On his way up the UFC lightweight ladder, one of Anthony Pettis’ favourite subjects was his younger brother.
While he was always happy to answer questions about the next fight on his schedule, his desire to reach the top of the 155-pound ranks or whatever else was asked, the energy of the conversation always picked up when he began talking about the next great fighter to come out of the Duke Roufus camp and the Pettis household.
“He’s going to be a star – better than me,” I recall him telling me three years ago of his brother Sergio, who makes his UFC debut this weekend against short notice replacement Will Campuzano at UFC 167.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: Watch UFC 167 preliminary fights on Sportsnet 360 Saturday starting at 8 p.m. EST and catch three bonus prelims on sportsnet.ca at 6:45 p.m. EST
The early returns are in, and while it would take winning a pair of UFC titles to trump big brother’s achievements, the younger Pettis appears poised to make a run at replicating the success “Showtime” has had to date.
Through the first nine fights of his professional career, the 20-year-old UFC newcomer sports an unblemished record, with equal numbers of victories by decision, knockout, and submission, and much like his brother, “The Phenom” carries the same kind of swagger and striking arsenal that is bound to turn heads. Which is what makes his placement on the online portion of Saturday’s fight card a major misstep.
Pettis should be fighting on the televised portion of the preliminary card, period, no questions asked. He is the exact type of new arrival that should be showcased on television so that as many eyes as possible are able to tune in and get a glimpse of a fighter who has the potential to be a champion somewhere down the road.
Given that he’s competing in the relatively shallow bantamweight division, he could climb the ladder at a more rapid pace than most prospects, especially given his recognizable surname, so it would make sense to start putting him out there as much as possible now, so that three fights down the line when (if?) he’s working to break into the upper tier of the division, it isn’t his first time being introduced to the larger audience.
Dropping him on an internet stream while tenured veterans with limited upside like Rick Story and Ed Herman rock prime real estate on TV is – to borrow a phrase from MMAFighting.com’s Luke Thomas – “promotional malpractice.”
Maybe they luck out and get a chance to replay his fight during the televised prelims or even the pay-per-view, but slotting him on the live portion of the undercard that airs on Sportsnet 360 in Canada eliminates the guessing, and guarantees the most eyes possible get the chance to see an emerging fighter that has the markings of a future contender.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a new issue for the UFC, who have struggled to cultivate new stars for years and tend to be a fight or two behind on emerging talents far too often.
It’s easy to get it right with the likes of Jon Jones and his ilk – the absolute can’t-miss prospects that even novice MMA fans can see have superstar potential – but with the volume of events the UFC currently holds, the key is to identify the fighters that could develop into draws and maybe even champions and position them accordingly early on.
Conor McGregor’s first fight in the UFC should have been on the main card, and his second fight damn sure should have been as well. If you’re going to build seasons of The Ultimate Fighter around pumped up rivalries in order to generate ratings, you have to put your best prospects and future draws on the biggest platforms possible.
The funny thing with the brash Irishman McGregor is that the UFC went to every length to showcase him heading into his second appearance in the Octagon, giving “The Notorious” his own media workout day at Peter Welch’s Gym in Boston in advance of his fight with Max Holloway.
He was rolled out as one of the biggest draws on the card, but fought on the prelims, while TUF 18 hype victim Uriah Hall fought to a split decision loss with the returning John Howard on the main card.
Nik Lentz is taking on Chad Mendes in a pivotal featherweight matchup on FOX next month, and has been a nice addition to the division, winning three straight. If he manages to pull off the upset, “The Carny” will be an instant contender, but no one outside of the hardcore audience knows who he is because he’s been stuck fighting on the prelims for his entire career, literally – he’s 8-2-1, 1 NC to date in the Octagon, including 3-0 since moving to featherweight, and next month will be his main card debut.
Far too often, the UFC favours athletes coming off TUF or those with local ties to the market over ones that have made their way into the Octagon organically or earned their way to placement further up the fight card.
It’s the reason fighters like Nick Ring and Mike Ricci scored places on the UFC 158 pay-per-view, while a guy like Darren Elkins that had strung together four consecutive victories – including a win over a former TUF winner, Diego Brandao – was fighting on the prelims.
Ricci has since been bounced from the organization, Ring remains a middle of the pack middleweight, and Elkins bounced back from a first-round loss to top contender Chad Mendes with his sixth win in seven appearances as a featherweight, and rests comfortably inside the division’s top 20.
It’s a formula the UFC needs to do away with as they head into 2014 with their most ambitious schedule yet.
Fighters like Pettis that show a ton of promise need to be given every chance to blossom into stars, and the UFC needs to expedite that process as best they can. With as many events as they’re holding next year, the slow and steady approach of building these young talents in the background for three or four fights before moving them into the spotlight just isn’t going to cut it.
They seemed to pick up on this with Brandon Thatch already, giving the Colorado-based finisher a significant step up in competition for his second Octagon appearance, as well as a slot on the main card and a push in the television commercial for the event.
That move will undoubtedly pay dividends, as Thatch decimated Paulo Thiago, earning his 10th consecutive first-round stoppage win and high praise from UFC President Dana White after the event.
Giving promising, young talent an accelerated push needs to be the rule, not the exception, especially given that a number of established UFC stars are getting a little long in the tooth and not quite performing as well as they have in the past, and injuries continue to be a problem for the organization.
Thousands of people will sit down on Saturday afternoon to watch the opening three bouts on the UFC 167 fight card on YouTube, Facebook – or right here on sportsnet.ca – and get to see the younger Pettis make his UFC debut.
A much larger audience will tune in to the four televised prelims to see a bunch of established names with well-defined ceilings do battle in the Octagon.
Potential stars like Pettis need to be fighting in front of the bigger audience, not slotted behind a bunch of veterans with limited upside.
If the UFC doesn’t start doing a better job of planning for the future, they’re going to be spent playing catch-up once it becomes the present.