MVP managed to get 17 million people watching their first MMA show on Netflix earlier this month and UFC commentator Joe Rogan thinks that’s great for not only athletes, for the sport as a whole.
Rogan welcomed MMA referee Big John McCarthy and retired fighter Josh Thompson on his podcast to discuss the current state of the sport after MVP’s entrance in the game and the imminent return of Scott Coker, the former head of Strikeforce and Bellator who announced recently his return as a MMA promoter with a financial backing of $60 million.
As much as he applauds MVP’s success, he wonders if Coker will be able to succeed.
“I like Scott a lot, but good luck,” Rogan said. “When I saw it was only $60 million I was like, that sounds like a lot of money until you think about putting on an MMA promotion and then getting television production, and then you know paying fighters, and then securing venues, and then having staff full time. Maybe, you know? You got Tony Hawk with you. Maybe.”
“Look, I’m rooting for him,” he continued. “I think he did great when he was running Glory as well as when he was running Bellator back in the day. He’s a really nice guy. I think it’s great for everybody if there’s more competition. I think this whole MVP thing and the Netflix thing is great. It stirred a bunch of cash into the organization, a bunch of people got more money than they would ever gotten anywhere else. Awesome. More options the better. I just, you know, I hope he could do it. It’s f*cking hard.”
Competition is great, Rogan said. At the same time, however, there are levels as to watch fans are invested in.
“Name a good XFL game that you watched,” Rogan said. “You know what I’m saying? Nothing wrong, I’m sure there’s great athletes.”
For McCarthy, the UFC will always have an advantage over competitors because of the brand they were able to create over decades of work worldwide. Yet, he also sees the UFC struggling to create stars like they used to in the past.
“People now, a lot of them don’t even know the fighters that are on the card but they’ll turn it on when it says UFC because they believe in the product,” McCarthy said. “And that’s what you’re supposed to do as the company and for marketing. But the one problem I do think that they have right now is they’re unable to market people like they did when you know you and I were early in it and stuff. They now are in a position every week so it’s tough to market the guys who are not well known.”
UFC’s business model gave them the possibility to sign a very lucrative seven-year streaming deal with Paramount+, entering a new era of delivering content to fans without the pay-per-view system. It doesn’t mean though that every fan, casual and hardcore, will continue to consume your product every time you’re on.
“A lot of times the casuals have no idea there’s even a Fight Night,” Rogan said. “And some of them are fucking insane. And for hardcore fans, it’s like giving them constant food.”
“When you look at it,” McCarthy said, “it’s the hardcore fan that the UFC has but the casual ones the one that puts it over. And it’s hard to get people to understand you need to get the casuals, the ones that don’t watch fights all the time, and that’s the one thing I’ll give Ronda Rousey. I thought she did an amazing job of talking and putting things out there the way she did. She got people’s attention. She did what was her job.”
UFC has a small card on the Meta APEX before turning to the White House for a massive show. They will go back to the APEX for another card and then Azerbaijan until they return to the T-Mobile Arena with Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway.
That will mark McGregor’s first MMA fight in five years and his first non-PPV bout since the UFC Boston win over Dennis Siver in 2015. Netflix has four times more global subscribers than Paramount+, but McGregor’s following could definitely push UFC 329 numbers closer to MVP MMA 1 on Netflix.
“17 million people are watching [MVP MMA]. That’s huge. That’s huge,” Rogan said. “It’s all good for everybody. It’s good for the sport. It’s great for the sport. It’s like, that’s what we need. We need more competition, more eyeballs on it. And unfortunately for the people that are casuals, it has to be a name. This Conor McGregor fight in July is gonna be fucking bananas. It’s gonna be bananas. People are gonna go crazy for the return of Conor McGregor because he’s a giant personality.”
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