Somehow for Daniel Cormier, that destroyer of worlds, Anthony Johnson, was just a thing he had to get through, twice. Like a turnstile or a toll station, on the way to a far-off destination.
And now the DC tour bus rolls on. Next stop: Jon Jones….
Somehow for Daniel Cormier, that destroyer of worlds, Anthony Johnson, was just a thing he had to get through, twice. Like a turnstile or a toll station, on the way to a far-off destination.
And now the DC tour bus rolls on. Next stop: Jon Jones.
It’s what Cormier wants and needs, and if all goes well over the next few months (and given Jones’ recent history, that’s a big “if”), the rematch becomes inevitable, and Cormier gets the chance to truly claim the belt that is already his.
Until now, he has remained in Jones’ shadow.
Even on Saturday night, the presence of the 6’4″ former champion loomed over the night’s proceedings. Jones, who is from Rochester, New York, just over an hour’s drive away, made the trip and watched from cageside, glaring at Cormier in the wake of his second-round rear-naked choke victory.
“Is that guy even eligible to fight yet?” Cormier said on the pay-per-view broadcast moments after winning. “Don’t talk to me about a guy that’s ineligible. When you get your s–t together and you’re ready to fight, I’m here waiting for you, young man. I’ve been waiting two years. You got the first one, but you knew after the first one, we had many coming. As a fighter, I respect him, but we don’t see eye to eye. He’s a good fighter, but he’s still not eligible. When he gets his academics in order, he can come back to the classroom.”
While Cormier did his best to portray that he’s the man running the division, the reality is that soon enough, it will be filtered through Jones.
It has to.
Cormier, you may remember, won the championship in the absence of Jones, after the former belt-holder was stripped in the aftermath of an April 2015 hit-and-run that Jones pleaded guilty to.
Despite beating Johnson and Alexander Gustafsson with the belt on the line (and Anderson Silva in a non-title fight), Cormier has never quite been able to win the full respect of audiences who simply can’t erase all of Jones’ brilliance from their minds, let alone the result of the first fight between them, which Jones won by a lopsided unanimous decision.
And for Cormier, therein lies the rub. Despite his amateur excellence, despite his outstanding 19-1 MMA record, his loss to Jones seems to trump all of that, or at least stand out as the most significant result.
It’s not enough to point to his accomplishments and accolades. It’s not sufficient to point to the gold around his waist. He has to erase the one blight on his record; he must beat the man who has never truly been defeated.
Is this fair? Is this right?
No, not really.
Cormier has only played the hands he’s been dealt. He’s welcomed a rematch with Jones and was set to fight him again twice, only to see extenuating circumstances scuttle both pairings.
Jones’ absence for the last year is completely out of his control.
All Cormier can do is fight the best available opponent and continue winning.
When he begs Jones to “get your s–t together,” it’s for a reason. At 38 years old, time is running out.
Finally, things seem to be lining up again for him, even if Jones doesn’t feel as compelled by the bout as some others do.
“I really don’t feel like I have unfinished business with Cormier,” Jones said during a recent media press conference (h/t The Fight Network). “I think I have unfinished business with Anthony Johnson. We’ve had quite a few fights that fell through, but Daniel Cormier, I beat him fair and square. I’m the only guy to ever beat him. So if anyone has unfinished business, I feel he has unfinished business with me.”
Yet that isn’t completely believable. For Jones, there is nothing else and no one else to look forward to once he meets all the conditions to become eligible. Johnson would have been a compelling opponent, but after losing to Cormier on Saturday, Johnson surprisingly announced his retirement, saying he’d decided before the bout that this would be his final time competing.
That declaration was only slightly more surprising than his game plan against Cormier, which consisted largely of clinches and wrestling, two tactics that most observers would have suggested would favor Cormier, a two-time freestyle Olympian.
Instead of focusing on taking advantage of his significant power edge through distance control, Johnson breached the gap between them multiple times, essentially throwing himself into the spider’s web.
“I think Anthony has done so well at knocking people out that when it doesn‘t go his way he panics,” Cormier said on the UFC on FS1 post-fight show. “At the end of day, he’s a wrestler. He goes back to what he knows.”
Even the finishing sequence stemmed from Johnson’s misplays. Early in the second, Johnson managed a takedown, but Cormier got to his feet in a blink and locked in tight, tripped the challenger to the ground and quickly got to Johnson’s back. After a series of short punches, he sunk in the choke for the finish.
In doing so, Cormier proved again that he was the best of the eligible lot; that he remains right on Jones’ heels as the best light heavyweight of the last decade.
But to surpass him, to emerge from that towering shadow, there is only one path there, and that’s beating him.
Cormier can pretend he doesn’t want to hear Jones’ name and that Jones isn’t worthy of stepping back into the same spot he left behind, but the two giants are back on course, and the collision is unavoidable.
