Zuffa’s Attempt (or Lack Thereof) to Recover From Disaster
Over the last six months, the UFC heavyweight division has been the Hurricane Katrina of promotional failures. Not only has the division failed to put on shows, but they have lost a champion to a contract dispute and every attempt at bringing in a big name star has been thwarted, except for one.
Since Gonzaga knocked out Mirko “CroCop” Filipovic (the UFC’s highest ranked fighter) at UFC 70, there has been a spiral of disaster, and the UFC has done little, if anything, to intelligently combat the rising water.
After Gonzaga’s knockout of CroCop and the loss of much-loathed heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia at the hands of Randy Couture, the prospects went thinner than Couture’s hair, and it became urgent for the UFC to find hairplugs. Those showed up in the form of Brock Lesnar, who failed to impress in his recent debut, despite being the most hyped debuter the UFC has seen in, well, ever.
It’s not a stretch to say that UFC heavyweight division looked like New Orleans after the Hurricane, and it’s not going to far to say that the UFC’s President did as little as the USA’s. He, and the rest of the Zuffa brass, did little to push a serious negotiation with Andrei Arlovski (finally set to return after a nearly 10 month hiatus) or to attempt to reason with heavyweight champion Couture when they started feuding over his contract.
That said, the UFC’s problems go far beyond what they have done with the fighters in their division. Their ability to mishandle heavyweight contracts has been hardly believable, but not quite as impressive as their ability to miss opportunities to sign world class talent.
It would be easy for me to rant about their failure to sign such big names as Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett and Mark Hunt, but the fact is, they’ve missed out on much bigger opportunities for much less money. That’s not to say I’m not disappointed at their ability to negotiate with Emelianenko, or their refusal to even go to the table with Barnett, but the fact is, they haven’t even done any serious scouting, while a simple look on Sherdog’s fighter profiles might give them the opportunity to locate some up-and-coming talent and sign them for a tenth of what they paid Lesnar to have his oversized ass handed to him.
I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating.
The UFC hasn’t gone out of its way to sign guys like Pride veteran Mike Russow (7-1-0), or heavyweight warriors like Neil Grove (5-0-0) and Christian N’Pumbu (8-0-0), but they continue to sign guys like Soa Palelei and Justin McCully for much more money then they’d need to spend on all three of those guys.
Why don’t they just bring in Bo Cantrell and Ruben Villareal, and offer the winner of their fight a title shot?
Maybe I’m overreacting to the UFC’s inability to sign guys like N’Pumbu, but the UFC claimed that they were excited when McCully returned from a hiatus and strung together two first round wins. N’Pumbu won three fights in won night at the end of December, finished all of his opponents, two in the first round.
What does a guy have to do to get attention, post his playground fights on Youtube?
It’s true to say that the heavyweight signing business has always been about charisma and about hyping the fighter, rarely about finding unknown guys and bringing them in to see what happens, but the UFC would do well to just give these fighters an opportunity to prove themselves, instead of waiting for big stars to terminate their contracts with another organization, so they can bolster their roster with fighters who have spent more time in the negotiating room than the gym.
I’m an idealist, but I think that the sport should be about bringing in the guys who have everything to prove and have them pull everything they have out there, not about showing up at the press conference and telling people how great you are, but never showing up in the cage to prove it. (Yeah, I’m talking to you, Kurt Angle and Floyd Mayweather Jr., put up or shut up)
The UFC heavyweight division has been a disaster zone for a while now, and it’s about time that the brass stops acting like FEMA and brings in the cavalry.
Obviously, I know that it’s a longshot that the UFC will sign all of the fighters I have suggested (though I have a much longer list of guys that they should sign, if Dana White is interested). The fact is, the UFC does not scout well, if at all, and they do not really try and learn anything from their past mistakes, as well as the mistakes of any organizations.
There has been some talk about the UFC signing Shane Carwin, but the lack of promotion going on around him shows the same flaw that cost them alot of money with Lesnar’s loss: they continue to mis-hype fighters, giving them credibility based on their egos and not on their performance in the cage.
MMA has always been a sport with a “show-me” ideology, and that’s why it picked up the fans that pro-wrestling lost when it refused to put forth competition and began to subsist purely on smack talk. It did a similar thing to boxing, by offering fans fighters who were fighting to win instead of fighting so that the judges would tell them they won.
I hope I can chisel my ice cubes out of hell and shoot my bacon out of the sky before MMA suffers and flounders the way that boxing and pro-wrestling have, but I will say that my loyalt to specific organizations, and specific weight classes, is not unconditional. I’m not going to be dependent on that one breed of fighting because I love the sport.
