Cain Velasquez, Unlike Brock Lesnar, Doesn't Get the Fight Game
by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 5, 2010 4:28 AM EDT
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PrintEveryone had shared their concerns with the new UFC Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez ability to draw fans like the previous champ Brock Lesnar. So much so that the UFC went about a somewhat controversial marketing campaign choosing to forsake fighting ability to promote his racial and ethnic background. A recent quote by Cain on Off the Record tends to lend credence to people's fears about Cain.
"It doesn't bother me at all. I go out there and fight and throw great fights, exciting fights that people want to see. People are going to see that," he said. "They don't go in to see somebody talk trash before and then get their butts kicked."
Hey Cain, I'm sorry, but that's just not true. If fans cared about "good fights", Anderson Silva would've been the biggest draw in the UFC history when he decimated the UFC Middleweight division. It isn't about "the fight" so much as it is about "the build". Fans love to watch a good "talker" fight. The "Speak softly, carry a big stick" is a line of BS.
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Seriously
Brock acts like a jerk, shoves cops, cuts promos. Why? Everyone says he is not like that behind doors. There is a reason Chael Sonnen’s fight with Anderson was out of this world (before he got caught for you know what). Cain is a good guy. He is just in the wrong business. This is not tennis my friend.
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Even in tennis, Jon McEnroe
Hell, Bobby Riggs at 55 talked his way into several big paydays playing women.
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by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 5, 2010 10:12 AM EDT up reply actions
I like the low-key guys. It doesn’t attract the rasslin fans en masse and for the UFC’s bottom line meatheads like Ortiz and such talking shit is what they want but for MMA I like Cain and Anderson.
Also, fuck pro wrestling and its promotion style.
"One thing I will never do is I will never say never." -Dana White
by Symbul on Nov 5, 2010 5:15 PM EDT up reply actions 4 recs
Cain is the top HW in the world right now, he's in the "right business".
I’m a big fan of the “Roosevelt Approach” myself and I think a lot of fans are. I mean Fedor didn’t get the following he has by talking about mounting his wife and killing his opponents.
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by doonerthesooner on Nov 9, 2010 2:27 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
I know for a fact that
Adam Helfant has increased the amount of business training tennis players go through. “business training” in how to build their brands and make more money from their efforts. I think the UFC should teach fighters how to sell fights. Not make them sell fights and show them why selling fights is smart. As Eric Bischoff would say, Controversy sells. You don’t have to necessarily believe everything you say. But if you are like Cain, people will stop caring or you won’t become the star you could be.
Cain has a lot going for him. He is promoted as being a Mexican heavyweight champ. He is going to get their support. Bu he could be much bigger.
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People show up for the trash talk, but they stay for the fights. While I doubt he’ll drawlike Brock has, it’s not impossible that he could carry himself like a GSP-esque “good guy” and let his opponents play the part of the heel…though I don’t see JDS doing that.
If they don't show up...you don't get their money
Ask Anderson Silva circa 2006-2008
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by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 5, 2010 11:32 AM EDT up reply actions
I think Cain gets the fight game just fine. Now fight promotion on the other hand...
An inability(or, according to the impeccable source that is Chael, an unwillingness) to speak English likely plays a role in Anderson’s failure to draw. GSP, broken English and all, still is able to go without an interpreter and thus able to speak on his own behalf.
Cain unlike Anderson can speak for himself, so he should be able to do more on his own in selling his fights than Silva. I do think based on those comments he’s underestimating the power of trash talk in building interest for a fight though. But it seems more to like he’s simply saying he’s not going to market himself the way a Chael Sonnen or Josh Koscheck does. He still has to do something to put his name out there however.
Depending on what he does between now and his first title defense, I think the Cain/JDS card should be an interesting indicator of how well the UFC’s Mexican marketing campaign did in building a following for Cain, at the very least.
Promotion is the fight game. The fights are almost inconsequential
Again, the point still stands, he doesn’t know the game.
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by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 5, 2010 12:59 PM EDT up reply actions
While the comments provided by Velasquez aren't too promising...
