Corey Anderson does not engage in some of the more bombastic, performative social media practices of many fighters today, and that has at times cost him big opportunities when he was in the UFC. Anderson recently discussed this in a recent interview with MMA Fighting, who had several high-level wins at 205 pounds in the UFC and was the final light heavyweight titleholder in Bellator MMA’s history.
With wins over eventual UFC champions in Glover Teixeira and Jan Blachowicz, plus a prior win over stalwart 205-pound contender Johnny Walker, ‘Overtime’ never found himself scheduled for a championship opportunity in the confines of the octagon.
The 35-year-old is not oblivious to why this is, as he has admitted he is not the most active on social media, with Anderson saying that when he does infrequently post, it’s usually instances oriented to him being a family man. This seemed especially clear to him during his aforementioned 2019 finish over the highly hyped Walker.
At that time, many saw Anderson as someone who could face then-light heavyweight champion Jon Jones through an athletic meritocracy lens. When reflecting back upon a conversation with UFC’s CBO around that time about why he would not end up securing a UFC championship bid, Anderson said [via MMA Fighting]:
“Hunter Campbell, when I left the UFC before the Johnny Walker fight, he had a conversation with me and he told me ‘We can’t give you a title fight, it’s 100 percent that you deserve a title fight, but we can’t give it to you because your social media isn’t there.’ It’s not about who’s the best anymore. It’s about who’s going to put butts in the seats. The fans determine who’s the best fighter off who has the biggest social media [following].”
UFC title shot politics, per Anderson
As he gave broader examples of when the UFC fixated on a fighter’s ability to generate interest as a persona versus what they’re demonstrably doing inside the cage, Anderson stated [via MMA Fighting],
“You don’t even have to be good at fighting anymore. Guys are getting title fights like Derrick Lewis, he got a title fight because he went out there and said, ‘My balls are hot.’ He got 2.1 million followers overnight. Guess what they did? Well, right now he’s hot so we’re going to give him a title fight because his social media is booming.”
Anderson will next step into the PFL Smart Cage against Dovlet Yagshimuradov at PFL Champions Series 2 on October 3rd with the PFL Light Heavyweight Championship on the line.
