A number of people are stunned Dana White turned down an offer to have Roy Jones Jr. fight Anderson Silva in an MMA match. It would make them a lot of money, and Anderson could tear him up in seconds with kicks and knees. Put aside all the issues of a gentleman's agreement, sanctioning, and the potential nightmare if Anderson lost. There is good reason not to do this aside from those reasons.
Now that the UFC is regularly doing huge buyrates, the vultures are out to make a quick buck off MMA. Roy isn't going to get any huge boxing paydays anytime soon after his last fight, and sees dollar signs in big crossover fights. You even had Shaq's trainer suggesting a Liddell vs. Shaq fight today on ESPN. It's at times like this we're lucky to have Dana in charge rather than your standard executive. Unlike your standard suit trying to advance his career, Dana is devoted to the future of the sport. It's his life, he lives and breathes it, and he's not going to flush it all away for short term gain or to pop a rating.
But what about Brock Lesnar coming in as a former pro wrestler? Or how about setting up Royce Gracie vs. Matt Hughes when everyone in their right mind knew it was a terrible mismatch? There are a number of distinguishing factors, but even the purist has to acknowledge that there is a place in a growing sport for fights that capture the attention of the general public. You have to draw the line somewhere though, and the best place to draw it is to turn down any fight that has the potential to do more harm than good to your sport.
Make no mistake, a fight like Chuck Liddell vs. Shaquille O’Neal on a mainstream network would bring in an incredible amount of viewers. On pay per view, it would easily shatter all records. But in the end, you create a situation where the sport is no longer the sell, the spectacle is. You end up in a cycle of "top this" where you stretch to bring in celebrity names to fight to capture the attention of the general public. Eventually, this hot shot mentality kills interest in the actual athletes in the sport, and you find yourself in the position Dream is in now, where they are offering Jose Canseco an opportunity to get himself killed just to pull the ratings they need to stay on the air. Dream didn't put themselves in that position, but their predecessors did.
You can’t rush into the mainstream. It takes multiple generations to be a truly mainstream sport. This idea that it’s disappointing that the UFC isn’t on SportsCenter nightly reflects a misguided notion that if only we tried harder, mainstream journalists would put the sport on par with basketball. Something like that will probably never happen, and if it does, it will only happen because the fans right now raise their kids as fans, and then those kids raise their kids as fans.
If this sport is to become a permanent mainstream sport, the freak show route won’t get it done. Doing those fights will push the sport right into the mainstream for a couple of years, but send it crashing back to where it was in the late 90’s once interest fades.
By promoting just the sport, the UFC is doing phenomenally even in an economy where everyone else is suffering. According to Dave Meltzer's newsletter (subscription only), UFC 97 looks to have done in the neighborhood of 625,000 buys based on trending numbers. That number is incredible, and it didn’t require any crossover mainstream appeal.
The UFC is entering a phase now where their goal should be a sustained, slow growth year over year. They are doing so well that it’s hard to believe they can sustain these numbers, but given their success there’s no reason to force things down a road that eventually leads to ruin. Unless business falls apart or they have to do this to appease Anderson and stop him from going over to fight Jones in a boxing match, this fight won't happen in the UFC.
