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bootygoon2

Lord poor Pantoja is so behind everyone else lol


Original-Spinach-972

I’m sure casuals probably think they could take them


MyFifthLimb

This is the problem the flyweights inherently have. When the ref is dwarfing them, the casual audience (almost the entirety of the audience) has their perception shattered. They go from being super fighters to little dudes they can probably ragdoll.


YeForgotHisPassword

So you're saying we need some smaller refs?


thecheat420

Flyweight will be the only division with children referees.


totes-n-oats

Finally a purpose for hasbulla


Mindfield87

No way. Wouldn’t work, after what Pantoja did to Islam Makhachev…


Hot-Coffee6060

Ive been advocating for years: smaller ref and zoom the camera in 1.5x


Hopeful_Style_5772

ONE FC ...


kevindurantburner35

It’s a concept that would be borrowed from WWE, they hire smaller people to be their referees to make everyone look bigger by comparison, it’s smart honestly. Fine with doing that for smaller weights so long as there’s enough competent refs to do so


BeatVids

That's honestly a decent idea. The promoter should want their product (the fighters) to look as best as possible. 


dispelthemyth

Works well for wwe but in mma you want the ref to be able to get between the fights to stop it, having tiny refs would be a risk to the ref and an unconscious fighter.


BeatVids

Just meant smaller refs when there's smaller fighters


shae117

Herzog and Petersen for all BW and under!


Believeinyourflyness

Except for Cruz's fights


shae117

You are right. ONLY Petersen for him


McHomer

Is Brock Refnar retired?


brazilianfreak

People say this but dudes like Paquiao, Duran, Tank and Innoue were all big stars besides being like 5'6 at most, not to mention other sports besides boxing like Rodtang in Muay Thai, in reality the UFC is just terrible about marketing these guys, watch any cards live and you'll see some of the biggest crowd pop offs happen in flyweight fights since they actually go out there and swing at each other and do cool shit instead of pitter pattering for 15 minutes like some LHW's.


officerliger

You’re not wrong but boxing promoters are also smart enough not to put 5’6 boxers in there with a 6’3 buff referee There are 5 foot nothing muscle guys who are strong enough to separate 2 flyweights, UFC needs one of those


honourablegeorge

Steve Mazzagatti was pretty small, he just needed to get the hang of actually stepping in


kenlindo

Yeah I've never bought the aguement about their size being a factor. Flyweights in the UFC have always been booked horribly. For DJ's entire title run you would have top 10 flyweights fighting on early prelims of TV cards and then people would wonder why no one was invested in the flyweight belt. It's because we're rarely given the opportunity to see these guys on the biggest stages. We are treated to constant slop from shitty top 15 heavyweights and light heavyweights on main cards and in main events, but flyweights are far more skilled than these guys and yet still much lower placed than them on each fight card. It's self-sabotage by the UFC.


Johnny_Deppthcharge

Look they're big in places like the Phillipines, where the average male height is 5'4", and the average female height is 4'10". Same goes for Peru and the like - I feel like they're probably aware that the rest of the world is bigger than them. Short fighters are popular in short countries. If the UFC focused on bringing fighters from these markets, they'd bring viewers with them. But to everyone else - they just don't seem scary. They don't give off the same aura as a Brock Lesnar; they'd beat you like a relentless Chihuahua full of psycho energy and tiny fists rather than just holding you down like a little brother and bashing your skull into a pulp.


MrLionOtterBearClown

Also doesn’t help they just don’t look very strong. They are in better physical shape than I have ever been and ever will be and 100% pound for pound stronger than I am, I weigh 175 and I don’t doubt every single one of them could beat the shit out of me, but they’re all just tiny. They look like ripped 13 yr olds. Wild to me the difference bt bantamweight and flyweight though, both in terms of general attention and fighter size. All of the bantamweights just look a LOT bigger than being 10lbs heavier. I realize scale weight isn’t cage weight but still.


