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Five Ways The UFC Is Becoming More Like WWE

When UFC 1 took place on a cold November night back in 1993 from McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado, it ignited the beginning of the world’s foremost mixed martial arts (MMA) competition, fueled by the concept of the best fighting the best to call themselves champion. It may have been extremely rough around the edges in […]

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It may have been extremely rough around the edges in those ‘dark’ days where the sport having few rules and regulation had it on the precipice of doom, but the opposite is very much true today. After the Fertitta brothers along with Dana White purchased the UFC for a paltry sum and turned it into a legitimately regulated competition watched on pay-per-view the world over, the UFC exploded into a global brand that put shows on nearly every weekend.

When its popularity peaked in 2016 on the heels of the Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz rivalry, the Fertitta brothers saw an opportunity to cash in, and cash in they did. Selling the UFC to Hollywood talent giant WME-IMG (now Endeavor) for a then-record $4.2 billion, one of the biggest franchise sales in sports (of any kind) history was complete. But all was not rosy. This year has seen the advent of some truly horrific pay-per-view and television ratings, with UFC 213, UFC 215, and UFC 216 ranking as three of the lowest-watched PPVs ever, while December’s TUF 26 Finale was the least-watched UFC live event of all-time.

So while it was undoubtedly rough around the edges in its infancy, the UFC is dealing with a whole different set of problems heading into 2018, and many would argue that the UFC owners don’t exactly know what they’re doing. A growing sense is that the Hollywood agency is now trying to book the more mainstream, over-the-top spectacle fights rather than those that clearly have a more legitimate meaning based on meritocracy.

It’s lead to a steady stream of criticism that the UFC is becoming more like pro-wrestling and their WWE counterpart, obviously not the most endearing of words from fight fans. The argument, unfortunately, cannot be totally denied. Let’s take a look at the reasons why:

5.) Titles Mean Next To Nothing:

Endeavor has to be commended for finally getting the middleweight division moving in the right direction by booking Robert Whittaker vs. Luke Rockhold for UFC 221, but there is one weight class that is an absolute mess in the UFC.

It’s obviously Conor McGregor’s held-hostage lightweight division, where “The Notorious” fought once and won the belt way back at UFC 205 in November 2016 before leaving to box – and lose – to Floyd Mayweather for the entirety of 2017. McGregor made the record-setting payday he was always looking for and can’t be blamed for doing it, but the fact remains the 155-pound landscape, which is still one of the most talented in MMA, has no clarity whatsoever at the current moment.

An interim belt was given to Tony Ferguson at October’s UFC 216, but without a path to a unification bout with McGregor, he opted to have elbow surgery, leaving not one but two champions on the sidelines with no real news about a return. Take into account the middleweight situation as well, where Michael Bisping was allowed to avoid the top 10 contenders by facing a retiring No. 14 Dan Henderson and an unretiring Georges St-Pierre, who had never even fought in the division. St-Pierre won and vacated the belt hardly a month later.

Interim titles are also created around much more frequently, making them seem more like the WWE titles that are handed over and won back on a never-ending cycle.

Because of these occurrences, UFC titles seem like little more than gold belts to be flaunted after a win rather than symbols of true MMA supremacy to be defended with pride.

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Five Ways The UFC Is Becoming More Like WWE

The post Five Ways The UFC Is Becoming More Like WWE appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

5.) Titles Mean Next To Nothing:

Interim titles are also created around much more frequently, making them seem more like the WWE titles that are handed over and won back on a never-ending cycle.

Because of these occurrences, UFC titles seem like little more than gold belts to be flaunted after a win rather than symbols of true MMA supremacy to be defended with pride.

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GSP Focused On Quieting Critics In UFC Return

Former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre’s MMA return is currently unknown after he vacated the 185-pound title following his thrilling win over Michael Bisping at November 4’s UFC 217 if it ever even happens. But for one night, St-Pierre toppled a challenge many thought he would be overmatched against in the then-surging “Count,” rocking […]

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But for one night, St-Pierre toppled a challenge many thought he would be overmatched against in the then-surging “Count,” rocking the brash Brit with improved striking before submitting him with a scintillating rear-naked choke that forced the former champ to pass out.

