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Chris Cariaso: Ignoring Naysayers, out to Capitalize on ‘Dream Opportunity’

Title shots in the UFC can be tricky business, and Chris Cariaso is determined to make the most of his opportunity to get his hands on championship gold.
On Tuesday, the UFC announced the long-time bantamweight veteran turned surging flyweight would be…

Title shots in the UFC can be tricky business, and Chris Cariaso is determined to make the most of his opportunity to get his hands on championship gold.

On Tuesday, the UFC announced the long-time bantamweight veteran turned surging flyweight would be the next opponent to face Demetrious Johnson at UFC 177 on Aug. 30. The call to compete for the flyweight strap came as a surprise to the 33-year-old Californian—and news of the bout sent a shockwave through the MMA community—but the door to the championship realm is one Cariaso had been working his entire career to open.

John Dodson was largely figured to be the next fighter in line, but a knee injury and corrective surgery put “The Magician” on the shelf for an extensive stretch. This turn opened up traffic in the 125-pound ranks, and the organization determined Cariaso to be ready to face the pound-for-pound ranked champion.

While he’s certainly aware of the twists and turns it took for the lane to the title shot to open up, Cariaso is a veteran of the sport and has a strong understanding of how the right opportunity can change the tide of a career. Cariaso acknowledges that fight fans are going to have their opinions, but the biggest opportunity of his career is the only thing he’s focused on.

“I couldn’t sit down when the UFC told me the news,” Cariaso told Bleacher Report. “I was ecstatic. I was kind of freaked out because I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or not. I’ve been trying to get any big fight I could and would fight anyone the UFC wanted to put in front of me. I’ve been fighting whoever I could to get a shot at that title, and when the call came through to fight Demetrious Johnson it was unbelievable because here is my opportunity.

“None of the other stuff bothers me. I feel like I’ve paid my dues to get to this point. I’ve never backed down from a fight and I’ve always wanted to fight the best opponents possible. I put myself in position to get this opportunity and it came my way. The UFC knows what they are doing when it comes to putting fights together. I don’t let what other people say bother me. I don’t let what keyboard warriors say bother me. I just go out there and keep working hard. I’m not worried about anything else.”

The San Jose native has been grinding in the professional realm for the better part of a decade, with the majority of his bouts coming at 135 pounds. Yet, “Kamikaze” believed flyweight waters would better suit his fighting style, and Cariaso made his divisional debut in July of 2012. Over this stretch, the 33-year-old has found victory in four of his six showings at 125 pounds, including his current run of three-consecutive wins inside the Octagon.

That string of victories served to build solid momentum for the former WEC fighter and ultimately landed the scrappy flyweight in a position to capitalize on a dream opportunity. Fighting for a UFC title is a moment Cariaso has envisioned throughout his entire career, and he’s determined to make the most of it when he steps in against “Mighty Mouse” in Sacramento.

“This fight is going to be the pinnacle of my career,” Cariaso said. “Every day when I’m training and running I always tell myself that I’m training to be the best. The chance to finally make that happen is a dream come true. Part of me still thinks this is a dream and questions if it is really happening. I have to pinch myself to convince myself this is all real. This is the best thing that has ever happened in my career and it’s awesome.”

Much like Cariaso, the flyweight champion traded in his bantamweight card for a successful run in the 125-pound ranks. Since winning the inaugural divisional title back in 2012, Johnson has successfully defended the strap on four consecutive occasions. In addition to a dominant run atop the flyweight division, the Matt Hume-trained fighter has also registered on the pound-for-pound rankings, as he’s continued to show marked improvements with every performance.

With both fighters coming to the UFC from the WEC roster, Cariaso is familiar with the skills Johnson possesses. That said, he knows what will be coming his way at UFC 177 and believes it will be an interesting clash of styles to determine the 125-pound title.

“One thing you have to be prepared for with Johnson is his pace,” Cariaso said. “He comes out fast and keeps it up for 25 minutes. I’ve seen a lot of his fights over the years because we were on a lot of the same cards fighting at 135 in the WEC. We’ve seen each other around the scene a lot over the years. My biggest thing in this fight is being able to keep up with his pace, and I think that is why a lot of people have such a hard time hanging with him.

