Drawing power is a major point of success in today’s combat-sports landscape. The Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao fight proves just how important stars are at this point in time. With that in mind, the Ultimate Fighting Championship contin…
Drawing power is a major point of success in today’s combat-sports landscape. The Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao fight proves just how important stars are at this point in time. With that in mind, the Ultimate Fighting Championship continues to work to build their roster big names. Ronda Rousey and ConorMcGregor are two of the front-runners in that race. However, Rousey should be considered their most important star at this time.
The most important point to recognize is that the UFC needs as many headline-grabbers as possible. The more individuals on their payroll who can capture the attention of both the sports world and mainstream public are worth every penny. In that regard, Rousey is firmly the leader that the UFC needs to continue pushing to the forefront.
Make no mistake about it: ConorMcGregor has built himself into a star. The Irish competitor has been the center of much attention as he prepares for his title shot against Jose Aldo at UFC 189. UFC President Dana White believes that McGregor may be the biggest star the sport has seen yet.
“ConorMcGregor is the real deal—he is legit,” White said on FOX Sports 1’s post-UFC 178 show (via MMA Junkie). “He is a force that I have never seen ever. Bigger than Brock Lesnar when he was here. Bigger than any of the fighters we’ve ever had. Yes, (he’s bigger than Georges St-Pierre). I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Still, White should pull back on the reins when declaring McGregor the biggest star the organization has in employment. Rousey has crossover appeal that she’s already flexed and can touch places that McGregor will never reach.
First, she has the ability to capture the attention of women throughout the world. Rousey is the first female fighter that the organization has embraced. Whether it is appreciated or not, her gender allows her to reach a fanbase that is beyond the reach of nearly every person on the UFC’s roster. Rousey has already started showing that reach, such as the opportunity she had to speak at the SXSW conference during the “UFC: Women Breaking Ground inside the Octagon” panel.
Second, Rousey is beginning to garner attention in other aspects of the entertainment industry. She had a small role in the major film Furious 7 and also has a role in this summer’s Entourage (via Variety). These two projects, along with others in the future, shows that she is growing beyond a sports icon.
Third, Rousey is already a champion. McGregor has the difficult task of defeating Aldo in Brazil before he can claim the full spotlight of the featherweight division. Rousey has already reached the pinnacle of the sport. With five defenses of the UFC women’s bantamweight title on her resume, she continues to gain fans each time her hand is raised in victory.
The UFC needs to promote all of their fighters in hopes to build the next major stars of mixed martial arts. When history is complete, ConorMcGregor may hold a special place on that list. However, Ronda Rousey is clearly the biggest name that the promotion can feature at this point in time.
Over the past few years, only Jon Jones and Jose Aldo have been nearly as dominant over their divisions in the UFC as Ronda Rousey has.
Despite recent off-the-Octagon issues, Jones is still undeniably the best mixed martial artist in the organization. …
Over the past few years, only Jon Jones and Jose Aldo have been nearly as dominant over their divisions in the UFC as Ronda Rousey has.
Despite recent off-the-Octagon issues, Jones is still undeniably the best mixed martial artist in the organization. While Aldo is just a monster when he steps into that cage.
Before Jones’ car accident, those two were, respectively, No. 1 and No. 2 in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings. Rousey, on the other hand, was stuck in sixth place, behind Demetrious Johnson, Chris Weidman and Cain Velasquez.
Now, why should Rousey be ranked above all these champions?
The answer is simple: Because none of them takes care of business like she does.
It takes only a glimpse at her fighting record to understand how dominant Rousey is.
Since touching ground with the UFC in Feb. 2013, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist relentlessly took out every obstacle Dana White sent her way.
In UFC 157, the first women’s title bout the organization ever hosted, it took less than one round for Rousey to defeat Liz Carmouche with an armbar submission. It was the same fate for all of her six previous opponents (and Jimmy Fallon) she faced.
In Carmouche’s defense, she was the first fighter not named Miesha Tate to survive more than a minute against the champ.
After claiming the belt, Rousey defended it four times.
