...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC 189 main event between Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor has gotten the star treatment here this month, with the UFC bringing them around the world on a press tour to promote the event.
They're putting serious promotional muscle behind the fight, which is very likely to pay off with this specific matchup based on what we've seen thus far. Because of that, it's no surprise to hear from Dana White this week that they've possibly spent more money on this bout than any other to date.
"Personally, I think this is the biggest fight of the year," Dana White said on Wednesday's UFC Tonight program on Fox Sports 1 (transcribed by BloodyElbow.com). "This is a fight, that the world will be watching. When you have a fight where countries... literally countries care about the fight, it's a big deal. All of Brazil will be watching [Aldo] defend his title, all of the UK will be watching. And then you have Canada, the United States, Australia...
"It's a big deal fight. It's a big enough deal that we are doing this world tour. I'm gonna go out there and say, we probably spent more money promoting this fight that we have ever spent on any fight in UFC history."
Not even halfway through this world tour, White says things have gone quite well so far, and he's been very happy with the response they've received.
"It's as big as I thought it would be. It was amazing. I expect the same thing in Ireland and in the UK, Boston is gonna be big," White said. "When you get two fighters in their prime und you get the storyline that you have here, with Jose, who's the greatest ever and the only one to ever hold the belt, 18 wins in a row, 8 title defenses, against a guy like Conor, who burst onto the scene and has won impressively, but yet, very little is known about him. You know some people wanna argue how great he his, some people wanna argue that he hasn't been tested, yet. Well, this is it. You have two guys in their prime, and they will both be tested in July."
Penick's Analysis: For as much as Jose Aldo wants to punch Conor McGregor in the face, he has to be thanking his challenger for coming along, because this is turning into a potential breakout moment for him as well. McGregor is tossing out soundbytes left and right, of course, but Aldo's getting to showcase his personality a bit more to a wider audience, and if he retains his title by defeating McGregor, he'll be a bigger star than he's ever been. The challenger certainly talked his way in here on some level, but he has shown he can handle everything that goes with is spot, and it's turning into something bigger than I'm sure the UFC even expected at first. We'll see once July hits, but it's feeling like this singular fight could be as big as the stacked UFC 187 card right now
[Dana White art by Travis Beaven (c) MMATorch.com]
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
