UFC 229: Khabib vs McGregor

[Keith Houchen]

Women's MMA is similar to women's wrestling in the respect that it is not called MMA or wrestling, it's prefixed with their gender so it's like a sub division, a bit like cruiserweight in wrestling.  David is bang on, the hot blond chick who is well hard gets the eyeballs.  Until there is a societal shift, that's how it is going to be.

[David]

13 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

That's the entire point of what I'm arguing! Of course no-one knew, which is why they should've promoted her. People won't know who she is if you don't tell them, will they?

Do you think it would have made a difference if they had known? my point is that no one cared who Rousey was fighting, the main draw was that Rousey was fighting.

13 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

I still dispute just how small a minority that is. If it's a significant enough minority who pays, then they should.

The company, as a whole, have done pretty much nothing in the grand scheme of things to push Mexican fighters over the years, which is a hotbed of fight fans, so what makes you think they're going to go out of their way to attract women? 

13 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Howay, man - if that's the case, what's with all the sports-style presentation, the punditry, the "tale of the tape", the analyses on ESPN, etc.? It's clear they're at least trying to market it as a sport.

They're marketing it towards their key demographic. Their key demographic watch NFL football, they drink beer, they drive (or at least dream about driving) "badass" motorcycles.

I'm not saying they don't aim the product at those who follow sports such as American football, which is why they do the whole "tale of the tape" and all that jazz, but when they're sticking professional wrestlers in title shots and dudes who are nearly 40 years old with no pro record to speak of on PPV it's as far from a sport as it gets.

13 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Nunes has a fan-friendly style - she's a striker who beats up her opponents. She breaks heads. I don't see what's not to promote.

Maybe I am too right-on for my own good, but the UFC already raised the expectation by not only having women's divisions, but setting women's matches as main events.

Nunes isn't a big finisher, she doesn't create highlight reel knockouts, and bless her, she ain't hot enough to grab the attention of the regular MMA fight fan.

Like I said, when another hot female rolls around into the sport they'll promote the shit out of her, because that's what sells. 

13 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Who was that? Genuinely haven't heard about this.

You don't know about Dana White speaking out in favour of Trump? Or have seen any of his photos with the guy? How do you think Covington got into the White House for the photo op with Trump? It's because White has the Prez on speed dial.

13 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

I really didn't expect you of all people to be arguing from this position, I have to say.

Don't mistake what I'm saying for how I want it to be, I'm simply telling you how I think it is. Would it be great if the company gave their female and lower weight champions attention without them creating fake feuds or talking shit? Of course it would.

Think about it this way, CB. If even the most "right-on" guys like you are talking, as you have, about which female MMA fighter is "hottest" then what do you think a beer guzzling, American-flag loving NASCAR fan who has a weight bench in his yard is going to be discussing?

[jimufctna24]

8 minutes ago, David said:

The company, as a whole, have done pretty much nothing in the grand scheme of things to push Mexican fighters over the years, which is a hotbed of fight fans,

Aye. I think they lost interest after Roger Huerta's career didn't pan out. They were really pushing him at one point. 

I don't like generalising fanbases as a rule. But a large proportion of MMA fans don't have much of a moral compass. I remember this forum discussing the horrendous online reaction to the Thiago Silva domestic violence incident. I think a lot of MMA fans are not so much conservative, but not politically minded at all. A bit like what Daz said about Dana on the previous page. A lot of them probably vote Republican, but if quizzed, I doubt they would string together many coherent political opinions. 

[Carbomb]

27 minutes ago, David said:

Do you think it would have made a difference if they had known? my point is that no one cared who Rousey was fighting, the main draw was that Rousey was fighting.

Ah, I see where the misunderstanding is on this point. I wasn't advocating they promote Nunes for the fight, I was advocating they promote her for after it - build up some fan interest in her so that they might retain viewers after the match result, whatever it would've been.

27 minutes ago, David said:

You don't know about Dana White speaking out in favour of Trump? Or have seen any of his photos with the guy? How do you think Covington got into the White House for the photo op with Trump? It's because White has the Prez on speed dial.

Honestly didn't know that. That said, it's not surprising, and it doesn't change much - I've said for the years the UFC's a yellow-dog, American Republican-type capitalist company, given the UFC's overall tendency to treat fighters like their property and ride roughshod over their rights.

As to Dana - my opinion of him was already low. Now it's basically in the gutter, and it's probably never leaving there.

 

[David]

 

[d-d-d-dAz]

Still to this day the worst speech in living memory. Stop shouting you dollop.

Dana has played both sides of the field on this though, every time Trump's done something terrible he's said it's 'disgusting' but Trump must be being 'manipulated' by Washington and questioning how much he actually knows.

[the_mole]

The UFC like every successful company plays both sides, no matter who wins they still help you. UFC part owner Ari Emanuel's brother is a democrat and mayor of Chicago and Ari helped Hilary Clinton get funding by throwing benefits but also Trump was his former client. As Daz said Trump was good to the UFC in the early Zuffa days and he is just being loyal, I'm sure I've heard him say he doesn't agree with a lot of what he says but he's always been good with him.