Her first title defense was a rematch against Tate, who proved to be as close to a test as Rousey would ever get. They went three rounds, but in the end Tate’s fate was the same as all those who preceded her. An armbar submission.
After that Rousey seemed to dislike the idea of staying in the octagon for more than a round. So she made quick work of those who came after Tate.
Sara McMann went down in a minute. Alexis Davis in 16 seconds. And Rousey’s latest hit, Cat Zingano, fell to an armbar in 14 seconds.
How can anybody deny Rousey’s greatness?
Now here is where some would question and say that because she fights in a women’s division, Rouseyshouldn’t be featured in a pound-for-pound ranking with the men’s divisions.
With that out of the way, time to analyze the other contenders.
Aldo has moved up to No. 1 since Jones was taken out of the rankings.
The Brazilian’s greatness, like Rousey’s, is undeniable. His 25-1 record speaks for itself.
However, he had to go all five rounds over his last couple fights. And this upcoming July 11 bout against the notorious ConorMcGregor is raising many eyebrows.
Mighty Mouse Johnson has been on the rise as of late. The flyweight champ showed UFC fans how speed kills.
Since earning the belt in a split decision against Joseph Benavidez in 2012, Johnson defended his title six times. Four of those fights reached the fifth round.
Even though his eye-opening Round 1 knockout of Benavidez in their rematch was entertaining, Johnson’s dominance is still not as undisputed as Rousey’s.
Chris Weidman did take Anderson Silva out twice. But after going five rounds with LyotoMachida, it might be better to wait and see how he does against VitorBelfort on May 23 before throwing him in a pound-for-pound No. 1 conversation.
Same goes for Cain Velasquez. The last time the heavyweight champ stepped inside the Octagon was October 2013.
Velasquez has an upcoming bout against red-hot interim champion Fabricio Werdum June 13. The result of that matchup will make or break the champ’s pound-for-pound stock.
Taking all of that in account, it might be time to recognize who, in the absence of Jones, is really the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC.
The UFC’s decision to strip Jon Jones of its light heavyweight championship, and to suspend him indefinitely, was one of the more difficult and gut-wrenching decisions it’s made since Zuffa purchased the promotion in January 2001.
It was also one of th…
The UFC’s decision to strip Jon Jones of its light heavyweight championship, and to suspend him indefinitely, was one of the more difficult and gut-wrenching decisions it’s made since Zuffa purchased the promotion in January 2001.
It was also one of the best.
Stripping Jones of the championship and putting him on the sidelines is the kind of decision that grown-up sports leagues make. The UFC is not the same as the NFL, because combat sports is not the same as football. But Roger Goodell’s handling of the cases of Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson provided a perfect template for the UFC, because the UFC wants to be seen as a mainstream brand like the NFL.
And though I do not believe mixed martial arts will ever be accepted in the mainstream solely because of its violent nature, that doesn’t mean the UFC can’t strive to be viewed through the same lens as other major sports.
Some say that waiting for Jones’ legal process to run its course before acting was the right thing to do. And we absolutely should allow that to play out before passing judgment on Jones, what he’s accused of doing on Sunday morning and how it will affect his future in the long run.
That’s how the American justice system works, and it should be honored.
But the UFC had no responsibility to honor the legal process. What it had instead was a responsibility to protect its name value in the public space. If things had gone differently—if it had supported Jones the way it did after his previous vehicular incident and his failed cocaine test earlier this year—it would be absolutely lambasted by the mainstream media it so desperately seeks attention from.
It needed to draw a line in the sand. It needed to say that even its biggest superstars will be held accountable for their behavior outside of the Octagon. It has historically come down hard on those with lesser name value who violate its code of conduct. Miguel Torres was fired for an offensive tweet. Will Chope was fired for not disclosing a domestic violence incident during his time in the Army. Others have been released for drawing negative attention to the company.
But this is the first time that a top-shelf superstar has suffered the consequences of bad decisions made outside the Octagon. And though putting one of its biggest stars (and the greatest fighter in the history of the sport) on the shelf will mean a bunch of lost revenue, it still elected to do it. That is an important thing, and the UFC should be commended for it.
