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BENT: UFC Not 'UNICEF' - Tito's Return Makes More Sense Than Fedor Coming
Jul 31, 2009 - 2:07:28 PM BENT: UFC Not 'UNICEF' - Tito's Return Makes More Sense Than Fedor Coming

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UFC is not spelled UNICEF.

Sure, you can get U,F,C from it but that organization gives it away and the UFC does no such thing.

They did not get to where they are today by signing blank checks and then gleefully handing them over to all of the fighters on their roster. In fact, most fighters have gotten the short end of the stick and paid far less money than that which they deserve. One only has to look over to the WEC side of things and see Urijah Faber and Miguel Angel Torres, who could earn more for their bouts if they would only pass a hat around the audience during the event.

The WEC fighters are able to make weight so easily because they hardly make enough money to eat. WEC fighters are liable to ask UFC fighters if they can have their walk-in t-shirts bearing sponsor insignias. Not because they realize there is a market for such merchandise but because it could be a way to get some free clothes. Oliver Twist barely had enough nerve to ask for some more gruel, and fighters receiving paychecks with Zuffa on them will rarely even so much as raise one eyebrow for fear of being cast out into the street.

So, the fighters who have become names in this sport have been able to earn far more money for fighting, garner the better sponsorship deals and in cases of Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar, have all been able to sweeten their checks with a generous portion of the profits from PPV events they headline. Top guys make far more than everyone else, and no one has a problem with this because those are the fighters most responsible for putting butts in the seats and Octagon necklaces around the necks of those fans. In respect to every other sport, and especially so when it is realized just how successful the UFC is, it even can seem as if the very top guys are still underpaid.

Fighters are jockeying for position, angling for title shots and doing their best to walk the line and remain employed with the UFC in hopes of one day fighting their way to the top and becoming one of those names. Some fighters take longer to get there than others, while the very rare Brock Lesnar will take the fast track to the top, and most will never, ever get even close to making the big money in this sport which is growing by the minute.

Recent UFC news has centered around two men who either are at the very top of the food chain or once were and fans have been buzzing ever since. On one side of the table you have Tito Ortiz, who was once the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and one of those fighters largely responsible for drawing huge buyrates and bringing more pairs of eyes to the product. On the other side you have Fedor Emelianenko, who is largely considered the very best heavyweight to have ever competed in the sport and is arguably the current "pound-for-pound" king. Both men have value, but for different reasons and both would be more than welcome into the UFC, but only one actually makes sense: Tito Ortiz.

Tito Ortiz is a proven commodity. He is no longer the fighter he once was, but if he has fully healed from back surgery and rededicated himself to training it is quite possible that he could contend for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship once more. What there are no buts about is that when Tito returns and wins a fight or two in convincing fashion is that there is no shortage of fans who would then be interested to see just what he could do against Machida, Evans or Griffin in a rematch, or Rua, Jackson or whomever holds the title by that time. Ortiz can talk fans into the arenas, make you hate him or love him and has given performances which cause even his biggest detractors to at least respect what he has done.

Ortiz left the fold following his loss to Machida at UFC 84 and has since toyed with the idea of signing with Elite XC, Affliction while the fans who claim he does not matter are the first ones to read just where he may end up next. So far, those promotions have failed and Ortiz has decided it is indeed time to go home again. Tito made a lot of money while in the UFC and made a lot of money for the UFC, which is why Dana White was more than willing to welcome him back into the fold a lot quicker than he ever would Josh Barnett or Matt Lindland.

Fedor Emelianenko is a great, great fighter. Perhaps the best heavyweight ever, clearly the best heavyweight not named Lesnar and even in that dream fight it is a lock he would open as a heavy betting favorite. However, Fedor has never drawn dime one in this business and is not a name known to most, if even many, of the very fans lining the Zuffa wallet today. You could combine the PPV sales of BOTH Affliction cards he headlined and add to this total the number of sales the Pride event from Las Vegas in 2006 did, and this gross number looks downright gross when compared to any of the recent UFC PPV events. Fedor is a superstar fighter indeed, but he is not a superstar, nor is he marketable.

