Under the Radar (Editorial)
Posted by Justin H on Feb 8, 2009 at 11:33 am ET63 Comments
A lot has gone on in the world of MMA in the last four weeks:
- Mauricio Rua looked less than impressive in getting back in the win column against the aging, and clearly out of gas Mark Coleman.
- Dan Henderson fought Rich Franklin at Light Heavyweight to garner yet another decision victory. This victory locked in his position as the US coach for “The Ultimate Fighter 9: US v. UK” which will presumable lead to a bout at Middleweight against UK coach Michael Bisping.
- Fedor Emelianenko obliterated yet another former UFC champion, who the UFC no longer saw fit to employ.
- Vitor Belfort showed that he can still be a devastating fighter with his scary KO of Matt Lindland, but then immediately showed he doesn’t care about stringing together wins and called out Fedor.
- Jens Pulver got beaten for the third consecutive time, leading him to consider calling it a career.
- A controversial illegal knee put Jamie Varner’s career at risk, but at this point no news seems to be good news for his return.
- Nate Diaz finally lost, hopefully the first of many.
- Eight Consecutive fights went to a decision.
- Lyoto Machida finally put on an exciting showing. KOing Thiago Silva just before the bell at the end of round 1
- BJ Penn got obliterated by GSP, then we got “Grease Gate”.
- ProElite Assets were sold, but ProElite still exists, but now Strikeforce has a lot more fighters, and now the fighters are (presumably) out of limbo.
- Dan Miller stepped in and won on short notice, again.
- Anthony Johnson once again confirmed that he’s got a lot of potential.
- Mac Danzig is working on securing his position as one of the worst TUF winners, he has now lost twice consecutively.
- Joe Lauzon confirmed that he’s a real contender at 155
The point of listing all that is to show just how many significant things have taken place in the past four weeks alone, in the world of MMA. You’ll notice, however, that the title of this entry is “Under the Radar.” The reason for that is, that something has flown in, “under the radar.” In the midst of everything that’s gonna, with all the coverage of both the ProElite/Strikeforce deal, and “Grease Gate”, there is one story that no one seems to be covering:
Zuffa, LLC. has just completed a string of four consecutive weeks where they put on a ten fight card (Zuffa, LLC. is the parent company of both the UFC and the WEC). That’s forty fights in four weeks folks. Each fight takes two combatants, so that’s eighty fighters. They take a week off for Valentine’s, then they have another three week stretch with events every week. Two of those cards have eleven fights scheduled, and one has ten.* That’s a further thirty-two fights, and sixty-four fighters.
If you’re following along and doing the math, you’ve figured out by now that by March 8, Zuffa, LLC will have put on seven events in eight weeks. The total number of fights will be seventy-two, and fighters involved one hundred forty-four. I don’t care who you are, that’s impressive. Some people have complained about the lack of big names on the cards of some of these events, but all of the events still include/d intriguing match-ups. But what the people that make those complaints fail to realize is the sheer magnitude of one company being able to put on seven MMA events in eight weeks. The magnitude of this accomplishment grows even more when you realize that just five years ago, in 2004, Zuffa put on a sum total for the whole year of five events. They had the same total in 2003, and only had six in 2002.
A lot of people seem to want to jump on the “Bash UFC/Zuffa bandwagon” because they claim that they “don’t pay their fighters enough.” These people claim that Zuffa, LLC should follow in Affliction’s footsteps and off the fighters larger purses. What these people are ignoring, is the sheer volume of fighters who are getting paid to do what they love. Affliction only has a stable of just over twenty fighters, and has only put on two events in the course of seven months, while Zuffa puts on seven events in two (a very striking comparison of ratios events:months Affliction – 2:7 Zuffa – 7:2). Affliction may be raising the bar of pay for the top tier fighters, but Zuffa is raising the bar for the number fighters getting paid. If you are a true fan of the sport of MMA, I think you’ll find the latter to be more beneficial.
*Portions of these cards remain rumors at this point, as they are not officially posted on the organizations’ websites.
Loading ...
Also – Wanderlei Silva is moving to middleweight.
where did you hear that?
Really? I thought that was just a rumor. If I were him I’d cut the weight just to see how I feel afterwards. I hope he isn’t a gassed out angry dude who throws looping punches while leaving himself horribly vulnerable. I want him to buzzsaw through 185 and use his BJJ black belt.
that is great Wanderlei moving down is good for him because where he
would be a top 10 lhw he would be a top 3 mw and would just need like
2 wins before fighting Anderson Silva give him like Marquardt or franklin first both fights I say wandi would win then give him
the loser of Bisping vs Henderson because Anderson will get the
winner and we know he can beat hendo his done it before and
bisping is overrated so I think wandi would show the world that
he is if hendo don’t. so it can be a great 09 for wanderlei but with that being said its not going to be easy taking that belt from Anderson.