“Just getting the call was an honor, and being able to go out there and fight for that belt is the biggest statement you can ever make. I’ll be able to showcase a lot of different aspects of my game with Demetrious. I have a lot of weapons, and Demetrious is a well-rounded guy who is going to bring it. I think it’s going to be an awesome fight stylistically. I believe this is going to be a great situation for me to go out there and showcase my skills.”

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso Booked for UFC 177 Co-Main Event

(Hell yeah bro, if you’re not psyched for this one you’re just not a real f-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.)

As first reported by Yahoo!’s Kevin Iole, UFC 177: Dillashaw vs. Barao 2: Seriously? Already? (August 30th; Sacramento, CA) will also feature flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson facing challenger Chris Cariaso in the co-main event.

It’ll be a brisk 11-week turnaround for Johnson, who successfully made his fourth title-defense against Ali Bagautinov at UFC 174 last month, in spite of Bagautinov loading up on EPO during his training camp. [Ed. note: Mighty Mouse deserves some extra cash for that. Can the UFC institute a “Sorry We Made You Fight a Juicer” bonus?] Fun fact, via Iole: “Given that UFC 176 was canceled, Johnson will appear in two of the last three pay-per-view shows when he steps into the cage on Aug. 30.” And of course, Dillashaw and Barao will appear in two of the last four, since they previously got it on at UFC 173.

Chris Cariaso is just 4-2 as a flyweight, but has won his last three bouts against Iliarde Santos (0-3 UFC record), Danny Martinez (0-2 UFC record), and Louis Smolka (1-1 UFC record) — not exactly a murderer’s row of top competition. Fun fact, via me: The split-decision that Cariaso notched against Smolka represented the first time that Cariaso has ever appeared on a UFC main card, back in May at UFC Fight Night 40. And this guy is getting a title shot, because the UFC is struggling to fill out this pay-per-view card. Times are getting hard, boys.

And so, UFC 177’s buyrate has shot up from an estimated 95,000 buys to a solid 110,000 with the addition of Johnson/Cariaso. I kid the flyweights. Sort of. I mean, they’re awesome and everything, but good luck convincing paying customers of that.

(Hell yeah bro, if you’re not psyched for this one you’re just not a real f-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.)

And so, UFC 177′s buyrate has shot up from an estimated 95,000 buys to a solid 110,000 with the addition of Johnson/Cariaso. I kid the flyweights. Sort of. I mean, they’re awesome and everything, but good luck convincing paying customers of that.

Report: Demetrious Johnson vs. Chris Cariaso Booked for UFC 177 Co-Main Event

UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is set for a quick turnaround. While he successfully defended his belt just a few weeks ago at UFC 174, Johnson is now tabbed to defend his belt at UFC 177 opposite Chris Cariaso, according to Ya…

Cariaso is currently riding a three-fight winning streak, with victories over Iliarde Santos, Danny Martinez and Louis Smolka. He owns a 4-2 record in the UFC as a flyweight and was an above-average bantamweight before that.

The news that Cariaso was slated for the belt is somewhat surprising. This Saturday, Ian McCall and Brad Pickett face off in a crucial flyweight tilt. While the winner of that fight would have been a solid contender for the champ, the UFC instead opted for a sure thing in Cariaso.

After a solid run in World Extreme Cagefighting, Johnson became the UFC’s first flyweight champion in 2012. In the time since, he has climbed his way up MMA‘s pound-for-pound rankings and cemented his status as one of the best fighters in the sport.

However, in spite of his technical brilliance, fans have been slow to accept him. While the UFC hoped that a brutal one-punch knockout of Joseph Benavidez had warmed up fans enough that he could carry a pay-per-view, reports that UFC 174 hovered around 100,000 buys mired an otherwise masterful victory over Ali Bagautinov.

UFC 177 will go down August 30 in Sacramento, California. The card is headlined by the silly rematch between UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw and Renan Barao. While Barao, like Johnson, could scarcely draw crickets to chirp at his pay-per-view fights, the UFC is hoping that doubling up on champions will entice fans.