St-Pierre had touted a more action-focused style in the months leading up to the heavily hyped fight, but few seemed to believe him after he had been without a finish for nine years. He scored one in emphatic fashion, however, and it wasn’t by accident. Speaking during a recent episode of The MMA Hour, St-Pierre’s longtime Brazilian jiu-jitsu head coach John Danaher revealed the all-time great plan’s to come back with more power and drive to stop his opponent in an effort to shut up the critics of his legacy:

“We talked about it a little more and I said to him that there has always been three criticisms of your career. The first is that you’re so controlling and tactical in your approach to fighting that it makes for boring fights. That’s always been a persistent criticism.

“The second is that you never fought up a weight class. You always fought guys at welterweight. The third is that you don’t finish fights. Those are the three persistent criticisms of the legacy of Georges St-Pierre.

“I said why don’t we focus on a training regiment that strongly emphasizes submissions and TKOs/KOs and punching power that you need to finish a fight. You go up a weight division and you focus on the old, dynamic in-and-out and lateral movement of Georges St-Pierre to create a faster paced fight that people find more interesting. We ran the idea past other people – Firas Zahabi, Freddie Roach etc. – and everyone said that it was a good idea.”

Danaher then opened up about how he and their team implemented this into their fighting strategy, noting that GSP shifted focus from mainly positional work to potentially fight-changing strikes and submissions:

“Georges came in and worked with the squad and we strongly emphasized submission holds. Normally when I train with Georges it’s really what we call ‘grapple boxing’, which is a mixture of striking and boxing on the ground. It’s mostly positional work. Instead we changed everything to submission holds, favoring strangulations from the back and leg locks. Georges made remarkable progress.

“He started working with Freddie Roach on the mechanics of punching so he was hitting harder. He was sitting on his punches more and just working on the mechanical element of straightforwardly hitting harder with a strong emphasis on left hook, jab and straight rear hand.He made significant changes and there was a notable sense that he was hitting harder and he was working submissions with a lot of success in the gym.

“He started working with a karate specialist who brought back the old, linear, in-and-out movement that Georges was so famous for in the early days of his career.We were pretty confident before the camp started that people were going to see something new, something that would add to Georges’ legacy. This wouldn’t be the Georges of 170 fighting another top welterweight and doing the same thing that he did for a decade.

“This was him fighting up a weight class with a strong emphasis on finishing the fight in a dynamic, mobile way, which people found exciting.”

Indeed more did obviously find St-Pierre’s new style much more exciting, but the victory was somewhat marred by him unfortunately going through a bout of colitis presumably from the increased food intake required for him to fight at middleweight. But thanks to his overall professionalism and skill, he was able to fight through the ailment and deliver a surprising knockdown and submission over one of the toughest contenders at 185:

“Unfortunately the plan ran flat into a physical problem, which was completely unforeseen. But Georges is the incredible athlete that he is and he managed to find a way to get through that and enact the original plan and he did exactly what the plan was designed to do,” he said.

“He finished the fight with a beautifully applied strike into a submission hold. He showed increased power, he knocked down a man who is extraordinarily difficult to knock down in a weight division above him.

“He showed genuine improvements in punching power. He showed genuine improvements in submission attacks finishing people from the back and he did it on a man in a weight class above him in a dynamic and tidy fight that went back and forth, and thrilled a sold out crowd in Madison Square Garden.”

There’s no discrediting ‘Rush’s’ win at UFC 217, yet his UFC future is cloudy following his rapid vacation of the middleweight championship. It avoided tying up the 185-pound landscape for an unforeseen amount of time like lightweight, but it also may have tarnished the entire idea of winning the title in the first place – something the UFC has been criticized of several times during 2017.

He’s now teasing a return for a “mega-fight” with Conor McGregor, which could, unfortunately, be the best course of action in today’s strange MMA climate.