There was a time when Gegard Mousasi entered the UFC that he heard boos and whispers.
He’s overrated.
He’s boring.
He’s in over his head.
For anyone who had watched him in the past—say, before the spring of 2013—those kinds of statements we…
There was a time when Gegard Mousasi entered the UFC that he heard boos and whispers.
He’s overrated.
He’s boring.
He’s in over his head.
For anyone who had watched him in the past—say, before the spring of 2013—those kinds of statements were downright head-scratching.
The man who came into the UFC with a gaudy 33-3-2 record was suddenly not that good? The middleweight who once knocked out Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, the fearless one who stepped into the cage with and submitted heavyweight Mark Hunt—MARK HUNT!—in Dream’s Super Hulk Grand Prix tournament, that guy was unexciting?
If it all seemed like nonsense, that’s because it was.
Sure, there was a learning curve for Mousasi, who suddenly found himself in the thick of a division with a good number of wrestlers and with a deeper talent pool, but when he arrived, he still had youth on his side—he was 27 years old—and his skill set still had the ability to dazzle.
Fast-forward a few years, and the now 31-year-old Mousasi is surging in the way that those who’d long followed him had expected. He’s won four fights in a row in dominating style, and a win over former middleweight champion Chris Weidman at UFC 210 Saturday will move him closer to a title shot in a crowded division.
It also may provide him with a sweet payday…or a ticket out of town.
Mousasi has become a subspot of his own at UFC 210 due to the major stakes in play for him, as well as his sudden willingness to candidly discuss his present and future.
Last week, the No. 5 ranked middleweight confirmed to SiriusXM radio host Luke Thomas that he would become a free agent after fighting Weidman.
Given his history of working with Bellator President Scott Coker—Mousasi was the light heavyweight champion in Strikeforce when Coker ran that organization—he is almost certainly going to be the next free agent to go to bid with a likely suitor waiting. And his price will be largely impacted by his Saturday night result.
For Bellator, his utility may bring with it a premium. His willingness to fight in more than one division would allow him to slot into both middleweight and light heavyweight bouts. Coker has continually shown an interest in fighters with that kind of versatility.
UFC President Dana White is known to like Mousasi, but the organization has been surprisingly laissez-faire in letting go of other fighters who in the past likely would never have reached the free-agent stage. If Mousasi goes to bid with a five-fight win streak, he will be among the most coveted free agents to reach the open market.
“Vitor Belfort makes a lot more, Dan Henderson makes a lot more; Michael Bisping, let’s be honest, I would be favored in that fight,” Mousasi told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani in a recent interview. “Now he’s champion, but even before he was champion, he was getting paid a lot more. So I should get what I deserve. I don’t have extreme demands. They should pay me what’s fair.”
Relatedly, the UFC matchmakers have long noted that their job is to set up matches that create contenders. If they do that with Mousasi and the promotion lets him go anyway, well, that makes a statement about the state of the UFC in 2017.
For reference, Mousasi’s last publicly disclosed payday, at July 2016’s UFC 200, was $110,000 ($75,000 fight purse and $35,000 win bonus). In discussing his current contract, Mousasi told Helwani he was being “screwed.”
He can change the negotiating dynamic, but it is all dependent on winning. Oddsmakers currently peg the fight as a pick ’em.
Mousasi, with 34 finishes in 41 career wins, certainly has the finishing instincts to close out Weidman or anyone else in the division. If there is any question about his ability to win this fight, it comes with wrestling. There’s little doubt he’ll be tested in that department against the former collegiate All-American, who has lost two straight fights and has been stopped in both. In the midst of that streak, Weidman will have to consider a more conservative approach that emphasizes his background, particular given Mousasi’s reputation.
“I think he underestimates me a little bit,” Mousasi told Helwani during their interview. “He’s seen my previous fights where I get taken down and relies too much on that. But I know what I can do on a given day when my mind is right, and it is right. And I’ve worked a lot on my defense. I’m not a wrestler, I’m just working on my takedown defense.”
He went on to suggest that Weidman would not get a single takedown against him, and there are reasons to suggest that his confidence in gamesmanship might be rooted in factual basis. According to FightMetric statistics, he hasn’t been taken down a single time in his last seven fights, with opponents going a combined 0-of-11 against him.
That’s a far cry from the 2010 fight that gave him his reputation, when Muhammed Lawal took him down 11 times during a Strikeforce bout.
His win probability will almost directly correlate with takedown defense success. On his feet, Mousasi is a terror, with a disciplined approach that is heavy on a jab that emphasizes distance control but with enough power to punish anyone who tries to wade past it. He also smells blood in the water and capitalizes as well as anyone in the game.
Whether that plays against the rugged Weidman will make or break not just the fight, but his next career move.
Mousasi said he “100 percent” wants to stay in the UFC, but money is known to change minds.
