Author: SethF

CagePotato Roundtable #29: What’s Your Wildest MMA Prediction for 2014?

Free Cage Potato dog
(2014: The year that Dana White buys this dog. For Bjorn Rebney. Too soon?)

When former CagePotato.com contributor Jason Moles announced his retirement in 2013, it appeared that there wouldn’t be a “Crazy Enough to be True” predictions column for 2014. Rather than let the opportunity to make outlandish assumptions about the state of our favorite sport pass us up, we’ve decided to offer our wildest ideas in the form of a CagePotato Roundtable. Read on for our picks, share yours in the comments section, and please continue to send your ideas for future CagePotato Roundtable topics to [email protected].

Ben Goldstein


(Mariusz Pudzianowski defends his UFC Poland Super-Heavyweight Title against honorary polack Bob Sapp. / Photo via Sherdog)

Though the UFC once laid claim to the title of fastest-growing sport, the promotion has begun to hit its ceiling in the United States. And they know it — which is why they’ve been pushing so hard for World Fucking Domination lately. After finding major success in international markets like Canada and Brazil, the UFC has been busy laying the groundwork in overseas locales as far-flung as Singapore, India, Turkey, and Poland.

The problem is, none of these upcoming markets have the talent pool available to produce a world champion in the foreseeable future. Or a top contender. Or a fighter who could credibly compete anywhere on a pay-per-view main card. That’s why I’m predicting that 2014 will see the unveiling of individual UFC titles for countries/continents. I mean, Vitor Belfort is already the middleweight champion of Brazil, right? They might as well give him a belt and make it official.

Free Cage Potato dog
(2014: The year that Dana White buys this dog. For Bjorn Rebney. Too soon?)

When former CagePotato.com contributor Jason Moles announced his retirement in 2013, it appeared that there wouldn’t be a “Crazy Enough to be True” predictions column for 2014. Rather than let the opportunity to make outlandish assumptions about the state of our favorite sport pass us up, we’ve decided to offer our wildest ideas in the form of a CagePotato Roundtable. Read on for our picks, share yours in the comments section, and please continue to send your ideas for future CagePotato Roundtable topics to [email protected].

Ben Goldstein


(Mariusz Pudzianowski defends his UFC Poland Super-Heavyweight Title against honorary polack Bob Sapp. / Photo via Sherdog)

Though the UFC once laid claim to the title of fastest-growing sport, the promotion has begun to hit its ceiling in the United States. And they know it — which is why they’ve been pushing so hard for World Fucking Domination lately. After finding major success in international markets like Canada and Brazil, the UFC has been busy laying the groundwork in overseas locales as far-flung as Singapore, India, Turkey, and Poland.

The problem is, none of these upcoming markets have the talent pool available to produce a world champion in the foreseeable future. Or a top contender. Or a fighter who could credibly compete anywhere on a pay-per-view main card. That’s why I’m predicting that 2014 will see the unveiling of individual UFC titles for countries/continents. I mean, Vitor Belfort is already the middleweight champion of Brazil, right? They might as well give him a belt and make it official.

Case in point: TUF China debuted last month. Coached by a UFC near-washout and a guy you’ve never heard of, the season will produce a completely irrelevant winner, who’s only fit to beat up other irrelevant curtain-jerkers from countries that aren’t the U.S., Brazil, Canada, or England. While the novelty of seeing native Chinese fighters (or Turkish fighters, or Polish fighters, etc.) will get local fans tuning in, eventually the UFC will have to throw these people a bone to keep them happy, because watching your home country’s fighters get smashed as soon as they face legitimate competition isn’t fun.

And so, the UFC will do the smart thing and have these guys/gals fight exclusively within their own borders for secondary titles. And maybe, if one of these regional champs goes on a long win streak, he/she will be called up to the prelims of a UFC on FOX Sports 1 card, where you might actually get to see them compete. Until then, us North Americans will only be able to watch the UFC’s new regional superstars on that digital subscription service thingy they’re selling, and if you think we’re coughing up any more money to the UFC for that bullshit, you are out of your got-damn mind.

Nathan Smith

It is well known that UFC President Dana White is a loose cannon when he is in front of a camera or a microphone. The “Baldfather” has no filter and basically shoots from the hip no matter the topic, the fighter, or the reporter in his crosshairs. He has taken some heat for profanity-laced rants in the past, but there has never been any real punishment from the Fertitta brothers (at least not publicly).

After Georges St. Pierre’s somewhat cryptic and confusing comments with Joe Rogan following his UFC 167 victory, Dana White launched into a diatribe at the post-fight press conference saying that GSP owed the UFC something more. Fast forward a day or two and Lorenzo Fertitta backtracked on White’s words by basically apologizing (even though he never actually said “Sorry”). In the past, Fertitta has never come to cover White but after the amount of flack being thrown because of White’s comments, it was evident that some things needed to be clarified.

Though White’s obscenity-filled tirades have been far and few between as of late, it is only a matter of time before Mount Dana erupts. When he does — because of falling ratings, a network deal that has not produced as expected or a slew of other factors — I believe that the Fertittas will in fact publicly chastise White. Whether it is a fine or a suspension or just a good old fashioned public tongue lashing, White will finally be the one on the other end of a heated lecture (and he will have earned it after the years of insensitive comments he has made).

Jared Jones


(Photo via Getty Images.)

Between 2010 and 2011, Matt Brown went 1-4 in the octagon, with all of those losses coming via second round submission. Although not one member of the MMA media dared say it to his face, they had all but written him off as just another slightly above-average TUF alum who couldn’t hack it in the big leagues. “Get out of here!”  they’d shout once he had turned his back, “Why can’t you just go back to where you came from?

