The Best Marketing Formula in Combat Sports
In three minutes and eight seconds Jan Błachowicz landed a clean right hook to knock out Corey Anderson. Immediately, after Błachowicz knocked out Anderson, Błachowicz walked across the octagon, pointed his finger at Jon Jones sitting in the front row and taunted the UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion.
In his Post-fight interview, Błachowicz called out Jon Jones to be his next opponent. Jon Jones responded by standing on a chair, puffed his chest and motioned his hands at himself. Ladies and gentlemen, you are witnessing the best formula to promote a fight in combat sports.
Fighter A wins in spectacular fashion and calls out fighter B. Fighter B responds by welcoming the fight in the same arena, while the crowd cheers and the camera captures it all. The MMA media is already speculating Jan Błachowicz vs Jon Jones and the fans seem to be excited by the match-up.
Even though last week Dominick Reyes gave a tough fight against Jones Jones, and significant MMA pundits scored the fight for Dominick Reyes. Błachowicz’ brilliant performance and trash-talk replaced Reyes for Jon Jones as next opponent. The formula mentioned earlier has set a precedence.
When Canelo Alvarez out-boxed Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. after the winner was announced to be Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin (having held all four major boxing titles at Middleweight) walked into the ring and they both announced that they would be fighting each other.
When Conor Mcgregor Tkoed Dennis Siver, Mcgregor jumped over the octagon fence and maniacally yelled at then UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo. Mcgregor in the post-fight interview called out Aldo for a fight and the UFC confirmed the bout would occur.
A few days ago on Valentine’s Day, Ryan Garcia knocked out Francisco Fonseca in one minute and twenty seconds. In the post-fight interview, Garcia called for a fight against WBC Lightweight champion Devin Haney. Haney immediately entered the ring and both boxers engaged in friendly trash-talking, leading to a fight, planned for a future date.
Personally, I wish combat sports would use this formula more often. In other major sports such has the NFL, NBA, and MLB, having a set playoff schedule gives their fans the opportunity to be excited for the team matchups in the playoff tournament. The Professional Fighters League (PFL), an MMA company has a tournament every year that crowns new champions in weight classes they have on their roster. This is great to attract MMA fans preferring tournament based fights, however, the PFL lacks major stars and for fighters to fight two times in one night can be detrimental to their bodies.
MMA fans saw Jan Błachowicz take the opportunity to set himself up to fight against arguably the greatest MMA fighter of all time, Jon Jones, using the best marketing formula to excite combat sports fans.
