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#2. Ronda Rousey vs. Bethe Correia – UFC 190
While it’s now hard to dispute the idea that Conor McGregor is the biggest star in UFC history, back in 2015, it was probably fair to suggest that then-UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was neck-and-neck with him.
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‘Rowdy’ had entered the UFC in 2013 to plenty of fanfare after her dominant run in StrikeForce, and her brand of intensity, charisma and dangerous fighting skills quickly won UFC fans over. And when she began to dominate anyone she faced in one-sided fashion, the hype behind her became ridiculous.
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By the summer of 2015, the UFC could probably have matched Rousey against a random person plucked from the streets and sold pay-per-views, such was her star power.
And while they obviously didn’t do that, their matchmaking at UFC 190 – which pitted ‘Rowdy’ against Bethe Correia – was questionable. Correia had won her first three UFC bouts, but only one – a TKO of a past-her-prime Shayna Baszler – was truly convincing.
Still, the UFC pushed ‘Pitbull’ as a dangerous challenger to Rousey, and evidently, UFC fans bought into the marketing. UFC 190 sold out the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro and drew almost a million buys on pay-per-view.
And sure enough, Rousey dispatched Correia with a knockout in just 34 seconds. The fight was one of the most one-sided in UFC history – but incredibly, nobody really minded, proving that Rousey’s star power would always win out.
#1. Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen – UFC 159
Perhaps the best example of the UFC marketing a bad-sounding fight brilliantly came in 2013. The contest in question pitted then-UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones – arguably the most dominant fighter in the sport – against Chael Sonnen, a challenger who hadn’t fought at 205lbs in nearly a decade and who was coming off a loss.
How the UFC ended up making the fight was bizarre in itself. Jones had been scheduled to fight Dan Henderson at UFC 151 in August 2012, but when Henderson blew his knee out, the UFC quickly searched for a replacement.
Sonnen was one of the fighters who offered to step in, but Jones balked at the idea, feeling he didn’t have enough time to prepare for a different opponent.
UFC 151 ended up being scrapped altogether, with UFC President Dana White furious with Jones for turning down what most people felt was a softball fight with ‘The American Gangster.’
Sonnen, though – always a tremendous trash-talker - used the situation to his advantage. He sold the idea that Jones had been afraid to fight him, and with fans catching on, the UFC went all-in and booked the two rivals to fight at UFC 159.
And to build the fight up even further, they dedicated the 17th season of The Ultimate Fighter to promoting the feud between the two.
Despite the fight looking incredibly one-sided on paper, fans somehow bought into the idea, viewing Sonnen as a real threat to Jones’ title reign. And when it came to the pay-per-view, UFC 159 drew over 550k buys, with millions around the world tuning in.
Unsurprisingly, of course, Jones dispatched Sonnen with a first-round TKO, making the fight seem as easy as a lot of fans had suspected it would be. It didn’t matter, though – the UFC’s marketing machine had once again turned a weak-sounding fight into a mega-seller.
