Last weekend, YouTube stars Logan Paul and KSI stepped into the boxing ring together for an anticipated grudge match. Despite the fact that neither YouTuber has any real fighting ability, their showdown generated massive, international fanfare. While some members of the MMA community were put off by this bizarre, over-the-top spectacle, former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub was pretty impressed by it.
“I loved what they are doing because they are showing how easy it is to promote a fight!” Brendan Schaub said on his Below the Belt podcast (transcript via MMA Fighting). “When everyone goes, ‘Being a promoter is so difficult.’ Really? These kids have zero background! They both decided, ‘Hey, we both have a following,’ and they did it all their own. I’m sure they lined up with some help to acquire the arena and get the ticket sales and all that, but for the most part two famous guys showed you how easy it is to promote and sell a fight. It is not rocket science. No one is skilled at doing this. We give way too much respect to these promoters. They are not that skilled. It’s very obvious who should be fighting, what fight to make, how to build a fight.”
“When a fight does not sell, that’s when you realize how shitty a promoter is,” Schaub continued. “Whenever there’s two headline UFC fighters, both those guys are so fucking talented it’s not even funny. For those fights not to sell should not rely on a fighter. That’s where a promoter or the marketing business of the UFC, or name whatever boxing promoter you want, should come into play. It is not the responsibility of them. Them being the fighters.
“For these two guys with zero background to shit on any UFC fight this year, numbers-wise, shows you how poorly of a job the UFC is doing at times and how easy it is to promote a fight.”
Furthermore, Schaub thinks that, having seen the audience Logan Paul and KSI drew in, the UFC might be considering some new signings.
“People want to hate on these, tell me how this is any different than the UFC signing CM Punk?” said Schaub. “I will wait.”
“Again, you’re going down a tricky road because someone in the UFC offices is watching going, ‘That Logan Paul looked pretty good. How much does he weigh?’ You’re batshit crazy if you don’t think in the UFC office this morning someone went, ‘We’re just spit-balling ideas here, did anyone see the Logan Paul fight? He didn’t look terrible! What numbers did they do? Better than any card we’ve had this year. Should we sign him?’ I guarantee there’s a spark interest of signing Logan Paul to the UFC.”
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 8/27/2018.