The New New Year’s Eve

As the last weeks of 2007 approach, the time has come to analyze and absorb the torrent of activity that traditionally accompanies the end of the year in MMA. This year however, it is a completely different landscape than just a year ago and miles away from what it was just two short years ago. By taking a look back just two years at New Year’s Eve events and comparing them to this years festivities, it’s easy to see that the most certain factor that will affect mixed martial arts in 2008 is uncertainty.

Historically, New Year’s Eve MMA was a celebration typically appreciated only by the hardcore fan. At least, outside of Japan. For several years, Pride and K-1 were locked in a bitter feud to rule the television ratings for the evening and utilized some extremely high profile matches as ammunition to try to take each other out.

The last big year for this rivalry was 2005 when DSE put together the highest single fight purse in the history of MMA for Hidehiko Yoshida to fight Naoya Ogawa. This fight drew enormous ratings over K-1, whose Premium Dynamite offering included Royce Gracie vs. Hideo Tokoro and a middleweight tournament final between Genki Sudo and Kid Yamamoto.

Just a year later, DSE was struggling to keep the Pride brand alive after losing a lucrative TV contract amid charges of corruption and involvement in organized crime. Nevertheless, DSE was able to put together one last year end blockbuster card that saw Takanori Gomi destroy Mitsuhiro Ishida, Minotauro and Josh Barnett in a war and Fedor Emelianenko get pushed farther than anyone expected by Mark Hunt. Meanwhile, K-1′s Dynamite 2006 offering included Pride defector Kazushi Sakuraba in a controversial contest with Yoshihiro Akiyama. Without a broadcast TV contract, Pride was forced to offer their card on a pay-per-view basis, a guarantee that K-1 would dominate the ratings.

So where was the UFC during all of this? Nowhere. At least until 2006. Historically, the UFC has taken the entire month of December off. Consider that the last event the UFC held in 2005 was the November 15th UFC 56. It wasn’t until Febuary 4th that UFC 57 was held. Believe it or not, it was not that long ago when there were only 6 or so UFC events per year. The 2005 Ultimate Fighter show changed all that beginning in 2006 when the UFC held 10 PPV cards including the year-ending UFC 66 featuring the second Liddell vs. Ortiz blockbuster.

Looking at 2007, the year end landscape has completely changed. Already the WEC has held a highly touted fight card on a cable network that didn’t exist in 2005, the Ultimate Fighter Finale was watched by over 2 Million people and gave us a highly entertaining fight at 155 lbs., a weight limit that was all but dead in the UFC two years prior and, of course, DSE was essentially forced to sell its assets to UFC owners Zuffa, LLC and K-1 is cooperating both UFC on their mainstay Dynamite show and upstart M1 to promote Fedor vs. Hong Man Choi among other fights. This fight is going to be broadcast on HDNet following two other events in December.

The most glaring change is obviously the purchase of Pride assets by UFC brass. At the press conference, an excited Dana White talked of gigantic mega-cards at the end of each year with a Pride vs. UFC theme that would absolutely determine the best fighters in the world in every weight class. UFC 79 is the first to offer that opportunity and it has fallen a little short.

Not that the December 29th card isn’t good. In fact, it’s one of the better cards MMA fans will see this year. As far as UFC vs. Pride fights go however, there are only two and neither will establish any single fighter as anything other than a legitimate contender to the 205lb. belt.

Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva at one time was the biggest possible fight an MMA fan could dream of. Now, following two losses each, both fighters are simply looking to reestablish some semblance of their former dominance. The fight is still intriguing but is a far cry from what the tilt would have meant in 2005 when some predicted that the epic battle might force Earth off its axis and send it crashing into the Sun.

The other Pride vs. UFC fight to take place on December 29th is Ryoto Machida vs. Ramy Sokoudjou. This is yet another intriguing fight that offers little in the way of clearing up the line of contenders for Quentin Jackson’s light heavyweight title.

So, what happened? Why is the Pride vs. UFC “Superbowl” type of event less likely to happen now then when DSE was in control of Pride? The answer lies with UFC President Dana White, match-maker Joe Silva and, most importantly, the fighters.

Dana White (along with UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertita) did the exact opposite of what they stated would be the case. They pillaged the Pride stable of fighters, signing them to UFC contracts. They closed the Pride offices sighting difficulties in doing business in Japan with a tainted Pride name. Then, with the help of Joe Silva, they began matching up former Pride fighters with UFC fighters to build up some recognition and fan interest in fighters that only the hardcore fans were aware of. What followed was a stunning series of upsets that resulted in more questions than answers. Names like Crocop, Henderson, Werdum, Aurelio and Rua all ended up on the losing end of fights they were expected to win. Couple this with a slew of upsets by UFC fighters such as St. Pierre, Liddell, Jardine, Griffin, and Vera and what was left was a mess that no single event could hope to ever make sense of.

Even with these matchmaking dilemmas Zuffa is dealing with, there is no doubt they dropped the ball in making some match-ups that truly would have made UFC 79 a special event. There still could have been a UFC vs. Pride theme to the event if UFC would have just made the matchups in each weight class. Zuffa management should have worked to get a fight such as Dan Henderson vs. Anderson Silva or Tim Sylvia vs. Antonio Nogueira on this card. The planning would have had to start several months ago, but the forethought was never there to begin with.

Meanwhile, K-1 and M1 Global are battling it out in Japan (full previews coming) for January 31st superiority. M1, along with several former Pride staffers, has created Yarennoka to compete with the 2007 edition of K-1 Dynamite. The Yarannoka card is headlined by M1 franchise player Fedor as he takes on (oddly enough) a K-1 rules specialist and second time MMA participant Hong Man Choi. This card has some intriguing fights and will air live on HDNet but will do little to help establish Fedor’s name in the U.S.

Elswhere in Japan, K-1 will put up yet another Kazushi Sakuraba co-main event. This time the King of Japanese MMA will face pro wrestling standout Funaki and Kid Yamamoto will face WEC standout Rani Yahya in a surprising show of cooperation with Zuffa.

The past 12 months have yielded some practically cataclysmic changes in the sport. Nothing tells this story more than a look at the last week of the year. While there have been positives and negatives to the changes as a whole, it has made this year the most tumultuous ever. There is no doubt that the next 12 months will off more of the same.