GSP’s departure has come at a devastating time. The UFC is in a rut. TUF has long since stopped being the advertising vehicle/farm system it was years ago. Ratings are down. The worst part of all is that PPV—the UFC’s chief source of revenue—is lagging too. The culprit is a lack of stars, or rather the UFC’s apparent inability to replace the fading ones.
Now they’re short a Canadian superhero, a man who’s drawn an average of 800,000 buys over the last three years. And there are no young studs to pick up the slack. Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez are not fit to carry the company on their shoulders judging by the buyrates on their recent PPVs. The UFC’s young, great ethnic hopes—Tiequan Zhang, Erik Perez, and Erick Silva—haven’t developed as planned. Most importantly, the strategy of grooming Rory MacDonald to be GSP’s replacement has failed (or has at least been delayed).
The UFC’s future is still on the backs of aging warhorses whose knees are beginning to buckle.
GSP’s departure has come at a tumultuous time. The UFC is in a rut. TUF has long since stopped being the advertising vehicle/farm system it was years ago. Ratings are down. The worst part of all is that PPV—the UFC’s chief source of revenue—is lagging too. The culprit is a lack of stars, as well as the UFC’s apparent inability to replace the fading ones.
Now they’re short a Canadian superhero, a man who’s drawn an average of 800,000 buys over the last three years. And there are no young studs to pick up the slack. Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez are not fit to carry the company on their shoulders judging by the buyrates on their recent PPVs. The UFC’s young, great ethnic hopes—Tiequan Zhang, Erik Perez, and Erick Silva—haven’t developed as planned. Most importantly, the strategy of grooming Rory MacDonald to be GSP’s replacement has failed (or has at least been delayed).
The UFC is riding on the backs of aging warhorses whose knees are beginning to buckle.
Yet there is still hope.
GSP is leaving the welterweight division, true. But there are other men primed to take his spot at the top. Welterweight is now a division where anybody in the top 5 or even top 10 could win the belt. It’s a division that’s thrilling and unpredictable for the first time in years. The next champ will be either Johny Hendricks or Robbie Lawler since the two are facing off at UFC 171, but it’s not crazy to think that Carlos Condit, Matt Brown, or even Hector Lombard could hold the belt someday in the near future.
Nobody is saying “Who cares? Silva/GSP/Penn will just murder whoever wins the No.1 contender fight.” This is the benefit of old greats retiring. Belts are open for the taking again. There is no fate but what the fighters make for themselves.
If the UFC can somehow find a way to take advantage of this rather than picking one fighter to promote and hoping they win all their fights (Michael Bisping, Rory MacDonald, Ronda Rousey, etc), the future won’t be quite so bleak as we at CagePotato often make it out to be.
The purpose of the UFC is to make its owners money. The UFC does not exist to feed fighters’ families. There’s not much else to say on this front. Companies have to make money to be viable. Yeah, it sucks that some guys get paid an absurdly small amount of money for what they do, and it sucks that the UFC is upping the PPV price.
That’s just something we have to deal with though. If you don’t like it, vote with your dollar. If enough people tune out, Zuffa’s wallet will know and they’ll either change their tune accordingly or lose money.
2. The UFC is an international company.
There’s been talk about the UFC hiringunfit-for-television jobbers lately. It’s true but necessary. The UFC is headed to distant lands where MMA is in its most nascent stages. The talent pool in these places is more like a mud puddle. The UFC has to work with what it’s given in China and Singapore. Deepening foreign talent pools can only happen by growing the sport overseas, and growing the sport overseas can only happen when they have foreign (foreign to us, home grown to them) fighters on the card. And since there aren’t many great foreign fighters, the UFC has to scrape the bottom of a very empty barrel. This results in fighters getting a place in the “Super Bowl of MMA” who shouldn’t even be in the bleachers, let alone on the field.
(Just keep repeating to yourself, “Nobody’s making me watch this…nobody’s making me watch this…nobody’s making me watch this…”)
The purpose of the UFC is to make its owners money. The UFC does not exist to feed fighters’ families. There’s not much else to say on this front. Companies have to make money to be viable. Yeah, it sucks that some guys get paid an absurdly small amount of money for what they do, and it sucks that the UFC is upping the PPV price.
That’s just something we have to deal with though. If you don’t like it, vote with your dollar. If enough people tune out, Zuffa’s wallet will know and they’ll either change their tune accordingly or lose money.
2. The UFC is an international company.
There’s been talk about the UFC hiringunfit-for-television jobbers lately. It’s true but necessary. The UFC is headed to distant lands where MMA is in its most nascent stages. The talent pool in these places is more like a mud puddle. The UFC has to work with what it’s given in China and Singapore. Deepening foreign talent pools can only happen by growing the sport overseas, and growing the sport overseas can only happen when they have foreign (foreign to us, home grown to them) fighters on the card. And since there aren’t many great foreign fighters, the UFC has to scrape the bottom of a very empty barrel. This results in fighters getting a place in the “Super Bowl of MMA” who shouldn’t even be in the bleachers, let alone on the field.
