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OT: WWE/MMA/Boxing Thread

Oh, they're not going to shoehorn wrasslers into a fighting league. But they're not going to prioritize the fighting skill and quality of competition over the creation and promotion of bullshit narratives.

Most MMA fans had hoped that the UFC would eventually mature into a place more like the boxing world where rankings mattered and promoters knew how to promote the product and not just the personalities....but while fixing the main problem of promotions not wanting to risk their cash cows in the mega fights we all wanted to see. Instead we've seen it move towards the WWE with non scripted violence, and this move just cements that going forward.
 
The only problem - if you can call it that - with Adesanya as champ is, who's next?

Of the top-5 guys, he's beaten 'em all (Whitaker & The Italian Meathead twice). After that, there's Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland at 6-7. DDP gasses out halfway through the second round of a three round fight and frankly, I don't find him to be all that good. Strickland would get beaten with relative ease as well.

After that? 8 Brunson, 9 Dolidze, 10 Hermansson, 11 Imavov, 12 Allen, 13 Muniz, 14 Curtis & 15 Gastelum.

There's nobody in there that I'd love to see Adesanya fight next.

But there's Khamzat Chimaev lurking around, who hasn't fought a ranked middleweight opponent, but who everyone thinks is the boogeyman. For a guy who wants to fight, fucking hell, can we get him a fight already? He's fought three times since September 2020.

My options:

1- Fight Jamahal Hill at LHW - A very winnable fight for Adesanya, imo
2- Re-match Perreira for the trilogy
3- Third fight with Whitaker
4- Ideally after one or two of the three options above have passed, Adesanya against Chimaev.
 
GGpX said:
There will definitely be cross promotion, especially when it comes to publicity of the next events. What I don't think will happen is pro wrestlers, beyond Brock Lesnar for UFC 300, coming over to the UFC. I could see some older MMA fighters slowly transition into some sort of role in pro wrestling, though.

One thing that might be interesting to see: What the UFC & WWE do with their streaming apps.

The WWE basically runs everything through their streaming app, while the UFC has moved towards streaming while still having their product on ESPN and the occasional ABC card.

The UFC's deal with ESPN ends in, I believe, 2026. Could the UFC & WWE merge their streaming service into a sort of Disney+ but for fighting sports and keep everything exclusively there, while still running PPVs? Or is the presence on ESPN too important to just give up so that they can have sole custody of their product?
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2025 for ESPN and 2026 for peacock - so ufc will
be starting to negotiate next year. Ufc would be dumb to not stay with ESPN - I get the option
to start their own channel, but that’s risk that they don’t need to take.
 
GGpX said:
The only problem - if you can call it that - with Adesanya as champ is, who's next?

Of the top-5 guys, he's beaten 'em all (Whitaker & The Italian Meathead twice). After that, there's Dricus Du Plessis and Sean Strickland at 6-7. DDP gasses out halfway through the second round of a three round fight and frankly, I don't find him to be all that good. Strickland would get beaten with relative ease as well.

After that? 8 Brunson, 9 Dolidze, 10 Hermansson, 11 Imavov, 12 Allen, 13 Muniz, 14 Curtis & 15 Gastelum.

There's nobody in there that I'd love to see Adesanya fight next.

But there's Khamzat Chimaev lurking around, who hasn't fought a ranked middleweight opponent, but who everyone thinks is the boogeyman. For a guy who wants to fight, fucking hell, can we get him a fight already? He's fought three times since September 2020.

My options:

1- Fight Jamahal Hill at LHW - A very winnable fight for Adesanya, imo
2- Re-match Perreira for the trilogy
3- Third fight with Whitaker
4- Ideally after one or two of the three options above have passed, Adesanya against Chimaev.
Click to expand...
Want option 2
 
MindzEye said:
Oh, they're not going to shoehorn wrasslers into a fighting league. But they're not going to prioritize the fighting skill and quality of competition over the creation and promotion of bullshit narratives.

Most MMA fans had hoped that the UFC would eventually mature into a place more like the boxing world where rankings mattered and promoters knew how to promote the product and not just the personalities....but while fixing the main problem of promotions not wanting to risk their cash cows in the mega fights we all wanted to see. Instead we've seen it move towards the WWE with non scripted violence, and this move just cements that going forward.
Click to expand...

