A hot topic in UK MMA circles right now, Cage Warriors FC director Graham Boylan gives us his thoughts on matchmaking and how promotions should be doing it but, more often than not, how they actually aren't. Check it out here: www.yourmma.tv/blog
An MMA promotion is an entertainment venture. If a fighter is unable to generate a fanbase and has a proven history of stinking the joint out when he gets into the cage, he does not have any right to appear on the card. Why should the guy who doesn't sell tickets and who causes the fan's enjoyment of the show to lessen get the spot on the card over the guy who does sell tickets and gets the crowd roaring? :hat
1) Fitch is a p4per. 2) Fitch doesn't headline cards unless he's fighting a GSP or a Penn. 3) Is this discussion about universally-recognized top-10 p4pers? 4) If nobody is buying tickets to see fighter A, and then he gets in the cage and lays on top of his journeyman opponent doing nothing and wins a boring decision while the fans boo, and nobody enjoys the fight and nobody wants to buy a ticket to see him again, and in fact his presence on the next card makes the fans anticipate it less, why does he have a right to a spot on the next card? :huh :hat
I think he's trying to say that well matched, entertaining fights are actually the way forward, as opposed to just matching a ticket seller with a bum so his fans get to see him kick someone's head in.
If the guy wins then he has the right to move on to another show even if he pins the guy down for all the rounds and does nothing else. If fans don't like that then they can always go to a Muay Thai or kickboxing event and start bitching how a wrestler would take them apart... :roll: What is the point of matching a guy up with a 60 second knock out fight just so drunk people can jump up and down... I may be wrong but for me MMA is a sport first and entertainment second. Maybe that is because i train four nights a week and when it comes to competition if i can win in a boring way or lose for entertainment purposes then I'm sorry but I'll bore you... (no hate btw... just my opinion :good) This... A few guys i train with are having a real big problem finding fights at the moment as no one will fight them at their level and they don't want to fight cans... this is where the entertainment side of the game is hurting the sport. Lynchburg
I think people are missing the point here. They're not talking about people who'll drew a buzz or raise the profile of the show. They're literally talking about actual ticket sellers. I'm writing about this in the next edition of Fighting Spirit Magazine, but British promotions are struggling to attract fans. Pretty much the only way to get people through the do is to get fighters who have networks that they can directly sell tickets to i.e. gyms, friends and family