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Luke Rockhold Promises To Slap ‘Midget’ Kelvin Gastelum

Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold will get another crack at the title when he squares off with newly minted undisputed champion Robert Whittaker in the main event of February 10’s UFC 221 from Perth, Australia. But it’s been a long road back for the onetime heir apparent to Anderson Silva as the 185-pound greatest […]

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But it’s been a long road back for the onetime heir apparent to Anderson Silva as the 185-pound greatest of all-time (even though ‘The Spider’s legacy has, unfortunately, come into question as of late). Cocksure of a long reign, Rockhold infamously lost his title to Michael Bisping at 2016’s UFC 199, sparking a year-and-a-half of outright chaos when ‘The Count’ refused to fight any top contender and lost the belt to returning welterweight king Georges St-Pierre last month.

Now that St-Pierre has left 185 and vacated his title, the deeply packed division has some semblance of order restored, yet during the chaos, a new star emerged in Kelvin Gastelum, who knocked out Bisping at UFC Shanghai on November 25. He also thinks himself a more rightful contender to the middleweight throne than Rockhold despite a recent loss to former champ Chris Weidman in July, whom Rockhold demolished to win the belt initially at UFC 194.

Speaking up on his sudden rival to Submission Radio (quotes via MMA Fighting), Rockhold affirmed his view that he was the more deserving fighter. With that said, he viewed it as humorous Gastelum to run his mouth and suggest otherwise:

“I know I’ve proven myself,” Rockhold said. “I’ve accomplished things in this sport, whereas little m**gets like Kelvin Gastelum haven’t. I’ve destroyed Chris Weidman, which he got destroyed by Weidman, so it’s like ehh [shrugs].

“This kid hasn’t beaten really anybody and done anything in this sport, and for him to run his mouth, it’s pretty funny. It’s laughable. He’ll find out real if he continues his efforts at 185. I’d slap that kid down real quick. Real quick.”

It seems Gastelum is not on Rockhold’s radar despite some truly excellent knockouts in the class. He’s more focused on surging champion Whittaker, who has fought and defeated the absolute cream of the crop – something he wants to do himself:

“Whittaker’s been the champ for a long time, so he’s the goal, of course. The best is always the goal, being on top is the goal and Whittaker’s proved himself for a long time now. He’s been on top, he’s beaten all the top guys, he’s the man. . .

“I wanna fight Whittaker, I want to fight the best. It would’ve been – I’m a realist, and I know that neither [Georges St-Pierre nor Michael Bisping], win or lose, would fight any of us. They’re both gonna try and run off, ride off into the sunset and not fight the fight. I respect Whittaker for stepping up and fighting me. I know he had options to take a lesser opponent, the fans wanted this and this is what it is. He’s a true champion, he’s gonna fight the No. 1 contenders.”

Credit goes to ‘The Reaper’ for getting middleweight moving once again, and there’s little doubt that the fight will be a true match of two of the top competitors in the historical division, which can’t be said of the Bisping-St-Pierre period.

The winner will be middleweight one and only true king, and in today’s unpredictable fighting climate, that’s certainly a sight for sore eyes for fans.

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Top UFC Lightweight Thinks It’s Time To Strip Conor McGregor’s Belt

As the UFC heads into 2018 following a questionable 2017 where their biggest star Conor McGregor didn’t fight in MMA once, their biggest question remains when – and if – ‘The Notorious’ will finally defend his title belt. Long regarded as possibly the most talented division in the UFC, the 155-pound fray has grown increasingly […]

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Long regarded as possibly the most talented division in the UFC, the 155-pound fray has grown increasingly packed with disgruntled contenders who want the weight class to finally move on. There’s no end to the current rut, however, as interim champion Tony Ferguson recently had surgery and is understandably waiting for his massive payday unification bout with McGregor.

That has the division on edge, and the growing sentiment amongst them is that McGregor should be stripped of his title if he’s unwilling to defend it soon like he said he would. One of those competitors is No. 7-ranked Dustin Poirier, once a foe of McGregor’s who was knocked out at 2014’s UFC 178. But “The Diamond” has been on a bit of a tear in 2017 after his last loss to Michael Johnson in September 2016, building a two-fight win streak that would be three if his controversial UFC 211 bout vs. Eddie Alvarez hadn’t been ruled a no contest by Herb Dean.

