« Is there a “Werdum effect” happening in MMA right now? | Home | NHK waves the white flag on airing the Nagoya Sumo tournament »
What Dana White supposedly had planned for Fedor in the UFC
By Zach Arnold | July 6, 2010
Yahoo Sports MMA team talks about Dana’s ideas
You remember all the discussion last year about UFC wanting to run Cowboys Stadium in the Dallas area? Kevin Iole says that Dana White had the idea to run a show at that facility with Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor and that this was something he was pushing when UFC was negotiating with M-1 last year. Kevin felt that if it had happened, it would have broken UFC’s all-time PPV buy rate record of 1.72 million buys (UFC 100).
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Fedor vs. Lesnar at Cowboy Stadium woulda been huge. Gotta say that.
I don’t know.
I thought the talking point was that Fedor isn’t a draw in the US and never will be, that the UFC doesn’t need him and that he isn’t that great. Correct me if I’m wrong. That is all I’ve read from DW and his supporters the past few weeks.
Granted, I think with UFC’s promotional machine behind him they could really help make him more popular, but I’m just creating an argument here for the types who have said Fedor is not top level and never a draw and never will be.
Fedor is not a draw on his own, but the combination of his mystique and zuffa’s promotional abilities and film library could have done great numbers.
look at what brock did for K1 compared to how many buys there are now.
Fedor is not a draw on his own, but he had the pieces that would allow zuffa to turn him into one.
Dana White is on a roll. First, he signs Kimbo, then James Toney. Who needs a nobody like Fedor. Who’s next, Herschel Walker ? Go, Dana, go !
I know he just loss to a UFC washout. He was probably never that good anyway….
Lesnar vs. Fedor would have never beaten UFC 100 numbers. Fedor isn’t a huge draw like the hardcores wished he was.
I don’t know, I kind of agree with Phil up there. Brock on his own (not in the UFC) didn’t do great for K-1, either. UFC is the big show, and people want to see guys fight on the big show. You tell people Fedor is the best in the world, and you can watch him fight in Brand X MMA show? They wonder “Why isn’t he in UFC, then?” and immediately lose interest. You put him in the big show, and let UFC hype him up, especially with access to his entire PRIDE library, and it could be a pretty big fight.
That said, Brock alone didn’t draw UFC 100’s numbers, let’s not forget we had GSP-Alves and Henderson-Bisping on that card. I doubt they could pull those numbers again without a super stacked card…and I don’t see an incentive for them to have a super stacked card when they can spread the wealth out a bit.
See, this is exactly what I was talking about. It is almost like it is on cue.
GSP was on UFC 100..
Kevin is clearly out of his mind, only Mir/Lesnar 3 has a chance at breaking the UFC 100 buyrate records. Fedor isn’t a draw and would not draw anything near those numbers, why people continue to show so much ignorance is beyond me when it comes to this guys drawing power.
The reality, whether people lime to admit it or not, is that Kimbo has had a bigger impact on American MMA than Fedor.
Anybody got anyword on ratings for 116 yet?
Saying “Fedor isn’t a draw” is pretty tired at this point. What constitutes as a “draw?” Who has drawn better without the UFC behind them? Gina once? Frank? Cung? Kimbo? And are you talking gates or ratings?
Of course Fedor challenging for the UFC title would be a huge draw…some people just simply aren’t draws on their own. Anderson vs Maia? Meh. Anderson vs Forrest? Yes.
It would’ve been really interesting to see what Cain vs Carwin would’ve done…but UFC dodged that bullet.
who needs fedor when you got roy nelson..THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER. sorry the ufc-HW-devision sucks. i´ll prefer strikeforce with fedor and overeem. what we saw at ufc 116 was a titlefight with two HWs, who were gassed after 5 minutes..how exciting.
“i´ll prefer strikeforce with fedor and overeem”
ha,ha,ha….u don#t believe that yourself, do you?
SF has like 4 1/2 HW fighters.
The alleged roidhead, walmarts employee of the month, the guy with the elephantitis and the ex-ufc veteran who just beat the baddest hype on the planet…
If thats ok for you, go ahead. Signing some available ufc washous like AA or TS won’t help that sideshow.