Its decision might also serve as the wake-up call Jones has desperately needed. Instead of coddling him and enabling him as it has previously done, it is forcing him to face his problems head on. We all make stupid mistakes. We all do dumb things. There is not enough time in the day for me to tell you about all the dumb, thoughtless things I’ve done in my past, and I will absolutely do many stupid things in the future.
I am human, and humans do things that are dumb.
But being forced to face my issues, by my friends and loved ones, is one of the only ways I have ever grown, learned and fixed things. I am thankful for those friends who cared enough about me to sit me down and tell me hard truths instead of overlooking them and pretending everything was OK. Jones may be upset right now, but my instinct tells me he will eventually be grateful for the decision the UFC made.
And he’ll be grateful for the circle of friends that is rallying around him right now.
The UFC needed to protect its name. But it is also in partnerships with several big-name sponsors, and those sponsors could not have been happy with Jones’ incident and the attention it received.
Reebok, who recently signed Jones to a major endorsement deal (one that existed outside of the upcoming standard UFC uniform deal), cut ties with the former light heavyweight champion on Wednesday morning. That will cost Jones plenty of money. When he returns, it is likely that he’ll still be wearing Reebok (under the uniform policy), but instead of receiving the big checks he was getting as one of Reebok’s big signees, it is likely that he’ll instead find himself under the same policy as the rest of the UFC roster.
That’s a big pay cut. And it’s going to hurt his pocketbook. But it is yet another opportunity for him to learn a major lesson and to come back from this time away as a better man, one that is more capable of handling the pressures of fame and fortune.
The UFC’s decision was a major win. It showed a willingness to do a difficult thing, even when its own revenues are at stake. It gives me hope that the upcoming random drug testing program will be more than lip service and that it is serious about cleaning up the sport.
But most importantly, its decision may be the thing that helps Jones get his act together. We don’t know how long he’ll be away from the Octagon, and it really doesn’t matter; he has far more important battles to face right now. For all we know, his legal battle could end up in jail time that keeps him away from the fight game until his prime years are over.
But if he’s able to mature outside the Octagon, to make significant and visible changes and not just pay lip service to the idea of changing, people will root for Jones when he returns. The circus of his own creation could turn into a redemption story.
And if that is the ultimate end result of the UFC’s decision to wrest away the UFC title from the greatest fighter in the world, well, it will end up being a far more important decision than we can possibly realize right now.
How odd it must feel for Demetrious Johnson to be a master of something so many people actively want to ignore.
Johnson presented a clinic on the art of being Demetrious Johnson on Saturday at UFC 186. He efficiently sucked the life out of game challen…
How odd it must feel for Demetrious Johnson to be a master of something so many people actively want to ignore.
Johnson presented a clinic on the art of being Demetrious Johnson on Saturday at UFC 186. He efficiently sucked the life out of game challenger KyojiHoriguchi during five grueling rounds before retaining his flyweight title via armbar with one second left on the clock.
It was another signature performance from the best 125-pound fighter on the planet. Great, because once again, Johnson looked a generation ahead of his next-best competition, winning just about every exchange, every moment of another high-profile bout.
Forgettable, because it felt like a tedious rerun of something we’d all seen before, and fans inside Montreal’s Bell Center reportedly began heading for the exits long before the end:
“I didn’t notice,” UFC President Dana White said at the post-fight press conference when asked about the walkouts by MMAjunkie’s Brent Brookhouse and Matt Erickson. “I don’t give a s–t what people are doing. I’m watching the fight.”
Johnson’s victory set a record for the latest stoppage in UFC history, and the fight company’s commentary team tried to make a big deal out of that fact as the pay-per-view broadcast ended.
In all ways, it was a fitting accolade for the flyweight champion.
The record will effectively be unbreakable—unless somebody can finish his or her opponent with less than one second remaining—but as a landmark achievement it felt unconvincing, with any fanfare over it invented as a way to try to celebrate Johnson’s underappreciated style.
He may well be the best overall fighter on the UFC roster. Watching him systematically torture the 125-pound class one doomed No. 1 contender at a time is as impressive as anything you can see inside the Octagon. He’s probably the organization’s most athletic champion and its most complete technician.
