We spent all morning combing our Facebook photo gallery and hand-picked 39 of the most memorable images that we posted in 2013, which we’ve laid out below along with their original descriptions. Enjoy, and if you’re not following us yet, get with the damn program.
We spent all morning combing our Facebook photo gallery and hand-picked 39 of the most memorable images that we posted in 2013, which we’ve laid out below along with their original descriptions. Enjoy, and if you’re not following us yet, get with the damn program.
Anderson Silva broke a leg onstage at UFC 168, literally, in what Jon Jones believes to be his final act as a fighter.
Like so many others, Jones looked on in horror as Silva fell to the canvas letting out blood-curdling screams after throwing a leg ki…
Anderson Silva broke a leg onstage at UFC 168, literally, in what Jon Jones believes to be his final act as a fighter.
Like so many others, Jones looked on in horror as Silva fell to the canvas letting out blood-curdling screams after throwing a leg kick and breaking his leg against Chris Weidman on Saturday night.
Immediately after the fight, Silva was forced to undergo emergency surgery to repair a broken tibia and fibula in his left leg. According to a statement released by Zuffa on Sunday, the recovery time for such an injury usually varies between three and six months.
However, the primary concern for Silva rests in the rehabilitation process. It could take an incredibly long time before his leg returns to 100 percent. There is also the possibility he’s never the same again. Unfortunately, the latter possibility becomes even more realistic considering Silva’s age.
A comeback from an injury of this magnitude would be an Everest-like hurdle for a man in his 20s. What can people really expect from a 38-year-old Silva?
Over the years, Jones has really shown an affinity for Silva, who he considers one of his personal role models in MMA. In several heartfelt Twitter posts, he thanked Silva for years of entertainment and inspiration.
While he believes Silva’s fighting career is over, Jones is confident that the sky is the limit for “The Spider” in all other future endeavors.
There has been no official word as of now regarding Silva’s future in the UFC.
One would have to question any motivation behind a possible return. There truly is nothing left to prove for Silva, who will already go down as arguably the greatest fighter in MMA history. It’s rare that an aging athlete is afforded the luxury of going out on top.
If anything, the injury and back-to-back losses to Weidman just prove the one thing fans have neglected all along: Anderson Silva is only human.
The new guard’s success in the Octagon might not translate to success in the box office, much to the detriment of the UFC’s future.
There’s no doubt that in terms of skill, the new generation of fighters is superior. Chris Weidman beat Anderson Silva twice without ever being in danger. Jon Jones is ten times the fighter any previous light heavyweight champ ever was. The recently arrived era of fighters are to the previous era what the previous era was to old time greats like Mark Coleman. There’s a skill disparity; MMA has evolved.
However, just because the new breed has more aptitude, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll have more drawing power. The old guard, through their battles on the early TUF seasons, Spike TV and various PPVs, brought the UFC from fringe-level oddity status (think FX Toughman or Slamball) to global sports powerhouse—complete with a network TV deal and a burgeoning international audience. The UFC’s current crew simply can’t carry the company into growth like this in 2014 and onward.
It’s no secret that the UFC’s numbers haven’t been stellar lately. Despite having more exposure than ever before, 2013’s ceiling is looking a bit like 2008/9’s floor.
Will the new faces be able to reverse the UFC’s decline in popularity? If not, will they at least be able to help the UFC tread water until the storm is weathered?
The lighter, male, weight classes won’t, for starters. It’s widely-known that they don’t draw well. MMA’s casual fan—the guy who does bench presses in the squat rack and needs skulls on everything he owns—hears 125-pounds and immediately (wrongly) thinks “Fuck watching a fighter I can throw through the wall.”
It’s too early to tell whether the new generation of greats from lightweight, welterweight, or middleweight, or even the females will produce a “future of the company”/”franchise athlete”/choose your buzzword.
(Photo via Getty)
The new guard’s success in the Octagon might not translate to success in the box office, much to the detriment of the UFC’s future.
