UFC 200

[Money99]

Re: UFC 200

Rocky did one press conference to announce his fight with Drago and then disappeared into the woods to train. That fight was huge, and Rocky ended the Cold War with his post-fight speech.

If YouTube was around during his street fight with Tommy Gun, it would have received millions of hits overnight.
No presser needed there either.

Rocky didn't need any press coverage or a venue to bring fans out of their homes.
"My ring's outside"

[jb12780]

Re: UFC 200

Mighty Mouse is a top 2 P4P and can't draw a dime.

GSP is a legend in MMA. If he returns, people will buy the card. He's a huge draw.

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[DJ]

Re: UFC 200

My 2 worthless cents on all of this.

I think Dana White and the UFC are terrified that MMA could turn into boxing where each fighter is an independent entity who will fight for the highest bidder.

He needs to keep his foot on the fighters collective throats in order to keep them in line and prevent a multi-promotional MMA world where Connor will fight for UFC in June, then Bellator in October.

That's why he's overly strict when it comes to this stuff and will easily sacrifice a giant cash-cow like McGregor if it means keeping the rest of the herd in line.

I really hope Dana works with McGregor and they can salvage UFC 200.
Even if Connor's figures are only 50% accurate, generating $200M over 8 months is nothing to scoff at.

Good points, Money.

[aholbert32]

Re: UFC 200

Why is a million 'good enough'? It's silly to leave money on the table.

Also, how can you think GSP would draw near what Conor would? He's fairly irrelevant to casuals. GSP doesn't talk, he doesn't get exciting finishes, his return doesn't do near what Conor would.

Its the difference between short money and long money. If you are going for short money, you fold, put Conor back on the card, collect your 1.8 million PPV buys. The problem is if Conor loses he's no longer a superstar draw and now you've shown the rest of the roster that some fighters are exempt from complying with their contract.

The long money is you make 800k-1 mil on the card without Conor. You show your 400 other roster fighters that no one is exempt from complying with their deal. You make the 1.7 million on Conor's comeback fight in the fall.

GSP averaged between 900k and 1.1 million during his last 6 fights. A stacked card with GSP plus 2 title shots will make 1 million easy based on previous history.

[jeremym480]

Re: UFC 200

As a casual, I won't be buying UFC 200 without Connor on it.

So as a causal and Conor fan instead of buying 200, you buy 201 or 202 or 203 (whenever he returns).... whereas you wouldn't have before, right?

UFC 200 loses some numbers, but another PPV gains some. Short term UFC loses out on some money, but so does Conor... They will both get theirs eventually when he returns. In the end, all of this is a Wash.

[aholbert32]

Re: UFC 200

Rocky did one press conference to announce his fight with Drago and then disappeared into the woods to train. That fight was huge, and Rocky ended the Cold War with his post-fight speech.

Rocky still did ONE press conference. LOL.

[DJ]

Re: UFC 200

Rocky still did ONE press conference. LOL.

New York would've been McGregor's one press conference.

I felt like we needed a bit of levity anyway. Between talking about all this nonsense and Prince passing away, it was too much.

Bert, maybe you and I need to join forces to pitch Dana on being the UFC's new PR/Communications team.

[Phobia]

Re: UFC 200

I don't understand this mindset some of you guys have like the UFC is going to fall apart without Conor. I mean, some fighter in the past were capable of producing Conors numbers, some of it is also timing. The UFC is more main stream than it was a decade ago. Hell you throw in Prime Chucke Liddell and Tito's feud in today's UFC and you have similar numbers.

My point is, Conor will retire at some point, someone else moves in to take that top money spot and the sport moves on. Its not this drastic situation some of you are painting it. A comparison would be acting like the NBA is done and will fold out of existence now that Kobe retired.

The smart business route is keep Conor off the card as a slap on the wrist for pushing company policy. If I'm a business owner and my BEST employee comes to me asking if he can leave early on Friday because he is just so good, well I can't allow that because every employee would be asking for the same treatment. Same thing applies here, you are making millions of dollars, show some appreciation for the life you get to live(couple weeks out the entire year you have to talk to reporters, come on man up), don't be a self entitled prick who thinks he can make his own rules. Those get fired at most jobs!

[The JareBear]

Re: UFC 200

The more I've thought about it today the more I realize that it's just not realistic if me to expect to see him at UFC 200. As has been said, UFC has to draw a line in the sand somewhere because they can't have every fighter declining press obligations now.

If they bring him back for 200 but have him fight someone else and it isn't a main or co-main would that be enough "punishment" to warrant letting him back on the card, or should I just scrap the dream altogether.

[fishingtime]

Re: UFC 200

This is all just posturing by Conor to make more money. He is actually quite smart. He might actually be the first fighter to co-promote with the UFC. I'm sure Bellator would love to pick him up if the UFC and Conor can't come to terms. They don't want to lose Conor. They didn't want the co-promotion with Fedor, but they also thought he was done. To lose Conor to Bellator would be a big hit if it happened.

[redsox4evur]

Re: UFC 200

The more I've thought about it today the more I realize that it's just not realistic if me to expect to see him at UFC 200. As has been said, UFC has to draw a line in the sand somewhere because they can't have every fighter declining press obligations now.

If they bring him back for 200 but have him fight someone else and it isn't a main or co-main would that be enough "punishment" to warrant letting him back on the card, or should I just scrap the dream altogether.

IMO, no it's enough of a punishment. It would be too light given what happened with Diaz earlier in his career.

