If Michael Bisping or the UFC’s marketing department would have their way, none of us MMA fans would dare speak a word of the UFC’s tiniest and most criticized division from this day forth. We’re talking, of course, about those little flyweights.
Yes, despite putting on consistently entertaining performances, the UFC’s flyweight division has come under fire since the day of its inception for being “unmarketable” and lacking a distinctive amount of banging, bro. And with the all but completely overlooked title fight between Demetrious Johnson and John Moraga going down on FOX this weekend, we decided to send staff writer and NOLA resident Seth Falvo into the fiery bowels of the infamous Bourbon Street to get some predictions and also ask: Does anyone really care about flyweights?
As you would expect, the only people Seth was able to wrangle in were either street performers, gypsies, guys in chicken suits, or sign holders for gay strip clubs. As you would also expect, most of them were forced to drunkenly yell over the sounds of carnival music in order to be heard, hence the need for subtitles. Tis a silly place, New Orleans.
Check out the mostly inaudible video above, then make sure to tune in to UFC on FOX 8: Johnson vs. Moraga tomorrow to see if these flyweights can *finally* live up to all that hype they’re getting.
If Michael Bisping or the UFC’s marketing department would have their way, none of us MMA fans would dare speak a word of the UFC’s tiniest and most criticized division from this day forth. We’re talking, of course, about those little flyweights.
Yes, despite putting on consistently entertaining performances, the UFC’s flyweight division has come under fire since the day of its inception for being “unmarketable” and lacking a distinctive amount of banging, bro. And with the all but completely overlooked title fight between Demetrious Johnson and John Moraga going down on FOX this weekend, we decided to send staff writer and NOLA resident Seth Falvo into the fiery bowels of the infamous Bourbon Street to get some predictions and also ask: Does anyone really care about flyweights?
As you would expect, the only people Seth was able to wrangle in were either street performers, gypsies, guys in chicken suits, or sign holders for gay strip clubs. As you would also expect, most of them were forced to drunkenly yell over the sounds of carnival music in order to be heard, hence the need for subtitles. Tis a silly place, New Orleans.
Check out the mostly inaudible video above, then make sure to tune in to UFC on FOX 8: Johnson vs. Moraga tomorrow to see if these flyweights can *finally* live up to all that hype they’re getting.
Quick, name the only UFC champion that hasn’t headlined a pay-per-view.
If you said Demetrious Johnson, congratulations. The headline may have been a strong hint, but you got it.
It’s true. The promotion’s lightest champion has yet to be th…
Quick, name the only UFC champion that hasn’t headlined a pay-per-view.
If you said Demetrious Johnson, congratulations. The headline may have been a strong hint, but you got it.
It’s true. The promotion’s lightest champion has yet to be the main attraction for a pay-per-view—partially due to the fact that fighters from the smaller weight divisions rarely draw the buy rates that the UFC desperately seeks.
According to MMA Payout Blue Book, only one card headlined by fighters weighing 135 pounds or less has topped 300,000 buys—UFC 132 headlined by Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz.
But Johnson is partially to blame for his lack of drawing power.
For those who love the technical aspects of the game, Johnson is a joy to watch. His footwork, quickness and wrestling ability truly make him the best in his division. He’s taken on explosive technical opponents in Joseph Benavidez, Ian McCall and John Dodson and topped them all.
However, those aren’t the qualities of a fighter that make a draw.
No, the average fan not only wants to see a champion win but a champion win impressively—preferably by finishing his opponent.
Since dropping down to his current division, Johnson has gone 3-0-1 on his way to winning the inaugural tournament, including a majority draw against McCall and a split decision against Benavidez.
While the FightMetric stats for those bouts wouldn’t indicate that “Mighty Mouse” was not on the receiving end of any egregious decisions, it still doesn’t do anything to combat the perception that he’s a “boring” champion.
So what can Johnson do to sell himself as a more marketable champion?
Finishing John Moraga at UFC on Fox 8 would be a great start.
Unfortunately, Johnson will be in the precarious position of fighting an opponent whose skill set is much farther along than his notoriety. Moraga has just one loss on his record (to John Dodson 2010) and has finished Ulysses Gomez and Chris Cariaso since joining the UFC.
The problem?
His first fight against Gomez opened up the FX preliminaries for UFC on Fox 4, and his second fight was buried on the Facebook prelims of UFC 155. In essence, there’s a strong possibility that many fans will be seeing Moraga fight for the first time Saturday.
Johnson cannot afford to have a close fight with someone with as little exposure as Moraga if he wants to become a bigger draw.
The UFC returns to free television this Saturday with UFC on Fox 8, and we are taking a look at the odds heading into the final card of July.
The event features a flyweight title fight between champion Demetrious Johnson and top contender John Moraga, …
The UFC returns to free television this Saturday with UFC on Fox 8, and we are taking a look at the odds heading into the final card of July.
