I just listened to Dana’s announcement about the Weili fight and he said he will have at least two more announcements for 300 on Thursday.
Could be the Edwards Belal fight and/or could be Emmett vs Chikadze.
I think Gaethje wants to wait for a IFW title shot and hopes to jump in ahead of the Oliveira Tsarukyan winner for the first crack at the LW title but UFC could be offering him a lot of money to get him to defend the BMF title on 300.
I don’t think UFC gets Apsinall for 300 but they might try to get him to defend that interim title on 301 vs Gane, that would not surprise me.
For the UFC 300 headliner, UFC could be waiting to do the winner of Strickland vs Du Plessis defending vs Chimaev or Adesanya. At this point that seems like the most likely headliner. They just need the MW champ after 297 to be and stay healthy enough to do it.
Hopefully Miller vs Brown gets announced after Miller’s fight and they go with that as the first fight of the night to kickoff 300.
Brown vs Nick Diaz kicking off 300 would be ok too, then get Miller fighting a LW like Michael Johnson in the 2nd fight of the night.
Thats not true at all, not in 2024. Leon and Weili have over a million instagram followers and have been on big shows.
Nickal said like 2 million people watched just his pro debut on Fight Pass and his DWCS fights got millions of views too and his star is still rising.
I do think UFC wants a big headliner and thats why I think they try to get Chimaev or Adesanya in a title fight for the headliner but they certainly don’t need Nick Diaz in 2024.
UFC creates and to a degree kills off stars. They make money during the rise, peak and fall of the star and the UFC grows the whole time.
Chuck, Tito, Randy, GSP, Ronda, Conor, Diaz bros, Khabib etc… all came and went. UFC keeps growing the whole time. They have guaranteed money through the ESPN deal. UFC would restructure to thrive even if the PPV model went away. WWE let go of it and continued to grow, so would UFC.
Are they really gonna give Gane another shot already after only one win?
It would be pretty hilarious if that did happen, because Tom would be defending the interim title (which is as dumb as it sounds) while Jon fights Old Man Stipe.
So Tom would be doing Jon’s job for him. Interims shouldnt be defending, they should be fighting for the actual title. Its just silly.
I don’t know if they do Tom vs Gane now, depends on how bad they need a title fight for 301.
I don’t like interims defending overall but with Jones and Stipe holding up the division, Tom could pretend they don’t exist and defend the interim title and it would just further cement him as the real champ if he is out there active and fighting. Perception is reality and interim titles have been turned into actual titles before and so will Tom’s when Jones and Stipe go away after holding up the division and then fighting each other in a fight the public has lost interest in.
UFC once brought a BW in who was 0-0 in the UFC and let her fight Cyborg for the WFW belt to put it on PPV as a title fight even though they had no WFW talent signed and never even invested enough into the division to create a top 10 or top 15 on their website.
It was still sold as a title fight on PPV so selling the public Tom vs Gane in an interim title fight at HW on PPV is not that big of a stretch.
UFC had Cyborg as their WFW star and they had her fight six BW’s and a single FW in her UFC career yet still sold that “divison” and title fights on PPV.
Perception is reality when it comes to prizefighting title fights so sure Tom can defend the interim title on PPV if thats what the UFC and him want to do.
I’d like to see Tom defend his title because he is the real and active champ out there competing at HW.
Jones has only had a single HW fight and Stipe has not won a fight in four years. Thats no HW title fight, I don’t give a shit what UFC calls it.
UFC has only managed to put on 8 official UFC HW title fights in the last 10 years so they need Tom to defend the real belt because the official belt being defended once a year is getting old.
LOL… none of those people can break 500k as main event… even as co main with strong main event they struggle to hit that number. They add no buys. Sorry. Those are all 300k main eventers.
As I mentioned I think elsewhere… the only thing UFC can do with UFC 300 is stack it with title fights and top 5 ranked fights. They have no stars available. The few stars they have are unavailable… but who knows maybe they’ll convince someone to come out of retirement or something.
You don’t think Chimaev or Adesanya vs the MW champ can break 500k? Ok man. I’m not Dave Meltzer, I’m no PPV sales expert but I disagree with you on that.
UFC did over a billion with B in revenue last year. They are breaking gate records all the time. The real PPV figures are not public knowledge but ESPN is not a charity paying them big money for media rights for nothing.
No one cares about them. No one outside regular consistent UFC fans knows their names.
Where is the household name at UFC 300? I don’t see it. I don’t know if there is a fighter available and ready and realistic to get on UFC 300 that casuals know.
UFC 100 had Brock and gsp, gsp was regularly doing 800-900k a fight and Brock was doing a million+. Both household names, plus a bunch of MMA stars (in the MMA world).
Ufc 200 had Brock again + Anderson Silva, Cormier, Cain, Aldo, Edgar, others… you’re talking about MMA royalty there. All are either or will be in hall of Fame, all fan favs. Plus Brock who was the number 1 star in both MMA and wrestling.
Ufc 300 has what? I get they aren’t done yet but who the fuck do they even add?.. what star is available?
Like I said it’ll be a card stacked with title fights and top 5 fights… from people who will be forgotten about when the next person takes their spot and no one will talk about them in 5-10 years or remember their name.
I think it’ll break 500k because Dana will spend lots on marketing and trying to convince people to buy but I don’t think it breaks a million buys… unless they shock me and add someone unexpected.
So both Islam and Mendez have talked about Khabib coming back, saw clips on the Young and Faded MMA Society youtube channel.
I can’t see Khabib just skipping WW and returning for a one-off at MW.
Seems like he would come back for a WW title shot and maybe try to defend the belt once or something.
Seems likely that is the situation as Islam has now announced his plan to spend the next twelve months at LW and was talking his next three fights there.
So Islam all of a sudden having no interest in the WW title means Khabib wants to go after it.
