EA is making a big deal of its upcoming UFC game. As a big fan of Mixed Martial Arts this makes me happy. But here’s the crazy thing: the UFC fighters themselves are more excited than anyone about the game.
Part of it is the novelty of something new. You get the impression that big name competitors in other sports take video games for granted but, for these fighters, an EA developed UFC game is an important, pivotal step forward. As a relatively new sport, these guys (and girls) have a vested interest in seeing this game do well, in making sure it reaches a wide audience. It’s interesting to see the enthusiasm. At the moment these fighters are absolutely desperate to get on the cover of the EA’s UFC game. They are fighting tooth and nail, which makes sense I guess with them being fighters and all.
Currently the only guy with a guaranteed spot is light heavyweight champion (and current pound for pound king) Jon Jones. This spot was so important to Jones that he actively campaigned for it through his manager, claiming that it was on a massive list of dream accomplishments he wanted to achieve in his career alongside getting sponsored by Nike (which he achieved last year) and being featured in GQ (which he achieved this month). Being on the cover of a video game was, according to Jones, the last thing on that list. He’s just finished playing Grand Theft Auto V and claimed in a recent interview that video games were practically his babysitter.
The second spot on the cover? That’s being left to a fan-vote and the fighters involved in the vote are campaigning hard.
Ronda Rousey is the one Jones wants to share the cover with, but he doesn’t really have a say…
To my awesome fans 🙂 be sure to vote for me to be on the cover of the new UFC video game! http://t.co/WE0bO1x1zr #VOTEROUSEY @EASPORTSUFC
— Ronda Rousey (@RondaRousey) November 4, 2013
English loudmouth and middleweight contender has been pretty forthcoming…
“@joeindk: @bisping @EASPORTSUFC Just voted 5 times for you,”I like your style 🙂
— michael (@bisping) November 4, 2013
And featherweight champ Jose Also just has a goddamn wall of retweets from fans telling everyone to vote for him…
https://twitter.com/josealdojunior
As someone who follows most of these folks on Twitter, my feed is literally just being spammed constantly with requests to vote for these fighters in the competition. It’s kind of interesting to see these two separate interests of mine intertwine but, bigger picture, it’s great to see just the enthusiasm the UFC and the fighters have for this project.
I’m voting for Alexander Gustafsson who, for my money, actually beat Jon Jones in their last, epic encounter.
Comments
18 responses to “These UFC Fighters Really Want To Be On A Video Game Cover”
Anthony “Showtime” Pettis
GSP would be my pick, for sure. Gustafsson probably won’t happen since the UFC are actively avoiding the rematch for the moment.
Gotta be Cain – biggest baddest man on the planet is always the Heavyweight champ.
What! Cain Velásquez isn’t even an option! Mad I tell you!
Weird. He deserves to be there more than most of the fighters who are.
Might be something to do with that ‘Brown Pride’ tattoo he has.
I guess but personally I don’t have an issue with it. I put at the same level as a blonde chick saying Blondes Have More Fun or a chick saying Girl Power.
Edited – I am assuming the Brown refers to skin colour… He may just like his hair colour a LOT.
Or the colour brown in general.
They don’t necessarily need him to be bare-chested on the cover though do they? They could have him wearing a warmup shirt like he does during entrances/decisions.
Best of both worlds.
I think they should go the NBA 2K13 style and have three fighters on the cover – the current longest-tenured champions, Jones, GSP and Aldo.
They also cover the three biggest markets that way – U.S., Canada and Brazil.
If it has to be only one other though, then GSP for sure IMO (pending the outcome of this month’s fight…)
Well especially since Junior Dos Santos is one of the options. He got owned by Cain 2 fights in a row.
Apparently EA and Cain couldn’t come to an agreement, that’s why he’s not on the voting.
http://tech.ca.msn.com/fans-wont-be-able-to-raise-cain-on-ufc-cover-vote-1
That and he has ‘BROWN PRIDE’ scrawled across his chest.
You can argue for and against it (and people will, just go on an MMA forum), but the bottom line is if I was a massive company like EA it wouldn’t be a argument I’d be getting unnecessarily involved in.
CHAEL!
Seriously though, I hope it’s not Rousey she’s pretty awful.
It makes life pretty difficult because Jones doesn’t have a genuine big-name rival that you’d put on there.
Gustaffson is the obvious fit but most people don’t know who he is.
Anderson just lost, GSP has been done before, Wiedman is largely unknown, Cain has ‘BROWN PRIDE’ written across his chest, Overeem is a roid-munching loser, JDS is still having his face put back together post Cain, the smaller champs aren’t big names…..
I don’t want to look at Pettis’ stupid goatee everytime I see the box but he’s probably the common sense fit.
Especially since EA seems to want to sell the game as a ‘OMG! CAGE-KICK SIMULATOR!!!’.
Mostly I just want Rousimar Palhares on there. Holding a leg. I don’t care that he’s not in the UFC anymore.
If Chael gets it then you know he is definitely hanging off Dana White’s…um…coat-tails – yeah coat-tails will do.
I mean I like Chael and is all for publicity but some of the things that come out of his mouth are beyond cringe-worthy.
Mark Hunt or Big Country
They should do what they do with FIFA. Mark Hunt here in Australia, Gustafsson in Europe, Silva in South America, Bisping in the UK, etc…
Localisation I agree!
Aldo or Henderson would be best IMO
Both have a unique look of badassery
I’d go for something a bit different and say Royce Gracie.