Correction: Lyoto Machida defeated Thiago Silva not “Tavares”.
Thanks, fixed. It was late when I wrote to original draft, and missed that in proofreading today.
Kris, i am wondering how you feel about the whole “grease gate” do you think gsp’s corner applied the grease on purpose or not?
i am not trying to start the whole thing over again! i am just wondering?
Here’s a quick vent ……. I know Rua looked rough in the Coleman fight .. HE WILL BE BACK !!! the type of leg injury he had is severe and you cant do jack in the way of training . he was off for a year and a few months and that was rushing it folks believe me . The Iceman will be in bad shape for this one . I saw him and he looked less then fit in person right now .So look for Rua to beat him down at 97 and then we can say He’s Back
Just like he was supposed to “be back” against Forrest. And just like he was supposed to “be back” against Coleman. Good one.
Great editorial, the only thing i’m curious about was how the controversial knee has put Varners career in jeopardy, not that i’m picking apart what you have written but I have not heard of any aftermath in regards to that fight and am interested to hear if there is any.
Thanks.
Varner said in an interview the Wednesday following the vent that he had a doctors appointment to see if he had a detached retina, which could be a career ender. Like I said in the article, nothing else has come out about the situation, so I presume that means he’ll be okay, I hope so at least.
4 is very funny.
That Anthony Johnson kid needs to go train with the Greg Jackson camp. He is an absolute beast.!!
Great article by the way. I’m glad that UFC has gotten this big. I don’t really care about watching “big names” fight as long as I get to see some fights. As a fan of the sport, especially when they throw in some free fights, it is really awesome to have this amount of MMA around…including the competition.
I don’t agree with your assessment on Danzig. I think he is a smart, technical fighter. I think Kendal Grove, Travis Lutter, and probably also Amir are inferior MMA players to Danzig. He looked bad off of his back last night but his standup looked very solid. He works in very effective combinations and he is a very smart fighter. He always shows up well-prepared and has excellent experience. He got caught last night, it happens. But I think it’s way too overly-critical to say he is working towards becoming the worst TUF winner ever.
I dont think danzig is smart……a smart fighter would have saw that triangle coming from a mile away……i mean neer didnt even bring his legs up that fast…and didnt even have it locked for a couple seconds danzig could have easily..well should have easily postered up and broke out of that…..i think all the tofu and veggies are effecting his brain cells……….mac danzig put down the tofu turkey and eat a piece of chicken!!!!!!
As far back as I can remember, I am more often the most impressed by the fight cards that I look forward to seeing the least. It almost never fails. Seemingly “weak” lineups always end up redeeming themselves about ten-fold. I don’t know if its becasue there isn’t any hype associated with them that demands absolute unbeleivable action, which they are never required to reach, or what the deal is, but its become clear over the years that big names and big draws don’t automatically equate to superior entertainment and vice versa. This doesn’t mean last night’s card brought down the barn, but it gets old when people out there bash free events that have no big names. If you hadn’t released this editorial, I would have never noticed that impressive span of fight cards even though I will have wathced every one of them in that span and I’ll be honest when I say the entertainment value is not being dilluted one single bit and I think that speaks volumes to the depth of Zuffa’s stable of fighters. Good stuff.
the problem i have is affliction homos and ufc haters most recently have been saying i dont like to see ufc 93’s every month…but you can tell there just mad because as any real mma fan will point out affliction day of reckoning was good yes better than crappy affliction banned but clearly…..ufc 92 destroyed affliction banned and so did ufc 84 from last year…..ufc 92 was one of the best mma ppv’s ever in my opinion….
I agree.
I don’t know about you guys, but the last two Fight Nights (Fight for the Troops and Fight Night in Tampa) have been unreal! Dare I say that those two FREE and no BIG NAME events have gave us better fights than the last two PPVs. The action is faster, the pace is aggressive, and these guys are trying to make a statment! It is not about big names, it is about great match ups. UFC needs to recognize that some of these bigger name guys need to prove themselves a little more, like Karo Parisyan. These free events are great and make it more likely for me to buy all the PPVs (which I do.) I think it is great that the UFC gives us free fights and recognizes that some events are not worth putting on PPV. And Affliction will run out of match-ups soon with only 22 fighters. A fights B. A fights C. B fights C. And then you are done, no more fights to give!