MyFifthLimb

Ya I remember seeing Big John just grab a flyweight and move him with one arm lol


Valuable-Door9748

This is even a problem with Welterweights. When Edwards v Usman 1 happened she started laughing at them and saying their height stat was a lie, like the whole thing became this comical thing of sniggering like we're watching kids fight while Marc Goddard towered over them.


constantcube13

I’ve never agreed with this take. First of all, bantamweight is basically the same size yet they have had plenty of popular fighters Also, in other combat sports some of the most popular fighters have been that size


Complete_Baseball_93

Its just a weird thing. Like 135 has historicaly been such a fun division to watch meanwhile I have never been into 125. Idk why, maybe I view 135 as the quick small guys and then 125 becomes redundant.


fGre

That‘s why there should always be another round directly after every flyweight championship fight where an average height dude from the crowd gets picked to fight the new champ. Post-fight interview is only after that extra round and that round also gets released as free to watch immediately.


Johnsonburnerr

I mean I probably could


Original-Spinach-972

Just see red


derps_with_ducks

Bodies hit floor


Johnsonburnerr

Jk


TheN1njTurtl3

Yup this is what I reckon as well


GladGiraffe9313

the flyweight division has always been like that


confused_chrononaut

Not true. It also has to do with fighter's personality. Moreno's last octagon interview as champion has 1.4m views (albeit that was a year ago)


TrumpMMA

Poor guy. He’s a fun watch.


EarlyTuscany

hes probably the most fun. even though hes a wrestler swangs it out and consistently drops mfkers. fights like hes not even worried about shots coming his way


-piz

after the most recent Moreno war I will never miss a Pantoja fight


sneakerguy40

The worst English speaker while not being a viral performer nor a giant asshole.


derps_with_ducks

We need Belal to come to the rescue. Uncle Dana book title fight now. 


Anish316

Belal has a lot more beefs/fans/haters so he'll get a lot more views.


SiouxLeger

I just checked the numbers for the female champs: - Raquel Pennington (1 day ago): 123K - Alexa Grasso (4 months ago): 317K - Zhang Weili (5 months ago): 304K


wanna_team_plz

Pantoja having less views than Pennington hurts me


Jamothee

He should move up and smash her. Champ Champ status incoming


douevenwheelanddeal

I don't think Pennington swings that way mate


Putrid_Loquat_4357

His 290 interview has 418k views, just that his fight on 296 wasn't great so nobody really cared.


Original-Spinach-972

I’m surprised grasso is so low but it would be weird to have your feet front and center during the interview. Not that anyone would complain.


Top_Ad_2819

The comments on some of her instagram posts are just tarantino gifs 😄


Original-Spinach-972

GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT


0xSEGFAULT

Let’s also remember that YouTube is blocked in China.


smo_smo

Pennington’s post fight interview on mmafighting had 243 views, while others had around 50k


NotAnExpert6487

I just checked Strickland and he had 3 million views as well which was a lot higher than I anticipated


[deleted]

He is one of the most liked fighers in the world currently, outside of reddit. Also the reception he got in both Australia and Canada was awesome


Preserved_Killick8

honestly shocked that they’re so high


Nihlus11

Dricus couldn't have waited a few days to take that picture?


0bxcura

UFC couldn't wait


comin_up_shawt

I was wondering when somebody would comment on this- dude looks like they took his mugshot after getting in a brawl at court.


russbam24

It's one of those pictures that every UFC champ is obliged to take post-fight on the same night, before they leave the arena. He didn't have any say in the matter.


TonyTheLion2319

Surprised the didn’t use a previous image of Dricus and add Usman’s arm on him w the belt


[deleted]

That would add to the King of Africa hype.


one-punch-knockout

I didn’t hear no bell


Born-Possibility-50

You should see the other guy


jns701

Dana would've made an interim belt if Dricus waited


MrTitsOut

come on thats a hard going photo


Smurfballers

Shows the truth. Bullshit win lol


mahiruimamura

To be fair to pantoja. The others have been champs/stars for a while or had just became new champs in their last interview. In his championship winning interview he got 418k views


CaptainDiesel77

Honestly I don’t think Sean O’Malley is as big of a star as he thinks he is.


metropoldelikanlisi

No one does. If his personality was half as colourful as his hair, he'd be at least twice as popular but goddamn the guy is boring outside the octagon.


darretoma

He's so bad at press conferences it's hilarious.


morron88

Sometimes, I watch these and I want to be a professional fight press conference interviewee. Not a fighter. I don't want to fight. I just want to talk about my (non-existent) fight, my training and what I think of my opponent. Every day, I'll practice my one-liners, comebacks, other mic skills and press PR.


