Over the past few years, the UFC has used a number of different hooks to lure you into buying Anderson Silva‘s fights on pay-per-view, from building Silva up as a supernaturally-gifted phenom to acknowledging the ridiculousness of his matchups. So here’s a new angle: To hype Silva’s UFC 162 middleweight title fight against Chris Weidman, the UFC has cut together clips of Gray Maynard, Georges St. Pierre, and Rashad Evans talking about Weidman as if he’s the next champ. Indeed, “every fighter out there” apparently thinks Silva is going to lose his belt on July 6th.
Call it trash-talk by proxy. Weidman isn’t speaking for himself in this promo because, 1) having other people do it lends him credibility by association, and 2) the sound of Chris Weidman’s voice has never gotten anybody excited for anything. Not trying to hate, here. Chris is just a soft-spoken, respectful dude who does his talking in the cage. And that’s fine. And that’s why GSP and Joe Rogan are doing the talking for him.
Whether that’s an effective promotional strategy or not remains to be seen, but I think this clip captures the current zeitgeist among MMA fans. Whether it’s because they truly believe that Weidman possesses the skills to knock Silva off his throne, or they’re just getting tired of King Andy’s bloody reign, it feels like public support is leaning hard on the challenger this time.
So who are you picking for Silva vs. Weidman? And why? And are your reasons actually rooted in reality?
Over the past few years, the UFC has used a number of different hooks to lure you into buying Anderson Silva‘s fights on pay-per-view, from building Silva up as a supernaturally-gifted phenom to acknowledging the ridiculousness of his matchups. So here’s a new angle: To hype Silva’s UFC 162 middleweight title fight against Chris Weidman, the UFC has cut together clips of Gray Maynard, Georges St. Pierre, and Rashad Evans talking about Weidman as if he’s the next champ. Indeed, “every fighter out there” apparently thinks Silva is going to lose his belt on July 6th.
Call it trash-talk by proxy. Weidman isn’t speaking for himself in this promo because, 1) having other people do it lends him credibility by association, and 2) the sound of Chris Weidman’s voice has never gotten anybody excited for anything. Not trying to hate, here. Chris is just a soft-spoken, respectful dude who does his talking in the cage. And that’s fine. And that’s why GSP and Joe Rogan are doing the talking for him.
Whether that’s an effective promotional strategy or not remains to be seen, but I think this clip captures the current zeitgeist among MMA fans. Whether it’s because they truly believe that Weidman possesses the skills to knock Silva off his throne, or they’re just getting tired of King Andy’s bloody reign, it feels like public support is leaning hard on the challenger this time.
So who are you picking for Silva vs. Weidman? And why? And are your reasons actually rooted in reality?