UFC 207: Nunes vs Rousey

[wandshogun09]

i don't think there's another fighter in the sport they'd allow to sit out of the fight week hype...except perhaps Conor.

It'll be interesting to see how that plays out in the future actually. I know it was Zuffa running things back then but when Conor wanted a break from the media in the run up to the Diaz rematch the UFC weren't having any of it and pulled him from UFC 200 completely. Now they've let Ronda sack off promoting this, if Conor says he doesn't fancy doing promotional work for his next fight it's going to be harder for them to tell him no when they've done it for Ronda. Especially considering McGregor is an even bigger star for them and has knocked it out of the park on PPV in his last bunch of fights.

 

Like you say I think it's literally only Ronda and Conor who would get away with this though.

 

Another thing as well, if Ronda gets smashed again then presumably she just fucks off then, right? It's took a year and everyone tip toeing around her on eggshells, editing away the headkick in the promos, excusing her of doing media etc to get her back in the cage now. If she loses two on the bounce, especially if she gets KO'd again, then I can't see any way she comes back from that. And in a warped way, that's going to make Conor McGregor a happy man. I don't think he has any ill will for Ronda, but if she loses again and retires it only strengthens his position at the top of the sport. He's already at the top. But Ronda is clearly the second biggest star in MMA and if she leaves then the UFC will need McGregor even more. Ronda would be retired, Jones keeps fucking up, Anderson's nearly done, Nick Diaz barely fights and when he does he fails for weed and gets suspended, GSP might never be back, Brock will probably never be back. McGregor would be the only show in town. And he'll know it. If the UFC thought his demands were a pain in the arse before, watch if Ronda retires.

[herbie747]

Yeah, if Rhonda loses, there's a high chance of her not coming back.

 

The thing with McGregor is that he'd never ask to do zero PR for a fight - he knows his PPV numbers & cut depends on how hard he promotes. Maybe he'd ask for a reduced schedule during camp like he originally wanted for UFC 200 - but he'd never ask for this sort of 'zero press' bullshit.

 

That said - Rhonda is getting a lot of press over doing no press.... but none of it mainstream. Mainly just MMA media writing about it & talking about how the Holm headkick has been edited out of the build-up show. So while it is press, it's probably not the right type that will transfer to more PPV buys. Who knows - it's never been done.

[Egg Shen]

Luke Thomas has confirmed that Friday's show will be Mike Goldberg's last with the UFC...end of an era.

[ColinBollocks]

Oh wow. That's huge news. Mike Goldberg has his faults and, let's face it, is replaceable, but nonetheless it's maybe the biggest change the new owners have made thus far. Goldberg is the voice of the UFC. It also shows the rumours they're looking to punt Rogan are probably true. The rumour is Jim Rome is getting the gig.

 

Anyway, Rousey going dark has definitely killed the hype for this. I think for the past few weeks all the good and decent sized MMA news outlets have talked about is why Rousey isn't doing press, rather than the fight. Not only is Rousey not about, but they've done nothing to hype Nunes, even telling her she's not doing much press. This should be huge, but it's not; they may have overestimated the star power of Rousey after vanishing for a year. Personally, I'm for fighters getting the best out of the promotion, so if the promotion kneeled before every Rousey demand (including wiping the head kick from history) then good for her.

 

Such is the lack of buzz for the Rousey/Nunes match, Cruz/Garbrandt is the main event in my mind. It's been ropey some of it, but both men have tried to get something going.

 

More than any other show I really want to see the numbers it does. Lack of hype plus a Friday.

[herbie747]

Weird interview with Hendricks:

 

[theringmaster]

Concerning Ronda and the media black out thing, I think UFC are giving her a bit of lean way considering she was the ultimate 'company man'(or woman I suppose) for years, UFC said jump she said how high, UFC made a lot of money from her and she became a huge star. Now some might say the same could be said for Connor but lets face it, Connor has always had his own agenda.

 

Also going forward it much more profitable to have Ronda win this than Nunes, UFC want Ronda to win this.

