Tuesday, May 19, 2015

At #UFC187 the Undisputed Light Heavyweight Champ Will Arise and Here's Why

It was three weeks ago today; reports were out that Jon Jones was involved in a car accident involving a pregnant woman and that he could be scratched from his title fight with Anthony Johnson. MMA media swarmed to try and get any information they could on the P4P best fighter in the world, and hour by hour more details emerged from the terrible incident that resulted in Jones being cut from the UFC and having his belt stripped from him.

The cloud of the Jon Jones controversy has now passed, and the MMA world has moved on. This Saturday, Anthony Johnson takes on new opponent Daniel Cormier to become the new Undisputed UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. You may ask, undisputed? Isn't Jones really the champ? Aren't we all just kidding ourselves by not claiming this title is the Interim Champion? The answer should be a resounding no. Here's why:

First, we need to look at exactly what the UFC is, and what it means to be a professional mixed martial artist. Like in any sport, the UFC consists of professional athletes that conduct themselves in a professional matter. Without a doubt there are highly-skilled people in this world that could succeed at a high level in professional sports, but nobody knows their names. This is because these individuals are not professionals. In pro sports, it takes more than just being exceptional at your craft, it's about making the life decisions to keep you in the position to partake in the privilege of competing at the highest level.

When we watch pro sports, are we watching the 100% best athletes in the world? The answer is no. We are watching the athletes that have put themselves in the position to be considered "the best in the world". They have done what it takes on and off the court, field, ring, and octagon to compete against others who have also done the same.

Jon Jones may very well be the best fighter in the world, but he is not a professional.

Anthony Johnson and Daniel Cormier have both proven themselves to be the two best pro Light Heavyweight fighters in the world, and that's why on Saturday when the new champ is belted, there should be no questions about Jon Jones. Although there will be people like Chael Sonnen who claim that only a punk would take Jones' belt, they are not looking at what it is to be a champion. Could there be a man out there in prison that could beat Floyd Mayweather? Certainly. But that guy won't get the opportunity because he is not a professional, and that's what separates athletes from pro athletes.

Jon Jones could come back some day and once again become what we MMA fans consider to be "the best in the world", but until that day, the discussions about him as a fighter need to end. The winner of Johnson vs. Cormier will be the undisputed champ, no questions asked.

Reddit discussion below:

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Tuesday, May 12, 2015

UFC Releases Extended Preview of UFC 187, Ronda Rousey on Cover of Sports Illustrated

On Monday, the UFC released an extended preview of May 23rd's UFC 187 with two championship fights.

As the hype continues to build for arguably the biggest UFC card yet this year, MMA fans know that the pre-fight "Countdown" and "Embedded" videos will surely be a part of the days leading up to next Saturday. With so much emphasis recently but on boxing with the MayPac fight, the UFC may see some disgruntled boxing fans give another look to Mixed Martial Arts. It will be critical for the UFC to have an exciting card of fights.

Ronda Rousey Graces the Cover of Sports Illustrated

In SI's newest edition of their critically acclaimed magazine (out in stores tomorrow) Ronda Rousey will be the first UFC fighter to ever be on the cover. She has been deemed the "#1 Pound for Pound fighter in the World" and "World's Most Dominant Athlete".

This is absolutely tremendous for the UFC and MMA in general. In a time where Pro MMA is still illegal in New York, things like this to continue to put MMA in the mainstream are absolutely critical for the sport to one day take place at Madison Square Garden. Rousey has been outspoken about moving the sport into NY and has even been part of the legal hearings.

As far as the most dominant athlete in the world, it's hard to argue against. She has been on a tear even before she joined the UFC and has only gotten better as each year as progressed. It will be interesting to see Cyborg Santos will eventually drop to 135 and fight Rousey, which would be one of the biggest fights in MMA history, not just women's.

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Sunday, May 10, 2015

Stipe Miocic Dominates Mark Hunt at UFC Fight Night 65

The #4 ranked heavyweight Stipe Miocic put in an impressive performance against #5 Mark Hunt for the first UFC card in Southern Australia.

