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UFC 140 Fight Card: Which Fighter Has the Most to Gain?

UFC 140: Jones vs. Machida is set to take place this Saturday, Dec. 10, at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The main event features light heavyweight belt-holder Jon Jones against former champ Lyoto Machida. One of the cool things about MMA …

One of the cool things about MMA events is that, even in the deepest bowels of the undercard, you routinely have drama. Guys making their debuts, fighting for their jobs, etc. You’ve got kickboxing vs. jiu-jitsu, Brazil vs. Japan and lots of other interesting stylistic matchups.

If you know the players and their stories, you can get sucked into literally every single fight. Easily.

That said, some fights come a little more drama-packed than others. So who has the most to gain Saturday night?

If you saw the article from yours truly on who has the most to lose, you might wager that Claude Patrick—stepping in on short notice for an injured Rory MacDonald against rising veteran Brian Ebersole—is my pick.

But he’s not. It’s a good pick, but where’s the sport in that? Whither the intrigue, man?

So instead, I’m picking the challenger in the evening’s main event: Mr. Machida.

I’m telling you: This guy gets dissected and reconstituted and picked apart again more regularly and thoroughly than any other non-champion or non-Chael Sonnen fighter out there.

Is his distinctive karate style “The Next Big Thing,” or is it already outmoded? Is he the sport’s true great enigma, or just smoke and mirrors? A defensive wizard, or an offensive troll?

With a win this Saturday, Machida doesn’t just have a chance to silence all the talk (or at least get all the talkers back on his side). He has a chance to reestablish the continuum of the Machida Era.

A win over Jones—probably the most fantastic and heavily hyped athlete in the sport today, and possibly ever—could erase those losses to Shogun Rua and Quinton Jackson. Suddenly, Machida’s defeats—and not his victories—would be the outliers once again.

And if he loses? Well, it’s Jon-freaking-Jones, for goodness’ sake. He’s a very heavy favorite right now, and with good reason.

Unless Machida gets knocked out in 20 seconds and pees himself on the way down, no one is going to think a great deal less of him. It would simply reaffirm Machida’s status as a very good fighter who doesn’t have the formula to consistently overtake the great ones, of which Jones is undoubtedly one.

In other words, Machida is playing with the casino’s money in this one. A win would show he has the tools not only to wear the gold, but beat the house.

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UFC 140: Which Fighter Has the Most to Lose?

UFC 140: Jones vs. Machida is set to take place this very Saturday, Dec. 10, at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The main event pits light heavyweight champ and LeBron-level phenom Jon Jones against former champ an…

As usual, though, there are nuggets of intrigue across the card, if you know what to look for.

Can Nik Lentz get back on the horse? Can undefeated lightweight John Makdessi continue his ascendance? Will Dennis Hallman spit in the eye of Dana White and all that is good in the world and wear Speedos for the second consecutive time?

Truly speaking, there’s drama in every fight, because everyone has something to gain and something to lose. Nevertheless, some have more on the line than others.

Who has the most to lose in this one? My vote goes to welterweight Brian Ebersole.

Originally scheduled to face scorching-hot prospect Rory MacDonald on the main card, following an injury from MacDonald, Ebersole finds himself matched with a different Canadian in Claude Patrick, who was plucked from an undercard match with Rich Attonito.

MacDonald (12-1) would have been one of the biggest fights of Ebersole’s career. A win—and maybe even a good showing—would have placed him solidly in the contender conversation at 170 pounds. Patrick only has three fights in the UFC, is not a top-30 welterweight in any major world ranking, and doesn’t have one-tenth the name recognition of the countryman he replaces.

And yet, Patrick, 31, is 14-1 in his MMA career. He is a seriously good fighter. In his last engagement, he scored a solid decision win over UFC veteran Daniel Roberts. The jiu-jitsu brown belt has nine wins by submission in his career.

That grappling pedigree would seem useful against Ebersole, who loves to bang, but is a wrestler at heart. Maybe the ground games negate each other, and a standup war ensues. Ebersole might like that.

But Patrick has some Muay Thai skills, too, and could use the clinch to try and stifle Ebersole’s unorthodox attack.

Patrick actually reminds me of another unsung fighter who makes a long-overdue UFC debut as a result of an injury fill-in. That fighter is one Brian Ebersole, who entered the Octagon for the first time last February.

That’s part of what makes this such a delicate situation for Ebersole. A win will constitute nothing more than a meeting of expectations. (Odds-makers currently have him as the favorite, though not by a landslide.)

If he loses, it will be to the same relative no-name he was himself less than a year ago. Despite an impressive 2-0 UFC run over the past 10 months, Ebersole still isn’t that far removed from cannon fodder status. A setback against Patrick could land him right back in the cannon.