Ronda brought in a large female fanbase that kept growing as her streak continued, young girls could see themselves in her, with all due respect to Nunes she is hardly unique in female sports, she's skilled obviously but she has a fuckin mullet and isn't exactly talk show guest material. 

They stopped with Cain as well besides the Latino audience, Cain is just a boring guy.

[Keith Houchen]

18 minutes ago, the_mole said:

young girls could see themselves in her

A lot of young men can see themselves in her too.

[wandshogun09]

I get why Nunes hasn't caught on. Personally I think she's great but, while the language barrier doesn't necessarily have to be a big obstacle, I think it is with Nunes. I mean, Joanna Jedrzejczyk speaks English that's more broken than Dan Henderson's nose but she's undeniably got something that comes across in how she talks and carries herself that makes her feel like a big deal. Same with Yoel Romero. Obviously his look does most of the work though. Korean Zombie is another example. The language barrier doesn't mean a fighter can't connect with the audience. With Nunes, it's not like she's a mute. In fact she's the opposite. She talks loads. And loads and loads. Her post-fight interviews go on for fucking days. Problem is they're 90% in Portugese, 10% in barely decipherable English and for how long she waffles on I never remember a damn thing she's said 2 minutes after the interview wraps up. She rarely gets a single point across. She's far from boring in the cage. She's always aggressive and finishes everyone she faces bar Valentina Shevchenko.

I got why they promoted Ronda so heavily in the run up to the Nunes fight. She was the A-Side by miles. But Nunes was the champion and was treated like she was nothing. Rogan even told a story that he was told by people within the company that UFC execs deliberately decided to not bother putting any promotional eggs in the Nunes basket because she was just "cannon fodder" for Ronda's big triumphant return. They could've still predominantly promoted Ronda without making Nunes seem like those jobbers you'd see every week on WWF Superstars who weren't even worthy of an entrance. "And her opponent, already in the ring, soon to be former UFC champion and one armed fighter, Amanda Nunes". Or something. Fuck whether she generates the moving of needles. You deserve better than that when you're a champion. Not for one second saying they should've gone all Aldo-McGregor style hype for Amanda Nunes but a modicum of respect for your champion in the promotion wouldn't hurt. 

Regardless, who gives a shit? Not everyone is going to be a star. It's just the way the cookie crumbles. The mad thing is though, if she somehow pulls off a win against Cyborg in December (I know, I know) then she mightn't be a superstar but she's easily the best female fighter in WMMA's relatively short history with wins over Cyborg, Rousey, Tate, Shevchenko x2 and especially that monster win vs Pennington! Seriously, I'm past caring what the rest of the MMA world sees as a star or whatever. I like what I like and I like watching Nunes. She deserves props as well for going up and fighting Cyborg when others in her own division (ahem...Germaine De Randamie) wouldn't. 

Actually, what the fuck has Amanda Nunes got to do with UFC 229? All this shite about her not being a star yet she's dominating the Khabib and McGregor thread. Sort yourselves out. 

[Tamura]

I do wish Khabib you stop saying he's going to make Conor humble, it makes it really hard to see him as the stone cold killer he seems to be. Every time I see the clip I can't help thinking of this.
 

 

[Carbomb]

MAKE HIM HUM-BEL AND THEN FUCK HIS ASS OLD COUNTRY VAY

[AdamTH17]

Conor's been vocal on Instagram, but it's mostly just shots of him working. Like I said before, people are going to tune in regardless and he knows it. Once all his hard training is done, he'll crank the media persona up to 11 and do something batshit mental.

Here's a small training compilation him and Kavangh put up last night. Looks in great nick.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnmiIB6gxx4/?taken-by=thenotoriousmma

[ColinBollocks]

Kevin Iole said a press conference will happen in New York, next Thursday, and isn't open to the public.

Things are definitely starting to ramp up a little.

[OzExile]

Yeah - next Thursday at 5pm EST. 

Its probably a boost for Khabib that this one is behind closed doors - the Conor mind games will ramp up when he gets a crowd to play in front of.  Coming to think of it, you'd think that he'd want do plenty of these between now and the fight. Jose Aldo was frightened to death by the time he stepped in the cage in Vegas.  I was at 205 and went to the pre-fight press conference where Eddie Alvarez was clearly rattled too.  Surely McGregor has plans to turn Khabib's disrupt Khabi's final prep too. 

[David]

2 hours ago, OzExile said:

Yeah - next Thursday at 5pm EST. 

Its probably a boost for Khabib that this one is behind closed doors - the Conor mind games will ramp up when he gets a crowd to play in front of.  Coming to think of it, you'd think that he'd want do plenty of these between now and the fight. Jose Aldo was frightened to death by the time he stepped in the cage in Vegas.  I was at 205 and went to the pre-fight press conference where Eddie Alvarez was clearly rattled too.  Surely McGregor has plans to turn Khabib's disrupt Khabi's final prep too. 

I'd be extremely surprised if Khabib is rattled by much of what Conor does. Like many people from the part of the world he's from, they don't seem to be wired like the rest of us.