The stakes are high for Mousasi, and if his two goals are to make more money and to contend for the UFC belt, there is a clear roadmap to get there, and it goes through Weidman. And if he wins, the man who entered the UFC with so much promise may finally get both what was expected and what he wants.
There was a time when Gegard Mousasi entered the UFC that he heard boos and whispers.
He’s overrated.
He’s boring.
He’s in over his head.
For anyone who had watched him in the past—say, before the spring of 2013—those kinds of statements we…
There was a time when Gegard Mousasi entered the UFC that he heard boos and whispers.
He’s overrated.
He’s boring.
He’s in over his head.
For anyone who had watched him in the past—say, before the spring of 2013—those kinds of statements were downright head-scratching.
The man who came into the UFC with a gaudy 33-3-2 record was suddenly not that good? The middleweight who once knocked out Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, the fearless one who stepped into the cage with and submitted heavyweight Mark Hunt—MARK HUNT!—in Dream’s Super Hulk Grand Prix tournament, that guy was unexciting?
If it all seemed like nonsense, that’s because it was.
Sure, there was a learning curve for Mousasi, who suddenly found himself in the thick of a division with a good number of wrestlers and with a deeper talent pool, but when he arrived, he still had youth on his side—he was 27 years old—and his skill set still had the ability to dazzle.
Fast-forward a few years, and the now 31-year-old Mousasi is surging in the way that those who’d long followed him had expected. He’s won four fights in a row in dominating style, and a win over former middleweight champion Chris Weidman at UFC 210 Saturday will move him closer to a title shot in a crowded division.
It also may provide him with a sweet payday…or a ticket out of town.
Mousasi has become a subspot of his own at UFC 210 due to the major stakes in play for him, as well as his sudden willingness to candidly discuss his present and future.
Last week, the No. 5 ranked middleweight confirmed to SiriusXM radio host Luke Thomas that he would become a free agent after fighting Weidman.
Given his history of working with Bellator President Scott Coker—Mousasi was the light heavyweight champion in Strikeforce when Coker ran that organization—he is almost certainly going to be the next free agent to go to bid with a likely suitor waiting. And his price will be largely impacted by his Saturday night result.
For Bellator, his utility may bring with it a premium. His willingness to fight in more than one division would allow him to slot into both middleweight and light heavyweight bouts. Coker has continually shown an interest in fighters with that kind of versatility.
UFC President Dana White is known to like Mousasi, but the organization has been surprisingly laissez-faire in letting go of other fighters who in the past likely would never have reached the free-agent stage. If Mousasi goes to bid with a five-fight win streak, he will be among the most coveted free agents to reach the open market.
“Vitor Belfort makes a lot more, Dan Henderson makes a lot more; Michael Bisping, let’s be honest, I would be favored in that fight,” Mousasi told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani in a recent interview. “Now he’s champion, but even before he was champion, he was getting paid a lot more. So I should get what I deserve. I don’t have extreme demands. They should pay me what’s fair.”
Relatedly, the UFC matchmakers have long noted that their job is to set up matches that create contenders. If they do that with Mousasi and the promotion lets him go anyway, well, that makes a statement about the state of the UFC in 2017.
For reference, Mousasi’s last publicly disclosed payday, at July 2016’s UFC 200, was $110,000 ($75,000 fight purse and $35,000 win bonus). In discussing his current contract, Mousasi told Helwani he was being “screwed.”
He can change the negotiating dynamic, but it is all dependent on winning. Oddsmakers currently peg the fight as a pick ’em.
Mousasi, with 34 finishes in 41 career wins, certainly has the finishing instincts to close out Weidman or anyone else in the division. If there is any question about his ability to win this fight, it comes with wrestling. There’s little doubt he’ll be tested in that department against the former collegiate All-American, who has lost two straight fights and has been stopped in both. In the midst of that streak, Weidman will have to consider a more conservative approach that emphasizes his background, particular given Mousasi’s reputation.
“I think he underestimates me a little bit,” Mousasi told Helwani during their interview. “He’s seen my previous fights where I get taken down and relies too much on that. But I know what I can do on a given day when my mind is right, and it is right. And I’ve worked a lot on my defense. I’m not a wrestler, I’m just working on my takedown defense.”
He went on to suggest that Weidman would not get a single takedown against him, and there are reasons to suggest that his confidence in gamesmanship might be rooted in factual basis. According to FightMetric statistics, he hasn’t been taken down a single time in his last seven fights, with opponents going a combined 0-of-11 against him.
That’s a far cry from the 2010 fight that gave him his reputation, when Muhammed Lawal took him down 11 times during a Strikeforce bout.
His win probability will almost directly correlate with takedown defense success. On his feet, Mousasi is a terror, with a disciplined approach that is heavy on a jab that emphasizes distance control but with enough power to punish anyone who tries to wade past it. He also smells blood in the water and capitalizes as well as anyone in the game.
