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UFC on Fox: Will FX Change the Ultimate Fighter Live Running Time?

I just finished watching the third episode of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Live on FX channel. The episode aired last Friday, March 23, 2012 in a one-hour time block. This season has been revolutionary for the series and for the UFC as a company.The new …

The new season features live fights that air each week instead of previously taped contests like in seasons past. The UFC has also moved the show to the FX network as part of their seven-year television deal with the Fox family of networks, putting the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the sport of mixed martial arts in millions of living rooms each and every Friday night for the next several weeks.

This season has been one of the most entertaining in a long time. Coaches Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber are both champions of the sport and they know what it takes to make it at the UFC level. In 2007 Urijah Faber was the World Extreme Cagefighting 145-pound featherweight champion and Cruz was the young gun looking for a signature win to add to his resume.

Faber won their first contest with relative ease, but Dominick was a newcomer at that time, not quite ready for where the sport could take him.

Flash forward to 2011 and Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber met again at UFC 132, this time they were fighting for Cruz’s 135-pound UFC bantamweight championship. Cruz took the nod in a back and forth affair in their second bout. And now on July 7, 2012 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Cruz and Faber will have their rubber match, a third chance to prove who is the better man.

Even though this season of TUF Live has been pretty epic, and even considering the knockouts in the first two in-house episodes of the show; this season is still missing something in its execution.

When I sat down this evening to finally watch last weeks’ episode I was disappointed by one glaring mistake that reared its ugly head for the second week in a row.

What was this mistake you ask?

Well, the mistake is that this show runs in a one-hour time block on FX and many people, like myself, must tape it on a DVR to watch later. The glitch is that the show is running about five to ten minutes over the one-hour time block. Therefore, I miss the announcement of the official winner and the next fight pick each week.

I have been a dedicated viewer of this show since season three and it is disheartening to miss an important part of each show due to a timing error. I hope this mistake is fixed soon. The network could simply add another 15 time slot onto the show and it would solve this issue.

Is anyone else out there experiencing this too? I just want to see the entire show and support the sport. Surely, FX will fix this minor problem soon and there will absolutely no complaints from this writer about the show in the future.

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UFC 145 Preview: An Early Breakdown of Jon ‘Bones’ Jones vs. ‘Suga’ Rashad Evans

This is the hottest feud in the MMA world today.Current UFC light heavyweight champ Jon “Bones” Jones is coming off the most remarkable year in the history of the sport. In January 2011, Jones was viewed as an up-and-coming guy and a little more than a…

This is the hottest feud in the MMA world today.

Current UFC light heavyweight champ Jon “Bones” Jones is coming off the most remarkable year in the history of the sport. In January 2011, Jones was viewed as an up-and-coming guy and a little more than a year later, Jones is thought of by most as unbeatable.

A meteoric rise might be a bit overused at this point, but either way Jones has taken the UFC light heavyweight division and put it in his fireproof safe that he keeps in his office. Lyoto Machida is the only man in the UFC to win a round over Jones and he was then promptly Superman-punched in the face and choked into a deep slumber.

Jones has already said he wants to fight four times this year, as he did the previous one. If that is true, he plans on walking through Rashad Evans and at least two other top contenders inside of this calender year. Not much to say there but “wow!”

Rashad Evans is the former UFC light heavyweight champion. He won the title at UFC 92 in December 2008 by knocking out then-champion Forrest Griffin. He was knocked silly in a bout with Lyoto Machida, and in the ensuing three years he has fought only four times.

There are several factors that have led to Evans’ inactivity. Suga was forced to wait to fight Quinton “Rampage” Jackson when Jackson decided he would rather make a movie than fulfill his obligation to the UFC. Evans then chose to wait for a title shot as Mauricio “Shogun” Rua recovered from knee surgery following his UFC 113 title win over Machida. While waiting for Shogun to recover, he suffered his own knee injury and was forced to withdraw.

So, the story ends there, right? I mean, surely Evans’ 2011 would get easier. Nope. Evans was then passed up by former teammate Jones who destroyed Shogun and won the championship. And to round out 2011, Evans was forced to wait for his grudge match with Jones because of a strange situation with Jones’ hand.

After beating late-replacement Tito Ortiz last fall and Phil Davis this January, Evans now will finally get his second crack at the title and his first chance to back up all of the talking that he and Jones have been engaged in over the last year.

For those of you that have not, for whatever reason, heard about their feud, here is a very brief synopsis:

Jon Jones and Rashad Evans used to be training partners at Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA in New Mexico. In an interview, Jones basically said that if he were asked by his bosses, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta, to fight Evans, he would do it keep his job. Evans got upset by this and kinda lost it. Jones stepped in for an injured Evans and won the title. Evans felt disrespected, left the New Mexico training center for greener pastures, and they have hated each other ever since.

After Jones pulled out of their proposed fight late last summer, Evans stepped up the trash-talk and with wins over Tito Ortiz and Phil Davis and he now gets his shot at Bones Jones.

In the upcoming slides I will break down the aspects of this fight that I see making the biggest difference.