The bout went about 4 and a half rounds, but could have been decided in the first 3. Hunt weighed in at 266 for the heavyweight bout, more than 20 pounds heavier than Stipe. Early on in the fight it showed, as Mark looked sluggish compared to the heavy-handed Miocic. Hunt took an absolute beating from Stipe, getting taken down at will and eating ground-and-pound throughout the entire fight. The relentless pressure that Stipe applied proved to be too much and in the 5th round the referee called it a TKO to punches.

For Stipe, this is a nice comeback after losing a unanimous decision to Junior Dos Santos last year. It should put him in the mix for another top tier heavyweight matchup, possibly the winner of Travis Browne vs. Andre Arlovski.

For the 41 year old Hunt, it's his third KO loss in his last 5 fights and might be the worst beating he's taken in his career. It will be interesting to see where he's matched up next, but this loss will certainly drop him from the top five in the weight class.

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Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Reebok UFC Fighter Compensations are Released and Fighters are NOT Happy

Earlier today, the details of what fighters will receive per bout for wearing offcial UFC Reebok Gear was released and the response is overwhelmingly negative. Basically it runs down as:

  • 1 to 5 bouts: $2,500
  • 6 to 10 bouts: $5,000
  • 11 to 15 bouts: $10,000
  • 16 to 20 bouts: $15,000
  • 21 bouts and above: $20,000
  • Title Challenger: $30,000
  • Champion $40,000
According to the letter sent out to fighters the number of bouts also includes fights that they had at Strikeforce and WEC because they now own the right to those organizations under the Zuffa conglomerate fighting regime.

Why not include Bellator, WSOF, CFFC? Just because they're not owned by Zuffa, does that not make them professional fights? If you're going to completely take away all other previous sponsors from being allowed in the octagon, fighters should at least be compensated for their rise into the UFC. Some fighters will be losing thousands of dollars on this new deal and now their previous fights won't even count towards their sponsor money.

This will undoubtedly help other fighting promotions like Bellator because now they can advertise that fighters' sponsor pay isn't capped. This argument will for sure be appealing to relatively new fighters, and ones that have large corporate sponsors like Monster and Xbox. Reactions from UFC Fighters via Twitter:

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Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Dan Henderson vs. Tim Boetsch to Headline UFN 68; More Speculation on the State of Jon Jones

With Daniel Cormier leaving UFC Fight Night 68 to fight Anthony Johnson, Ryan Bader was left without an opponent. As Ryan is on a 4 fight win streak, he only wants the top fighters in the division, and rightfully so. It was mentioned on UFC Tonight that Bader turned down a fight with Glover Teixeira who is on a 2 fight losing streak, but that he had previously lost to. In Bader's holding out, he has been pulled from this card and could possibly get the winner of Cormier vs. Johnson.

To replace that fight, today it was announced that Dan Henderson vs. Tim Boetsch would headline UFC Fight Night 68 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Henderson has lost 5 of his last 6 fights and is going up against a fighter in Boetsch that has some serious knockout power. Boetsch has lost 4 out of his last 6 and desperately needs a win. He's ranked #13 LHW in UFC rankings currently and a loss to unranked Hendo would most certainly knock him down to unranked as well. Boetsch should have the edge in this fight but with Hendo, one solid punch can still change everything. Quick note: This will be the third main event in 2015 where both fighters are coming off of losses (Silva/Diaz, Mir/Bigfoot).

Jon Jones Behavior a Result of Head Trauma?

On Joe Rogan's podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, he suggested that Jon Jones' recent odd behavior could be the result of repeated blows to the head. His point could actually be spot on, as Jon has been in some absolute brawls, most notably against Alexander Gustafsson and Daniel Cormier. Both of those fights went the full 5 rounds, and in the Gustafsson fight Jones had to go to the hospital. For more on Joe's take, check out JRE below:
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