Whether that plays against the rugged Weidman will make or break not just the fight, but his next career move.
Mousasi said he “100 percent” wants to stay in the UFC, but money is known to change minds.
The stakes are high for Mousasi, and if his two goals are to make more money and to contend for the UFC belt, there is a clear roadmap to get there, and it goes through Weidman. And if he wins, the man who entered the UFC with so much promise may finally get both what was expected and what he wants.
The chatter won’t seem to die down, but this time it seems to have some teeth. After on-again, off-again, (now on-again) discussions, the Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. boxing spectacle seems to be closer than ever to becoming official.
J…
The chatter won’t seem to die down, but this time it seems to have some teeth. After on-again, off-again, (now on-again) discussions, the Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. boxing spectacle seems to be closer than ever to becoming official.
Just a few days ago, fighter and podcaster Chael Sonnen, who has offered plenty of inside information in the past, said he’s confirmed with industry sources that the fight is a go.
Still, nothing is confirmed, even if we all know that Mayweather wants it, McGregor definitely wants it, and the UFC would be happy to take a (larger-than-deserved) slice of the action.
In fact, just about two weeks ago, UFC President Dana White told UFC minority owner Conan O’Brien that he thinks the fight will eventually be agreed upon.
“I do think it’s going to happen,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a tough deal. There are obviously a lot of egos involved in this deal and a lot of people, so that always makes it tougher. But on the flip side, there’s so much money involved. I just don’t see how it doesn’t happen.”
While agreeing to the money split has been a laborious process, it seems like we’re past the point that any of the parties involved will be able to turn around and reject the pile of cash coming in their direction.
This marks a major turn of events from the original belief that such a bout could never happen. And I must admit that I have been a skeptic for a long time. For a while, it seemed ridiculous that the UFC would potentially offer up one of its biggest ever stars for a possible thrashing, simply in exchange for a short-term cash infusion. Such a decision seemed pound-foolish and penny-wise. And in some ways, it still does. But here we are.
So, now, as we start to accept the likelihood that one of boxing’s greatest ever will fight a rookie to the sport—and that this somehow will become one of the sport’s biggest money generators—it’s time to wonder what this means for McGregor’s future in the Octagon.
Joining me to discuss is my colleague and MMA Lead Writer, Chad Dundas.
Mike Chiappetta: Chad, if a year ago, we’d been sitting in a bar chitchatting and you asked me if this fight could ever actually happen, I would have sighed, ordered another drink and lectured you about the UFC’s iron-clad fight contracts until you drowned yourself in bourbon.
Now, it seems like it’s inevitable. Mystic Mac saw the future again, and he’s about to make a fortune. Like, a real fortune. Tens of millions. Goodbye-and-you’ll-never-see-me-again kind of money.
If he wants.
At 28 years old, McGregor will generate the kind of payday that may make anyone question whether they ever need to work another day in their lives.
Could that possibly happen? I say no. I think that someone that is so infatuated by material things isn’t going to get out of the moneymaking business at such a young age.
Much more possible is that he takes a lengthy break afterward, because, well, why wouldn’t you? His life has been a whirlwind over the last few years. From welfare to multimillionaire, two UFC championships, a multiple world promotional tours, impending fatherhood.
On top of that, here comes what will without a doubt be the largest payday ever earned by a mixed martial artist (albeit in another sport, but that’s another column entirely). Can you imagine the promotional work and training that will go into it?
For sure, he is likely to need a break at the end.
For me, my question isn’t about so much about whether he fights again—I believe he will lose to Mayweather, and won’t want to end his story in such fashion—but about what it will do to him. There’s a famous quote by the legendary boxer Marvin Hagler about it being hard to train when you wake up in silk sheets.
This affliction hasn’t affected McGregor yet, but fame and money are still fairly new to him. As those two life-changing phenomena continue to permeate his everyday existence, you have to wonder if the exhausting amount of work necessary in a multidisciplinary sport like MMA will wear on him.
Chad, what do you think? Do you think McGregor takes the money and runs? And if not, what kind of challenge would pull him back into MMA? A third world title, a trilogy fight with Nate Diaz or something else entirely?
Chad Dundas: You certainly make some compelling points here, Mike. As you noted, McGregor is still pretty young (he’ll turn 29 in July) and seems so infatuated with the finest things in life, it’s tough to imagine him walking away from the fight game so soon.
On top of that, we have these words from McGregor’s longtime coach, John Kavanagh, reassuring us that the biggest star in MMA isn’t anywhere close to the finish line:
“Like any sport there’s a sell-by date,” Kavanagh told the Irish Mirror recently (via Daily Star). “But Conor is 28; he’s a baby in the sport. I look at Bernard Hopkins, who’s 50, winning world title fights, so Conor isn’t going anywhere soon.”