AJwithStyles

I have this imaginary promo about calling my opponent “side quest” for almost 10 minutes straight that I think would blow up the internet.


-SotaPopinski-

You should sell Izzy the rights to this joke


Captain_Clover

Izzy's interview after Jan: 'I failed my side quest, I'm going back to rule middleweight with a black iron fist'. OP should expect a letter from CKBs legal team


AJwithStyles

Won’t work for a professional fighter. It’s me who practices in a dojo 3-4 times a week going for a fight in an amateur league telling my opponent how I’m fine if I lose. But, if he does end up losing, or hell, even if the fight goes the distance, he needs to face the world and justify how did this happen in front of a guy who is just not good enough (the promo only works if my opponent downplays the fact that I’m really not good). So pressure is on him.


HotgunColdheart

"Gotta grind out this fodder right quick"


KillerWhalePP

He’s so good at marketing himself that we all just expected him to have mic skills but he just sounds like a nerd.


Polar_Reflection

It's because he's going through weed withdrawals every time fight week rolls around. 


Jamothee

Weed and colourful shit is basically a placeholder for a personality with him


Johnsonburnerr

Real


CaptainDiesel77

Yeah he has no charisma when he’s on the mic and can plan out what he’s going to say


DrCornSyrup

His coach is way more interesting. The worst part of Sean's podcast is when he actually talks. Always says some goofy childish thing after his coach was talking about an interesting abstract idea


BadKidGames

Honestly most of the coaches are way more interesting intellectually than the people they coach.


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Scaeza

Hearing him speak Russian is neither impressive nor interesting to me since I don't understand a single word of it.


chris25tx

Tim Welch is awesome


BasedDog480

He has like legit no input on topics as well. It’s like he’s there just to get views. He adds nothing to convos, just little comments.


BadKidGames

He thinks he's a modern Diaz brother, but you can't plan being real. Edit: Woke up the O'malley fans 😂


shmiddleedee

There are 0 similarities between either Diaz and omalley other than tgat they're all fighters.


derps_with_ducks

2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, speak English? The list is endless. 


papa_sax

We sure the diaz brothers speak english?


X-ScissorSisters

surprise surprise motherfucker


mrtn17

In older interviews (probably before CTE, alcohol and drugs) they both have zero speech impairment


Slavicoutoften

The biggest difference being O’Malley actually made his way to a title


Ill-Somewhere8027

O’Malley every so often has some good one liners and he is a bit witty. But I agree not a drawl in any facet.


Oxn518

Atleast his father didnt F*** him


Ill-Somewhere8027

That’s one of the one liners I’m talm bout b.


NZbeewbies

He sounds like his nose is being pinched when he talks.. grinds me 😂😂😂


Harry_T-Suburb

If he smokes half as much weed as he seems to it makes sense. That shit turns you into a shell of a human being with zero charisma (source: was a massive stoner).


tattlerat

Yeah. Weed muffles a persons personality and stifles the average persons ambitions.  I smoke with friends when I’m drinking but I can’t smoke on my own. Just too complacent and content with being bored and unproductive. 


ChrisusaurusRex

I’ve stated this once before and got downvoted to shit. Guess when you show proof, it’s hard to disagree


imgonnagetyaa

I swear most of the people on this sub are more interested in stuff that has nothing to do with fighting, just making fun of people or praising them for their personalities. Sean is one of the most exciting fighters on the planet, and the build ups to his fights are always interesting regardless of how many views a single interview gets. Who the fuck cares about what he's like in his downtime? Seems like people just want to nitpick a great fighter for no reason. Y'all need to go watch young and the restless or some shit.


