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These things matter.

Building interest in potential contenders before they’re called upon to occupy the middle position on a pay-per-view main card, headline FOX show or challenge for championship gold is crucial, and in too many instances of late, the UFC has come up short in that department, resulting in proven and deserving talents being deemed “unknowns” when they’re booked into a prime matchup.

When it doesn’t happen, you end up with Ray Borg fighting Demetrious Johnson for the flyweight title being dismissed as something most fans won’t care about, even though Borg has done enough to earn that opportunity and it’s the correct fight to make in terms of the divisional hierarchy.

But this isn’t a short-term proposition; it needs to start two, three, maybe even four fights before someone like Borg is called up to challenge for the title, so that the foundation for him being a contender has been firmly established.

At the absolute worst, his bout with Jussier Formiga in March should have garnered far more attention and promotion than it did, as it was a critically important bout for the division — one that you had to know going in had the potential to carry the winner into title contention — and therefore needed to be promoted as one of the most important contests on the card.

Failing to do so makes it extremely difficult to turn around and ask fans to get excited about him fighting for a title, the same way stationing Jessica Andrade and Angela Hill as the first main fight on the Super Bowl card in Houston was a miscue, given that the winner made sense as the next title challenge.

Thankfully, Andrade delivered a crackerjack performance and “Overkill” showed her trademark toughness by hanging in and having her moments, and people came away from the event talking about that fight (and The Korean Zombie’s impressive return). But heading into the show, far more attention was being paid to prospect Alexa Grasso, who was nowhere near title contention and ended up suffering her first professional loss in the co-main event.

All these different pieces — card placement, an advanced marketing push, perceived promotional support — send messages to fans about who they should be paying attention to and impact the organization’s ability to sell certain fights or fighters in the future.

You can’t force fans to back certain competitors or be interested in a particular fight, but the power of the UFC marketing machine is undeniable. If the same resources that have been committed to various misidentified potential stars in the past were invested in showcasing crucial matchups and more athletes with legitimate championship upside, there would be fewer instances where fans are unfamiliar with or non-committal about elite contenders and title challengers.

The same applies to fight cards as well.