Chris Weidman is on the cusp of mixed martial arts stardom. Since the start of his run in the UFC, Weidman’s maturity in competition has been something worth watching. As 2015 approaches, the current middleweight champion finds himself in a posit…
Chris Weidman is on the cusp of mixed martial arts stardom. Since the start of his run in the UFC, Weidman’s maturity in competition has been something worth watching. As 2015 approaches, the current middleweight champion finds himself in a position to have a huge year, if he can continue to stay victorious and healthy.
The UFC has set up an interesting start to next year. The middleweight division is filled with a number of contenders. VitorBelfort, Yoel Romero, Ronaldo Souza and Luke Rockhold are the four names that leap to recognition as potential challengers for the current champion. Belfort has his shot at the belt in two months at UFC 184. Romero and Souza are set to fight that same evening, with the winner presumably getting the next shot at the belt, per a report by Adam Guillen Jr. of MMA Mania.
If Weidman can defeat any three of those competitors next year, it would be hard to deny him a nomination for “Fighter of the Year” in 2015. Defending his title multiple times in 12 months would help him put together one of the most difficult runs in recent MMA history. However, Weidman has one factor working against him at times—his physical health.
As with many other fighters, Weidman has been forced to back out of multiple fights due to injury. His proposed bout against Tim Boetsch at UFC 155 was pushed back due to a shoulder injury (via MMA Fighting). Weidman’s next complication would come before facing LyotoMachida in which a knee injury pushed that fight from UFC 173 to UFC 175 (via UFC.com). His title defense against Belfort was originally scheduled for this weekend’s UFC 181, but a broken hand suffered by Weidman caused this fight to be postponed to UFC 184 (via Newsday).
These are just the injuries that are known to the public. As with every other mixed martial artist who competes, chances are that Weidman has and will continue to compete while dealing with other physical issues. This is a serious precaution when predicting how great of a fighter he may become.
At 30 years old, Weidman has nearly six years of professional experience. That combination may allow him to stay around in the sport longer, but his potential for greatness and bout with injuries can draw a comparison to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Rua is just 33 years old, but numerous dealings with knee injuries have stifled his ability to remain at the top of the light heavyweight division (via Sports on Earth).
Weidman has already broken through some of the barriers that have stopped other MMA athletes. Appearances in major magazines and on networks such as ESPN will only fuel his rise within the sport. If he can stay healthy and victorious throughout 2015, Chris Weidman may finally reach the point of super stardom that has been projected for his career.
In a year that has seen nine pay-per-view headliners slip through the UFC’s fingers, Cain Velasquez’s injury and subsequent removal from UFC 180 might the biggest blow of them all (I hear a nasty tumble down a flight of stairs is to blame for all this). The TUF curse has now gone international, folks, and while I’m not prepared to start nailing the UFC’s coffin shut, I will say that the champ’s most recent injury has cast an ominous shadow over the UFC’s first trip to Mexico.
Then again, the UFC was able to book a hell of a replacement opponent for Fabricio Werdum in Mark Hunt, and an interim title fight between the two is probably the best thing us fans could ask for, all things considered. Late replacement main events are always a mixed bag, but before we start rioting, let’s all take a deep breath and try to remember a few last-minute headliners that actually worked out…
The Good
UFC 128: Shogun vs. Jones
(This and all photos hereafter via Getty.)
That’s right, the event that marked the beginning of the end for light heavyweights with title aspirations was never meant to happen.
Having just ended the Machida Era™ at UFC 113 in stunning fashion, Mauricio Rua was actually scheduled to face Rashad Evans at UFC 128 until a knee injury forced the latter out of the contest. Rua, who had just had his own knee repaired following the Machida fight, was then matched up against a resurgent and likeable at the time contender named Jon Jones, who had unleashed an And-1 mixtape of asskicking on Ryan Bader just two events prior.
Although it was Rua who held the tremendous experience edge, it was Jones who would dominate the fight from start to finish. Flying knees, oblique kicks, and likely an eye poke or five from the challenger had Rua in defense mode until a particularly vicious knee put him away in the third round. Despite being called up to the biggest fight of his life on a month’s notice, Jones emerged a champion and sent a chilling message to the rest of the light heavyweight division.
That message: “Hey pussy, are you still there? None of you will ever defeat me.”
In a year that has seen nine pay-per-view headliners slip through the UFC’s fingers, Cain Velasquez’s injury and subsequent removal from UFC 180 might the biggest blow of them all (I hear a nasty tumble down a flight of stairs is to blame for all this). The TUF curse has now gone international, folks, and while I’m not prepared to start nailing the UFC’s coffin shut, I will say that the champ’s most recent injury has cast an ominous shadow over the UFC’s first trip to Mexico.
Then again, the UFC was able to book a hell of a replacement opponent for Fabricio Werdum in Mark Hunt, and an interim title fight between the two is probably the best thing us fans could ask for, all things considered. Late replacement main events are always a mixed bag, but before we start rioting, let’s all take a deep breath and try to remember a few last-minute headliners that actually worked out…
The Good
UFC 128: Shogun vs. Jones
(This and all photos hereafter via Getty.)
That’s right, the event that marked the beginning of the end for light heavyweights with title aspirations was never meant to happen.
Having just ended the Machida Era™ at UFC 113 in stunning fashion, Mauricio Rua was actually scheduled to face Rashad Evans at UFC 128 until a knee injury forced the latter out of the contest. Rua, who had just had his own knee repaired following the Machida fight, was then matched up against a resurgent and likeable at the time contender named Jon Jones, who had unleashed an And-1 mixtape of asskicking on Ryan Bader just two events prior.
Although it was Rua who held the tremendous experience edge, it was Jones who would dominate the fight from start to finish. Flying knees, oblique kicks, and likely an eye poke or five from the challenger had Rua in defense mode until a particularly vicious knee put him away in the third round. Despite being called up to the biggest fight of his life on a month’s notice, Jones emerged a champion and sent a chilling message to the rest of the light heavyweight division.
That message: “Hey pussy, are you still there? None of you will ever defeat me.”
UFC 152: Jones vs. Belfort
Every fan remembers where they were the day Greg Jackson killed MMA. Me, I was out on my lanai, sipping on a mango mojito and discussing the DOW with a few fellow aristocrats, when suddenly, my phone was aburst with talks from the Twittersphere of Dan Henderson tearing his ACL.
“This…cannot be,” I said under my breath (as not to alert my esteemed colleagues of my MMA fandom and risk losing their respect forevermore).
But alas, it had been, and Henderson’s injury was only the beginning. Shortly after the news of Henderson’s injury broke, the stateside hoodlum Chael Phinneus Sonnen stepped up and offered to fight Jones on 24 hours notice in his infinite bravery. After a quick consultation with master Jackson, Jones declined the fight, leading to the cancellation of the event and a firm tongue-lashing from his employer.
But still, the UFC was in spin mode. They needed their light heavyweight title fight to come to fruition and they needed it forthwith. They offered short-notice rematch opportunities to Mauricio Rua and Lyoto Machida, but were somehow denied on both occasions. That left only one brave soldier for the job: Vitor Belfort (pronounced like Stephen Colbert).
And indeed, Belfort put on a hell of a show at UFC 152, pardon my French — nearly securing an armbar victory early in the first round. But because Jon Jones is truly more machine than man, he overcame the early storm and submitted his foe with an Americana in the fourth.
From tragedy, the UFC was able to generate a small victory, 450,000 pay-per-view-buys, and $1.9 million dollars in live gate cash. It doesn’t get much more triumphant than that.
UFC 173: Barao vs. Dillashaw
UFC 173 was originally meant to house a middleweight title fight between Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort, until that damned TRT ban forced “The Phenom” to take a temporary leave from MMA. Weidman was then matched up against Lyoto Machida, and for a brief second there, UFC 177 ticketholders were able to breath a sigh of relief, the fools.
But then, as champions of the modern era so often do, Weidman went down with an injury (likely while rescuing a blind man from a fire), pushing his fight against Machida back to UFC 175 in July. Once again without a true main event, the UFC sought to pair bantamweight champion/PPV juggernaut (lol!) Renan Barao against top contender Raphael Assuncao. But theennnnn, it was revealed that Assuncao was still nursing a rib injury and would be unable to fight.
So what do you do in this situation? You throw TJ Dillashaw – who was scheduled to fight Takeya Mizugaki that night anyway – against Barao, have Goldie and Rogan yell about what a beast this fresh-faced Aryan youth actually is, and yadda yadda chalk this thing up as a loss. Just like that, you’ve got yourself UFC 177: F*ck It.
Barao came in as a ridiculous 10-1 favorite over Dillashaw, and most of us expected the fight to be over within a round, for Urijah Faber was the king of the Alpha Males and even he was smoked by Barao in their previous encounter. But oh, how we were wrong.
For five straight rounds, Dillashaw absolutely tooled Barao, utilizing a Cruz-esque offensive attack to keep a literal step ahead of the champ before finishing him with a head kick in the fifth. Just like that, the Barao Era™ had ended. While UFC 173 may not have been a financial success, its main event was one of the most thrilling in recent memory, and a reminder of just how great and unexpected our oft troubling sport can be.
Of course, more often than not, late replacement main events fall into two other categories, “Bad” and “Ugly”, so let’s gather our pitchforks and torches and look at a few prime examples…
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.
“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)
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.
“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.
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.
Leading into UFC 173, Renan Barao was being compared to the pound-for-pound boxing kingpin, Floyd Mayweather. In less than 25 minutes, all of those mentions came tumbling down as T.J. Dillashaw crushed the Brazilian and walked out of Las Vegas as the n…
Leading into UFC 173, RenanBarao was being compared to the pound-for-pound boxing kingpin, Floyd Mayweather. In less than 25 minutes, all of those mentions came tumbling down as T.J. Dillashaw crushed the Brazilian and walked out of Las Vegas as the new UFC Bantamweight champion. The moment he went from prospect to title holder Dillashaw had unrolled a laundry list of new contenders for the title. However, none should receive a shot before Raphael Assuncao.
Travel back to October 9, 2013. Dillashaw and Assuncao would meet in an undercard fight at UFC Fight Night: Maia vs. Shields. In a hotly contested bout, the two athletes would go back and forth in exchanges. At the end of the three-round affair, Raphael would have his hand raised in victory. Moments after the decision, much of the mixed martial arts community would voice their displeasure with the judging in the contest. That wouldn’t be enough to reverse the decision as Assuncao‘s victory would snap T.J.’s four-fight win streak while increasing his own to five straight wins.
When UFC 173 was first announced, Barao was expected to face the returning Dominick Cruz. Unfortunately, Cruz would be injured once again and forced off the card. That would create the opening for Raphael to be granted a title shot. Assuncao would opt out of the opportunity due to an injury of his own, which created the pathway for Dillashaw to shock the world and take the title.
The fact that Assuncao holds a very controversial win over the new champion is more than enough reason to give him the first shot at the belt. Assuncao has already began to call out the champion.
“I hope they give me the title shot,” Assuncao stated to MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz. “I want to fight T.J. Dillashaw next. He said he deserved to win the first fight, so it’s the perfect finale.”
Both fighters have made their case as to why they feel they earned the win that night. Looking deeper at the numbers provided by Fight Metric, which is the official stats group for the UFC, it is clear that this bout was very close.
Neither fighter had the advantage in striking as Assuncao landed 37 of 106 attempted strikes which is nearly identical to the 32 of 105 for Dillashaw. The true difference is in the area of grappling where Dillashaw landed two takedowns while stopping all six from his Brazilian opponent. Once on the mat, T.J. also looked to be the more competent and aggressive grappler according to the fight numbers. In real time, it is understandable how most of the viewing audience scored this fight for Dillashaw. Still, the split-decision loss stands as a huge black eye over the new reign of the 135-pound champion.
The main issue with making this bout is the fact that neither Raphael Assuncao nor T.J. Dillashaw are major names in the mainstream MMA community. The UFC is in dire need of developing a new stable of stars and while Dillashaw has the potential to get to a high point, he’s not there yet. That means that the Team Alpha Male standout should expect to defend his title during free televised events across the Fox networks in order to grow his notoriety before being placed on a Pay-Per-View card. If the bout against Assuncao is made, the UFC would have to work to create a solid card that would draw attention for their developing champion.
When T.J. Dillashaw stepped into the Octagon on May 24, he was ranked in the 11th spot on the UFC’s official bantamweight rankings. Raphael Assuncao, the last man to defeat the eventual title bearer, was sitting firmly at No. 3. A twist of fate provided Dillashaw with a title shot and now Raphael is looking up at a man he defeated less than two years ago. The UFC should pounce on this chance to create the rematch. With the proper booking and promotion, this fight would serve to make either a star out of T.J. or further an intense rivalry.
UFC 173 hosted TJ Dillashaw’s shocking upset over Renan Barao to steal the UFC bantamweight title, and now fans can relive the night’s action in glorious slow motion.
The UFC released video highlights from the event today via UFC.com, showing off…
UFC 173 hosted TJ Dillashaw‘s shocking upset over RenanBarao to steal the UFC bantamweight title, and now fans can relive the night’s action in glorious slow motion.
The UFC released video highlights from the event today via UFC.com, showing off the brutality of the night’s action with breathtaking detail and power.
Notable clips from the footage include Daniel Cormier‘s huge slam of Dan Henderson in the night’s co-main event (was Cormier smiling as he dumped Hendo on his head?) and Dillashaw‘s monstrous punch in Round 1 that flattened his Brazilian foe and set the tone for the remainder of the fight.
After watching the punches, kicks and slams the first time around, watch the video a second time and just look out for fun crowd reactions. During Cormier‘s slam in particular, you will see some spectators react in a hilarious fit of shock and disbelief.
Of course, UFC 173’s most notable activity came in the night’s main event, when Dillashaw toppled the seemingly untouchable Barao in emphatic fashion.
Throughout the fight, Dillashawlanded 140 significant strikes to Barao‘s 64, a feat which no man has even come close to accomplishing against the former champ inside the UFC Octagon. In the slow-motion highlights, you can see Dillashaw‘s impeccable timing and accuracy, demolishing Barao‘s face and snapping his neck with every landed blow.
For Dillashaw, this fight marked a coming-out party of sorts. He was always a top-level 135-pound combatant, but now he’s made the leap into the truly elite, proving that the best is yet to come for the Team Alpha Male product.
Enjoy the highlights and soak in Dillashaw‘s brilliance. There’s no telling how long he’ll rule the bantamweight roost, and we might take his talents for granted if he shows up as he did against Barao on a regular basis.
Cormier will have his knee assessed in the next few weeks, and may decide to have surgery to fix an existing problem with his ACL. While that plan would put him out of action for the rest of 2014, he had already planned to wait for a title shot against the winner of Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson, which is tentatively scheduled for August 30th. In other words, the timing could be ideal — unless Gustafsson wins in a controversial split-decision and the UFC decides to do an immediate rubber-match. As Dana White recently pointed out, waiting for your title shot rarely works out the way you want it to.
Cormier also busted a tooth while slamming Hendo to the mat during their fight, and had to get it pulled on Monday.
Cormier will have his knee assessed in the next few weeks, and may decide to have surgery to fix an existing problem with his ACL. While that plan would put him out of action for the rest of 2014, he had already planned to wait for a title shot against the winner of Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson, which is tentatively scheduled for August 30th. In other words, the timing could be ideal — unless Gustafsson wins in a controversial split-decision and the UFC decides to do an immediate rubber-match. As Dana White recently pointed out, waiting for your title shot rarely works out the way you want it to.
Cormier also busted a tooth while slamming Hendo to the mat during their fight, and had to get it pulled on Monday.
