Walt J. | UFC Betting Sites - The Best MMA Online Bookies

UFC: Why 2013 Will Be the Most Critical Year in UFC History

In 2013, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will be celebrating its 20th anniversary. In a strange twist, the events of the 20th year could determine the long-term viability of the company. It has long been my thought that the UFC was i…

In 2013, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will be celebrating its 20th anniversary. In a strange twist, the events of the 20th year could determine the long-term viability of the company.

It has long been my thought that the UFC was its own worst enemy and only they could bring about their demise. Next year, the UFC will be faced with three critical decisions that could impact its foothold on the MMA world and its wish to be spoken in the same breath as more mainstream sports.

Superfights

Fans love talking about dream contests. It’s part of what makes sports exciting. Endless conversation and debate is what keeps a sport relevant during lulls in action or the offseason. Could Tyson defeat Ali? Could the 1999 St. Louis Rams—dubbed “The Greatest Show of Turf”—defeat the 1985 Chicago Bears?

Since the Ali-like return to the ring of UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre at UFC 154, the conversation surrounding a superfight with UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva has gone up exponentially.

If the discussion wasn’t about Silva vs. GSP, it was Silva vs. UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones. While the revenue that would be generated from a fight of this magnitude would be record-breaking and I would love to see it, how would it affect the UFC long-term?

I believe superfights would set a bad precedent. Given Silva and GSP’s requests for 50 percent of the UFC and a $50 million payday, respectively, neither appears completely serious about making this happen. The risks just aren’t worth it.

You risk one or both of your champions suffering injury in a fight with no importance other than the “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” factor. Next, you stall the divisions and marquee fighters who could give a serious contention to the title.

It won’t stop there. Someone will throw out the idea of “Could this fighter in the “X” division beat this fighter in the “Y” division.” In the world of Twitter, Facebook and yes even our very own Bleacher Report, any topic can grow legs.

Next thing you know, we’ll have Rampage Jackson vs. Johnny Hendricks just because they’re knockout artists or Lyoto Machida vs. Cung Le because of their more traditional martial arts backgrounds.

Talk of fantasy fights and dream matchups should be left where they make most sense, between friends in bars and mancaves across America.

Interim Titles

UFC prez Dana White has long stated that he built the UFC’s success by not imitating the repeated mistakes made by professional boxing. One of the most glaring over the years is boxing’s abuse of the word “champion.”

Now, the UFC has started down the slippery road of creating interim titles to a point where even the fighters are calling for them. Personally, I’m not sure how much pride can be taken in the idea of being the “Interim” Champ, but that’s a story for another time.

The whole purpose of the interim champion is for the division’s top-ranked fighter to act and defend as champion in the event that the current champion cannot defend his title for an extended period of time.

The key to that is that they must “act” as champion. That means that you must defend the title until the champion returns. Where does this idea of sitting out of action for a year come from? Essentially, you are ducking fighters out of fear of losing a phantom belt and a chance to get the real one.

Carlos Condit sat on the shelf for nine months, refusing to fight anyone but GSP. Renan Barao has been out of action since July, and now who knows when UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz will return from injury.

Now Michael Bisping is pushing for an interim title. How can anyone be a champion of any type without being willing to defend themselves as such? All it does it belittle and water down the prestige that comes with calling yourself a champion.

With Anderson Silva discussing taking some time off and the ongoing injury issues with Dominick Cruz, Dana White will need to clarify on the record when an interim title should be deemed necessary.

In my opinion, unless the champion is expected to be completely inactive from all fighting and training for a minimum of nine months, it serves no purpose.

The Ultimate Fighter

It’s no secret that the ratings for The Ultimate Fighter have struggled in recent years. In a last-ditch effort to save the sinking ship, UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones will be coaching alongside UFC middleweight/light heavyweight/mouthpiece Chael Sonnen.

After the debacle that was UFC 151, Chael Sonnen essentially talked his way into a title fight in a division in which he has not competed in since 2005.

Does Chael Sonnen sell tickets? Yes. Could Chael Sonnen make great television? Yes. If this experiment fails, what’s next for TUF? In addition, TUF is moving to Tuesday nights on FX.

It’s likely that another season of sub-par ratings for the UFC would put Dana White to a very critical choice of whether to continue the show. Even after the experiment of changing to the live format, viewership is still not what it once was.

