Probably the most important aspect of business these days is star creation. Looking at activity so far in 2013 on Google searches for boxers, MMA fighters and pro wrestlers can give a good idea over who people are interested in, as well as who is getting pushes that people really arent that interested in.
As a general rule, this is a pretty good gauge. I was first told about this years ago by people in boxing regarding how the promotions were using this to gauge who was clicking and how remarkably well it was as a tool to predict pay-per-view numbers. Like anything, there are flaws involved although with the exception of Anderson Silva fights, its almost amazingly accurate when it comes to U.S. PPV numbers.
The key things are not if No. 4 is more over than No. 5, but No. 5 is going to be more over in almost every case when it comes to ability to draw money than No. 35, unless there is a unique grudge match dynamic involved. In some cases, its going to measure a mainstream recognition and outside marketability level that may not be drawing power in a box office way but drawing power in other ways, in the sense people are intrigued with the person (such as Ronda Rousey, who is a draw, but not at that level, but gets magazine covers because shes been proven to do well in that regard and her media appearances garner so much talk and interest). Obviously Nick Diaz, who drew the biggest non-boxing PPV number being so low would be a flaw, but hes been completely out of the news since March. If you judged only January through March, hed be through the roof, but the reality is the public lost almost all interest in him after that fight, so it does tell a story for the year. Thats not to say if he resurfaces hell stay that low (although Im betting if he does fight he wont mean a fraction at the box office that he did in his last fight), but it does show nobody has been talking about him for months so his full year score isnt as strong as youd think.
If someone getting a big push is low on the list, it generally means from a money and public interest standpoint they arent there yet. In some cases, like a Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair, it measures fame and recognition. But the key thing to look at is who is new on the list and of newcomers, who is clicking with the public at what level. There are things on the list that are valuable to note, such as the Mark Henry placing and the surprising U.S. numbers for Money in the Bank, that answers a question. It also indicates the UFCs 12/28 show is going to be extremely successful and that Anderson Silva became a bigger mainstream star by being knocked out while Manny Pacquiao didnt, while Chris Weidman became a name while outside of boxing, Juan Manuel Marquez isnt nearly the name he should be. You also see how Natalya and Nikki Bella have made the list due to Total Divas, but the other women on the show, including Brie Bella, havent really made a dent. This is only for U.S. for the year 2013. The numbers for other years are based on the full year.
Rank Name 2012 2011 2010
1 John Cena 1 3 1
2 Floyd Mayweather 3 5 5
3 Dwayne Johnson 4 2 5
4 Ronda Rousey 11 --
5 Anderson Silva 8 8 9
6 C.M. Punk 6 11 8
7 Georges St-Pierre 12 7 4
8 Jon Jones 9 12 10
9 Randy Orton 13 11 10
10 Hulk Hogan 5 10 13
11 Canelo Alvarez 29
12 Brock Lesnar 7 15 2
13 HHH 14 16 12
14 Manny Pacquiao 2 1 3
15 Chael Sonnen 15 41 31
16 AJ Lee 20 --
17 Steve Austin 19 26 25
18 Ryback 25
19 Ric Flair 35 53 44
20 Undertaker 18 23 22
21 Big Show 17 36 33
22 Nick Diaz 24 29 --
23 Mark Henry 47 54 --
24 Chris Weidman --
25 Rey Mysterio 21 25 17
26 Dana White 28 34 26
27 Daniel Bryan 42 -- --
28 Dolph Ziggler
29 Shawn Michaels 31 38 18
30 Cain Velasquez 26 32 15
31 Miesha Tate -- -- --
32 Chris Jericho 33 40 40
33 Robert Guerrero --
34 Sheamus 36 71 47
35 The Miz 38 24 38
36 Alberto Del Rio -- -- --
37 Sin Cara 30 14 --
38 Rampage Jackson 57 42 21
39 Natalya -- -- --
40 Kimbo Slice 41 35 14
41 Nikki Bella
42 Alistair Overeem 37 55
43 Kurt Angle 53 61 --
44 Mick Foley -- -- --
45 Fandango -- -- --
46 Tito Ortiz 46 27 24
47 Jose Aldo
48 Jack Swagger -- -- --
49 BJ Penn 43 28 13
50 Urijah Faber 56 57 36
Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos have spent the better part of the last two years thinking about each other, studying each other, preparing to fight each other and on two occasions, going to war with each other.
In the end, both have had mixed results, with one win apiece. It is not only both mens only loss in UFC, but neither has ever even lost a round in UFC competition except to each other.
Right now, from a record standpoint in UFC, they are identical. Each is 10-1, with eight wins coming by stoppage, and every win being dominant. But their similarities largely end there.
