UFC 78 made me sick. Literally.
Sunday morning I woke up to fever, cold sweats, and a sore throat. The doctor termed it “strep throat†and I’ve been in bed for the past week. My pages and pages of clever notes for an article to accompany Brandt Delorenzo’s great live coverage on the site were collecting dust by Monday night, and I was too weak to shout my frustrations over phone calls or e-mails. I didn’t even go online last week. I heard two audio reviews of the show and that was enough for me.
I can sum it all up in these quick points. Fisher-Edgar. Wanted more. Expect more in the future. Still a ways to go for that belt, both of you. Doerksen-Herman. Andersen Silva would kill both of you. Herman got luck. Underachiever. Parisyan-Chonan. Sadly, what I expected. Come on Karo, you’re so damn talented. Next fight’s got to be one for that ages, especially if it’s the big one. Alexander-Silva. Guess that answers that. Welcome to the fold, Thiago. Bisping-Evans. Lots of heart. Sloppy. Not a main event. Bisping, time to drop to 185 and get a camp that benefits you. Evans, prove to me you wanna be here. Beat Ortiz. UFC, lets not have this problem again, especially so close to NYC. Me, I’ve had a week in bed to forgive.
With that out of the way, I was really hoping as I started to come around and feel like a human on Friday I’d have something to be excited about. But just the opposite, I had to read the news that Matt Serra was seriously injured. Well then, that’s another year of a pretend title and an awkward lineage. Now who’s going to come fill the void in an already screwed up division. It never dawned on me we might actually be getting a gift.
How do you put the UFC 79 card solidly on track? Matt Hughes vs. George St. Pierre III! I guess it’s that simple. So with that bit of booking dilemma fixed, I’m putting my faith and trust in Joe Silva, Dana White, and the entire UFC staff. I have some modest requests for this fine Christmas season, and I think employing logic like this might make managing the first half of 2008 easier and profitable for all. I also think most of these are suggestions you’ve thought of or kicked around, and I want to encourage you to get all of this done as quickly as possible. I’d like to see more positive press conferences from Vegas, starting with today’s Hughes-GSP announcement.
1. Sean Sherk Steroid violation appeal, for a variety of reasons, has taken so long that essentially Sherk, guilty or innocent, will be able to fight by February or March. Since BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson are having one of those now heavily used interim title matches in mid-January, I’d appreciate some quick turn around here. Le’ts get past the ugly steroid issue as smoothly as possible. Regardless of a debate of weather or not to reward Sherk if he is found guilty in early December at a CSAC hearing, he is the reigning champion, and he will have served his suspension and paid his fine.
I’d like to see this happen in April. It gives the Penn-Stevenson winner three months to recover, and I don’t see that as a heavy strikers match to begin with. Quite frankly I don’t see it going two rounds if Penn’s body is where it should be. Let’s get the title settled quickly. This can be announced at the end of the Jan. 19th interim fight, and we’ve got month to hype it. I’ve got more for April, this might not even be a main event.
2. This request goes out to the fighter’s pool under UFC contract, and not necessarily the eyes of Joe Silva or the marketing of Dana White. I’d like to see one solid Middleweight develop by March 1st. Just one fighter, anyone at 185, give me a solid win! A strong showing. Anything that makes the casual fan believe in you and remember your name. Anything that makes a more discriminating fan accept a title challenge from you as legitimate.
And on the UFC Suit side, I’d like to see one quality Middleweight signing for the fans. Doesn’t have to be a superstar, just a quality guy that a few respected analysts can give a thumbs up on and the rest of us can get excited about. In short, I’m happy about Hendo-Anderson Silva, but I’d like to know by the March match-up there’s somewhere to go afterwards.
3. It looks as though March might be too soon, but confirm something for Rampage Jackson early in the year. Maybe at the big Superbowl Saturday show in February. Do something that shows me Jackson is getting healthy, he’s happy with the UFC, and he’s fighting this guy. I’d like to see him in the main event for April, but I understand if you plug everything else in right that it might work best for a big May show (like last year).
In Fact, why not tie this into Liddell and Silva? There’s a story to tell/sell with both, it gives everyone 4-5 months to train/promote, and it keeps everything moving. Meanwhile, plug Forrest Griffen, Rua, Thiago Silva, and Jardine into some playoff fights in the first six months. You can add the Machida/Sokoudjou winner to that mix. One winner gets Jackson (or the champion) in late August or early September, and the winner of a second fight of two earlier winners can get a title shot at the December 2008 show.
4. Groom Brock Lensar publicly. It’s simple. You don’t even have to do anything. Just let the public see this guy grow as an MMA fighter. Get his name out there. Make sure everyone knows who he is. Make sure they know he asked for former UFC Heavyweight champion Frank Mir, but also let them know it’s okay if he loses. Hopefully he wins, and then they can enjoy an even bigger push to the second fight. I’d like to see public workouts and tons of media appearances but people, keep most of them by phone. The guy needs to train as much as possible. There’s no need for him to be in the ring for the title thins year, but maybe next year, if he can win four out of five, and the one loss was to someone important, you might be able to really cash in with the title shot on the sixth fight.
Just keep Brock in view two weeks before the Feb. Fight, and for a good portion of the next few months leading to a July fight.
5. Final request, and this one hopefully caps off the first six months and April. Win or lose against Hughes, make sure you get the April show in Montreal and put GSP on the card. Hopefully he’s got the belt and Serra is feeling better. You maximize your money and get another annoying Interim taken care of if you give us GSP-Serra in April.
Now, GSP might not be the champion in April. I’d still like you to get the Interim off the name if you can set up Hughes-Serra. I do have an idea if GSP beats Hughes and Serra isn’t available. Get that monkey off of everybody’s back, and give Karo Parisyan his title shot. Karo with all the odds against him; will he ever live up to the potential? I’ll write Rogan’s lines for the hype special. Just make this match if the rest falls through.
Those are my five suggestions for booking the first six months of 2008. January and February are basically all decided. We’re plotting out March onward right now. Here’s hoping it’s half this exciting.
E-mail John Philapavage at johnnyp@mmaopinion.com
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