The last two years have been plagued with main event injuries in the UFC, but matchmakers have always been quick to book alternate bouts in place. UFC 128 last year fell apart when Rashad Evans injured his knee, After the accident, Jon Jones stepped up to challenge Shogun Rua for the title.
Should a champion have a say in who he faces? Should a champion have the right to talk about who does and doesn’t deserve a shot? Some could argue that the pressure of holding the belt combined with the extra promotional & press work required of the champion along with maintaing businesses’, endorsements and sponsorships could give the champion some extra power within the company. For example, the unbeaten streak middleweight champion Anderson Silva has been on since his debut with the UFC six years ago has granted him this power within the company.
So why does the 205Ibs champion not receive the same respect from the promotion? Alot of Jones’ fans have become his biggest detractors since his rise to the top. The most accurate way to gauge the champions popularity, at least with the live audience is to watch the shows he is featured on & to listen to his reaction. Message boards, internet forums & Twitter comments do not translate to the casual paying audience, which is why basing opinions on social media can be problematic. The UFC, now promoting around 13 Pay-Per-View shows annually, in addition to free fight cards on network & cable TV, has a baseline number of fans who are prepared to purchase each show at the $50 price tag. This base number has dropped slightly over time as more free fights fill the air waves. With more belts in the UFC, more unknown champions are headlining shows. With the loss of Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, BJ Penn & Brock Lesnar, it is proving hard to make super-stars who can put on performances that the masses want to see. Despite the vocal MMA community who have expressed their disdain for Jones, there are hundreds of thousands of homes still purchasing his fights. That is the bottom line. The question is, do the recent actions of Jones hurt his ability to draw in the future with the paying audience?
Dana White was quick to point out following the UFC 151 cancellation that Jones is a very unpopular champion, also stating that himself & Lorenzo Fertita were ‘disgusted’ with the champion. The fan backlash could also be a reaction to statements made by Jones during the UFC 151 press tour he made about not wanting to face number 2 contender Lyoto Machida again. His reason, Machida was his lowest drawing opponent at the box office.
Of Jones’ four title matches, the Machida fight at UFC 140 did in fact draw fewer viewers than his bouts with Rashad Evans, Rampage Jackson and Shogun Rua.
Why did Jones the rookie, when facing Ryan Bader, Stephan Bonnar & Matt Hamill receive a massively different reaction back in 2009 & 2010? Jones is a world class athlete with natural ability who started his octagon career performing spinning elbows to opponents, emulating moves he had seen on YouTube.
He received attention due to his potential, ability and unorthodox style, Jones found himself a camp. Enter Greg Jackson from Albuquerque, NM. Jones was invited to join the team and train with Clay Guida, Donald Cerrone & fellow light heavyweight contender Rashad Evans. During this time, Jones fought his way to the belt while Evans suffered injury in preparation for his shot. Evans left the camp and started a new gym in Boca Raton, FL after departing from Jacksons.
Jones and Evans, during their year of training, had vowed to never fight each other despite competing in the same promotion in the same weight class. During an interview with MMA fighting, the newly crowned 205Ibs champion stated that he would face Evans if the UFC decided to make the match.
This was a turning point for Jones – the vocal MMA fans made their opinions known, they turned on him. His self-confidence in their opinions was fast becoming arrogance, but the casual fight fans continued to pay to see his fights. The statement Jones made about fighting who he is told directly contradicts his ideology just 18 months later, now defending champion and the only Nike sponsored MMA fighter ever. Jones and the decision of his management to pick his matches and opponents resulted in a cancelled Las Vegas event, UFC 151 and millions of dollars in lost revenue for the promotion, the city and the casinos.
Perhaps Jones beleived Chael Sonnen was an unworthy contender after coming up short in his second attempt at capturing Anderson Silvas middleweight title at UFC 148. According to Jones, he didn’t believe Sonnen should be able to talk his way to a shot.
Sonnen following his loss at 185Ibs announced on an episode of UFC Tonight he would continue his fighting career at light heavyweight and would be facing Forrest griffin in December, it was after this announcement earlier in August that Sonnens attention turned towards Jones.
When Dan Henderson got sidelined, the event was not in jeopardy of being cancelled, a replacement fight was scheduled for the viewing audience and the 10,000 plus travelling to Las Vegas. It was after Greg Jackson allegedly stated ‘to take the fight would be the biggest mistake of Jones’ career‘ that UFC management cancelled a show for the first time under Zuffa ownership.
UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans did over 700,000 buys in North America. A very impressive number in 2012. As a proven draw, should this give Jones more leeway within the UFC? It should definitely put him in an elite club with current fighters who are proven to sell shows based on their athletic ability and star power. Anderson Silva & Georges St Pierre are huge stars in North and South America and Jones could push himself to another level as a newly crowned Nike spokesperson, but does this growing disconnect with the vocal MMA fanbase hurt his future. There are many tangible effects his decision to turn down a fight could have on his career, at least in the near future.
On December 30th 2006, UFC promoted their anual new years event, UFC 66:Liddell vs. Ortiz II. This event did a record 1,050,000 buys on pay-per-view. Tito Ortiz was trashed for years by UFC President Dana White due to their dislike of one another, when Ortiz returned to the promotion following a hiatus in 2009 to headline UFC 106 against Forrest Griffin, the show did an estimated 375,000 buys.
Does having a vocal President hurt the business? We will find out when Jones defends his belt in September against Vitor Belfort. Maybe being ‘disgusted’ with Jones was something Dana White could have kept to himself, but then again, there are alot of fans who have the same opinion White has. Will Jones’ next fight match the 700,000 buys he did against Evans? That fight had the benefit of having the grudge angle to help it. Jones’ battles with Rampage Jackson, Rua and Machida did between 485,000 & 520,000 buys and potentially, his September 1st bout with Henderson could have also done around half a million buys too.
With an eight day build, and coming off a recent loss, could Sonnen have talked fans into buying a fight against Jones?
Sonnen is a master in generating buzz and is without a doubt one of the best talkers in the sport. His ability to promote and sell a fight are talents appreciated by the promotion in an era when the original stars who drew huge numbers, based on main eventing when The Ultimate Fighter reality show debuted in the mid-2000’s, are now retired.
I believe Jones vs. Sonnen at UFC 151 had the potential to sell more than the originally scheduled Henderson fight and we will find out in September if the fight with Belfort in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at UFC 152 can even draw as well as his previous title fights.
A fight with Sonnen was probably the best option for Jones, especially if his pay is based on buy rates. So does that mean that the champion ignored Sonnens previous success at the box office, or was the fight rejected because of decisions within the Jackson camp?
Management making decisions for fighters has always been prevalent in combat sports, and with the case of Fedor Emelianenko & the struggle by the UFC to sign him to a contract, often times, MMA management can make the wrong decisions and not always appear to have their clients best interests at heart.
The questions regarding Jones, his success and his popularity remain un-answered, but should the champion in any weight class have the ‘stroke’ to turn down fights booked by the promoters?
This answer should always be ‘No‘.