The Ultimate Fighting Championship hasn’t always played matchmaker with intention, but they’ve made it obvious when they plan on fast-tracking someone. This has been done in one of two ways. The first is for them to match a rising prospect against a long-in-the-tooth veteran. The second is to give them a “showcase” fight against a no-name competitor to help them display their dominance. Let me share with you five times that the UFC tried to put someone over…but it completely backfired.
Let’s start with the freshest example to date. UFC Vegas 115 had a Chris Duncan who was riding a 4-fight winning streak. With the lightweight division aging, the UFC was clearly positioning Duncan in a main event spot to allow him to break through and build a name. The problem is that they pitted him up against Moicano, who is a seasoned veteran with well-rounded skills who has fought the best.
The result was one-sided. Moicano was dominant in his efforts and secured a second-round submission, completely halting the rise of the American, Duncan. What makes the whole situation even more sour is that Moicano has since come out and criticized the matchmaking. He stated, “And who is f—ing Chris Duncan, brother? That fight doesn’t add to my career, doesn’t add to my YouTube, you know? The UFC tried to build Duncan, but instead showed the gap between him and Moicano.
The UFC isn’t shy about showing who they want to invest in and who they believe has superstar potential. That’s exactly what they did as they were grooming O’Malley for the role. It was the perfect storm for O’Malley, who got to display his elite striking ability on Dana White’s Contender Series. If being the face of the show’s inaugural season wasn’t enough, it was also being simulcast with Snoop Dog doing the commentary.
When he was matched up with Vera, it was meant to be an opportunity for him to move forward with a credible name on his record. The problem is that fighting is extremely unpredictable, and anything can happen. Vera landed a kick that completely immobilized O’Malley and then led to a TKO. The future champion O’Malley had hit a roadblock that would halt his rise and future stardom. This was not what the UFC wanted or expected.
This fight took place in the Fox era of the UFC. Sage Northcutt was one of the most aggressively pushed prospects to date. A karate wiz-kid, who was gracing the covers of karate magazines since he was a child. He was built like a Greek god and looked like the sixth member of NSYNC. Opposite of him, a rough and tumble Barberena who sported a dad bod. He was slotted in as a late replacement. He wasn’t brought in to win, but ended up submitting Northcutt in the second round, exposing that maybe the hype wasn’t justified.
Edmen Shabazyan was being built to be a future contender. A teammate of the infamous Ronda Rousey, he was given the spotlight. The UFC matched him up with Derek Brunson, the perfect measuring stick and a “gate-keeper” for the UFC’s middleweight division. The UFC wasn’t a big fan of Brunson, who mainly relied on his wrestling to win fights. They were banking on Shabazyan’s well-rounded skill to get past the veteran and former cheerleader. Brunson proceeded to slowly break down the youngster and finish him by TKO in the third round, and show why he was the division’s gatekeeper for a reason.
The UFC wasn’t thrilled about Tyron Woodley being their welterweight champion. Meanwhile, there was a young man from Liverpool moving through their ranks. Till had quickly become a fan favorite through his fight style, his fan-involved walkout music, and his cheeky banter. He was coming off a controversial win over Steven “Wonderboy” Thompson.
Nonetheless, the UFC saw a star written all over him and granted him a title shot against the champion, Woodley. Things went from bad to worse as Woodley hammerfisted Till until a brabo-choke opened up for him. While the UFC wanted to control the narrative and feed a growing UK market, the champion retained his title and displayed his dominance, and that there are levels to this game.
There’s always a risk in trying to manufacture stars through “favorable” matchups. Matchmaking can be calculated, but risky due to the unpredictability of combat. It’s a common practice to help build a new star off of a proven commodity. That may be the plan, but as seen through my examples, the veterans don’t need to comply with this plan. Sometimes they will slow the hype train down, and other times they will expose what never was.
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