Quite a stir was caused on Monday when Wanderlei Silva tweeted that he had been contacted by the UFC about filling in to fight Gegard Mousasi at UFC on Fuel TV 9. While many picked up on it as true, Silva was playing an April Fool’s Day prank.
As many reported and confirmed on Tuesday, Alexsander Gustafsson had an injury and was required to pull out of the fight. No opponent was announced by the UFC until Dana White named Gustafsson’s training partner as the new opponent.
UFC news my guys fight Saturday agains Musasi!!! What you think? UFC just contact me about Saturday,UFC acabeu de me ligar o que acha?
— Wanderlei Silva (@wandfc) April 1, 2013
Before confirmation of the injury, Silva took to twitter stating that he was going to fight Mousasi. Even Mousasi tweeted that he was not sure if he had an opponent on Monday. Silva revealed that it was all a part of April Fool’s Day.
H/T via Cagewriter
Payout Perspective:
The power of social media. Without it, Silva probably would not have caused such a stir. Silva made a statement, followers took the statement as true and others picked up on it. It shows how people consume their news and its a cautionary tale for media (including us) to ensure what we report is true. Even looking through MMA tweets about Silva possibly fighting on Saturday there was little verification on whether the report was true. Further, there was no mention that it was April 1st…and the possibility that the story might be a hoax. What Silva’s ruse did amounted to was a stealth PR campaign to get some attention. Its something that happens on twitter all the time.
A recent post on StiffJab outlines the problem through the example of false reports of boxer LaMont Peterson failing a drug test. There is a need to be first, get page views and followers. Many times the sacrifice comes with a cost. While Silva’s “prank” was relatively harmless, it did highlight an issue with social media and reporting.
It was interesting to note that Dana White did not quash the Wandy rumors. Curious that White’s timeline did not tweet on Easter Sunday or Monday.
I was fooled (well, perhaps just willfully ignorant). As a major mark for Wand, I’m disappointed.
It may yet turn out to be true.
Nope. It’s not.
I think it was a good thing Dana didn’t shoot it down on twitter. He did tell Ariel that it was an april fools. But the lesson here is what Dana has said all along. Do not believe everything you hear. The UFC and Dana White are the source for information. When you start listening to every thing that comes out of 400+ fighters mouths and taking it as fact when they are not the ones making the decisions. You are setting yourself up for disaster. In this case Dana repeatedly said the fight with Gustaffson was not off yet and a decision had not been made. People still choose to listen to Wandy.