If TUF 17 fails, will there be an 18?

Follow Walt J as he comes to you on his blog “Live From AREA 49″ with his rants on the world of sports from the fan perspective.. Whether it’s picks against the spread, fantasy football tips, or sheer frustration with your team, AREA 49 has a place for you. Follow him on Facebook, and on Twitter @area49sports.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

MMA: How Will Bob Sapp Lose His Next Fight?

How much longer can one fighter continue? This is especially puzzling when we are referring to fighters such as Bob Sapp. Sapp, who had a cup of coffee in the NFL, began his fight career as a professional wrestler in 2001. From there, Sapp …

From there, Sapp moved on to MMA and K-1 competitions, while becoming a star in Japan. However, the last few years have been painful to watch, at best. Since 2008, Sapp has put together a less-than-inspiring combined MMA and kickboxing record of 3-16.

So in honor of his upcoming fight with former “World’s Strongest Man” Mariusz Pudzianowski, let’s look at some potential ways that this fight could end.

Begin Slideshow

MMA: Understanding the UFC’s Purpose for Keeping Strikeforce Alive

What does the future truly hold for Strikeforce? It has been 13 months since UFC-parent Zuffa purchased the Strikeforce promotion. Right away, speculation ran rampant throughout the sport on exactly what the fate of Strikeforce would be.The fire sale t…

The fire sale that ensued in the months following aided in the speculation. Names like Alistair Overeem, Antonio Silva, Cung Le, Nick Diaz and Fabricio Werdum were swiped almost immediately.

In December 2011, Dana White announced that a new deal had been struck between Strikeforce and Showtime to keep programming on the network through 2012.

On Thursday, Cagepotato.com published an article showing the junior varsity-like effort that is the Strikeforce website. This certainly doesn’t resemble an organization with plans for the future.

Plus, where has Scott Coker been? Was he in witness protection or something?

Ever since the Strikeforce sale commenced, I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around why Zuffa has kept them around. Finally it hit me; Strikeforce is a test-tube organization for women’s mixed martial arts.

Dana White has said numerous times in the past that women’s MMA does not have a deep enough talent pool to bring it into the UFC. Yet he has expressed that the WMMA does possess some talented fighters, most notably with the Miesha Tate vs. Ronda Rousey fight.

For many of the major moves that the UFC has taken, there has been some sort of testing ground on the big stage. When the featherweight and bantamweight divisions were added, WEC was used as a testing ground to see if bringing these smaller guys to the UFC was sustainable.

WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber, presented by the UFC after the Zuffa/WEC acquisition, was the first WEC event shown on pay-per-view. PRIDE already boasted some of the best fighters in the world when they were purchased by Zuffa. Even then, the promotion wasn’t immediately dissolved in the UFC.

Shutting down Strikeforce would essentially end women’s mixed martial arts on the larger stage.

Currently, though the talent pool does appear to lack the ability to sustain several women’s weight classes, there does appear to be some top talent available and fighters such as Tate and Rousey possess marketing potential.

The Strikeforce brand allows Dana White the ability to monitor and evaluate the sustainability of WMMA without affecting his number one priority, which is protecting the UFC brand.

The fight between Tate and Rousey gave White a glimpse into the marketability of a card headlined by a WMMA fight.

The next few months will give us a better look into the future of Strikeforce. Strikeforce will finalize their heavyweight grand prix and Rousey will most likely make her first title defense.

If this is the last calendar year for Strikeforce, the question then becomes, can the UFC launch a successful women’s division? Then again, would they want to?

Follow Walt J. as he gives his no-holds-barred opinions on the NFL, MMA and other sports topics on his blog, Area49sports.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @area49sports or like him on Facebook at Area49sports.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC Fighters and Their Fighting Game Alter Egos

As a child of the ’80s, I was a huge fan of video games. The greatest era for me was the explosion of fighting games in the early ’90s.The two powerhouses in those days were the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter franchises. In the later part of the deca…

As a child of the ’80s, I was a huge fan of video games. The greatest era for me was the explosion of fighting games in the early ’90s.