The event features a flyweight title fight between champion Demetrious Johnson and top contender John Moraga, while the co-main event is a welterweight contest between contenders Jake Ellenberger and Rory MacDonald.
For those looking to get a bit more involved in the action, the betting lines for the main card fights are in, and we’ve got all the odds right here.
Find out where the value lies for this card as we handicap all four main card fights.
There’s a UFC event this weekend, live on free TV. I’ll forgive you if this is the first you’ve heard of it.
The media push for this one has been nonexistent, lost in the wake of the Anderson Silva fight fix controversy, an impending media tour fo…
There’s a UFC event this weekend, live on free TV. I’ll forgive you if this is the first you’ve heard of it.
The media push for this one has been nonexistent, lost in the wake of the Anderson Silva fight fix controversy, an impending media tour for other, more important shows and the general malaise that comes with the near weekly presence of mixed martial arts on television.
The show will be headlined by Demetrious Johnson and John Moraga. I’ll forgive you if you aren’t familiar with them either.
Though Johnson was in the main event of the UFC’s sixth show on Fox, he’s spent most of his career buried on the undercard or headlining less prestigious events on FX or Versus. Moraga, I kid you not, was in the opening bout in each of his two UFC appearances.
A blockbuster, this surely is not.
Combined, the two men weigh the same as an average-sized heavyweight. Johnson stands just 5’3″ tall. Moraga, by contrast, is a relative giant at a whopping 5’6″.
Do MMA fans care to watch wee men attempting to do opponents harm with their miniature arms and legs? Sure, they are just like us—only tiny versions of us, dwarfed by the referee, the time keeper and possibly even the UFC’s lilliputian matchmaker, Joe Silva.
Do not adjust your television when they come on—they really are that small. You can’t watch them on your 60-inch flat screen. A flyweight is best viewed on a 19-inch Sony from 1974.
I kid. Maybe.
But, for Johnson and everyone else in the brand new flyweight class, size most definitely matters. While it might not stop a boxer from making big money and headlining huge events, for UFC fans, it’s clearly a deal killer.
Fans have, today and historically, rejected fighters below the welterweight limit of 170 pounds. The data on this is clear. The reasons less so. I took a shot at pinpointing them last year:
In boxing, fans identify with artistry. When you order a big boxing show, you expect to settle in for a night of action. The story inside the ring builds as the night goes on, with commentators like HBO’s Jim Lampley doing their best to make even the most boring fight seem like a Homerian epic.
In mixed martial arts, fans have been trained to expect the opposite. The violence is quick, arriving like a bolt of lightning and evaporating just as quickly. As a kid, I remember how furious my dad’s friends were when Mike Tyson’s fight with Michael Spinks ended so quickly. They wanted more than a brutal knockout. In MMA, the quick KO will suffice for most fans, thank you very much.
Johnson and Moraga aren’t likely to change that track record this weekend.
As Dave Meltzer of MMAFighting.com pointed out in April, the UFC’s success on Fox has been tied to professional football. When the NFL is there to market the shows, they succeed. When it’s not? Viewers drop off by the millions.
Last year’s spring special, headlined by Diaz vs. Jim Miller, which did a 1.5 rating and 2.42 million viewers. The summer numbers, for a show headlined by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Alexander Gustafsson, did similar numbers, although it was hurt badly by going head-to-head against the Olympics.
This seemed to, more than anything, show that having the UFC promoted during NFL broadcasts makes a significant difference when it comes to FOX network ratings. By all rights, Henderson should have come out of the Diaz fight as a bigger star, given his impressive victory. Melendez hadn’t had the level of UFC exposure as Diaz, given it was his debut with the organization. But he was the Strikeforce champion for most of the past seven years.
All these factors make it pretty clear this is a show destined for ratings doom. So far, from a box office perspective, the creation of the bantamweight and flyweight classes has been a complete bust.
Their only purpose seems to be creating the illusion of importance for UFC television cards lacking oomph.
Is the UFC missing the boat on these talented fighters? What can be done to better promote the smaller guys? Or is it possible fans simply aren’t interested in watching grown men the size of the average woman in America slug it out?
MMA’s Great Debate Radio returns from hiatus with a stacked show, featuring some of the top fighters from the upcoming UFC on Fox 8 card, including flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and co-main event fighters Rory MacDonald and Jake Ellenberger.
Fo…
MMA’s Great Debate Radio returns from hiatus with a stacked show, featuring some of the top fighters from the upcoming UFC on Fox 8 card, including flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and co-main event fighters Rory MacDonald and Jake Ellenberger.
Following shoulder surgery that kept him out of a fight in April, Johnson stops by to talk about his recovery, facing a relative unknown fighter in John Moraga and what it will take for the flyweights to finally reach star potential in the UFC.