There are a couple of factors that give me pause, though, and I’ll tell you what they are.
For starters, even if McGregor doesn’t intend to walk away after this Mayweather fight, I wonder if making those “tens of millions” of dollars you spoke about might have the effect of letting the genie out of the bottle for him.
Let’s say you’re Conor McGregor and you make $30 million to lose a lopsided decision to Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match. How interested are you really going to be in returning to the UFC afterward to make less than half that to fight Diaz or Tony Ferguson or Khabib Nurmagomedov? My guess is, not very.
One thing we know about McGregor: He’s continually upped the ante on the UFC in every contract renegotiation. Last we heard, he was asking for an ownership stake in the company before he would return. I seriously doubt that scoring the Mayweather fight would make his demands any more reasonable.
I don’t know. I just have a hard time seeing McGregor and the UFC getting back on the same page after he’s tasted the sweet riches of this superfight.
Second, McGregor obviously isn’t your average fighter. He’s certainly not Hopkins, nor do I think he’s likely to turn out like Anderson Silva, trudging along into his mid-40s as his skill set decays and his place in the sport shifts from top dog to fodder for younger up-and-comers.
The things that have really set him apart—aside from that thunderous left hand—are his brain and his mouth. He knows that, obviously, and he seems self-aware enough not to press on with his fighting career too long, thus endangering his future ability to enjoy all the neat stuff he’s collected into his golden years.
Then again, I just spent an entire one of these articles pontificating with our colleague Jonathan Snowden that nobody seems to know when to walk away from this sport, so who knows.
What do you think, Mike? If McGregor clocks big bucks to fight Mayweather, will the UFC ever get him back into its sway? Or might losing to the boxer actually make McGregor’s future demands more reasonable?
Chiappetta: Let’s take your questions one at a time.
Certainly he will return to the Octagon. I have almost zero doubt of that. The fact is, after fighting Mayweather, nothing is going to pay him the amount of money that he can make by stepping into the cage again.
As long as he puts in a credible performance and entertains the masses, his star should stay on the rise, and the wider sports world should offer him credit for having the courage to step into a master’s world as a rookie.
Assuming that a loss doesn’t diminish his drawing power in any meaningful way, he’ll still have multimillion dollar checks coming his way in the UFC, and even if the per-fight money is less than what he will make for taking on Mayweather, won’t those huge paydays still draw him in? I think they will. Everyone realizes that this Mayweather purse is the payday of a lifetime, so it stands to reason that the ones afterward won’t be quite as large. That doesn’t mean they’re not still enriching.
Now let’s discuss your second question. The way I see it, McGregor’s demands have always been “reasonable.”
All he’s demanded is a bigger share of the pie he’s helped create. When we see UFC pay-per-views bottoming out at 150,000 to 200,000 buys and his headline act draws close to 10 times those numbers, it’s no longer an assumption that he’s responsible. It’s a fact.
It was a pretty open secret that there has been some tension between the McGregor camp and the UFC brass over the sharing of the revenue he generates, and that’s not likely to change after a fight with Mayweather. In fact, it’s likely to increase.
Which leads me to my crazy and completely unfounded question of the day:
Could the UFC secretly want him to lose here?
As I stated, a loss to Mayweather isn’t likely to damage McGregor’s star power much, but it is bound to alter it somehow.
White has spent enough time around the boxing world to know that McGregor’s almost certain to lose, so maybe they are thinking that aside from taking a handsome cut in exchange for lending McGregor out from the promotion, they may weaken his bargaining power a bit and take back some control at the negotiating table?
I acknowledge that this is a tinfoil-hat kind of theory, and most likely, the WME-IMG brass is happy to see its biggest star grow his Q-Rating even higher, but…it wouldn’t exactly be a first to see the UFC undercut one of its stars, now would it?
Chad, look into your crystal ball. First, do you agree that McGregor will find his way back to the UFC cage, and if so, how does a Mayweather experience change his UFC career arc going forward?
Chad: Yeah, I suppose if I had to bet the house on it one way or the other, I’d wager McGregor eventually returns to the UFC. But I’m not quite as certain about it as you are.
I agree that McGregor seems unlikely to turn down future earnings and that he’s given every impression of being a fighter’s fighter up to this point. Perhaps the most likely outcome here is that he goes on being that guy well into his 30s and even his 40s. You know, just like everybody else.
But I also think it’s fair to say that in many ways McGregor has broken out of the mold of the typical MMA fighter. Since his arrival on the big stage in 2013, he’s been smarter, shrewder and flat better at most aspects of the fight game than almost anyone in recent memory.
So, if you told me that McGregor is at work on a larger, more cunning plan—to get his money and get out with his health intact—I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that, either.