I don’t know if Brown wished upon a shooting star or sold his soul to the SKOAL Gods in return for Jax fists, but something amazing happened when he reemerged in 2012. Something…supernatural. Come to think of it, it was probably voodoo.

In the past two years, Matt Brown has gone 6-0 in the octagon with 5 TKOs. Five. Brown has fought like a man possessed (by voodoo), scoring wins over young guns (Jordan Mein), crafty veterans (Mike Swick), and previously undefeated hype machines (Stephen Thompson) alike. His last performance against Mike Pyle was, by definition, a flawless victory. Of all the career comebacks we witnessed in 2013, Brown’s was far-and-away the most impressive, if only because of the utter mediocrity that preceded it. In fact, of the nominees we listed in our “Most Unexpected Career Comebacks” roundtable last March, only Brown and Cub Swanson have managed to remain undefeated to this day. No, GSP *doesn’t* count, because he was defeated by both Johny Hendricks and old age.

What is the point of all this hyperbolic, redundant, and mostly fabricated backstory? Only that Brown has entered the prime of his career and is destroying whoever is placed before him with a combination of Zen-like tranquility and Pedro Lopez-like brutality. The dude is untouchable, “Immortal” you might even say (*crickets*). Like Bernie in Weekend at Bernie’s 2 when conga music is playing (which again, voodoo). And now that GSP has decided to step away from the sport, the UFC’s welterweight division has transformed from a grappler’s purgatory into a brawler’s paradise. Lawler vs. Hendricks will most likely be a slugfest for the ages, and when title fights are suddenly being decided by who can stand and trade leather the longest, Brown is as good a candidate as any to get that gold.

Until he done went and slipped his disc again, that is, forcing him out of his fight with Carlos Condit and the title shot that would’ve come after he won via murder. But rest assured, the year of The Rhino The California Kid “The Immortal” is coming. And that year is 2014.

Seth Falvo

Believe it or not, things are actually much worse for TNA Impact! Wrestling than they were merely two months ago when I first wrote about their sad state of affairs. As in, “holding shows in high school gymnasiums” worse. I firmly believe that 2014 will be the year that this company finally kicks the bucket, to the apathy of nearly every wrestling fan on the planet. And the wrestlers proudly featured in the company’s final pay-per-view main event when this happens? Don’t hold your breath waiting for one of them to be AJ Styles. Same goes with Jeff Jarrett. Ditto Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Abyss, and anyone else whose name was once synonymous with the company.

No, Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz will be the ones headlining TNA Impact! Wrestling’s final pay-per-view.

Yeah, I know how everyone this side of Parts Unknown rolled their eyes at Rampage and Tito’s appearances in TNA last year, but the company is losing so much money and has so few wrestlers left that I think Viacom sends these two once-strong pay-per-view draws back to TNA Impact! Wrestling as a last-ditch effort to find people willing to buy a TNA pay-per-view. Sure, even the most brain-dead among us *looks directly at Jared…who is holding up a mirror. Well played.* can see the holes in this logic, but desperate times call for desperate measures; this is especially true when you consider that Viacom brought in Rampage and Tito to headline a pay-per-view in the first place. This will obviously end badly — even for a company that considers 50,000 buys a smashing success — leading TNA Impact! to close its doors shortly afterwards.

Sure, the idea of Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz headlining the final TNA Impact! Wrestling pay-per-view is completely ludicrous, but if you expect anything different from Dixie Carter, you’ve clearly never actually watched one of her company’s shows. Oh how I envy your ignorance.

And finally, here’s Doug “ReX13″ Richardson to wrap things up.

Frustrated by dwindling PPV buys, Dana White starts hinting at “big fucking changes, like, huge” coming to Fox. Speculation abounds.

Zuffa announces that it is resurrecting Strikeforce for a new weekly primetime show on FS1. In a stunning move, Scott Coker returns to captain the ship, and “Wednesday Night Strikeforce” is born. His decision to include occasional kickboxing bouts in the broadcasts is hailed as visionary, as “WNS” quickly outstrips viewership numbers from the TUF lead-in. Meanwhile, UFC PPV cards are cut back to eight per year, and buy rates promptly skyrocket.

Coker leads the fight for better pay of fighters, proposing a tiered salary system that guarantees a minimum $48K to fighters under the Strikeforce banner. He suggests a format change to the now-ubiquitous Ultimate Fighter program, which now sports no less than eight spinoffs across the world. His idea, a weekly interview and highlight show recounting the various incarnations of TUF worldwide, is embraced by the blogosphere, but roundly rejected by White, as is the salary gambit.

Tensions between Coker and White continue to mount for the remainder of 2014. In December, Dana White and Scott Coker both start hinting at “big fucking changes, like, huge” coming to Zuffa. Speculation abounds.

Have your own “crazy enough to be true” predictions for 2014? You know what to do.

Last-Second Christmas Present Ideas: War Machine Launched a Clothing Line, Y’all.


(MICROSOFT PAINT IS ALPHA MALE SHIT! Photo courtesy of Alpha-Male-Shit.myshopify.com. Of course we aren’t joking.)

Do you have some last-second Christmas gifts to buy for the MMA fans in your life? Do said fans often find themselves looking at MMA t-shirts and thinking “Yeah, this assortment of glitter, botched Hanzi and skulls is fantastic, but I need something a little more ridiculous.” Do you have no problems with dropping twenty-five bucks on a shirt that was blatantly designed in Microsoft Paint, and probably in under twenty seconds?

Then do I have some excellent news for you: War Machine has launched a clothing line – subtly called “Alpha Male Shit” – and it is exactly what you’re assuming it is.