[wandshogun09]

That Johny Hendricks interview. Yeah, I get that weight cutting is a bitch but like Helwani says - if it's that bad cutting to 170, fight at 185. Nobody is forcing these guys to make big weight cuts. You're doing that to be a bigger welterweight and have an advantage.

 

He's such an annoying hillbilly knob. I hope Magny twats him all over the cage. I don't know how anyone could listen to Hendricks and actually like the bloke. Not just this interview, any interview with him I come away thinking 'what a cock he seems'. He's always struck me as one of them cunts who would disagree with you even if he agrees with what you're saying, just to be a contrary dickhead. Like if he asked you the time and you said "it's twenty five to two", he'd go "well actually it's one thirty five". Stupid shit like that just to be a div.

[jimufctna24]

He's always struck me as one of them cunts who would disagree with you even if he agrees with what you're saying, just to be a contrary dickhead. Like if he asked you the time and you said "it's twenty five to two", he'd go "well actually it's one thirty five". Stupid shit like that just to be a div.

I think you've just summed him up perfectly in 3 sentences. 

[ColinBollocks]

Vader doing the pre-fight question. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=8MqvoyCxgXk

 

As always, quite interesting. Dana constantly throws out the company line when asked about Ronda not doing press. There is a couple of times he pretty much says he hates how Ronda went about it - calling her "psychotically competitive".

 

The highlight is him getting mad at Werdum. Apparently Werdum said he would fight but only for $800k and PPV points.

[Egg Shen]

Nice to see Dana doing some media stuff, he's reeled it right back over the last year.

[theringmaster]

What are PPV points? And where has this buzz word come from? Up to yesterday I had never heard of it and now I keep seeing the term pop up

[ColinBollocks]

Yeah, Ebb. Although Dana said he's only doing it because Rousey isn't about.

 

PPV points is basically fighters getting a share of the PPV revenue. Champions automatically get this, which is why you'll find a Bisping calling out GSP. Some of the bigger stars have it in their contracts regardless of belts, they get a piece.

It's nothing new. It's been about and discussed for ages.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah PPV points vary. Some fighters might get say $1 per every PPV sold. So of course, on a PPV that sells a million buys, you've netted yourself a nice cool million $$$. For some fighters the PPV cut doesn't kick in unless the PPV does over a certain number of buys.

 

I haven't watched Vader's scrum yet but again, I don't blame Werdum for asking for more. If they were expecting him to take a risk on fighting a last minute replacement, especially if it was JDS like was rumoured, then I don't see why he shouldn't be compensated a bit more for that. I understand why Dana wouldn't like it but why should Werdum just take a last minute opponent switch for the same money?

[the_mole]

He turned down Overeem at 208 as well to be fair and that's in February.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, just watched the scrum. Dana's been tucking into the old mince pies big time over Christmas, hasn't he? His face looks like it's on HGH.

 

Weird about Werdum. I still absolutely don't blame him for upping his price for a last minute switch from Cain to JDS. Frankly, it's unreasonable to ask someone who's been training for a specific opponent for two months to just take a different opponent a week out when all the training is done. At that point it's too late to adjust your training, your gameplan or bring in suitable sparring partners etc. So I think it's fair for a fighter in that position to say I'll do it but it's going to cost you more. Take it or leave it. There's nothing wrong with that at all.

 

Turning down Overeem at 208 is strange though. But we've only got Dana's side of that. And he was already angry at Werdum for turning down the JDS fight. So I'm taking it all with a pinch of salt. Wouldn't be the first time Dana's tried to make a fighter look bad because he didn't get it all his own way. Remember when Dana said Shogun was so scared of Glover Teixeira that he said he said he'd rather leave the UFC than fight him? When fighters don't dance to Dana's tune and he's got an axe to grind, he usually reverts to this kind of thing.

 

Nothing to do with 207 but another thing to come out of that scrum is that Khabib vs Ferguson sounds like it's dead in the water. And Jose Aldo wants to go up to lightweight and fight Khabib!