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With GSP & Anderson done, failure cannot be an option for UFC’s 2014 star-making strategy

By Zach Arnold | December 28, 2013

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What a surreal night.

Anderson Silva met the same fate as Corey Hill, Kevin Ware, Joe Theismann, and hell, you can throw in Sid Vicious if you want. Will he come back from the horrific leg injury? I hope he does, simply because that is not the way a legend like him should have to live the rest of his life with the memory of being stretchered out of the cage.

Now we get Chris Weidman vs. Anabolic Belfort and Ronda Rousey vs. Sara McMann. OK. That Belfort promo on the UFC FS1 post-fight telecast was a hell of a watch.

If you thought ESPN’s troll job of Fox Sports 1 with the UFC 168 coverage was a surprise, consider the following: ESPN went right ahead with the PPV results and did a remote interview with Ronda Rousey before FS1 went to the UFC 168 post-game show. Bristol was on the ball. Dana was on the Sportscenter Twitter during the main event. On one of the biggest nights for UFC, ESPN’s skeletal crew beat Fox Sports to the punch and used Dana to do it. I don’t know what the contractual stipulations are for Fox Sports with UFC — perhaps it precludes the channel from airing anything UFC related until the PPV time frame is over, but to have ESPN rub it into FS1’s face like that was something that the Mouse was probably popping champagne corks over.

To top it all off, ESPN aired a post-fight interview with Dana White to break news about Anderson Silva having immediate surgery in an hour. That Dana interview aired long before anything from him on FS1.

One thing is very clear if you follow the general sports media types — tonight’s PPV had everyone’s attention and Anderson Silva’s shattered leg elicited the same kind of response that Kevin Ware’s injury at the Final Four drew. But nobody proclaimed that they would stop covering college basketball because of it.

It was interesting seeing Ronda’s temperament in his post-fight interviews. She made it very clear, in her own words, that she likes you to boo or cheer her but ambivalence is unacceptable. And she mocked fighters who always say in post-fight interviews they’ll fight anyone the company puts in front of them next.

As for Josh Barnett losing to Travis Browne… that saved the UFC from being nervous nellies about a potential Barnett/Cain Velasquez fight with the drug testing issues. Bring on Travis Browne vs. Fabricio Werdum.

Watching Chris Leben demonstrate more sense than his corner or the Nevada officials by stopping his own fight with Uriah Hall was kind of a sad, yet reassuring thing to watch. If this was boxing, he’d be getting the Victor Ortiz quitter treatment. Getting concussed is no fun.

****

For those wondering what happened with our server on Saturday that prevented you from reading articles and us from posting content, to make a long story short: the company hosting our server decided, apparently without notice, that today would be a great day to upgrade old equipment and migrate the site to a server with new equipment. Hence the 404 errors. Hence why we are updating a while after the PPV is over.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

14 Responses to “With GSP & Anderson done, failure cannot be an option for UFC’s 2014 star-making strategy”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    1) Weidman vs. Belfort is going to sell some PPV’s. That is a really good fight. And the winner of that fight will get the winner of Machida/Mousasi. That division is fine for a while.

    2) Weidman talked about both on FS1 and the post-fight press conference how they worked on checking the kick with the knee. He said Longo has broken a guys leg that way and he has hurt guys enough that they had to shake it off. So while the broken leg was sort of of a fluke, it was because of Weidman’s technique.

    3) There isn’t much interesting in female fighting for a while anyways. Ronda will have to sell the fights herself.

    4) The UFC also has a new challenger for Cain Velasquez, which nobody really saw coming even a few months ago. So they are in decent shape there too.

    2014 won’t be a big year for the UFC’s PPVs but they should be good enough to stay afloat. Don’t forget that it took years for Anderson Silva to win over the fans.

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    Rousey vs. McMann on February 22nd. Cormier/Evans is now the main event.

    McMann is basically unknown, but she has the best chance of beating Rousey out of anybody on the roster.

