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2018 Non-Event General MMA Talk Thread


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This thread is for:

- General opinions

- Fight and event cancellations (NOT events that have a thread and are cancelled/ppd.)

- Videos (anything not under the official UFC, Bellator, PFL, Invicta, & Glory YouTube/social media accounts or closely affiliated accounts is PROHIBITED. Anything below the AXS or NBC Sports level (local regional MMA) is fine until further notice. Non-North American content is fine depending on the promotion. Non-North American content of events that are going at that moment (meaning live or just occurred) should be posted in the Bellator, AXS TV, RIZIN and Invicta thread. Any post asking for official content of the aforementioned promotions through illegal means, torrents, or streaming links will be immediately deleted w/o hesitation.)

- Fights being made

- Announcements and happenings that don't really need or have their own thread

- News for Bellator and UFC events that don't have a thread yet

- Signings

- Miscellaneous stuff that doesn't fit into any other pinned thread

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On the heels of his brother's epic win at UFC 219, it looks like the UFC has signed Abubakar Nurmagomedov and he will fight on the upcoming card in Belem. Abubakar hasn't fought since last March in what was still called WSOF.

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According to Dave Meltzer on the 2nd to last WOR, UFC 219 did an estimated 350k-400k buys which would make it the third most purchased UFC PPV of 2017.

Following 219, there are plans to probably to do Ferguson vs. Khabib in April and with this PPV doing good numbers wise, Cyborg vs. Nunes is now more realistic.

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11 hours ago, Oyaji said:

Things I want to see in 2018: 

1) Khabib vs. whomever for the title in a huge Russian venue

2) UFC run more stadium shows

With Russia, that's going to be baby steps because that would literally be zero to 100. I think Khabib himself said that UFC is not really a big thing in Russia and that his goal was to help gain the recognition. The problem is the UFC doesn't have an ethnically Russian superstar. All their guys really are from Dagestan. So that narrows down the potential big cards in Russia. So unless they plan on doing a show at Anzhi Arena (26,400 capacity stadium), I don't see a show in Dagestan. There are several arenas and indoor venues in the biggest cities that hold 10k-13k that would be more suitable for a company that doesn't have a ton of penetration in that particular market and doesn't have a big time superstar. The UFC's entry into Russia if it ever does happen is going to look more like Poland and Germany where it's going to be a long arduous journey to get anything done.

With Hawaii, it's going to depend on Holloway beating Edgar. I mean the UFC has run shittier venues in Brazil for Fight Night cards (some with no AC in the middle of summer), but the UFC is deadset on not wanting to run Blaisdell Arena. So that only leaves Aloha Stadium with no other arena or viable venue. If Edgar plays spoiler, unless they plan on doing an immediate rematch for whatever reason, it blows that whole plan up.

So first they need to have legitimate big time main events in order to do stadium shows. Second, they need to realize what the market is they plan on running the show in. Curitiba was the easiest layup they could possibly have for a stadium show because they have a ton of fighters from in and around that area. Another thing is MMA in Brazil, despite the obvious ebb and flow, on a certain level is more sellable to an audience because the UFC is a familiar brand. By putting together a card with notable names, many who were not big time superstars, they didn't have to sacrifice everything for one card just in case one big fight fell apart. If you run a stadium show in the US, Canada, Mexico, or the UK/Ireland, that's something you have to keep in the back of your mind before you make a decision to run a stadium. Are you going to do three title fights just to pad it out and have the PPVs around that eat it business wise or will you gamble by having the biggest fight possible and then little to nothing underneath? This heavily depends on their desires.

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Based off the billboards I've seen across the Downtown Orlando area -- it seems like Yoel Romero vs. David Branch is headlining the UFC on FOX card with Jéssica Andrade vs. Tecia Torres as the co-main event.

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As far as the UFC having less PPVs, yeah, that's on them.

However, six and a half years into the Fox deal, if Fox wanted less UFC content we would have heard by now. I think it should be a priority in the next TV deal that they find a partner that doesn't want UFC to basically a stranglehold as far as sports programming goes. If the UFC, a very niche sport, is THE shining jewel of your network in terms of sports then that's not a good sign that the UFC will potentially get a ton of eyeballs on it. I don't agree with Jordan Breen much outside of pure fight analysis, but I thought he had right when he said that Fox was the worst option out of the major networks for UFC to sign with. Moreover, UFC had to grow with the channels that Fox was developing so they can become the platform for the UFC.

If I had my pick, I think either NBC or the Time Warner family would be the best available options.  I believe NBC has replaced PFL with Combate Americas. So if NBC wants to go big on MMA, the UFC is the only choice. Plus, I feel that NBC has other year round sports options that wouldn't necessitate the UFC running a bunch of cards but also they're not invested in a bunch of stuff to where the UFC would be put on the backburner outside of Olympic coverage. On the other hand, the UFC on the Time Warner Inc channels would give them leverage to be all over the place whether it's TBS, TNT, truTV, and possible cards on HBO if they somehow can figure how to work that out. The NBA is having a great season ratings wise and trending upwards. The UFC being advertised heavy during the NBA season and the 2 or 3 weeks of March Madness would do a lot more for them then being shown during breaks in the action one day out of the week for three and a half months on Fox. With the Top Rank fighters leaving HBO, that leaves a big gap for content because DiBella and the other smaller promoters are tied to PBC at the moment. So it's Golovkin, Kovalev, Matchroom promoted fighters, and the Golden Boy fighters or bust right now. With Roman Gonzalez looking done, I don't see them throwing a ton of focus on Sor Rungvisai or Naoya Inoue outside of these specialty cards like the one months ago and the one's that happening the same night as the UFC card in Orlando. So the UFC having a presence there would alleviate the loss of Crawford, Lomachenko, and whatever is left of Pacquiao's career. Cotto and Ward both retired so that's another couple losses they have to account for. They might make a play for Anthony Joshua but there is no guaranteed of getting him with Showtime always somehow getting the U.S. rights for his fights. Plus, outside of a wild card option like Povetkin, who would AJ be matched up against as a big time fight. Bellew? Haye? Because the Fury fight is a pipe dream.

The UFC probably doesn't eliminate a whole bunch of card just because they have fights on contracts to fulfill. However, by cutting 5 or 6 cards a year, you have 11-13 fights that could be main or co main events for those shows that you can put on PPV or big network cards. What would have been below those fights can now be live Fight Pass content. Either way, you likely end up in a better situation.

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On 1/9/2018 at 8:52 PM, DreamBroken said:

Tonya Evinger injured and out of the fight vs. Marion Reneau on Feb 18.  Big fan of both so that was gonna be a tough one for me to pick.

 

Looks like Sara McMann is the replacement.

Also, Cody Stamann is going to face Bryan Caraway at UFC 222.

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12 hours ago, Edwin said:

Based off the billboards I've seen across the Downtown Orlando area -- it seems like Yoel Romero vs. David Branch is headlining the UFC on FOX card with Jéssica Andrade vs. Tecia Torres as the co-main event.

Got an email today which pretty much confirms this. 

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This is pretty big news. Serrano is basically the P4P best female boxer. I certainly didn't expect her to do MMA though so this is kinda a shock to me. I guess Showtime wasn't really interested in making her the Ronda Rousey of boxing.

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