There are already enough disputed decisions in MMA or surprise knockout finishes that leave fans ignorantly questioning whether the fix was in. Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier might be the type of personality who can float between brands as an announcer or referee but any trash talk of his scripted WWE adversaries needs to be kept off of UFC broadcasts. But avoid the type of playing up of fake storylines that might make the audience question whether UFC is doing the same. If Seth Rollins gets prime seating at a UFC show, merely to promote the WWE pay-per-view happening the next night, that's fine. This is an area UFC needs to avoid blurring the lines on at all costs. This is 2023, which means no one, especially WWE, expects even its own loyal fanbase to actually believe the scripted combat they watch is real. The old carny word for the presentation of staged performances as authentic needs to kept in mind for UFC when entertaining the inevitable crossover that will come from WWE promos and talent interviews showing up on UFC television. DON'T: Ever insult UFC fans by playing into kayfabe Once the toothpaste comes out of the container in these areas, there's nothing to guarantee it ever goes back in. This concern is largely what makes a partnership like TKO seem so surreal to those who have followed both sides of the sports entertainment world.

But considering UFC just dodged a major bullet with the fallout of the James Krause gambling scandal, and the financial threat of how the image of impropriety might affect deals with gambling providers like DraftKings, maintaining the integrity of his non-scripted sport needs to be paramount when aligning it with WWE. This, one would think, should go without saying. So from the standpoint of UFC and how it might benefit from the potential cross pollination of resources from its union with WWE, without compromising the integrity of what it built to get here, the following is a cheat sheet of dos and don'ts for TKO to consider moving forward.ĭO: Protect the legitimacy of the sport at all costs The only development since last week's public launch has been a round of layoffs, mostly on the WWE side, focusing on executives and some on-air talent.

The fallout, meanwhile, has produced obvious questions from both fan bases regarding exactly what this unlikely merger means to both the short and long-term future.Īlthough it isn't exactly easy to predict how much crossover between brands will take place in the coming months and years, as a long-time fan and journalist of both the scripted and non-fiction realms of sports entertainment, there's little question that too much would be a very bad thing. The move was a giant one, particularly in light of the uncertain future regarding sports broadcasting rights amid an industry transition to streaming. The winner will be dubbed the “BMF” – “Baddest Mother(Expletive)” – something that Masvidal certainly has that old South Florida brawling experience with.Ĭheck out the video above to hear more from “Baby Slice” on Masvidal ahead of UFC 244.It has been just over one week since Endeavor, the parent company of UFC, merged its premier MMA brand with that of newly acquired WWE to officially launch the publicly traded media conglomerate TKO Group Holdings to a much ballyhooed valuation of $21.4 billion. The welterweight fight isn’t for a UFC title, but a special belt was created just for the event. On Saturday, Masvidal (34-13 MMA, 11-6 UFC) might have some of those old street fights in the corner of his mind when he takes on Nate Diaz (20-11 MMA, 15-9 UFC) in the UFC 244 main event at Madison Square Garden in New York.

But I would’ve loved to do a bare-knuckle fight – that would’ve been pretty cool.” “I was watching it like, ‘My turn – when can I fight?’ But my dad always told me not to do a street fight. Instead, Kimbo told him if he was going to fight, make sure he got paid. No adults tried to steer him away from it, necessarily. Besides Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz, who are the 10 other 'BMFs' in the UFC?įerguson said when he was 9 and 10 years old, watching grown men fight in his backyard, he had no fear.

Kimbo slice back yard eye