Another edition of Hooked On Fight Content is up! This week, UFC267 has stolen the show alongside a glimpse of boxing content.
Air Sandhagen cleared for takeoff
Today, none other than Cory Sandhagen will be competing for the interim bantamweight championship against the former world champion, Petr Yan. Earlier in the week, the UFC posted a tweet with the caption, “Air Sandhagen cleared for takeoff”. The post was a short 36-second video compilation of some flying knee finishes from Sandhagen.
The flying knee is a signature move that Cory is known for, and the UFC has creatively incorporated the aeroplane emoji to describe Cory’s fighting style. United Arab Emirates tourist page, Visit Abu Dhabi, were also tagged in the tweet who are dedicated to promoting the tourism element of the capital of the UAE.
The UFC has proactively found a theme to fit both their partners, Visit Abu Dhabi, and describe a signature move of Cory Sandhagen to produce content. A fantastic example of athlete-driven marketing.
Hasbulla will be at Fight Island
The man himself, Hasbulla Magomedov, will be arriving at UFC Fight Island this Saturday to support Islam Makhachev competing against Dan Hooker. Hasbulla is an 18-year-old dwarf from Dagestan, Russia, who sprouted into a social media sensation this year. On his Instagram account, he’s regularly expressing his passion for combat sports; now, he gets to do this at UFC267.
Earlier this year, Hasbulla was due to fight with another dwarf, Abdu Rozik, until it was claimed unethical by the Russian Dwarf Athletic Association. Their pre-fight press conference achieved 15m views, the highest level of traction for any fight press conference. Dan Hooker was asked how he feels about Hasbulla supporting Islam at his press conference, and Dan humorously responded that he has Abdu in his corner supporting him.
The UFC once again produce a great short-storytelling piece to create engagement and appeal to the wider audience beyond combat sport.
Dana White and Hasbulla have a meeting
Continuing the Hasbulla hype train, he’s secured himself a meeting with Dana White this weekend! On Dana White’s Twitter account, this is the biggest piece of promotion ahead of UFC267. During the UFC267 Press Conference, Dana revealed that he has plans for Hasbulla to work with the UFC in the future.
This video didn’t only receive significant engagement; it teased the MMA community about Hasbulla being associated with the UFC long term.
What do you think of the new UFC logo?
This caught my eye on Friday! A TikTok creator decided to re-create the UFC logo, and it caught the attention of none other than Dana White. It’s a parody of the original logo, but that’s not stopped the UFC from using Emily’s creation as their profile picture on TikTok.
As bizarre as it might sound, this is a great example of the UFC being culturally sensitive towards their TikTok community. TikTok has an enormous audience of the next generation who are impressionable and attached to creators and humour. This initiative is an opportunity for the UFC to raise further brand awareness towards MMA amongst the next generation.
Can you jump rope like Teofimo Lopez?
Teofimo has a big occasion coming up towards the end of November as he’s fighting George Kambosos at Maddison Square Garden. Training clips have always been a hot content source to engage your audience, especially seeing how Lopez is jumping rope.
This also opens an opportunity to create an interactive challenge with his audience. For example, Teofimo could create a skipping challenge to make a unique hashtag and encourage his audience to see how long they can skip. Initiatives like this will help athletes gradually build a highly engaged online community.
That’s a wrap! This weeks mix has involved short-form storytelling, athlete-driven marketing and methods to build an engaged online community. What was your biggest insight this week?
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