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Wild Rumor of the Day: UFC 174 Did Less Than 100,000 Pay-Per-View Buys

(*crickets* / Photo via Getty)

Yesterday, MMAFighting’s Dave Meltzer reported that UFC 173: Barao vs. Dillashaw pulled an estimated 200,000-215,000 pay-per-view buys. While that number is certainly on the low end of UFC buyrates, it’s not a disaster by any means. Keep in mind that UFC 169 — a card that featured a Renan Barao vs. Urijah Faber rematch, Jose Aldo defending his featherweight belt against Ricardo Lamas, and a high-profile heavyweight bout between Alistair Overeem and Frank Mir — only earned an estimated 230,000 buys back in February. On paper, UFC 173 was arguably a weaker offering, but the buyrate wasn’t that far off. Basically, it could have been a lot worse.

The bad news is, last weekend’s UFC 174: Johnson vs. Bagautinov event might have done a historically awful, Bellator-caliber buyrate. First, here’s Meltzer discussing the early estimates in his newsletter yesterday:

“It’s too early to get accurate numbers, but every indication we’ve gotten was very bad, and that it showed a steep decline from UFC 173, which was among the lower numbers of the last eight years. UFC PPV shows usually range from 200,000 to 500,000 Google searches after the event, and are usually in the top few searched for items in the country. A bad show may only do 100,000. Bellator’s show last month hit 100,000. A big show can top 500,000, with the shows that hover around 1 million buys usually doing anywhere from 1 million to 5 million searches. This show did less than 20,000, unheard of for a PPV…

(*crickets* / Photo via Getty)

Unlike UFC 173, which looked weak on paper and everyone knew wasn’t going to draw much, it still had Dan Henderson and Daniel Cormier in the No. 2 spot. They brought some star power in what was really the main event. It also had a lot to talk about after, due to T.J. Dillashaw’s upset win over Renan Barao.

This show didn’t have much interest going in. But most of the time, those type of shows deliver good action. This had none of that. It wasn’t terrible, but there was no fight you needed to see. As a likely sign of how the show went, Dana White didn’t even attend the post-fight press conference.”

In response to Meltzer’s story, our twitter friend @Niko138 added some inside information that suggests the UFC 174 buyrate was beyond dismal. Treat this as a rumor for now, but holy crap:

I’ve heard from a couple of people who would know, that early estimates of 174 buys have it just a bit under 100k. The sole reason I am posting about this (I normally try not to be one of those ratings/buys posters who everyone hates) is because if the show truly did this bad, it will be a good thing for us fans who complain about watered down cards. The UFC’s core audience was really being tested with this card, to see how much they could get away with buys wise, for a card with absolutely no drawing power to the casual viewer.

If this is the case, it sends a strong message to the UFC that the watered down cards are no longer going over with fans. For me, considering the cards are $60 and there is 14 a year…this is great news.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the number that comes out in the press is just above that, like 125…If you see the number come out around that area, then trust me, it did under 100k. This has to piss Dana off to no end considering the Bellator show did do a legit 100k

This is really interesting stuff to me, because like I said.. if true, the UFC is going to realize they can’t keep putting on shows like this as a numbered PPV, and expect its fans to continuously just blindly shell out the cash.

That’s a step in the right direction.. they know they are losing PPV buys, and hopefully they step their game up to fix it, by putting on more big fights per card. We can hope anyway.

So, a couple things. MMAPayout’s PPV Blue Book only dates back to UFC 57 in February 2006, and doesn’t show any UFC pay-per-view doing less than 140k buys. But according to Wikipedia (I know, I know), the last UFC PPV that did under 100k buys was UFC 53: Heavy Hitters, which took in just 90,000 buys in June 2005. In other words, you have to go back nine years to find a UFC PPV that performed as terribly as UFC 174 allegedly did.

My other thought is this: “Putting on more big fights per card” is not necessarily the answer. After years of seeing these UFC buyrates ebb and flow, my totally non-scientific conclusion is that 1) casual UFC fans only care about who’s fighting in the main event, and 2) nobody cares about little flyweights. Seriously. Non-Rousey bantamweight and featherweight title fights have always underperformed on pay-per-view, and it should come as no surprise that the first time the UFC tried to put a flyweight title fight in a pay-per-view main event, it would pull record-low numbers.

