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Don King Looking To Take On UFC
J. Michael Falgoust at USA Today has an interview with Don King in which he discusses his desire to get into MMA promotion:
What they do with someone totally independent to this point has been to render them more or less unable to compete. I have no doubt that Don would want to follow the boxing model and pay extreme amounts of money to stars to get them on board with him. Obviously the first step is signing these stars so that he has names that can draw in viewers but MMA is more driven by the show as a whole than any true superstar.
Yes, a superstar will improve the PPV buyrate from 400k to 800k but it takes a full card of legitimate fights to make the sport work at the highest level. That is where King's plan would likely fall apart. I could see him trying to put on an event with a superstar fighting on the top and then a bunch of fights that belong on a regional event as the undercard and expecting it to work like what happens in boxing where Oscar / Pacquiao can be held with a garbage undercard and still sell.
The boxing model won't work for MMA and MMA fans need to hope Don doesn't ruin the way the sport is ran by holding a couple events which destroy the MMA payscale.
Oct 30 1:28p by Brent Brookhouse - 0 comments