As far as promotion goes, UFC totally missed the biggest selling point for UFC 332

If the UFC were still into promoting the fights, perhaps UFC 332 might’ve been the one to signal a shift in philosophy. Rather than have Natalia Silva and Wang Cong prominent on the poster, a buzzkill of magnificent proportion, why not a three-piece of up-and-comers, with a tagline of “The Future is Coming,” maybe in a nice Road Rage font?   

Throw 28-year-old Payton Talbott, newcomer Roberto Soldic, and the young crusher Ateba Gautier on there where the big faces go, with Silva and Cong as an anchor. Along the bottom, show Damian Pinas, Anthony Wint and Jacobe Smith, and stick them in action poses to demonstrate that they mean business. Keep the title fight as a headliner, but redirect the emphasis.

The intrigue of UFC 332 has nothing to do with Silva and Cong fighting for a heisted belt. But it could have everything to do with all of tomorrow’s parties. And, especially for a show airing live on CBS, it could have even more to do with building stars. You know … that area of business that has helped the UFC become a multi-billion-dollar company? 

Shine a light on them early, cash in later.

With the pay-per-view model now dead and gone, an update to the UFC’s long-held operational motifs should follow. There doesn’t necessarily need to be an emphasis on a cobbled together title fight that’s missing the division’s main star (lineal flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko), because who wants to see the karaoke version of the rock band just because the lead singer has laryngitis?

Sell us on the up-and-comers! Make a bad card feel purposeful! 

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Titles mean something (in most cases), but there are other ways to get the blood pumping. There are better interests to tap into. More intriguing angles. People showed up to see the San Antonio Spurs in 2024 because they wanted to get a glimpse of Victor Wembanyama and the young core, not because they expected the team to win a title that season.

The old pay-per-view promo model, which made sense for the first 32 years, suggests that the UFC is selling the fight. Sometimes, if it’s a loaded enough card, two or three fights. The combatants are made to face each other in some form, or to overlap, or to look menacingly off into distance, with the idea that a resolution is about to be gotten to once and for all. The UFC was compelled to include both fighters from the equation, because the fight — the tension of the crossroads together with an outstanding outcome — was all that mattered.

These days, centering on the A-sides isn’t all that disrespectful, especially when identifying talent early has become such a sports world fetish. There are plenty of times that the WWE has centered its promotional material around a star wrestler, without given his counterpart a share in the billboard. Boxing, which builds stars by having them stomp on tomato cans, does the same thing. I attended a Keyshawn Davis boxing match at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in early 2025, and I don’t think most the people in attendance even knew who Denys Berinchyk — the cat who held the WBO lightweight title at the time — was. 

Didn’t matter. It was a Keyshawn Davis showcase.

I understand that wrestling is scripted and that there aren’t any (intentional) tomato cans in the UFC, but the hype of a blue-chipper is transferrable to the man who beats him. 

If Roman Kopylov gets upset that Ateba Gautier is getting all the attention in the cold open, it’s all good. He can scribble a mustache on the Mona Lisa, just like Sean Sharaf did against Gable Steveson a couple of weeks back.

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Payton Talbott could emerge as the biggest story of UFC 332.

At least for this one event, maybe some outside-the-box thinking might’ve felt refreshing. Justifying this card being on CBS would’ve been easier if it were presented as a glimpse of big things to come. 

Anyway, the point is you don’t have to necessarily default into the old ways of promotion, not when we’re no longer deliberately paying for singular events. Now it’s about directing focus in nuanced ways for “special” cards. It just so happens that the prospects on UFC 332 are the most intriguing thing about it, so why not an “intended” CBS showcase to that end? Why not pry open the imagination a little bit?

It’s been an adventure thus far in the UFC’s Paramount+ era, as it subtly shifts into whatever it will become. The traditional numbered cards — the pay-per-views that are numbered from 1-332 in the numerical canon — aren’t holding up to the expectation of the established norm. Then again, they don’t need to on this new event plateau. Now the designation for a numbered card merely means (in most cases) that it’s a cut above a standard Fight Night. 

And even that is shaky. The Qatar Fight Night card that the UFC announced on Tuesday would blow the Salt Lake City one out of the water. And you know what’s interesting about that one?

Nary a title fight in sight. It doesn’t need one.

I’m not suggesting the UFC needs to tinker with the way it’s used to doing business often. There’s a reason they bill the Contender Series as a kind of launch pad for future stars, and the franchise has done a good job of doing that. But UFC 332 is a rare case, given that no mammoth title fights could be made, and the main event underwhelms so thoroughly that its thuddery has become the biggest talking point heading in. 

To create a title out of thin air, just to have the fixation of a belt on the line, isn’t always the best lead narrative. The thing is, people shouldn’t be concerned with the citizens of Salt Lake City getting shafted. It’s much better to be sold on the idea that they are lucky for getting to see a cast of characters well on their way up.