Plenty to discuss while I ponder whether the UFC will give every fan entering Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on Saturday night their very own interim featherweight title belt. Let’s get right into it.
GSP, UFC, and MMAAA
@RuckerYeah What should I make of GSP and Dana talking? End of the union already?
It’s interesting how quickly this came about, just days after Georges St-Pierre was put forth as the biggest name in the new Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association, isn’t it?
GSP and the UFC are still in the middle of a contract dispute, but first St-Pierre says he’d reopened communications with the UFC, then UFC president Dana White said he doesn’t mind giving the longtime former UFC welterweight champ a raise, which certainly is far more ground than White usual cedes as a public starting point for negotiations.
Really, the aftermath of last week’s MMAAA press conference couldn’t have played any better into the UFC’s hands. Putting former Bellator promoter Bjorn Rebney in such a front-and-center role is going to alienate far too many fighters from the jump. Already, (as I’ll get into a bit more below), we’ve seen MMAAA members Tim Kennedy and Donald Cerrone hedge their bets on the association.
St-Pierre now has to decide whether he wants to go all-in with Rebney or whether to mend fences with the UFC and go back into the fold. The fate of the MMAAA itself could hang in the balance.
@Dr_Kwame: Thoughts on Cowboy downplaying involvement with MMAAA?
Watching the way things have played out have sort of reminded me of this scene.
In one corner, you have the litigants in the ongoing antitrust suit against the UFC. In another you’ve got the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association, who have been beating this drum longer than anyone in the game, but who for whatever reason have never seemed to gain much traction. And now, on the scene comes the MMAAA, who have more star power than anyone else coming out of the gate, but who also clearly made a gigantic strategic blunder in aligning with a former promoter whose practices many consider worse than the company they’re seeking to fight.
You sense both Cerrone and also Tim Kennedy, who also fights at UFC 206, get this. As does White, who has used a combination of both flattery and belittlement of Cerrone, ignored Kennedy, and now focuses on trying to get St-Pierre back into the fold. Cerrone and Kennedy both have fights Saturday night to deal with, but once they get past this weekend, they need to take a hard look at why everyone seems to be on different pages and work to fix it.
Anthony Pettis misses weight
@CorySimpson18: If Pettis wins tomorrow who does the UFC have face Aldo?
@a_gon94: Does Pettis need to go back to 155 after this fight?
Let’s meld two questions into one answer, since they’re two sides of the same coin.
Anthony Pettis missing weight for his UFC 206 main event against Max Holloway for an arbitrary interim belt no one asked for seems like karma coming back to bite the UFC for making one too many interim championships, doesn’t it? Holloway vs. Pettis would have been fine as a five-round main event all on its own, without adding a title which won’t add a single pay-per-view buy or sell another ticket.
If Holloway wins on Saturday night, problem solved. That is, the “what if Pettis wins” problem, not the “three guys will claim to be the 145-pound champ” thing. If Holloway wins, you have Holloway fight “undisputed” champion Jose Aldo from there and the winner can go on and call themselves “undisputed” champ while McGregor continues parading around with his belts.
If Pettis wins, it doesn’t sound like UFC president Dana White is intent on making Aldo-Pettis any time soon, as he called Pettis “too old” and “too big” to fight at 145. Pettis, it should be noted, is 29, and never missed weight in his career before Friday.
But then, where else would White turn if Pettis wins? Holloway’s momentum would be stopped. Aldo has already beaten Frankie Edgar twice. And no one else exactly screams out for a title shot at the moment.
So White pretty much needs to cross his fingers and hopes Holloway win, which is far from guaranteed for a show in which pretty much everything else has gone wrong.
Can Matt Brown win?
@EHDLO: Is Brown a live underdog? Seems like lots of distractions for Cowboy + training w/ Ludwig.
First things first: I don’t bet. Gambling is just not my thing. I make one sports wager in Las Vegas per year for spits and giggles: A Super Bowl prop bet on whether there will be a safety in the game (and the first time I cashed in, it was the Giants doing the job on my Patriots). If you want to talk MMA betting, go see my man Jed Meshew.
Anyway, you might be on to something with Brown against Cerrone. It’s pretty obvious Brown is reaching the other side of the hill, but he’s still in that zone where veteran guts and guile, not to mention hands of stone, are probably going to steal him another big win or two before the sun sets. Cerrone, for his part, does seem pretty distracted, between getting his fight rebooked, his involvement with and brushback from the MMAAA, and who know’s what’s actually going on with his eye? I won’t tell you who to lay your money on but you can sure do worse than Brown.
Ronda and Edmond
@MacPherson9999: Ronda is obviously no dummy, so why doesn't she go to an elite camp? Misplaced loyalty?
If we’ve learned nothing else, Ronda Rousey has a with-us-or-against-us mentality like few people we’ve ever encountered, even by the standards of a business as ruthlessly individualistic is MMA. Her list of slights and grievances includes everyone from former Olympic mentor Jimmy Pedro, who is one of the most well-respected individuals in the judo game, to the entire Olympic system itself, to Miesha Tate, to well, I could go on and on here.
Edmond Tarverdyan was there for Rousey when Rousey was working three jobs to make ends meet and an absolute nobody in the sport. Yes, you and I and many, many others saw Rousey get thoroughly outclassed by Holly Holm and concluded she’d be better off at a bigger gym at this state of the game. But Rousey doesn’t think like that.
Ronda’s both a sore winner and a sore loser. She stands by those loyal to her and never forgives or forgets a perceived slight. Those traits helped fuel both her rise and her downfall. Whether they’ll also fuel her redemption remains to be seen.
The magic of Ryan Hall
@ItsNotKarate: Your thoughts on the Ryan Hall fight? I thought it was awesome but I’ve seen a lot of crying about it.
I wouldn’t want to see every fight conducted in the manner of Ryan Hall’s decision win over Gray Maynard at the TUF 24 Finale, but at the same time, as a change of pace, I kind of dug it.
Hall’s been criticized for hitting the ground at the drop of a hat during the bout. But that was only part of the story of the fight. Hall actually outstruck Maynard by significant margins. It’s not like Hall was flopping to the mat and doing nothing else. Meanwhile, Maynard, who’s pretty high on my list of fighters I don’t have any need to see fight on any more, responded to Hall mainly by making “come at me, bro” gestures, which may have swayed public opinion on the fight, but didn’t sway the judges.
Again, wouldn’t want every fight to turn into Hall-Maynard. But Hall deserves little, if any, of the criticism he got.