When the UFC debuts in a new market, it is usually a cause for celebration. Fans thirsty for the world’s biggest fight promotion are finally satiated.
That was not exactly the case on Saturday when the promotion made their initial foray into Poland with a card in Krakow. Headlined by a rematch nobody wanted between Mirko Cro Cop and Gabriel Gonzaga, the card mostly featured unrecognizable talent, and it aired on the UFC’s streaming-only Fight Pass service.
There are times when cards that are terrible on paper deliver a morning/afternoon/evening of exciting fights. This was not one of them. But then the main event nobody wanted came around, and we received a reminder that mixed martial arts is an unpredictable beast unlike any other.
And now, we turn our lens on UFC Poland to figure out what we learned, what we loved and what we hated.
WHAT WE LEARNED
Look, I counted Cro Cop out just like the rest of you. Earlier this week, when I was compiling my look at the best and worst of his career, I pined for the old days and the old Cro Cop. He was a beast, one of the biggest stars in the history of mixed martial arts, a true legend of the sport.
But those days were over. He hadn’t been the same since Gonzaga knocked him out eight years ago. He was tentative and didn’t throw the same power strikes he used to. And his chin was gone, too.
And perhaps all of that is still the case. But on Saturday, Cro Cop finished Gonzaga, hurting him standing and then unleashing a nasty torrent of ground-and-pound, sending the crowd in the arena and those at home into raptures.
Before that moment, he looked like the Cro Cop we have grown used to seeing over the past few years: He was hesitant, barely throwing strikes and seemingly doing anything he could to stay away from Gonzaga’s power.
But in that moment, he was the old Cro Cop. He drilled Gonzaga with elbows, opening up one of the worst cuts I’ve ever seen on Gonzaga’s forehead. Finally, Gonzaga covered up, and referee Leon Roberts called the fight, mercifully.
One of the oldest lions in mixed martial arts had another shining moment.
WHAT WE LOVED
More fighters can learn about seizing the moment from Maryna Moroz. Or, at the very least, they should.
Shortly after beating Joanne Calderwood in what can only be considered a hefty upset, Moroz found new strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk sitting cageside. Jedrzejczyk was there because Calderwood, with a win, could have challenged for the championship when the UFC makes its debut in Scotland this summer.
But Moroz put an end to that, submitting Calderwood with an armbar that was as surprising as it was effective. And then she found Jedrzejczyk sitting there by the Octagon, and she motioned down to her and then made a motion like she wanted the belt. Jedrzejczyk stood from her seat and yelled back, and the pair pointed and talked, and it was great.
In her post-fight interview, Moroz repeated that she wanted a shot at the championship. Jedrzejczyk shouted at her from outside the cage. Just like that, a fighter making her UFC debut might have jumped the line and put herself in line for a title shot.
It’s really that easy. Joe Rogan, Jon Anik and Dan Hardy ask each winner who they want next because they want an answer. They aren’t doing it for their health. They’re asking the question because Joe Silva and Sean Shelby want the fighters to make their jobs easier for them.
And yet, the answer is almost always the same: “I’ll fight whomever the UFC puts in front of me.”
Not Moroz. In her debut, she showed more post-fight poise than many veterans.
“I consider Joanna [Jedrzejczyk] a very good fighter so that’s why I spoke to her. It was kind of a challenge,” she said. “I would be very happy now to fight for the championship title.”
WHAT WE HATED
The UFC’s beef-headed quest for international domination is understandable, at least from its perspective. Take what you’ve done in North America and expand it around the world. Build up each local market to the point where repeated returns are highlighted by local stars. Instead of one sustainable global market, create a dozen or more local mini-markets and run them all at the same time.
That’s great and all. But what we’re seeing, and what we’ve seen for a long time, is that the expansion creates situations where you have UFC-branded events that are literally nothing more than regional MMA events, stamped with the UFC logo and packaged the same way as every other UFC card.
Or, put another way: I have seen local events in both Texas and Las Vegas with a greater talent level than what I saw on this UFC Poland card.
I would be OK with the UFC’s philosophy if the organization didn’t sell it to me the same way it did with its pay-per-view cards and other television cards. But there is no difference. Everything is marketed the same way, which leads to a lot of confusion when I tune in and see fighters who have no business representing the UFC brand in the Octagon.
I have complained time and again about too many fights and too many fight cards. I will continue to do so as long as the UFC puts out subpar fight cards featuring regional-level talent.
But the problem they’re going to run into is this: Saturday was the UFC’s first trip into Poland, which is allegedly a hotbed for mixed martial arts. Instead of going in with guns blazing (as it does in other markets), it put together a fairly bad card headlined by a main event nobody wanted to see and then aired it for the rest of the world on the internet.
It essentially said to the fans, “this organization knows you’ll buy this card, because it has the UFC name on it.”
That might have worked the first time in the market. But I suspect we’ll see a big difference in the crowd the second time the UFC goes back.
The logo sold the first time, but a lackluster fight card virtually ensured it won’t sell a second time.
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