These days it’s tough to align oneself in a position to challenge a champion for his title. The general idea that a contender rises through the chaos with multiple significant victories to rightfully earn his shot at gold has been exposed as litt…
These days it’s tough to align oneself in a position to challenge a champion for his title. The general idea that a contender rises through the chaos with multiple significant victories to rightfully earn his shot at gold has been exposed as little more than a comfortable idea.
Simply tearing through a division and eliminating the high-caliber talent just isn’t enough these days. Regardless of how impressive your feats as a fighter are, if you’re the owner of an everyman personality, you’re not likely to be filling that main event slot.
Need a perfect example? One need look no further than Jon Fitch. Not only was the man recently exiled from the promotion—shockingly—he’s been blackballed by the UFC for years.
Ironically, the main complaint surrounding the man and his performances is his inability to finish. Remember that current champion Georges St-Pierre hasn’t finished a fight in well over four years. In fact, he’s finished just one opponent in his last eight bouts.
Double standards, anyone?
What makes St-Pierre such an embraced champion has actually become somewhat puzzling. I’ve always been a fan of the man’s work, as I think he’s brilliant inside the cage, but truth be told, his personality is the antithesis to what is touted and sold by the organization today as “marketable.”
GSP is nice, friendly, approachable…all the things the UFC isn’t looking for these days. The champion is in effect just like Fitch. Well, Fitch prior to becoming so disgruntled.
With the UFC’s inconsistent divisional practices it’s all but impossible to say any one thing ensures a title fight. However, here are a few things a fighter can do to guarantee he travels one step closer to that belt.
These days it’s tough to align oneself in a position to challenge a champion for his title. The general idea that a contender rises through the chaos with multiple significant victories to rightfully earn his shot at gold has been exposed as litt…
These days it’s tough to align oneself in a position to challenge a champion for his title. The general idea that a contender rises through the chaos with multiple significant victories to rightfully earn his shot at gold has been exposed as little more than a comfortable idea.
Simply tearing through a division and eliminating the high-caliber talent just isn’t enough these days. Regardless of how impressive your feats as a fighter are, if you’re the owner of an everyman personality, you’re not likely to be filling that main event slot.
Need a perfect example? One need look no further than Jon Fitch. Not only was the man recently exiled from the promotion—shockingly—he’s been blackballed by the UFC for years.
Ironically, the main complaint surrounding the man and his performances is his inability to finish. Remember that current champion Georges St-Pierre hasn’t finished a fight in well over four years. In fact, he’s finished just one opponent in his last eight bouts.
Double standards, anyone?
What makes St-Pierre such an embraced champion has actually become somewhat puzzling. I’ve always been a fan of the man’s work, as I think he’s brilliant inside the cage, but truth be told, his personality is the antithesis to what is touted and sold by the organization today as “marketable.”
GSP is nice, friendly, approachable…all the things the UFC isn’t looking for these days. The champion is in effect just like Fitch. Well, Fitch prior to becoming so disgruntled.
With the UFC’s inconsistent divisional practices it’s all but impossible to say any one thing ensures a title fight. However, here are a few things a fighter can do to guarantee he travels one step closer to that belt.
Bellator—as much as Dana White would probably hate to admit it—has some excellent fighters under contract. Although the promotion’s roster is still rather small, there’s some serious depth on display in the Bellator cage. The fo…
Bellator—as much as Dana White would probably hate to admit it—has some excellent fighters under contract. Although the promotion’s roster is still rather small, there’s some serious depth on display in the Bellator cage.
The following list is comprised of the best the promotion has to offer, all of whom I feel could successfully compete inside of the Octagon. But what’s amazing is that beyond these 10 men, there are others already showcasing the talent required to compete on the biggest stage the sport knows.
Whether you’re pro-Bellator, anti-Bellator or completely indifferent, it needs to be understood that this is a company driven by talent, first and foremost.
The best guys in the sport not competing under the Zuffa-owned UFC banner? Most of them are fighting for Bellator.
With the Spike deal moving forward successfully, expect to see more talent board ship in the future. Right now, there may only be a handful of marquee names that call Bellator home, but the chances of that changing inside the next year look good.
When Strikeforce held its final event on January 12, 2013, the MMA world asked: Who would officially make the leap to the UFC?Better yet, could a Strikeforce competitor prove a dominant force inside the Octagon? Would the Strikeforce talent pool spawn …
When Strikeforce held its final event on January 12, 2013, the MMA world asked: Who would officially make the leap to the UFC?
Better yet, could a Strikeforce competitor prove a dominant force inside the Octagon? Would the Strikeforce talent pool spawn the same surprises that the WEC merger produced?
