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Vitor Belfort becomes a very popular name again
By Zach Arnold | September 20, 2009
Local UFC 103 coverage: Dallas Morning News | Fort Worth Star-Telegram | McKinney Courier-Gazette
There was a healthy amount of stories on the news wires about Vitor Belfort’s win over Rich Franklin. A surprising amount of press, and most of it was on the straight-and-narrow. In fact, dare I say, a lot of it positive. One curious media note is that The LA Times had their core group of writers work the Mayweather show and just ran an AP wire report on UFC 103. Belfort credited part of his win over Franklin due to focusing on karate training. The Canadian Press has a good event report.
As you would imagine, Mayweather’s lopsided win over Juan Manuel Marquez dominated the traditional sports media in terms of coverage. The media coverage of the fight and the aftermath is, at best, mixed. Reuters has a report on Mayweather whining after the fight and playing the ‘no respect’ card. A lot of newspaper writers are focusing on Shane Mosley’s challenge to Mayweather after the fight. Most cheered Shane’s appeal for a match, while Fox Sports said that Mosley ‘ruined’ Mayweather’s win over Marquez.
To top it all off, Manny Pacquiao says he will file a defamation suit against Floyd Mayweather Sr. because Sr. claimed that Pacquiao is a steroid user.
Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 74 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Remember the Baldomir fight only happened because Judah suffered a shock defeat. PBF was due to face Zab in a fight for all the belts but Judah got beat.
The thing I dont understand is who did people want PBF to fight after 21 months out the ring. He takes on JMM who granted is a LW but in a way I’m glad for JMM as he got his biggest pay day which sets him up.
PBF could of fought a full blown WW who isnt as skilled as JMM and people would of complained. I really fail to see what the problem is here. Going forward if PBF doesnt fight Pacman or Cotto or Mosley then please diss the fcuk out of PBF but for now just appreciate the guys is hugely talented and put on a near flawless performance. No other WW in the world would beat JMM so convincingly.
The problem with PBF is that he bailed on the welterweight division when it got very interesting in 2008.
He has a stellar record below 140, then fought weak opposition as a Jr welterweight and then moved up to 147 and beyond fighting good opposition. Judah was the former champion coming off a loss and Baldomir was the legit champ. Though he was a favorite going in, both the Hatton and Oscar fights were competitive on paper. Its easy to say in hindsight that those were mismatches but its not true.
Even fighting Marquez coming off a long lay off is ok.
But it stops here. He now has no excuse not to fight Cotto, Pac (smaller or not I want to see it), Shane (I don’t care who ducked who in the past, the fight needs to be made), Berto, Clottey etc.
strikeforce is officially dead to me. tossers.
Agree with MK. I had no problem in selecting JMM. JMM certainly earned a shot at a larger man with a lucrative name, and with Pacquiao around doing the same no reason to deny him. And overall there are a lot of considerations to look at when we critique Mayweather since 2004. The story is not all bad but most seem to agree on this much … the next opponent needs to be someone with more than impressive credentials, but also a physical threat to Floyd.
As Robert pointed out, the media is going to be unaccepting of anything other than Manny-Floyd in 2010. And obviously it makes sense why they would care more about that, it’s going to sell them more papers/magazines or draw in bigger coverage ratings or web hits whereas a Mosley fight is only interesting for the hardcore boxing fanbase. It’s why certain places were so irate about Mosley: they feel “how dare he interrupt the biggest money fight of the year!” Manny-Mayweather may not break the record of DLH-Mayweather, but it’s the only fight that’s going to come close in the foreseeable future. But of course….”He’s small! How dare they fight! You’re an idiot if you think that match up is interesting!”
I love the preemptive strike to discredit people in advance for expressing their opinions.
Its the truth. Dude isn’t one and never was. Beating Kampmann is nice, but it doesn’t make him an elite welter or anything close to it. Now we’ll have to watch someone lay on him for 15 minutes for that to be driven home, along with the prior 2 months of “WOW WHAT A GREAT FIGHT” talk prior to the blanket act.
But it stops here. He now has no excuse not to fight Cotto, Pac (smaller or not I want to see it), Shane (I don’t care who ducked who in the past, the fight needs to be made), Berto, Clottey etc.
Agreed. And to that end, he wants money. To that end, even a fight with Mosley/Clottey’s winner offers him more than any alternative. Its unlikely we’ll see him fight nondescript opposition until he inevitably loses.
Let me guess, because they just signed an ex-NFL player? Yeah, you’re right. It would be better if they got a bunch of them, threw in 1 serious contender, 1 gimmick and a bizarre wash-out and made a television show about it.
Wolverine if other guys get props for moving up and fighting former world champions at higher weight classes I guess you give PBF Major props for stepping up two weight classes to fight Oscar?
But he was so old! For the love of Christ, Liger, how can you possibly take a victory over a 34 year old! I mean, he cashed his social security check on the way to the fight! And he left his right turn signal on driving the whole way!
Oscar even held a stupid belt then too (the WBC title, thanks to Mayorga).
Mark, don’t be simple.
Uh, hello! The WBC is a alphabet soup organization that means nothing! Even though it has been around since the 1960s and sanctioned every champion who has ever mattered in over 40 years, it’s still a useless sanctioning body that is the reason we need to elect Dana White combat sports Super King Messiah! Don’t you people know anything?!
liger05
Floyed stepped up one weight class (not two) to fight Oscar. I give him props for that, it’s imo his biggest win in the last six fights.