Begin Slideshow

UFC 2012: A World Without Brock Lesnar

The pastI have been complaining about people still clinging onto any vestige or reason to mention Brock Lesnar, shaken and confused that the biggest draw in the history of mixed martial arts is gone.Yes, he was the UFC heavyweight champion and I am not…

The past

I have been complaining about people still clinging onto any vestige or reason to mention Brock Lesnar, shaken and confused that the biggest draw in the history of mixed martial arts is gone.

Yes, he was the UFC heavyweight champion and I am not one of the haters that will say that he was awful or that he had no skills. I completely acknowledge what Lesnar accomplished in a short time in the UFC. I do have an issue with the fact that he was pushed to the top too fast, though.

The fact Lesnar was pushed rapidly up the ladder by Dana White and the UFC is not much of a surprise and it worked out very well for them. He could have been a much better, complete warrior had he been given time to develop. However, we do not know if he would have suffered the diverticulitis regardless of his training and other factors.

Had the UFC decided to let Lesnar develop slowly, and he still ended up being sidelined with the disease, he never would have captured the title in all likelihood and the company would have missed out on a lot of revenue. Let us not forget he was the biggest draw in MMA history. So, even though I disagree with the UFC’s extremely fast push of Lesnar, it is easy to understand the UFC’s decision from a business standpoint.

On Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, at UFC 141, Lesnar was easily dismantled by an equally powerful heavyweight, current No. 1 heavyweight contender Alistair Overeem. As soon as the fight was over Lesnar announced he was leaving the sport for good. The ride was over.

The present

Fast forward to the present day. It is now March 2012 and the UFC is scrambling to replace its biggest draw.

Lesnar was very polarizing and he could sell a fight with his crass, macho nature better than anyone. Jon Jones and Georges St-Pierre have also proved to be draws along with UFC middleweight champion and pound-for-pound kingpin Anderson Silva, but not a single one of these men has brought in pay-per-view numbers in the realm of what Brock Lesnar did.

With GSP sitting on the sidelines for all of 2012 and Silva not competing until summer, a lot of the current pressure is on current light heavyweight champion Jones to fill the void left by the man with the big sword tattoo.

Can the UFC recover its pay-per-view numbers of 2008-2010? It is very possible, but a few changes must happen to ensure that.

The future

Can the UFC bring in pay-per-view numbers in the millions buy stratosphere without Brock Lesnar? The answer is yes, although it will most likely not be soon.

The main issue at hand is that although we don’t want to admit it, MMA has a long way to go to enter the realm of soccer, football, baseball, basketball or hockey. At this point it is a long shot to have a mixed martial artist who can draw simply off being an MMA fighter.

Brock Lesnar was the biggest pay-per-view draw in UFC history by far and most of his buying power stemmed from the fact that he was already a famous, polarizing figure known widely for his time in the WWE. The UFC exploited who he had been and it keep the money and the interest flowing.

In reality, the UFC must now come to terms with the fact that in the future, it cannot rely on the Brock Lesnars of the world to solve its problems with acceptance to the mainstream audience.

A move to the FOX family of networks goes a long way, but when the day comes that guys like Jon Jones and Junior dos Santos can draw huge numbers off their fighting fame alone, then the sport will have made it to the big time.

Brock Lesnar, thank you for the excitement and attention you brought to the UFC. However, now we must create homegrown MMA talent. The days of the novelty types who have to have a former fame to draw is going to have to come to an end for MMA to reach that next level.

The day for this is approaching but it definitely not here yet. Expect to see similar types of guys coming into the Octagon for awhile. (Example: Cung Le is a similar type of fighter who is much more famous for his kickboxing background and movie work than he is for his MMA career.)

The UFC will survive and flourish in a world without Brock Lesnar, but it simply will not see pay-per-view success on his level until the fanbase increases to a level that will bring in that big of an audience willing to pay for it.

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After Seeing the Beating Joe Warren Incurred, Late Stoppages Must End

As with most MMA fans, I do not like seeing fights end early. I was at UFC 96 three years ago when Aaron Riley was the victim of a bad stoppage. This being said, late stoppages are beginning to concern me.Of course, I am a little fired up after watchin…

Of course, I am a little fired up after watching Bellator 60 this past weekend but I think I am justified in my concern. Last year seemed to be my year of campaigning against the current scoring system. It appears that this year I’m going to keep my attention fixed on the late stoppage issue.

This issue has already been on my radar for some time now. I first got really worked up over this hot topic while watching UFC 111. Shane Carwin blasted Frank Mir with several punches to the side of the head while Mir was clearly sprawled face first on the mat and appeared to be already unconscious. In that particular fight Carwin looked up at the referee as if to say, “Do you want me to keep hitting this defenseless man?”

As a longtime fan of mixed martial arts, the UFC and many other organizations, I am no stranger to violence. Obviously if I didn’t condone the actions of these athletes I wouldn’t tune in. However, there is a way to protect these men and women from themselves and that is with good referees.

What we saw this past Friday, March 9, 2012 at Bellator 60 is just plain unacceptable. I have heard people trying to defend the referee and a lot of what has been said makes some sense but I simply do not agree at all. A referee has to take some blame in this situation because they are the ones who are right there.

