countdown shows and All Access shows is amazing to me. Obviously the marketing just isn't cutting it. Yeah, the UFC had awesome ratings for the SpikeTV show, but it was on FREE TV, and it was on an otherwise boring night of sporting events. Get the marketing tank going and bring more of a personal feel to the fighters and to the sport.
There are several points that can be argued against these ideas, the main one being that the shows got low ratings when they were around. I found one thing to be particularly odd when reading Jay Glazer's article in FIGHT! Magazine. NFL players were asking him about PRIDE fighters and UFC fighters while at camp. Obviously the PRIDE FC show on FSN was hitting their demographic and educating those guys into who those fighters were. That's the aim here. To educate fans, and in turn, make them more excited, amped, whatever you want to call it, but more intelligent about the fight game. I think in the long run, this will make the sport even more successful. Basketball, Football, Baseball, we've all played those games, we know from experience about those sports, but MMA is much different. It isn't something you play when you are a little boy, or at least not a mainstream sport. We can't all be experts and understand it. The aim of this article is to give some suggestions on how the UFC can market toward that demographic.