Alpha Male Shit solves the dilemma that apparently alpha males face all the time: How does one demonstrate how badass he (or she!) is while doing everyday things like grocery shopping, visiting the zoo or mowing the lawn? The answer, obviously, is to wear a shirt proclaiming that you do Alpha Male Shit; this way, even the alpha male getting his teeth cleaned can remind his dentist that he’s usually more awesome than this. If you think I’m joking, then take a look at what appears to be the brand’s signature design (I base this squarely off the fact that there are four variations – including a female version! – of it in the shop right now):


(MICROSOFT PAINT IS ALPHA MALE SHIT! Photo courtesy of Alpha-Male-Shit.myshopify.com. Of course we aren’t joking.)

Do you have some last-second Christmas gifts to buy for the MMA fans in your life? Do said fans often find themselves looking at MMA t-shirts and thinking “Yeah, this assortment of glitter, botched Hanzi and skulls is fantastic, but I need something a little more ridiculous.” Do you have no problems with dropping twenty-five bucks on a shirt that was blatantly designed in Microsoft Paint, and probably in under twenty seconds?

Then do I have some excellent news for you: War Machine has launched a clothing line – subtly called “Alpha Male Shit” – and it is exactly what you’re assuming it is.

Alpha Male Shit solves the dilemma that apparently alpha males face all the time: How does one demonstrate how badass he (or she!) is while doing everyday things like grocery shopping, visiting the zoo or mowing the lawn? The answer, obviously, is to wear a shirt proclaiming that you do Alpha Male Shit; this way, even the alpha male getting his teeth cleaned can remind his dentist that he’s usually more awesome than this. If you think I’m joking, then take a look at what appears to be the brand’s signature design (I base this squarely off the fact that there are four variations – including a female version! – of it in the shop right now):

The irony of this shirt will undoubtedly be lost on anyone who buys it earnestly: Genuine alpha males aren’t constantly looking for approval and validation from others. Wearing a shirt that says “I do Alpha Male Shit” as a way to remind everyone how dominant are tough you are proves that you definitely aren’t the alpha male you claim to be. In fact, if you’d wear a shirt like that for non-ironic purposes, you’re pretty much the real life Mac from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Simply put, the shirt is a joke, no matter how you wear it, so you might as well wear it in a way that demonstrates that you’re in on the joke. Maybe buy some rope chains and Ring Pops to complete your outfit.

War Machine’s line of clothing also includes a “Politically Correct BULLSHIT” shirt, a tribute to Phil Baroni that took maybe ten seconds to design, and an “Alpha Male ABCs” shirt that is sure to get your grandmother to ask you what cypionate is.

Al Bundy, you know what to do….

@SethFalvo

Six Things the UFC Can Learn from the WWE Going Into 2014


(On second thought, make that seven things. Photo via With Leather.)

By Seth Falvo

On paper, my timing couldn’t possibly be worse. Aside from the fact that there are dozens of “What the UFC can learn from the WWE” articles on the Internet, last week’s edition of Monday Night Raw – the company’s flagship television program – brought some of its worst viewership numbers of the past fifteen years. With this week’s edition competing against a Monday Night Football game between two teams still in playoff contention for the casual fans, it’s doubtful that those numbers improved by much.

So then why am I writing yet another article about what a company that sells choreographed “fights” experiencing some of its lowest viewership numbers can teach the UFC? Because the WWE’s idea of “terrible numbers” involves only averaging 3.53 million viewers. To put that into perspective, the TUF 18 Finale main card drew 1.129 million viewers. That’s right, the WWE is in panic mode because their weekly Monday night show only attracted three times as many viewers as a UFC event.

Don’t worry, I’m not about to suggest that the UFC resort to ridiculous storylines, assigning character gimmicks to fighters, forcing celebrity guests into shows, forming an ill-advised partnership with a dying pro-wrestling promotion, or any of the other things that would make most MMA fans roll their eyes. Nor am I going to ignorantly blame the UFC for less than spectacular fights, controversial finishes, and other things that a legitimate sports league cannot possibly be expected to control. On the contrary, my first suggestion is something that the UFC actually used to do better than the WWE…


(On second thought, make that seven things. Photo via With Leather.)

By Seth Falvo

On paper, my timing couldn’t possibly be worse. Aside from the fact that there are dozens of “What the UFC can learn from the WWE” articles on the Internet, last week’s edition of Monday Night Raw – the company’s flagship television program – brought some of its worst viewership numbers of the past fifteen years. With this week’s edition competing against a Monday Night Football game between two teams still in playoff contention for the casual fans, it’s doubtful that those numbers improved by much.

So then why am I writing yet another article about what a company that sells choreographed “fights” experiencing some of its lowest viewership numbers can teach the UFC? Because the WWE’s idea of “terrible numbers” involves only averaging 3.53 million viewers. To put that into perspective, the TUF 18 Finale main card drew 1.129 million viewers. That’s right, the WWE is in panic mode because their weekly Monday night show only attracted three times as many viewers as a UFC event.

Don’t worry, I’m not about to suggest that the UFC resort to ridiculous storylines, assigning character gimmicks to fighters, forcing celebrity guests into shows, forming an ill-advised partnership with a dying pro-wrestling promotion, or any of the other things that would make most MMA fans roll their eyes. Nor am I going to ignorantly blame the UFC for less than spectacular fights, controversial finishes, and other things that a legitimate sports league cannot possibly be expected to control. On the contrary, my first suggestion is something that the UFC actually used to do better than the WWE…

Put Over Your Talent Instead of Expecting it to Just Happen

There was a time not too long ago when I would have told you with a straight face that the UFC was better at creating stars out of its roster than the WWE could ever dream of being, simply because they could turn even the most boring personalities like Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes into intriguing fighters. Yet these days, I honestly wouldn’t be able to pick Hyun Gyu Lim out of a line-up, despite the facts that he holds two brutal knockout victories in the organization and is about to headline an upcoming card. The UFC’s new formula for getting fans to invest themselves into a fighter is basically “let’s hope everyone magically decides to follow a winning fighter’s career,” despite how poorly that strategy has been working.

