Comments on: Jamie Varner’s Hand Still Broken, Interim WEC Lightweight Title Possible

By: Muaythai4life

Muaythai4life — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:10:48 +0000

I don’t disagree that Nog/Mir was the proper match up to make, but Randy should have been stripped of his title. In either Randy’s resignation from the UFC or Dana’s interpretation of retirement he should have relinquished the title, making the Sylvia/Nog fight a real championship fight rather than an interim fight. Randy’s return fight against Lesnar should not have been a title match.

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:02:29 +0000

How many times has that been pointed out? And people still don’t get it….

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:01:51 +0000

I think that part of the reason Mir was eventually stripped of the title, and his first fight back was not for the title was the extent of the time off, and the fact that he was a shell of the fighter he was before the injury.

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:58:01 +0000

The knee never touched him… that’s why he got checked for a detached retina…got it.

By: Eldiablo

Eldiablo — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:53:04 +0000

I always thought the interim title was due to Serra pulling out of the huge grudge match between himself, the title holder, and his hated rival Matt Hughes, due to injury. I also think there was this Ultimate Fighter show where they were hyping the whole Serra/Hughes fight for like 3 months. And when Serra got hurt, well, you’ve got 18,000 fans who paid big bucks to see a title fight, and a title fight is what they got. If a champ gets hurt and has no exact timeline of getting back, you need to move business forward.

Remember, the UFC waited 7 months for Mir to decide when he’ll return before crowning an interim champ. If you ask me though, Mir’s first fight back should have been for the belt, but instead he got GnP’d by the worst striker in the world Pe De Pano (but that’s another thread).

By: dbiz

dbiz — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:48:30 +0000

Randy didn’t fight Nog because Nog-Mir was already signed. Couture fought someone else because it would have been…hmm…about 6 months before he fought anyway. And we all like title fights…

By: timcat

timcat — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:18:54 +0000

I agree. It looked like the knee never touched him. He just wanted out of that cage.

By: muaythai4life

muaythai4life — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 06:18:09 +0000

Interim titles have been used wisely and poorly in MMA in the past. Three great examples come from the UFC

When Mir got into his motorcycle accident and they created the Interim HW championship it made perfect sense. He can’t defend because of an injury and he will be out for an unforeseen future. Letting HW’s fight for an interim title allows a champion to be crowned and later when his return was still in question he was stripped and the interim champion became the HW champion

The interim belt that GSP won in his fight with Hughes was total garbage and bull crap. You don’t make an interim belt to award a fighter because the fight is too big to not be a title fight, which is in essence the reason Dana gave for it. Now he is the president and can do what ever the hell he wants, but that is a really poor excuse for creating an interim belt. Kinda on that whole “too big to fail” crap.

A third example that is right in the middle is the Randy Couture/Lesnar Nog/Mir belt-feast. If Randy is the champion and he “resigns” from the organization, then he is not the champion. If he declines a fight from the UFc he should be stripped of his belt. Holding on to a champion because he’s popular is a poor reason, then to crown an interim champion, then to have the champion return and not fight said interim champion but a different #1 contender (somehow) and let the interim champion fight another/another #1 contender to only then have the two fight to unite the belts is got to be something out of the “Days of our Lives” world, cause even pro-wrestling can’t be that drama filled.

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:00:43 +0000

Whether you like Varner or not, I don’t get how anyone can say that because his hand is broken he is dodging the fight. If the doctor doesn’t clear him, then the doctor doesn’t clear him. And I really doubt anyone would purposely break their hand to not fight, especially 2 months out. If anyone wanted to injure themselves to get out of a fight they’d be much better served to “get headbutted during warm-ups” and have to go get stitches, like Shammy Sham.

On the whole interim title thing, it’s definitely a promotion by promotion decision, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why Strikeforce wanted to do an interim title at 155 when Thompson got hurt, but haven’t done likewise for Le who is out by choice, or simply stripped him of it for not defending. I don’t have a problem with interim title’s, though. If you expect a guy to return, but he can’t defend his title for whatever reason, you should put the division on hold. It allows someone to fight for the “permanent number one contender” spot, essentially. That way the promotion can still hype fights, but whoever happens to be the number one contender will stay that way unless someone beats them, and they won’t have to worry about getting leap frogged for a title shot (99.9% of the time anyways).

By: OnlyTrue1

OnlyTrue1 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:32:57 +0000

I dont like the way Jammie acts, and talks but I give him a load of credit for the way he fights. Fight wise he is an awesome fighter IMO and with his Wrestle’n and Very Good Boxing stand up he is gonna be hard to beat by anyone.

IMO he won every rd in the D. Cerrone fight {I am a big fan of D. Cerrone and was pulling for him to win} People call him a punk for not continue’n to fight but that Knee was right on the money!! Plus the broken hand. Hey the kid can fight is all i’m saying. If he is 100% I dont see nobody in that weight class hanging with him.