While most fans are still trying to understand the new main event at UFC 153, fans of Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar can now relax knowing the “superfight” will still take place sometime down the road.MMAJunkie.com reported Thursday night that Dana White …
While most fans are still trying to understand the new main event at UFC 153, fans of Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar can now relax knowing the “superfight” will still take place sometime down the road.
MMAJunkie.com reported Thursday night that Dana White has confirmed that when Jose Aldo heals from a foot infection he suffered following his motorcycle accident, he’ll be matched with former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.
The fight was originally booked for the main event at UFC 153 in Rio after Aldo’s original opponent Erik Koch went down with injury. Edgar stepped in on short notice just after he announced his intentions to drop down to the featherweight division.
Dana White said, “Camp costs money. These things aren’t free. You don’t just go to the gym and everything is free. He’s got to put some time and effort into it, start calling in sparring partners and trying to find people. He was well into that when Aldo got hurt, so we’re going to give it to him.”
Edgar is coming off back-to-back losses at the hands of lightweight champion Benson Henderson, and honestly, I’m not sure if he deserves an immediate title shot, but after that quote from White, it’s clear now that Edgar is being rewarded for stepping up to take the fight on short notice.
It’s not clear what the timetable is for Aldo to return, although White did say that he hopes the fight can be made by the end of the year.
There’s a line in Christopher Nolan’s excellent film, The Dark Knight, where Lt. James Gordon is talking about Batman, who has just killed Harvey “Two Face” Dent and is running off to become Gotham’s invisible villain. Batman, as the story goes, is goi…
There’s a line in Christopher Nolan’s excellent film, The Dark Knight, where Lt. James Gordon is talking about Batman, who has just killed Harvey “Two Face” Dent and is running off to become Gotham’s invisible villain. Batman, as the story goes, is going to take the blame for Dent’s failings and become a hunted criminal, because he doesn’t think Gotham can handle the truth about Dent’s turn to the dark side and the horrible things he’s done.
Gordon’s young son asks him why Batman is running away.
“Because he’s the hero Gotham deserves,” Gordon says. “But not the one it needs right now.”
I know it may not make a lot of sense, but that line kind of sums up my feelings on the new UFC 153 main event announced on Wednesday between Anderson Silva and Stephan Bonnar.
Of course, we’re not speaking of caped heroes and crusaders in the night. And I’m not saying that Silva or Bonnar are Batman, though Silva is probably the closest thing we have to a mixed martial arts superhero. We’re talking about a fight, and it’s a fight that has received a ton of criticism since it was revealed.
Here’s the thing: I wanted to see Jose Aldo take on Frankie Edgar just as much as the next guy. It’s one of my dream fights, and I’m still holding out hope that we’ll see it eventually, providing Aldo can keep himself away from motorcycles while in the midst of training camp. It may not be as anticipated as, say, a fight between Georges St-Pierre and Silva, or Silva and Jon Jones, but it’s still one of those amazing fights that don’t come around very often.
But once Aldo deduced that he wasn’t able to fully recover from his motorcycle incident—and again, let’s keep UFC fighters away from motorcycles, just as a general rule—the options for UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, Dana White and the rest of the company were fairly slim. Sure, they had more notice than they were given when Dan Henderson pulled out of UFC 151 with just eight days notice, but putting together a big, pay-per-view main event headliner in a month remains a tricky business.
Once Aldo pulled out, and once Edgar decided he’d rather save himself for another day, we were faced with a UFC 153 main event featuring Jon Fitch and Erick Silva. Or perhaps Glover Teixeira and Fabio Maldonado, or even Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Dave Herman.
None of those sound like good main event options to me, but perhaps I’m alone in this line of thinking.
Putting together short-notice fights is a tricky and tough business. I’ve heard from plenty of fans over the past 24 hours via Twitter, and a lot of them suggested that the UFC was making a giant mistake in booking Silva vs. Bonnar.
“Why don’t they just put Alexander Gustafsson in the cage against Silva?” they said. “Why didn’t they run Shogun and Machida out for a third fight? Why couldn’t they pick anyone else besides Bonnar? Why not put ChaelSonnen in against Silva for a third time?”
The answers are pretty simple, really.
Gustafsson has been battling illness over the past month or so, and there’s no way he’d be ready in time for a competitive fight. Plus, he’s one of the hottest prospects in the light heavyweight division and a potential opponent for Jones in 2013. Why would you waste a contender by putting him in the cage against the best fighter in the world, especially when the best fighter in the world will be heading back down to his regular weight class after this fight?