Robert Poole
At MMA betting site MMAPlaygorund Belfort vs. Franklin was a 50/50 fight. The whole Sherdog staff picked Rich Franklin to win (including Jordan Breen and Jeff Sherwood). So did I.
I don’t personally think Franklin/Belfort was intended to be a walkover for Franklin. That doesn’t mean I remember anyone demanding that fight. It would be like Bob Arum arguing that no one really is asking for Machida/Shogun (and no one is) while he goes about booking JCC Jr./John Duddy for PPV (which he supposedly is).
With all this talk from DW about boxing not giving you the fights you want to see…is it just me or is the UFC fall schedule very underwhelming?
I see two A level fights in Machida vs Shogun and BJ Penn vs Sanchez and both challengers are fairly big underdogs. The rest of the cards are filler. People are talking about the comeback of Tito? The man who was universally hated by Dana’s drones and he is fighting a middle aged Coleman (I understand the match up but not the excitement).
As a general fan of combat sports I think HBO and Showtime boxing(individually)have better fights for the rest of 2009 and so does K-1.
Sherdog’s staff is an interesting group to say the least. I don’t know every MMA fan out there (nor would I ever pretend to) but my friends were convinced it was going to be a blowout.
Franklin doesn’t strike me as someone who will take you to the ground and even better yet, someone who can win there with frequency… and knowing Vitor’s hands, if you’re not willing to take him down you better be willing to be knocked out… which Franklin was.
Mark- Wanderlei has one win over a significant opponent in the last few years. Keith Jardine, who was a fringe contender at best.
He hasn’t been a quality, top level guy in a long, long time.
When did I say something positive about 2009 Wanderlei? I said as a fan I liked him better than Liddell (from his PRIDE glory years obviously) not that he wasn’t as equally washed up as Chuck at UFC 79. If anything I praised Chuck more by believing he would have caught Wanderlei with enough counter punches to knock him out in 2003. Both should stay retired IMO.
I see two A level fights in Machida vs Shogun and BJ Penn vs Sanchez and both challengers are fairly big underdogs.
You do. But there are excuses. I’m sure someone can supply them. My favorite is the “UFC needs to run a PPV!” excuse.
The rest of the cards are filler. People are talking about the comeback of Tito? The man who was universally hated by Dana’s drones and he is fighting a middle aged Coleman (I understand the match up but not the excitement).
Tito is a very popular, once elite fighter making a comeback after nearly two years off. You see, as a result, they can’t put him in with anyone abjectly bad, but they do want some name credibility, so they pick an older, slower, stylistically positive opponentfor Tito to beat on PPV and draw in buys with.
Wait, did somebody say something about Mayweather?
As a general fan of combat sports I think HBO and Showtime boxing(individually)have better fights for the rest of 2009 and so does K-1.
Agreed completely. HBO put together the right rematches for the 2nd quarter, unlike the first.
Mark,
My response was to Wolverine who used Wanderlei as a credible win for Franklin. You responded by saying Liddell beat Wanderlei because of styles. My contention is Wanderlei is washed up and quality top level guys will beat him, style disadvantage or not at this point.
That’s where this circled to.
OK so Wanderlei is not credible, so what you say about Henderson fight? Many believe it should be a draw, because the 2nd round was really close and Rich basically picked Hendo apart in the last round. If Franklin was still fighting at MW, he would have been in top five in that division before UFC 103.
As I said many people picked him to win against Belfort.
Agreed, but I’m just saying someone with the reach advantage with great counterstrikes is and always was his foil.
Their lack of main events could have been slightly solved if they split Griffin-Silva on a separate show. The only reason they didn’t was so they’d be guaranteed two back-to-back blockbuster cards to trumpet in press releases. Suck it, boxing!
I know I’m the only one who believes the increased amount of shows is a bad thing, but even if you don’t agree with me they’re going to burn out a sizable chunk of their audience you have to agree they’re going to stretch the talent pool a little too thin some months. I’ll bet Chuck comes on emergency reserve for when they have no main event after his UFC-themed dancing number falls flat with the judges. And then the Danaites will have all their quotes from the Affliction debacle with Barnett pulled saying UFC would never ever be without a main event people would want to see because their talent supply is endless.
Wolverine-
Being a top 5 MW is not that great of an accomplishment because it’s just not a very deep talent pool. Before the Belfort fight you probably could still say Franklin was #2 amongst other MWs and neither he nor the MW champ are taking fights in that division anymore because there are no credible challengers in it. That’s partially why I discredit the “He was a top 5 MW” argument. Top 5 in a group of who? Okami, Leites, Marquardt, Cote? Not exactly world beaters there.
I just didn’t think Franklin was an elite fighter and I honestly think Vitor’s hand speed and power will really cause damage in UFC when guys are looking to impress Dana and the fans with their stand up and are too willing to trade even when it’s not to their advantage.
Rp
I don’t get it. You basically call Franklin vs. Belfort a squash match and at the same time you admit Franlin is a top five MW. So who should Vitor fight first? Anderson Silva? Belfort vs Santiago was also a squash macth?
Don’t you see the difference between Vitor fighting a bigger and more accomplished Franklin and Mayweather fighting smaller and less accomplished Marquez?