Marquee bout could revitalize UFC brand
Mayweather-McGregor fight can elevate the promotion, E. Spencer Kyte writes.
Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor is official: The preposterous pairing that generated clicks and just wouldn’t go away is set to take place on Aug. 26 in Las Vegas.
They’ll compete at 154 pounds. They’ll use 10-ounce gloves. They’ll both make an insane amount of money and will generate headlines from now until a couple weeks after the fight when all the talk surrounds rematches, what would happen in an MMA fight and other post-fight narratives.
There will be plenty of time to discuss the particulars, dissect McGregor’s chances and delve into what is sure to be an epic promotional back-and-forth between these over-the-top personalities.
What’s more interesting right now is how the UFC can use the crush of mainstream attention that comes with Wednesday’s announcement to push the action set to take place in the Octagon between now and then.
UFC president Dana White will surely answer questions about how the fight came together and whatnot on various major platforms, and at the close of every answer, he has the opportunity to plug everything that will happen before then.
That’s when you sell Amanda Nunes — the woman who battered Ronda Rousey back into seclusion — defending the women’s bantamweight title against Valentina Shevchenko in UFC 213 on July 8. That’s when you push one of the biggest rematches in UFC history when Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones finally run it back at UFC 214.
That’s when you shower praise upon Demetrious (Mighty Mouse) Johnson, the most complete fighter in the sport today, who looks to break the legendary Anderson Silva’s record for consecutive successful title defences at home in Seattle at UFC 215.
Granted, that last one might be a little difficult given that things are pretty frosty between Johnson and the UFC right now, but you get my point.
This fight between Mayweather and McGregor can be a Trojan Horse that provides the UFC with an opportunity to promote the nine events on the schedule before Aug. 26 and tell people who they need to tune in to see and why.
It’s something the UFC has struggled with in the past, most recently when it exclusively sold UFC 207 as the “triumphant return of Ronda Rousey.”
The build to the event made little mention of reigning champion Nunes, who had throttled Miesha Tate five months earlier to claim the title and ultimately did the same to Rousey on fight night. It also largely overlooked the electric bantamweight clash between Dominick Cruz and Cody Garbrandt, where the challenger dominated the champion in a star-making turn that didn’t get the pre-fight attention it merited because the focus was on Rousey.
Rather than allowing the Mayweather-McGregor fight to swallow up all the oxygen in the room, the UFC should use the attention to advertise the men and women who are still stepping into the Octagon and competing under its banner.
Those athletes and those events were never going to garner a modicum of the attention the build to this boxing match has already commanded — and will continue to command until it is finally laid to rest — but more people are talking about the UFC right now than at any point in the last couple years, and it’s imperative that the organization try to capitalize on that and turn the curious into consumers.