No matter how hard we try to pretend we’re above valuing emotional investment in a fighter’s personality over said fighter’s actual accomplishments, the numbers that Jon Jones, Renan Barao, Benson Henderson and Demetrious Johnson bring in don’t lie; you can’t just say “these guys are good fighters” and expect most fans to care. I’m in no way suggesting that the gimmicks that Vince McMahon uses to promote his wrestlers should be used by an MMA organization, but is it too much to ask for a little more than “these two are about to fight, try to remember who wins three months from now”? Get back to demonstrating why fans should be so excited about a debuting fighter, and give them a few details about his/her life outside of the cage that they might find interesting. If the UFC gets back to treating the new athletes like people the fans should care about, then who knows, maybe the fans will react accordingly.

Establish An Official Minor League

The UFC faces an interesting dilemma: On one hand, they’re supposed to be the premier MMA organization, reserved for only the absolute best fighters. On the other hand, they’re also expanding internationally, and need warm bodies to fill all of the upcoming fight cards, regardless of whether or not these fighters even have Wikipedia pages. So far, the solution to this problem has been to make Fight Night cards the proverbial “one-fight cards” that Dana White said he’d never promote, and viewership has tanked to the point where a strong-ish World Series of Fighting show can outdraw a UFC Fight Night.

So if UFC Fight Night cards are already essentially minor league cards, then why not give the program the full WWE NXT treatment and designate Fight Night as the promotion’s official minor league? It can be the UFC’s way to continue its international expansion while also giving the locals being signed to fill the cards some extra time to develop their skills, the same way that the WWE makes even respected indie veterans like El Generico and Samuray del Sol prove themselves in NXT before getting a shot on the WWE’s main programs.

Sure, Fight Night will continue to draw relatively weak ratings – the same way that TNA Impact! Wrestling can actually compete against NXT – but is it really worth weakening the drawing power of the UFC brand just to continue to pretend these Fight Night cards feature UFC caliber fighters? It wasn’t too long ago when all I needed to do to convince my friends that a fight card was worth caring about was tell them that it was a UFC event. Those days are long gone, and that’s largely due to how weak these Fight Night events have become.

Pull the Plug on The Ultimate Fighter

When Tough Enough both lost the fans’ interest and failed to keep finding wrestlers the WWE could actually use, Vince McMahon pulled the plug. So, um, what exactly are you waiting for, guys?

Give PPVs a Proper Build-Up

The biggest gripe that my professional wrestling friends have against watching the UFC is that there is never any logical correlation between events. One day, they’ll catch a commercial for a heavyweight fight, then the next day it’s flyweights, and then the next day they’re being asked to pay for a rematch between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman, with no explanation for how these fights are related except for the fact that they’re all UFC fights. Tempting as it may be to dismiss this as professional wrestling fanboy talk, all of them are NFL fans, because the season logically progresses to them: Sixteen games to determine which teams make the tournament for the championship, followed by said tournament and championship game.

What if the UFC instead booked shows so that the main events would have a clear featured weight class each month, with the monthly PPV featuring the title fight? Instead of booking Machida, Kennedy, and Belfort as the build-up for a fight between Georges St. Pierre and Johny Hendricks, why not book them as the build-up for Weidman vs. Silva II? Even the dimmest fans can then see how the free cards built up to the PPV: You’d have two free cards where Kennedy and Machida establish themselves in the middleweight division currently controlled by Chris Weidman – who will be defending his title on PPV against Anderson Silva, and it will be awesome – a free card featuring top middleweight Vitor Belfort keeping active while waiting for the Chris Weidman to defend his title on PPV against Anderson Silva, which will be awesome, and then the actual fight that pretty much everything that happened this month built up to.

Granted, injuries make this all but impossible to stick with, but when all goes according to plan, it’ll be easier to get the casual fans excited about dropping sixty bucks on a pay-per-view card. Of course…

One-Fight Cards – No Matter How Strong the Build-Up – Are Not Worth Paying For

I probably just launched one thousand “BUT THE FIGHTS ARE STILL GOOD JUST BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW WHO THE FIGHTERS ARE SO WHY DOES IT MATTER?!” rants in the comments section – as well as another “Don’t say it sucks until after the event” rant from Dana White – but there is no way I’m wasting both my money and my Saturday on a card featuring one fight that I care about.

As with anything else, if all I want is “good,” then I’ll gladly accept the cheaper alternative. If I only want to watch a “good” football game, I’ll buy tickets to The New Orleans Bowl instead of The New Orleans Saints. If all I want is “good” food, I’ll buy fast food instead of fine dining. And if all I want to watch are “good” fights, I’ll spend twenty bucks on tickets to a local amateur MMA event, where I’ll get plenty of “good” fights between guys I vaguely recognize from local gyms. Vince McMahon understands that he can’t charge money for Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena if his supporting cast is Zach Ryder, Tensai, The Brooklyn Brawler, and Dyn-O-mite, because there are enough “good” matches coming from indie wrestling organizations to give his viewers worthy alternatives. It’s time for the UFC to acknowledge that my second-best option no longer involves driving thirty miles to rent a bootlegged King of the Cage DVD that I’ve already seen four times.

Make Your Subscription Based Digital Networks Actually Worth Owning

So, can we talk about that hilarious “UFC Digital Network” for a minute? Because I’d like to formally ask if anyone on the planet is dumb enough to buy that thing. I’m not sure how much the UFC thinks I’m willing to pay for “Not even basic cable worthy” UFC cards, but anything over $0.00 is pushing the limits of reality for me.