Furthermore, these fighters — guys like Royston Wee — aren’t meant for us North Americans. The fights on the UFC’s digital network aren’t meant for us either. They’re meant for other markets. It’s fun to take potshots at the UFC for the terrible card quality on the digital network, but it’s a wanking contest. It’s like willfully eating someone else’s dinner and then complaining it wasn’t what you ordered. Zuffa knows we don’t give a fuck about low-level fighters in countries with a non-developed MMA ecosystem. That’s why they’re not airing events packed with those fighters in the US (unless you choose to watch them).
3. Nobody is forcing you to buy every PPV or watch every free card.
If you don’t like a PPV card, don’t buy it and check out the post-event GIFs on the UGr/MMA the next morning.
If you don’t like a Fight Night or TUF Finale card, don’t watch it and check out the post-event GIFs on r/MMA the next morning.
There’s no need to complain about card quality if you’re a fan. Dana White isn’t putting a gun to your head and making you slide out the credit card. Subjection to a watered-down, awful PPV is self-inflicted.
“But I want to watch ALL the fights!” Well, that’s your problem. Free MMA is not a right. Besides, I’m sure you’re the kind of person who’ll find another way to watch the PPV that’s of dubious legality. Ironically, you’re probably the kind of person who complains about fighter pay while stealing from fighters…
4. The UFC is sports entertainment.
There exists a sport that’s pure competition with no entertainment-enhancing aspects to it whatsoever. It’s called amateur wrestling and nobody watches it.
The UFC is not amateur wrestling. The UFC is not a sport; it’s sports entertainment.
There’s no competitive architecture (no, the laughable official UFC rankings — a gimmick to keep non-UFC fighters out of Internet arguments — don’t count). Skill is secondary to star power. The UFC has never been about pitting the two best fighters in the world against one another. It’s been about booking the fights that will draw the most money. This is hardly a novel concept yet so many MMA fans are in ridiculous, quite frankly embarrassing, denial of it. They think that if the UFC is sports entertainment then that somehow makes them as bad as a professional wrestling fan — a “loser” who watches a soap opera meant for prepubescent boys.
No amount of insecurity-fueled rejection can counteract the facts. If the UFC wasn’t sports entertainment, they’d have signed Ben Askren. They’d have never let James Toney, Brock Lesnar, or Kimbo Slice (dis)grace the Octagon. They’d have never given Chael Sonnen, Nick Diaz, or Frankie Edgar title shots coming off losses. They’d have let the fights and fighters shine over obnoxious figurehead Vince McMahon Dana White.
And, of course, there’s the manufactured hype in between fights: “We said all the trash talk just to sell the fight.”
We all watch real fighting with fake, pro-wrestling storylines. It’s called the UFC.
5. The UFC is only 20 years old, they’re not supposed to have their shit together yet.
Whenever the UFC is compared to boxing it’s usually cringeworthy—something like saying two Facebook prelim tomato cans are the MMA equivalents of legendary boxers. One aspect that makes sense to compare, however, is longevity.
Boxing has been a popular sport since time immemorial. The UFC has only been around for 20 years. Yes, MMA in the forms of Pankration and Vale Tudo have been around for a while, but the majority of people don’t know about that and don’t care either; Pankration might as well be a liver disease to them. All they know is “UFC” and boxing. The UFC is new and frightening and weird. People roll around on the floor and cut each other with elbows and knees. They bend each other’s arms the wrong way. Boxing is safe and traditional. Fighters only smash brains into shriveled sponges with punches, so it’s acceptable. This is how people think. Children were even banned from a UFC show in Germany! MMA is still outlawed in New York and use of the cage, MMA’s most recognizable symbol, is banned in parts of Australia.
The UFC, at only 20 years old, has tons of ground to cover, and many issues to sort out. Like an angsty college kid, the UFC is still mapping its future. The path will be littered with both successes and failures.
Nick Newell scored a guillotine choke victory over Sabah Fadai at WSOF 7 last night. It looked like Newell, who’s now 11-0, hardly broke a sweat during the 81 seconds the match lasted.
Nick Newell kicked ass and tore up the regional lightweight scene en route the WSOF. He even left the XFC because he felt he was fighting beneath his level of competition; he wanted UFC veterans and promising prospects. Newell deserves a fight against such an opponent at this point in his career; his abilities surely can’t be denied at this point.
Also of note on WSOF 7: Georgi Karakhanyan defeated the highly accomplished wrestler Lance Palmer to become the first-ever WSOF featherweight champion. Jesse Taylor, the guy who got kicked off TUF for trashing a casino with a drunken possy (except without the possy), won a No.1 contender fight against Elvis Mutapcic. Taylor will now face David Branch for the inaugural WSOF middleweight title.
