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More than most sports promotions, the UFC is a star-driven business. In order to succeed and draw the most money, it needs its top fighters to be seen as superstars by the fans.
Thankfully for the UFC, a lot of the time, its superstars do their work for them by mastering the art of self-promotion.
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While the UFC can do a lot of the hard work in terms of pushing a fighter as a star to the fans, the whole thing becomes much easier if the fighter can promote themselves as a star too.
With this in mind, here are five UFC fighters who have mastered the art of self-promotion.
#5: Israel Adesanya – UFC middleweight champion
One current UFC star who has almost definitely mastered the art of self-promotion is current UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya.
‘The Last Stylebender’ debuted in the UFC in February 2018, and wasted absolutely no time in shooting up the rankings. Within four months of his debut, he’d headlined his first UFC event, and after only 14 months on the roster, he was holding UFC gold.
Naturally, it’s fair to suggest that most of his success has come from his skills inside the octagon. Like Anderson Silva before him, Adesanya seemingly has the ability to move in an entirely different dimension to his opponents in order to land his strikes.
However, it’s also safe to say that ‘The Last Stylebender’ is an expert at promoting himself. He is wildly charismatic, possesses a sharp wit and a willingness to throw verbal barbs on the microphone. He also comes across as down-to-earth enough to remain hugely popular with fans.
More to the point, Adesanya is willing to push the boat out in order to ensure he’s always the center of attention. A great example being his Haka inspired entrance for his fight with Robert Whittaker at UFC 243.
Essentially, Adesanya has made himself one of the most popular fighters in UFC history in a short space of time, and he’s done it at least partially by being able to expertly promote himself.
#4: Khamzat Chimaev – UFC welterweight contender
Okay, so it’s fair to say that Khamzat Chimaev has been pretty impressive inside the octagon thus far into his short UFC career.
‘Borz’ destroyed John Phillips, Rhys McKee and Gerald Meerschaert in quick succession in 2020. After successfully fighting off a bad case of COVID-19, he then returned to throttle top ten-ranked welterweight Li Jingliang.
While Chimaev can clearly handle himself inside the octagon, it’s fair to say that other fighters such as Anderson Silva have had more impressive runs to begin their UFC careers.
What sets Chimaev apart from them is the fact that from the moment he stepped into the UFC, he’s been an absolutely brilliant self-promoter.
The native of Chechnya clearly has plenty of charisma, and while his English isn’t the best at times, his promise to “smash everyone” in the UFC made him an instant star in the eyes of the fans. Particularly those who were missing Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Outside of the octagon, ‘Borz’ has shown a surprising amount of wit and humor on social media – particularly on his Twitter account.
When he’s in action, he’s also shown a penchant for the kind of showmanlike antics that made fighters such as Nurmagomedov, Tito Ortiz and Conor McGregor into superstars. An example being the way that he carried Jingliang towards Dana White before slamming him down.
Essentially, while the UFC have pushed Chimaev as a star, they haven’t exactly had to put a lot of effort into doing so, showing how good of a self-promoter he is.
#3: Colby Covington – UFC welterweight contender
While the majority of the UFC’s great self-promoters have worked to ensure they gain popularity with the fans, some fighters have bucked that trend by embracing the world of villainy.
Chael Sonnen was arguably the first UFC fighter to really attempt to get the fans to boo him. However it’s probably fair to say that current welterweight contender Colby Covington has taken that idea to another level entirely.
Initially seen as another cookie-cutter grinding wrestler, similar to, say, Jon Fitch, Covington was supposedly on the verge of being cut by the UFC in 2017 despite a stellar record inside the octagon.
However, before that could happen, ‘Chaos’ changed his persona entirely, becoming a loudmouthed, outspoken American patriot who wasn’t afraid to use xenophobia, Trumpism and even near-racism to get under the skin of his opponents.
While it’s probably fair to question the ethics of this approach, there’s no disputing that it’s worked. Covington now gets a deafening reaction every time he fights, with some fans embracing his new persona while many others feel compelled to boo him.
More importantly, though, ‘Chaos’ has gone from being the kind of fighter that the UFC would attempt to bury on prelim cards to one of their more recognizable stars and multi-time headliner.
The fact that he’s done it off his own back, regardless of the method, makes him one of the UFC’s masters of self-promotion.
#2: Jiri Prochazka – UFC light-heavyweight contender
Jiri Prochazka’s career with the UFC is clearly only just beginning. The native of the Czech Republic has had just two fights inside the octagon thus far, knocking out Volkan Oezdemir and Dominick Reyes in devastating fashion.
However, in a similar vein to Khamzat Chimaev, ‘Denisa’ has already set himself apart not only by fighting impressively, but by the sheer force of his natural charisma outside of the octagon.
Prochazka had already established himself as a fan favorite in Japan prior to his UFC career, and his playful-yet-dangerous persona makes it easy to see why.
Some fighters simply have the ability to draw in the interest of the fans without doing or saying much, and Prochazka is one of them.
‘Denisa’ has a unique, outlandish look, resembling a cross between the Tong Po character from the 80’s Jean-Claude Van Damme movie Kickboxer and a member of Duran Duran.
While he hasn’t used it much in the UFC yet, his Czech battle cry “Bomby jak pica!” translates to “bomb the sh*t out of them!” and could easily be compared to a catchphrase used in the world of pro-wrestling.
Essentially, if Prochazka manages to win the UFC light-heavyweight title as many suspect he will, he could easily develop into a European star on the level of Khabib Nurmagomedov. Most of that will be down to his own talent for self-promoting.
#1: Conor McGregor – former UFC lightweight champion
Perhaps no other fighter in UFC history has mastered the art of self-promoting quite like Conor McGregor.
The former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion undoubtedly has a serious set of skills inside the octagon, but at this stage, he’s transcended the sport of MMA entirely, and is one of the planet’s most recognizable athletes.
‘The Notorious’ definitely owes some of this success to his treatment by the UFC. From day one he was pushed as a star by the promotion, often to the point that some fans accused them of giving him preferential treatment.
However, it was McGregor who initially made himself into a big deal. Firstly by showing tons of charisma in his UFC debut against Marcus Brimage and secondly by talking more trash than any other newcomer to the UFC had done before him.
Before he’d even had three fights in the octagon, McGregor had become the most talked-about and the most called-out fighter on the UFC’s roster. When he headlined his first event in his hometown of Dublin, it was clear that he had something special.
Even now, when it looks like his time as an elite-level fighter might be coming to an end, ‘The Notorious’ remains a master of self-promotion.
Every time he posts on Twitter or Instagram, it's big news, and he’s somehow developed a best-selling brand of whiskey to complement his fighting career, too.
Essentially, no other fighter in UFC history has been able to promote and sell themselves quite like the Irishman. Which explains why he’ll remain the biggest superstar in the sport for as long as he continues to compete.
