The new UFC lightweight champion feels like Dana White’s problems have kept him from focusing on the upcoming champion vs. champion fight in Australia.
UFC 284 is just over a week away, but there’s a distinct lack of buzz as the champion vs. champion bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Islam Makhachev approaches.
The silence has been so deafening that even Islam Makhachev has commented on it during interviews.
“I see that it is not such a big promotion,’ he told R-Sport Russia. “Dana White himself has some problems. He does not pay much attention to this fight. In terms of pay-per-view, yes, more could have been done. I only saw Volkanovski once, in Sydney. A tour could be organized around the world, a conference could be held in America.”
This is Islam Makhachev’s first title defense as UFC lightweight champion and he gets a cut of the pay-per-view proceeds if the event does well. So it’s not surprising that he’s keeping an eye on how much hype is being generated for what should have been a slam dunk superfight against Volkanovski in the Australian’s backyard.
Meanwhile, the UFC’s social media account has been all in on Dana White’s Power Slap league. MMA Junkie reporter Mike Bohn noticed that out of the 50 most recent posts on the UFC’s Twitter, only one was focused on UFC 284 while Power Slap had nine.
The UFCs instagrams feed is more power slap than it is MMA pic.twitter.com/IoHV9FwKMo
— Calm Cody2.0 (@Calm_Cody_2) February 2, 2023
That could just be timing: he made that post on Thursday February 2nd, hours before Power Slap’s third episode (which still didn’t do too well ratings wise). And the UFC is known to only turn up the promotional heat on fight week, blasting the world with a firehose of content in the final seven days leading up to an event. There’s also the fact that UFC 284 is being held in Perth, Australia, far away from the UFC’s promotional base.
But Makhachev is certainly right: more could have been done. The UFC obviously knows that international events gain less attention in North America. A U.S. press conference could have done wonders to hype up the momentous Makhachev vs. Volkanovski fight. At this point Islam speaks English well enough to hold up his end of the promotional bargain. It’s reasonable to ask why the UFC hasn’t held up theirs.