God bless the UFC for slowly but surely pushing boxing towards making the bigger fights more frequently, and earlier in guys careers.

Still blows me away we’re getting Tank Vs Garcia this early in their respective careers…not to mention the fights Haney took, and now fighting Loma, etc.
 
Crawford Vs Spence not happening until they‘re 35 and 33 respectively, is hopefully the end of guys dodging the big fight with each other, that everyone is dying to see. Batshit we’ve had to wait this long for that scrap.
 
It's still happening, unfortunately. See Tyson Fury doing everything he can to grab every last dollar he can to fight Alexandr Osyk.

Boxing will organically move towards those big fights once people stop paying to see the fight that are irrelevant. Nobody in their right minds thought Fury - Chisora 3 was an interesting fight. Fucking nobody. And yet, the Hotspur Stadium was packed and people still watched.

That said, we live in a world where it's becoming less and less frequent. Part of it is undoubtedly the UFC's influence over boxing, part of it is social media pressure.
 
UFC isn't the be all and end all in terms of effective matchmaking - they didn't make Anderson-GSP happen even when GSP was ringside at the Silva vs Maia fight. That would have been MMA's Floyd vs Manny. Fedor vs Lesnar is another that comes to mind - that would have been easily 2+ MM PPV buys.

A lot more recently - UFC couldn't make Jones vs Ngannou either. That would have been a big, big fight - Francis just trampled over Stipe in the 2nd fight. Would have loved to see that fight.
 
GSP and Silva were never anywhere close to being the same size for a match to be made. UFC feels artificially closer because their weight classes are ridiculously far apart
 
..and the other two examples are of a guy who wouldn’t sign with the UFC, and a guy who chose to leave. (and Dana didn’t mind holding his ground, to help him set an example to others that might bark too loud overpay).

both of those were more labor disputes, than not making the fights the fans wanted.

The UFC gives us damn near every matchup we want, if it’s within their power to make it…..
 
MindzEye said:
GSP and Silva were never anywhere close to being the same size for a match to be made. UFC feels artificially closer because their weight classes are ridiculously far apart…..…..
Click to expand...

…..if memory serves I don’t believe GSP had any interest in taking that fight either, specifically because of the point you make, and just how much muscle he’d have had to add to his frame for that one fight.

GSP was more interested in fighting Khabib much later on, but I think Khabib was determined to stay retired. Thats one id have loved to see.
 
da_next_kid said:
UFC isn't the be all and end all in terms of effective matchmaking - they didn't make Anderson-GSP happen even when GSP was ringside at the Silva vs Maia fight. That would have been MMA's Floyd vs Manny. Fedor vs Lesnar is another that comes to mind - that would have been easily 2+ MM PPV buys.

A lot more recently - UFC couldn't make Jones vs Ngannou either. That would have been a big, big fight - Francis just trampled over Stipe in the 2nd fight. Would have loved to see that fight.
Click to expand...
I mean...

There are always fights you can point to that never happened for X, Y, Z reasons, but they're very far & few in-between.

The UFC has only gotten better at super fights thanks to Conor McGregor. Before him, the UFC didn't even allow people to jump through weight classes. The only exception was Anderson Silva, when they made a last-minute fight night card to rival Aflliction & he fought James Irwin at light-heavyweight, and then another time against Forrest Griffin. Beyond that, though, everyone had a weight class and they had to stay there.

I think the better question would be, are there any fighters in their weight class that the long-time champions (GSP/Anderson/Jones/DJ) never fought or just flat out avoided? Nah, they cleaned out their division and fought everyone.

The UFC's not perfect, and god do I wish they paid the fighters better, but the UFC is so far and away the best combat promotion for the fans.
 
Montana said:
..and the other two examples are of a guy who wouldn’t sign with the UFC, and a guy who chose to leave. (and Dana didn’t mind holding his ground, to help him set an example to others that might bark too loud overpay).

both of those were more labor disputes, than not making the fights the fans wanted.

The UFC gives us damn near every matchup we want, if it’s within their power to make it…..
Click to expand...
Not to mention, Jon Jones was in no rush to ever actually go to heavyweight while Ngannou was there.

The second he left, though? Boy, he was ready and willing.
 
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