Velasquezs perfect record of being in control for 90 percent or more of every fight hes had in his career was only stymied by the knockout punch Dos Santos hit him with behind the ear in the first minute of their first meeting. Not only that, but in his win over Dos Santos, a decision on Dec. 29 that brought him the heavyweight title a second time, he won all five rounds decisively.
Hes knocked out legends (Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira), destroyed beasts (Brock Lesnar) and twice left a storybook giant (Antonio Bigfoot Silva) looking like somebody had nailed him in the head with a perfect shot using a rock and a slingshot.
Dos Santos victim list is even more impressive. Hes outstruck the best strikers (Mirko Cro Cop, Gilbert Yvel and Mark Hunt), and punched out black belts so viciously they may as well have been white belts (Fabricio Werdum, Frank Mir, Roy Nelson and Gabriel Gonzaga).
Stylistically and personality-wise, they are very different. But they are the two most dominant heavyweights of this era. They would have run though the division like a Georges St-Pierre or Anderson Silva, if not for the presence of the other. But thats about all they have in common. That, and their professional goals are the same, to become UFC heavyweight champion, a title each man has taken once from the other.
But for all of the time theyve been consumed with the other, the two are neither great friends, nor bitter enemies. But when the stories of their careers are told, there is a good chance their legacies will be largely intertwined. When their careers are over, and this era is looked back on, it is very likely each will be the other ones greatest career rival. And it is something both can kind of feel going into their rubber match.
If thats the case, the title of best heavyweight of the era is in the balance on Oct. 19, when the two square off at the Toyota Center in Houston.
In preparation for the third act in their respective career story, both are spending a lot of time together this week. They started in San Francisco, then went to Los Angeles, New York and finally ended up at the Toyota Center itself, meeting with press and fans.
For Velasquez, hes happy hes doing it now, because in a few weeks, things get deadly serious. He, along with his main training partner, undefeated Daniel Cormier, who is technically the No, 2 contender for the title and the best wrestler in the heavyweight division, will train together as usual, but the dynamic this time is different. Instead of one helping get the other ready, they are, for the first time, fighting on the same card, meaning they look to both build to their peaks together. It may sound like a minor difference, but to Velasquez, its a significant edge for him.
The two men have indicated that they will probably never fight in competition, but will be in there with each other three times a week from early August until about a week before each mans fight.
Its definitely an advantage. Were both trying to peak on the same day. He has a three round fight. Three times a week, Ill be in with him for three rounds, and then theyll bring somebody fresh in for rounds four and five.
While Cormiers style is completely different from Dos Santos, Velasquez is concentrating more on being the best he can be, as opposed to preparing to fight a simulated version of Dos Santos.
After fighting three rounds with him three times a week, Ill be ready for anyone else.
Velasquez shook his head `No, regarding training with people who are emulating Dos Santos, saying the key is coming in with a set game plan for the Brazilian, and then honing it with the constant sparring and making it automatic by fight time with the constant repetition under fight simulated circumstances.
Where are you going to find someone that can emulate Junior?, asked Velasquezs manager, Bob Cook. The only person in MMA would be him, or youd have to get a top-tier heavyweight boxer.
Cook noted that Dos Santos, a heavyweight, is even faster than Velasquezs teammate and sometime training partner, Luke Rockhold, a 6-foot-3 middleweight, who is also fighting on the Houston show against Tim Boetsch.
Velasquez is very different from most heavyweight champions. He comes from a hard working family, his father worked countless hours in the desert sun on the fields. Its almost a family heritage thing, having a job that requires hard physical labor. While many athletes see training to get in peak shape as a necessary cost to reach a goal, for Velasquez, training hard, something hes done since childhood, seems instilled as part of him.
Many fight for fame. But for Velasquez, while money is certainly part of his motivation, it clearly makes no difference to him if people recognize him when hes in public or not. Hes gracious, but he is the opposite of somebody who is looking to be noticed or be the center of attention in a room. Still, as UFC heavyweight champion, in some circumstances, you become that whether you want to be or not.
I feel like Im three people, he said over lunch. Theres the person who is at home with his family (he has a wife and a four-year-old daughter). Theres there person in the gym. And theres the person who fights.
While the person in the gym is the backbone of the person in the cage, he makes a clear differentiation.
I was looking for a job that would allow me to keep training, he said.
A star athlete in football and wrestling growing up, he got Division I offers in both sports. Unlike most in that situation, he chose wrestling. The choice at the time had nothing to do with an eventual career in MMA, since he never considered that until his junior year of college. He just thought hed be better as a wrestler, and the hard work with little glory lifestyle of a Division I college wrestler fit in fine with him.
While he was aware of UFC from the start and can remember watching early UFC tapes with his friends, in his mind it then faded away. While in college, when it resurfaced, he quickly knew his next direction.