Unfortunately, a lot of MMA fans quite literally aren’t buying-in.
It’ll be a while before specific estimates are available, but the UFC 186 PPV is not expected to have sold well. An intended main event—a bantamweight title rematch between T.J. Dillashaw and Renan Barao—had to be postponed after an injury to Dillashaw. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s co-main event bout against Fabio Maldonado was on, off and then on again due the machinations of ongoing legal action against Jackson.
Previous PPVs headlined by Johnson have posted tepid box office results. Last June’s UFC 174 featured his bout against Ali Bagautinov and was thought to have garnered just 115,000 buys. Four months later, a UFC 178 scrap with Chris Cariaso may have amassed 205,000.
As an opponent, Horiguchi was arguably more dangerous than either Bagautinov or Cariaso. As a drawing card, he was likely even lesser known. That does not bode well for UFC 186’s final sales numbers.
Many of the reasons why Johnson hasn’t made an impression on consumers are not his fault. He simply possesses a superfecta of factors that make it hard for UFC fans to invest in him. He’s small. He’s relatively soft-spoken. He has had no iconic challengers. He is technically superior but not particularly fearsome.
Put all those things together and you get one of the UFC’s best pound-for-pound fighters and one of its worst draws. At this point, it’s unclear what, if anything, can be done about it.
“It’s kind of sad that Demetrious Johnson has this thing hanging over his head that he’s not this, he’s not that,” White said, per Brookhouse and Erickson. “… He comes in with a game plan and he follows it to the letter. He’s just one of these guys who’s got to put his head down, keep doing his thing and you just have to respect him. Anderson Silva wasn’t the biggest star while he was champion. Chuck Liddell wasn’t a big star for a while. His day will come.”
Will it?
In order for that to happen, it seems as though Johnson will need a new and fiery 125-pound contender to emerge. He’ll need someone else to stoke the interest of the PPV-buying fight community, someone who is willing to play the ConorMcGregor to Johnson’s Jose Aldo. To date, there isn’t really anyone like that on the horizon, though, admittedly, these things can happen quickly.
Personality-wise, the closest thing the flyweight class has to a superstar might be John Dodson. Dodson has already lost once to Johnson in January 2013, but the two are slated for a rematch when Dodson can return from a knee injury.
Competition-wise, the biggest threat in the weight class might eventually come from Olympic gold medal wrestler Henry Cejudo. But Cejudo is just two fights into his UFC career and has had trouble consistently making the 125-pound limit. A fight between the two of them would be stylistically fascinating but could be another PPV dud.
If Johnson’s career-making feud never comes, then fans will have to foster a grudging respect for him through the sheer repetitiveness of his dominance. Saturday night marked his eighth straight win and the sixth successful defense of the flyweight crown. He hasn’t lost since 2011, when Dominick Cruz bested him in a bout for the UFC bantamweight title.
Early on, it appeared Horiguchi might present an interesting riddle for Johnson to try to unravel. The 24-year-old native of Gunma, Japan, packed power in his strikes and possessed an awkward and elusive style.
Soon enough, though, Johnson began forcing Horiguchi to the mat with a relentless string of takedowns. He also outhustled the challenger on his feet, and his transitions between striking exchanges and takedown attempts were moments of great beauty.
As Horiguchi grew exhausted by the pace, the danger he presented leeched away, and eventually it became clear we were dealing with another patented Mighty Mouse shutout. He probably would’ve scored a clean sweep on the judges’ scorecards had the fight made it that far.
The arm bar he locked on Horiguchi just before the final horn was also breathtaking in its speed and almost mechanical perfection. To see him win via stoppage with just one second left, however, only seemed to make the performance more frustrating.
Somewhere before it happened, we’d reached a tipping point. Right now, it feels as though if you’ve seen one of Johnson’s fights (and he’s had an even dozen of them in the UFC), you’ve seen them all. As the seconds ticked away against Horiguchi, even Johnson’s staunchest supporters—like this writer, for example—had to admit things were getting monotonous.
Nobody can keep up with him. Nobody can compete with his comprehensive arsenal of MMA skills. In recent days, UFC matchmakers have been unable to find a flyweight opponent who could even make a fight of it.