In fairness to the President of the UFC, and to the numerous men in his employ, it isn’t easy to fix something that is broken worse than Tim Sylvia’s arm after his fight with Frank Mir. It is, though, important that we stop sitting around and insist that they try to figure something out. Whether that means bringing in more top prospects, hosting a season of the Ultimate Fighter to bring in some interesting characters or simply announcing that you are going to set up a tournament (something that we know, thanks to Strikeforce, can be done with a commission sanction) to create some order in the division and reveal some kind of hierarchy, that’s fine. Doing nothing, though, is not an option.
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I do still love MMA and have...
February 19th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Here’s some quick notes.
Brock Lesnar failed to impress?!? I think many fans will differ with that opinion. Many people loved that fight. Yeah, maybe you’re overreacting, and I wouldn’t necessarily call it a disaster … yet. There are many factors involved as to why some fighters are not pursued or signed to the UFC that fans are not privy to. I’ll admit I think that they’re dropping the ball with Arvloski.
This article would have been better if you cited reasons why the UFC are unable to sign some of the aforementioned fighters. In addition to that, you should provide some information about what the organization is currently doing to beef up the heavyweight division.
The Fedor situation was a sticky one. Both sides had valid points and arguments. Fedor wanted his deal to encompass his team, the Red Devils. The UFC wanted to exclusively work with Fedor and understandably limit his outside activity, like Sambo competitions. I may be wrong about the points on the Fedor contract - forgive me. Many people fail to recognize that the UFC produces, markets and distributes their product. And as a business they need to protect their brand in some fashion. I don’t agree with all their tactics, but they are trying to build a brand.
The UFC does not scout well?? I’ll provide you with two no-names that provided great performances, Tim Boetsch and Houston Alexander.
UFC 81 is reportedly the organization’s 3rd highest ranking PPV. How did they lose money?
The judging system sucks, but it is a necessary evil need to legitimize the sport with the state sanctioning regulation committees.
February 19th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
To answer your questions first, the UFC didn’t lose money on the card, I’m referring to the long term. They lost money because they invested alot of money in signing and hyping Lesnar, and he will not even be considered a top fighter in the division. That is going to turn into a big loss in the long term, because they can’t really capitalize on the hype they spent time cultivating, and all of their efforts to legitimize Lesnar are seriously set back.
It’s not that the UFC doesn’t scout well in other divisions. They’ve certainly brought up tons of great fighters, but they haven’t put any of that scouting effort into the heavyweight division. I should mention that neither of the guys you cited are heavyweights.
I understand the UFC not dealing with one fighter, but their failure to pick up more than 2 heavyweights in a field of 10 great guys that came out of Pride?!? I consider that a massive failure, and I don’t think there’s a legit excuse for it.
As for Lesnar, I don’t see how anyone can think his performance was impressive. He was outclassed and showed that, like we all expected, he has no submission game. I consider that a failure.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I also disagree with the Brock Lesnar statement, the guy for me did a good job but the lack of experience showed on the ground, that just makes it something to work on.
Also The UFC have Mark Hunt contracted, hes having a break from MMA but aims to make his UFC mark later this year. I personally think the HW division has good depth, Nogueria, Sylvia, Mir, Arlovski, Herring and Werdum on there day can all give anyone a run for their money. I think your another person who jumps on the bandwagon that they couldn’t get Fedor, a guy who hasn’t really fought any one that you can consider a top twn fighter in the last 2 years
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Ian, don’t forget that they have been losing their big guys left and right. Arlovski is gone after his next fight, Cro Cop left (and says he is coming back - we’ll see what really happens), and Couture left. Sylvia is a bore, Werdum is a bore, Vera was a bore during his last fight, and Herring has become one dimensional. Big Nog is holding down the fort in regards to heart, skill, and excitement and Frank Mir has done a good job of bringing a good ground game. Those two should fight next, but in regards to Fedor - the UFC needs him to solidify their position as the top in all weight classes.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Ian, thanks for the comment. I’d only like to say that I will continue to be critical of Lesnar for alot of reasons. Partially because of the amount of hype that he got for this fight. Partially for the amount of hype he has gotten ever since he even began talking about jumping into the sport. Partially because everyone defends him on the basis of being a great athlete when, in fact, there’s been no proof of that conditioning transitioning to the sport. Partially because of the amount of trash he has talked, both in leading up to this fight and just in general.
But mostly because his training regimen (as we saw on UFC All Access) was not well put together and anyone with a brain would have told him so. I will not respect the guy until I see some sign that his training is working. I mean, at least Cheick Kongo is working to develop the areas where he sucks.