The fight I am referring to was the Bellator Fighting Championships featherweight title match between Joe Warren and Pat Curran. In round three Curran hit Joe with a brutal combination of knees and punches that left former champion reeling. Instead of stopping the fight when it was clear that Warren was turning away and not defending himself, the referee let Joe Warren absorb several shots to the head that were beyond unnecessary.

It is rare that I am afraid for a fighter’s well being, but this is definitely one of those times. Warren had to practically be carried back to the backstage area. Former UFC fighter Sean McCorkle voiced a similar concern after he saw how bad of shape the former featherweight champion was in.

It is always said that if a person is not intelligently defending themselves then the fight needs to be stopped. Joe Warren was not defending himself for the last 15 seconds of that fight and I cannot believe the referee didn’t step in before that.

The bottom line here is that a good referee such as Herb Dean would have stopped this fight much sooner. Until we get better referees this is going to continue to happen. I just don’t want to be entertained by watching someone get permanently damaged. Yes, this sport is violent, but we are a civilized after all. Aren’t we?

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UFC: With Bellator Free Agency Looming Should Hector Lombard Sign with the UFC?

Hector Lombard has been on a tear in Bellator Fighting Championships ever since he joined the organization. In the almost three years that Lombard has fought for Bellator, he has racked up a perfect 8-0 record with seven knockouts while capturing the c…

In fact Lombard has not lost since November 5, 2006 at Pride Bushido 13. Since that date he has been unstoppable. Hector “Lightning” Lombard is now an incredible 24-0-1 in his last 25 fights with 15 knockouts in that span.

His naysayers will point out that he has faced lesser competition which may be true. However, what they cannot deny is his dominance and his amazing streak of 25 fights and five years unbeaten in the cage. It truly is an amazing feat.

Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney recently announced that Hector would be a free agent this spring after his contract expires. The American Top Team athlete can field offers from other companies such as the UFC. Bellator then has 30 days to match the offers with only shot to provide the middleweight champion with a contract that would keep him with BFC.

Dana White has recently said that he was approached by many people in Australia about getting Hector Lombard in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. And from what was said he may be headed there sooner rather than later. White said that “if he wants to fight in the UFC, then we’ll probably end up with him.”

With comments like that from UFC President Dana White the future could provide Hector Lombard with more athletic challenges, more exposure and most importantly, more money is his pocket.

To me this couldn’t have occurred at a better time. With Anderson Silva fighting Chael Sonnen this summer and the UFC’s middleweight division starting to stack up with more and more talent, Lombard would fit in nicely.

And really there aren’t a whole lot of challenges out there for UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Silva has brushed off the idea of moving up to light heavyweight to fight Jon Jones, it appears unlikely that a superfight between he and Georges St-Pierre will ever happen and there are not a lot of challenges left for him.

If Silva defeats Chael Sonnen again in June there are really only a handful of notable challengers left including Michael Bisping, Dan Henderson (who Silva already defeated in 2008), Rousimar Palhares and possibly now Lombard. Beyond that there seems no one who could even make the Spider break a sweat.

Should Hector Lombard sign with the UFC? After winning 24 fights in a row and defeating all comers not in the Octagon, it seems a no brainer to get him into the UFC where he can be truly tested. Hopefully the UFC brass will come up with a good deal and get him in the Octagon soon.

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UFC 144 Fight Card: How Much Will Size Factor into the Main Event?

Frankie Edgar is probably the smallest lightweight in the UFC, however he is the world champion. Frankie has been a fighter that has taken that factor to heart. The champ just doesn’t care if you are bigger than him, he just wins.Frankie’s only loss wa…

Frankie’s only loss was to Gray Maynard a few years ago, which he has more than avenged now. Although his opponent tomorrow night towers over him, “the Answer” is not blinking.

Edgar’s opponent is the calm, confident former WEC lightweight champion Ben “Smooth” Henderson. After losing his belt to Anthony Pettis at the finale event of the WEC, Henderson has demolished all three opponents he has faced in the Octagon.

A lot of people seem to think that both of these men possess similar skills, and I can see why. The champion and the challenger both succeed with outstanding wrestling skills and fast, calculated striking, slipping in and out of range quickly.

What this fight really comes down to is size in the end. At the press conference, Henderson looked like he outweighs Edgar by 20 pounds. It is really quite striking when the difference is right in front of you.

The real debate is whether the size will be a factor or not in this bout.

Gray Maynard was a much larger fighter in the Octagon than Frankie, however, in the last two bouts Edgar was able to survive an early onslaught and watched Maynard slow down in the later rounds while he was only getting stronger.

I can see Henderson getting physical with Frankie a bit and getting early advantages. I can see Henderson tagging Edgar with some good standing strikes. But, we must remember that Edgar is durable and can also use superior boxing to get in and out of range.

Yes, size will be a factor in this fight. It will keep Ben Henderson in the bout, however, it will not win it for him. I still see Frankie Edgar leaving the arena with the belt.

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