The two powerhouses in those days were the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter franchises. In the later part of the decade, games like Tekken—and, to a much lesser extent, Virtua Fighter—came on the scene. The concept of these games was to match fighters with varying backgrounds and different fighting styles against one another to determine the best.

Sound familiar?

Mixed martial arts—as we know it today—began with the concept of matching the best fighters of various fighting styles from around the world. In a tribute to one of the greatest eras in gaming, here’s a look at some of the UFC notables and which of the biggest fighting game characters they most resemble.

Begin Slideshow

Dana White: What Will Happen When UFC President Retires?

One of life’s most inevitable truths is that all things must come to an end. At some point, no matter the person or their passion, we all must step aside and call it a career. In sports, we see it all the time. Before it happens, we wonder how the spor…

Before it happens, we wonder how the sport, league or brand will continue. Could Steelers fans even fathom life without Chuck Noll? Did Cowboys fans imagine life without Tom Landry?

Here’s a thought: what would the Ultimate Fighting Championships be like without Dana White?

In his role as company president, White has been the public face of the UFC ever since Zuffa acquired it back in 2001.

Though the Fertitta-led Zuffa has served as the financial muscle, White has pulled the UFC—and MMA as a whole—from the depths of obscurity and ridicule to an international sports and branding powerhouse.

His loud, bombastic, matter-of-fact style has become a favorite of fight fans everywhere. He has constantly preached on giving the fans what they want and is an avid user of social media in an effort to stay in tune with them.

As White approaches his 43rd birthday this year, one has to ask the question, how much longer will the UFC and White be one and the same? If White chose to step down tomorrow, who would fill those shoes? Who would want to?

It’s difficult to say what type of person would be needed to take on this type of job. The four major sports leagues have the benefit of being legalized monopolies.

The UFC is a privately owned company that must fend off competition from across the globe. No matter how many smaller promotions they acquire, everyday there’s a new Strikeforce or Bellator that comes along and attempts to become the new “it” promotion in MMA.

The UFC would need a strong leader devoted to protecting and growing the brand. The hard part for the newbie would be establishing an identity and putting their own mark on the company without destroying the brand.

Since White has been there through all of the growing pains, the UFC has developed with White’s persona; tough, in-your-face, it’s UFC or nothing.

Initially, there would obviously be some sort of “feeling-out” period. The new president would have to communicate and get in touch with the fans.

Given that White made this a staple, it’s important that the UFC continue its open access and allow fight fans to feel like the sport is listening to them. There may even be a lot of criticism in the early phases. People as a whole typically don’t like change.

The new guy would have to be able to withstand being criticized for every little decision and assure fans that what is being done is for the benefit of the sport.

Many sports leagues claim to act in the interest of the fans, however I believe that the UFC actually does this. With some of their biggest revenue coming from pay-per-view, it’s important to keep the television viewers paying.

One man doesn’t stop the show. The UFC can and will continue when Dana calls it a career. Many questioned the abilities of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell when he assumed control in 2006.

However, he made his mark by making player conduct and safety his focus as well as turning the NFL almost into a year-round sport. A new UFC president would not and should not be another “Dana White.”

White’s mark on the UFC cannot and will not ever be duplicated. Furthermore, it is unreasonable to think that men such as White and Lorenzo Fertitta, who possessed the intelligence and business acumen to grow this billion-dollar juggernaut, do not have a plan for the future.

Whoever would be chosen to lead the company in the “post-Dana” era, fans can rest assured that they will be the right one.

Follow Walt J. as he gives his no-holds-barred opinions on the NFL, MMA and other sports topics on his blog, Area49sports.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @area49sports.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 146: Reasons to Get Excited About Junior Dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem

The Ultimate Fighting Championship officially kicked off preparations for UFC 146: Dos Santos vs. Overeem with a press conference in Las Vegas. The featured bout will put UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos against former K-1, DREAM and Strikefo…

The UFC Heavyweight division has been in a state of flux in recent years. With a limited talent pool, putting on top-draw fights between fighters not named Brock Lesnar has proven difficult. However, with the addition of Overeem and other transplants from the Strikeforce brand, the division appears to be on its way to the forefront.

I would be lying if I said that just watching the faceoff yesterday didn’t get me pumped up for this main event. If for some strange reason you need a reason to get excited for this fight, here’s a few to help you along the way.

Begin Slideshow