It’s probably too soon o start throwig dirt on the coffin IMO. The Cain/JDS card should begin to answer questions over whether or not Cain can do enough to build up hype for his fights now that he’s the champ.
duurrrrrrrrrrrrrr
GSP draws……
urrrrrrrrrr
my mother was right....no one cares what i have to say
jefferson davis' wife was hot....there i said it....and it actually feels good to finally get that out in the open
I don't know....
The “Speak softly, carry a big stick” is a line of BS.
It’s worked out pretty well for Cain.
And Frankie
And GSP
And Shogun
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Pain don't hurt...
by RolloTomasi on Nov 5, 2010 1:33 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I'm clearly talking about drawing money
Unproven
Not a draw
Draw
Unproven
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by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 5, 2010 2:06 PM EDT up reply actions
Who cares about draw.
They got the belt.
Semper Fi'
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Pain don't hurt...
by RolloTomasi on Nov 5, 2010 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
And Brock Lesnar will continue to make far more money than them regardless of whether or not he ever has the belt again.
by The so-called Beautiful on Nov 5, 2010 6:09 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
So it has to do with the direct relationship between
revenue and quality of sport/competition. Revenues are high, you have access to young, prime athletic specimens like Jone Jones and GSP. The sport becomes better as a result. Revenues are low, you get to watch Tank Abbot.
The top of the card is what determines the earning power of that card, almost always. Cain not getting the fight game not only costs him money, but it costs everyone around him money, and at the very least slows the upward progress of the sport. At the worst, things could start moving backwards. I don’t think that’s likely to happen, (going backwards, I mean) but it does have a tangible effect on the entire landscape of the sport.
If I was a hungry man with a gun in my hand and some promises to keep...
The sport is gonna be just fine.
It’s bigger then any one man and bigger then the UFC.
If the UFC folded tommorow the sport would still survive.
"From the womb to the tomb, spit sick lyrics like MF Doom"
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Pain don't hurt...
This isn't a question of survival, or even likelihood of progressing.
It’s about the angle of the upward growth arc. If you are ok with a slower growth arc when really there’s nothing holding the sport back except marketing, that’s fine. I’d prefer that the sport become as big as possible, as fast as possible, so that the quality continues to improve as it has for the last five years.
Again, it has nothing to do with survival. It has to do with maximum improvement and the amount of time it takes to get to the ‘finish line.’
If I was a hungry man with a gun in my hand and some promises to keep...
I wouldn't miss a Cain fight
I could care less if he talks smack. He brings the pain and delivers with great fights every time out. I could care less about what happens outside the cage.
by pl4tinum on Nov 5, 2010 2:21 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
It seems that Brock's fans are very concerned about UFC profits, these days
Like, I dont know, you guys are all Zuffa’s shareholders or something ?
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by Firm1 on Nov 5, 2010 7:02 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs
It's been about money since day one
This has nothing to do with “being a Brock fan”.
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by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 6, 2010 12:55 AM EDT up reply actions
It is a big deal
Cain’s last fight before brock was a headliner on a card with Nog, Wandy, Bisping, Jardine, Bader and Crocop and did 215k buys…
Brock could floss on PPV and do 215k. Theres a reason they give Cain a f’n RALLY. If you think the UFC isn’t concerned about yet another low drawing champ…you are delusional.
by Lunatic-Fridge on Nov 6, 2010 5:08 PM EDT up reply actions
The UFC might be,
but I’m not.
Who cares? The UFC is gonna be just fine.
Semper Fi'
WatchKalibRun.com
Pain don't hurt...
by RolloTomasi on Nov 6, 2010 5:34 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
If thats the case
Then you don’t care about probably the biggest factor affecting MMA matchmaking.
So stop wasting our time.
by Lunatic-Fridge on Nov 6, 2010 6:44 PM EDT up reply actions
What's the alternative?
Brock is always the champ cuz he’s the biggest draw?
What the fuck are we talking about here?
Semper Fi'
WatchKalibRun.com
Pain don't hurt...
This is ridiculous.
I dont watch UFC to see a bunch of trash talk, I come to see the best fighters fight it out to see who the best is in their respective division.
I could care less about all thehype leading it to it. Leave that to the type of people that say they train “UFC”.
