A major factor that lead Tate to make the move to One Championship was the way that the west promotes MMA events.
“I think the promotion has gone so far one way, that I don’t really identify with it anymore,” Tate said on The MMA Hour. “I love martial arts and I always will, but I prefer it to be promoted in a more true fashion, that it’s more about the fighting than it is about the trash talking that you do outside of the cage, the ring, the Octagon. I really think it’s important to hold those values, and I feel like in the western promotion of it all, it’s become much more of a circus. It’s really become watered down in a sense, and I feel like the core fan base that used to be there — more early on in my career or even midway through my career — was more about the fights, and I feel like that’s gotten pushed away. We’ve gotten to a fan base that’s a lot more about what people can do and say outside of the Octagon, people flying outside of the cage and attacking people, or the trash talk from Conor McGregor or even Ronda (Rousey). I feel like it’s different than the way that I would choose to approach or be a part of the sport. I think that people are losing the value of the sport, so they don’t care so much about fighting. They want to see the entertainment aspect, but for the worse. And if it’s not there, then I feel like the sport itself is not drawing anymore. You see these free FOX cards that are incredible fights and nobody’s watching them. The numbers are down because they want to see more than just fighting, and I feel like the value is just being lost.”
One Championship has yet to run an event in North America, but has several big North American MMA stars in Eddie Alvarez and Demetrious Johnson on the roster.
Tate also believes that a lot of fans have been turned off by the way that modern MMA is being promoted.
“I think that a lot of the more tried and true fans have actually been turned off by the way that MMA has been promoted, because for lack of a better term, it’s kind of a shit show. And it’s crazy. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in the audience if Khabib (Nurmagomedov) flew over [the cage],” Tate said. “And I’m not trying to blame that on the UFC, I’m just saying that it’s escalated to that point, that people are talking such trash, that it’s getting under people’s skin — it’s getting under Khabib’s skin to the point where he’s not even really being himself, I feel like. So it’s kinda scary. But I do that there’s a way to come back to [the old traditions]. I think if you start to have an organization that appeals to the fans that have been lost, because of the way that MMA has begun to be promoted, I think that there’s a way to recall the fans that have been turned off by that kind of other approach.”
The One Championships VP retired at UFC 205, following a unanimous decision loss to Raquel Pennington.