And if you’re assuming that you’ll get UFC archive footage, keep in mind that you’re already supposed to be paying $5.99 per month to access that stuff on YouTube, you fake fight fan!

Al Bundy, your reaction please:

Ha ha, you sarcastic dick.

Now, let’s compare that to what the WWE is prepared to give its digital network subscribers for only ten to twelve bucks per month:

– Every single episode of Raw, Smackdown, and every pay-per-view the company ever recorded.
– Every future pay-per-view except for future Wrestlemania events.
– However, as a reward for purchasing a six month subscription, Wrestlemania 30 will be included as well.

There aren’t enough TUF outtakes, NSFW-ish ring girl videos, and Mean Gene Helwani interviews in existence to make the UFC network comparable to the WWE network, and the WWE network isn’t making you flip between two separate apps in order to access it.

Al Bundy, your reaction please:

If you’re going to charge money for a service, make sure you’re providing more than what I can already legally get for free from your rivals. Asking me to pay for the caliber of fighters I can easily find in Bellator and World Series of Fighting for free? Don’t care, not happening.

Coincidentally, it was at this point in the history of professional wrestling – once the novelty started wearing off and the casual fans lost interest – that promoters decided to drift away from legitimate competition. The UFC doesn’t have to follow directly in professional wrestling’s footsteps in order to learn from its history. Vince McMahon may promote an entirely different product, but that doesn’t mean he has nothing to offer our sport.

If MMA Is About Respect, Why Have We Turned Against Georges St. Pierre?


(Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

By Seth Falvo

My first thought following the main event of UFC 167 was that Georges St. Pierre had a concussion. Granted, “hack journalist” is a far cry from doctor, but he was displaying symptoms that should make any sports fan concerned. He lost track of what round it was, he had trouble forming words, and the completely vacant look in his eyes was disturbing — even for a guy as stoic as GSP.

If this thought occurred to Dana White and the media members in attendance, they did a damn fine job of hiding it. You know what happened by now: White claimed St. Pierre “owed” everyone an immediate rematch, the media attempted to steer Georges St. Pierre away from talking about the signs of brain damage he has been experiencing — despite St. Pierre’s best attempts to do otherwise — and White eventually talked to the champ in private before downplaying everything that St. Pierre admitted to experiencing as much as possible.

As Stand and Bang accurately wrote, “White’s behavior [was] so transparently morally repugnant that there’s no reason to spend time pedantically analyzing it.” He wanted to pressure GSP back into the cage as quickly as possible, because the longer the champion has to reflect upon the damage that he’s done to himself, the less likely he is to return to the sport. Yet there are actually fans — and plenty of them — who managed to take the bait. There are fans who buy the ideas that St. Pierre somehow “owes” it to anyone to accept a rematch against Johny Hendricks, that he’s obligated to return to the cage immediately, that Dana White’s dangerously-capitalistic treatment of his most influential champion is completely acceptable.

And let’s not forget the most disgusting part about this: These fans are delusional enough to say with a straight face that MMA is about “respect.”


(Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

By Seth Falvo

My first thought following the main event of UFC 167 was that Georges St. Pierre had a concussion. Granted, “hack journalist” is a far cry from doctor, but he was displaying symptoms that should make any sports fan concerned. He lost track of what round it was, he had trouble forming words, and the completely vacant look in his eyes was disturbing — even for a guy as stoic as GSP.

If this thought occurred to Dana White and the media members in attendance, they did a damn fine job of hiding it. You know what happened by now: White claimed St. Pierre “owed” everyone an immediate rematch, the media attempted to steer Georges St. Pierre away from talking about the signs of brain damage he has been experiencing — despite St. Pierre’s best attempts to do otherwise — and White eventually talked to the champ in private before downplaying everything that St. Pierre admitted to experiencing as much as possible.

As Stand and Bang accurately wrote, “White’s behavior [was] so transparently morally repugnant that there’s no reason to spend time pedantically analyzing it.” He wanted to pressure GSP back into the cage as quickly as possible, because the longer the champion has to reflect upon the damage that he’s done to himself, the less likely he is to return to the sport. Yet there are actually fans — and plenty of them — who managed to take the bait. There are fans who buy the ideas that St. Pierre somehow “owes” it to anyone to accept a rematch against Johny Hendricks, that he’s obligated to return to the cage immediately, that Dana White’s dangerously-capitalistic treatment of his most influential champion is completely acceptable.

And let’s not forget the most disgusting part about this: These fans are delusional enough to say with a straight face that MMA is about “respect.”

I’m really not sure how we ever managed to accept the “mixed martial arts is about respect” fallacy in the first place; pretending that the earliest MMA events were complex rituals of respect — as opposed to sporting events and entertainment — is adorably delusional. Perhaps it caught on due to the revisionist history that all martial arts suffer from, perhaps due to a misunderstanding of Bushido. Or perhaps it’s just reframing caused by the cognitive dissonance required to care about the people you enjoy watching injure themselves. Regardless of how it got here, it’s at the point where even fighters like Houston Alexander believe that MMA is about respect, which is laughable on its own, and downright dangerous in the aftermath of UFC 167.

No human being “owes” someone harm to their own mind and body. That I have to explain this to people who claim that their sport is built around respect is more than a little disturbing, and their rationalizations only paint a scarier picture. There’s the argument that Georges St. Pierre “chose to be a fighter,” as if he also chose to give up his right to retire whenever he wants (which he was hinting at well before Saturday night) and his right to look out for his own health when he made that decision. Others are slightly more humane, and instead argue that he simply “owes” it to us to get back in the cage within the next few months, because second-impact syndrome and brain damage are things that should be taken as lightly as possible. I’m sure the medical community will be thrilled to learn that.