And besides, UFC is intent on providing FOX with good fights for their next network television broadcast in December, and pulling Gustafsson from his bout with Rua isn’t a sound business decision. Which is why Rua wasn’t even called and offered this spot.
Machida? He’s demonstrated over the past few weeks that he’s not interested in fighting any time soon, and especially on short notice.
Sonnen just lost in emphatic fashion to Silva in July, so I can’t imagine a lot of UFC fans being all that interested in throwing down hard-earned dollars to see it again. Besides, Sonnen has a big fight with Forrest Griffin coming up in December. That fight could be the first step down a road that leads him to a huge money fight with Jones in 2013. Why risk it by putting him in the cage with the guy that just beat him for his light heavyweight debut?
Here’s what it boils down to: When it comes to booking short-notice fights like this one, there aren’t a lot of easy options. You can’t sacrifice your FOX shows or your big year-end pay-per-view in Las Vegas just because you need a main event for a Brazil show that is mostly being held to help build a foundation for the UFC brand in that country.
What better way to continue building that brand than by putting the best fighter in the world in the main event, especially since that fighter happens to be from Brazil? The Brazilians don’t care who Silva faces; he could walk in the cage to face James Irvin or Patrick Cote again, and they’d be happy.
And we, the people who do not live in Brazil, should also be happy. Because we’re getting a second chance to see Silva fight this year. That counts for something. Just two days ago, Silva was content to ride out the rest of the year and perhaps not step in the cage until the middle of next year, and we’d have to deal with it. Instead, we get another chance to see Silva work his beautiful and perfect art for the second time in four months. That’s a special thing.
What about Bonnar? I’m not going to sit here and tell you that he’s a fantastic fighter who deserves a crack at the best in the world. He’s riding a three-fight winning streak, but nobody’s going to confuse him with the top light heavyweights in the world.
But none of that matters to me. I love the story of Bonnar—the guy who participated in that legendary TUF 1 fight with Griffin but then went down a very different path—finally getting his shot at glory. Griffin became a superstar and one of the most popular mixed martial artists in the world, while Bonnar went on to become a kind of journeyman fighter, albeit one that has never left the UFC. He never attained the same heights as Griffin, mostly because he never could win the big fight.
But that could all change on October 13. Imagine the chaos if Bonnar somehow overcomes the odds and beats Silva? All of his failings and his inability to achieve the same kind of superstardom as Griffin would be instantly wiped out. Instead of being the guy who became Marty Jannety to Griffin’s Shawn Michaels, he’d forever be known as the guy who ended Anderson Silva’s winning streak.
Do I think Bonnar can achieve the impossible? It’s not likely. He’s a 13-to-1 underdog—the largest betting spread in UFC history—for a reason.
But I’m also not sleeping on his chances. He’s a tough fighter with a talent for sticking around in fights that turn more violent than usual. I don’t expect him to survive for all three rounds, but I also wouldn’t be shocked beyond belief if he’s somehow able to last and score a decision win. It’s unlikely, but not impossible.
I’m a sucker for good stories. The overlooked and nearly forgotten other half of the fight, the one that helped put the UFC on the map, getting one last shot at glory when it seemed like retirement was his only real option? I can dig that.
And all of this is saying nothing about the rest of the card. For as much vitriol as I’ve seen thrown UFC 153’s way in the last 24 hours, I think it’s one of the stronger cards, from top to bottom, that we’ve seen in quite some time. We get to see Demian Maia vs. Rick Story, Phil Davis vs. Wagner Prado, Erick Silva vs. Jon Fitch and the three fights I’ve already mentioned. That’s a good pay-per-view card, especially when you consider the booking acrobatics Silva and White had to execute in order to make it happen.
At the end of the day, I think I just realize that seeing Anderson Silva fight, no matter the opponent, is a special occasion. Sure, he says he’ll be fighting for another five or six years, but who knows if that’s even going to hold?
We don’t know how many more times we’ll get to see the greatest fighter in the history of the sport do his thing, and so we must consider any chance to see him in the cage a good opportunity. And if that chance turns out to be a virtual sparring session against Bonnar, well, that’s OK.
I’ll take what I can get. Silva vs. Bonnar may not be the fight we wanted, but it’s the fight we need all the same.
(Seen here: One of the fighters who still has a chance of competing at UFC 153.)
