The UFC 178 event scheduled for Las Vegas on September 27th made the news yesterday, as main event-ers Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones met face to face for a press obligation and wound up pile of tangled bodies of fighters and security guards. Right now, Jones is sitting as a (-175) favorite over Cormier, who comes back at (+155).
The UFC is in need of a big PPV haul this year, as overall numbers are down across the board for PPV events. Jones, as the holder of the belt owned by Randy Couture, Chuck Liddel and Tito Ortiz at different times in their careers, is the potential face of the company. He is not there yet one hundred percent, but this match against Cormier is the first time in a long time the line is been anywhere near this close for a Jon Jones match.
But did the set for this so called ‘brawl’ look a little shady? It is a long way away still, but you presume that getting Cormier (California) and Jones (New York) didn’t happen by coincidence. The UFC has high expectations on the success of that PPV, and UFC President Dana White was away on vacation when the two men fighting for probably the most prestigious belt in the organization?
Both are smart men, and both are going to make a lot of money for this fight. Both have managers and lawyers who look at everything. They couldnt control themselves. Though ‘faking’ an event like this is not as easy as it would seem, both men could do it, and both men benefitted from the 21st century capabilities of Twitter to follow up immediately and be heard.
Then the set itself. For a PPV event, are there really normally press events with the main eventers that have a flimsy paper wall. That thing collapsed when Jones pushed the little manchild the UFC assigned to the event aside, and Cormier wound up sitting on it with a people piling on, but it really was no where near the full blown press conference that usually gets to the mainstream media.
So the UFC has themselves a fight, and a close one. But we knew that before this little side show.
