UFC 150 is fast approaching, headlined by a lightweight championship bout between Ben “Smooth” Henderson and Frankie “The Answer” Edgar with an assist from Donald Cerrone vs. Melvin Guillard. This big card has all eyes focused o…
UFC 150 is fast approaching, headlined by a lightweight championship bout between Ben “Smooth” Henderson and Frankie “The Answer” Edgar with an assist from Donald Cerrone vs. Melvin Guillard. This big card has all eyes focused on the UFC’s 155 lb. division.
If you are new to this whole MMA thing, though, hearing all these names get thrown around probably ranges from confusing to off-putting. That is where this article comes in.
Welcome to The Casual Fan’s Guide to the UFC’s Lightweight Division.
Here, you will get better acquainted with the rich history of what was, for a long time, the UFC’s smallest division. While it lacked size, it has traditionally made up for that with exciting fights and a wide variety of styles.
So ladies and gentlemen, get ready to have names named, things pointed out and references cited that will make you seem like a total smartypants around the water cooler.
By and large, the UFC almost always comes through on their cards.Almost always. For a variety of reasons, though, there have been several undeniably disappointing UFC events over the years, both for fans and for the UFC. Things can go wrong before, dur…
By and large, the UFC almost always comes through on their cards.
Almost always.
For a variety of reasons, though, there have been several undeniably disappointing UFC events over the years, both for fans and for the UFC.
Things can go wrong before, during and after an event, and it is important to think back on some of the unfortunate things that can ruin a card. Though some of these ended up having redeeming factors, all of them are terrible in their own ways.
These events were chosen for a variety of reasons and are in chronological order. So do not get offended if you thought one card was way worse than the one three spots later. It also focuses in on main cards, so even if a card had a strong preliminary card, that does not factor into this list.
Anderson Silva’s couch is going to be working overtime for the immediate future, and that is a bad thing for the UFC. Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz is out of commission for perhaps a full year. Welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre is going to fig…
Anderson Silva‘s couch is going to be working overtime for the immediate future, and that is a bad thing for the UFC.
Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz is out of commission for perhaps a full year. Welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre is going to fight in November (maybe,) but historically tends to have long layovers between fights. Light heavyweight king Jon Jones has literally beaten every realistic competitor, making any future fights for him questionable from a sales perspective.
Other buy-grabbing fighters not wearing belts are also shelved. Alistair Overeem is in the middle of his suspension for his wacky T/E ratio. Nick Diaz is in the same boat for his wacky tobacky. Matt Hughes may or may not be retired. Frank Mir‘s next fight will be in Strikeforce, where he will face Daniel Cormier (another fighter the UFC wish they had at their disposal.) Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s arm is still on the mend. The same goes for Mark Hunt’s knee.
That is a big headache for UFC matchmaker Joe Silva. While the UFC is through the worst of it, they still need cards that can draw 500,000 buys in a really bad way.
UFC 148 drew over one million buys. Though Silva won in convincing fashion, there was more than a little controversy involved. It started even before the fight, with Silva wiping grease from his face onto his chest. It moved on into the second round with Silva grabbing Sonnen’s shorts to help in his defending of the American Gangster’s takedowns. Finally, the volley of strikes that ended the fight started off with a knee to Sonnen’s chest that simultaneously hit him in the face.
This is not to say that Silva did not earn his win. He was still widely favored and likely would have won the fight without, as it is called in football, “gamesmanship.” Still, if roles were reversed, few would deny that an immediate rematch would already be scheduled.
Anderson Silva’s management team knows there is no real legitimate opponent for him in the middleweight division right now. Though many are excited about 9-0 phenom Chris Weidman, his most-watched fight remains his wheeze-fest against Demian Maia at UFC on Fox 2. His eerily dominating performance against Mark Munoz at UFC on Fuel TV 4 averaged only 211,000 viewers, leaving his drawing power a serious question mark.
The rest of the middleweight top-10 has a similar lack of established success. Alan Belcher and Tim Boetsch are yet to make a serious splash with fans, in spite of solid winning streaks. Everyone else (being Michael Bisping, Brian Stann, Yushin Okami and Vitor Belfort) have all lost to either Sonnen or Silva in the last eighteen months.
Anderson Silva’s management team recently made a push for a fight against Georges St-Pierre. However, the scheduling and welterweight title picture make this unrealistic.
St-Pierre is scheduled to face Carlos Condit at UFC 154 to unify the welterweight belt. Martin Kampmann and Johny Hendricks are slated for a top contender’s match that same night. Both offer a true test for St-Pierre, but even if GSP loses, he has a blockbuster opponent waiting for him in Nick Diaz, who he could fight in Spring 2013.
Making things even worse for Anderson is that the always-discussed move to light heavyweight is no longer a viable option for him. While fights like Silva vs. Rashad Evans or Silva vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua would be excellent draws, champion Jon Jones would be a heavy favorite if the two met, given his serious size, reach and wrestling advantage. The UFC, Silva, and Silva’s management team all know this.