So, if the 100k buyrate is accurate — or even close to accurate — it’ll get the UFC’s attention. But don’t expect the promotion to start putting together more stacked PPVs in response; remember they have like 50 events/year to fill out, and they simply don’t have the manpower for it. Instead, the UFC’s major takeaway will probably be this: If we have to put a flyweight title fight on a pay-per-view card, there had better be a bigger fight on top of it.

Demetrious Johnson Looks Unbeatable, but Challenges Still Abound for UFC Champ

Demetrious Johnson did it again on Saturday at UFC 174, leaving yet another highly ranked challenger choking on his exhaust fumes with astonishing ease.
This time it was Ali Bagautinov starting out game but ending the fight down 50-45 on all three scor…

Demetrious Johnson did it again on Saturday at UFC 174, leaving yet another highly ranked challenger choking on his exhaust fumes with astonishing ease.

This time it was Ali Bagautinov starting out game but ending the fight down 50-45 on all three scorecards. The 29-year-old Dagestani fighter came in undefeated in the Octagon and riding an 11-fight overall win streak, but by the end of 25 minutes with Johnson, he looked as helpless as the rest.

Dominance is becoming a habit for the UFC’s 27-year-old flyweight champion. Johnson’s unique brand of excellence hasn’t yielded monster ratings, but so far opponents have been powerless to reckon with his blend of mobility, versatility and quickness.

Johnson has been the 125-pound titlist for less than two years, and he’s already cleaned out the rest of the division’s Top Five. His ability to chew up and spit out top contenders only feeds our view of the flyweight class as a work still in progress.

Depth may be an issue for the UFC’s newest men’s division, but a surprising number of viable contenders still lurk. Here’s a look at several who could still give Johnson a run for his money in 2014.

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Demetrious Johnson Makes a Claim for Top UFC Pound-for-Pound Spot

Demetrious Johnson looked like the epitome of the word dominant when he defeated Ali Bagautinov at UFC 174. Commentators Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg spoke in awe of the champion’s speed, technique and skill as he controlled nearly every aspect of the f…

The UFC has Johnson sitting as the fourth-best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, but the question has come up whether or not he has what it takes to be considered the best in MMA.

“Mighty Mouse” has continued to look light-years ahead of every other man in the flyweight division. His victory over Ali gave him his four straight title defenses since capturing the belt in September 2012. Each time he wins, he’s demonstrated a level of improvement that others have yet to match. It’s this continued separation that makes Johnson’s reign as champion quite different from the other titleholders within the UFC.

Since becoming the UFC’s first flyweight champion, Johnson has flown under the radar. He was originally tucked away on the UFC’s free televised events on the Fox platform. It seemed that he was charged with leading a weight class that was struggling to catch the mainstream fan’s attention. Johnson answered the call by solidifying himself as one of the best titleholders in the organization.

In four title defenses, “Mighty Mouse” has shown continuous leaps toward becoming a complete fighter. According to Fight Metric, the flyweight champion has landed more significant strikes than any opponent he’s faced.

Yet, what is more interesting is the way he’s surpassed that point as champion. In his five title bouts, Demetrious has nearly doubled his opponents’ striking output. Many of these fights have gone into the fifth round, where Johnson looks like he’s as fresh as he was in the first.

Another area of interest when speaking about Johnson is his new determination to finish opponents. Leading up to his fight against Bagautinov, Johnson talked freely about stopping challengers.

“I did it with the best fighters in the world,” Johnson was quoted as saying by Brent Brookhouse of Bloody Elbow. “Joseph, he’d never been finished. I ended up knocking him out. John Moraga, he’d never been finished. I ended up submitting him.”

Many fans have complained that some champions begin to “fight safe” to protect the title rather than entertain. Johnson is going in the exact opposite direction. Against Moraga, he had the fight secured on the scorecards but still locked in the fifth-round armbar.

Bagautinov was in the same position, but that didn’t stop Demetrious from taking risks in an attempt to finish him. Johnson’s fighting style should be appreciated by the fans who dislike those that don’t throw caution to the wind.

The UFC has Johnson currently sitting in the fourth position in the promotion’s pound-for-pound rankings. While these opinions are merely just that, it’s interesting to see the development of arguments that will consider DJ the best in the sport. Demetrious Johnson may only be 5’3″ and fight at 125 pounds, but he’s setting himself apart as the potential pound-for-pound king of mixed martial arts.

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