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Constructing MMA’s Mt. Rushmore

Even on a figurative level, carving Mount Rushmore is no easy task. Not because of who you include, but who you omit.How can you narrow down an entire history to only four faces?But I suppose if the United States can do it for the history of its presid…

Even on a figurative level, carving Mount Rushmore is no easy task. Not because of who you include, but who you omit.

How can you narrow down an entire history to only four faces?

But I suppose if the United States can do it for the history of its presidency, we can do it for mixed martial arts. The goal is not to include every single person who ever made a contribution to the sport. It’s to canonize those who are larger than life and who embody certain things that go beyond the linear narratives of their careers, as illustrious as those might be.

So here are the four people I would carve onto the Mount Rushmore of MMA. As the original sticks to presidents only, this one sticks to fighters only (sorry, Dana). These are the fighters I thought best embodied the sport, its history and its evolution. Since there are no honorable mentions etched in the South Dakota mountainside, I am including no such list here.

Have a different lineup? Fine with me. Feel free to sound off in the comments.

The “heads” are listed in no particular order.

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15 of MMA’s Biggest Cult Heroes

A cult hero is generally defined as a person who engenders a passionate following from a relatively small but dedicated fan base. Think about that quirky indie rock band. That underground movie. Pabst Blue Ribbon. The McRib sandwich.In a…

In a lot of ways, MMA, despite its burgeoning popularity, is still very much a cult sport when compared to the Cowboys and Yankees and Crimson Tides of the world. Because of all the, how should I put this, blood, it will probably never fully ingratiate itself to Main Street USA. That doesn’t mean it can’t be tremendously successful. It’s just never going to be everything to everyone.

That simple reality—that you’ll never appeal to all demographics and, come to think of it, probably don’t want to anyway—is part of what makes a great cult hero. And it’s part of what makes MMA fans among the pound-for-pound most knowledgeable and passionate on the planet. They don’t just love their sport. They protect it. They preach it.

That cult mentality probably explains why those fans so greatly value and enjoy the cult heroes who color the history of their favorite cult sport.

So these are the cult heroes within the cult hero.

These 15 guys represent old school and new, good guy and bad, great fighters and, eh, less great. They’re all here. Although I did restrict this to actual fighters, with the goal of keeping the list manageable and at least something of an apples-to-apples proposition.

Also keep in mind that, while many of these fighters are popular, this is not strictly a popularity contest. Most of these fighters won’t appear on a cereal box any time soon.

But don’t tell their fans that. You might be standing in that corner for a looooong time.

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25 MMA Fights Fans Want to See, but Will Never Happen

With so many fighters in the UFC, it’s kind of hard to make every match fans want to see. Organizations like Bellator and Strikeforce add to the permutations. Injuries, aging, weight-class jumping and ever-shifting title pictures further…

It stands to reason, then, that there are simply some matchups that, tantalizing though they may be, will simply never happen. Here are the 25 most salient examples.

By and large, this list sticks to active fighters (so no Chuck Liddell vs. Jon Jones), fights that have never happened (so no Penn-St-Pierre III) and matchups in the same weight class or where a plausibly addressed discrepancy exists (so no Jose Aldo vs. Brock Lesnar). In other words, we’re dealing with the real world as it stands right here, right now.

(Photo credit: URdirt)

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TUF 14 Finale: Power Ranking the Winners from Every Season

The finale of the 14th season of The Ultimate Fighter is going down Dec. 3 in Las Vegas. For the 20th and 21st times, Dana White will dole out the glass plaque and the vaunted “six-figure contract.” The evening’s headline …

The finale of the 14th season of The Ultimate Fighter is going down Dec. 3 in Las Vegas. For the 20th and 21st times, Dana White will dole out the glass plaque and the vaunted “six-figure contract.” The evening’s headline fight features coaches Michael Bisping and Jason “Mayhem” Miller in a middleweight bout.

Now allow me to switch to the wider lens for a moment. This season will be the show’s last on Spike TV, as it will reportedly move to FX as part of the UFC’s blockbuster deal with Fox. Though you have to say that any show lasting 14 seasons is a major success, TUF’s ratings have been uneven through the years. FX will apparently spice up the show by adding more live fights and other bells and whistles, the eyeball-drawing power of which remains to be seen.

What is certain—and what I believe will always keep TUF relevant on some level—is the show’s ability to find and groom fighters who are actually viable at the UFC level.

Like reality juggernaut American Idol, TUF is only as legitimate as the winners it produces. If every TUF champ went down the tubes as quickly as he came up, it wouldn’t be compelling television. The stakes wouldn’t be “real.” Luckily for the show, then, plenty of TUF competitors have made their mark in the Octagon, and continue to do so to this day.

With that in mind, here’s a ranking of every TUF champ.

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