{"id":267529,"date":"2018-01-09T07:27:04","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T15:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=267529"},"modified":"2018-01-09T07:27:04","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T15:27:04","slug":"ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC executive defends promotion&#8217;s matchmaking strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In an era of combat sports where terms like &#8220;super fight&#8221; and &#8220;money fight&#8221; are such popular buzzwords, the UFC has been catching some flack for its matchmaking strategy. The widespread worry is that the promotion is focused on booking the most lucrative fights, rather than fights between the best competitors available.\u00a0In the opinion of\u00a0UFC Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Epstein, however, these worries are a little unfounded.<\/p>\n<p>Epstein defended the UFC&#8217;s matchmaking strategy in a recent chat with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/mma\/story\/_\/id\/21997969\/dana-white-addresses-ufc-critics-provides-outlook-2018\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ESPN<\/a>, assuring that it&#8217;s still based on competition, not profit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompetitive matchmaking is one of the hallmarks of the UFC,\u201d Epstein said. \u201cYeah, you might do a Mayweather-McGregor fight here or there, or something the fans are dying to see, but at the end of the day, competitive matchmaking is what we do. I think it\u2019s a bit of a misnomer to say we\u2019ve gotten away from that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn boxing, you\u2019ve got to be 20-0 before you become somebody, and yet you haven\u2019t fought anybody. That\u2019s not our model.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the same ESPN interview, UFC President <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/dana-white-claims-ufc-was-worthwhile-purchase-for-wme-img\/\">Dana White<\/a> also defended the promotion&#8217;s ability to build stars, pointing to surging heavyweight Francis Ngannou and rising bantamweight Sean O&#8217;Malley as a counterargument to anyone with these kinds of doubts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hear that all the time, but who the f*ck builds more stars than we do in combat sports?\u201d White said. \u201cNobody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>White also assured that, despite rumors of a bad year of business, the UFC is still going strong. New UFC owners WME-IMG, he believes, are likely quite happy with their 2016 purchase of the promotion.<\/p>\n<p id=\"xxgYkb\">\u201cF**k yeah, we delivered [on their investment],&#8221; he said. &#8220;We deliver every single year. And still, every year, if you listen to the media, we\u2019re f**ked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What do you think of these comments from Dana White and Lawrence Epstein?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 1\/9\/2018. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an era of combat sports where terms like &#8220;super fight&#8221; and &#8220;money fight&#8221; are such popular buzzwords, the UFC has been catching some flack for its matchmaking strategy. The widespread worry is that the promotion is focused on booking the most lucrative fights, rather than fights between the best competitors available.\u00a0In the opinion of\u00a0UFC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":227058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10112,39435],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>UFC executive defends promotion&#039;s matchmaking strategy | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UFC executive defends promotion&#039;s matchmaking strategy | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an era of combat sports where terms like &#8220;super fight&#8221; and &#8220;money fight&#8221; are such popular buzzwords, the UFC has been catching some flack for its matchmaking strategy. The widespread worry is that the promotion is focused on booking the most lucrative fights, rather than fights between the best competitors available.\u00a0In the opinion of\u00a0UFC [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-09T15:27:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Michael-Bisping-Georges-St-Pierre-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"UFC executive defends promotion&#8217;s matchmaking strategy\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-09T15:27:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-09T15:27:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/\"},\"wordCount\":325,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Dana White\",\"Lawrence Epstein\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/\",\"name\":\"UFC executive defends promotion's matchmaking strategy | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-09T15:27:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-09T15:27:04+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Dana White\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"UFC executive defends promotion&#8217;s matchmaking strategy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UFC executive defends promotion's matchmaking strategy | BJPenn.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/dana-white\/ufc-executive-defends-promotions-matchmaking-strategy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UFC executive defends promotion's matchmaking strategy | BJPenn.com","og_description":"In an era of combat sports where terms like &#8220;super fight&#8221; and &#8220;money fight&#8221; are such popular buzzwords, the UFC has been catching some flack for its matchmaking strategy. 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