Dana White has been talking a lot about The Ultimate Fighter “brand” recently. Some of that is likely channeling of his buddies at Fox, who undeniably have more experience in television than the Baldfather and are probably a lot better at making simple things sound complicated, too.
The last time White was talking about brands, he was discussing the Rashad Evans brand. To those who don’t recall, he didn’t seem too keen on the concept.
This new approach, though, is part of the new age of the UFC, where MMA and network appeal have clumsily melded together in the early stages of a television deal that has basically nowhere to go but up. Denying that things haven’t been good is irresponsible and a little silly, but acting like they’re not going to improve over the next seven years and that the sky is falling is equally so.
The UFC has to live in this present, though, doing so with an eye to the future. They need to do things to bring new eyes to TUF and also get longtime fans fired up as well. Simply saying “this is a fight show” and suggesting you don’t watch if you don’t like fights is not helping anyone.
One idea floating around out there that could work? Making the first stars of the TUF era, Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar, the coaches for the next go-round on FX.
White has already said he’s out on the idea. Out hard, too. Surely, he’s got some grand scheme where some rising star in some underpublicized division will match up with someone more marketable and create the greatest thing television has ever seen.
Except that was the plan this time, and it didn’t work. Like, it really didn’t work.
A Griffin-Bonnar season, while lacking any particular divisional significance and featuring two guys who are basically done, would prove a new dynamic.
Both guys are thoughtful, insightful, funny and quirky. That covers your reality TV angle.
The fact that they’re actually friends might be a welcome change of pace too. No mean mugging and lame one-upsmanship just because it feels like something that they should be doing for the camera.
They’ve also been in the game forever, so they have some concrete knowledge to pass on to the teams they select. That covers having the contestants learn something other than how to sleep in urine-soaked sheets over the course of the season.
Plus, and most importantly, they offer up history. With all due respect to Diego Sanchez, they are the original Ultimate Fighters. Their first fight is legendary. They put this entire sport on the map. That’s reality.
It’s a tough sell that coaches really make a difference to ratings or to people caring about TUF. The formula is what it is, and it produces some solid athletes for the UFC. The numbers are the numbers, whether its Brock Lesnar coaching or it’s Dominick Cruz. A big name will land a ratings spike for a week or two, but not over the course of a season.
So, with that in mind, why not throw a final bone to the two guys who laid the foundation for this show to even exist? On account of personality and pedigree alone, there is absolutely no way they can hurt the “brand” more than another vanilla season with coaches no one cares about anyway will.
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