Fedor vs. Sonnen destroys McGregor vs. Khabib in the poster department

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) dropped the poster for its Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov superfight at UFC 229 on Oct. 6, 2018, last night. And to say it was underwhelming would be an understatement. It uses the exact same template the promotion uses to announce all of its random undercard fights. The only artistic flair? The flags of Russia and Ireland added to the eyes of the fighters, and the tagline, “The world is watching.”

Watching UFC be a bunch of lazy bastards when it comes to promoting this fight.

Yes, we know the bout is almost guaranteed to pull in pay-per-view (PPV) sales above the two million mark. But, that doesn’t excuse UFC for putting in no effort with its promotional materials.

Even Conor McGregor himself has chewed out UFC’s marketing department for its graphic design decisions in the past, calling their work on his UFC 197 poster “garbage.”

On the other side of the spectrum, check out the poster Bellator MMA put together for its not as big Fedor Emelianenko vs. Chael Sonnen fight on Oct, 13, 2018, part of its Heavyweight Grand Prix tournament.

Now that’s a poster. Ridiculous? Sure. But, also fun and interesting and hype building. It tells you everything you need to know: That Sonnen is going to turn this fight into an entertaining circus at great risk to his health and well-being. It makes this event feel different, something the McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov poster certainly does not.

Maybe UFC used up all its creativity on the UFC Sao Paulo poster? Ah well, there’s always the unofficial BossLogic “Khabib vs. McGregor” posters to enjoy.