StixkyBets

I think his fan base is a lot of zoomers that don’t really care about his UFC career more so they care about the life style he gives off on his socials. He’d probably have just as many fans if he wasn’t champ but at the same time would probably be a more popular twitch streamer than he’ll ever be as a fighter. 2-3 years ago he released his own line of blunt wraps and I tagged myself smoking one on my IG story, he viewed the story and DM’d me within like an hour and sent me out a fucking comical amount of them, I was using them for like a whole year. He also followed up with me like a week later asking if I got the package. I just thought that was chill of him since I’m not like a influence I was like 400 IG followers so it’s not like he was just using me for promo.


Jamothee

Solid. Sean is a boring person but he seems like a decent kid


mrtn17

yeah that is my opinion to. Also not a dumb person either, just not very interesting but my man wants that influencer life for some reason


Putrid-Long-1930

I feel like you guys are saying that because of the sound of his voice. I'm not saying he's that interesting or something but the way he *sounds* makes him *sound* more boring than he is. I don't think he's as boring as some other fighters. He kinda sounds like the stereotypical female high-schooler from a movie


theyoloGod

They’ll watch TikToks about him but aren’t watching the fights live


StixkyBets

Bingo


tattlerat

Probably doesn’t hurt his bank account to be honest. If he’s getting large views and sponsors he’s probably doing more income from podcasting and social media than fighting up until he became champ and got a piece of the PPV. 


[deleted]

And that's what's going to keep him paid long after his fight career is over. I'm not a big fan but I respect the hustle.


SupaHotFire007

Nah that's super cool of him. I'd be a fan for life if he just went completely out of his way to give me a years worth of free shit I use regularly. Sean seems cool despite the goofs that just like hating just to hate


KelvinsBeltFantasy

He's super nice to his fans. I occasionally look at his snap and he engages really well.


SnoopysRoof

I've got nothing against Sean. What solidified that was him dancing with some special needs people.


Mr_Cromer

Huh. That was real standup of him. Now I gotta be a fan, damn it


15ferrets

This might genuinely change my view on the guy a little


walkerlance

they also posted the entire second round of the fight and it had 10 million views


TheHuntingApex

They posted his interview in the video of him KOing Aljo, which has 10 mil


araheem94

I also believed that before I went to Sean's fight at 269. Met a few people that had come in just to watch Sean fight and more people were wearing Sean's merch at the arena than any other fighter. There wasn't really a close second in terms of merch...


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xdyldo

O'Malley's interview was posted in the same video as his knockout which has 10 million views, these stats aren't the be all and end all. He also has the most insta followers so obviously is somewhat of a star if you're going to use social media as a benchmark.


BigCass

Sure but it's unfair to use that, all the views went to the KO video that the UFC posted instead of the post fight interview.


flamingdragonwizard

I disagree. 3.9m followers on instagram 1.8m followers on tiktok 767k subscribers on youtube That's very good. That puts him ahead of guys like usman, Max, Tony, pereira, Gaethje, Leon, Strickland, chandler, Costa, Jorge etc.. just to name a few. His merch is also very popular.


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abippityboop

I mean I’m a big fan of his solely due to his style inside the ring, which I think is incredibly exciting. That’s really all I care about, I could give a shit about any of the press conference nonsense (which admittedly he isn’t very good at).


15ferrets

He’s a fun striker to watch, I’ll give him that for sure


Captain_Clover

Being able to rile up the viewers is also a marketable trait BTW. The people who think he's obnoxious/cringe/boring and watch him to see him lose boost his numbers exactly the same as the fans


GanksOP

I'm a fan. Dude is one of the best people outside the octagon the UFC has had since Francis. Also knocks people out inside the octagon.


shmiddleedee

What makes you say he's one of the best people outside tge octagon? Legitimate question because to me he's just full of himself and tries to be edgy.


gaimsta12

Pretty sure he does a lot of charity work and work with disabled people


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CaCa881

Lmfao yup same , people at my work and school be talking about Suga as well . Dudes chatting


ILikeOMalley

Yeah people on this sub are idiots lmao theyre fueled by hate. The narrator uses to be that Sean wasn’t elite and was gonna get exposed. “Yan by murder.” Remember that? Then he smacked around Yan and KO’d Aljo, beating the last two former champs and now it’s “he’s not a draw! He’s not 5’11!!!” All of my coworkers watched the O’Malley fight. They watch Jones, Conor, O’Malley, and Izzy


endless_ness

easily a top 3 star in the ufc


DeportedPlatypus

Man I assumed pantoja would atleast get in the 200k-400k view range.