That leaves Chael Sonnen.
While Chael Sonnen became a household name in large part because of his mouth, he has been nothing but a good sport since losing to Silva at UFC 148. At the post-event media conference, Sonnen downplayed the preliminary talk about Silva’s questionable tactics. Since, he has remained quiet on the fight, but acknowledged his reluctance to watch a video of the bout.
While sore losers are not traditionally well-met by sports fans, Sonnen’s popularity grew because of his inability to stomach his first loss to Silva. While Dana White dismissed questions about the legitimacy of Silva’s win, he must also recognize the matchmaking predicament facing one of his few remaining draws. The UFC’s marketing department can easily run promos of Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg questioning if that knee went to the face, or pointing out Silva grabbing Sonnen’s shorts.
This remains a tough fight for Silva. While Sonnen was knocked out at UFC 148, he is still the most likely candidate to beat Silva. The entire first round had Silva on his back, and there is no question as to whether Sonnen still has the slippery takedowns and sheer quickness and keep “the Spider” off his game.
An immediate rematch is out of the question. However, a fight against Weidman would be a viable headline for a UFC on Fox card and, regardless of the outcome, makes for a strong top contender bout that will either set up for Silva vs. Sonnen III, or make Weidman a household name.
That situation is a win-win for the UFC. While neither a Silva vs. Sonnen III, nor a Silva vs. Weidman headline would draw seven-figure buys, having Sonnen and Weidman face off in a top contender fight is by far the best thing the UFC can do to shake out the top of the middleweight division.
It is a very realistic option that should be available to Sonnen. All he needs to do is start running his mouth.
The prominence of social media requires absolutely no discussion. There is not a person reading this article that needs to be told how important Facebook and Twitter are to sports, marketing and business in general. Twitter’s appeal, in large part, is …
The prominence of social media requires absolutely no discussion. There is not a person reading this article that needs to be told how important Facebook and Twitter are to sports, marketing and business in general.
Twitter’s appeal, in large part, is in celebrities opening a window into their life for fans to peep through. Unlike Facebook or MySpace or anything else, Twitter allows the larger-than-life folks to communicate with (as they would say) the commoners, without having to deal with that riffraff talking back.
While other sports generally discourage tweeting with Internet supporters and detractors, the UFC takes a polar opposite stance. Though the NFL hangs on what can go wrong, MMA promoters realize that the one-on-one interaction that Twitter offers is valuable at every level of the company from executives reminding consumers about events to fighters connecting with fans.
The thing is, all those executives and all those fighters are still human. Humans, by and large, are not perfect and therefore, make mistakes. As Hayley Williams, Gilbert Gottfried and Rashard Mendenhall can all attest to, one poorly thought out post on Twitter can quickly change the public’s perception of anyone.
Regardless, the UFC is always looking for publicity. A strong presence on Twitter offers them the chance for bonus headlines
Ultimately, the results have been somewhat mixed, leading many to weigh the pros and cons of the UFC’s tweeting enthusiasm. Figuring out whether or not this is a net gain for the UFC is difficult, but something worth pondering. So what, then, are the pros and cons of all this?
In December 2011, the UFC announced that it was, for the first time ever (for all intents and purposes) adding a brand new weight class. Granted, the UFC “added” the featherweight and bantamweight division when it axed the WEC and absorbed …
In December 2011, the UFC announced that it was, for the first time ever (for all intents and purposes) adding a brand new weight class. Granted, the UFC “added” the featherweight and bantamweight division when it axed the WEC and absorbed all their fighters. But now, the UFC is building a full stable of fighters from the ground up.
This entire endeavor is hard for casual fans to wrap their heads around, and many want to know more about this process. That’s what we are here for.
Welcome to the Bleacher Report Casual Fan’s Guide to the UFC Flyweight Division.
Here, you will learn all you need to know about what the UFC is doing to attract fighters, who they currently have on-staff, the division’s title picture and what is happening in the rest of the world among flyweights.
Before the UFC on Fuel TV card helmed by Mark Munoz vs. Chris Weidman, I was talking to the “Big Bosswald”, Brian Oswald. The news was that Dana White was going to announce the coaches for both “The Smashes” season of The Ultima…
Before the UFC on Fuel TV card helmed by Mark Munoz vs. Chris Weidman, I was talking to the “Big Bosswald”, Brian Oswald. The news was that Dana White was going to announce the coaches for both “The Smashes” season of The Ultimate Fighter, which will have the UK face off against Australia, á la TUF9, as well as the next season of TUF for FX.
Naturally, the two of us were discussing our picks and came up with plenty of strong possibilities.
“Smashes” was definitely the tougher of the two. There are, after all, only a few fighters from the UK, and even fewer from Australia. Finding matchups that both fit together schedule-wise and have realistic weight pairings is quite difficult. My guess was Dan Hardy vs. Brian Ebersole. Hardy needs no introduction. Ebersole, meanwhile, is not actually an Australian, but became a staple fighter in their MMA scene, with fourteen matches from 2006-2011 and is 4-0 in the UFC so far.