Poirier recently told MMA Weekly’s Damon Martin that the time was here for the UFC to strip McGregor:

“The thing is, the UFC’s pretending with Conor, but you have a list of top 10 fighters who aren’t pretending or messing around. This is their lives and their goals and their family’s future, a lot of stuff on the line here.

“So no pretending — let’s strip the belt from the guy or make him fight.”

Poirier undoubtedly raises a valid point by suggesting McGregor needs to defend the belt because the rest of the class is trying to further their careers, yet it could be highly unlikely due to the fact that the promotion’s far and away best shot at a monstrous pay-per-view (PPV) haul in 2018 rests on McGregor’s potential return.

Regardless, Poirier said the division needs to move on and the only to attain that necessary goal is to get McGregor out of the picture if he doesn’t want to compete:

“We have to [strip him] and then other fights make sense. Tony [Ferguson] gets the belt, his belt becomes the real belt and then he fights the winner out of these next few fights we have coming at the beginning of the year. We’ve got to clear it up.”

‘The Diamond’ is hardly the first fighter – or even lightweight, for that matter – to call out the UFC to take the brash Irishman’s gold, and those cries are only growing louder by the day.

As we’ve seen with the recent (and curious) case of returning former champion Georges St-Pierre, titles don’t mean anything close to what they once did in the UFC, as they’re really only an award placed on a match-up to make it seem as big as possible in today’s “money fight” era.

McGregor only wants compete in just those, and the Top 10 of the lightweight division aren’t really going to be his radar unfortunately, because they would provide fans with some entertaining action. After you fight Floyd Mayweather, most bouts don’t seem to get the juices flowing quite as much as they once did.

For the lightweight division’s sake, the fight game will have to hope the UFC finally lends some clarification to this growing cesspool sometime very soon.

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UFC Rankings Update: GSP Plummets After Vacating Title

UFC great Georges St-Pierre created one of MMA’s legitimate feel-good moments when he returned from nearly four years off to defeat former middleweight champion Michael Bisping in the main event of November 4’s UFC 217 from New York, becoming only the fourth UFC multi-division champ in the process. His future in the sport became incredibly […]

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His future in the sport became incredibly unclear shortly after his historic win, however, as St-Pierre revealed that he would be out for an indefinite period of time while recovering from colitis due to the increased mass required to move up to 185 pounds. ‘GSP’ revealed shortly thereafter that he was most likely done at 185, and that became all but a sure thing when he vacated the belt in the days that followed.

This week, the official UFC rankings have reflected that, as St-Pierre fell an alarming three spots to No. 3 at 185 pounds, dropping below Luke Rockhold and Yoel Romero while there was a strong case to be made he shouldn’t even be ranked there any longer because he doesn’t intend to fight there again.

Considering the actual fight action last week, featherweight Brian Ortega rose two spots to No. 4 after submitting veteran Cub Swanson in the UFC Fresno main event. Swanson fell one spot to No. 5.

Check out the fully updated rankings on the UFC’s official website here:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Georges St-Pierre
3 Conor McGregor
4 Max Holloway
5 Daniel Cormier
6 TJ Dillashaw
7 Stipe Miocic
8 Tyron Woodley
9 Tony Ferguson
10 Cris Cyborg
11 Cody Garbrandt
12 Robert Whittaker
13 Amanda Nunes -1
14 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
15 Dominick Cruz

FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Jussier Formiga
5 Sergio Pettis
6 Wilson Reis
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 John Moraga
10 Dustin Ortiz
11 Tim Elliott
12 Alexandre Pantoja
13 Louis Smolka
14 Deiveson Figueiredo
15 Magomed Bibulatov

