“The UFC does not need those who remain silent.” Makhachev spoke about the main problem of Russian fighters.

Trash talk and subsequent fight promotion are a major component of modern mixed martial arts. In the 21st century, a fighter must not only have skills that allow him to confront his opponents, but also skillfully behave in public, be able to promote himself and be interesting to viewers around the world. This especially applies to the UFC. The promotion loves bright personalities who can put on a show not only in the octagon.

Of course, this shouldn’t be the main focus. If you are articulate but have limited skills, then this hype train will derail quickly. The current UFC lightweight champion and number one in the pound-for-pound rankings, Islam Makhachev, also spoke that there should be trash talk, but Russian fighters are often silent: “I am always in favor of trash talk, but with moderation! Simply without affecting masculine qualities and dignity. There’s no problem with that: it’s part of the business. This is a spectacle! People should be interested. The UFC doesn’t need fighters who put everyone down and remain silent. For example, they don’t speak English. Why is it so difficult for our guys from Russia to sign now? There must be some kind of enthusiasm in a fighter to get him signed now. Our guys beat everyone up and stay silent, it’s just hard to promote them.”

Now in the UFC there are enough fighters from Russia who deliberately withdraw from the active promotion. In general, this is more of a problem with the perception of trash talk. For many fighters, pundits and fans, this is something that by default is dirty and offensive, but often it is not. Makhachev himself, before his rematch with Alex Volkanovski, had altercations when Islam repeatedly said that his opponent came only to control. Did this stop you from respecting each other? No. It was the same trash talk without insults, without getting personal.

Makhachev became number one in the P4P ranking after defeating Volkanovski

Makhachev is the new king of the UFC! Khabib’s student is officially number one.

The most striking and classic example of the opposite is Magomed Ankalaev. In December of last year, he was on a nine-win streak and still wasn’t allowed to get close to the title. Everything was decided by chance, and Magomed became a contender, but was left without a belt as a result of the scandalous fight with Blachowicz. At the same time, Magomed and his manager admitted that the UFC directly asked him to become more active on social media and promote himself. Ankalaev did not do this and, consequently, this worsens his position in the eyes of the leadership. The promotion’s main objective is to promote fighters who are interesting in the West. Don’t forget that UFC always focuses on what is interesting to the viewer. Even Dana White’s Contender series regularly states that the most important thing is to impress.

There are often arguments that this is a sport and that everything must be demonstrated in the octagon. Of course, but a show is necessary, there has to be one. If you just need to show results and focus exclusively on this, then welcome to elite sport. But few people would trade the UFC for conditional World Championship performances in any of the individual sports. This means that you must accept the rules of the game and engage in activities outside the octagon. The correlation will be direct: they recognize you more, it is profitable for the promotion to promote you, that’s all.

Ankalaev could already be champion if it weren’t for his excessive modesty

Ankalaev is the most boring UFC fighter in Russia. His modesty prevents him from advancing towards the title

Khabib Nurmagomedov did not talk trash, but demanded not to call Poirier a champion, since his belt was only temporary, and his performance with the “If Sambo was easy, then it would be called jiu-jitsu” t-shirt went down in history. This is a great example of how to wisely spark interest in your fight.

Russian fighters often lack this. Makhachev is slightly involved in this, Khamzat Chimaev is actively working for the audience on social networks, Peter Yan has somewhat lost this passion, Ikram Aliskerov promises to learn English, there is hope for Shara Bulleta, but otherwise the Russians are really trying to stick to the approach they need to win, and then we’ll see. This category can also include Sergei Pavlovich, who before the fight with Tom Aspinall they tried in vain to promote him as something other than “Tom is a dangerous opponent, let’s see what happens.” Ankalaev is not interested in promoting fights on social media, although there were some moves in this direction before the fight with Johnny Walker. Roman Kopylov has repeatedly said that he wants to prove everything with fights, but at the same time he has four knockout victories in a row, but he is placed in the preliminaries and is not yet the best opponent.

You don’t have to look far to find counterexamples. The American Joe Pifer, of the same middleweight, will already fight in February with a man from the top ten middleweight rankings, and the example of the rise of Sean O’Malley has been before everyone’s eyes for six months.

Due to the unwillingness to be active, the UFC has so little interest in Russian fighters. They rarely participate in Dana White’s Challenger Series, there are only a few Russians there and each addition of a new fighter to the promotion becomes a high-profile event. Russian athletes should slightly reconsider their position regarding media activity, and this will immediately have a beneficial effect on their advancement to more interesting opponents in more interesting tournaments, which will have a positive impact on their fees.