The UFC offered fans the opportunity to vote for Fight of the Night at UFC 124 Saturday night. The only problem with placing the power in the hands of the people is that the UFC cannot control the result.
As it turned out, the fans voted for the main event, GSP v. Koscheck, as the Fight of the Night.
Via Cagewriter:
White thought the real Fight of the Night was on the preliminary card. Sean Pierson and Matt Riddle beat the living hell out of each for three rounds.The UFC and White even tried to give the fans a gentle nudge by showing the fight on the pay-per-view. If you cast a vote at UFCvote.com, hope you enjoyed the chance to be the boss, now you’re fired.
“They blew their chance,” White said. “That’s it. It’s over.”
Payout Perspective:
Here is an example of the overuse of fan interaction. Obviously, the UFC vote should have gone to a fight that was not the main event (unless the main event was a classic back and forth battle–which it was not). Although the fan vote promotion helped garner interest for fans to check out the post-fight press conference, it gambled by having a pro-GSP fan base have the opportunity to vote.
White indicated that he’d take care of Matthew Riddle and Sean Pierson–not sure if they’d received the $100K bonus received by GSP and Koscheck.
In hindsight, there should probably have been caveats for the Fight of the Night vote. The bonus is subjective, but you’d have to think the Fight of the Night should go to someone lower on the card unless there is an exemplary fight in the main event. Although GSP put on a show, and you could argue (especially GSP fans) that it was the Fight of the Night, the FOTN goes to a match that puts on a lot of action and that is back and forth. GSP dominated the main event.
From an egalitarian point of view, you’d hope that fighters not making GSP/Kos money get the bonus. When the payouts are released later this week, we’ll see that GSP and Kos are likely at the top of the payroll where the likes of Riddle and Pierson are still working their way up. For example, Riddle made $24K (including a $12K win bonus) in his last fight with DaMarques Johnson. GSP made $400K at UFC 100.
Letting the fans have the chance to spend UFC money is a nice novelty, but it should never happen again.
Jason,
I really don’t agree that main event fights should be held to a different standard than undercard bouts
Sorry got cut off:
They are performance-based bonuses, and should go to those that deserve them for the performances they give in the cage. I certainly agree that the Fight of the Night bonus should go to the most action packed, back and forth fight, and that the fight should be close. I agree with you and Dana that St. Pierre/Koscheck II was not a close fight, and should not have been awarded Fight of the Night, but it had nothing to do with its status as the main event. However, if two fighters produce a bout worthy of consideration for the Fight of the Night bonus, the bouts place on the card shouldn’t be considered at all, egalitarian point of view be damned.
In regards to the issue, I agree with Dana White: the fans should not be the ones to determine the recipients of these bonuses.
Point taken MV. I believe that the UFC’s intent here was to award a bonus to two fighters not in the main event. The UFC knew that there was a possibility that GSP/Kos would get voted FOTN, but it decided to roll the dice. It was obvious that the UFC directed its fans to vote for the Riddle/Pierson fight, but the fans decided not to take the hint.