When is a win not a win?

The "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" Chihuahua is a rather famous case in the history of advertising. Anyone who was alive in the mid-nineties remembers that diminutive canine. My sister owned a Chihuahua and had "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" screamed at her by more than one excited toddler. The stupid thing was everywhere: on billboards, on radio, and in every other TV commercial. The recognition percentage among the general populace was in the high 90s. As far as advertising campaigns go, it was an unprecedented success.

But when Taco Bell crunched the actual numbers they made an amazing discovery: the campaign was a total failure. All of the recognition that the advertisers were so proud of didn't help sell a single extra taco. Taco Bell has created a pop phenomenon, but had wasted millions of dollars on an ad campaign that hadn't increased sales. They immediately stopped the campaign and the talking dog went into permanent retirement. The executives at Taco Bell learned a costly lesson: ALWAYS keep your eye on the bottom line. If you are in the taco-selling business your livelihood depends on selling tacos, anything that doesn't help you do that, regardless of how successful it might seem, is a waste of valuable resources.

MMA is, like every other sport, essentially part of the entertainment industry. You can wax philosophical all day about the nobility and beauty of athletic competition, but marathon runners are amazing athletes and no one will spend 60$ on a pay-per-view to watch them. For a promoter the bottom line has two simple parts: does a fighter sell pay-per-views (or increase viewership in the case of a free TV show) or put asses in seats? If a promoter pays a fighter X amount, they need to recoup that X amount in some way based on that fighters performance. If they fail to do so they have lost money and, if that trend continues, they will soon go the way of Affliction Fights, the IFL, and Elite XC.

The mantra of the boring fighter is "A win is a win". Keeping the preceding criteria in mind, it becomes clear that they have little understanding of the statement they are making. While its true that win is considerably better in almost every instance than a loss, the entertainment value of a fighter is really what the promoter is keeping his eye on. A person who values the integrity of MMA as a sport may often find himself at odds with promotional logic when it comes to which fighters are kicked out of an organization (or never get there to begin with) and which ones are given a seemingly endless ride. Phil Baroni lost a staggering 4 fights in a row before being released by the UFC in 2005. Chris Leben has the promotion talking about a title shot for him, despite the fact that the Akiyama win put him just one win over.500 in his last 11 fights. Ken Shamrock is still headlining shows despite an ABYSMAL record over the last ten years. All of these fighters share one thing in common: they are popular fighters who win or lose (in the case of Ken, just lose) in spectacular fashion. People will pay money to watch them, and that is ALL promoters care about. They are entertainers in the entertainment business, pure and simple. Watching Chris Leben fight with his face is an amazing spectacle 9 times out of 10 and will mean pay-per-view dollars every single time. Fans love him, and that means promoters love him.

Antonio McKee fought recently on the MFC card in Alberta, Canada. I read some articles leading up to the fight, including one on Sherdog by Tomas Rios that called McKee's absence from the UFC despite a 7-year win streak "puzzling". Its not puzzling at all, he's boring. From 2001 to 2010 Antonio fought 20 times and finished ONE opponent, and that was due to an injury (Gabe Rivas in the IFL). He has finished his last two opponents in 2010 (increasing his finishes by 40%) so there is a chance he can turn things around, but at 40 yrs old it may be too little too late. He has spent his career compiling a fantastic winning percentage and has never gotten into a major promotion.

And why should he? What motivation could a promotion like the UFC or Strikeforce have to sign him? Don't get me wrong, I think Antonio is a FANTASTIC fighter, but that ability to beat anyone in the world makes him a promotional pariah. He could actually beat most, if not all, of the lightweight fighters in both promotions. The problem is that no one will pay to see it. Once someone like Antonio is in your promotion you have a serious problem. He can climb the ladder to the point that you are virtually forced to give him a title shot, but his style is too methodical to appeal to the fans. NOTHING kills a promotion faster than an unpopular champion. Antonio simply isn't worth the risk. He can beat anyone you put in front of him, but he doesn't sell pay-per-views and he doesn't put asses in seats. "But he can beat anyone!!", his supporters cry, sure he can, but everyone knew the chihuahua too and it didn't sell tacos.

There are some great fighters who are stuck in this holding pattern. John Fitch can beat anyone in the UFC not named St. Pierre and his current streak should have landed him a rematch with the champ a long time ago. Unfortunately he is a methodical fighter who relies on his outstanding wrestling to grind out decisions and doesn't have a ton of charisma. Anderson Silva got a shot at UFC gold after ONE fight, Yushin Okami won 4 fights in a row against solid competition and you could almost hear the sighs of relief from UFC brass when he was beaten by Rich Franklin and Chael Sonnen. Matt Lindland was cut from the UFC in 2005, despite being on a 4 fight win streak (2 in the UFC) and never losing consecutive fights. The question is: do these fighters make an impact on the UFC's bottom line? Does anyone buy a pay-per-view to see another solid, if underwhelming, decision win by John Fitch or Yushin Okami?

Jake Shields was another fighter who seemed doomed to middle-of-the-road status. Contrary to what most people might think, he is a solid finisher (his has stopped just over half of his opponents) and has taken on some big names in his career. His weakness is that he is soft spoken and relies heavily on his grappling, not a great combination for a fan favorite. I was cageside for his win over Jason Miller, and while I thought he taught a grappling CLINIC that night, the fans didn't appreciate it and boos rained down the whole time. The best thing he ever did for his career was put himself in a position to screw Strikeforce, an opportunity Dana White was not about to pass up. Now Dana has to wait and see if he can put on exciting performances in a stacked division, or whether he bought himself another John Fitch.

There is certainly a middle ground between Phil Baroni and Antonio McKee that every successful fighter has to walk. You have to win and be entertaining at the same time. But its important to keep in mind the lesson of the talking dog: a win is almost never just a win...