Canadian MacDonald will answer the charge of his upcoming opponent Ellenberger and his reaction to the slew of Twitter messages he received leading to their fight.
Ellenberger also stops by to say why he went after MacDonald on Twitter and if he believes this fight will earn him a long-awaited title shot.
Finally, the debate today swirls around the events of UFC on Fox 8.
Today’s topics include:
—Rate your level of excitement in UFC on Fox 8 on a scale of 1-10
—Can the flyweight division ever draw the same kinds of crowds as the bigger weight classes?
—Fight Pick: Liz Carmouche vs. Jessica Andrade
—Fight Pick: Robbie Lawler vs. Bobby Voelker
—Should the winner of Ellenberger vs. MacDonald get the next title shot?
—Fight Pick: Ellenberger vs. MacDonald
—Fight Pick: Johnson vs. Moraga
This is MMA’s Great Debate Radio for Thursday, July 25, 2013
There’s often so much going on during UFC on FOX events that some of the more intriguing storylines get lost amongst all the glamour and glitz of network television. Here are four important themes surrounding UFC on FOX 8: Johnson vs. Moraga that have been flying under the radar heading into this weekend’s show. Let us know what you think, and be sure to come back to CagePotato.com this Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT for our liveblog of the main card.
Is UFC On FOX 8 Make Or Break For The Flyweights?
UFC on FOX 8 is headlined by the flyweight title fight between reigning champion Demetrious Johnson and challenger John Moraga, and it’s a fight that could help the flyweight division explode if it’s exciting — or hold the division back if it’s a bore.
The last time that 125-pounders headlined an event was at UFC on FOX 6, when Johnson defended his title against John Dodson. The match won “Fight of the Night,” but that might not be the first thing that fans think of when they remember the event. Instead, they think of Anthony Pettis’s body kick KO of Donald Cerrone, or (for less positive reasons) Rampage Jackson’s last Octagon fight against Glover Teixeira.
It may be because flyweight fights so often go to decision, and the fans, especially casual fans, love to see knockouts and submissions. But it’s rare to see true KO power among 125-pound fighters, and the fact that flyweights tend to be extremely quick and nimble makes it harder for submissions to get locked in.
Demetrious Johnson certainly fits this stereotype, as he’s managed to go 27 rounds in his UFC career without securing a single stoppage victory. But Moraga has been an exception to the rule. Both of his Octagon appearances have ended in pleasingly violent finishes. Unfortunately, those finishes — a knockout of Ulysses Gomez at UFC on FOX 4 and a guillotine-choke submission of Chris Cariaso at UFC 155 — were both buried on the opening preliminary bouts of the cards they were on. In other words, even if you attended those events in person, you might have missed them. Despite being a title challenger in a main event fight on FOX, Moraga is still a stranger to most fans.
There’s often so much going on during UFC on FOX events that some of the more intriguing storylines get lost amongst all the glamour and glitz of network television. Here are four important themes surrounding UFC on FOX 8: Johnson vs. Moraga that have been flying under the radar heading into this weekend’s show. Let us know what you think, and be sure to come back to CagePotato.com this Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT for our liveblog of the main card.
Is UFC on FOX 8 Make or Break for the Flyweights?
UFC on FOX 8 is headlined by the flyweight title fight between reigning champion Demetrious Johnson and challenger John Moraga, and it’s a fight that could help the flyweight division explode if it’s exciting — or hold the division back if it’s a bore.
The last time that 125-pounders headlined an event was at UFC on FOX 6, when Johnson defended his title against John Dodson. The match won “Fight of the Night,” but that might not be the first thing that fans think of when they remember the event. Instead, they think of Anthony Pettis’s body kick KO of Donald Cerrone, or (for less positive reasons) Rampage Jackson’s last Octagon fight against Glover Teixeira.
It may be because flyweight fights so often go to decision, and the fans, especially casual fans, love to see knockouts and submissions. But it’s rare to see true KO power among 125-pound fighters, and the fact that flyweights tend to be extremely quick and nimble makes it harder for submissions to get locked in.
Demetrious Johnson certainly fits this stereotype, as he’s managed to go 27 rounds in his UFC career without securing a single stoppage victory. But Moraga has been an exception to the rule. Both of his Octagon appearances have ended in pleasingly violent finishes. Unfortunately, those finishes — a knockout of Ulysses Gomez at UFC on FOX 4 and a guillotine-choke submission of Chris Cariaso at UFC 155 — were both buried on the opening preliminary bouts of the cards they were on. In other words, even if you attended those events in person, you might have missed them. Despite being a title challenger in a main event fight on FOX, Moraga is still a stranger to most fans.
Johnson and Moraga are definitely under pressure to perform this weekend. If the fight ends in a boring, five-round unanimous decision, I don’t think the fans are going to be buying the flyweights going forward — and the UFC is already planning to have them headlining pay-per-views in the future. But if the fight ends in a spectacular finish? That could be the first step towards real interest in the division.
