ONE Championship and the UFC made history this month by arranging for the first-ever “trade” in MMA, but don’t expect this to become the norm, or even happen again for a long, long time.
It’s fun to play matchmaker sometimes when you’re an MMA fan. No question. It’s why so many MMA media members post articles on Monday morning featuring their picks on who the winners and losers from the weekend’s event should face next. Sean Shelby’s Shoes. Monday Morning Matchmaker. Mick Maynard’s Most Makeable Matches. That last one might not be real. However, we get it. And it’s going to be just as fun to play fantasy MMA GM in the wake of the Ben Askren for Demetrious Johnson trade between ONE Championship and the UFC.
It’s just that, as fun as these fantasy articles and forum posts and tweets can be, it’s just not going to happen on the regular, folks.
Askren for Johnson was the perfect storm. A semi-retired wrestling great who would only come back for a crack at the UFC. A former UFC champion and all-time great who was unhappy with how his bosses had marketed him. Both were of greater value to the competition.
Yes, that is a slap in the face of ‘Mighty Mouse,’ who is frankly one of the all-time greats of the sport, and holds the title defense record in the UFC. Yet let’s keep in mind that it was Johnson, reportedly, who initiated this whole process. Johnson wanted to be released from his contract, so he could pursue opportunities outside the UFC. With a promotion he felt would market him better. Johnson to ONE Championship had been a dream of MMA fans for years, if your perspective was greater than just North America. ONE not only features the lower weight classes, from strawweight on up on the men’s side (note: yes, we know their weight classes are modified), they heavily promote them, arguably more so than their heaviest divisions.
ONE had no problem letting their heavyweight title sit idle in the hands of Brandon Vera for two years, barely booking a fight in the weight class during that period. They have no issue letting Aung La N Sang hold both their middleweight and light heavyweight titles, even though he has yet to defend the heavier title.
And with Askren gone, even welterweight in ONE seems to have become an afterthought. But flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight? Plenty of action there. Plenty of options for someone like Demetrious Johnson. With Bellator and the PFL lacking a flyweight division, Johnson’s only real options were in Asia. RIZIN could have been a possibility, especially with Kyoji Horiguchi fighting under their banner, but the deeper talent pool lay with ONE Championship.
Ben Askren? This whole concept likely dropped right into his lap like a nicely wrapped Christmas present. All he had to do was say yes, and at this point, there was zero chance he’d turn down his last shot to fight under the UFC banner.
Askren should have joined the world’s largest MMA promotion after Bjorn Rebney allowed his welterweight champion to walk away. Askren was practically shown the door at Bellator in 2013, but the UFC, rather than snapping up a top-tier athlete, proved once again that sport comes second when Dana White suggested Askren to go win a fight in the WSOF and work his way up. Askren balked, and took a cushy deal with ONE Championship that marked their first big free agent signing.
He dominated there, just like he dominated in Bellator, and don’t let the cries of the uneducated about his competition not having Wikipedia pages fool you (Wikipedia, as it pertains to MMA, is an outright disaster, with no ability to properly judge who is deserving of a page on the site and who isn’t).
And so we come back to the trade. One fighter wants out of his deal with the UFC. Another fighter, who isn’t about to fight again for ONE, wants in the UFC, for a chance to silence his critics and prove something to himself. A perfect storm.
No, the UFC isn’t about to trade Mark Hunt to Bellator in exchange for Fedor and a draft pick to be named later. The PFL isn’t about to start swapping talent with RIZIN. This deal is going to be the exception, not the rule. Because it will be a rare, rare occasion when the needs of two promotions, and two fighters, align as perfectly as they have in this case.
Which brings us to our final point: the benefits for Johnson, Askren, and ONE Championship here are all abundantly clear, but what about the UFC? What does the UFC really gain from allowing their most dominant champion ever walk away?
A number of things. For starters, Askren, despite Dana White once proclaiming that “when Ambien can’t sleep it takes Ben Askren. The most boring fighter in MMA history. I would rather watch flys [sic] f*ck,” has managed to keep himself relevant over the years. People tune in for him, even when he’s fighting at an ungodly hour thanks to the time difference between Asia and the West. And in a welterweight class that has few bright spots at the moment, Askren’s ability to self-promote will be welcomed.
After all, he’s already called out half the roster. Not just in his own weight class, either.
So many fighters said stuff about me in the past. I don’t even get hit. I might tell @ufc to set up a bum of the month club and fight every month!
— Ben Askren (@Benaskren) October 25, 2018
Then there’s the flyweight conundrum. What does the UFC do with its smallest weight class, which has never been a draw? There’s a very real possibility that there will be no flyweight division in 2019, as champ Henry Cejudo has always struggled to make the cut to 125, and has openly campaigned for a title shot against bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw.
If the UFC couldn’t make the division sizzle with Mighty Mouse, the most dominant champion of all time, how are they going to fare with Cejudo, Benavidez, and Pettis?
Without Johnson in the mix, they have no reason to keep flyweight around, frankly. It would have been criminal to axe the division when he was still in the fold. Now, should they so choose, they can deep six the weight class, and reap the financial rewards that come with trimming an roster that is already unwieldy.
Finally, Johnson’s dissatisfaction with the UFC was a thorn in their side. And since he generally took the high road, and was more often than not accurate in his criticisms, well, rather than do more to promote him (you know, like taking advantage of all his Twitch followers), now, he’s someone else’s problem.
The Christmas gift analogy from earlier? It comes with a neat little bow. No loose ends.
But no, Shogun won’t be traded back to Japan in exchange for Cro-Cop. Tenshin isn’t about to be swapped for Aung La N Sang. MMA Promotions will continue to look out for number one, but in this rare instance, everyone — fans included — won. Which is truly something to marvel at.