See other highlights from the weekend after the jump.
Nick Newell scored a guillotine choke victory over Sabah Fadai at WSOF 7 last night. It looked like Newell, who’s now 11-0, hardly broke a sweat during the 81 seconds the match lasted.
Newell kicked ass and tore up the regional lightweight scene en route the WSOF. He even left the XFC because he felt he was fighting beneath his level of competition. Newell wanted UFC veterans and promising prospects. He deserves a fight against such an opponent at this point in his career; his abilities surely can’t be denied at this point.
Also of note on WSOF 7: Georgi Karakhanyan defeated the highly accomplished wrestler Lance Palmer to become the first-ever WSOF featherweight champion. Jesse Taylor, the guy who got kicked off TUF for trashing a casino with a drunken possy (except without the possy), won a No.1 contender fight against Elvis Mutapcic. Taylor will now face David Branch for the inaugural WSOF middleweight title. Check out the complete WSOF 7 results here.
A couple of other important highlights from the weekend, specifically Invicta FC 7: Barb Honchak defended her Invicta FC flyweight title against Leslie Smith. And apparently inaugural titles were in vogue last night, as Lauren Murphy captured the inaugural Invicta FC bantamweight championship by defeating Miriam Nakamoto. Felice Herrig dropped a decision to Tecia Torres. Former Bellator women’s champ Zolia Frausto Gurgel was on the card too but came up short against Vanessa Porto. Here are the card’s complete results.
Also, Leonard Garcia became the Legacy FC featherweight champ by knocking out Kevin Aguilar. We’ve embedded the video for you:
Overall, it was a fun weekend of fights. We had one of the best fights of all time Friday night, followed by some great action on Saturday.
(If only the discs in Brown’s back could’ve been “immortal” too. / Photo via Getty)
We don’t want to freak you out, but curses are real. Our last five posts about UFC on FOX 9 have all been injury related. Our sixth post about the event is worst of all: Matt Brown is out of his fight with Carlos Condit due to a back injury.
The best fight left on the card after a series of injuries ravaged it is gone now. If you’re not keeping score, here’s a rundown of how injury-plagued this fight card has been:
(If only the discs in Brown’s back could’ve been “immortal” too. / Photo via Getty)
We don’t want to freak you out, but curses are real. Our last five posts about UFC on FOX 9 have all been injury related. Our sixth post about the event is worst of all: Matt Brown is out of his fight with Carlos Condit due to a back injury.
The best fight left on the card after a series of injuries ravaged it is gone now. If you’re not keeping score, here’s a rundown of how injury-plagued this fight card has been:
Either way, UFC on FOX 9 is a shadow of its former self. There are still some decent to above-average fights on it, but it’s no longer a must-see, free-card-of-the-year. Bummer.
(If MacDonald’s fighting career doesn’t pan out, he can always get a job as a male model. / Photo via Getty.)
The UFC announced that welterweights Rory MacDonald and Demian Maia would face off at UFC 170 this February. They made the announcement when the MMA world was abuzz with talk about the stellar fight card taking place. You know, the one that hosted one of the most exciting main events ever? So the news didn’t really stick.
Maia is coming off a disappointing loss to Jake Shields at UFC Fight Night 29 back in October. He looked his age, 36, during the fight.
MacDonald recently had his hype train derailed by a resurgent Robbie Lawler at UFC 167, snapping a five-fight winning streak and presumably a fight with Georges St.Pierre.
MacDonald-Maia is good booking. The well-rounded MacDonald is an atrocious match-up for Maia—who has average striking and deficient takedowns. It’s clear that the UFC wants to get their 24-year-old, Canadian prospect back in “the mix” as soon as possible, and the best way to do that is give him a name opponent that he has a high chance of beating. They want to make him their next GSP sooner rather than later.
(If MacDonald’s fighting career doesn’t pan out, he can always get a job as a male model. / Photo via Getty.)
The UFC announced that welterweights Rory MacDonald and Demian Maia would face off at UFC 170 this February. They made the announcement when the MMA world was abuzz with talk about the stellar fight card taking place. You know, the one that hosted one of the most exciting main events ever? So the news didn’t really stick.
Maia is coming off a disappointing loss to Jake Shields at UFC Fight Night 29 back in October. He looked his age, 36, during the fight.
MacDonald-Maia is good booking, at least from a business perspective. The well-rounded MacDonald is an atrocious match-up for Maia—who has average striking and deficient takedowns. It’s clear that the UFC wants to get their 24-year-old, Canadian prospect back in “the mix” as soon as possible. The best way to do that is give him a name opponent that he has a high chance of beating. They want to make him their next GSP sooner rather than later.