And that is exactly why Dana White the Fertita brothers and Joe Silva and Zuffa itself should be praised for what they have done for this sport. Also great job by Kris for pointing this out to everyone who like to just bash the UFC and irs administration and has no idea the decsisions they have to make as well as the hard work they have out into this sport only for hacks like Gerry Shaw to try to come in and ruin it. Hopefully with them bieng bought out by Strikeforce thier antics will come to an end of trying to make this sport seem more barbaric then actually is. Great job Kris and great job Zuffa.
That was justin, as is noted right up there where it says “Posted by justin on Feb 8, 2009 at 11:33 am ET.”
what?
Oh! sorry about that i did not read that. Well Great job Justin sorry about the mix up i didnt read who wrote it and assumed Kris did. Again sorry and great piece on that.
Great analysis of the number of cards being put on by Zuffa. Card for card Affliction may pay more, but overall, no one is touching Zuffa. I would still like to see higher payouts for lower matchups, but just the sheer number of cards implies that everyone has the opportunity to make more.
Ha Ha Ha-so Justin,is your hating on Diaz personal? Is it his fighting style or his personality? Cause you can’t deny he has skills,even though he got robbed in his last fight.
Personality, he’s got skills, I won’t deny that and he fights to his strengths. I just don’t like some of his attitude. He’s better than Nick, but I’d go so far as to pull for Kos against either one, and I don’t like him very much either.
Kos is a WW-and Nick’s not back in the UFC….yet.
Nick fought at WW in the UFC. And I never said e was back in the UFC, which I’m glad of, I just said I’d pull for Kos over him if they fought.
Hey Justin,You said you’d take Kos(WW) over either one,and Nate is a LW-Nick is a WW,that was my point.
And Nick not being able to fight Kos cause he’s not back in the UFC yet,was sarcasm.
“if they fought.”
The statement was just to illustrate my feelings towards the Diaz brothers, I wasn’t suggesting that either of them would or should fight Kos. I could have said “I’d go so far as to pull for Tito against either one, and I don’t like him very much either.” Tito will probably never ever have any chance of fighting either one, unless its back alley, but the fact still remains, if he did fight them, I would pull for him. Its a just an illustration.
Duh,really.Ha Ha Ha.Was a poor illustration because of weight classes.And I was just being a smartass.
Although its in the record books as a decision victory for Henderson,that decision will always be marred in skepticism.Probably even moreso than the Guida decision,due to the TUF coaching.
“Fedor Emelianenko obliterated yet another former UFC champion, who the UFC no longer saw fit to employ.”
The UFC wanted to resign Arlovski. He was 10-4 with the UFC, 9-2 in his last 11 fight with UFC, 2 losses against Tim Sylvia, 5 fight winning streak going into the Fedor fight.
Of course we know Tim Sylvia sucks because he lost the HW belt and left Zuffa to get beat by Fedor 5 months later. Who took Sylvia’s belt? Oh yeah Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, but he sucked when Fedor beat him twice in Pride, Nogueira only became good once he joined the UFC. Fedor hasn’t beat anybody good, he just has a great manager.
One more name: Cain Velasquez
Nate Diaz finally lost, hopefully the first of many.
hahahahaha hells yes
if wanderlei moves to MW that would be awesome a good challenge for Anderson silva maybe if he does that good might be gased alot cutting extra wieght
already stated by both Anderson Silva and Wanderlei Silva they wont fight one another, they both stated that is they only fight they wouldnt take… Wanderlei even said he would fight Shogun if it were for the title..
and tim sylvia is not that good he is so big to give him a big advantage but hes not the skilled like imagining a person with the size of tim and the skill of Randy couture! he would be undefeatable
top 5 p4p fighters in UFC
1. Anderson Silva
2. Bj penn, i am putting him ahead of GSP because i believe he is better fighter and im not a good bj penn fan. i did expect GSP to dominate but going up a wieght class is makes a big diffrents
3. GSP
4. Randy Couture 5 years ago
5. maybe… i dont really have one because light heavywieght the champion keeps changing
how can bj possibly be infront of gsp…….how can bj be a better fighter he got destroyed by gsp really i just dont get that statement at all……bj > gsp in the race of who the better fighter is….btu gso > penn twice doesnt add up man! lol
well i think bj is a better fighter and i hate him that loud mouth but going up the weight class makes a bi difference. like some want GSP VS anderson silva which i think is crazy but some hink gsp is a better fighter but going up a weight class would make a big difference.