    In the men’s world, wrestling beats Judo 9 times out of 10. We shall see if the same happens in the female world.

  3. david m says:

    Weidman is a beast. He has dropped Anderson in 2 straight fights. I can’t remember the last time anyone in the UFC hurt Anderson with a standing strike.

    I hope Vitor fighting for a title finally brings the UFC’s ridiculous steroid hall pass policy under the lights. It is disgusting that guys get suspended for doing something that the UFC and the athletic commissions allow them to do. Heinous.

    People like watching Rousey fight. Goddamn she is a beast. Poor Tate. Ronda was just so much stronger. Ronda also clearly wants no part of Cyborg, who would beat her to death. Ronda is much happier fighting other women who she can ragdoll.

    I am glad Travis Browne won. He looks legit. I respect Barnett’s craft and enjoy watching him fight, but he looks so bad, physically. He needs to get a trt hall pass (if they are going to keep giving them out). He is a guy whose body clearly is ravaged by all the years of steroid abuse. That or he needs to train a lot harder.

  4. klown says:

    Silva: I wish him all the best, not just as a fighter but as a person. It’ll be hard to walk, much less fight, for a long time after this kind of injury. Thanks for everything, Anderson, and I hope he recovers completely and soon, whether or not he decides to fight again.

    Weidman: I was never a big fan, but he’s winning me over. I appreciate his humility and respect for Silva. Even though both fights had freakish endings, I agree with 45 and david m – he deserves credit for those finishes, and during both fights, he showed us enough to persuade us that he is a legitimate equal or superior to Silva. He deserves undisputed acknowledgement as the middleweight king.

    Belfort: The thought of him as a title contender terrifies me, in terms of what it says about our sport. He is the poster boy of successful testosterone – someone who has (apparently) managed to effectively translate his drug use to in-the-cage violence. I really hope Weidman stops him and puts to rest the prospect of that scary roider as UFC champ.

    Barnett: I like him – he’s an intelligent fighter and self-promoter and is pretty funny. But, as with Belfort, I am relieved that he won’t be contending for the belt any time soon. Btw david m – I think the way his body looks is simply a matter of genetics.

    Rousey and Tate: It was a great fight and I think it’s one of those fights you can show to friends who don’t watch MMA to give them some appreciation for the sport. Boxing, takedowns, trips and throws, submission attack and defense, scrambles, up-kicks, ground and pound – all were represented. It was a bit of chess match and a battle of gameplans, with lots of action without excessive brutality. I showed it to two skeptics, with positive results.

    Happy new year everyone.

    • david m says:

      I watched at a bar and people were going NUTS during Ronda vs Miesha. Ronda is such a good heel–she looks legitimately insane.

      I realize I erred in my post when I said I couldn’t remember the last time Anderson had been hurt with strikes–I clearly forgot Sonnen v Silva I.

      Re: Barnett, I realize some of that is genetics, but come on. You are a professional fighter, look like you at least found a treadmill during your training camp. He is definitely suffering from the steroid cycle and the resulting loss of natural T. He needs to talk to the UFC doctor.

  5. Jonathan says:

    I for one am glad that Rousey did not shake Tate’s hand after the fight. It shows that this whole “you’re my enemy” stuff can be legit, and not just an act for the cameras. I sincerely believe that Ronda just does not like Miesha. Period.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      I think it shows exactly what guys have been saying for years…. B!tches be crazy.

      Two guys will hate each other. Then they will fight it out. And then they will typically be friends.

      Two women who hate each other can fight 100 times and still hate each other just as much.

    • edub says:

      I think it shows a lack of respect to combat arts. There’s one thing that’s clear across the board in sports ranging from wrestling to kickboxing, when the fights over shake the other person’s hand. Doesn’t have to be anything like a hug or anything just show respect to a competitor. Ronda didn’t/couldn’t do that.

      Its classless, but that really might be who Ronda is. Somebody who lacks class.

