By Ben Miller
UFC 92 was nothing if not eventful. New champs, big upsets, great knockouts. Some MMA hardcores may have disapproved because the matches were short and a couple of their favorites lost, but to pro wrestling-based fans, it was a dream night. We love drama and we love fantasy booking. Saturday night offered plenty of both.
As always, the drama has been adequately sliced and diced in the hours after the show. (Though history should tell us not to cast thirtysomething fighters as finished based on a couple of poor showings.) The fantasy booking, however, has just begun. Though Mir vs. Lesnar and Penn vs. St. Pierre are sure-fire hits in the offing, everybody and their cousin has an idea on how to milk the UFC roster for a few more big buyrates in 2009.
In that spirit, let your humble correspondent offer his support for an idea that germinated before the big show: The 2009 Chuck Liddell Revenge Tour. Though Chuck is understandably far from most people’s minds when discussing championship matches at this point, it is very likely that letting Liddell attempt to get his receipts could serve the dual purposes of rehabilitating a star and making all parties involved a heck of a lot of money.
In the days leading up to UFC 92, Chuck Liddell went on The Tom Leykis show (a syndicated radio program) and mentioned that he’d like to next fight Keith Jardine. His idea at the time was that he could avenge his three uncovered losses -- to Jardine, Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans -- in three pay-per-view bouts this year.
The reaction to this news was largely negative. An unnamed source (and what kind of shabby journalist lets sources remain unnamed for such an innocuous story?) told MMA Weekly that Jardine will fight on the same card as Liddell next time out, but not against Liddell. Other journalists pointed out that Liddell has at least a half dozen potential matchups that would draw more than a rematch with Jardine. And Dana White indicated that Wanderlei Silva was the more likely immediate opponent for Chuck.
This all looks like a major case of sacrificing potential long term rewards for short term satisfaction. Silva will certainly draw more money than Jardine will against Liddell, but then what? There’s no space for fans to get behind a popular fighter’s quest when he’s just rehashing unemotional big money matchups from his past. If Liddell fights Jardine, the story of Liddell moving on to either Jackson or Evans gains added weight. If Jackson ends up being Evans’ first title defense, it works out even better. Liddell can match up against the loser of the Evans vs. Jackson match and whoever comes out on top will be in prime position for a championship rematch.
Beyond all of the fun in imagining scenarios or stories, there is a deeper narrative to these behind the scenes machinations. UFC may feeling a broader push than ever in the ongoing fighter vs. promoter matchmaking conflict.
In boxing, where fighters have all the power, big money matches tend to happen nowadays without too much conflict. That’s because fighter purses vary wildly depending on the opponent. Ricky Hatton can choose to fight a revenge match against a lower profile if he wants, but he may only make a couple of million for the fight instead of ten. That big difference in the payday gives the fighters the proper incentive to get their interests in line with the promoters’ interests.
In UFC, the promotion has all the power. That’s fine for stability’s sake, but it puts the interests of the fighters and the promotion at odds. Chuck Liddell may make a few hundred thousand dollars less if he fights Jardine instead of Silva next, but not five million less. This leads to Chuck choosing revenge over remuneration.
If history is any guide, UFC will probably end up getting its way. As it showed during the Randy Couture saga, even if a fighter has a matchup they are truly desirous of, fight fans tend to be loyal enough to the promotion that it allows Dana White to get what he wants.
Someday, however, that will change. Fans of combat sports tend to at some point follow the combatants rather than the arena.
Many MMA fans and journalists long for the day when UFC loses its power in the sport, but it doesn’t have to be a total loss. By allowing for the occasional anti-business matchup, UFC can keep star fighters satisfied longer.
For that reason, UFC should give Chuck a chance to embark on his 2009 revenge tour. Even if an initial fight against Jardine proves somewhat uninteresting, there are still two more highly profitable stops on the tour. Perhaps more importantly, it will be a sign to the biggest star in the promotion’s history that there is at least some degree of power sharing between promoters and fighters.
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