Fedor cannot speak English and he doesn't even look menacing. Selling him as the baddest man on the planet to the non-hardcore fans is going to be no easy task. Telling these fans that he decimated Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski will only elicit shrugs from fans who tell you that if those two mattered that they would have still been in the UFC.

We have already seen just how quickly the fans turned on Anderson Silva to realize that being considered the best "pound-for-pound" fighter is not enough to make the fans adore you and treat you with the utmost respect. Factor in that Silva does not speak much English and it soon becomes clearer that Chuck Liddell vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua was more responsible for bringing in PPV buys than was Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites for the title. Anderson Silva has still not lost a fight in the UFC, and yet he is being put against Forrest Griffin in a light heavyweight match up in order to make fans interested in him once more and in awe of his ability.

Forrest Griffin is worth more money to the UFC than Anderson Silva, and he may not be even half the fighter that "The Spider" is. The fans love him, he is a very good fighter who proved to be great in winning the title from "Rampage," but he simply isn't on Silva's level in terms of talent. Yet it would make no sense to hitch your cart to Silva over Griffin if you were starting a promotion today and could steal a fighter from the UFC. The ability to make money is what keeps a business open for business, and profits matter far more than making meaningful fights. Meaningful fights are made but only when they mean money is being made, and not because hardcore fans have been dying to see the two square off.

Fans have been clamoring for Brock vs. Fedor ever since Randy vs. Fedor became meaningless following Lesnar's victory over Couture at UFC 91. Ok, Lesnar didn't render Couture-Fedor meaningless, but his win over "The Natural" took much of the wind out of the sails and those same fans began to buzz over seeing Brock take on the dominant Russian. The cries of the fans have reached a fever pitch in recent days following Lesnar's destruction of Mir and the death of the Affliction promotion. Fedor has never been more available before and now could be the time to finally see him in the UFC and against Lesnar.

Talk has been that M-1 Global wants co-promotion and a large piece of the UFC pie just for granting us all with the presence of Fedor. The UFC should not give this up to anyone for any fighter at any time. Once it is done it opens the doors for any other larger than life fighter to demand more, and it will become harder and harder to deny them this. We could see champions refusing to fight and putting the UFC into precarious positions over money, and especially so when along comes a fighter who not only kicks ass but puts one every eighteen inches in an arena and five across every couch at home.

To pay Fedor a ton would mean that you absolutely, positively must pit him against Brock Lesnar in his very first fight. The UFC could ill afford to have a situation arise in which Fedor gets beaten by a considerably lesser foe, as this would completely kill the clamoring for a Lesnar bout.

So, the option is to break the bank for Fedor to come in for basically one fight. If he loses this fight to Lesnar and convincingly so it means you would now have a grossly overpaid fighter who can speak no English, was summarily exposed to be not nearly as special as most had perceived him to be, and is now commanding millions of dollars to face Cheick Kongo in a co-main event that lacks any sizzle or steak.

If Fedor were to come in and beat Brock it would do more harm to the UFC in the eyes of most fans than it would anything else. Most people do not have any clue who Fedor Emelianenko is. Go out today and ask 100 people if they like MMA. This will leave you with a few who ask you if that means "ultimate fighting" while the rest tell you they love the UFC. Then ask that group of people to tell you about Fedor and watch as they stand stone-faced and curtly tell you that he must not be that special if they haven't heard of him.

If Fedor waltzes in and beats Brock it suddenly lends credence to the argument that maybe the UFC doesn't have the world's best fighters and gives others hope if they wish to compete. Perception is reality, and Brock Lesnar is considered the best heavyweight in the world by the largest portion of fans. Fedor coming in and stomping him down would not boost Fedor to Brock levels but rather take everything down a notch and cause fans to question the validity of every other champion.

The only way this becomes a win for the UFC is if Brock were to defeat Fedor, and the only win this gives Dana is the last word over all of the mouth breathers who have railed on about how Fedor is the best in the world. They would no longer be able to claim as such, Dana could without a doubt declare the best heavyweight in the world is the UFC champ and yet this would do very little to make his company any more money than that which they are making as it stands. Hardcore fans will tell you that Fedor vs. Brock is a dream match and they are correct. They will also tell you it would be the biggest box office draw ever but they would only be partly correct.