Until they do, Johnson will go on being one of our sport’s least prized attractions. He’ll just keep piling up largely unwatched victories, beating opponents and breaking records that both feel dubious at best.
UFC President Dana White is nothing if not quick to make assumptions and even quicker to broadcast them. The latest entity to be caught in the crossfire? The American Kickboxing Academy, home to a number of top-notch UFC fighters, including heavyweigh…
UFC President Dana White is nothing if not quick to make assumptions and even quicker to broadcast them. The latest entity to be caught in the crossfire? The American Kickboxing Academy, home to a number of top-notch UFC fighters, including heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez, former Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold and light heavyweight contender Daniel Cormier.
Speaking with Ireland’s Setanta Sports (h/t David St. Martin of MMAFighting.com), White pinned Velasquez’s ever-lengthening injury history on the “stone age” gym.
“Some of the camps are still in the stone ages and need to be brought up to date,” White said while discussing the UFC’s tumultuous 2014. “AKA is one of those places. You’ve got Cain Velasquez, our heavyweight champion, who’s always hurt. Those guys go to war every day.”
The UFC has had difficulty with injuries over the last two years, and Velasquez has certainly contributed his share to those troubles. Repeated knee and shoulder injuries have kept him out of the cage for great lengths of time, and his belt has collected dust on his mantel since UFC 166 in October 2013. Since losing his belt to Junior dos Santos at UFC on Fox 1 in 2011, he has fought just four times, which has raised questions regarding his training regimen and the general practices of the American Kickboxing Academy, which head trainer Javier Mendez discussed in an interview with Bleacher Report’s own Jeremy Botter.
That said, White is far, far from being an infallible source regarding the training regimen of modern MMA fighters. He has repeatedly gone on vitriolic rants directed at gyms and trainers whenever wrenches get thrown into the UFC’s promotional gears. Last year, White went on a tirade directed at Sik-Jitsu Fighting Systems after learning of a knee injury suffered by Julianna Pena. More famously, he labeled famed MMA trainer Greg Jackson a “sport-killer” when he advised UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones against taking a fight with ChaelSonnen on two weeks’ notice.
This also isn’t the first time White has trashed the American Kickboxing Academy. In 2008, White released welterweight contender Jon Fitch and short-lived UFC heavyweight Christian Wellisch from the promotion, and he threatened to release The Ultimate Fighter season 1 alumni Josh Koscheck and an at-the-time-prospect Velasquez as well when the fighters refused to sign a lifetime contract that would surrender their names and likenesses to the company. “[Expletive] him,” White said of Fitch, and added that AKA fighters “aren’t partners with us. [Expletive] them. All of them, every last [expletive] one of them.”
Velasquez is currently slated to face Fabricio Werdum in a heavyweight title unification match at UFC 188 in June. Here’s hoping that bout comes to fruition without incident.
Even as it limps down the home stretch, UFC on Fox 15 remains the best MMA card of the month.
Yoel Romero is out, owing to a knee injury, but the UFC’s second foray of the year into network television still promises to be a rollicking good time. L…
Even as it limps down the home stretch, UFC on Fox 15 remains the best MMA card of the month.
Yoel Romero is out, owing to a knee injury, but the UFC’s second foray of the year into network television still promises to be a rollicking good time. Luke Rockhold and LyotoMachida fight for presumed No. 1 contender status in the middleweight division, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza promises to roll over short-notice replacement Chris Camozzi, and Cub Swanson meets Max Holloway in an interesting featherweight matchup.
With preliminary fights moving from Fox Sports 1 to the network, UFC fans will also be able to cut out any superfluous channel surfing. Just set it and forget it for the full four hours.
As usual in the case of a fight card as good as this one, bold predictions are required. Luckily for all involved, Bleacher Report Lead Writers Chad Dundas (that’s me) and Jonathan Snowden have them to spare.
Read on to find out who wins, who loses and how it all goes down.
Over the past few years, only Jon Jones and Jose Aldo have been nearly as dominant over their divisions in the UFC as Ronda