We haven’t had much time to formulate accurate answers to those questions yet, but we’ve seen some surprising work from a handful of Strikeforce standouts thus far. At this point, it’s too early to predict future UFC champions who once campaigned as Strikeforce regulars, but the potential certainly looks to be there.
Look at Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, for instance. He will challenge Cain Velasquez for the heavyweight title at UFC 160. Will he enter that bout as a favorite? No, absolutely not. But the fact that he’s challenging the best in the world says quite a bit.
I’m not sure Dana White has made an attempt to bite his tongue once inside the last eight to 10 years. The man says exactly what he thinks, and sometimes exactly what he thinks the media needs to hear. As a promoter, to an extent, that is his job…
I’m not sure Dana White has made an attempt to bite his tongue once inside the last eight to 10 years. The man says exactly what he thinks, and sometimes exactly what he thinks the media needs to hear.
As a promoter, to an extent, that is his job. It’s hard to fault a guy for being genuine as well as passionate. That said, there have been plenty of occasions in which White probably took things a little too far.
White has become known as much for his brash talk as his excellent work as the UFC’s voice. He’s engaged in too many feuds to count, targeting everyone from media to fellow promoters to promotions in general.
The man takes no prisoners. He simply leaves carnage and controversy in his wake. And if you think he omits, or misses any opportunity to chuck a nasty comment as his perceived nemesis, you’re terribly, terribly wrong!
Transgender mixed martial artist Fallon Fox has been making heavy headlines as of late. Fox (whose birth name is Boyd Burton) has expressed a strong desire to compete within the UFC ranks, and it’s rubbed a series of female (and male) fighters th…
Transgender mixed martial artist Fallon Fox has been making heavy headlines as of late. Fox (whose birth name is Boyd Burton) has expressed a strong desire to compete within the UFC ranks, and it’s rubbed a series of female (and male) fighters the wrong way. In fact, just about everyone in the MMA community with a voice has weighed in on the topic.
Joe Rogan, famed voice of the announcement team for the UFC, recently launched into a vicious tirade on his own Rogan Experience Podcast. He’s not exactly keen on the idea of Fox competing against other women.
Check out what Rogan had to say.
“She calls herself a woman but… I tend to disagree. And, uh, she, um… she used to be a man but now she has had, she’s a transgender which is (the) official term that means you’ve gone through it, right? And she wants to be able to fight women in MMA. I say no f*cking way. I say if you had a d*ck at one point in time, you also have all the bone structure that comes with having a d*ck. You have bigger hands, you have bigger shoulder joints. You’re a f*cking man. That’s a man, OK? You can’t have… that’s… I don’t care if you don’t have a d*ck any more.”
Those are some harsh words, but many will point to some validity in Rogan’s assessment.
Potential foe, Allanna Jones, has expressed her displeasure with meeting Fox inside a cage, noting that whether or not Fox now walks as a “woman”, she “was still born and developed a man.” There can obviously be no denying that (here’s an attached pic if you somehow feel this is a massive conspiracy theory), and it isn’t difficult to understand the general ire the situation as a whole has spawned.
Today another female fighter speaks out and this time we’re hearing from a woman already signed by the UFC, and already positioned as a highly ranked female combatant. In fact, we’re talking about a woman who has already held a major title: Miesha Tate, former Strikeforce belt holder.
You can bet the remarkably durable Tate doesn’t fear Fox. Tate’s been in a few serious wars (including her savage loss to Ronda Rousey at Strikeforce) in her career and has showcased a more diverse attack than your average female combatant. In short, she’s completely capable of beating the brakes off most women competing today. She may very well be able to dispose of a few men as well.
None of that changes her viewpoint.
Speaking with ESPN, Tate made her concerns known, stating, “I just have a lot of questions and I don’t feel there’s been enough research to safely say it’s OK for Fallon Fox to fight other females. My concern is that she went through puberty as a man. Does that change bone density? Does it change her body frame?”
Tate’s question marks clearly echo Rogan’s, although she’s taken a bit more of a professional approach when addressing the matter.
Whether Fox, who has had just two professional fights (both of which ended with Fox seeing her hand raised after securing stoppage victories), ever gets a chance to prove her skills as a mixed martial artist inside the coveted Octagon remains to be seen.
At this stage of the game, Fox still has a large mountain to climb before being considered as a deserving addition to a promotion as powerful as the UFC.
We may all be jumping the gun here, but the general consensus is obvious: Fox isn’t a welcomed commodity in the WMMA world.
The only other major question still floating about is if Fox’s story will birth enough public controversy to rake in some significant pay-per-view numbers? That’s a tough one to answer, but if Dana White sees potential dollar signs, the world could be in for a major, major surprise in the future!
