UnderGround Forum >> Each UFC card should only Feature 1 Weight Class

^ the main problem i see is logistical... in terms of flexibility in tailoring a card for a certain market, building local talent, etc....  I dont see any sponsoship problems - not that it means there arent any... i just dont see it being a factor which I could be wrong.  

From a promotional stand point again building local talent, etc... would be more difficult. 

but, all of this can be mitigated if you are a divisionally centric product instead of a fighter centric product.

this structure i believe transcends and translates accross all cultures and languages where you wouldnt need to create customized cards for certain locations.

if you focus on the top 20% of the markets that produce 80% of the revenue you bypass all of this. if you're country/market cant produce a guy who can hang with the top 20 in a certain weight class then it's not a market or country worth focusing on at the moment.  and you also have tuf you can customize for it and to develop markets.

it's not worth focusing on the 80% that only produce 20% of the revenue.  what markets are the top 20%? msg/new york, las vegas, montreal, toronto, frankfurt, rio, etc... figure out where to hit once a year, where to hit more then once a year and what locations to rotate in bi yearly and you got 27 locations that are gonna produce 80% of the global revenue.   sometimes less is more... id rather have 27 mega events for which venues and markets all over the world are bidding on then trying to penetrate 100%.  

Id rather cut the 80% that only produces 20% of the potential revenue and focus more on the top 20% that produces 80% of the potential revenue.

because of injuries and other reasons why athletes wont be able to fight 3 times a year you're gonna need around 40 guys per weight class under contract.   that's more than enough roster space for a global product.

If you want to create customized fight nights for different markets you can do that to... but that's a different product. the main UFC product in my propsosition is roughly 27 divisionally centric (1 weight class per) event series.  

if you dont wanna do 3 events per division, you can do 2 which would be roughly 18 mega events per year and then have a fight night series that's mixed and matched in the current structure.

I personally would prefer 3 a year...  the giants dont schedule games based on eli manning or even sell tickets based on whether eli manning will be in a game down the road.  also having 3 impressions on the marketplace per year is better. 

but this is all theory... You can start with just one weight class (170 or 155 as they are the deepest)... see how it works... if it's successful which I believe it will be you then perfect the system and roll it out with the next division, and then the next until completed.

there's another major advantage to this... nobody will ever be able to compete.  the UFC is the only one who can do this. Once the market is hooked on this and it becomes the reality of the sport nobody will be able to just sign GSP away and start a promotion.

it would be like the CBA signing micheal jordan and thinking it can compete with the NBA.

it's difficult in MMA now as it is but the barrier would be even greater if this is implemented and found to be more successful than the current structure.

watching cards with fights sporadically made from all sorts of weight classes will not make any sense.

They could get cute and have UFC 170 be all welterweights, and then UFC 185 be all middleweights.

And have I got a matchup in mind for UFC 185 in that case!

I like this idea.

I don't like the idea personally.

Troll Hunter10 -  I like this idea but I think doing 2 or 3 weight classes a ppv is more realistic. Casual fans will not want all little men cards, even for free. This will curb the growth of those divisions because they will be seen by even less eyes if left on their own cards

MMALOGIC - 

Eventually, each UFC card should only feature one weight class.  An undergournd member (i believe client 9) mentioned this idea and I thought it was brilliant.

Everyone from the hardcore fan down to the casual fan will be able to visually see where every fighter stands in each weight class, and how relevant every fight is to the title picture... this also mitigates the injury problem because you'll have a batalion of guys in the same weight class who are prepared and who you can move around.

It would be like a round robin ladder system... a never ending tournament if you will... 

Let's take a fight like Eric Silva vs Jotn Fitch..  to a casual fan this is just a fight.  However, hardcores understand the relevance this fight has in the division and thus the importance.  place that fight on a card with all the other top welterweights and casuals will easily understand and see the relavance of this fight.

the divisions will also become the product... not just the fighters.  and the casuals will be able to follow along no matter when they begin following the sport.