Though the main card was high-quality in terms of entertainment value, the prelims were a dull affair. The two highlights: Ben Wall walking out dressed like a furry before getting KO’d in under a minute, and a great scrap between Nam Phan and Takeya Mizugaki that saw the latter’s hand raised via unanimous decision.
The main card started with one of the most technical, evenly matched women’s fights the UFC has ever had. Longtime fighter Julie Kedzie met newcomer Bethe Correia. Too bad that FOX Sports 1 blacked out for many viewers, cutting off the first half of the contest. Furthermore, Greg Jackson’s Matt Serra-level shouting eclipsed some of the action. It’s hard to appreciate what’s going on when all you can hear is Jackson screaming about how amazing a mediocre combo was in order to sway the inept judges.
Dylan Andrews and Clint Hester met next. It looked like they weren’t going to continue the card’s momentum, but they pulled through. The bout had spurts of inactivity, but for every dragged-out clinch or half-guard hangout session, there was at least one fiery exchange or big hit. The fight was stopped in between the second and third rounds on account of a shoulder injury, giving Hester the victory.
Check out the results of the co-main event, main event, and for the TL;DR rundown of the card after the jump.
(Mark Hunt is an artist…who only paints in red. / Photo via Getty)
Though the main card was high-quality in terms of entertainment value, the prelims were a dull affair. The two highlights: Ben Wall walking out dressed like a furry before getting KO’d in under a minute, and a great scrap between Nam Phan and Takeya Mizugaki that saw the latter’s hand raised via unanimous decision.
The main card started with one of the most technical, evenly matched women’s fights the UFC has ever had. Longtime fighter Julie Kedzie met newcomer Bethe Correia. Too bad that FOX Sports 1 blacked out for many viewers, cutting off an early portion of the contest. Furthermore, Greg Jackson’s Matt Serra-level shouting eclipsed some of the action. It’s hard to appreciate what’s going on when all you can hear is Jackson screaming about how amazing a mediocre combo was in order to sway the inept judges. It didn’t work though; Correia took home a split decision victory.
Dylan Andrews and Clint Hester met next. It looked like they weren’t going to continue the card’s momentum, but they pulled through. The bout had spurts of inactivity, but for every dragged-out clinch or half-guard hangout session, there was at least one fiery exchange or big hit. The fight was stopped in between the second and third rounds on account of an Andrews shoulder injury, giving Hester the victory.
The next fight was short and sweet; Soa Palelei came, saw, and conquered Pat Barry‘s consciousness. After shrugging off Palelei’s first takedown, Barry couldn’t duplicate his success. The Australian threw Barry to the mat, passed into mount, and turned off Barry’s brain with a barrage of punches. It was all over in 2:09.
Ryan Bader vs. Anthony Perosh was the first lackluster fight of the night. What was expected to be a squash match for Bader turned into a 15-minute grind fest. Bader earned a unanimous decision victory. There’s not much else to say about it. The fight happened and will be forgotten by tomorrow morning. Let’s move on.
Next up was the co-main event: James Te Huna vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. The “Pride never die” slogan proved true in this fight. Rua lawn chair’d him. The knockout was so impressive Dana White called it “KO of the century” (though Chris Weidman might disagree with that assessment).
Mark Hunt vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva met in the night’s main event and produced the magic that the UFC has been lacking for some time. “Warriors” is thrown around way too much, but the two were warriors. By the end of the 25-minutes, both men were lathered in each other’s blood. Hunt-Silva was a fight were martial artistry erupted into bar-brawling and then reverted back again. Even though it ended in a draw—typically a result that pleases nobody—it wasn’t a mood-killer. We get to see that fight happen again, and we’re pumped for it. There aren’t enough hyperboles to explain how great it was. Watch it. You won’t regret it.
TL;DR: The card was worth the time it took to watch. The fights were competitive and the fighters involved mattered—two traits that are becoming rarer as the UFC holds more and more shows.
Complete Results:
Main Card
Mark Hunt vs. Antonio Silva, majority draw (48-47, 47-47, 47-47)
Mauricio Rua def. James Te Huna via KO (punches), 1:03 of Round 1
Ryan Bader def. Anthony Perosh via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
Soa Palelei def. Pat Barry via KO (punches), 2:09 of Round 1
Clint Hester def. Dylan Andrews via TKO (doctor stoppage), 5:00 of Round 2
Bethe Correia def. Julie Kedzie via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Preliminary Card
Takeya Mizugaki def. Nam Phan via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-28)
Caio Magalhaes def. Nick Ring via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Justin Scoggins def. Richie Vaculik via TKO (punches), 4:59 of Round 1
Krzysztof Jotko def. Bruno Santos via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Alex Garcia def. Ben Wall via KO (punches), 0:43 of Round 1
(If only the discs in Brown’s back could’ve been “immortal” too. / Photo via Getty)
