Introducing “The Bruise Brothers”: Aldo and Barão Have Struggled To Achieve Stardom Apart; They Need To Be Marketed Together

By Michael Ford

It’s no secret that one of the more controversial topics in MMA is the idea of teammates fighting one another. Though the saying that “iron sharpens iron” is accepted as gospel truth, we are often surprised when two top-tier talents in the same weight class emerge after having trained together for years, honing each other’s skills. We have seen that kind of tension — most notably between Rashad Evans and Jon Jones — fray friendships and splinter gyms, but by and large, when teammates vow not to face one another, they often describe their bonds as those of brotherhood.

One such tightly-knit gym is Nova União, which boasts two of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world in Jose Aldo and Renan Barão. Aldo, the UFC Featherweight Champion, was the first to break through, but as of late, fans have started to take note of the UFC Bantamweight Champion Barão, who in many ways has been even more dominant. However, this fervor among hardcore fans has not translated to PPV buys, as in five total headlining opportunities (six if you count “Aldo vs. Faber,” the WEC 48 PPV), none have broken the 350,000 buy barrier. This is a shame, because between the two men, we are seeing two of the most dominant and destructive runs in MMA history. Neither man has tasted defeat in the Octagon — Aldo has six UFC wins, while Barão has 7. Each man’s career record only contains one blemish. If these were any two other fighters, there’d be superfight discussions taking place all the time, but these men have long maintained that they’ll never face one another in MMA competition. And there lies the rub.

Or does it?

Up until now, the UFC’s marketing of these two men have been pretty bland. Aldo has certainly gotten the bulk of the promotional attention, and his post-win celebration in Rio de Janeiro after defeating Chad Mendes in UFC 142 is still an iconic moment, but shots of knockouts while Joe Rogan ohhs and ahhs does not a promotional campaign make. Casual fans need a hook, they need a narrative, and “this guy is a killer” isn’t it, particularly when it’s a narrative they use almost all the time. It’s even worse for Barão, whose most recent fight promo made “Renan Barão is a monster” comically ubiquitous, even as it featured him in his highest-profile fight to date. With so many of his fights in front of small audiences on FUEL TV, Barão has never been truly showcased, and as UFC 173‘s second-choice main event against a second-choice challenger in TJ Dillashaw, his coming out party will continue to elude him.

But the narrative is simple, really: Two men, with a bond like brothers, but only one can be the best. They’ll never fight one another, but they’ll keep destroying everyone else they fight, so they’ll stand atop the mountain together. As for who’d win in a fight? That will have to be left to the imagination.

Luckily, people LOVE speculating about who would win fights that will never happen. Many a teenaged comic fan has spent an afternoon debating Superman vs. the Hulk or Captain America vs. Batman or James Bond vs. Han Solo. Many an adult fight fan has wondered whether Ali in his prime could best a prime Mike Tyson. This is what fans do. But the key is making these men larger than life, and sowing the seeds of the debate.

For months, we’ve seen fans, fighters, and pundits debating whether Ronda Rousey could beat Floyd Mayweather, to the point where that discussion could resurface at any point around the time one of them fight. It’s a silly discussion, but it’s one that the UFC fully embraced and allowed to proliferate. In Aldo and Barão, the dynamic is different — they could only be described as “friendly rivals” having a “healthy competition” — but if promotional materials juxtaposed shots of them being fraternal and chummy with them sparring and training alongside one another, that would only remind fans of their shared commitment to excellence, all while reinforcing the tantalizing question of which teammate is better.

And, at the risk of sounding corny, it would help if Aldo and Barão had a catchy nickname. As far as I know, nobody’s used “The Bruise Brothers” in 20 years or so, so let’s go with that.

Jon Jones is ranked #1 on most fans’ pound-for-pound lists, but you could make arguments for Aldo and Barão in the top spot, especially when traditionally, “pound-for-pound” has been understood to be a way to make smaller fighters equal in fans’ eyes to larger ones. And those arguments are good, as a way to build a narrative around the Bruise Brothers that the fans can get behind. Who is more dangerous? Who will look more dominant in their upcoming fights? Who will lose first? Who would you rather face? Hell, you could even ask Jon Jones these questions; the idea is to make them the questions that fans are asking themselves.

If it were up to me, I’d have them fight on the same card or in the same month as much as possible. Both men should absolutely have already fought on Fox, and Barão deserves to headline UFC 179 in Rio, especially if Aldo isn’t ready for a quick turnaround after UFC 176. Regardless, I’d heavily feature both Bruise Brothers whenever I promoted one of them. Photo shoots, posters (the two men standing side-by-side with the tagline “Choose Your Poison” immediately comes to mind), sit-down interviews, fighter profile specials — any way to imprint them on the consciousness of the casual fan should be employed to promote the tandem, so that when you think of one, you think of the other. Some fans would celebrate them collectively, while others would latch on to a favorite, and advocate for him. But the important thing is that there’d be a hook, a story that would provide a reason for casual fans to take note.

You can call the “Bruise Brothers” nickname hokey if you’d like, but consider how giving Chris Paul a bushy mustache in one ad campaign turned him into a star, or how a generation ago, “Grandmama” was the mechanism by which Larry Johnson achieved superstardom. Marketing campaigns are sometimes quirky, and in Jose Aldo and Renan Barão, we’re already dealing with fighters at the pinnacle of not only their respective weight classes, but the sport itself. It may very well be easier for mainstream fans to get behind “The Bruise Brothers” as a concept than Aldo and Barão individually. And if so, we shouldn’t lament it, because these fighters are too good to be overlooked by the masses in their primes. Both deserve the maximum exposure, and the brightest possible spotlights on their fights, while they continue to deliver bruise after bruise in every victory they cruise to.