(Props: @JayRussellMMA)
Standup comedy superstar and Last Comic Standing judge Russell Peters went on SiriusXM’s Todd Shapiro Show last week, and spent a minute discussing his love of boxing and MMA. As Peters sees it, boxing is about to enjoy a resurgence, but the UFC brand is struggling due to oversaturation. I mean, we’ve been saying the same thing about UFC oversaturation since 2012, but we’re just a bunch of keyboard warriors and haters, right? Russell Peters is a guy who’s actually done something with his life. Here’s what he had to say:
“I always said the UFC will play itself out, they’ll oversaturate the market and they’ll lose their event status. And that’s what’s happening lately. They’ve got a lot of cards on, but you don’t know what you’re watching. Am I watching an old fight, a rerun? Is this UFC, is this TUF, is this Fight Night? I don’t know, they’ve changed it all, they’ve given it all these different titles, so you don’t know what you’re watching anymore…[it’s on] every night, and you don’t if it’s old, new, live, taped. You don’t know anymore.”
The UFC needs to get in front of this crisis by kicking out whatever That ’70s Show leftovers they still have left in their celebrity pit and inviting Peters out to watch UFC 178 from cageside. A relevant celebrity who publicly admits to watching cage-fighting is a resource that should be cultivated. (We’re not saying that Anthony Kiedis is no longer relevant. Heavens no, we would never say that.)
Keep in mind that the next three weekends will feature four different UFC events airing via three different methods of broadcast: Fight Pass, Fox Sports 1, and pay-per-view. Casual fans are tuning out due to thin cards and utter confusion, and you can’t really blame them.