« A big shoe drops at the California State Athletic Commission: Che Guevara resigns | Home | Fox Sports 1: We won’t focus on drug usage in sports (like UFC) »
Injuries, retirements, and rematches: Just another week for the UFC
By Zach Arnold | July 13, 2013

Last weekend, Dana White was claiming that Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva would draw 800,000 PPV buys. Then, Anderson Silva played the fool and got knocked out… only for UFC to reportedly not allow media outlets like ESPN from showing the actual finishing scene. Even during Chris Weidman’s “car wash” at Bristol on Thursday, they didn’t show the final blows.
Brian Stann announced his retirement from MMA. He said that the loss to Wanderlei Silva in Japan put him too far back in the food chain and that this development, combined with his fight style, made it impossible for him to move upwards without suffering significant damage. Therefore, he retired and will now move on to doing college football work for Fox Sports South. You read that right. Given that the season happens on Saturdays, I wonder how many UFC events on Fox he will be able to appear on.
Josh Koscheck is out of his fight with Demian Maia due to an undisclosed injury. Last night, it was announced that TJ Grant was injured and that the end result would be Anthony Pettis vs. Ben Henderson in Milwaukee next month for the Lightweight title.
I don't specifically know what happened in Grant's training, but it is not at all difficult to get concussed in hard BJJ sparring.
— Luke Thomas (@SBNLukeThomas) July 13, 2013
An Inconvenient Truth that should be pointed out, however:
@MMASupremacy what about dr's saying Pettis COULDN'T be ready in time for Milwaukee?
— John Cabal (@JohnCabal) July 13, 2013
Timeline: Pettis injured, drops to 145 lbs & gets FW title shot vs Aldo. Grant gets LW title shot…injured. Pettis replaces Grant vs Bendo
— MMA Supremacy (@MMASupremacy) July 13, 2013
Here is the crazy part… Pettis dropped to 145 to sell tixs for UFC 163 (Brazil)… After Injury, now UFC using Pettis to sell tixs at 164
— MMA Supremacy (@MMASupremacy) July 13, 2013
And today (Saturday), Dana White goes on ESPN to announce the rematch between Chris Weidman & Anderson Silva for Las Vegas on 12/28. That show also features Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate. The timing of this announcement is already raising questions regarding Invicta’s PPV on Saturday night:
@MMASupremacy @MMARising – You had to know this would happen as soon as rumors about them going to Showtime surfaced.
— Michael T Ford III (@MTFIII) July 13, 2013
Exit question: What matches are available for the UFC’s Super Bowl Weekend show in New Jersey in 2014?
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Anderson’s loss was the best thing to happen to the UFC. There has been so much talk and hype about the fight–how he got what he deserved, bla bla bla. Weidman definitely was elevated in the fans’ eyes, and Silva didn’t really lose anything. The rematch is going to be highly anticipated.
You can’t ask for a better rematch scenario for the UFC. If Weidman dominated him for 5 rounds, nobody would care for a rematch…. Instead what we got was….
1. Weidman became a star.
2. Silva is still believed to be the best 185 pounder in the world.
Fans want to see this rematch to see if the first one was a fluke. It could easily do over 1 Million PPV Buys.
And I am sure if Ronda Rousey has PPV Buys in her contract, that she was VERY happy to go into co-main event status to Weidman/Silva.
“The timing of this announcement is already raising questions regarding Invicta’s PPV on Saturday night”
LOL
People need to take off the tinfoil hat. Zuffa is not making business decisions based on what Invicta is doing. They certainly aren’t making moves based on Showtime giving a barely lukewarm response to rumors about them broadcasting Invicta events.
Oh come on Zach…. Why are you giving these conspiracy theorists even an ounce of oxygen on this one? TJ Grant even laughed at these people. If you are posting all of this garbage, then you are saying deep down you actually believe Zuffa paid off TJ Grant to move aside.
And really…. What benefit does the UFC have to do this? $250,000 more tickets sold? Maybe 25,000 more PPV’s sold? And yet if they actually did pay off Grant and it got out into the media, it would cost them SO MUCH MORE THEN THAT. Just by this alone, Zuffa has no real benefit to orchestrate such an action.
And why would the UFC be mad about Invicta going to Showtime? The UFC is primarily in the MEN’S MMA BUSINESS. If Showtime puts their money into FEMALE MMA…. That just means they won’t be using their money to compete with the UFC for the most part. It also means if Viacom gets bored with Bellator, that Showtime won’t be a potential buyer to those assets. One less person to bid against.
And for the sport itself… I would love to see the UFC have all of the best male fighters… And then for somebody like Showtime to have Invicta.
I actually purchased the Invicta PPV…. And as a long time detractor of Women’s MMA… I have to say that there appears to be enough solid female fighters to make a league out of now. I’m not saying the divisions will ever be deep. But I could easily see Invicta doing a monthly Showtime show…. and housing about 100 fighters spread across 5 to 6 divisions. It will never be as good or as deep as the men, but it could be a decent place for the female side of things.
The Female Divisions should be:
1. Lightweight – 160 lbs
2. Featherweight – 145 lbs
3. Bantamweight – 135 lbs
4. Flyweight – 125 lbs
5. Strawweight – 115 lbs
6. Atomweight – 105 lbs
Something could be built on that.
Okay,
so it was UFC blocking out the ugly truth?!
I would have just as quickly attributed it to the general pop media,
But it seems that UFC is even worse.
Although I think he has other options,
I respect anderson for trying again.
Franklin did.
He’ll still have other options afterwards.
Like Franklin does.
I like anderson much more post BS.
The same way I became a Lyoto fan.
I wasn’t aware that Pettis was a big star in Brazil, he’s an exciting fighter who doesn’t speak Portuguese, that’s the same as Korean Zombie.
It will be Aldo, who has done massive ratings on free TV in Brazil, not his opponent who will draw the live gate.
I didn’t know that about Pettis.
Interesting.
Probably just the high flying aggressive style.
He could have been a ChuteBoxe guy back in the day.
Am I missing something here?
Pettis is from Milwaukee, WI. Which is where the card that the title fight with Bendo is being held and Pettis is being parachuted into.
I would surmise that people are saying that it was convenient that Pettis was dropped into the title fight on a card in his hometown and that will have an effect on the live gate draw. Maybe I’m missing something…
Yes you are “Here is the crazy part… Pettis dropped to 145 to sell tixs for UFC 163 (Brazil)… After Injury, now UFC using Pettis to sell tixs at 164
MMA supremacy
Aldo doesn’t need Pettis to sell tickets down in Brazil, although it would do a bigger buy rate in the US.