Bad Timing: Rampage’s Retirment and TUF 10

One of the sport's most famous personalities, 'page will always have fans.

Every once in a while, I get a text that makes me think, and I got one from Curtis earlier today that’s been eating at me as I try to focus on the day-to-day grind: I don’t know if I’m going to be interested in TUF now that Rampage is retiring.

Obviously, it’s reworded for grammar, but the effect and sentiment are there, and the weight of Rampage’s retirement may, or may not, weigh heavily on the show. Whether it’s ratings will at all be effected is doubtful, but there may be some backlash and frustration within the MMA community when it comes to the rivalry playing out on the screen, which will never manifest in the fight we were hoping for.

After tonight’s episode (which I’ll cover in more detail later, to be sure), it’s clear the show is going to have a huge week next week. But the concern doesn’t have to be ratings. There’s plenty of drama to generate ratings and, after ten seasons that have generated a huge amount of revenue and hype for the organization, no one should expect the Ultimate Fighter franchise to take any sort of hit from issues off-screen that many of the viewers may not even be immediately aware of (I’m surprised by how long it’s taken this news to get to the casual fans I talk to).

That said, drama between a major fighter and personality and the President of the biggest promotion in the sport is something that doesn’t really work out well for anybody, and Dana knows damn well that bad press is much, much worse than no press at all when it comes to relationships with fighters, and when it gets into discussions of his power politics.

At the end of the day, this is going to be a disaster for Dana White. Rampage will earn a lot of sympathy, as he hasn’t verbally attacked anyone (yet), and even if he does, he can get away with it on the basis that it’s a response to the shots Dana has taken. Not to mention that Rampage has a substantial fanbase that he’s built up over the course of his career as a fighter, and (it almost goes without saying) fighters build a lot more support than promoters.

Whether the fans want Rampage to pull a Brett Favre or not, whether they want to see him in the cage or in another organization or taking a shot at Machida or Rashad, they’ll always have respect for what he’s done as a fighter. The love a fighter gets from fans is not unconditional, to be sure, but it’s definitely flexible, especially with a guy who’s put together a highlight reel like Rampage.

So, there’s going to be backlash against Dana. He’s going to get hit hardest, and whether he’s going to choose to do damage control on this (though, generally, his damage control is pretty transparent) or not, the most important thing is that he avoids making this about the UFC vs. Rampage.

The situations that have rolled off the best, that have had minimal impact on the organization, have been the arguments that are between Dana and a given athlete. Lorenzo’s ability to create reconciliation in that situation showed some relative neutrality on the part of the UFC as an organization. That said, though, when it gets to be about a fighter vs. the UFC, it always ends badly, and while there are dozens of situations where this has become the case, the UFC always gets the worst press, because of the loyalty of a given fighter’s fans.

It’ll be interesting to see how the whole thing plays out, and while I’m certainly among those who want Rampage to come back and fight in the UFC, as he’s hardly past his prime, sometimes it’s important to do what you’ve gotta do, and if Rampage is gonna do the movies, at least he’s not going half ass his MMA career (as other fighters have done) while trying to do both at once.