UFC 80 Preview: Bang For Your Buck

If UFC 80 represents a new philosophy for the company, as illustrated by Lorenzo Fertitta's recent comments about the success of UFC 78, then 2008 is going to be a long year for the company and its fans. BJ Penn v. Joe Stevenson, even for the vacant Lightweight Title, is not a pay-per-view caliber main event. No matter how successful this Saturday's event is or how successful UFC 78 was, headlined by a similarly weak main event of Rashad Evans v. Michael Bisbing, running ever more frequent pay-per-views, at ever increasing price points, with shallower lineups and less star power is not a recipe for success.

UFC 78 and 80 look a lot more like boxing's blueprint than Dana White's talking point about the UFC being what boxing is not. The UFC brand is hot now, perhaps hot enough to carry UFC 80 to the same upside surprise as UFC 78. But if the trend continues of more pay-per-views at more expensive prices with fewer important fights and perhaps even more importantly further diminished star power, some of the luster will come off the brand. This is not uncharted territory, the results of this approach have already been bore out by the diminishing returns of the WWE and boxing, both languishing in mediocrity on pay-per-view, waiting once a year for a major event, Wrestlemania and Oscar De La Hoya respectively.

The Countdown show on the other hand provided a lot of bang for your buck, at least for Stagr, a sponsor of Joe Stevenson and MMAPayout.com. The episode had the place brand placement I've seen in the UFC, with Stagr prominently featured in almost every shot of Stevenson on camera, training or talking.

Stevenson's agent Dean Albrecht engineered the Stagr deal and the placement. Albrecht represents over 15 fighters in the UFC, including Frank Mir, and is part of a growing number of agents in MMA with professional sports experience. "We focus on helping our fighter clients look great and helping our corporate clients attain excellent placement whether that means being on a shirt or a pair of shorts of a fighter of doing deals with some of the nations largest entertainment venues or like the Countdown show where we did the placement for Stagr on behalf of our client Joe Daddy Stevenson," Albrecht told MMAPayout.com. "The goal is the stand out and match the brand of a corporate client to a fighter that fits the brand."

"They did a great job! Dean's a great manager and the relationship he has with the athletes has a lot to do with how promotions like this are maximized," said Stagr's Matt Foy. "Bottom line is they trust him and they know he's always looking out for their best interest. We were completely surprised at how well it turned out and glad to have helped out Joe's camp."

The most notable development of the Countdown show was the frankness with which the Sherk situation was addressed. It was refreshing to see the issue finally addressed. At the very least it shows that the company is willing to address unfavorable facts when it absolutely has to, a small step in the right direction. Of course the fact that this development is notable, the fact that it seemed plausible that the company might never acknowledge the incident, shows just how far the company has to go.

BJ Penn was very introspective and came off well. He was presented as the star and played the part well. Stevenson was also well positioned as a hungry, determined contender, ready to step up against top level competition. But even after the hype, this still felt like a TV main event to me and the hype itself bore that out with a Countdown show that went through the motions, especially compared to the show that preceded UFC 79.

Penn is the heavy favorite and also the best bet for business. A focused Penn has a chance to become a dominant fighter and one of the company's top draws. The rededicated Penn could be on the way to the biggest year of his career with a win over Stevenson. A Sherk-Penn fight for the undisputed Lightweight Title has the potential to do good business later this year built on the genuine dislike between the two in addition to each combatant's impressive pedigree. Penn could also get another crack at Matt Hughes at 170 later in the year.

The build for the same main event is a daunting task with two relatively unknown Brazilians coming off unimpressive outings. Gabriel Gonzaga exploded onto the scene with his knockout of Mirko Cro Cop, but was quickly deflated by a rather one sided loss to Randy Couture. Fabricio Werdum is coming off a stale unanimous decision loss to Andre Arlovski that was particularly annoying to the UFC brass, who subsequently yanked Arlovski's title shot for the boring fight (although one wonders if that was a convenient excuse to bench Arlovski with one fight on his contract).

White went with the hard sell, pushing the fight as a UFC career end-er for the loser, which is a particularly tough pill to swallow in the case of Gonzaga who is coming off a Heavyweight Title shot and is believed to be one of the best young heavyweights in the sport. A win should put Gonzaga back in the mix at heavyweight, while a loss would likely end Werdum's UFC run.

The rest of the live card features Kendall Grove v. Jorge Riveria, Wilson Gouveia v. Jason Lambert, and Jess Liaudin v. Marcus Davis in bouts that appear to be booked to establish Grove, Lambert, and Davis.