If the UFC is ever to engage in meaningful co-promotion, Bellator commentators John McCarthy and Josh Thomson suggest it start small by taking belts off the table.
“You don’t have to do your champions, just certain fighters that I think you could put a team of five fights together with guys that are somewhere in your top-15 – you could put together some really interesting fights … and you have the right to each promotion [saying], ‘Hey, we like this matchup, what do you think?’ And if you agree with it, then do it,” McCarthy said Monday on the Weighing In podcast he co-hosts with Thomson. “It is not going to take away anything from the UFC.”
” Thomson said that if he feels he is the greatest fighter, then he will eventually go out to show dominance.” Thomson agreed. It wouldn’t make sense to do it right now. If Rizin, Bellator, PFL, and ONE decide to all join the fray and it works out for them and they have one show a year to build their fighters, then ?”
Collaboration ended 2022, with Bellator MMA vs. Rizin. This matchup featured a five-on-5 format. Paramount’s promotion took the win, beating its Japanese counterparts to take down the table in an affair at Saitama Super Arena. The event followed several years of cooperation between the promotions as they lent out fighters for particular events. Bellator MMA President Scott Coker and RIZIN Chairman Nobuyuki Sakakibara have worked cooperatively for several decades in the combat sports industry.
UFC president Dana White said that cross-promotion was not an option and that the UFC would only sign the top fighters. McCarthy pointed to Fedor Emelianenko, a former PRIDE champion.
” Sorry, that has already been proved false. There are a lot more guys that think this man is good and should be fighting in the UFC. McCarthy stated. “But he decided, I don’t want to put up with some of the things that are there, and decided, ‘I’m not going there. “I’ll fight on, I’ll fight wherever I like, I’ll make money that way and continue fighting,” they said.
“I’m not saying [White is] wrong. It’s false to suggest that all good people will end up in this place. Although he isn’t lying, he doesn’t look back to say that one [didn’t go to the UFC].”
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McCarthy pointed out that White has, in fact, worked with Sakakibara under the now-defunct PRIDE, which the UFC acquired in 2007. The Japanese promotion was regarded as a major MMA talent hub and superior in its audience during its heyday. 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 said that they would send [Kazushi] Sakuraba over. But, this never happened, and he got so angry that he had to burn himself. I’m not going to allow someone to burn me again,'” McCarthy said. “And so he looks at it now like, we are the biggest organization. It’s a great statement. But what does it mean for me? It’s a benefit to the promotion, but it doesn’t do anything for me, the promoter. His choice was to tell me .”
that he isn’t going to do it.
Of course, White and co. benefited tremendously by one instance of co-promotion, a boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. The Money Fight netted millions in promotional revenue for all parties including the co-promoter UFC as well as its new corporate parent Endeavor.
Since then, White has entertained the idea of another collaboration with Mayweather, and with the UFC’s heavyweight champion demanding a boxing match to accompany his next contract, the MMA promotion could be motivated to join forces with another party.
The UFC and White have a common goal: to defeat its MMA rivals.
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/1/2/23536089/big-john-mccarthy-fedor-emelianenko-counters-dana-whites-claim-that-best-fighters-end-up-in-ufc?rand=96749