This is all just posturing by Conor to make more money. He is actually quite smart. He might actually be the first fighter to co-promote with the UFC. I'm sure Bellator would love to pick him up if the UFC and Conor can't come to terms. They don't want to lose Conor. They didn't want the co-promotion with Fedor, but they also thought he was done. To lose Conor to Bellator would be a big hit if it happened.

No shot the UFC let's Conor go to Bellator before his contract is up. I have a better shot of getting a date with Kate Upton or any other supermodel for that matter then Bellator getting Conor before his contract is up.

[DJ]

Re: UFC 200

I don't understand this mindset some of you guys have like the UFC is going to fall apart without Conor. I mean, some fighter in the past were capable of producing Conors numbers, some of it is also timing. The UFC is more main stream than it was a decade ago. Hell you throw in Prime Chucke Liddell and Tito's feud in today's UFC and you have similar numbers.

My point is, Conor will retire at some point, someone else moves in to take that top money spot and the sport moves on. Its not this drastic situation some of you are painting it. A comparison would be acting like the NBA is done and will fold out of existence now that Kobe retired.

The smart business route is keep Conor off the card as a slap on the wrist for pushing company policy. If I'm a business owner and my BEST employee comes to me asking if he can leave early on Friday because he is just so good, well I can't allow that because every employee would be asking for the same treatment. Same thing applies here, you are making millions of dollars, show some appreciation for the life you get to live(couple weeks out the entire year you have to talk to reporters, come on man up), don't be a self entitled prick who thinks he can make his own rules. Those get fired at most jobs!

I don't think the UFC will fall apart if Conor is off of this card and if he chose to retire right now (he's not, I know), yeah it'd hurt, but he fights 2-4 times a year. That won't kill the company.

Still, I think with how he built himself into the company's biggest draw of all-time in 2 years, you could find some common ground and come to an understanding. I don't like the strong-arm tactics the UFC applies when it comes to fighters wanting to stand up for themselves. What if Conor got the flu or had to get his knee scoped and missed the press conference because of it ... would he be pulled from the fight?

Let's not act like this press conference is going to play a significant role in the amount of buys this show does. Heck, McGregor and Diaz did such big business because they only had 11 days to promote the fight; no one had time to forget when the fight was and who was fighting. It's April and UFC 200 isn't until July. The casual fan isn't going to care about a press conference today and think about buying a PPV 3 months away.

At the end of the day, what I'm trying to say is that I believe there's way for UFC to be creative with its marketing/promotion for this card AND use McGregor (as a one-time thank you for going above and beyond in promoting previous fights, agreeing to fight replacement fighters multiple times and coaching TUF after a lengthy promotional tour and fight) sparingly.

UFC could've still make this fight huge, but a snap decision took that away. McGregor's return will do a monster number, and part of me thinks this is a ploy to build up the MSG show in November. Rousey and McGregor both return and it's the UFC's first-ever card in MSG. They can do over 2 million buys with that show.

[redsox4evur]

Re: UFC 200

I don't think the UFC will fall apart if Conor is off of this card and if he chose to retire right now (he's not, I know), yeah it'd hurt, but he fights 2-4 times a year. That won't kill the company.

Still, I think with how he built himself into the company's biggest draw of all-time in 2 years, you could find some common ground and come to an understanding. I don't like the strong-arm tactics the UFC applies when it comes to fighters wanting to stand up for themselves. What if Conor got the flu or had to get his knee scoped and missed the press conference because of it ... would he be pulled from the fight?

Let's not act like this press conference is going to play a significant role in the amount of buys this show does. Heck, McGregor and Diaz did such big business because they only had 11 days to promote the fight; no one had time to forget when the fight was and who was fighting. It's April and UFC 200 isn't until July. The casual fan isn't going to care about a press conference today and think about buying a PPV 3 months away.

At the end of the day, what I'm trying to say is that I believe there's way for UFC to be creative with its marketing/promotion for this card AND use McGregor (as a one-time thank you for going above and beyond in promoting previous fights, agreeing to fight replacement fighters multiple times and coaching TUF after a lengthy promotional tour and fight) sparingly.

UFC could've still make this fight huge, but a snap decision took that away. McGregor's return will do a monster number, and part of me thinks this is a ploy to build up the MSG show in November. Rousey and McGregor both return and it's the UFC's first-ever card in MSG. They can do over 2 million buys with that show.

C'mon man...seriously. That is a completely different circumstance and you know that.

[fishingtime]

Re: UFC 200

No shot the UFC let's Conor go to Bellator before his contract is up. I have a better shot of getting a date with Kate Upton or any other supermodel for that matter then Bellator getting Conor before his contract is up.

How many more fights does he have on his contract? I wouldn't think many if he is starting this now. Just posturing. He has every right to. He brought in those fans. They would follow him to Bellator. Just think of the sponsorship money he could make. He has a very big bargaining chip right now. Another loss to Nate though, and he likely is not worth as much. If I were him, I would definitely be trying to capitalize.

[redsox4evur]

Re: UFC 200

How many more fights does he have on his contract? I wouldn't think many if he is starting this now. Just posturing. He has every right to. He brought in those fans. They would follow him to Bellator. Just think of the sponsorship money he could make. He has a very big bargaining chip right now. Another loss to Nate though, and he likely is not worth as much. If I were him, I would definitely be trying to capitalize.

I have no idea but it's probably a lot and multiple years away from happening.