Does the UFC need to go after fighters from other sports?

Brock Lesnar would've been a truly entertaining whitewash.

 

Bro thats not alot. As what often happens, one of these guys can lose and bam, theyre done.

 

They've all got to lose sometime, depends on how they come back from it.

I don't think it's as bad as people make out when it comes to exciting fighters. The majority of the LNPers are in the WW division, which I find quite confusing to be honest. Koscheck and Fitch stick to a gameplan that pretty much stops every fighter they come against but they're just a second rate GSP. GSP will stuff their takedowns and take them down instead, even if they do take him down he pops right back up again and if he fails to take them down by some miracle he has a brilliant stand up game. Shields applies the same tactics, a lot of wrestlers in the WW division. At least Sonnen is active enough for it to be entertaining. I think MMA is in a state of evolving as always, and eventually Sprawl n' Brawl will come back into play, its mostly the brits that are making it look worse than it is. Hardy, Hathaway and Daley are the three who've become undone against wrestlers or BJJ specialists. Outside of this division, I think there's a lot of exciting fighters around, sure a few may drop but they'll keep coming along, it's just how they're promoted. The thing is with UFC is new fighters are hard to keep in the limelight or promote at times, and one loss will reset their momentum back to zero. Boxing, you can build up a fighter slowly, with the UFC it's very hard to do that if you want to give them a popularity boost at the same time, unless you're Jon Jones, Phill Davis and maybe at a push, Johnny Hendricks.

 

Very good point about wrestlers stiffling some young guns. First off, the biggest problem is matchmaking for the young guys, the UFC does not let them develop properly.

What they do is hype a guy after 5 wins against nobodies, then put him in against a good vet and now it becomes a 50/50 fight. Now when the prospect loses, instead of taking them back to the drawing board, theyd feed him another tough match. And now when he loses, he becomes a gatekeeper and a threat to another up and comer (bad cycle). And a third loss, he is probably let go. Ive seen this **** countless times. They rush these kids and most are really young like a hathaway. (Let the kid fckn develop) No need for him to headline any shows right??

Now whats happening is teh kids shaken he may lose two more times and be let go, hopefully someone picks him up(because hes got talent) and hone him well.

 

I don't think its so much a step up in class than a change in direction. It's like building Jon Jones up fighting wrestlers for most of his career, to throw him in with someone like Lyoto Machida that he is just not prepared for. Paul Daley went from Dustin Hazelett, who to be fair is great off his back and on the ground, to Josh Koscheck. To me that's a real big jump in style nevermind class. Koscheck is a wrestler whom Daley has never faced anything like it. This isn't boxing, a few months of a training camp will not get you ready for a wrestler who you've fought nothing like. I know Daley fought Shields but that was another fight where he just wasn't prepared for. The worst in this case is Dan Hardy. He went from Rory Markham, to Marcus Davis, to Mike Swick, to GSP? Fair enough, GSP is the champion and all and he's gotten a title shot but that is just way too fast. The thing is, this happens to a lot of inexperienced fighters. They'll throw them in with a wrestler who have a superior ground game and lay on them, and there's just nothing they can do. They have to build their way all the way back to the top. There was no training for Daley before Koscheck. Sure, Hazelett is a ground fighter who foolishly decided to trade with his opponent but if he's not even stuffing takedowns how is he meant to deal with Koscheck? It's just bad matchmaking at time. That's why Jon Jones needs a change after Bader. Sure, he might be fine for a fight with Rashad but I guarantee you if he stepped in the ring with a Rua or a Machida he'd have his ass repackaged.

And on Hathaway, I don't know what went wrong with him in the fight. It probably was that he wasn't experienced enough, or maybe he choked, who knows. Matchmaking is quite erratic at times, that's the only bad thing about putting on exciting fights, there's not so much patience so they want to throw in a heavy handed fighter who has no experience against their type of opponent. It's all down to levels.

 

Yeah, they're absolutely terrible for rushing people. I appreciate it shouldn't be like boxing where it's 20 fights till they face any threats most of the time, but Charles Oliviera's current progression is going from Efrain Escudero to Jim Miller. That's one hell of a jump.

 

Jim Miller's a handful for anyone at Lightweight. Florian should fight him.

 

Florian is already booked in to fight Evan Dunham, which is excellent matchmaking, imo.

Miller should fight Sherk. Oliveira isn't ready for Miller yet, he should take someone on a similar level to Escudero, like Dos Anjos or someone.

 

Not everyone can go undefeated and develop into a superstar.

The fact is Paul Daley won't be ready for the next above average grappler he faces or the one after that. Did you see his last fight? He was getting taken down repeatedly by a lightweight. Some people will just never be that good. If you don't have the grappling to compete at a certain level and you lose more fights than you win as a result, then you don't belong in the UFC. Its simple as that. The UFC doesn't have a big enough roster to groom everyone into superstardom with favorable matchups and there's no place to send guys if they're still developing. The UFC does not have a farm system. The best they can do is send them over to the independent orgs with a good luck. If they do well then more often then not they get asked back. It may sound unfair but Zuffa doesn't have an infinite amount of money they can just throw at every problem.

As it stands there are plenty of interesting prospects and up incoming contenders to look out for and the sport is so young. I'm surprised anyone thinks that the UFC is just going to run out of superstars.

 

I just listed guys who could potentially be the best in the world so I think it is alot when we've already got multiple stars.

People said the same thing about boxing. DLH will retire and boxing will die. In truth fighters last a long time now - Vitali, Hopkins, Mosley etc

There are Pac's and Floyds in the making right now and when those guys go they will be ready to take the throne, just like Floyd was as soon as Roy slipped and just like Pac did as soon as Floyd left.

MMA is no different. Infact in MMA if you lose you are still a hot commodity.

 

I disagree. He is 14-0 and has to step up sometimes. Losing does more for these guys then winning. It allows them to completely re-evaluate their game.

 

:good

MMA has never looked in better shape. A lot of US and Euro fans do not realise how big Muay Thai and now MMA is in the South Pacific, Australia and NZ as an example of developing markets and talent pools.

 

I don't think thats a big jump at all. Look at Evan Dunham. He went life and death with Effrain Escudero in one fight, and then schooled Tyson Griffin like no one has in the next. This is a good test for do Bronx. Win or lose we get to see where he stands in the division.

 

thats the one thing I like better about mma and other combat sports over boxing today you can lose and people dont say your crap.

look how many times koschek has lost and he is still a top welter, overeem has ten losses, couture has 10 and they are still seen as elite.(couture not so much anymore, but then again......)

in the old days of boxing things were different, they also had much better fighters, for the most part.

muay thai is also like that yodsanklai has a ton of losses but people still apreciate his skills, same with many others.

 

He is stepping up and made a considerable leap in his last fight, though. They've matched Jones perfectly. He's clearing out the guys 11-20 in the division before jumping into the top 10. Olivieira is jumping from a guy who's borderline top 20 straight to a guy who's top 5. If he beats Miller, then he's into Sherk, Penn, Edgar, Maynard territory and he's still a baby.