It led him to San Jose, Calif., and the old version of the American Kickboxing Gym, about an hour north of Salinas, the city he was born in 31 years ago this week. But when he was very young, his family moved to Arizona.
His wrestling coach at Arizona State, Thom Ortiz, said years ago that Velasquez had told him wrestling was too limiting. When he was out there on the college mats, in battle, his mind kept telling him when he saw openings to punch and kick, and attack relentless, taking any opening. But the rules didnt allow him to do such a thing. In that sense, Ortiz felt Velasquez was mentally, a natural MMA fighter.
Discussions about being professional fighters werent unusual in the wrestling room. Three former ASU wrestlers, Dan Severn, Don Frye and Dan Henderson, had already become legends in the sport.
A number of people in that wrestling room ended up fighting. Ryan Bader and C.B. Dollaway, who, like Velasquez, were All-American upper weight wrestlers, ended up in UFC. Both assistant coaches, Aaron Simpson and Eric Larkin, fought in UFC and Bellator respectively. Even Ortiz, in his early 40s, fought a couple of times just so hed better understand the experience of fighting.
Bader and C.B., they were thinking about it, he said. John Moraga (who lost to Demetrious Johnson in a UFC flyweight title fight this past Saturday), he was one of the guys I hung around with in college. He always wanted to do it but he got started late because at first they didnt have his weight class. Hell get better. I think it takes five years to really put it all together.
Dos Santos, 29, came from a poor section of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, a hotbed of the sport in the early 60s. In his native land, hes known more as Cigano, which means Gypsy. When Brazilians come to the U.S. to see him fight, nobody chants for Dos Santos, but Cigano chants fill the arenas. When tourists from the Brazil are in Las Vegas when he fights, they ask about Cigano, almost always, never Junior Dos Santos.
When they met up in San Francisco on Monday, sitting at the same table for a press luncheon, the interaction, or more precise, the lack thereof, spoke louder than any words. Neither had a bad thing to say about the other.
Velasquez arrived early, and was quiet and polite. Naturally shy, he will answer any question brought up, but unless hes fully comfortable with the person, he will not speak unless he is spoken to first. If not asked a question, he seems to be in constant thought, whether its about his training, his fight, or his family, only he knows.
When Dos Santos arrived and sat several seats down, the two ignored each other. There was no casual greeting, no smiles, not even a nod of recognition. Nor were there any dirty looks, attempts at mind games or intimidation. There was only a few people between them, but they very well may have been on different continents, like is usually the case.
Dos Santos, who usually has a smile on his face and is fun loving, seemed at times tense, but most of the time was laughing and joking. Both spoke of the other in most respectful ways, but not to each other at all.
Unlike many fighters, who give scientific explanations about their diets, Velasquez doesnt worry about diet or weight that much. Hes 250 right now, although he doesnt look it. He expects the rigors of camp will get him down to the low 240s.
As far as eating, he didnt seem concerned, past the point of telling the waitress, No fried food, please. Unlike Dos Santos, he didnt touch the cotton candy brought in as desert.
I made a lot of mistakes in the last fight, said Dos Santos, who in the past believed he had overtrained for the fight and thus didnt perform at his best.
Still, he would say nothing bad about his opponent.
He always moves forward, said Dos Santos. His stamina, its very good, especially for a heavyweight. His grappling is great. Hes a complete fighter. But Im also a complete fighter.
This time is going to be a different fight, for sure, he said.
Dos Santos noted the spinning back kick that he used to finish Mark Hunt as the example that he would not be the same fighter as in the first or second fight. Velasquez noted it as well, saying that while hes very experienced at preparing for Dos Santos, he has to be aware that Dos Santos may come in with something hes never seen before, for that very reason. He noted that in a fight that may go 25 minutes, he cant have a mental lapse, even for a second.
Only, when asked to stand in front of the San Francisco Bay to pose for a photo, the two locked eyes. Neither would blink, flinch or move. There was not the slightest threat of violence that an intense staredown at times brings. But there was absolutely the feeling that neither was going to be the first to stop staring into the others soul or give the opponent any idea of weakness.
When the posing for publicity shots ended, they went their separate ways. They would be flying on the same planes, and repeating the same thing, for the rest of the week.
Tourists from around the world outside the Ferry Building watched, some recognizing them, others not. One older man noted that he knew they were two UFC heavyweight stars, but asked which one was the current champion. The greater visibility of MMA fighters in Brazil was clearly obvious, as Brazilian tourists reacted like a major cultural celebrity was there, making a big commotion about Cigano. Velasquez got stares of recognition and curiosity, had some people wanting to take photos with him, but no screams of people like a rock star was in their midst. Although perhaps, if you had taken the show to Mexico, the reaction would be reversed.
