There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in the shallows and in miseries.
William Shakespeare – Julius Caesar
As we meander slowly towards the 1-year anniversary of the McGregor/Mayweather fight, One question keeps popping into my head. Why the fuck hasn’t the UFC grabbed boxing by the balls and created the Ultimate Boxing Championship.
I mean everything was in place for them to make a move. Conor McGregor cajoled the whole world into believing that the impossible was not merely possible but probable. Until fight night of course but make no mistake boxing was there for the taking – and still, the window has not completely closed shut.
One year ago the UFC never had more non-MMA eyes on its world. And to be fair in comparison to boxing the UFC looked like a little slice of wonderful. Big star – great promoter – superb media.
(On a side note MMA blogging, Podcasting, Vlogging is so far ahead of boxing it is not even funny)
The key, in any long-term business, not just to growth but to survival is Change. The model that has brought the UFC this far is no longer fit for purpose. All told the new ownership of the UFC have been behaving like accountants rather than buccaneers. Now is not the time for counting pennies – it is time to throw down a gauntlet to the boxing world and create an alternative boxing product.
Boxing is crying out for not a jab to the jaw but a kick to the head. The UFC needs to make some big bold moves or it will itself loses its primacy in the MMA arena.
Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier according to early estimates sold a little over 400,000 pay per view buys. This should have been a 1.4 million buy event. Two worthy, popular champions both Miocic and Cormier are class acts.
However humble while nice in pies doesn’t sell pay per view events – at the moment. I wish it wasn’t so – But it is – What will sell pay per view events in the absence of celebrity athletes – is a novelty. Mixed boxing/MMA promotions. Crossover Athletes. Intrigue.
If the UFC start expanding the brand to other mixed martial arts – starting with boxing – I believe it is also securing its future. The future, however, requires capital invested in the present and I just don’t think the current ownership has the balls or the vision to do it.
Ask yourself this…. What exactly is Dana White doing at the moment? Wasting his energy on Brendan Schwaub? Needlessly haranguing Francis N’Gannou?.
Dana needs a CEO quarterback that keeps him focused on the strategic plan and what he is brilliant at – promoting and generating Main Event interest. At the moment there is No proper strategic plan.
I’m not one of these people that blame Dana White for the past 12 to 18 months of Average batting coming out of Las Vegas HQ. I blame the owners – I mean really …Is the best we can look forward to in the UFC merely another Brock Lesner re-run this time with Daniel Cormier.
It is past time for UFC to get real – because as Shakespeare figured out over 400 years ago, time waits for no man and Julius Caesar is always the last to know.
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