Let’s face it: There is little more we can say to convey our disappointment in the disintegration of UFC 153. The card began solid enough (see above), then it got a little less awesome, then it got significantly more awesome, and now it is resting in a state of awesome limbo that it may never return from, which is not really awesome at all if you think about it.
What fight would you, the fans, like to see as the new main event of UFC 153?
We’ve placed a few of the most likely options after the jump, but feel free to choose the “Other” option and give us your picks/reasoning in the comments section. The sky is the limit, but we must warn you, we’ve already asked Dana to consider Zimmer-Martinez II, and he gave us a resounding “maybe.”
(Seen here: One of the fighters who still has a chance of competing at UFC 153.)
Let’s face it: There is little more we can say to convey our disappointment in the disintegration of UFC 153. The card began solid enough (see above), then it got a little less awesome, then it got significantly more awesome, and now it is resting in a state of awesome limbo that it may never return from, which is not really awesome at all if you think about it.
What fight would you, the fans, like to see as the new main event of UFC 153?
We’ve placed a few of the most likely options after the jump, but feel free to choose the “Other” option and give us your picks/reasoning in the comments section. The sky is the limit, but we must warn you, we’ve already asked Dana to consider Zimmer-Martinez II, and he gave us a resounding “maybe.”
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.
(“What kind of backwards country is this? The game is called Whac-a-Mole, not Whac-a-Capybara, and the animals aren’t supposed to be alive!”)
Just a few hours ago, we promised that a few beautiful knockout videos would successfully help us all blissfully drift into a world where injuries no longer determined both the content of everyother CP article and the makeup of every other UFC card, but it seems our vision of an impossibly awesome MMA utopia is merely that…an impossibility.
Be that as it may, some of you might be pleased to hear that amidst the UFC 153 clusterfuck of injuries lies a potential silver lining. According to FightersOnly, who have sited several anonymous sources, a grudge match years in the making between Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen is being looked at as a possible replacement for UFC 153 now that Jose Aldo — or perhaps, the general incompetence of Brazilian drivers — has massacred our dreams of a featherweight title superfight.
Details remain sketchy at the moment, but in a recent interview with Portal do Vale Tudo, Silva stated that he would be more than willing to step up for the good of the UFC and his home country’s fans if asked to do so:
I think fighting in Rio would be great. Under no circumstances could I turn that down. I would love to fight for the crowd in Rio, and if it were against that guy who everybody wants me to face, it would be beautiful.
(“What kind of backwards country is this? The game is called Whac-a-Mole, not Whac-a-Capybara, and the animals aren’t supposed to be alive!”)
Just a few hours ago, we promised that a few beautiful knockout videos would successfully help us all blissfully drift into a world where injuries no longer determined both the content of everyother CP article and the makeup of every other UFC card, but it seems our vision of an impossibly awesome MMA utopia is merely that…an impossibility.
Be that as it may, some of you might be pleased to hear that amidst the UFC 153 clusterfuck of injuries lies a potential silver lining. According to FightersOnly, who have sited several anonymous sources, a grudge match years in the making between Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen is being looked at as a possible replacement for UFC 153 now that Jose Aldo — or perhaps, the general incompetence of Brazilian drivers — has massacred our dreams of a featherweight title superfight.
Details remain sketchy at the moment, but in a recent interview with Portal do Vale Tudo, Silva stated that he would be more than willing to step up for the good of the UFC and his home country’s fans if asked to do so:
I think fighting in Rio would be great. Under no circumstances could I turn that down. I would love to fight for the crowd in Rio, and if it were against that guy who everybody wants me to face, it would be beautiful.
Rumor has it that the bout is being considered at a catchweight of 195 pounds, which might sound familiar to the three of you who actually paid for UFC 147. At this point in his career, Wandy is basically the go-to guy for any Brazilian MMA card that is circling the drain.
Wanderlei also stated that although he wasn’t exactly in fighting shape at the moment, he is on weight and healthy enough to fight if needed:
From experience, a fighter always has to be ready. I am not in a competition training schedule but I am training, on-weight and feeling good. It’s just a case of if I am offered the fight.
I accept to fight any one and with him it would be tasteful. It would be a bout that people would like to see. I wasn’t offered it yet, but if the boss needs me and I can contribute to make the fans happy, I would feel so glad.
Without opening up a whole new can of worms (or perhaps a can of worms that justwon’tclose), we’d just like to say that we wish every MMA fighter had this attitude. But there we go again, dreaming of a world that will never exist.
