« K-1 9/26 Seoul, South Korea | Home | DREAM 12 to feature a hexagon cage »
Finding an opponent for Georges St. Pierre…
By Zach Arnold | September 28, 2009
… apparently is a lot tougher than it sounds. The winner of Mike Swick vs. Dan Hardy is expected to face St. Pierre in 2010. The Swick/Hardy fight happens on 11/14 in Manchester. The UK fans seem excited.
Swick is ranked #7 in the latest Independent World MMA rankings and Hardy is in the top 20.
In other UFC matchmaking news, expect Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva for the 1/2 Las Vegas show. Dave Meltzer reported on Sunday night that Evans turned out a fight against Randy Couture and mocked Evans for saying that he wanted to fight Silva because “he’s higher ranked.” There is a natural angle to the fight, given that Silva beat Keith Jardine (Rashad’s teammate). A loss by Evans to Silva would hurt the momentum for a fight against Quinton Jackson, but Evans needs to fight and recover from the May loss to Machida.
“I’m going into a camp where I probably actually get to train for maybe about six or seven weeks, and then I’m fighting in Manchester, England. And then I’m fighting Randy Couture and I don’t have anything really to gain out of the situation,” Evans continued.
The answer, of course, is a) money and b) a win.
There are rumors of the 1/2 card having a ‘triple main event’ featuring Anderson Silva vs. Vitor Belfort, Dan Henderson vs. Nathan Marquardt, and Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva. That will not set the world on fire.
Topics: MMA, Media, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 59 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Okay, then that’s 3 out of 8 fights on the main card for a guy who has only lost one UFC fight in 3 years. That’s still a joke. I know the guy isn’t exciting, and admittedly I’m not excited about the match up. But any other fighter getting that treatment with his record would cause a mass outrage like the one that started brewing for Machida when Jackson got a shot over him originally. Dana must be convinced he can beat Silva.
What are Okami’s other options? He was a free agent after a UFC win and nobody tried to pick him up. He fought in Pride, won, and wasn’t brought back again. He is likely not wanted by DREAM or Sengoku. I doubt Strikeforce would want to put him on their shows. On a scale of 1-10, the UFC treats boring fighters at a 4. The other organizations treat them a 1 or 2. That’s the way the sport is unfortunetly.
I agree he should be on the main cards, but he could certainly help himself a little bit and try to make his fights a little more fun to watch. Machida did it, and is actually a better fighter for it.
stop deleting my post
Floyd has been avoiding the top guys in his own weight division time and time again. I’m not saying he didn’t beat those guys you mentioned Alan. But he has been at Welterweight long enough that he should have fought a credible Top 10 guy in that weight class.
But he did.
Floyd Mayweather, as pointed out above, has not really fought top guys in his own weight class. And since Floyd fought Oscar, he has fought 2 smaller guys and had a short retirement inbetween.
But they really weren’t “smaller guys”. That’s like saying Penn went back to fighting guys smaller than him by competing at welter and lightweight after fighting at 185 and heavy.
You have to be joking. Penn is fighting guys his same size now. Floyd is fighting guys that are obviously smaller then him in the ring. Could you not see that while watching him fight Hatton or JMM? Or were you too busy typing online about how great the event was?
Floyd is fighting guys that are obviously smaller then him in the ring.
Floyd barely cuts to make 147. Homes fought at 130 and 135 the majority of his career, and you’re talking about what a giant welterweight he is? Oh, lawd. Spare me.
The difference is that Mayweather was capable of moving up and beating world class and world championship level fighters when he left his best weights, so much so he has people who don’t watch boxing fooled as to what those were. Penn can’t do that.
If he barely cuts to make 147, then how come he couldn’t cut a few extra pounds and make the contracted weight for his last fight?
If he barely cuts to make 147, then how come he couldn’t cut a few extra pounds and make the contracted weight for his last fight?
Because he decided he didn’t want to cut weight?
That’s the UFC’s problem, they knew what they were getting when they signed him. This isn’t a Tim Sylvia situation where he used to be an exciting fighter but then decided to fight safe at the expense of excitement.
He wins fights. UFC’s set up is that if you win fights your career moves ahead. If they want to do away with records and just go on who is the most entertaining where Chris Lytle and Wanderlei Silva get title shots for popping the crowd the loudest, then great, but the sport will never be respected. And IMO, giving a guy a title shot then taking it away from him after he gets hurt and putting him in prelims against guys far beneath his status is dangerously close to tampering with the sport like Dana chewed out Elite for doing.