Nearly everybody reading this knows the name Fedor. They know he's widely regarded as the top heavyweight in the world and the baddest ass on the planet. Even if you think he's overrated, you still believe he's right there with the top heavyweights and on any given night, until proven otherwise, could beat just about anybody most of the time.
Okay, but CBS needs a larger audience than MMA fanatics. CBS needs to impress upon viewers on Nov. 7 that Fedor is every bit as legit as anyone in UFC. To do that, Strikeforce and CBS Sports need to accept that UFC is far and away regarded as the top brand at MMA fighting. They have an uphill battle.
To make their hype of Fedor vs. Brett Rogers effective, they need to explain to viewers why Fedor isn't in UFC. They can avoid saying the letters UFC if they choose, but they must establish that Fedor has negotiated with other groups, who have coveted his services, but he is such a big name, he can command top dollar internationally without an affiliate with that other top group.
Then Strikeforce should go into a video package of as much as they have rights to show where Fedor beats people up. They should get MMA writers to talk about Fedor on camera. They should have credible known MMA fighters speaking about Fedor's reputation and record. They should show screen shots of Fedor's name at the top of independent website and magazine rankings of top heavyweights in the world, ahead of Randy Couture, ahead of Brock Lesnar, ahead of Frank Mir and Mirko Cro Cop and anyone else that CBS's more casual MMA fans will recognize. Drive home relentlessly that seeing him fight is akin to seeing Mike Tyson at his best.
Go to fans outside the arena. Ask them, on camera, if they watch all MMA events. Find the ones who say they do watch everything. Then ask them who they think the best heavyweight in the world is. When they say Fedor, use that footage. The viewer at home is more likely to believe a dozens fans featured in clips as they enter the arena than they are people paid to hype the event.
Strikeforce can't go into their Nov. 7 show thinking their announcers saying Fedor is the best is enough. Most viewers won't think, "If he says Fedor is the best, he must be." Most viewers will think, "If Fedor was the best, he'd be in UFC, so therefore these announcers are full of it and I'm not going to believe a thing they say the rest of the show."
It's a case show viewers, don't just tell them. They won't take just anyone's word for it.
Then have Frank Shamrock or another analyst break down how Fedor wins. Really break down his strengths and his style compared to others. Give people the details that they need to understand why a guy so relatively understated compared to the boisterous Brock Lesnar, relatively thin on the traditional resume highlights of Olympic level or college champion wrestlers, why a guy who they've maybe never heard of is the best in the world.
Then, once that's established, make it clear that Brett Rogers is a legit contender as best they can, and make it clear that if Rogers wins, he'll be seen as every bit as great as another newcomer over at UFC who has plowed through top competition to become champion so far.
Strikeforce sometimes seems major league, and at other times it seems like a public access TV show with interns setting up the camera angles, lighting, and corny pre-produced segments. This Fedor fight is as good of a chance as they'll ever have to build up their brand name with viewers, and they need to make sure viewers understand how special a night it is.
This should be done at the start of the event with a heavy-hand, and then sprinkled throughout the rest of the night coming in and out of commercial breaks. Assume nothing and explain everything, but with evidence and credible testimonials.
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Wade Keller is the Supervising Editor and Founder of MMATorch.com. He has covered MMA for the Torch since before UFC existed, including Japanese shoot-fight cards such as Pancrase in the early 1990s, plus all of the early UFC PPV events (some of those reports can be found in the MMATorch Flashbacks category). He covered the first UFC event in Las Vegas in person in 2001 and Brock Lesnar's recent return to his hometown Minneapolis when he defeated "Crazyhorse" Heath Herring. He has interviewed Dana White, Mike Goldberg, the original UFC match-maker Art Davie, and others in MMA over the years. He has also been interviewed as an MMA reporter by major newspapers dating back to the mid-1990s. He has trained in karate, judo, and jiu jitsu, with over 12 years of formal martial arts training and tournament fighting. He is a double black stripe belt in tae kwon do.
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