We will have more on this potential matchup as things develop, but in the meantime, here’s a video (courtesy of MMAFighting) in which Dana White laments over UFC 153 and how frustrating it is to be poor Frankie Edgar these days. Without trying to sound like a kiss ass, I must say that I honestly feel sorry for both guys in this situation, as both of them can’t seem to catch a fucking break lately. Oh well, I guess the fact that DW is richer than most, if not all Central African countries combined should help him sleep tonight. That, and the custom orthopedic Serta Sealy memory foam angel cloud mattress he sleeps on, of course.
So, Potato Nation, would Sonnen vs. Wanderlei be enough to quell your disappointment over the loss of Edgar vs. Aldo? Pick the less obvious answer here.
As I’ve discussed before, being a writer for a “comedic” “MMA” website such as CagePotato has its positives and its negatives. The positives, of course, are the legions of swooning, scantily clad women that are literally willing to do anything to meet Jon Jones, Chuck Liddell, or whomever we are claiming to be incredibly close friends with at the time. There are also the lavish cars, houses, and general respect from your peers that have become a staple of the blogger trade to be grateful for.
But perhaps even greater than the constant influx of trim and general swagger that comes hand-in-hand with the MMA blogger lifestyle are the epic knockout videos we get to post whenever we feel like it under the false guise of “journalism.” And with the great injury curse of 2012 once again putting us all in the dumps, today seems perfect for one such occasion, so join us after the jump for a trifecta of KO’s (and even a flying triangle) to help you cope with the fact that yet another UFC event has been temporarily upended.
As I’ve discussed before, being a writer for a “comedic” “MMA” website such as CagePotato has its positives and its negatives. The positives, of course, are the legions of swooning, scantily clad women that are literally willing to do anything to meet Jon Jones, Chuck Liddell, or whomever we are claiming to be incredibly close friends with at the time. There are also the lavish cars, houses, and general respect from your peers that have become a staple of the blogger trade to be grateful for.
But perhaps even greater than the constant influx of trim and general swagger that comes hand-in-hand with the MMA blogger lifestyle are the epic knockout videos we get to post whenever we feel like it under the false guise of “journalism.” And with the great injury curse of 2012 once again putting us all in the dumps, today seems perfect for one such occasion, so join us after the jump for a trifecta of KO’s (and even a flying triangle) to help you cope with the fact that yet another UFC event has been temporarily upended.
Our first knockout comes to us courtesy of Cage Warriors Fighting Championships, one of the last London-based promotions that doesn’t seemed destined to implode as a result of its own stupidity. In a preliminary contest, 8-3 Brett Bassett squared off against 9-5 Mike Ling, and this one was over before it ever really started. Roughly 35 seconds into the fight (5:05 in the video), Ling throws a halfhearted leg kick, and as James Irvin will tell you, nothing good can come from such a tactic. And not unlike Anderson Silva, Bassett catches the kick, immediately counters with a right hook (sure, Andy’s was a straight right, but you get it), and it’s the big kibosh, goodnight Irene, or whatever phrase that runs through your head when an MMA fighter gets dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Our next series of knockouts come from our buddies over at Inside MMA, who recently asked their viewers to submit their picks for the best submissions/knockouts of the week. The video begins with an incredible flying triangle, then quickly moves to a pair of knockouts — one that ends in just four seconds — that will surely make you forget all about that pesky featherweight title superfight that totally isn’t happening.
The UFC.**Subject to change due to injury.Can you asterisk an entire promotion? An entire sport? You can when it’s the UFC and MMA in 2012.The latest shreds of evidence arrived Tuesday, when the UFC announced no less than three major fighter injuries. …
The UFC.*
*Subject to change due to injury.
Can you asterisk an entire promotion? An entire sport? You can when it’s the UFC and MMA in 2012.
The latest shreds of evidence arrived Tuesday, when the UFC announced no less than three major fighter injuries. First, UFC 153 co-main-eventer Quinton Jackson bit the dust. Then, supremely injury-prone featherweight champion Jose Aldo withdrew from his UFC 153 main event with Frankie Edgar, himself an injury replacement. Then, Vladimir Matyushenko announced he could no longer compete at UFC 152 following a torn Achilles’ tendon.
What do I have to do to watch a nice, normal, injury-free sporting event? I work hard in the salt mines all day so I can plunk down $49.99 to watch Dave Spiwack fight the cotton candy guy? I literally work in the salt mines. You’re taking my salt money.