      • Jonathan says:

        I do not think that it shows a lack of class. I think that she showed her respect by going into the cage, fighting her, and defeating her. To me, that’s where the real respect is. She obviously does not like her, and TBH, Tate did nothing to make her like her. Perhaps if she had won, she would have, but that did not happen.

        • edub says:

          I don’t think showing up and defeating somebody shows respect at all, and I can’t see how anybody would. It just proves you’re better at competing then whoever you beat.

      • Steve4192 says:

        The whole shaking hands / hugging it out thing is relatively new. You didn’t see Hall of Fmaers like Royce Gracie or Mark Coleman hugging it out after fights. I don’t recall seeing much handshaking / hugging at all during the SEG era. Even now that it is an accepted post-fight ritual, it’s not universal. Chuck Liddell sure as hell didn’t shake Tito’s hand after whooping his ass twice.

        Honestly, I think this sport could do with less handshaking / backslapping. I felt betrayed when Tito and Ken Shamrock enthusiastically embraced and laughed about how much money they made together. Same goes for Koscheck and GSP. If you are going to manufacture a beef to sell tickets, at least have the common courtesy to maintain the facade in public. Shake hands and hug in the locker room if you must, but don’t make it so blatantly obvious you sold me a bill of goods.

        • edub says:

          “The whole shaking hands / hugging it out thing is relatively new. You didn’t see Hall of Fmaers like Royce Gracie or Mark Coleman hugging it out after fights. I don’t recall seeing much handshaking / hugging at all during the SEG era. Even now that it is an accepted post-fight ritual, it’s not universal. Chuck Liddell sure as hell didn’t shake Tito’s hand after whooping his ass twice.”

          I know Royce shook hands with most people when the fight was over right away, or when he was getting his hand raised (as did Coleman, he comes from a wrestling background where it takes about a tenth of a second before you sprint off the mat). Chuck and Tito most certainly hugged after both of their fights.

          I don’t really care about all the hugging, back slapping, love fests. Shaking somebody’s hand isn’t that, its showing respect for a competitor; which is pretty much the whole basis of sports and martial arts.

          “Same goes for Koscheck and GSP. If you are going to manufacture a beef to sell tickets, at least have the common courtesy to maintain the facade in public. Shake hands and hug in the locker room if you must, but don’t make it so blatantly obvious you sold me a bill of goods”

          Yea, I’m not really speaking on that at all. Ronda shaking Miesha’s hand isn’t doing what Ken and Tito did.

  6. joe says:

    Isn’t David Chao the doctor from that deadspin article who was out partying with football players while a patient had to get a leg amputated (then lied and said he was with his sick grandmother), and who perhaps contributed to Junior Seau’s death by keeping him addicted to painkillers?

  7. rst says:

    “simply because that is not the way a legend like him should have to live the rest of his life with the memory of being stretchered out of the cage”

    Eh, I dont feel all that sorry for him.
    Did anyone feel sorry for a legend like Randy when they put him in there against a dude who was way too young and fast and ended his career with his teeth getting kicked out?
    For all the years that anderson coasted on toying with outmatched guys this seems perfectly appropriate IMO.
    His popular career was not one of a warrior, driven by the warrior spirit to persevere over challenges and conquer adversity,
    Like Randy did.
    So at least he finally fell to one.
    in dramatic fashion.

    And as far as danajoels idol making mission for 2014, its already off to the same old shmutz.
    First up to bat, forcing another legitimately talented champ to waste time and possibly get injured proving nothing against a trt cheat. Again.
    That despite dana’s “the fans want to see” BS, NOBODY appears to want to see in ANY comment section I’ve read!
    The only people who keep appearing to want to see it are journalists like fightjunkie who may or may not be in zuffas pocket at this point.
    I suppose its possible that twitter is flooded with yes-sheeple who say they want to see it,
    but if thats the best danas’ got then that proves that dana-mma isn’t for MMA fans.
    Its for fans of dana at best.

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