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Booking a Legend.
By Luke | January 21, 2006
It’s been used in Pro Wrestling for decades. You book legends from the past to help create new stars for the future. Consider, the way WWE used Hulk Hogan to put over Brock Lesnar as a monster a few years back. That was textbook booking of a legend to help create a new star.
And, to a similar degree, it’s worked in MMA as well. Most notably at UFC 40 when Tito Ortiz beat Ken Shamrock. It was seen as a passing of the torch from the old guard to the new guard. It launched Tito Ortiz into a new stratosphere of popularity, and now, a little more than three years later, UFC is going to attempt to capitalize on that match again, by doing the re-match later this year, following the third season of The Ultimate Fighter. Where Tito and Ken will serve as coaches. Some expect that with a 12 week free tv build, this fight will do the largest buyrate in UFC history.
But, before that, UFC is using a legend to further establish a different fighter. At UFC 60(?) Matt Hughes will fight Royce Gracie. Royce Gracie, as most people reading this already know, is a pioneer, and one of the original stars of UFC, along with Ken Shamrock. Royce Gracie’s name still resonates with many people who were fans during the original glory period under Art Davie and SEG. If this is promoted properly, it will do very well at the box office, and if Matt Hughes wins (which many expect him to easily), it could help propel Matt Hughes to a different level of popularity. Hughes’ career has already been helped tremendously by his performance on The Ultimate Fighter 2. Hopefully, this fight with Royce Gracie will only further enhance the star power of Matt Hughes, and give UFC another main event level fighter to headline PPVs with.
Topics: All Topics, Luke Nicholson, MMA, UFC | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
I’d like to see this angle carried over to the Heavyweight Division which is sorely lacking in depth. Depending on contract status, Dana could bring back Mark Coleman, Don Frye and my old favorite Oleg Taktarov (if he will still fight) to take on Arlovski. Those would certainly be more fun than Arlovski’s previous opponents or the 2nd time sacrificial giant-lamb, Tim Sylvia. Royce’s name means more to casual fans than the heavyweights but the Heavyweight Division needs help more than Hughes.
On a related note, I have long thought that a “Legends Division” has merit in the UFC. I would put these matches in the semi-main event position and use names such as Shamrock, Frye, Coleman, Taktarov (assuming he would come back), Tank Abbott, perhaps Severn and others. Granted, paying insane money to Tank Abbott makes no sense but as these guys find it harder to get work due to age, the cheaper the price tag will be. Facing each other means they are less likely to be seriously hurt than facing a Matt Hughes or Arlovski.
Personally, I think booking Abbott-Shamrock would be a far, far more interesting matchup than Ortiz-Shamrock II (even if it’s about a decade too late). As for Frye, I’m not sure if he’s even motivated to fight anymore, given his recent shape at Pro Wrestling events. Coleman-Shamrock may be another decent ‘dream match’ to book for a legends division. However, I don’t think these guys should really be fighting Arlovski, Mir, Sylvia, etc. as even in today’s HW pool, the top 3 guys are still more than enough for these older legends to handle, IMO.
Actually, I think Frye should be hired to do guest commentary. That would be HILARIOUS~!. Goldberg, Rutten, and Frye. Thats my announce team.
I agree on the booking of Shamrock/Abbott. We’ve already seen Shamrock/Ortiz once before, and it wasn’t very exciting. I’d rather see the “legends” fight their own rather than tossing them in to the slaughter house. Other than a few exceptions (Shamrock/Kimo II) Zuffa has just been putting the old timers out there to simultaneously pull in the casual fans of the early UFCs, and give their current crop of young fighters a boost.
I think u guys are all missing the point of the article…the point of having the legends fight the “new guard” is to help establish the new guard as superstars. NOt necessailry are we throwing the old timers to the slaughterhouse but we are trying to get the younger stars over with the MMA fans by having them beat established stars.
But does Tito Ortiz beating the crap out of Ken Shamrock yet again (remember the horribly swollen face at the end of their first fight?) really raise Tito’s stock any higher? Does he in fact anything, at all, to gain from a Shamrock rematch and can they actually get a decently high buyrate after the fact that Shamrock was essentially jobbed out to Rich Franklin one year ago in brutal fashion as well?
I honestly don’t see how Ortiz-Shamrock II would have much more interest than, say, Abbott-Shamrock. Only if Shamrock gets to ‘push around’ Tito on the show (and appear like he’s got the better mind frame entering the fight) would there be a slight chance that some fans (besides the really, really mainstream fans) would consider him the favorite, or even close to it in this rematch.
As for Hughes-Gracie, I don’t have too much of a problem with it, I guess. I just think that relying too much on feeding legends will eventually hurt their image overall in the long run (whether or not they get fed) as most of them will most likely get exposed as being old and out of touch with the current fighting skills of the opposition in the industry.
As sad as it may be, I see an in shape motivated Mark Coleman as the 2nd or 3rd best heavyweight the UFC would have.
Some say that Royce will get killed by Hughes because Royce is old or the fighters weren’t as good when Royce was king. My response: yes, the ufc has some better fighters now but don’t forget that Gracie still beat Shamrock in his prime, Severn in his prime, everyone who came at him. Gracie Jui Jitsu is still the most complete fighting system but I do think this fight could be a mistake for Gracie for 2 reasons. 1: the time limits in the rounds. Gracie Jui Jitsu is a system that is based on taking the time to find the opening or your opponents mistake like when he choked out Severn after 14 minutes and shocked the world. 5 minute rounds are an advantage for Hughe’s Ground and Pound even though it’s a lesser skilled approach and 2: Gracie’s age – he’s 13 years older than when he won UFC 1. Hughes will win if he strikes Gracie and keeps the fight on the feet. Gracie will win if he controls the ground. I want Gracie to win but it’s a toss up.
and 2: