A couple of comments on the comments:

The notion that Sylvia was a dominant champion is just absurd. His title win was impressive, but we all know the first two defenses were anything but. I was nodding off at a bar watching the second Arlovski match with a beer in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other. A half way dominant performance would have kept me awake. He’s just a guy, hardly elite.

Just in general, I think everyone would agree that Pride has always had deeper pools of talent and puts on shows with more loaded lineups than the UFC. But it’s not really necessary for the UFC to do much different. They way they spread out the top talent, they don’t need as much. With Cro Cop/Couture on the horizon and probable matches involving Arlovski and (sadly) Sylvia, they’re good for at least a year in the heavyweight division. If Vera sticks around and they do Cro Cop/Lidell, they are set for a year and a half. The newer folks to the sport are used to set ups like this, with a couple of top bouts and a fairly weak undercard. They don’t seem to mind. Boxing is the same way. I’d rather see 16 great fighters on a show than 4 or 5, but there’s no reason to change and burn through all the match ups they can put together.

And really, 100% or so of the MMA fans in America are not thinking about things this hard. Good fights and good shows are all they want.

Sobral wasn’t going anywhere – didn’t mean anything for business and he wasn’t going to get another title shot. Lambert can move up the ladder with a great comeback. Maybe he can be made into something, so I see no harm.

If Renato Babalu were a PPV draw for UFC, and he lost to a relative nobody like Jason Lambert, it would’ve been roundly criticized. But neither of those guys are main event level guys for UFC. Babalu losing doesn’t hurt UFC’s PPV business at all. It hurts Babalu, and his standing in UFC, which we talked about, but it really has little impact on UFC LHW division at the moment seeing as though Babalu has arleady been devastated by Chuck Liddell twice, and until Liddell loses the title, I don’t see Babalu being a challenger again, because there really is no impetus for him to face Liddell for a third time.

Regarding your points and having a ‘critical eye’

Two points I would like to make.

1. There was a reason why the Pride event and Pride’s champions were roundly criticized as opposed to what you are hearing today about the UFC 68 event and fighters. The long and short of it is that Nick Diaz, Frank Trigg and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou are NOT Randy Couture.

Tim Sylvia lost to Randy. He didn’t lose to 12th to 20th ranked guy at 205lbs, which is the equivalent of Misaki losing to Trigg. Trigg moved up from 170 to 185lbs and is not a top ten fighter there. Tim lost to Randy and Randy Couture is a multiple time champion. He’s fought at heavyweight for most of his career so it’s not a stretch to see him fight there again. He’s also held the belt at Heavyweight, not to mention 205lbs. Randy is also a very well respected top athlete long before coming into MMA, in terms of accomplishments and pedigree. Unlike Nick Diaz whose biggest claim to fame ‘today’ is being busted/tested for smoking pot after the Pride event.

So to sum this up, Randy is, pretty much, on a completely different level than the three above mentioned guys. Nick Diaz and Frank Trigg have never held belt and for that matter, it’s a stretch to even find them any wins over top ten fighters in their career. Do they even have any other than their recent wins over Pride’s ‘champs’? I put an asterick next to those wins because of the whole validity of Gomi and Misaki being champs. Gomi fighting in a protected tailer-made 161lb weight class (while no other orgs use it) and Misaki losing in the GP, but then getting a free shot. That though, is another post for another day.

The above is why you don’t see people applying the same level of criticism to the UFC event as being done to the pride event. You make some points, but at the end of the day, they don’t hold up.

2. My last point. I’m seeing some accusations thrown at the UFC for not having great fights lined up in the future. The whole, “Who does Chuck have left” and “what’s left after Silva vs Franklin II” This is kind of pointless, especially from the perspective that it’s a negative, vis a vi Pride and other companies.

Listen up…EVERY top organization has these problems. To single out the UFC as an ‘example’ shows you have no point here. Who does Showtime have ‘lined up’ for their next big ‘title fights’? Ok, stop laughing. How about Strikeforce? Perhaps another Tank Abbot appearance? How about the IFL? Ok, we can’t name a single fighter there so that’s a bad example.

Point is, Pride is no different too. Want to complain about Chuck’s competition? Well, look no further than Fedor in Pride. Fedor has Barnett and Sergei. That’s it. He’s already fought and beat everyone else there. How about Maurcio Rua at 205lbs? He’s already fought and beat Overeem and Arona. He won’t fight Wanderlei. All that’s left is Little Nog and their 183lb champion moving up a weight. That sure sounds like the cupboard is bare to me.

I’m not ragging on Pride there. My point is to show that it’s pointless and stupid to scrutinize the UFC for potential matchups 6 to 12 months down the road, hold them to ridiculous standards, when EVERY fight organization has the same issues. In fact, the UFC’s situation is probably the least worrisome of all the groups, as they can easily go out and bring/pay for new fighters to come in. Other groups can’t do that.

Anyway, the original article was great. I would have loved to have been there.

Maybe I didnt clearly state it enough but I was in no way attacking anyone or anything like that. I was just trying to apply a more critical eye to the match making in general and some of the outcomes from the event. I admittedly realize some of the “arguments” are not the strongest, but I was attempting to make a bit of a point…ZERO disrespect to Randy was meant by the comments but I do think getting “retired” out of the division and then suddenly jumping up and killing the top dog, leaves a few questions to be ask. Maybe “chased out of the division” was too strong of a statement – but I think most of you got the idea.

And as for the HW division, I do agree that it has become a lot deeper. However I’m not so sure about the LHW division b/c outside of Rampage who is there to go against Chuck?? No one is anywhere near ready.

The LW and WW divisions are probably the best in the world…but much like boxing, it seems like the real money is made in the bigger weight divisions.

And FightLinker – Im fully aware and in agreement that PRIDE is booked pretty idiotically and run “geniously” business wise…its pretty sad what such a great company has turn into in the last 18 months. From what would have been considered to have been the top “worldwide” org and a legit threat, to a company gasping on life support but a bunch of ignorant fools. I didn’t mean to say PRIDE was in anyway being run better etc…just attempting to make a kind of “counterpoint” and say that it seems everyone is into writing fluff pieces praising all that is UFC, while ignoring other concerns.

Tim Sylvia was hardly a dominant champion. His most prominent wins are over Gan McGee with the aid of steroids, chinless Arlovski, 5′9 Monson, and Cabbage (who for the record did much better against Sylvia than he did against Butterbean). The best UFC hw fighters under contract are in order Mirko, Randy, and Vera, who is nuts for thinking Gary Shaw is going to give him 1.5 million per fight when nobody knows who he is.

At 205 there are some interesting matches. I think Jardine and Evans are both very good fighters, and along with Tito and Rampage, it’s not a bad “pack.” If they sign one prominent free agent at that weight, then we will have nothing to complain about. I think Dana needs to get on the phone and call Lindland, who IMO would probably beat Franklin and Anderson Silva.

He hasn’t been elite since Fedor bloodied him up years back. He’s done nothing since then, unless you count getting dominated by Cro Cop, getting choked out silly by an anaconda, blowing out your knee right at the beginning of a fight, getting disqualified before the fight even starts, getting dominated by 312-year old Gary Goodridge (until the lucky punch and premature stoppage) and then getting dominated because of his non-existent takedown defense as “elite”.

Anyway, I did think Gaijin did have some valid points, but I don’t think Franklin loses the rematch. He won’t so stupid as to stand with Silva the second time around. The tea leaves in front of me say TKO by ground and pound for Franklin in the rematch.