Giving Fedor Whatever He Wants is Good for the UFC

Get ready for another Fedor piece.  Zak Woods recently wrote what compromises would need to take place in order for Fedor and the UFC to come to a contractual agreement.  All of them make sense and in reality probably need to take place in order for Fedor to fight in the UFC, but the UFC should more or less give Fedor whatever he wants.  Hell, give him a one fight contract.  The pride of UFC management will prevent that from happening, but Zuffa really should exhaust all possibilities to sign Fedor.

The MMA fan in me who wants to see Fedor fight in the UFC is not the reason I am clamoring for this to happen.  The truth is that the UFC has so much to gain by signing Fedor and so little to lose.  If an individual were to objectively asses the situation it would make no sense for the Fedor/Lesnar fight not to happen.  The reality is that the majority of MMA fans consider Fedor the best Heavyweight in the world and many consider him the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.  If Fedor came in and defeated Lesnar it would be what everyone expects to happen.  The UFC's image would not be hurt because people already consider Fedor the best in the world.  The UFC has become synonymous with MMA and is too large at this point to be hurt by one outsider defeating one of their fighters.  They also have the best lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, and light heavyweight in the world to fall back on. 

The UFC does not need the one time score to remain valuable and should not risk a large payout if it hurts the brand.  That is why the Fedor/Couture fight never developed.  The UFC was still large back then, but following the attention UFC 100 received they have reached a new level of notoriety.  As described above, their brand would not be hurt by a loss.  So, why not take the big payout.  A Lesnar/Fedor fight would do amazing money.  Even if the UFC was nervous about a Lesnar loss and did not throw the full force of the UFC hype machine behind the fight, it still would be purchased by every MMA fan already aware of the significance.  No one who follows the sport would pass that fight up.  UFC fans, UFC haters, and Fedor fans would all purchase it.

Can you imagine if Lesnar won?  The UFC would let Lesnar relieve himself on the Bud Light logo.  With one fight the UFC would become without question the powerhouse with the best fighters in the world.  It unfortunately could lead to more tyrannical, controlling acts from the UFC, but they would all power in the world now.  They would have without question the best fighters in 4 of the 5 major divisions and arguably the best lightweight fighter (assuming the rest stay the same).  Zuffa would also host the best featherweight and bantamweight fighters in the world.  It would be a clean sweep and you could bet that the UFC and Zuffa would let everyone know.  A win by Lesnar would also give the UFC power over Fedor.  Fedor would want a rematch and the UFC would not have to give it to him.  They could pressure Fedor to a multi fight deal, restrict his outside activities, and control the contract discussions.  A Fedor loss could make for a Fedor run in the UFC.

With so much to gain and so little to lose (except for pride) the UFC should actually do want Dana White has claimed they will do.  Ignoring the financial gains of a Fedor/Lesnar fight there is still good reason to make the fight happen.  If Fedor wins, leaves, and never comes back then we will be exactly where we started: Fedor is the best heavyweight in the world and UFC is still MMA's top promotion.

Side Note: What Brock did to Bud Light was hysterical, but really, really, really dumb.  I know some people are advocating that we relax and it wasn't taht big of a deal, but literally the worst thing you can do is insult a sponsor, especially a major sponsor.  I can only imagine the scramble if one of our minor league players insulted a sponsor in front of only 5,000 people let alone the a superstar in front of millions.  Dana was for sure pissed to holy hell.