With 16 events in 18 weeks, ‘Mighty’ feels UFC 215 getting lost in the shuffle
Demetrious Johnson: “There’s just too many back to back, back to back, back to back. 16 in 18 weeks. There’s just too many, you know?”
The UFC offered UFC flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson a superish fight vs. former bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw for the bout that could break Anderson Silva’s record for successful title defenses. Johnson insisted that Dillashaw earns his way to top ranking at 125, and opted to face the unheralded Ray Borg instead. The co-main event is UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes vs. Valentina Shevchenko, a fight that was delayed when the champ fell ill during the final weight cut.
UFC 215 lacks buzz. Nunes feels the UFC has declined to promote the event after she pulled out of the last one, while Johnson, perhaps tactfully, attributed it too many events – there are 16 in the next 18 weeks.
“It’s so damn hard, there’s so many UFC fights,” said Johnson said during a media scrum, as transcribed by Ryan Harkness for MMA Mania. “I was literally having breakfast and I was talking to one of the guys who works for UFC and I was like, ‘Yo, you guys just got back from Rotterdam, are you getting ready to go back home to Las Vegas and relax?’
He was like, ‘No, I’m going to Pittsburgh.’ Pittsburgh? I’m like there’s a fight card next Saturday? He goes ‘Yeah!’ There’s just too many back to back, back to back, back to back. 16 in 18 weeks. There’s just too many, you know?”
“I think for the UFC, maybe next year they’ll sit down and rethink things, but I dunno, I’m not part of the marketing team, the PR team of the UFC. But for me, they’ve got a big fight coming up which is Madison Square Garden. So for example, at the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight they promoted UFC 217 at MSG when they had UFC 215 coming up and UFC 216 coming up.”
“So they took a chance, like, ‘Hey I gotta promote UFC 215, promote UFC 216, we’re gonna skip both of those and promote a promo for UFC 217. So when they’re doing stuff like that, it’s like … you gotta look at what they’re gonna do. And that’s fine. I’m not part of that team. As for me, I would have shown UFC 215 because that’s the next thing coming up, what I would have focused on selling.”
The UFC record for successful title defenses is on the line Saturday night, and with it a good case for league G.O.A.T. However, few seem to care much.
Did the UFC anticipate there would be no great interest in Johnson vs. Borg and thus not give the event a major, expensive marketing push, or is the lack of marketing the cause of the lack of interest. Given that the simple rule in marketing is you go fishing where there’s fish, it’s likely the former.
Say you have a marketing budget for the year that is not unlimited. Are you going to spend it on trying to get people to part with $59.95 for the return of GSP vs. middleweight champ bloody Michael Bisping or on trying to get people to part with $59.95 for Demetrious Johnson vs. Ray Borg. Do you even know what Ray Borg looks like?