Justin,
“Fedor Emelianenko obliterated yet another former UFC champion, who the UFC no longer saw fit to employ.”
I wouldn’t say that my friend. Fedor threw a lucky punch, no more no less. If anything Arlovski let him off the hook and made an rookie mistake. Big mistake to throw that flying knee when all his punches were getting through. he was schooling the Last Emperor.
Besides the UFC did want Arlovski back he didn’t want the offer they gave him.
Thank you.. I hate no promotion but this editorial really seemed a little UFC biased. As long as we get fights i’m happy and i don’t bash one promotion for another.
timcat,
I was trying to keep those points concise, so I was unable to give them context, I will give that one some context here.
“obliterated”: Fedor obliterated him in that it was a highlight KO. Lucky or not, rookie mistake or not, it was a highlight worthy KO.
“no longer saw fit”: Arlovski wanted more money than the UFC was willing to pay him. They decided that employing him wasn’t worth what it would cost them, so based on those factors, they no longer saw fit to employ him.
If I were driving a Hummer (real one, not H2) that got less than 10 mpg fuel economy, and I had a set budget to where if my fuel cost passed X dollar amount, I would have to do something different. Then last summer when fuel prices reached nearly $4/gallon here I would, based on what I was willing to pay, and what I was being asked to pay, have decided that I no longer saw fit to drive that vehicle.
Sean,
I never said I wasn’t biased. I don’t like Affliction, you can look on some of the other articles regarding Affliction to find out why. But, this was also an article about the UFC/Zuffa, LLC., and it was an editorial, and by definition opinion based.
Arlovski=Hummer, UFC=Gas. Don’t know if I’ve ever seen a funnier, twisted comparison before. Thanks for the Monday morning chuckle Justin.
willyd,
Sort of.
Arlovski=Hummer, Arlovski’s asking price at contract negotiations=gas prices
And you’re welcome.
Ok, the number of times the word “hummer” has appeared gives me cause to preemptively warn against using “gay” as an insult. Just in case any of our favorite folks stop by.
great job Justin
f**k that diaz is the sh*t he will be back
i knew clay guida was better than diaz except for submissions. the only way for diaz to win was submissions. but guida didn’t look that good in that fight than oth fights
Watch the fight again.The first half of the first/third rounds Diaz was dominating the stand up and after the second round Guida’ own corner told him that he was stalling(just holding on/hugging).
yeh the diaz fight was scored terriably..in my opion he won the 2nd and third round…sub attempts count for somthing right?…guida hung on and grinded out his last 2 wins…WEAK!…Diaz will be back that was a tough one to score but guida has to do more then just hang on during fights if he ever wants the title…
Guida will never win the title.
Just curious about what your issue is with Nate Diaz.
Read this comment where I already answered that question on this thread.
The Diaz brothers can be douches, but man they can fight and have crazy heart. Did you see the beating Nate was taking against Batman? He hung in and slapped on the triangle…..I love this sport.
Arlovski was looking great until he jumped into an over-hand right from Fedor. Now granted he is AMAZING at pulling out a win against ANY opponent, but if you look at Fedor when he threw that punch his face was down, trying to avoid any damage and if that punch didn’t land he would have blasted Fedor with that knee. It was a total hail marry punch, but dammit it worked like a charm. I’d like to see Andre string together some wins and challenge him again.
Completely agree with the lucky punch but hey like you said bottom line is that it worked. I do think however that upcoming opponets will be able to use this as possibly a blue print to beat Fedor. I still think that Randy or Brock could beat Fedor. Randy is still a really underestimated boxer and an extremely good wrestler and master gameplanner so thats why plus Fedor never keeps his hands upjust like in the AA fight and the Fujita fight where he got rocked because he had his hands down basically the entire fight. Brock is just huge and fast and has tiny trucks for fists so Fedor probably wont be able to get him to the ground if Randy couldnt. Also Brocks head is giant and if you look at previous fighters who have a great chin they also have huge heads. Also Brocks striking is becoming more and more dangerous in only his fourth fight(coming up). However i might change my opinion if he gets dominated by Mir.
Randy was Brock’s fourth fight, Mir will be his fifth, but fourth in the UFC.
I’m not so sure brock or randy could beat fedor. randy might. had a really good chance about 5 years ago and brock needs more experience in like a year or so he could kill fedor if he continues to improve.
and i think mir will beat brock. i know mir will do better on the feet this time but i dont think he would get a tko/ko but i expect a submission.