There’s no doubt that in terms of skill, the new generation of fighters is superior. Chris Weidman beat Anderson Silva twice without ever being in danger. Jon Jones is ten times the fighter any previous light heavyweight champ ever was. The recently arrived era of fighters are to the previous era what the previous era was to old time greats like Mark Coleman. There’s a skill disparity; MMA has evolved.
However, just because the new breed has more aptitude, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll have more drawing power. The old guard, through their battles on the early TUF seasons, Spike TV and various PPVs, brought the UFC from fringe-level oddity status (think FX Toughman or Slamball) to global sports powerhouse—complete with a network TV deal and a burgeoning international audience. The UFC’s current crew simply can’t carry the company into growth like this in 2014 and onward.
It’s no secret that the UFC’s numbers haven’t been stellar lately. Despite having more exposure than ever before, 2013′s ceiling is looking a bit like 2008/9′s floor.
Will the new faces be able to reverse the UFC’s decline in popularity? If not, will they at least be able to help the UFC tread water until the storm is weathered?
The lighter, male, weight classes won’t, for starters. It’s widely-known that they don’t draw well. MMA’s casual fan—the guy who does bench presses in the squat rack and needs skulls on everything he owns—hears 125-pounds and immediately (wrongly) thinks “Fuck watching a fighter I can throw through the wall.”
It’s too early to tell whether the new generation of greats from lightweight, welterweight, or middleweight, or even the females will produce a “future of the company”/”franchise athlete”/choose your buzzword.
Ronda Rousey has had more exposure than any UFC fighter in recent memory, but she stamped herself with an expiration date. It’s possible that the women’s strawweight division can help matters due to starlets like CagePotato’s own Rose Namajunas and Felice Herrig. But we won’t know how much mainstream appeal women’s strawweight has until the division starts picking up steam in the UFC.
Only an estimated 270,000 (and all following PPV numbers are unofficial estimates via MMAPayout’s blue book) fans purchased Anthony Pettis‘ UFC 164 fight against Ben Henderson, a fighter that never moves the needle buyrate-wise, despite being promoted on FOX numerous times. To put this number into perspective, UFC 101— main-evented by BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian—received 850,000 buys. The next card Penn headlined, UFC 107, received 620,000. So far, there hasn’t been a draw at lightweight not named BJ Penn. Don’t write Pettis off yet though, since he has the demeanor and attitude of a champion, as well as an extremely fan-friendly fighting style.
Johny Hendricks vs. GSP garnered an estimated 630,000 buys—GSP’s lowest performing PPV since UFC 87 when he fought Jon Fitch. The jury is still out on what’ll happen with this division regarding star power and the various, equally viable contenders for the belt.
That brings us to middleweight. Weidman is now a legend-killer, the Guy Who Beat Silva.™ Weidman’s reputation and success against one of MMA’s greatest fighters might translate into massive PPV buys and superstar status. But it might not.
At light heavyweight, Jon Jones wasn’t the Mike Tyson-esque superstar we all hoped he’d be. Judging from the buys, fans only show tepid interest in Jones’ systematic, brutal dismantling of some of the world’s greatest fighters. On average, Jones draws approximately 500,000 buys per PPV. That’s respectable but the UFC can’t move forward on that. A rematch with Alexander Gustafsson likely would’ve drawn well, but the UFC nixed the idea. Instead, they opted to put Jones against Glover Teixeira and put Gustafsson in a fight agaisnt 14-0 prospect Jimi Manuwa.
Jones’ good but disappointing numbers are similar to those of Cain Velasquez, the UFC’s great Mexican hope. His fight against Brock Lesnar approached one million buys, but he was never able to capture that success against any other opponent. Case in point: The final fight in arguably the most important feud in heavyweight history—Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos—sold only 330,000 PPVs.
Despite burying the old guard in the dust, fans might not care about the Chris Weidmans and Anthony Pettis’s of the UFC once the novelty wears off. Fans don’t always adopt the victorious young lions as their new idols once the old ones have been vanquished. Fans follow their heroes, and when their heroes are made into men—human beings just as fallible and vulnerable to the vagaries of time and the human body as the rest of us—the fans stop caring. Shooting Jesse James doesn’t make you Jesse James.
