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.

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Very few expected Gabriel Gonzaga to defeat the kick boxing expert, Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic during UFC 70. Absolutely nobody expected Gonzaga to take out Cro Cop with a knockout kick to the side of the Croatian’s head. Now that the impressions of UFC 70 are long gone, Gonzaga still has to prove it was more than just a lucky kick that gave him an impressive upset victory in Manchester, England less than four months ago.

This is where Randy Couture comes in.

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