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UFC talent depth issues and Fedor’s fighting future
By Zach Arnold | May 5, 2010
I thought it was interesting to listen to Dave Meltzer say yesterday that the reason UFC selected Jason Brilz to replace Forrest Griffin in the fight against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira on 5/29 in Las Vegas is due to the lack of available roster depth. Too many shows (Spike, Versus, PPV) has led to conflicts in commitments with certain fighters on certain cards.
The news about Fedor vs. Fabricio Werdum on 6/26 in San Jose left me a little “blah.” The idea, reportedly, is that the winner of that fight will face the winner of the Brett Rogers/Alistair Overeem fight on 5/15 in St. Louis. That seems to be a little bit too long-term booking given the way Fedor’s been fighting these days. Plus, throw in the fact that DREAM already has been planning a triangle series with Fedor, Overeem, and Josh Barnett, and nothing should be taken for granted.
Kevin Randleman, who recently defended Scott Coker’s matchmaking as “pure,” may not fight Roger Gracie after all on 5/15 in St. Louis.
Steve Simmons in The Toronto Sun has an article about Toronto mayoral candidate Rob Ford wanting to bring MMA legislation forth to the area shortly. Speaking of Canadian politics, here’s Georges St. Pierre at Parliament Hill.
I am amazed at how many news wires picked up the UFC PR about Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin being officially booked for their July event. The star power of Lesnar is really huge.
MMA Live will air on ESPN2 this Thursday at 1 AM EST. Check it out.
Hey, a Chris Haseman sighting.
- USA Today: UFC 113 – can Machida halt Shogun’s attack before it gets started?
- James Brydon (Rogers Sportsnet): Q & A with TJ Grant about UFC 113
- The Cleveland Plain-Dealer: Machida-Shogun rematch could raise awareness for sport
- Sherdog: Zuffa files suit for ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ domain name (hey, what about Ultimate Gay Fighter?)
- The Vancouver Sun: One-on-one with Dana White
- Fight Hype: Conference call quotes from Brett Rogers and Alistair Overeem (I got the audio and it was hard to make out what anyone was saying, so I gave up on it)
- MMA Disputed: Andrew Simon HDNet Fights CEO interview
Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Talent Depth isn’t the issue…. It’s, as you said, the number of shows they are running. You run 8 UFC PPV’s in 6 months…. And of course things are going to be thin. If they took away 2 of those PPV’s… And spread that better talent out over the remaining 6 cards…. They wouldn’t be having this problem. For all of the good things Dana White does…. He can’t see beyond his own nose on this issue…. Which is that he is going to wear out his fanbase and at some point is going to be wishing he can get above 250,000 buys on anything above a mega event. Not to mention he is going down the boxing route which is to make the sport was too hard to access to casual fans. I think he sees dollar signs far too much instead of the big picture.
Brilz as a co-main event is a joke. That PPV was going to be good…. From top to bottom it had some really good fights. That addition complete sours the PPV….
Fedor vs. Werdum is a who cares fight. Nobody thinks Werdum can win. He is a poor man’s Nogueira, and we all saw what Nogueira could do to Fedor. Unless Fedor’s skills have diminished more then we all realize, then he should win. Of course, I do think Fedor’s skills have diminished, just not that much.
And let’s look ahead for Strikeforce. Let’s say everything goes as planned. Fedor & Overeem both win. Strikeforce is somehow able to get both of their crazy managers to agree to the fight. Once that happens in late 2010…. WHAT NEXT? They haven’t built up anything in that division.
It reminds me of the way they have handled Carano/Cyborg. They put on the super fight and then afterwards there was literally nothing to care about. Strikeforce does an average job at taking other people’s fighters and repackaging them. But they are clueless on who to do it themselves. I have a feeling that by the end of 2010, every single one of their divisions, maybe except for Middleweight…. Will have a big question mark next to it with no idea of who is to challenge for the belt next….
“And let’s look ahead for Strikeforce. Let’s say everything goes as planned. Fedor & Overeem both win. Strikeforce is somehow able to get both of their crazy managers to agree to the fight. Once that happens in late 2010…. WHAT NEXT? They haven’t built up anything in that division.
It reminds me of the way they have handled Carano/Cyborg. They put on the super fight and then afterwards there was literally nothing to care about. Strikeforce does an average job at taking other people’s fighters and repackaging them. But they are clueless on who to do it themselves. I have a feeling that by the end of 2010, every single one of their divisions, maybe except for Middleweight…Will have a big question mark next to it with no idea of who is to challenge for the belt next…”
THIS.