It’s make-or-break time for the flyweights at UFC on FOX 8. Now let’s see if they’re up for the challenge.
Will Rory MacDonald Be the Man to Dethrone Georges St-Pierre?
Canadian Rory MacDonald, who just turned 24, is quickly moving up the welterweight ranks, and a fight between MacDonald and UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is going to be bandied about should “Ares” win in impressive fashion against Jake Ellenberger this weekend in the co-main event of UFC on FOX 8.
Of course, there’s a big problem with that matchup and it’s the fact that MacDonald and St-Pierre are longtime teammates and friends at TriStar Gym in Montreal. As MacDonald recently said on The MMA Hour: “We’re not fighting. Me and Georges are friends, we’re training partners. We’ll have our own arrangements and figure it all out when the time comes. It’s not going to come to us fighting.”
Then again, money has a way of changing people’s minds. (See also: “I back.“) Right now, there are only a few fresh contenders left for St-Pierre at welterweight: Johny Hendricks, who GSP faces next at UFC 167 in November; Ellenberger, who may get a title shot with a win over MacDonald; Demian Maia, who is quickly moving up the 170-pound ladder; Erick Silva, who the UFC would love to fast-track to a title shot thanks to his growing popularity in Brazil; and MacDonald, the quiet Canadian with a killer’s glare in his eyes.
After watching MacDonald embarrass BJ Penn, Che Mills, Mike Pyle, Nate Diaz and Mike Guymon, and put up a hell of a fight against Carlos Condit, MacDonald could be the UFC welterweight champion in a few years. It’s not Hendricks or Ellenberger or Maia who has the potential to take the belt away from St-Pierre, it’s the young Canuck MacDonald, and he can solidify his position as heir to the welterweight throne with a victory over Ellenberger this weekend.
Michael Chiesa: From TUF Winner To Potential Lightweight Contender
Michael Chiesa has one of the best stories in sports, but the UFC has done a terrible job promoting him even though he is on his way to becoming a contender in the lightweight division.
Just days after entering the TUF 15 house, Chiesa’s father passed away, but instead of letting the tragedy paralyze him, Chiesa instead used it for strength, and ended up running the table by defeating all of his opponents on his way to capturing the Ultimate Fighter crown. Not bad for a 25-year-old from Spokane, Washington.
After defeating Anton Kuivanen at UFC 157 in his first post-TUF fight in the UFC, Chiesa is now 9-0 as a professional (with seven of those wins by submission inside the first two rounds) and he takes his undefeated record into the cage this weekend in a lightweight battle against Jorge Masvidal that headlines the FX prelims.
It’s obvious the UFC sees the tremendous talents that Chiesa has, and wants to test him against a tough opponent like Masvidal. And it’s a fight that, if he wins, will move Chiesa up from the list of TUF winners who never amount to much to that rare class of TUF winners who have a legitimate shot of holding a UFC title.
Look for Chiesa to use the hometown crowd to his advantage this weekend as he attempts to overcome the odds yet again and take out the far-more experienced Masvidal. And if he does, look for Chiesa to be fighting someone in the top 10 in his next fight, something which seemed unthinkable just over a year ago when the scraggly, lanky, Cody McKenzie-lookalike who no one ever gave a chance first appeared on the UFC’s reality show.
It’s possible that one of the pioneers of the sport will be competing in his last mixed martial arts bout this weekend, as veteran Aaron Riley returns from a two-year injury layoff to take on Justin Salas on the Facebook prelims of UFC on FOX 8.
The owner of a 30-13-1 MMA record, Riley has been competing in the sport since 1997, and despite having an up-and-down career he’s somehow managed to keep a job with the top fighting promotion in the world. It’s a testament to the excitement he always delivers in the cage and his will to overcome injuries and continue on with his career when it likely made more sense to retire, especially following broken jaws in his fights against Ross Pearson and Tony Ferguson.
Whenever I look at a fighter’s record and I see that they’ve fought for promotions like HOOKnSHOOT (watch his epic fights with Yves Edwards if you haven’t already), Shooto and PRIDE, I automatically develop a higher level of respect for them. These are the types of fighters who set the table for the thousands that followed. It’s guys like Riley who are the reason that many young men and women around the world realized they could make a living out of doing what they love to do — being a mixed martial artist.
Hopefully it’s not the end of Riley’s career this weekend, but with another loss, his UFC record would drop to 3-6 and that’s likely not good enough to stick around any longer. For a guy who first appeared in the Octagon at UFC 37 in 2002, Riley has nothing to be ashamed of if this is truly the last time we see him fight. But let’s not count him out just yet.
Quick, name the only UFC champion that hasn’t headlined a pay-per-view. 