You schedule 3 events a year per weight class.  if you have 9 divisions (115lb to HW) that means 27 events a year.  if someone cant make an event the next guy in line takes their spot and they'll have to wait for the next event in 4 months (including the champion, in which case interim titles will be awarded).

main cards should be 3 hours with 5 fights... (which consists of the top 10 guys who are presently active in that weight class) prelims should be 3 hours with 6 fights (guys who want to break into the top 10)

as guys fall out of the top 10 they get moved to the prelims and as guys get  into the top 10 they get moved to the main card.

let's look at what the next WW card could look like in this strutcure:

Main card:

GSP vs Hendricks (title fight)

Diaz vs Nate Marquart (title eliminator)

Rory vs Condit (winner to potentially be in next title eliminator)

Jon Fitch vs Damian Maia (winner to potentially be in next title eliminator)

Ellenberger vs Josh Koscheck (winner to get back into the mix)

Prelims:

Siyar vs Dong Hyun Kim

Hardy vs Matt Brown

Pierce vs Seth Baszinski

Mike Pyle vs James Head

Eric Silva vs Jay Heiron

Thiago Alves vs Che Mills

and then 4 months later the next welterweight event with mostly the same guys shuffled around, some new guys shuffled in and some guys shuffled out based on who won, who lost, how, and new comers.... who can still fight and who's out with an injury, etc...

People think in chunks.... they could follow 20 weight divisions if you chunk and present the participants together consistently. you mention the welterweight division their mind will automatically picture the top 10 guys up to the top 20 guys, the same for the HW division and every other division because they are chunked together.  if they can remember GSP they can remember every other guy who is consistently on the same cards as he is.

This would revolutionize fight sports.

This would mean around 27 events a year.... but these would be mega events.  there are logistical challenges like which cards are ppv and which cards are free on fx or fox, or fuel...  which cards are domestic and which cards are held overseas... and how do you effectively grow globally with this structure?  .

for one, i believe this structure translates across all cultures, languages and customs so you wouldnt need to be so dependednt on customizing local events to build a tv audience.

secondly tuf is already being customized to the local market and you can revamp tuf to be a 4 man tournament aired on a one hour episode every week customized to the local market.  the winner gets a ufc contract and enters the prelims for these mega events.

As far as the TV distribution... for now you keep the 170 and above main cards on ppv and the lighter weights on fx, fuel and fox. I believe with this structure you can eventually do away with ppv... the UFC would be a mega sport... I believe the divisional centric fight cards would be so popular the licensing fee's and/or a subscription model would more than replace the ppv model.

Imagine if every viewer had the same divisional understanding as a hardcore fan?  they'd view the sport differently, they'd view each fight with more interest and they'd understand the sport more like you and i do.   

This would revolutionize fight sports.

Would def' help with the injuries.

MMALOGIC - 

stars only last a few years... so you have to constantly be creating new stars.  Conversely, Divisions/ are immortal.

This is why the giants are still in business and sell stadiums.  people follow the Giants not eli manning.... why they follow the knicks, not patrcik ewing. etc...

divisions need to also become the product.  when you develop cards with more than one division you confuse the marketplace because they dont really understand why this or that fight matters... the context and relevance of the undercard fights are lost.  so it's just watching fights for the sake of watching fights.

if people wanted to watch football for just the sake of watching football they'd just go down to the local highschool field.  same with basketball.  there needs to be context and relavence.

The only context and relevance in the UFC are title fights, #1 contender fights and fights that are manufactured grudge matches.  everything else is just filler.... at best "oh i know that guy, i like his fights" or "i like that guy", "i dont like that guy".
... 

mostly it's just watching a fight to watch a fight and more often than not it's watching a fight waiting for the main event.

Smellde Gluve - If the average person decides to give the UFC a shot and happens to land on a little-guy ufc card they might lose his interest.

I don't want this. I like the variety on the cards.

greg39tigers - sounds good but...
say your co main headliner gets hurt and there is no one else in the top 30 for your other co main event fighter to fight. he has to wait until another card for his weight class comes up, he doesnt just get a fight on the next couple of cards like now. wont work like that

JBASS - With as many fighters that compete for the UFC (something like 400?), this could very well bottle neck divisions simply due to the length of time between PPVs for each weight class. Not every fighter in each weight class will fight at each event and when you factor in injuries, this model could possibly put fighters on a potential 1 fight per 1-2 year rotation.

I do like the idea, just don't think it would work under the current UFC structure. Although the HW card was a good one, there were other weight classes on the undercard.

SupesUp -  If you get hurt you have to wait a whole cycle to fight again?