Respect does not come with conditions. You can’t only respect someone when they do what you want them to. If you do, you aren’t “respecting” them, you’re manipulating them, and that’s exactly what abusive spouses do to their victims. “Georges, you know I respect you, baby. It’s just that I love watching you fight soooo much and you made me soooo mad by wanting to take time off that I didn’t have a choice but to publicly humiliate you like that. Please don’t leave me, please give me (or in this case, Johny) one more chance.”

I’m not saying that I don’t think Hendricks was robbed on Saturday night. And I’m also not saying that I wouldn’t watch a rematch. But I am saying that if Georges St. Pierre decides to stick around for one more fight, I want him to do so only after he feels he’s had enough time to recover from Saturday night and make an educated decision. He’s built his entire life around being the ideal Zuffa employee and perfect ambassador for our sport, despite never needing us as much as we’ve needed him. If you think this sport is about respect, you’ll wait patiently, too.

CagePotato Roundtable #28: What Is the Most Underrated Fight of All Time?


(McCullough vs. Cerrone: a great fight overshadowed by the shitstorm that was Filho vs. Sonnen II. / Photo via Getty)

In today’s CagePotato Roundtable we’re talking underrated fights — fights that deserve to be remembered as some of the best our sport has to offer, yet are rarely even brought up during the discussion. Obviously, Fight of the Year winners are disqualified from this list, and UFC Fight of the Night winners have been strongly discouraged from inclusion. Read on for our picks, and please continue to send your ideas for future CagePotato Roundtable topics to [email protected].

Jared Jones

Until their recent rematch truly helped bring to light how incredible their first encounter was, I would argue that Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler at Bellator 58 was the most criminally underrated fight in MMA History. It wasn’t difficult to see why; the fight just happened to transpire on the same night that Dan Henderson defeated Mauricio Rua in a “Because PRIDE” classic at UFC 139, and being that Bellator plays Wes Mantooth to the UFC’s Ron Burgundy, Alvarez vs. Chandler was sadly overshadowed by its manlier, more mustachioed counterpart.

Contrary to popular opinion, however, I would additionally argue that Alvarez vs. Chandler surpasses Hendo vs. Rua in terms of pure excitement, and I say that as a guy who dug PRIDE more than Seth digs TNA Impact. For one, there was more than pride on the line for Chandler and Alvarez, there was a lightweight title. Sure, it was a Bellator lightweight title, but that’s worth like three MFC titles, dudes. And while Hendo vs. Rua was a goddamn barnburner in its own right, it never quite reached the fever pitch of the first round of Chandler vs. Alvarez.


(McCullough vs. Cerrone: a great fight overshadowed by the shitstorm that was Filho vs. Sonnen II. / Photo via Getty)

In today’s CagePotato Roundtable we’re talking underrated fights — fights that deserve to be remembered as some of the best our sport has to offer, yet are rarely even brought up during the discussion. Obviously, Fight of the Year winners are disqualified from this list, and UFC Fight of the Night winners have been strongly discouraged from inclusion. Read on for our picks, and please continue to send your ideas for future CagePotato Roundtable topics to [email protected].

Jared Jones

Until their recent rematch truly helped bring to light how incredible their first encounter was, I would argue that Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler at Bellator 58 was the most criminally underrated fight in MMA History. It wasn’t difficult to see why; the fight just happened to transpire on the same night that Dan Henderson defeated Mauricio Rua in a “Because PRIDE” classic at UFC 139, and being that Bellator plays Wes Mantooth to the UFC’s Ron Burgundy, Alvarez vs. Chandler was sadly overshadowed by its manlier, more mustachioed counterpart.

Contrary to popular opinion, however, I would additionally argue that Alvarez vs. Chandler surpasses Hendo vs. Rua in terms of pure excitement, and I say that as a guy who dug PRIDE more than Seth digs TNA Impact. For one, there was more than pride on the line for Chandler and Alvarez, there was a lightweight title. Sure, it was a Bellator lightweight title, but that’s worth like three MFC titles, dudes. And while Hendo vs. Rua was a goddamn barnburner in its own right, it never quite reached the fever pitch of the first round of Chandler vs. Alvarez.

How good was Chandler vs. Alvarez 1? Good enough to pull over a million viewers for its (equally enthralling) rematch. A rematch which, by the way, went down on a last-minute clusterfuck of a card that was extremely underwhelming until Alvarez and Chandler saved it and possibly the promotion.

Matt Saccaro

If we’re talking about underrated fights, let’s give some attention to MMA’s earlier days. There were a lot of great fights then — and I’m not just talking about the “classics” that are constantly cited as examples of MMA’s best fights. I’m talking about the underrated fights that offered an inkling into MMA’s future. One such fight is Keith Hackney vs. Royce Gracie.

When watching this fight in 2013, it seems kind of bland, but you have to look at the fight in its historical context. The fight took place at UFC 4 in 1994. Back then, Royce Gracie was a monster. In the young, borderline-illegal “sport” of MMA, Gracie was the closest thing there was to a Mike Tyson. He was untouchable, and he dispatched his opponents without effort — at least until Gracie met Kimo Leopoldo.

At UFC 3, Leopoldo exhausted Gracie to the point where the Brazilian couldn’t continue on in the tournament even though he had beaten Leopoldo with an armbar. Yes, Kimo was the first man to make Gracie look mortal…but Kimo was a roided-up monster. Keith Hackney couldn’t make that claim, and that’s why Keith Hackney vs. Royce Gracie was so awesome.

A karate guy with a little bit of boxing experience and some high school wrestling who ran a heating business managed to, at least briefly, stymie a living legend and a fighter who had been training to fight for his entire life.

If you haven’t seen the fight, here’s how it didn’t go down:

When Royce Gracie fought a striker, he took them down in comically easy fashion and then had his way with them. Strikers were hapless fish-out-of-water. Their sole purpose in the early days was to make “Gracie” Jiu-Jitsu look bullet-proof by getting their ass kicked.