The extra and perhaps most tenuous layer to this onion is the notion that the UFC and McGregor can go on partnering long term, when it’s clear the two sides are working vehemently at cross-purposes.
Like you, I think the UFC understands the importance of protecting its investment in its biggest—and, at the moment, perhaps only—legitimate pay-per-view star. Also like you, however, it’s easy for me to imagine that UFC brass might not hate the notion of Mayweather taking McGregor’s political clout down a peg with a solid beating in the boxing ring.
Still, I doubt McGregor sees it that way. I don’t know how many ultramarketable matchups the UFC can serve up for him moving forward. I also doubt McGregor will settle for anything besides a larger and larger slice of the pie.
You and I agree that’s “reasonable,” but I’m not sure the fight company agrees.
Chances are, they figure it all out. But I’m still holding onto a slice of cynicism that says this relationship can’t go on as is forever. Somebody’s going to have to give a little, and so far I’m just not sure who that is going to be.
Taking full advantage of a rare lull in the mixed martial arts schedule, Bellator took the offensive by setting off a surprise bombshell meant to show its strength while putting a dent in the UFC’s seemingly impenetrable armor when it announced a pay-p…
Taking full advantage of a rare lull in the mixed martial arts schedule, Bellator took the offensive by setting off a surprise bombshell meant to show its strength while putting a dent in the UFC’s seemingly impenetrable armor when it announced a pay-per-view event. In Madison Square Garden. Headlined by ChaelSonnen and Wanderlei Silva.
The fight world raised its eyebrows at the aggressive act directed by company president Scott Coker and immediately set about speculating as to whether this was a declaration of war against the UFC.
At any rate, its audacity is something to behold.
The pairing will certainly have both its admirers and detractors. On one hand, this is a feud that has raged for years without a proper conclusion, nearly ensuring the interest of longtime fight fans. On the other hand, there’s no question the matchup is happening a few years too late.
Sonnen is 39 years old and has lost four of his last five fights, including his Bellator debut in just over two minutes, while Silva, age 40, hasn’t competed in four years.
No matter what, the event stands to be polarizing, and joining me to discuss it is Bellator Lead MMA Writer Chad Dundas.
Mike Chiappetta: Chad, I guess the first thing everyone decided upon after hearing this was whether they thought this was a good idea. And I must admit, my initial reaction was negative, only because I feel like it emphasizes some of the seedier elements that MMA has to offer.
Sonnen vs. Silva is long past its prime. After years and years of wear-and-tear, both fighters are physically compromised and can no longer be considered elite performers.
While I have no doubt their interaction leading up to the match will be entertaining and perhaps even compelling, you ultimately plunk down your cash for the in-cage performance, and I can’t imagine the current version of Sonnen-Silva will live up to what it might have been even four years ago. It is essentially a nostalgia act.
In some arts and entertainment platforms, that’s perfectly fine and harmless fun. It’s more difficult to see it that way in a sport where injuries can be long-term. It’s one of the reasons I shudder at the thought of Vitor Belfort’s “Legends League” idea, and it basically applies here.
Aside from that, both of these guys have drug testing issues and suspensions in their backgrounds. While that shouldn’t disqualify them from competing, it’s not a great message for the rest of the roster to be rewarding two guys who are just months removed from doing time for violating PED rules.
And yet…
I can’t help but think this pay-per-view will do OK. I don’t see it as a blockbuster, but its built-in storyline is going to get attention. Sonnen will make some headlines. Silva will threaten him in a way menacing enough to convince some people to part with their cash. Bellator will remind us of all the time we spent waiting to see these two punch each other in the face.
As a commodity, it’s a viable fight.
Chad, what were your thoughts upon hearing the news? Did your old-school heart flutter?
Chad Dundas: The lead-up to Sonnen vs. Silva will be absolute bedlam, Mike. If Bellator was looking for a feud to pin its PPV hopes to, it couldn’t do much better than matching the silver-tongued Sonnen against Silva’s straight-up berserker rage.
Frankly, I’ve been looking forward to this fight since before Sonnen‘s ill-fated bout with Tito Ortiz at Bellator 170—which even at the time seemed like Chael just wanted to get it out of the way so he could get to Wanderlei.
Granted, I admit my excitement for this long-overdue grudge match was built on the idea fans would get it live and free on Spike TV, and suddenly slating it for PPV raises every possible stake. That makes me a touch worried for the company that this effort might blow up in its face, but I’m not going to prematurely announce it dead on arrival, either.
It’s hard to even debate whether this fight will sink or swim on PPV without really knowing what Bellator‘s goals are for it. The last time the company tried its luck at a for-pay card was May 2014, and the event headlined by Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. MuhammedLawal sold around 100,000 buys on PPV, according to reports at the time.