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: TJ Dillashaw
1 Cody Garbrandt
2 Dominick Cruz
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 Jimmie Rivera
5 Marlon Moraes +2
6 John Lineker -1
7 Bryan Caraway -1
8 John Dodson +1
9 Aljamain Sterling -1
10 Thomas Almeida
11 Pedro Munhoz
12 Eddie Wineland
13 Brett Johns
14 Rob Font
15 Matthew Lopez

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Ricardo Lamas
4 Brian Ortega +2
5 Cub Swanson -1
6 Chan Sung Jung -1
7 Yair Rodriguez
8 Jeremy Stephens
9 Darren Elkins
10 Renato Moicano
11 Dennis Bermudez
12 Dooho Choi
13 Mirsad Bektic
14 Myles Jury
15 Calvin Kattar *NR

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Tony Ferguson (Interim Champion)
2 Khabib Nurmagomedov
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Nate Diaz
7 Dustin Poirier
8 Kevin Lee
9 Michael Chiesa
10 Michael Johnson
11 Al Iaquinta
12 Beneil Dariush
13 Anthony Pettis
14 Francisco Trinaldo
15 James Vick

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Stephen Thompson
2 Robbie Lawler
3 Colby Covington
4 Rafael Dos Anjos
5 Demian Maia
6 Jorge Masvidal
7 Darren Till
8 Carlos Condit
9 Donald Cerrone
10 Santiago Ponzinibbio
11 Kamaru Usman +1
12 Neil Magny -1
13 Gunnar Nelson
14 Dong Hyun Kim
15 Yancy Medeiros

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Robert Whittaker
1 Yoel Romero +1
2 Luke Rockhold +1
3 Georges St-Pierre -3
4 Jacare Souza
5 Chris Weidman
6 Kelvin Gastelum
7 Michael Bisping
8 Derek Brunson
9 Anderson Silva
10 David Branch
11 Uriah Hall
12 Vitor Belfort
13 Krzysztof Jotko
14 Lyoto Machida
15 Paulo Costa

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Alexander Gustafsson
2 Volkan Oezdemir
3 Glover Teixeira
4 Jimi Manuwa
5 Ovince Saint Preux
6 Mauricio Rua
7 Misha Cirkunov
8 Corey Anderson
9 Ilir Latifi
10 Patrick Cummins
11 Rogerio Nogueira
12 Gadzhimurad Antigulov
13 Tyson Pedro
14 Jared Cannonier
15 Jan Blachowicz

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Francis Ngannou
2 Alistair Overeem
3 Fabricio Werdum
4 Cain Velasquez
5 Mark Hunt
6 Derrick Lewis
7 Alexander Volkov
8 Marcin Tybura
9 Curtis Blaydes
10 Stefan Struve
11 Aleksei Oleinik
12 Andrei Arlovski
13 Junior Albini
14 Travis Browne
15 Tim Johnson

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Rose Namajunas
1 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
2 Jessica Andrade
3 Claudia Gadelha
4 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
5 Tecia Torres
6 Cynthia Calvillo
7 Michelle Waterson
8 Felice Herrig
9 Carla Esparza
10 Alexa Grasso
11 Cortney Casey
12 Paige VanZant
13 Joanne Calderwood
14 Randa Markos
15 Maryna Moroz

WOMEN’S FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Nicco Montano
1 Sijara Eubanks
2 Lauren Murphy
3 Alexis Davis *NR
4 Roxanne Modafferi -1
5 Barb Honchak -1
6 Montana De La Rosa -1
7 Rachael Ostovich
8 Mara Romero Borella +1
9 Liz Carmouche *NR
10 Jessica Rose Clark -2
11 Shana Dobson -1
12 Gillian Robertson -1
13 Kalindra Faria -1
14 Melinda Fabian -1
15 Bec Rawlings -1

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Raquel Pennington
5 Germaine de Randamie +4
6 Cat Zingano
7 Ketlen Vieira +1
8 Ronda Rousey -3
8 Sara McMann -1
10 Marion Reneau +2
11 Katlyn Chookagian +2
12 Bethe Correia +2
13 Leslie Smith +2
14 Aspen Ladd *NR
14 Sarah Moras *NR

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