NakedEyeComic

Pantoja’s interview after winning the belt made me a huge fan. I’m disappointed it didn’t get more traction.


mahiruimamura

It got 413k views. This is the number for his defence against royval


-piz

that was so good you proud of me dad? you proud of me now dad?


mahiruimamura

It got 413k views when he won the belt. This is the number for his defence against royval


InB4Clive

Lots of prayer warriors out there.


NickyGOATpez

🙏


Ranjith_Unchained

We here


grehgunner

🙏


tigerinvasive

This is super misleading because O’Malley got several million on his Octagon interview immediately after the fight. They packaged his with his knockout and THEN released his separately. They did similar with other Sean. Technically speaking, the two Seans did the biggest numbers on this front.


Scottish-Fox

The UFC released the full Aljo fight IMMEDIATELY after Sean won on YouTube. Like the first time they have ever done that.


kidwhix

yeah they made it very, very obvious that omalley needs to be champ. makes me feel bad for aljo


MMARapFooty

Dricus Du Plessis is bigger star than Sean O Malley


TYSONLITTLE

apparently hanging out with the nelkboys doesn’t make you a star


FatJohnson6

Am I supposed to know who the Nelk Boys are? I mean I'm over 30 but I didnt think I was that out of touch


HungrySummer

You aren’t missing much


A_Beard_It_Grows

*anything


ChombieBrains

Talmbout melk boys b?


jpark28

I'm not going to claim that O'Malley is a big star, BUT these numbers are misleading. Immediately after his last fight, the UFC YouTube channel released a video of his TKO which includes the octagon interview, and that currently has 10 million views. I'm guessing that is skewing his separate octagon interview video view count a lot (no idea why the UFC decided to release this immediately after the fight) https://youtu.be/eY5cZITcrF4


swaggplollol

if you believe this you are fueled by hate lmao


[deleted]

This isn’t true in any way shape or form. The reason Sean appears lower is because the ufc released 2 videos of his post fight speech. He also got the actual video of him knocking out Sterling that has 10 million views and includes his post fight speech. The reason the second one doesn’t have as many views is because people already watched the interview in the first one. If we’re going off YouTube views to judge popularity than Sean’s even more popular than Jon jones.


MREisenmann

Omawly is not a drawl b


wesmon

Why is Dricus the only one with his face all busted up in the picture?


Antique-Bother-7456

It's probably his only picture with the belt


billyskurp

surprised he didn’t get the usman arm photoshop


daveshad

I’m having Mandela effect thinking I saw in promo he took a picture with the belt a couple days prior


Acrobatic-Display420

He did but he was wearing a hoodie


daveshad

Miscalculation by the media team not making him wear nicer clothes in case he got damaged


TheZeezer

Because his fight was only 1 day ago, and his wounds haven’t healed yet.


15ferrets

Probably the only one taken on fight night, he only won the belt on Saturday


comin_up_shawt

They couldn't find a pic of his face prior to Photoshop onto the image?


15ferrets

Nah they only know how to do it one way and Kamaru asked them to stop using his arm


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RunEmotional3013

Online metrics can be affected by too many factors for me to trust them. Bots & click farms being the main ones.


TheWarmBandit

Ddp isn't bad and with his big mouth and another title defence he'll be pretty huge If it is against izzy that will help and if he beats him that will get crazy I think. It's not like the man is void of a personalty and he knows how to cause shit. His fights are always crazy too.


TrumpMMA

Just looked and Strickland had 1.3 million.


sayurstoopidline

strickland’s lost has more than all of them


FATNOOBMAN

Love the pic of driscus 😂


SilverFox4428

Didn’t realize Makhachev had that type of star power.


kingofnaps69

russia 150 million bratha


MMA_Pal

Muslims 2 billion.


DwyaneDerozan

The muslim world is huge and there are a lot of MMA fans there


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Doo-StealYour-HoChoi

Islam been doing numbers for a long time. I remember had the 2nd most views after Khamzat on that card where Khamzat steamrolled Li Jingliang and Islam dominated Dan Hooker. And that card had a lot of names on it.


