Michael Bisping: Marketing submits common sense

Dana White confirmed today that “win or lose” Michael Bisping will represent the UK on next season of The Ultimate Fighter. This makes sense since TUF 9 will be called, “U.S. vs. U.K.” Bisping is the most successful and marketable MMA fighter to come out of Great Britain.

While Dana did not confirm the opposing coach, he did indicate that Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin are both being considered. The two fighters are set to face off at UFC 93, in Dublin, Ireland, so it appears the winner will be awarded the position.

So let me see if I can get this straight. Whether or not Michael Bisping loses to Chris Leben he will still get a huge career-enhancing opportunity to coach on national TV. In addition to that, Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson, two MMA greats, are fighting each other for the opportunity to coach against and ultimately fight Bisping!?

This makes absolutely no sense. First of all, how can you reward a fighter such a major accolade if he’s coming off a loss to a divisional gatekeeper? I am all for good marketing; I spent four years in college getting my bachelors in it. But to me this would be an absolute farce.

People already suspect Bisping of being overrated and over hyped and this just confirms it. At this point, it doesn’t matter if Bisping wins or loses because they already let us know it doesn’t. That makes his fight with Leben pointless and without consequence to the division.

If that weren’t enough, they expect Franklin vs. Henderson to be taken seriously now. Now that we know it’s a fight to see who gets the opposing coaching spot. And what is to happen if Rich Franklin wins? Are they going to invite him back to the middleweight division to fight Bisping?

And if Franklin were to beat Bisping would he get another title shot with Anderson Silva!?

The UFC is probably banking that doesn’t happen. It would work out much better if Henderson were victorious over Franklin. Then Hendo would naturally drop back down to 185lbs. Regardless of who wins, they get a good fight: Silva vs. Henderson 2 or Bisping in his first title shot.

While I always appreciate good marketing I can no longer say this is the case with the UFC’s most popular British product. In good marketing they consider this: Does the product meet the end-user’s wants or needs?

The scope of a product generally includes supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees, and support.

A breach of warranty occurs when a promise is broken, i.e., a product is defective or not as should be, expected by a reasonable buyer.

UFC fans are certainly reasonable buyers and good marketing dictates the following: When you try to push a product on your customer and they reject it, you pull that product off the shelves quicker then Anderson Silva ends his opponents title aspirations.

If Michael Bisping is proven to be defective, then the UFC better scale him back, or they will lose the support of their fans while losing credibility from a marketing standpoint.