Corey Anderson prefers to walk the walk rather than talk the talk and he knows for a fact that’s affected some of the opportunities made available-and not made available-to him during his career. The last-ever Bellator light heavyweight champion was once ranked among the top fighters at 205 pounds in the UFC, but it seemed […]
Corey Anderson prefers to walk the walk rather than talk the talk and he knows for a fact that’s affected some of the opportunities made available-and not made available-to him during his career.
The last-ever Bellator light heavyweight champion was once ranked among the top fighters at 205 pounds in the UFC, but it seemed like he never got close to title shot despite impressive wins over fighters such as Glover Teixeira, Jan Blachowicz, and Johnny Walker. Anderson eventually asked for his release from the UFC before signing with Bellator and then eventually transitioning into the PFL where he’s won a championship and most recently took out 2024 heavyweight champion Denis Goltsov via dominant second-round TKO.
Despite all that, Anderson thinks he remains one of the most underrated fighters in the history of the sport and at least part of that comes down to marketing.
“I never marketed myself,” Anderson told MMA Fighting. “I wasn’t one to be on social media all the time posting stuff like ‘I’m going to knock this guy out,’ posting sparring, beating guys or posting highlights of me training and fighting. I post family stuff. I’m a family man. I post stuff around my house with my wife and kids.
“I post stuff with fighting very rarely. I’m doing a little bit more of it now but especially now in the casual phase, it’s all about what your social media looks like.”
While he’s been a ranked fighter for the majority of his fighting career, Anderson doesn’t have the flashiest, fan-friendly style and he’s never going to be mistaken for a prolific trash talker. His résumé speaks for itself but even getting a wins over hyped-up opposition, Anderson has rarely benefited from those performances.
The clearest example is Anderson’s 2019 knockout over Johnny Walker, who at the time was being talked about as a prospect worthy of earning Jon Jones’ attention. At the time, Jones was the reigning light heavyweight champion and he was desperately in need of new competition so Walker appeared to fit the bill.
Anderson ended that talk after he bludgeoned Walker with punches to score a first-round finish, but that didn’t immediately make him a household name by any means.
“You’ve got these kids out there they see Johnny Walker’s [social media] page. We know what happened when I fought Johnny Walker,” Anderson explained. “I meet kids at the gym these days and I have UFC shorts on or a shirt and [they say] ‘Oh where did you get that from? Did you get that off eBay?’ I looked at one and I said if you don’t kick this kid out of the gym, did you hear what they just said? He asked if I got these shorts off eBay!
“You know he knocked Johnny Walker out, right? ‘You fought Johnny Walker!’ That’s the thing, these kids know these guys because of social media. The day and age of MMA and fans, they know you by your social media. So you’ve got a social media with 1.5 million or 3.1 million like Johnny Walker, you’re probably a superstar! They think you’re the greatest there is. The way I grew up in the sport, it was about how good you were. Not how good your social media was.”
Perhaps the harshest lesson Anderson learned was during a conversation with UFC CBO Hunter Campbell just before he was preparing to fact Walker in what could have been a potential No. 1 contender’s bout at light heavyweight.
“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,’” Anderson revealed. “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].”
There’s little doubt that popularity plays a part in matchmaking.
Look no further than the current buzz around Paddy Pimblett potentially getting a title shot against new UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria. Based on rankings and accomplishments, Pimblett hasn’t necessarily earned that opportunity but he’s a massive star and he has legitimate bad blood with Topuria from a volatile interaction between them a few years ago.
That kind of animosity sells fights not to mention Pimblett and Topuria are both legitimate draws with fans.
It’s a fact of life Anderson has come to accept, but he’s not going to suddenly try to change his personality just to get more attention, even if that means he might have to work twice as hard as the guy willing to play that game.
“You don’t even have to be good at fighting anymore,” Anderson said. You’ve just got to have good social media.
“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.”
With his latest win in the PFL, Anderson has positioned himself to compete at either heavyweight or light heavyweight and he hopes there are big fights awaiting him. Former UFC champion Francis Ngannou is probably the biggest prize available, but Anderson can’t say for certain if that fight is actually a possibility.
All Anderson can do right now is continue to work hard and try to make himself as unbeatable as possible to anybody standing across the cage from him.
“It’s about time people put some respect on my name,” Anderson said. “I don’t think they ever will but they should. You hear people talking ‘Corey’s this, Corey’s still that, they overpaid.’ What are you talking about? I’ve been here 13 years and I’ve never backed down from nobody. I fought every who’s who there is but Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson. I’ve dominated a lot of them. No, I’m not flashy. No, I’m not fancy. But I’m not going to say no to nobody.
“I don’t care who the name is. When [my manager] Ali [Abdelaziz] called me with this fight [saying] ‘brother, I’ve got a fight for you.’ Like who is it? [He said] ‘it’s Goltsov.’ Give me a contract. You know it’s heavyweight right? Give me a contract.”
Category: General Sports
