mma / Columns

Why UFC 215 Is Scheduled To Fail

September 7, 2017 | Posted by Jeremy Lambert
UFC 215 Demetrious Johnson Ray Borg UFC 216

There’s a UFC pay-per-view this Saturday. You’re not going to watch it. No one is going to watch it. I’m willing to bet that it’ll be the lowest bought event in the last five years. It may even do under 100,000 buys. That’s how little everyone, including the UFC themselves, think of this event.

Stuck Between Boxing

Two weeks ago, at least four million people purchased the Conor McGregor-Floyd Mayweather bout for $100. In one week, Canelo Alvarez will battle Gennady Golovkin in the most anticipated and competitive boxing bout in years. I suspect that fight will do at least one million buys. Oscar De La Hoya says it’ll do three million, but his word is about as good as Dana White’s. Either way, we’re looking at around five million people (with some overlap), minimum, spending their money on two big combat sporting events in the span of a month.

That doesn’t bode well for the chances of UFC 215. Even if this was a card worth watching, it’s significantly overshadowed by two bigger combat sporting events. Not many people have almost $300 set aside to spend on three pay-per-view events. And if they do, they definitely aren’t in a relationship.

Everyone Has Been Buried

Who is Ray Borg? Well, he’s not TJ Dillashaw. Who is Demetrious Johnson? He’s not a draw and his division his so insignificant that the UFC contemplates shutting it down every three months. Who is Amanda Nunes? Not sure, UFC would have to spend $100 million for me to know who she is. Who is Valentina Shevchenko? No one knows. And who the fook is Jeremy Stephens?

Dana White has spent the last few months burying Johnson and Nunes to the point that no one could possibly want to see them fight. Johnson was basically called a pussy for taking the fight against Borg and not Dillashaw and Nunes was basically called a pussy for not fighting while ill. COME WATCH THESE PUSSIES DEFEND THEIR TITLES!

No Promotion

No promotion might be better than throwing your champions on the bus, but it’s still not good. You know that saying “if you don’t have anything nice to saying, don’t say nothing”? Dana White’s saying is, “say something mean or say nothing. Unless you’re talking about Conor McGregor or Ronda Rousey.” Dana has moved away from saying mean things about everyone on this card to saying nothing.

He’s still basking in the glory of McGregor’s moral boxing victory and looking ahead to the November card where the important fights are taking place. There’s been little to nothing said about UFC 215 this weekend. It’s just an event taking place because they didn’t hold an event in August and they needed something for September.

Canada

Historically, events in Canada do worse on pay-per-view than events in America. The lone exception is when Georges St-Pierre fights, but that’s because he’s Georges St-Pierre. Simply put, the promotion isn’t the same. There are no billboards in major cities promoting an event taking place in Canada. The American market doesn’t pay attention to what is going on in Canada.

UFC 206: Holloway vs. Pettis, the last UFC pay-per-view to take place in Canada did 150,000 buys. The last three UFC in Canada events did an average of 130,000 buys. Johnson headlined two of those events.

Back when pay-per-view was booming, the UFC had more than one star, and Georges St-Pierre was busting his ass to promote the sport in Canada, the UFC could expect strong numbers from their Canadian events. But as things have died down, they visit Canada less and don’t care to bring their best effort, making the events feel less important.

Are you ordering UFC 215 this weekend? If yes, can I borrow a dollar?

Follow me on twitter @jeremylambert88

article topics :

UFC 215, Jeremy Lambert