Boxers? Nothing compared to a Gracie.

Karate men? Laughable!

But Hackney didn’t follow this precedent.

Yes, he lost, but he performed better against Royce Gracie than any striker had performed against a legit grappler at that point in UFC history. He stuffed several of Royce’s takedowns and even managed to land a few clean, powerful punches to Royce’s then unblemished face.

The fight wasn’t a barn-burner, but it’s underrated for what it was: A fight that showed the start of MMA’s progression.

Nathan Smith


(Image obviously via Fight! Magazine.)

Who doesn’t like a good ol’ fashioned fist fight where both competitors match up evenly?
Answer: Nobody; well at least nobody that visits Cagepotato.

Yet somehow, Nate Quarry vs Tim Credeur is rarely even brought up as one of the best fights in the history of our sport.

Both dudes were different stylistically yet they each shared a TUF background. Fans knew who they were because both fighters made an impression on the show; remember, this fight took place back when “fans” actually watched TUF. There was built-in name recognition to this curtain jerker on the main card of Fight Night 19 for both guys whether it was warranted or not. Oddly enough, this fight card served as the lead-in for TUF: HEAVYWEIGHTS starring Kimbo Slice #ratings.

What happened in the course of 15 minutes was nothing short of awesome. Round 1 saw the underdog, Credeur, drop his opponent and quickly follow him to the mat for a quick transition to an attempted RNC (not to be confused with the delicious BRC from El Pollo Loco; up yours East Coasters). Quarry was able to get back to his feet and then both men just started swinging. It was great and Credeur took the first frame.

Round 2 started with both guys throwing bombs until Quarry connected flush and sent Crazy Tim to the mat. Nate landed some solid GNP strikes from inside full guard. Although Credeur was taking punishment, he was constantly shifting his hips looking for a submission and returned fire with shots of his own from the bottom. Even though he was active from his back, Quarry knotted the fight at one round apiece.

In the final stanza it was clear that both men were tired and beat up but that is why this fight was my choice. Both Quarry and Credeur showed Arturo Gatti-esque balls and just kept swinging with Crazy Tim getting tagged several times. Though Credeur was eating punches and getting knocked down, he kept getting up. On wobbly legs, he continued to throw punches even though Quarry was getting the better of him. Quarry, for his efforts, had a mouse under his eye that looked like a Halloween-sized Snickers bar and his counter-punching was spectacular. The horn sounded and the two professionals embraced after giving the fans one hell of a slugfest.

Had this fight taken place only one year earlier, there is no doubt in my mind that it would have been Fight of the Year, and rightfully remembered as one of the greatest MMA slobber-knockers of all time. But instead, Diego Sanchez vs. Clay Guida took home 2009′s FotY, and this bout is only a footnote in our sport’s history — a great fight from an otherwise decent card that earned both competitors an extra $30k for their efforts (yeah, the Fight of the Night award for this event was only $30k. Feel old yet?).

Ben Goldstein


Alexander Emelianenko vs. Josh Barnett by dm_5020627fda98c

Josh Barnett has always been one of my favorite fighters, even though he hasn’t always been worthy of admiration. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s a cerebral metalhead with great taste in nicknames, a master craftsman of catch-wrestling, a showman even when it doesn’t count, and basically a nice guy when he’s not threatening to kill everybody. This is a man who once accepted a knee to the balls just because it was the right thing to do. Like Jules Winnfield said, personality goes a long way.

Barnett’s PRIDE career was relatively brief and not particularly successful — he went 5-4 in the Japanese promotion from 2004-2006, including three separate losses to Mirko Cro Cop — but his run in the 2006 PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix was a career highlight, and his opening round match against Aleksander Emelianenko is, in my opinion, the most under-appreciated heavyweight bout in PRIDE history.

At the time, Fedor’s spooky “little” brother had a reputation as a dead-eyed psycho with unreal power in his hands; three of his previous four wins were knockouts that lasted less than 30 seconds. Barnett’s best strategy would have been to take the fight to the mat at all costs and let his grappling advantage take over. But in a misguided (yet totally awesome) display of bravery, Barnett spends the majority of the ten-minute first round trading bombs with Emelianenko. What transpires is everything you’d want out of a heavyweight MMA fight — two behemoths standing toe to toe and testing each other’s ability to remain conscious.

The fact that Barnett survives a ten-minute boxing match against Aleks was a moral victory in itself. And after proving his point, Barnett got down to business in round two, tripping his now-gassed opponent to the canvas, passing to side control, softening Emelianenko up with some knees, and wrenching out a tap via Americana. After the fight, Josh declared that “pro wrestling is the strongest in the world” (!) and vowed that Fedor was already dead (!!!). The Japanese fans swooned, and so did I, watching the fight later on the Internet.

Of course, opening-round fights of any tournament tend to be easily forgotten, and the epic Final Four at PRIDE Final Conflict Absolute tends to overshadow everybody’s memory of the 2006 OWGP. (My God this Cro Cop!) But viewed on an individual basis, I think Barnett vs. Emelianenko was the most entertaining and competitive of the 15 fights that took place in that tournament — and it made me a Josh Barnett fan ever since.

George Shunick

Until his reign as UFC Lightweight champion ended with a whimper — OK, a verbal tap — rather than a bang, Benson Henderson had developed a well-earned reputation as a fighter who fans could count on to engage in compelling fights. In large part, this was often a product of the durability of Henderson, his sound technique in all areas and the equal competency of his opponents. On two occasions, however, he squared off against a foe who brought out the best in him and vice versa. The first example is obviously Anthony Pettis in their 2010 Fight of the Year. Of course, when the fight in question contains the pre-eminent highlight of the sport, it’s probably a little too high-profile for this roundtable. The second was Donald Cerrone.

