UFC 310 is fast approaching, and the fight card has already been released. The preliminary card came as a bit of a shock to fans and fighters like Matt Brown, who wasn’t expecting to see some names in this section.
UFC 310 will be the promotion’s year-end pay-per-view and many fights will be featured on the card, including the main event bout between Kia Askura and Alexandre Pantoja. In the preliminary card, Aljamain Sterling will face Movsar Evloev and Chris Weidman will battle Eryk Anders in the featherweight division. The fighters position shocked Matt Brown, who believes Sterling is arguably the greatest 135-pounder of all time and should be a No. 1 contender in the division rather than rough it up with the newcomers. The same goes for Weidman.
“It’s like this — I think fighters naturally look at it as almost a respect thing,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “What do [the UFC] think of us? When they put us on the main card, we think that they think more of us. When they put us on the prelims, you feel like you’re kind of demoted.
“In terms of the fans, and that’s kind of the selling point that the UFC will say, ‘well if you if you’re on the ESPN prelims, more people are going to watch than the pay-per-view’ or something along those lines. I don’t think that really does it for most fighters. It definitely never did it for me. I was on the prelims, I felt like I was being disrespected in a sense or just demoted. I’m not a prelim guy!”
UFC veteran Matt Brown spoke about his career run with the UFC and his position in different parts of the card. The fighter says he has fought in the preliminary but didn’t enjoy the experience. He sympathises with Sterling and Wiedman, who were formerly UFC champions.
“The biggest difference is when you’re on the main card, there’s more crowd there, and that’s what we all want,” Brown said. “We all want to be in front of more people, a louder crowd. I’m guessing every other fighter does … I feel way more comfortable in front of the biggest crowd than kind of scattered, empty seats and people kind of cheering and going to get their beers and getting settled in, people walking in as you’re fighting, things like that.
“Especially when you’ve got a guy like Chris Weidman, who’s a former champion. Aljamain Sterling, who’s a former champion. They feel like they’re demoted. I guarantee. I feel that way when I’d get put on the prelims. Like I’m demoted like you don’t care about me as much. Like you think I’m on my way out. You’re not moving me up the card towards the main event. That’s where we all want to be. We want to be in the main event.”
The promotion has never been clear about why some fighters are on the prelim card. However, Brown feels their decisions may be unfair. Due to his first-hand experience with the situation, Brown knows how it feels to be sidelined in a PPV event.
“What you feel like in your head, you’re working your way up the card,” Brown explained. “Like the first fight on the card is the white belt. The next fight is blue and purple, and you want to be the black belt. Whether that’s really true or not, I don’t think the UFC actually looks at it that way. I don’t think they’re actually like, ‘We’re going to put you on the prelims because we don’t like you, or you’re not selling’ or whatever. I think there’s a subconscious feeling in every fighter’s head.
“Any time someone’s a former champion, you would think they would get a main card spot just for being a former champion. The featured prelims: I’ve been featured prelims a few times — you don’t feel like you’re a main event. That’s kind of the way they sell it, like, ‘you’re the featured prelim/main event of the prelims.’ No.”
“I’ll tell you what, ultimately, you get paid the same unless you’re the main event and you get a bonus,” Brown said. “These guys are getting fights. Movsar [or] Aljamain winning this is going to be a big fight.
“You’ve got put that shit in the back of your head, and you’ve got to go out and perform still. You’ve got to forget about all the bullshit. That’s what I always did.”
Despite his position on the UFC 310 card, Sterling is still excited about his featherweight matchup against unbeaten Movsar Evloev. Weidman was slated to battle Eryk Anders at UFC 310 in November but the fight had to be rescheduled after Anders fell ill on fight day.
