Is the UFC dropping the ball?

jas123

jas123

Well-known member
How do you feel about the UFC picking and choosing a subset of the Pride stars? No Arona, Kang, Barnett, Hunt, Gomi, Aoki, Filho in the WEC, and, although a different situation, Lindland..... They seemed to have avoided getting a lot of the Japanese talent at lower weight classes as well (there may be more competition with K-1 and such).

Does it make the belt less meaningful to not have these guys in contention? Or are some these less exciting guys just going to take away airtime from more exciting fighters?

I guess it's sport vs. entertainment, which matters more?

I think that I want to see the best guys fighting. I could care less about most of the manufactured TUF "talent" even if they are exciting to watch. Start them in the WEC and let the Koschecks and Diegos move up up to the UFC once they've achieved something. Taking out Lindland and Filho, really removes the high level grappling talent from MW and makes the division more standup friendly.

I also wonder if some Pride guys will worry about fighting differently to please the fans. I wondered why Nog didn't go for a sub when he was on top of Herring and spent most of the fight on his feet. His standup isn't bad, of course, but why not go with your bread 'n butter.

I guess the deal is still new and some things are taking time to settle.
 
I think that the UFC is starting to show some hubris and it will come back to haunt them. The cards are getting better, but they still not on par with many of the PRIDE events. They have addressed their HW division, but they have few elite talents in the LW and MW divisions.
 
They practically own MMA, especially in N America. They are making some serious money now and can easily afford many, if not all, of the top talents.
 
I am not in favor of them having such a huge chunk of MMA, but since they do, they need to get their azzes in gear and quit shoving TUFers down my throat when I would much rather see Kang, Aoki, Gomi, Melendez, etc.
 
pistonpump said:
they cant have everyone can they? can they really?
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Yeah, I agree with this, but it does seem like they have passed on some seriously talented guys like Kang, Barnett, Arona,...

I understand Arona from a business prespective, but Kang and Barnett are pretty exciting. I just don't get that.

Having an alternative (which provides more shows) like Strikeforce/EXC is nice too. Hopefully, these guys will end up there.
 
Rodja said:
I am not in favor of them having such a huge chunk of MMA, but since they do, they need to get their azzes in gear and quit shoving TUFers down my throat when I would much rather see Kang, Aoki, Gomi, Melendez, etc.
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Here's a good article. Dana talks about Kang and Melendez and Barnett.

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Barnett is damn entertaining. They should have UFC shows on spike like every two weeks or something just to accomadate all the potential and overlooked or past fighters.
 
pistonpump said:
Barnett is damn entertaining. They should have UFC shows on spike like every two weeks or something just to accomadate all the potential and overlooked or past fighters.
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Put the TUFers on there to help keep their ratings high and put the more established fighters/top 10 on the PPV. The main thing that I miss about PRIDE is that every card had 9-10 fights that you would see, but with the UFC, the most I have seen is 6.
 
Rodja said:
Put the TUFers on there to help keep their ratings high and put the more established fighters/top 10 on the PPV. The main thing that I miss about PRIDE is that every card had 9-10 fights that you would see, but with the UFC, the most I have seen is 6.
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true true...who owns PRIDE now?
 
Rodja said:
I am not in favor of them having such a huge chunk of MMA, but since they do, they need to get their azzes in gear and quit shoving TUFers down my throat when I would much rather see Kang, Aoki, Gomi, Melendez, etc.
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I agree. Do I really need to see more of Patrick Cote, Pete Sell, Jorge Gurgel, or Stephan Bonnar? Ya, they are all fine guys, but I can't see any of them ever being in title contention. Give me Arona (boring but still highly rated), Kang, Lil' Nog, Sokudjou, Gomi, and the rest. Heck, bring over Mark Hunt while we're at it.
 
they dont really have a monopoly, they are a huge organization pulling in tonnes of cash but there is still Bodog, King of the Cage, and a bunch of other orgs, some of which are bidding for the same talent that the UFC is after.

i think i read before that the aquisition of Pride doesnt mean they get every single pride fighter, and that not only did they have to purchase Pride, but they are also having to bid for fighters with the owner of Pride, not only paying lots of money for the fighter, but paying for his cut as well.

and you never know, some of the guys may be asking for tonnes of money, more than the UFC thinks theyre worth in terms of fight "excitement" and marketability.
 
Minus83 said:
they dont really have a monopoly, they are a huge organization pulling in tonnes of cash but there is still Bodog, King of the Cage, and a bunch of other orgs, some of which are bidding for the same talent that the UFC is after.

i think i read before that the aquisition of Pride doesnt mean they get every single pride fighter, and that not only did they have to purchase Pride, but they are also having to bid for fighters with the owner of Pride, not only paying lots of money for the fighter, but paying for his cut as well.

and you never know, some of the guys may be asking for tonnes of money, more than the UFC thinks theyre worth in terms of fight "excitement" and marketability.
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No, the Zuffa owns PRIDE, it's fighters, and it's videos. BoDog is a crappy org and KOTC was just bought by EliteXC. The only orgs with the $ to compete are K-1 and the EXC, ICON, Strikeforce co-op.
 
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