Three former Zuffa Champions; two former title challengers, and one Ultimate Fighter winner. UFC on Fox 4 has more than enough to appease even the most casual fan of MMA, and what’s even more exciting, is that this event is free on cable TV. However, there is much controversy surrounding this card, and it has nothing to due with injuries or common fighter trash talk. The controversy is being caused by one fight, oddly enough, the main event. It’s absolutely mind-boggling that the fight headlining this card has top light heavyweight, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, squaring off against Brandon “The Truth” Vera.
When Rua’s original opponent, Thiago Silva, pulled out of the bout due to injury, the replacement fighter was briefly expected to be Glover Teixeira. However, UFC President Dana White later stated that Rua refused to fight Teixeira. White went on to say that Rua had stated that he would rather be cut from the UFC than to fight Teixeira. Although Rua’s camp denied he said such things, Dana White is known for “telling it like it is”. Even if Rua gets the benefit of the doubt on the Teixeira issue, that doesn’t change the fact that choosing Brandon Vera as the replacement doesn’t make much sense at all.
Victory has eluded Brandon Vera in six of his last ten fights, having only defeated run of the mill fighters such as Reese Andy, Mick Patt and Elliot Marshall. The most talented opponent in which Vera was victorious against, was Krzysztof Soszynski, but still an accomplishment far from extraordinary. Most MMA rankings have Vera just barley coming in at the top thirty of the light heavyweight division, while no one has Rua ranked lower than top five. Rua’s last five fights were against top light heavyweights. Dan Henderson, Forrest Griffin, Jon Jones, and Lyoto Machida on two consecutive occasions. Adding Brandon Vera to the list of names of Rua’s opponents just doesn’t look right, especially for a former UFC champion.
Regardless of who is to blame for this conundrum, the MMA fans will not get to see a main event that can truly hype this card up, as a main events should. At this point, it would make more sense to bump Lyoto Machida and Ryan Bader up to the main event, and have Rua and Vera demoted to the co-main event. At least this way, the fans will get to watch two top light heavyweights go head to head in a battle with just as much on the line for both fighters. No matter how this fight is looked at, it’s either an undeserved opportunity for Vera, or an easy fight for Rua.
Written by : Ryan “Fight Freek” Poli
@fightfreek