UFC NEEDS TO GIVE BIGGEST STARS MORE OPPORTUNITIES TO SHINE
The UFC needs to find a way to get its stars back into the octagon.
On Saturday night, the promotion put on a fun fight card headlined by a fascinating main event between two European fighters who are likely totally anonymous to your average sports fan.
Anecdotally speaking, the card barely seemed to make a ripple outside of the bubble of hardcore MMA fans. That's a shame.
In normal times, Jack Hermansson and Marvin Vettori would have squared off in a prime position near the top of a card that was headlined by a bigger star. The fans who tuned in to see that bigger star would have been treated to a nice surprise when Vettori and Hermansson squared off and might have tuned in to see their next fight.
Realistically, the last time that a name that was recognizable to the wider mainstream sports audience headlined a card was when Anderson Silva fought
Uriah Hall on Halloween. It was Silva's last UFC fight.
The week before, Khabib Nurmagomedov headlined UFC 254 with his fight against Justin Gaethje. That was the last time a UFC card felt like a real blockbuster, but Nurmagomedov retired immediately afterwards. That's hard to build on.
Looking back on 2020, heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic has fought a grand total of one time. Same thing with longtime light-heavyweight king Jon Jones.
Daniel Cormier, the closest thing either Jones or Miocic had to a rival, retired after his lone fight in 2020.
Conor McGregor has fought once. Jorge Masvidal has fought once. Francis Ngannou has fought once. Middleweight champ Israel Adesanya has competed twice, at least, but welterweight champ Kamaru Usman has only competed once in the octagon this year, too.
The UFC is admittedly in a tough spot because those fighters tend to demand big paydays and the company isn't currently able to make any gate revenue because fans aren't allowed. There needs to be a solution, though, because it's not good business to have so many stars on the sideline.
Hopefully, 2021 brings about some change. Dustin Poirier and McGregor are scheduled to fight on Jan. 23, at least. That's still a month and a half away, though. Between now and then, everything that's announced is still going to be appealing to MMA's most devoted fans, but it's hard to imagine many casuals are going to be getting excited.
Vettori and Hermansson put on an absolutely brilliant show. Vettori was the underdog coming in, but he's earned himself a real promotional push with a gutsy win over a real contender.
He stepped in on short notice and stepped up. That's exactly what the UFC likes to see. Vettori seemed focused on getting a fight with Paolo Costa after earning the win, and that makes sense.
Some people were talking about fast-tracking him into a fight against champion Israel Adesanya, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here. The kid is young and doesn't need to be rushed.
Adesanya is supposed to go up in weight and take on light-heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz in his next fight, anyways, so a matchup with a beast like Costa makes perfect sense for Vettori.