Pat Miletich on UFC 151′s Cancellation
By Chris Leslie on August 29, 2012
Former UFC champion and current Strikeforce analyst Pat Miletich recently spoke out to MMA site Bloody Elbow on the cancellation of UFC 151. “The Croatian Sensation,” while understanding of the pressure facing the UFC, he was critical of the company’s handling of the situation. Miletich, who has ran an established training center for years, was understanding of Greg Jackson’s reasoning to suggest that UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones decline a fight with Chael Sonnen.
Miletich told Bloody Elbow:
“I understand the pressure that Zuffa is under with the Fox deal, FX deal, and all that stuff. By putting on a massive number of cards, I think they’ve stretched themselves a bit thin. The quality of the cards has gone down, and I think everybody has noticed that, not just myself. When you have a card that is only carried by one match, given the attrition rate in MMA, the injuries in training, they kind of set themselves up for the fall.
They need to hold themselves accountable. It’s become a bit of a habit, of late, by the [UFC's] leaders, to blame others for their problems, instead of letting people hold them accountable. It’s across the board in a lot of different spectrums of life right now. I think that Jon Jones not taking a fight with a guy who’s not five foot eleven, [Sonnen is] six foot two, or six foot three, whatever he is, he’s much bigger than Henderson, is ok. He’s younger and probably moves a little better. Dan, obviously can kill a bull with his right hand, but he’s a little older now, and Sonnen is a lefty, so it’s really a different fight.
I think Jon Jones had nothing to gain in that fight. Sonnen, moving to a different weight division, having not fought there for quite a long time, and competing at 185, hasn’t earned the right in the first place.I think Jon Jones was well within his rights, and I back Jackson on the decision that he made and the advice that he gave Jones to pull out of the fight. It doesn’t do the UFC any good to chop the legs out from possibly their biggest star, because he doesn’t take a last minute replacement fight. There was nothing to gain for his career. I think it’s organizational suicide to do that to your biggest star.”
Jones will now face Vitor Belfort September 22 in Toronto, Canada at UFC 152.
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Yeah Pat, you just made a big leap back ward from the UFC Hall of Fame…
Good for Pat. He’s saying what a lot of people were thinking but were too scurred to say aloud. He’s not dogging UFC, just stating his opinion. Besides they should have taken UFC 151 and put it on FX to avoid all the drama. I think FX wouldn’t have missed airing Iron Man for the billionth time anyway.
@Matrix:
I have been saying it unapolagetically from the start.
I agree. Iron Man gets old after awhile.
Look, I like Iron Man just as much as the next guy but…
to be honest i am a jon jones fan but by not takin a fight way chael he got a worse opponent a mean chael i believe would have been a fight up jones alley but no he fighting a guy that can very well punch his head off in 5 seconds and shuve it up his ass so it win lose for me still jones fan
If and when strikeforce merges with the ufc, Pat Miletich and Frank Shamrock are going to be the first ones in the unemployment lines :)
If everyone puts their baggage and reactive emotional responses to the side, you get what Pat just logically and eloquently summed up. You cannot change the fighters to agree on last second fights on a whim in the future (unless you write it into the contract) but the Ufc can change the amount of events and the level of talent on the card which can keep it viable when a fight or fighter suddenly drops out, which its likely to happen again. So instead of blaming their most prized possession they should take responsibility so they can actually DO something about it in the future.
Pat nailed it. One fight should not determine the fate of an entire card, especially in the UFC. Dana White employs the top fighters in the world, but not all are capable of drawing the casual fan. Less cards, more names. That is the only way to maintain the UFC’s relevance.
I use to order every PPV, when it was once a month, and enjoy the lesser known names on the “free card”. Other then Jones vs Henderson I didn’t think much of the card, a couple of interesting match up’s but nothing big. UFC on Fox 5 is what PPV use to be like. Now it seems the PPV have 1 or 2 big big fights and the “free cards” are beginning to look like the old PPV. JMO. Makes you think if the UFC is making more in sponsership dollars then PPV dollars and okay letting the odd PPV card slide.
my thoughts exactly
“It doesn’t do the UFC any good to chop the legs out from possibly their biggest star, because he doesn’t take a last minute replacement fight. There was nothing to gain for his career. I think it’s organizational suicide to do that to your biggest star.”
Are you listening Dana? If not, you’re the real problem in this…
I totally agree with Pat regarding Too many UFC events with some very week cards. What I disagree with is as Champ Jones should fight whoever the organisation put in front of him and want him to fight.
I wonder what Dana’s response to this is? The way he usually comes across is hating any criticism or questioning of the ufc and their decisions. His common response on twitter or in interviews is ‘shut up, you are too stupid…’ or ‘you’re a moron’.(I’d still take him over Gary Bettman). I also somewhat agree with Pat with the higher number of cards causing weaker(on paper at least) cards. But to me part of the blame is that there seems to be WAY more injuries in training camps than there ever were before, especially in the last year and a half or so.
I respect that you put “weaker on paper” in parenthesis. A lot of the complaints, people are saying “weak card” How does anyone know????? Use Jon Jones and Hendo to pull in the big money and pray that the other fights are all candidates for FOTN. Makes perfect sense to me.