Velasquezs father was born in Sonora, Mexico, and as a child he went to Northern Mexico to visit relatives frequently. He wasnt aware that his fight was going to air live on Televisa, the leading network, in that country, but he fully understand what being on Televisa meant. On that night, in Mexico, he will be the cultural hero that millions will be watching.
Javier Mendez, his trainer since he moved from Arizona, noted long before anyone had heard of Cain Velasquez, that he would be UFC heavyweight champion. He also said, with certainty in his voice, that unlike nearly everyone else, when that day came, that the guy who would train until puddles of sweat were all over the mats, and then mop it up when the session was over, would not change with the fame and money the championship would bring.
Such things like the burden of being the center of the hopes and dreams of millions on the night of his next fight may add pressure, or create a sense of ego, to most.
No, no added pressure, he quietly said, while thinking about whatever it is that makes him tick.
Dana White attempted to make a Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva match, which did make sense considering Sonnen has been cutting promos on Silva. He wanted to add that fight to the 11/16 show in Las Vegas instead of 12/28. The 11/16 show will be the companys 20th anniversary show since the first UFC was November 12, 1993, in Denver. I would have pushed the December show as the 20th anniversary sinces its the blow away show. White told Ariel Helwani that Silva said he wouldnt take the fight unless he was given PPV points. Its all posturing at this point, Silva working to get the best deal possible and clearly knowing this is his money match, and White acting like theyll move on from it because Silvas demands are too high. The promo Silva did for the fight (on the Internet), if it gets shown on TV the next few months on Countdown shows that have an audience, promotional shows, and when Sonnen does his comebacks, they could have the most non-title heat since Evans vs. Rampage. The Portuguese promo (with English subtitles) was so amazing that it had more than 933,000 views on You Tube alone (it was put in a ton of places) as of 8/26, three days after it was put up. Silva demanded a five round fight so he could punish Sonnen for a full 30 minutes (yes, I know five times five equals 25 and not 30 but thats what he said, and I guess if you include the rest period between rounds it is 29 minutes. Maybe hes counting on getting a couple of low blow time outs to stretch it out). You get those promos for that match and put it on 12/28 and its the biggest show in years. The craziest thing is he did an interview in Portugese, and they had to use English subtitles, and it was more effective than any direct MMA or WWE promo this year with the exception of Nick Diaz.
The situation with Stefan Struve is that in late July, he was getting a routine heart test done and the nurse suddenly got quiet and called in the cardiologist. He underwent an immediate MRI and they found he had a leaking aorta and an enlarged heart, which was only working at 70% effectiveness. Struve is going to need open heart surgery at some point to get his aortic valve replaced. He was hospitalized for a week for various testing and is going back on 10/2 to see how his heart has responded to the medications hes been put on. At that point his Holland doctors will tell him if he can fight again, but either way hes going to be sent to the best cardiologists in the U.S by UFC for a second opinion. Struve, 25, badly wants to continue. The problem is if a mechanical aortic valve is put in, hell need to be put on blood thinners and its very dangerous to fight on them because if you bleed, and that can happen at any time, your blood wont clot and thats a very dangerous situation. You cant fight on blood thinners. He noted that in training for Mark Hunt, he got the flu and it stayed with him for three or four weeks, and that he was exhausted after the first session when he was supposed to do two-a-days leading to the fight. He noted that in the fight with Hunt, which he lost via third round knockout, that his conditioning sucked and he couldnt figure out why. There is a kickboxer, Mark Miller, who fights for Glory, who had a similar condition as Struve and he did come back from it.
The Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald fight will be on 11/16 on the Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks undercard. Also on that show will be Tyron Woodley vs. Josh Koscheck in another welterweight battle.
There was a very interesting comment by Carlos Condit, who has faced both GSP and Hendricks in his two most recent fights. When asked who would win, he said Hendricks has a punchers chance. Thats a euphemism for saying Hendricks has the chance anyone who hits hard has, but would indicate he doesnt think hes got that good of a chance.
There is a PPV, UFC 164, on 8/31 from Milwaukee. Facebook fights at 6:30 p.m. are Magnus Cedenblad vs. Jared Hamman, Ryan Couture vs. Al Iaquinta (really interesting theyre putting Couture on Facebook when hes better known and would mean more on TV than most of the guys on the TV portion, not that as a fighter hes any better but he was pushed in Strikeforce and has the name), and Nikita Krylov vs. Soa Palelei. The FS 1 prelims at 8 p.m. are Chico Camus vs. Kyung Ho Kang, Pascal Krauss vs. Hyun Gu Lim, Tim Elliott vs. Louis Gaudinot and Gleison Tibau vs. Jamie Varner. The PPV fights are Erik Koch vs. Dustin Poirier, Brandon Vera vs. Ben Rothwell, Chad Mendes vs. Clay Guida, Josh Barnett vs. Frank Mir and Benson Henderson vs. Anthony Pettis for the lightweight title.