I believe this card can do better than that, especially since early indications are that Bellator will do its level best to stack it from top to bottom. We’ve already heard that the once-postponed meeting between FedorEmelianenko and Matt Mitrione will be the Sonnen-Silva bout’s co-headliner.
With Ryan Bader announcing Monday on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwanithat he’s officially Bellator bound, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a light heavyweight title fight against Phil Davis land on this card, as well.
So, while Bellator 180 isn’t going to smash any records, I’m cautiously optimistic it can turn a profit. If that’s all the organization needs—to prove to its Viacom overlords that under Coker‘s steady hand it can run the occasional self-sustaining PPV—then I think this card has the potential to be modest success.
There’s a big “IF” here, though, Mike.
This show’s success or failure will depend largely on Bellator‘s ability to land this event on PPV without significant changes to the card. If Sonnen or Silva, Emelianenko or Mitrione pulls out at the last minute, it could be a disaster.
You think it can do that? These are two fights that have been called off at least once before, after all. What are the odds they both make it to the finish line this time around?
Mike: Look at you, tapping into Coker‘s deepest, darkest fears. And it is a legitimate reason for concern. We previously mentioned the ages of the headliners, and it’s obvious that older bodies don’t respond to training the same way younger ones do.
While Sonnen has a great track record of showing up on fight night, Silva has been scratched from bouts multiple times, and as recently as last December, when he was supposed to make his return to action with the Rizin fight promotion.
For sure, everyone involved with Bellator has to cross their fingers and pray that these two (particularly Silva) don’t overdo it in their training and make it through camp. That said, that part is completely out of the promotion’s control.
Remember, this scenario burned Bellator once before, when it booked Ortiz against Jackson atop a November 2013 show earmarked for pay-per-view. Just a week before the event was set to go off, Ortiz was scratched due to injury, and Bellator shifted the card over to its broadcast partner, Spike.
That plan B is always available, although Bellator will only break the glass in case of an absolute emergency.
The effort to build a major show like this comes with significant costs, though. With the attempts to create awareness, marketing budgets get strained. It almost feels to me like a test shot.
Speaking of Spike, I think it’s worth noting here that the Viacom-owned cable channel is soon to be rebranded as the Paramount Network, and with it will come a drastic change in programming. Perhaps this pay-per-view is an attempt to find out the true value of the Bellator brand and where it can fit in the new landscape.
In that way, I think this show will be more important behind the scenes than it may seem. Sure it’s an attempt to increase revenue, but it’s also an indicator of its current standing within the Viacom universe.
As a bellwether, it will be interesting to see how this offering compares against Bellator‘s first foray into pay-per-view, which you noted did 100,000 buys.
Three years later, the final number will allow us to draw some conclusions about whether Bellator has made real forward strides in its brand identity with fans.
The floor for UFC events has lowered over the last couple of years. The big shows do huge numbers, but the smaller ones have dipped to the point that UFC 206, headlined by Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis, did just 150,000 buys, according to MMA Payout.
That number seems within Bellator‘s reach, doesn’t it?
While I acknowledge that this show brings with it some easy appeal, I have my doubts about its reach past the usual MMA hardcores. Ultimately, Chad, do you think Sonnen-Silva breaks through the noise and pulls a larger-than-expected audience to part with their cash?
Chad: I’ve been amazed at the numbers Bellator‘s senior circuit has been able to pull so far during its Spike TV broadcasts.
February 2016’s twin bill featuring Kimbo Slice vs. Dada 5000 and Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie drew 2.5 million viewers, a record rating for the cable channel. Just a couple months ago, Sonnen vs. Ortiz peaked at 1.85 million viewers, which was also considered quite good.
I have no idea quite how to explain this phenomenon—that Bellator‘s stable of past-their-prime stars can still engender this much curiosity from MMA’s rank and file. All I can think is that the numbers are driven by part pure nostalgia, part by old allegiances and part by the spectacle Bellator has been able to create using this matchmaking philosophy.
Now, obviously, getting people to tune in for a free TV broadcast is a world away from convincing them to dig out their wallets to plunk down money for PPV.
But at the very least we know that up to this point there has been interest in seeing these aging lions get out there and try to turn back the clock. We also can bet nobody is going to drum up spectacle like Silva and Sonnen.
Add to the mix that this fight card will go down at Madison Square Garden in New York City and I’d be surprised if Bellator doesn’t garner some increased media attention as the hype for this event hits the home stretch.
Frankly, if you’re a fight promoter, I’m not sure what else you can ask for. You know this approach has worked on cable, you’ve got two terrific salesmen and a venue that is hallowed ground for combat sports.
Why not roll the dice on PPV? And remember, it’s not like Bellator is dipping its toe in with the idea it wants to try to pull off monthly PPVs, a la the UFC. At least not yet. It just wants to see if the occasional blockbuster card pays extra dividends.
Will it work? I have no idea.