At this point I try not to think too much about anything Strikeforce does. I doubt they do, so why should I? Think about the basics here – they’re building to Overeem/Fedor with Overeem being presented as the champion and Fedor the challenger. I repeat: Overeem is the world champion, Fedor the plucky underdog challenger. And everyone has gone along with this as if it makes sense.
Lots of mediocre fights in the UFC too. Can’t they port over some WEC guys to UFC cards to bolster them? Call it a special WEC attraction or something.
Poor Strikeforce,
Everyone here seems to hate them.
At least they are putting on fights, but I am sure someone here will disagree and say that they should not be putting on free fights for people to watch.
“Poor Strikeforce,
Everyone here seems to hate them.
At least they are putting on fights, but I am sure someone here will disagree and say that they should not be putting on free fights for people to watch.”
I think that everyone here would like to see them succeed in a sustainable way that ensures great fights. Most people who follow the sport don’t feel that they’re headed that way.
I don’t want to act like I think that I speak for anyone else here, but that’s my opinion on how I interpret everyone’s posts.
My biggest problem with Strikeforce is that they use other people’s stars but don’t make any of their own.
They are already used up at Light Heavyweight, Welterweight, Lightweight, and both of their women’s divisions. And there is really nothing on the horizon for a while. They will probably rush things, but they are at least 2 or 3 fights away from giving Woodley a title shot and Beerbohm might be a weak challenger if he beats Ribeiro… But he is on the undercard of the next SF show anyways….
They need to start adding something to the MMA world….
There isn’t a talent depth issue in every division, but there is a talent depth issue in the Light Heavyweight division. One man leaving (Rampage) hurt them, whereas if say Kenny Florian left the UFC the Lightweight division would be just fine or if Frank Mir left the UFC the Heavyweight division would roll along. What would they have done if the Machida-Shogun fight wasn’t so controversial and warranted an automatic rematch? Run Randy-Rashad for a title shot? Make Forrest-Tito a #1 contender’s fight? It wouldn’t be good. Neither is dragging Chuck Liddell back in because nobody cares about the majority of the division even though you acted basically like he was going to die if he got rocked one more time.
The UFC Light Heavyweight Division is in a weird spot. It’s not like they don’t have great fighters in the division… They certainly do. But many are just not ready for a title shot yet. Jones & Bader are too green. Nogueira needs more exposure.
But I don’t see any problems with the divisions for a few years. The winners of Rua/Machida and Evans/Rampage will likely fight each other in the later part of 2010. By then Nogueira will have enough exposure and get his title shot (or whoever beats him). And by then Bader and/or Jones will be in contention. There is no other division in MMA that has such a long term road map…
Yes, I mean for right now. You’re right, on the horizon if everything goes according to plan, they’ve got some big fights. I think an Evans/Jones or Rampage/Jones fight would do enormous business since they’re all great talkers the fans are invested in. So I really hope Jones can find an answer for “The Janitor”‘s boringness. But until everything goes according to plan, and you’re going to put 4 past-their-primes fighters (Ortiz, Liddell, Franklin, Couture) in highprofile fights while you cross your fingers Rampage doesn’t flake out again and Jon Jones continues his hotstreak, I’d use caution.
The truth is from 2005-07 they totally burned out their stars there and have taken a while to rebuild. They just had the bad luck of a lot of fighters either leaving or bottoming out at around the same time.
LHW is one of the better divisions as far as depth goes. I’d say the WW and MW divisions are in the worst shape right now, and LW and LHW are two of the best. The latter two have lots of top fighters that are very close to a title shot, plenty of upcoming prospects, and the champions aren’t a class higher than everyone else (like GSP and Silva are in their divisions). HW is also doing well, but once Carwin, Lesnar, Velasquez and JDS sort things out, it won’t have as much long-term.
These things are cyclical anyway. One division goes to the dumps and another emerges.
Meltzer completely misreads the issue. It isn’t roster depth; its that the LHW division is the marquee division, and as a result most of the top fighters in the division get quickly cycled back into main event or co-main event slots. Its a lot harder to put a fighter in on short notice when he’s already scheduled in a top slot in the near future.
Already scheduled in high-end fights:
Machida
Shogun
Rampage
Evans
Liddell
Franklin
Injured:
Ortiz
Griffin
Vera
Bader
Unsuitable to fill in:
Jardine
Matyushenko
Cane
That is a ton of top fighters that are either unable to be subbed in or are not suited to a fill in match, for different reasons.
Jones and Thiago Silva are the only other candidates, and for all we know Silva turned the matchup down. (I think they’re just grooming Jones.)
Meh.
Despite Rossens half assed argument, Verdum is the best threat fed has had in years.
And MUCH better then horsemeat IMO.
But Meh at all.
At a point beyond argument you just have to stop enabling.