If the UFC is ever to have interaction in significant co-promotion, Bellator commentators John McCarthy and Josh Thomson counsel it begin small by taking belts off the desk.
“You don’t should do your champions, simply sure fighters that I feel you might put a workforce of 5 fights along with guys which might be someplace in your top-15 – you might put collectively some actually fascinating fights … and you’ve got the suitable to every promotion [saying], ‘Hey, we like this matchup, what do you assume?’ And should you agree with it, then do it,” McCarthy mentioned Monday on the Weighing In podcast he co-hosts with Thomson. “It isn’t going to remove something from the UFC.”
“I feel if he believes he has one of the best fighters, then finally he would exit and try to present some dominance,” Thomson added. “I feel doing it now for him wouldn’t make any sense. But when Rizin and Bellator and PFL and ONE all determined to hitch in and it begins to work for them, and so they do one in all these exhibits a yr and construct their fighters once more, who is aware of?”
Collaboration closed 2022 with Bellator MMA vs. Rizin that includes a five-on-five matchup between the promotions. The Paramount-owned promotion received huge, working the desk in opposition to its Japanese counterparts in what amounted to an away-game at Saitama Tremendous Enviornment in Japan. The occasion adopted a number of years of cooperation between the promotions as they lent out fighters for specific occasions. Bellator MMA President Scott Coker and RIZIN Chairman Nobuyuki Sakakibara have labored cooperatively for a number of a long time within the fight sports activities business.
In an interview on UFC featherweight star Paddy Pimblett’s podcast, UFC President Dana White downplayed the thought of cross-promotion, saying one of the best fighters would finally wind up below UFC contract. However McCarthy identified essentially the most well-known instance of 1 that obtained away in former PRIDE champ Fedor Emelianenko.
“Sorry, it’s already been confirmed that that’s simply not true, and there’s loads of guys on the market that …look, this man’s good, he deserved to be preventing in opposition to guys within the UFC,” McCarthy mentioned. “However he determined, I don’t wish to put up with a number of the issues which might be there, and determined, ‘I’m not going there. I’ll proceed to combat, and I’ll proceed to combat the place I wish to combat and I’ll make my cash this fashion,’ and so they have.
“I’m not saying [White is] improper. However to say that every one the nice ones are going to finish up right here anyhow, that’s not true. He’s not mendacity, however he’s not wanting again and saying that one, this one [didn’t go to the UFC].”
McCarthy identified that White has, actually, labored with Sakakibara below the now-defunct PRIDE, which the UFC acquired in 2007. In its heyday, the Japanese promotion was thought of superior to the UFC in viewers and a hub of main MMA expertise. White lent out fighters Chuck Liddell and Ricco Rodriguez in 2003 for a middleweight grand prix and superfight with ex-heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, respectively, and the cooperation was not reciprocated.
“They mentioned, ‘Oh, we’re going to ship over [Kazushi] Sakuraba’ – they by no means did, so he was like, ‘I obtained burned. I’m not going to permit somebody to burn me once more,’” McCarthy mentioned. “And so he seems at it now like, we’re the largest group. He’s completely proper, and what’s it do for my group? What does it do for me because the promoter, and he’s saying that, no, it’s solely a profit for the opposite promotions, and I’m not right here to learn them. So his alternative is to say, ‘I’m not going to do it.’ I want he would.”
In fact, White and co. benefited tremendously by one occasion of co-promotion, a boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. “The Cash Struggle” netted tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} for all promotional events, together with its co-promoter UFC and new company guardian Endeavor.
Since then, White has entertained the thought of one other collaboration with Mayweather, and with the UFC’s heavyweight champion demanding a boxing match to accompany his subsequent contract, the MMA promotion might be motivated to hitch forces with one other occasion.
However for the time being, White and the UFC’s priorities are aligned in opposition to its MMA opponents.