And you know what? It’s driving me nuts. This thing is out of control. And in the fashion of the Internet, I am now looking for someone I can loudly and repeatedly blame.
Oh, here’s something. A new insurance policy took effect June 1, 2011 for all Zuffa fighters. The policy essentially covers the injuries fighters sustain during training. I like to call it Danacare. Or, if you prefer, The Smoking Gun.
Do I have to draw you a map? Boy meets insurance policy, boy trains, boy skins knee, boy cancels fight, boy cashes insurance check, boy sips lemonade on sandy beach where there are no salt mines.
I know it’s just a formality and all, but before I go much further with these assumptions, I figured I should do some, what’s that called…research. I’m no scientist, but I looked on Wikipedia and elsewhere, tallied up all the injuries and events from the past three years, and did a few back-of-the-envelope calculations. It may not hold up in a court of law, but it will serve as a useful guide.
Danacare took effect June 1, 2011. For all the events that happened in 2011 up through UFC 131 on June 11 (I postdated it a little bit, figuring UFC 131 injuries were probably the last ones, more or less, to occur before June 1), there were 35 injuries in a total of 11 events. That’s 3.18 injuries per event for the pre-Danacare part of 2011. For the post-Danacare part of 2011, there were 46 injuries from June 2011 to December 30 over 16 events, for 2.88 injuries per event.
Great, so the Danacare apologists hacked Wikipedia for 2011. Fine. How about 2012 to date? So far, there have been a whopping 62 injuries after 21 events. That’s 2.95 injuries per event, which is on pace for about 90 total over the 30 events scheduled for the year.
If these ballpark estimates are even generally accurate, they would appear to absolve Danacare of any culpability. But when you go back to 2010, there were 54 injuries over 24 events—or, only 2.25 injuries per event.
So what does this prove? It proves that injuries are on the rise, but not along the same timeline as Danacare.
In all fairness, though, are fighters less apt to fight injured now that the insurance policy is in effect? Well, yeah. That’s common sense. And that’s a good thing, given that it wasn’t/isn’t a good idea for fighters to fight injured in the first place.
And it probably affects all fighters. There’s no question that undercard fighters probably find all that sweet, sweet Danacare cash more tempting than do the main-eventers. But that doesn’t mean the top guys are immune to its siren song. If you get injured during training, why fight if it means potentially doing further physical damage or putting on a bad performance that could ruin your reputation? There’s more on the line than just one payday—every pro fighter has to take the long view. So, yes, I think any and all fighters could be lured in here.
Danacare, then, probably plays a role, but not the lead role. My guess for the true prime culprit is that boring dude Occam and his razor. The culprit is overtraining. As the sport continues to evolve in its ever-evolving mainstream popularity and appeal, the stakes are higher and margins for error thinner. A need to be more well-rounded means more disciplines to learn means more training overall.
Take that and add in the fact that the fight cards are thinner as well. The figures above show that injuries are on the rise, but so are the number of fight cards. So the loss of a fight to injury (or any reason) is felt more acutely.
So what can the UFC do? They can reduce the number of cards. They don’t seem to want to do that, but they could. Again, no expert talking here, but it would seem to these untrained eyes that this route could provide a lot of problem-solving for the situation. But what do I know.
One thing they can’t do is repeal Danacare. That would, for several reasons, be draconian. So what can they do? Well, how about a little fighter education? Maybe their supply of sticks is limited in this case, but what about carrots? How about constant reminders stressing the dangers of overtraining, and perhaps discouraging the practice? “Train smarter, not harder”—that kind of thing. How about taking durability into account in matchmaking? How about designating understudies?
There is another possible solution that I hesitate to bring up but will do so anyway: a fighters’ union. If collective bargaining happened, both the fighters and the UFC would have more leverage. The UFC could more easily stipulate that fighters shouldn’t ride motorcycles and do other stupid things. It could help, even if it would have the unfortunate side effect of turning everyone into a bunch of drooling, soulless communists.
Injuries are a problem made all the more vexing because of the simplicity involved in the problem and the complexity involved in the solution. But unless you’re a rabid conspiracy theorist, the notion that Danacare is the lone gunman behind the injury bug doesn’t hold up to those pesky things called facts.
While most fans are still trying to understand the new main event at UFC 153, fans of Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar can now relax knowing the “superfight” will still take place sometime down the road.