The UFC opted for Ross Pearson vs. George Sotiropoulos. The logic behind this is somewhat perplexing. Pearson, the lightweight winner of TUF9, has not been especially great since the hot start to his UFC career. He is 2-3 in his last five fights and, for most fighters, another loss would be grounds for termination.
Sotiropoulos is in a similar boat. After winning his first seven fights in the UFC, he lost to Dennis Siver and Rafael dos Anjos. While a 7-2 record is great, a three-fight losing streak is rarely forgiven in the UFC. What makes this more awkward is that Sotiropoulos is a lightweight, while Pearson dropped to featherweight last year.
These two fighters should, technically, be fighting for their jobs. Instead, they are in position for an enormous bump in fame. This ends up being a lose-lose situation for the UFC, as they will have to do a political limbo when it comes to possibly ending up in a position where they must cut one of their hottest fighters. Most seasons of TUF offer a trampoline for already-established fighters to raise their profile by coaching. This is not the case here.
Why they went with this instead of Ebersole vs. Hardy or Lombard vs. Bisping is a mystery. Still, this actually ends up as less of a missed opportunity than the primary season of TUF that will be coming up.
Slated to start this fall, with a coaches fight likely to land in late November, there were plenty of pairs that could make for sparks during the show, and dynamite for their fight. Demetrious Johnson vs. Joseph Benavidez, Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos, Brian Stann vs. Mark Munoz and my own pick, Georges St-Pierre vs. Carlos Condit, all made sense from PR, scheduling, matchmaking and ratings perspectives.
For reasons that do not actually seem to exist, the UFC recruited TUF10 winner Roy Nelson and former top contender Shane Carwin to become the centerpieces of the season. The two heavyweights are well past their primes and are on bumpy roads in their careers at this point after coming very close to the belt.
Roy Nelson, along with other TUF10 castmates, exploded into the UFC’s heavyweight scene. After knocking out Brendan Schaub with his now-trademark overhand right to become The Ultimate Fighter, Nelson floored Stefan Struve in under a minute and earned himself a top-contender match with phenom Junior dos Santos.
In this fight, Nelson wowed UFC fans worldwide with his ability to take a beating, but did not take a single round as dos Santos pummeled him for the full 15 minutes and took a unanimous decision win. Unfortunately, two of Nelson’s next three fights were very similar, with Frank Mir and Fabricio Werdum hitting him with every manner of strike imaginable from start to finish and walking away with unanimous decision victories.
Nelson has peppered in a pair of knockouts, beating Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 137 and, most recently, Dave Herman at UFC 146. Still, Nelson’s stardom has faded amidst his numerous lopsided losses, making one wonder why he would be called upon to coach. Never mind being called upon to coach a season that is absolutely desperate for ratings.
Shane Carwin rose to the top of the UFC’s heavyweight division very quickly. After scoring his third first-round knockout in a row, Carwin was tasked with fighting Frank Mir for the interim belt. Again, Carwin won another fight in the first round and was then set up against Brock Lesnar for a title unification bout.
Carwin lost that bout, gassing out in the second round and falling prey to an arm triangle. From there, thanks to a flare-up in Lesnar’s diverticulitis after taping concluded for The Ultimate Fighter season 13, Carwin ended up in a top-contender bout with Junior dos Santos. Carwin channeled his inner Roy Nelson and was beaten thoroughly by dos Santos, losing by decision after being punched in the face for a full 15 minutes.
That loss, his latest fight, came over a year ago. In that time, Daniel Cormier has become one of the hottest heavyweights in the world. Alistair Overeem joined the UFC. Mark Hunt turned his career around. Travis Browne flew in under the radars and joined the heavyweight top 10. Fabricio Werdum cemented himself as a top-five heavyweight in the UFC.
The heavyweight division has changed more than anything else in the UFC during that time and Carwin, in many ways, has been left behind. Likewise, as with most fighters who sit out for a year, fans have forgotten him. Those that remember him would simply remember him as the man who got choked out by Brock Lesnar and beaten down by Junior dos Santos. This does not even get into the steroids scandal that came after his loss to Brock Lesnar.
The Ultimate Fighter: Live had roundly disappointing ratings, rarely hitting one million viewers per episode. Even its finale had only half the viewers of the previous season. With another season set for FX, the UFC needed to turn around the sagging ratings and the first step towards this is picking coaches. Again, there were a dozen pairings that could have been made to put the next season of The Ultimate Fighter in a better position to succeed.
Whether or not this will prove fruitful for the UFC remains to be seen. Regardless, there is no getting around the fact that both of the coming seasons of The Ultimate Fighter are starting off with a handicap, and that the UFC is wasting an opportunity to promote fighters with stronger footing and brighter futures than these four.
This does not instantly spell doom for the entire TUF series. But the executives over at FX and Fox cannot be happy about this turn of events.