Cerrone is also notorious for engaging in entertaining fights. Unlike Henderson, his tend to be more violent and one-sided. Such was the case in his second fight against Henderson at WEC 48; Henderson clinched him against the fence, kneed him in the head until Cerrone developed a nasty hematoma and finished the fight with a guillotine in the first round. However, Bendo and Cerrone’s first match was one of the greatest fights in MMA history. With then-WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner injured, Henderson and Cerrone competed for the interim title at WEC 43. The first two rounds took place on the ground following Henderson takedowns, but Cerrone was extremely active off his back throughout the fight and almost secured a fight-ending guillotine in round one. The third round was less eventful, but in the fourth Henderson — who had been active with takedowns and top control — began to fade. Cerrone began to capitalize, first in the standup in round four and then on the ground in round five. In that final round, Cerrone attempted no less than six submissions, all which had the potential to end a fight. Henderson, however, managed to survive each one of them, earning him a reputation for being nigh-unsubmittable that would stick with him until his last fight. Many observers, including myself, believed Cerrone had taken a close decision on the strength of his submission activity. Naturally, Henderson won the controversial decision, through Christ who strengthens him — or at least influences judges to weigh top control too favorably.

The match won Fight of the Year from Sherdog, MMA Fighting and Sports Illustrated. Given the popularity of both fighters currently, it would easily be in the consideration for the best fight in MMA history if it took place today. Yet it’s still a relatively obscure fight because no one knew who the WEC guys were in 2009. That’s a shame, because this fight not only epitomized every single aspect of mixed martial arts you could ask for (save for a definitive finish), but it also began to establish the legitimacy of the WEC and its fighters. This fight, along with the ascendancy of guys like Urijah Faber, Miguel Torres, and Jose Aldo, helped pave the way for the inclusion of lighter-weight fighters in the UFC. But even deprived of its context, this is still a truly exceptional fight. You can watch some potato-quality footage of the entire five-rounder right here.

Seth Falvo

I’m under no delusions that Leonard Garcia is a UFC-caliber fighter, but I’ll be damned if I allow this discussion to conclude without anybody bringing up “Bad Boy.” His aggressive fighting style almost always translates into an entertaining, memorable brawl. But I don’t need to explain that to you; hell, you probably look forward to watching Leonard Garcia fight even more than Jared looks forward to updating his To-Do list.

Back in September, Leonard Garcia returned to action against Nick Gonzalez. It was the back-and-forth brawl that you’d expect from a Garcia fight, with Bad Boy eventually winning the fight by rear-naked choke. If this fight took place in the UFC, it would have been Fight of the Night, but since it took place under the Legacy FC banner, most of you probably didn’t even know that the fight took place until just now. Go ahead and check it out.

I think it’s a bit of a stretch to call this a Fight of the Year candidate (like some people are), but it definitely deserves to be mentioned during any discussion revolving around great fights from 2013. Instead, it will more than likely play second fiddle to an Al Bundy GIF during this year’s Potato Awards. Such is life, I guess.

Have a fight that you’d like to nominate? Feel free to share your pick in the comments section.

CagePotato Open Discussion: Is Anybody About to Spend $34.95+ on the Bellator PPV?


(That face you make when you realize that you’re an overpaid dinosaur who has long since worn out his welcome. And whatever facial expression Hulk Hogan is making.)

The title pretty much says everything I need to. Bellator is only charging the low, low price of far more than any reasonable person would pay to watch Tito Ortiz fight Rampage Jackson in 2013 for their charmingly misguided PPV experiment. That’s right, $34.95 for standard definition – $44.95 [!?] for HD – to watch a “mixed martial arts tournament* where fighters become warriors**.”

*Except, you know, it isn’t a tournament at all.

** How lovely.

Considering that people already aren’t buying tickets to this show, I have to ask: Are any of our readers about to drop over thirty bucks on this card? Because as much as I hate to admit it, I’m not about to spend that much money on this. Maybe if it was stacked with the fighters who have made Bellator so much fun to watch over the past few years — guys like Alexander Shlemenko, Rich Hale, David Rickels and The Pitbull Brothers — I’d be able to justify dropping thirty bucks on it.


(That face you make when you realize that you’re an overpaid dinosaur who has long since worn out his welcome. And whatever facial expression Hulk Hogan is making.)

The title pretty much says everything I need to. Bellator is only charging the low, low price of far more than any reasonable person would pay to watch Tito Ortiz fight Rampage Jackson in 2013 for their charmingly misguided PPV experiment. That’s right, $34.95 for standard definition – $44.95 [!?] for HD – to watch a “mixed martial arts tournament* where fighters become warriors**.”

*Except, you know, it isn’t a tournament at all.

** How lovely.

Considering that people already aren’t buying tickets to this show, I have to ask: Are any of our readers about to drop over thirty bucks on this card? Because as much as I hate to admit it, I’m not about to spend that much money on this. Maybe if it was stacked with the fighters who have made Bellator so much fun to watch over the past few years — guys like Alexander Shlemenko, Rich Hale, David Rickels and The Pitbull Brothers — I’d be able to justify dropping thirty bucks on it.

But $34.95 for two fights between UFC washouts I haven’t cared about since I was still in college, a completely pointless do-over, and only two fights that I’m willing to pay for?

The only reason that I’d buy this card is out of sympathy for Bellator. They’re sort-of banking on this thing working out, and I’d hate to see a promotion that has given us so many exciting fights go under. But if Bellator is going to continue to be a Station of the Cross for the UFC gatekeeper in decline, then, as much as I hate to type this, I can live without it.

That’s my two cents, guys. Feel free to add yours below.

@SethFalvo