Dear Dana:
I apologize for beating a dead horse, but this has become a recurring problem. On Saturday nights, when I know there’s a UFC PPV, the last thing I want to be doing is following the action on Twitter while watching something else on TV.
When it comes to non-title fight main events or title matches that aren’t interesting, I’m not too heartbroken when I see the results on Sunday morning in the news. What I don’t like is when a thrilling rematch with a brand new, exciting champion is put on a PPV destined to fail.
This is exactly what you’ve done with TJ Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao II.
Dillashaw and Barao Deserve Better
These are two guys that now have a feud. TJ Dillashaw came in as a heavy underdog in their UFC bantamweight championship fight, shocked the world and not only defeated Renan Barao, but destroyed him in every round leading up to the finish. Barao is now coming back, as a former top pound-for-pound fighter to reclaim what he believes is rightfully his.
Unfortunately, you and the UFC have done everything possible to bury this rematch and kill the potential that both of these fighters had to become stars in the sport.
The Worst Main Card in UFC History
Daniel Cormier, Dan Henderson, Robbie Lawler, Jake Ellenberger, Takeya Mizugaki, Francisco Rivera, James Krause and Jamie Varner.
These were the fighters on the main card of the last PPV, UFC 173, headlined by Dillashaw and Barao. In that group, you have a man challenging for the UFC light-heavyweight championship in January, a former Pride champion, the UFC welterweight #1 Contender, a Top 10 Welterweight, the current #5 ranked Bantamweight and a former WEC champion.
If you have a friend who casually watches MMA, there’s no doubt that they would recognize a couple of names from that list. The PPV did miserable sales, with estimates around 200,000 buys.
Tony Ferguson, Danny Castillo, Shayna Baszler, Bethe Correia, Ramsey Nijem, Carlos Ferreira, Yancy Medeiros and Damon Jackson.
These are the fighters on the main card for UFC 177. In this group, you have the TUF 13 winner, a WEC veteran, an undefeated woman’s prospect, a veteran woman’s fighter, a TUF finalist, an undefeated Brazilian prospect, a guy who’s 0-2-1 in the UFC (tested positive for marijuana, had win turned to NC) and a UFC newcomer.
Out of these eight fighters, only one is ranked in the Top 15 of their division (Bethe Correia #10). Three of these 8 fighters have yet get a win in the UFC. Unless you are a big fan of TUF and follow women’s MMA closely, odds are that this list is full of names that you’re not too familiar with.
This main card, excluding the main event, will go down as the worst in UFC history. Tony Ferguson vs. Danny Castillo shouldn’t even be announced as a co-main event as it wouldn’t even be the main event of a Fight Pass card in Zimbabwe. These aren’t fights that the fans care about, none of these fighters are active in promoting the event and most of these fighters don’t have enough UFC experience to warrant making the main card.
Rematch Done Too Soon
I have no doubt that Barao will give Dillashaw a hell of a fight on Saturday. The problem is that not a lot of people are convinced that he’ll be able to compete with TJ.
If Barao was given a tune up fight, came out like an animal and destroyed a Top 10 fighter, the rematch would make a lot of sense. Robbie Lawler has run through the best of the welterweight division, and now his rematch with Johny Hendricks will be a lot more anticipated due to his recent dominance.
How excited can fans get for a title fight when in the challengers last fight he got demolished? Not only that, but Barao was knocked around for 23 minutes only 3 months ago! Not only is that dangerous for Barao, but it makes the likelihood of him getting knocked out again a lot higher.
If the rematch had been done in a year after Dillashaw had a successful title defense and Barao had won a couple of fights in dominate fashion, then the rematch would be big. Instead, we’ll most likely see something similar to something we saw a couple of months ago, which leads to less people buying the event.
The UFC is in need of star power, so how do you expect champions like Dillashaw and top fighters like Barao to make a name for themselves when they are being given nothing? The buy rate will do horribly, the event will most likely be a bust, besides the main event, and both Dillashaw and Barao won’t receive a boost in popularity from the fight.
Both of these fighters don’t deserve this Dana. It’s up to you to fix this problem. Start stacking these PPV’s, start building up fights that people want to see, and stop rushing fights.
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