The Rear Naked Column 07.29.10: The Art of Selling a Fight

Posted by Samer Kadi on 07.29.2010

Chael Sonnen’s trash talking has managed to raise the interest in his upcoming fight with Anderson Silva at UFC 117. 411’s Samer Kadi examines the importance of knowing how to sell a fight…

Seconds after hearing Anderson Silva play down the importance of fight hype, UFC middleweight number 1 contender and trash-talking engine Chael Sonnen responded with the following:

"He couldn't be any more wrong. Does he know anything about the business? People don't just want to watch people fight, they want to know why they are fighting. He thinks he's taking the high road. He is so clueless it's not even funny. The guy is a dummy. I can't wait to kick his ass."

Some would dispute Sonnen's claims and choose to adopt Silva's views, and there is an element of truth in both sides of the argument. For hardcore fans, a great fight is just that. They seldom need any further convincing to tune in. In which case, hype becomes secondary. However, those fans are a mere minority and can more than likely be counted on to order every show. In reality, PPV buy rates live and die by the casual fan interest, and ultimately, they are the deciding factor. It would be naïve to suggest that a good – or even great – fight would be sufficient to entice their curiosity and prompt them to open up their wallets. After all, there is a reason the Quinton Jackson/Rashad Evans grudge match (a fantastic fight in its own right) drew in almost a million people, almost double the amount of fans who tuned in to watch Mauricio Rua and Lyoto Machida – easily the world's top two light-heavyweights – square off for the biggest prize in the business.

The UFC is the biggest MMA promotion in the world because, among other things, they know how to promote fights better than anyone else. From the smallest Spike TV card to the biggest PPV of the year, they know exactly how much they need to get behind different cards, to what extent they need to promote them and most importantly, how they promote them. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has become such an established household brand that they can achieve a 250 000+ buy rate by merely displaying the "UFC" letters, and that is part of the reason why they tried their best to sway the casual viewers into thinking the recent WEC PPV was a UFC offering (which it technically was).

Getting the standard number of buys can be done with minimum effort, but the real challenge is offering up one big fight after the other, smartly promoting them, and making big money, which is where the UFC has truly excelled. Whether we MMA fans like to admit it or not, the business and the promotion aspects of MMA are very similar to the professional wrestling model. Great fights are what ultimately everyone wants to see, top fighters are the ones most people seek to watch, but how the fights are marketed and at times, the back story behind them is what set them apart.

BJ Penn's trash talk couldn't have hurt, but his rematch with Georges St-Pierre had an already built in story: It marked the first time two UFC title holders squared off against one another, and the UFC wisely marketed it as such with their "epic battle of champions" moniker.

The absurdity of a 2-1 fighter competing in what was hyped as "the biggest fight in UFC history" may not have been lost on hardcore fans, but in reality, none of that really mattered: The UFC knew how to market Randy Couture's title defense against Brock Lesnar and the buy rates came in accordingly.

Among the many ways of hyping a fight, most of which Zuffa has tightly mastered, trash talk has proven to be the most effective. While many "purists" downplay its importance due to its pro-wrestling like aspect, it has in fact long been a prominent feature in Boxing. Voted as the "sportsman of the century", Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was nothing short of a trash-talking machine. Since, boxing greats Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather have all adopted a similar method.

For a non-title fight, the publicity garnered by the recent Rampage Jackson/Rashad Evans bout is nothing short of astounding. And while their trash talking often verged on childish, there can be no denying the effect it had on the PPV buy rate. The UFC was smart to play up the feud and market it as "the biggest grudge match in UFC history" by first dedicating a "TUF" season, and later a Primetime series in order to gain further interest.



Speaking of "The Ultimate Fighter", as played-out as the show might have become, it remains a substantial part of the UFC and still serves its purpose to perfection. In my opinion, the show isn't about finding new stars. In reality, real prospects more often than not get signed immediately by the UFC as Joe Silva and company usually have smaller promotions well scouted for any potential talent. What "The Ultimate Fighter" does is allow the UFC to have a relevant show on TV (that's another column for another day), as well as granting them the perfect platform to build up anticipation for a future fight. Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck are prime examples. St-Pierre has already dominated Koscheck a few years ago, which makes the fight that much more difficult to sell. However, six weeks of Koscheck taking jabs at St-Pierre and showing what a great "heel" he can be will surely get people excited for the fight, for one reason or another.

To say that Tito Ortiz's "rivalry" with Ken Shamrock was lopsided would be an understatement, and the trash talk varied from awkward to downright embarrassing, but they twice managed to produce the biggest buy rate in the company's history. Ortiz topped his efforts by talking his way and leading people into believing his rematch with Chuck Liddell would be any competitive, in a fight that set a company record at the time.



UFC 100 may have been a milestone for the UFC, but it would be dubious to think it would have managed to shatter all kinds of records had it not been for Brock Lesnar's heated feud with Frank Mir. In fact, Lesnar's star power aside, Mir played a vital part in hyping up the event, thanks in large part to his pre-fight comments that eventually forced Lesnar to indulge in a battle of words.

People who doubt the efficiency of trash talk need to look no further than Georges St-Pierre's title defense against Dan Hardy. Through sheer power of words, Hardy had managed to convince people that he might be the man to stop St-Pierre with his superior stand up and knockout power, despite never scoring a one punch knockout against anyone this side of Rory Markham. If nothing else, Dan Hardy managed to present himself in a dislikeable enough manner to elicit a reaction and goad people into wanting to tune in to see him lose.

No amount of brilliant Chael Sonnen quotes will catapult the UFC 117 buy rate into one of the highest in the promotion's history, but it has managed to raise much bigger interest among the casual fans. One year ago, Chael Sonnen was a name hardly recognized by anyone outside the hardcore MMA community (and Oregon), who was mostly remembered for an abominable fight with Paulo Filho. Wins over top middleweights Yushin Okami and Nate Marquardt could have only helped, but Chael Sonnen finds himself in this position due to a one of a kind campaign against Anderson Silva and his manager Ed Soares, and the entire Black House gym for that matter. Even after the Okami win, few had taken notice of Sonnen's "loudmouth" personality. However, weeks before his fight with Nate Marquardt, he managed to transform in the eyes of the fans from "boring wrestler" to hands down, the best trash talker in MMA. For the past five months, Sonnen has fired one bullet after the other at Silva, and he now essentially carries a stacked UFC 117 card on his shoulders.



After Silva's last performance, it would have been hard for the UFC to promote his next fight. But in a typically brilliant piece of matchmaking, Dana White and Joe Silva pitted him against someone who will not only propel him to fight to the best of his abilities, but also force the fans to take notice after a monstrous wave of outrageous verbal warfare.

Like many before him, UFC 117 may mark the night where Chael Sonnen gets turned into a highlight reel by the sport's best fighter. However, unlike all of Silva's opponents, he gave the fans something else to remember him by, and that is a true testament to Sonnen's intelligence. He first took full advantage of the spotlight when featured in the co-main event of UFC 109, and then proceeded to take it to a completely new level after a career-changing win over Nate Marquardt. You can say what you want about Chael Sonnen, but the man has proven that he "gets it".

For his part, Anderson Silva promised to do the talking or – god forbid – dancing inside the Octagon. For more on that, tune in next week as "The Rear Naked Column" breaks down UFC 117's anticipated main event.