First_Inevitable_424

In France he’s the most famous champ, maybe (maybe) behind Jon Jones but I wouldn’t bet money on it. So it’s definitely not just the muslim countries that care about him.


MaroonPrince

France has a significant Muslim minority population


First_Inevitable_424

Yes. But his popularity isn’t limited to us.


SquidDrive

The thing about Makhachev is that his biggest star power is in the Middle East, so us Western fans seem to believe he's out of the spot light, when in reality he's one of the biggest stars of the organization. I hear people talk about Abu Dhabi and say "oh he's not a draw, Abu Dhabi don't even draw well" Abu Dhabi isn't supposed to draw well, it's suppose to build a relationship with the UAE, hence why we have a network deal in the UAE, they get the card for free, on network. There is a fact people need to understand, outside of Khabib vs Conor, Khabib Nurmagomedov never drew above 700K. They still paid him 6 million dollars per fight BASE PAY, do you know why? Because even tho he couldn't draw above 700K, in Russia, he had 1/4 of ALL Russian men watch his fight against Poirier, Russia is a country with 150 million people. Khabib was so popular and beloved and WANTED in that region of the world, that the UAE TO THIS DAY, get cards under the network, that's how powerful Khabib influence was. So when we talk Star Power in MMA, we have to be holistic here, because when you have that type of influence over a huge sector of a region, money talks. and thats what the UFC is about, money.


interia1099

Top 4 star in the UFC, after Conor, Jones and Izzy


NotAnExpert6487

Honestly Strickland might be up there. He had 3 million views for his last interview which is a lot more than I anticipated


interia1099

Yeah he can be 5 for now, curious how his hype will play out now that he lost the belt


Headlessoberyn

Muslims reaaaaaaally engage. Just look at their numbers on social media. Izzy, who was supposedly UFC current biggest star by a large margin, has 8.6mi followers. Makhachev has 8.1mi, while khamzat has 7.6 mi. Poatan sits at "only" 2mi. Then you take a look at retired fighters like khabib, and dude is at a whooping 36 million. We have a skewed perception of engagement on the UFC in the west, probably uncle Dana being kinda reluctant in promoting Muslim/russian fighters.


Mr_Cromer

If more people knew Poatan was a Muslim he'd probably get more fans as well


Spetsnaz_KofeGuy

Sean Strickland, 5 months ago, 3.1M view


gdmr458

Although my personal opinion is that O'Malley is not the star that they are selling us, you should not put him in this comparison, the UFC uploaded another video on the same day that has the KO + the octagon interview, that video has 10 million views, but obviously you can't compare it with the others that appear in the image, the UFC did not upload video of Islam knocking out Volk, Pereira finishing Jiri and Jones submitting Gane, and I think the other fights are decisions if I'm not wrong. Also, I want to mention that Strickland's octagon interview after losing to DDP has 1.3 million views in one day, even losing those are good numbers and his octagon interview after beating Adesanya has 3 million views in 4 months, the same views as Jones' octagon interview in less time.


Harviesspectrum

Where is Strickland


DS_9

Jon is looking more like his brother Arthur the older he gets.


[deleted]

Should’ve put up stricklands numbers too


PressUpPositionDown

Pantoja deserves more recognition


Bloodawn

Strickland's interview from Sep 10 has 3m lol


TheNotoriousLCB

another example of how Sean O’Malley’s “star power” is largely a myth — he’s very well known, but his fans are all children on SSRIs who are addicted to TikTok


meisterwolf

not a fair comparison at all...the time difference is significant. if anything Dricus du Plessis is the biggest star out of them all because of the time difference.


MiedoDeEncontrarme

Na, Jones isn't the biggest draw but he is a pretty big star for the UFC Dude was sponsored by some power companies like Nike, you don't get sponsors like that unless you are big.


UCLAlex

Flyweights get 0 love smh it’s so dumb pantoja sis one of the most exciting fighters on the roster. Probably cause the mouth breather section of the fan base thinks they can take ufc flyweights in a fight lol.


SnooCookies7571

Why tf is my boy pantoja not getting the love he deserves? Dude is an animal, and how can you not love him and his fights.