Joe Silva and the “Joy” of UFC Matchmaking

On the eve of one of the more baffling fights to take up a prominent position on a UFC Payperview – the pro debut of former pro wrestler CM Punk against Mickey “What’s Left After you Throw Marky Mark into a Vice Grip” Gall, a lot of questions are still looking to be answered, none more pertinent than the following:

Seriously, who books this crap?

Of all the top positions in the UFC, matchmaker is probably the most thankless. It’s not a position that gets a ton of praise when done correctly and yet it receives all the hate in the world when a fight gets booked that makes no sense or a fighter gets passed over on a title fight for reasons beyond being the most deserving, most logical choice, whatever role logic may or may not play in that specific context.

And it’s been within that kind of context that Joe Silva has had to operate for most of his career. Silva has been the matchmaker for the UFC longer than most of us even knew that mixed martial arts was a thing. Silva’s involvement in the sport predates the term “Mixed Martial Arts” itself.

Silva has filled a unique role over the last 20 years. He is one of the few vestiges of the old guard – the Wild West days of Semaphore Entertainment Group’s “No Holds Barred” gladiator-style combat that taunted the world into banning it before the world called its bluff – as well as one of the key figures in transitioning this bloodsport into a legitimate sport, one with beer sponsors and video games and college football lead-ins.

There were few people left standing to make the transition from the Middle Ages of SEG into the Renaissance of the Zuffa era. Silva was one of those people. Silva has been a constant for so long, longer than most of us realize, that it can be easy to forget the impact he has had on shaping the sport into what it is today, even if what the sport is today could be the very same reason he is walking away from it.

Joe started out just like most of us: as a fan. Joe was a kid who enjoyed martial arts. He read martial arts magazines and watched martial arts competitions and had his own thoughts and opinions on which fighting styles could reasonably consider themselves superior to every other.

That’s why he responded to an ad in Black Belt Magazine that was placed by the UFC. It wasn’t because he was looking to fight. It was because he was passionate about the same kind of fantasy SEG was tirelessly working to turn into a reality and wanted to impart some of the words of wisdom he had developed in his experience following other early fight promotions.

That decision to call the UFC turned into a life-changing one for Silva, who, in the UFC, found an organization more than willing to buy what he was selling.

Joe had no intention of applying for a job that fateful day but it didn’t take long for one conversation to turn into two, which turned into three, which turned into Joe flying out to a UFC event and becoming a consultant before ultimately becoming the official matchmaker for one of the premier organizations in the sport.

The story of Joe Silva is very much a success story. It’s a story that teaches the value of being passionate, of finding something you love and putting your whole heart and soul into it, because you never know where that passion will lead you.

For Silva, that passion didn’t just lead to a job. It led to power. It led to influence. It led to the dawning of a new era.

It led to MMA.

It was in Silva’s work helping draft the Unified Rules that allowed the sport we recognize to get sanctioned and receive the acceptance that had alluded it for years.

It was in Silva’s understanding of moving MMA away from spectacle and moving it towards sport, and in changing perceptions by presenting UFC fighters as human beings and not circus freak show acts, that allowed everyday people to connect with the sport and paved the way for the success of The Ultimate Fighter and the massive growth the sport experienced in the late 00’s.

It was in Silva’s capacity as UFC Vice President of Talent Relations that saw him hold the reins over the continued expansion of the sport, crafting fight cards and being the main point of contact for an ever growing roster of fighters looking to battle for the attention of a mere mortal and his almost God-like control over their very lives.

And it could be that battle that exists as the underlying reason for Silva’s departure after 20 years of loyal service to the UFC.

The battle between sport and spectacle is one that has not only defined the UFC but the entire sport of MMA itself. It was that battle that resulted in the the UFC lying on its deathbed back in the late 90s, by showing the dangers of focusing too much on spectacle, and it was the battle back towards sport that allowed the sport to survive and later thrive…until the sport became too real (i.e. boring) and spectacle started to slowly creep its way back into the picture (and the pocketbook).

While no official word has been given yet for why Joe Silva is stepping down, and unofficial word mentions him wanting to spend more time with his family after making a tidy profit in Zuffa’s recent sale of the UFC to WME-IMG, it’d be hard to imagine the company’s changing matchmaking philosophy didn’t play a factor.

For a man who made a career out of weeding out the wannabes and making the elites prove their value, it must have beeen painful to sit back and watch some of the corporate decisions that have been made over the last 2 years to progress the company’s bottom line at the expense of the sport’s integrity.

Sure, the spectacle never completely left the sport, but there’s no question that it’s the spectacle that has become more and more a centerpiece of the UFC than it has been in a long time.

The battle between sport and spectacle is one that has not just been waged in front of our eyes but one that has existed behind the scenes for as long as Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta have run the company as, while those men are certainly fans of the sport and recognized the need for acceptance and the value of presenting MMA as a sport, they also recognized that spectacle, if done right, will pay the bills a helluva lot quicker than sport ever will.

I’m sure Joe Silva knows this too. It’s a hard fact to ignore, especially after witnessing Conor McGregor force the UFC to put an entire division on hold for the express purpose of selling two of the most successful Payperviews in company history. It’s that kind of thinking that’s paved the way for Michael Bisping to use his newly-won UFC championship to attempt to avenge a high profile loss than to actually defend the belt. It’s that kind of thinking that allowed Brock Lesnar to trample all over the UFC’s drug testing protocols.

It’s that kind of thinking that explains why CM Punk, a man with no professional MMA fights, with less than 2 years of formal training, is making his MMA debut on Payperview underneath a heavyweight title fight while other fighters more deserving of that spot wallow away on the prelims.

Now, I can’t say this change in booking philosophy played any part in Joe’s decision to leave, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to say it probably helped make the decision easier. It was hard enough going from booking 8 shows a year with 200 fighters to booking over 40 shows a year with 600 fighters.

Having that much power and control over the destinies of so many lives while also having people to answer to, people whose authority exceeds your own and whose goals and objectives may run completely counter to your own, must be extremely exhausting and disheartening. It’s a job that comes with equal parts triumph and heartache, something many fans wouldn’t think about being a routine part of life for a man who, on the surface, just makes fights and shakes fighter’s hands after they win.

Joe has lasted long enough to see his vision blossom and begin to fester. Very few have endured the way he has and now it’s time for him to move on and let someone else shape the next chapter of the sport. Whether that next chapter sees the sport continue on the path it’s currently on or whether it deviates in some other direction, one thing that can’t be denied is Joe Silva gave so much to get the sport to where it is today and, for sharing his passion with us, we all owe him a huge debt of gratitude.

Thank you for everything, Joe. You may be a man of small stature but you’ve left a massive footprint on the sport and it’ll be hard for anyone to fill your shoes.

Good luck, Sean Shelby. You’re gonna need it.

Evan Zivin has been writing for 411 MMA since May of 2013. Evan loves the sport, and likes to takes a lighthearted look at the world of MMA in his writing…usually.