This content is protected I mean no one could have possibly predicted that the IBF would strip him of the title after going with Zufa. Feels with the like of CBS seemingly going that way, all of this could get very messy. To me if it means that much to Jai, he should be having words with the people who advised him.
Your last line nails it. Could see this coming a mile off. That being said, Zuffa are right - these alphabet bodies are a joke - it may not be the same now, but the original IBF should have been shut down for its dealings with Don King and Bob Arum in the 1980s. Any notion that these are serious "governing bodies" is for the birds and if Zuffa builds enough of a credible stable to decide it has its own champion, so be it. If I was Opetaia I'd tell them to get lost and move on.
Exactly. Zuffa only need two or three genuinely credible names to make their “belt” feel real. The IBF got instant legitimacy when Larry Holmes accepted it as champion, and having names like Aaron Pryor, Hagler and Curry associated with it early on didn’t hurt either. The WBO’s first proper stamp was Tommy Hearns winning their inaugural title, and then the Brits legitimised it as much as anyone else by using it as a route to a “world title” while avoiding the best in the division. But it’s a huge ask now, because they wouldn’t just be taking on the alphabet bodies, they’d be going up against all the established promoters and broadcasters who already control the talent pools and pathways.
The thing is, with reduced weight classes and one belt, how many fighters does a stable actually need? Let's say a pyramid of fighters - 16, 8, 4, 2 and the champion for each division, so there's always challenging and movement - that's 248 fighters between 8 divisions. It's not beyond the realms they could sign that to get it going, even if some of them are no-hopers padding things out. UFC's roster is treble that. As you say, as long as some of those are credible then they've got a chance, they've already got TV signed up. I can see the day the current promoters mix their own shows with managing fighters elsewhere.
Yup, well said. Quality will be the hard part at the start, but look at the early UFC cards, half of them were absolute trash too. They just need to build the roster, get a few credible names to legitimise it, pad the rest with marketable over-the-hill guys and a few “recently retired” comebacks, and suddenly you’ve got something to work with. With Saudi backing and Sky on board, it’s doable. Look at Callum Simpson, he built a big platform off Sky exposure alone. He came unstuck and Shalom lost the deal, but the numbers were clearly there.
Zuffa is a sensation. Its belt is the most prestigious and it will soon house a formidable ‘roster’ of talent. Its eye will be on the heavyweight division. Zuffa knows that the heavyweight division is by far the most prestigious and most important.
Yeah, UFC started as basically a prize fighter tournament, kind of like Matchroom and then Boxxer did - a nice way to get to know some fighters on the circuit. Matchroom was doing dozens of shows in the Screensport days for the same reason. It shouldn't take someone with deep pockets or TV deals that long to build up a roster at all. Boxxer might have made it, without Sky's need to bring PPV money overnight and quotas of women's fights.