In case you didn’t hear, Georges St-Pierre is on hiatus. It was pretty big news for a day, but then Demetrious Johnson headlined a Fox show and suddenly losing the best welterweight of all time apparently wasn’t that important anymore.
Only it is.
It’s…
In case you didn’t hear, Georges St-Pierre is on hiatus. It was pretty big news for a day, but then Demetrious Johnson headlined a Fox show and suddenly losing the best welterweight of all time apparently wasn’t that important anymore.
Only it is.
It’s basically the only guy the promotion can’t afford to lose. The only true guarantee for big-time pay-per-view revenue. Life goes on, as Dana White is quick to point out, but the UFC needs a new franchise player in much shorter order than White would like to admit.
Here are five fighters who could be ready to carry that torch.
(This is the closest thing to a photo of Jones and Teixeira in the same room that currently exists. Via IFWT.)
Look, we know it might seem trivial to complain about anything in the wake of Georges St. Pierre’s retirishment, but this is getting f*cking ridiculous.
MMAJunkie passes along word that Jones vs. Teixeira will now serve as the main event of UFC 172, which will transpire at the Baltimore Arena in April. No specific date for UFC 172 has been set as of this write up.
As of now, Jones vs. Teixeira is the only fight to be booked for UFC 172, so I don’t have much else to talk about, really. Did you guys hear that Iran sent its second monkey into space and back recently? Or that The Beatles are releasing 59 rare and unheard tracks next week? Crazy times, you guys. Crazy times.
(This is the closest thing to a photo of Jones and Teixeira in the same room that currently exists. Via IFWT.)
Look, we know it might seem trivial to complain about anything in the wake of Georges St. Pierre’s retirishment, but this is getting f*cking ridiculous.
MMAJunkie passes along word that Jones vs. Teixeira will now serve as the main event of UFC 172, which will transpire at the Baltimore Arena in April. No specific date for UFC 172 has been set as of this write up.
As of now, Jones vs. Teixeira is the only fight to be booked for UFC 172, so I don’t have much else to talk about, really. Did you guys hear that Iran sent its second monkey into space and back recently? Or that The Beatles are releasing 59 rare and unheard tracks next week? Crazy times, you guys. Crazy times.
After dominating the welterweight division for the better part of a decade, Georges St-Pierre has decided to vacate his title and walk away from MMA for the time being.
The pound-for-pound great made his announcement on Friday during a conference call …
After dominating the welterweight division for the better part of a decade, Georges St-Pierre has decided to vacate his title and walk away from MMA for the time being.
The pound-for-pound great made his announcement on Friday during a conference call with UFC president Dana White, during which he cited pressure and the quest for a “normal life” as his motivation for going on sabbatical. St-Pierre is easily one of the promotion’s biggest stars and has played a huge role in the organization’s rise to mainstream attention over the past seven years.
With GSP’s elevated position in the sport, there are few who could remotely understand the chaotic and unique nature of being a long-reigning UFC champion.
One of the few who can relate to what St-Pierre had to say on Friday is 26-year-old light heavyweight phenom Jon Jones. The most dominant light heavyweight champion in UFC history has quickly risen to become one of the biggest pay-per-view draws on the UFC roster in addition to evolving into one of the most polarizing figures in the sport today.
If anyone can understand how heavy the proverbial crown can get, it’s Jones. The New York native has experienced a rapid ascension since winning the title in 2011, and he shared his thoughts on St-Pierre’s decision to walk away from the spotlight for the time being.
“There is obviously a lot of pressure,” Jones told Bleacher Report. “It’s life and that’s the way it works. Everyone deals with pressure everyday going to work. Obviously, when you are a recognizable figure things are a little different, but it’s part of life and this is what we asked for in the first place. It is what it is and I think Georges has done a great job. There is no story where there is too much pressure and he quit too soon. He’s proven everything already and there’s nothing left for him to do. He’s dealt with the pressure awesomely. So much in fact that no of us even saw this coming.
“I think he’s right where he needs to be. I don’t think he’s doing bad or having any issues or anything like that. I think he’s right where he needs to be with taking time off or retiring. You can’t argue with that. He’s done everything right.”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
