I shall reply to your post mate, unbaisly as possible. :good Well i knew that from a mile off. :good What do you mean format? Fighters make money if there good enough to make it past a certain level. That level may be high but, again, if the fighter is good enough he will make the money. If UFC wasn't tight with their money they may of been another Bodogfight or EliteXC or Cage Rage or PrideFC(i know their curcumstance was a little different), etc., bankrupt. And maybe the Fertittas would of got bored with spending money on a company in debt? Surely this is common sense? If a fighter isn't making enough money for the company they leave, but that happens all over the world in business, especially in this financial climate. If you was a boss of your own comany(and maybe you are) would keep an employee if he/she wasn't pulling their weight for your company? I agree with you on this, most of the TUF champions are rubbish. But they will get found out as they face better fighters. If a TUF champion can't raise their game, they will end up on undercards or on Fight Night cards, till their no long required. Easy, he gives it his all! He has became very good allround MMA fighter under Couture. Unlike Bonnar, Griffin has improved by miles since TUF 1. He lost a SD against Ortiz, beat Shogun(I know he wasn't fully fit, lets hope he's back to he's best against Machida), beat a prime Rampage over 5 rounds. But lost to Evans because of his sometimes dodge chin and balls-to-the-wall style, same against Jardine, it happens in MMA. Plus he's the first fighter of UFC's own making to get to the top. :good I think your right, they wouldn't of been good enough. But the Griffin of now would be able to compete, at the very least, with them Pride glory days(Not Bonnar though. ). Ishy asked for a MMA fights similar to Castillo vs Corrales 1, which was a war. People gave him loads of fights, from loads of organzaitions. Many of us said Griffin - Bonnar because it was a war for 3 rounds. Not pretty, but both fighter gave it everything they had for their dream job, professional fighter! Not one of us said it was the "pinnacle of MMA technique" as you put it. You were the one to jump on it and started slagging it off. :deal My last point, UFC came up with an idea that had been around for awhile, reality TV. They used it first with TUF and thats what changed there fortunes. Yeah, they had billionaire owners, but they weren't making money till that show. Maybe if another organzaition had thought of it first the MMA landscape would be very different now? :think Now this has taken me ages to write because i'm a slow typer and i wanted to take my time with what i wrote so i wouldn't sound like too much of a twat. It's now 1:30am-ish and getting tired, so also probably full of mistakes. :roll: I hope i have made some good points for you to think about. If i have missed anything it can wait, i can't be arsed to write anymore. But it did wasted sometime till the Cotto-Clottey. :good :rofl