See, Fedor would have little to do with this one. Those fans would be ordering a UFC PPV in order to see the "Lesnar fight". The hardcore fans would tell you that they want to see the "real" heavyweight champion crowned but the fans spending the most money on the product already believe Lesnar is the real champion. They would be watching this show to see him fight and Fedor would be nothing more than a very saleable opponent.

We the hardcore fans loved PRIDE. We love DREAM. We also don't make up the bulk of the audience and are not the reason for the MMA explosion. Yes, we helped the sport survive through those dark ages, but the bulk of those spending money on the product today are not the ones who have the receipt for the very first UFC PPV, but rather they are fans who tuned into the first episode of 'The Ultimate Fighter' and have been hooked ever since.

Both fans matter, but Fedor does not matter to both of them; and for the money it will take to bring him in, it becomes a question of just what is right for business. If this were not about profits and strictly to find out who the best fighters in the world were, it would be a no-brainer. Fedor is the best fighter in the world not signed to the UFC, and it is possible he would still be the very best and prove it without a doubt upon entering the Octagon. The rewards simply are not worth the risk. With Tito Ortiz, you know exactly what you are getting and are at least going to get some mileage out of his name, even if it turns out he can no longer fight at a top level.

Ken Shamrock didn't do boffo box office business against Tito Ortiz because he was viewed as the most credible opponent. He was, however, the biggest name and helped promote this fight as the biggest grudge match of all and caused it to make more money than it ever should have been worth. Ask any fan if they rewatch any fights from the trilogy and they will answer no but ask them if they watched them live and the answer will be a resounding yes. They sucked us in, sucked the money from our pocket and flat out sucked as Ken was pounded into hamburger by a prime Ortiz.

Tito can now assume Ken's role if he is not capable of being a great fighter any longer. There is no shortage of fights for Ortiz and he can make all of them matter far more than they should. To sign Ortiz makes sense all of the way around and most of all it will make money.

Fedor cannot promote a fight like Ortiz, and it is an uphill climb to make fans believe he is as great of a fighter if most never watched his fights and would still not be watching them if he were in Affliction.

Did anyone really care about Josh Barnett vs. Fedor Emelianenko?

So what makes anyone think Fedor would be the reason they would care about a Brock Lesnar fight. Whether you like him or not, view him as the best or not, it cannot be disputed that Lesnar is the perceived heavyweight king and the biggest box office draw. Lesnar does not need Fedor.

In reality, neither does the UFC.

Because the reality of signing Fedor means giving up more money than ever before and running the risk of having him run roughshod over the heavyweight division. The risk of this is not worth the potential for financial reward, and while the fan in me wants to see this fight, the realist in me believes it will not happen and agrees with why it should not. The UFC is not going to make any less money without Fedor on the roster, and pleasing the hardcore fans is not going to make that much more for them.

Worse than the hardcore fans who are patently fickle and hate nearly everything anyone does is the fact that signing Fedor to a bloated deal will make all of your other champions and employees wonder just when they are going to get a bigger slice of the pie.

Because if Dana White is sick of hearing the fans bitch about wanting Fedor in the UFC, just wait until he has to deal with all of his fighters bitching about wanting a "Fedor Deal". It just doesn't make as much sense for them as it does for those of us who want to watch fights, and it's just the harsh realities of running a business. It is impossible to please everyone all of the time, and you should focus your energies on pleasing those who spend the most money.

The fans who spend the most money on the UFC are those who have no clue who Fedor Emelianenko is, but they all know who Tito Ortiz is. Perception is reality and in their eyes it would Ortiz' return that is bigger and in terms of risk and reward for the UFC it becomes quite simple.

Tito Ortiz back in the Octagon will make more dollars for comparatively much less risk than would signing Fedor Emelianenko and that is what ultimately makes more sense for the UFC.