But I don’t think it’s crazy. And I don’t blame Bellator for giving it a go.
Throughout most of the UFC’s history, it has been the light-heavyweight division that has been its showcase group. But the home of all-time stars including Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Jon Jones has not been so glamorous lately.
With Jo…
Throughout most of the UFC’s history, it has been the light-heavyweight division that has been its showcase group. But the home of all-time stars including Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture and Jon Jones has not been so glamorous lately.
With Jones out on an extended suspension due to a failed drug test, the 205-pound division has been headlined by an excellent fighter, Daniel Cormier, who nevertheless is viewed by many as something of a paper champion. The top contender, Anthony Johnson, while terrifying, is someone who has already lost to Cormier. And the rest of the division’s top 15 is mostly comprised of aging veterans and rising youngsters who have yet to prove anything at the highest level.
In short, it could use a new contender.
Jimi Manuwa may or may not be that guy. There are certainly arguments against it. For one thing, he’s 37 years old. Time is not his friend. He’s also already lost to Johnson—albeit on short notice and just after surgery—as well as Alexander Gustafsson.
But on the other hand…
This guy has some fire in his hands, doesn’t he?
If you didn’t see Manuwa’s first-round knockout of Corey Anderson Saturday night in the main event of UFC Fight Night 77 in London, it was a thing of beauty, a one-hitter-quitter left hook that landed flush against the temple and put Anderson out.
“I always thought I was in that elite group,” Manuwa said during the UFC post-fight press conference. “It was a matter of putting the performances together and I’ve done that twice in a row. It’s time now.”
The man can crack. That much is sure. And that makes him an intriguing name to watch in a division that desperately, desperately needs it.
It would be hard to disagree that Manuwa is fun to watch. He brings an element of danger and volatility, risk-taking and vulnerability that is alluring to most fans. He lives on the edge, a kill-or-be-killed type of fighter who prefers to direct a controlled shellacking but also can’t help to engage in a firefight if the need or the situation arises.
And that matters in the new-look, WME-IMG-owned UFC, where the show is as important as the athletic competition.
UFC has Cormier vs. Johnson 2 coming up April 8. That’s a fine and good fight. Cormier faced some danger last time around, suffering a first-round knockdown before rallying to a third-round submission win. By all accounts, either man can win, and most sports books have it listed as a pick ’em, per OddsShark.
Beyond that, however, the division is mostly a mess with no real direction. Who might challenge the winner? Jones is supposed to return in July to a probable title match, but given his recent history, he cannot be seen as a sure thing. Gustafsson, ranked No. 2 behind Johnson, has lost two of his last three, although he has a chance to improve upon that when he faces Glover Teixeira in May.
No. 3 Teixeira had a 13-second knockout loss to Johnson within the last year. No. 5 Mauricio “Shogun” Rua has won three in a row for the first time in his decade-long UFC tenure, but it will be a difficult sell to promote him as a title contender when he’s faced retirement pressure for years before this.
That doesn’t leave many options, so the UFC could do a lot worse than Manuwa.
For the Brit, it was about the best result he could have hoped for when he accepted the fight in front of his hometown crowd.
Conversely, for Anderson, it was a lost opportunity. A rare 20-something UFC light-heavyweight on the rise, Anderson came in with wins in four of his last five, with only a heavily disputed split-decision loss to Rua marring that stretch.
A victory over Manuwa would have vaulted him into the top five, yet he never came close to hurting Manuwa or slowing him down.
Instead, the whole way through, Manuwa looked to be the better and more powerful dominant fighter, stuffing multiple takedown tries and firing off the sharper, stronger strikes.
His brand of explosiveness is what makes him so marketable. In a division that needs somebody new to stand out, he did that Saturday night. That won’t only get him notice; it will also get him a big fight. Maybe even the biggest fight.
Manuwa said after the fight that he wasn’t much interested in fighting Jones.
“I greatly respect him, but he’s banned for steroids and that taints everything,” he said. “When he comes back I’ll fight him, no question. But I’m focused on the belt now and that’s the winner of DC and Rumble Johnson.”
Of course, it’s not really his call.
The only thing he can control is what he does in the cage, and at that, he’s quite good. Elite? Maybe not yet, but he’s in the conversation. And more than that, it’s easy to picture him alongside those elite names. Manuwa-Jones? Manuwa-Cormier? Manuwa-Johnson 2? If you’re an MMA fan, all of those matchups can’t help but bring a smile to your face,
The UFC’s former glamour weight class these days brings as many shrugs and groans as cheers. With his win Saturday night, Manuwa offered a rare shot of adrenaline to his division, and that’s a win of its own.
Somehow for Daniel Cormier, that destroyer of worlds, Anthony Johnson, was just a thing he had to get through, twice. Like a turnstile or a toll station, on the way to a far-off destination.