This was previously posted as a guest blog on mmabadass.com.
Nobody would say that UFC is afraid to take risks, but with UFC on Fox 1, they have seemingly hedged their bets big time. After the announcement of the event, speculation was rampant about the main event. Would it be for a title? Would Anderson Silva be involved? Would Ben Henderson and Clay Guida be matched up? Brock Lesnar had just announced that he was healthy, would he be the main attraction?
As it turned out, the answer was almost universally unexpected, as Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos were assumed to be fighting at UFC 139 the following week. This left them without a big main event for that event, but it also made their debut on national TV as big as it could possibly be. That is, as big as it could possibly be until the surprise signing of Alistair Overeem and the subsequent announcement of a match between Overeem and Lesnar in December at UFC 141.
What UFC did was genius. They gave away the heavyweight title fight on free TV as a way to promote their number one contender’s match in December. They knew that any fight with Brock Lesnar in it would probably be their top pay-per-view of the year, and with Overeem as his opponent, it would be even bigger. Putting their title fight on Fox, with the lesser-known JDS and Velasquez, would be worth a thousand TV commercials for UFC 141. It wouldn’t hurt that Fox could promote the “Heavyweight Title Fight” as we’ve seen it marketed the past few weeks, either. It would make both Cain and JDS better-known, and it would seem like they were giving Fox the biggest fight possible.
In fact, they are using the broadcast tv platform to sell us the biggest fight possible. Lesnar and Overeem will be in attendance at the title fight, they will be providing some sort of commentary in the pre-show or post-show. There won’t be any promos for UFC 139 or 140. Everything around UFC on Fox is focused on selling UFC 141.
The irony is that the heavyweight title is absolutely eclipsed by both Lesnar and Overeem. They are bigger than any title. UFC has been having a down year as far as pay-per-view buys go, but as long as Lesnar and Overeem fight at UFC 141, it’s safe to say that it will challenge for the top UFC pay-per-view of all time. Nobody could say that about Velasquez vs. dos Santos. Both fighters are really great, they are a new crop of well-rounded heavyweights that are seemingly unstoppable. But their names aren’t famous outside of MMA, and are only famous inside MMA very recently.
UFC let us know who they think their heavyweight champion truly is. As long as Lesnar draws insane pay-per-view buys, he will be the de facto champion. Not that I’m complaining, but I am struck by the irony of the situation. Cain Velasquez will have to retain his title for the opportunity to rematch Brock Lesnar, and truly prove his worth. This time, winning won’t be enough. He’ll have to prove it in dollars.
