Outside Source
We have a rare week where the UFC won’t be demanding time from us so let’s answer a few of the most pressing questions of the day including Stipe Miocic trying to box Tyson Fury and the recently announced UFC Raleigh event.
How quick would Tyson Fury get washed in an MMA fight? Conversely, how quickly would he stretch Stipe in a boxing ring?
— Paul Garcia (@hpaulg) November 14, 2019
First, let’s just go ahead and say out loud what everyone knows (or should know): MMA fighters would and will get waxed in boxing by legit boxers. Boxers would and will get waxed in MMA by MMA fighters. Great. Glad we got that out of the way. So, having established that incontrovertible truth, the increasing number of MMA fighters courting boxing bouts with elite boxers is, for my money, the worst thing in this sport.
Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. To be clear, anyone with eyes and rationality knew how it would end up, but the surrounding circumstances made it appealing. Conor was at the peak of his powers, Floyd was just old enough that if you squinted your eyes and tried, you could maybe talk yourself into believing Conor had a shot, and the two were such bombastic personalities that it all made sense in an Idiocracy kind of way. But since it happened, dozens and dozens of other fighters have tried to capture even a fraction of that lightning in a bottle for themselves, and it’s becoming increasingly obnoxious.
Look, I get why Miocic wants to box Tyson Fury or why Jorge Masvidal is trying to call out Canelo Alvarez: both of them would make vastly more money in a single boxing match than they would in their entire UFC run because boxing has the Ali Act which essentially guarantees they’d at least make something approaching what they’re worth instead of the small pittance the UFC ponies up. But outside of the fighters themselves and their immediate families, I have no idea who could possibly be interested in watching either of those fights.
Miocic is arguably the GOAT heavyweight and yet, I can’t think of another “GOAT” contender who is less of a draw. He’s a good boxer for MMA heavyweights, but in the scheme of real boxers, he’s pedestrian erring on the side of downright bad. Tyson Fury would make quick work of Stipe in the ring if he chose, or he’d play with his food and finish him late. That’s beyond contestation and so I have no idea what the possible appeal is of that fight for anyone. Conversely, Tyson Fury would likely be tackled to the floor and submitted with ease, but at least his consideration of moving to MMA full time merits some acknowledgement as heavyweight is a garbage-fire division and he would be bringing one truly elite skill to the table.
Has the ufc in recent times ever had so few confirmed events ahead of them?
— Chad Robinson (@ChadRobbo) November 13, 2019
Not in my recollection, and it’s honestly strange. With UFC Sao Paulo now in the books, the UFC only has three events left for this year. That’s pretty normal for late November. However, by this time the UFC has usually announced their full first-half lineup for next year but, unless they are intending to MASSIVELY scale back the number of events they hold, the UFC still has not done that. On the books, there are only five announced events for next year (with really only three being set in stone). So what gives? Does that mean the UFC is scaling back?
Potentially. But I doubt it.
The arguments in favor of thinking the UFC is scaling back are twofold: firstly, the UFC has released a lot of fighters recently. Now, this is normal for them and they often go through periods of expansion and contraction, so this may well just be that. Lord knows their roster is already bloated so trimming down certainly wouldn’t hurt them even if they kept the same pace of events.
Secondly, with their new ESPN deal, it is possible the UFC was asked to contribute less overall content in favor of producing higher quality content. 40+ events a year means roughly 500 fights to fill, each of which needs two fighters. All told that’s going to necessitate 400-500 fighters under contract and with that kind of volume, quality will drop. Perhaps ESPN saw what happened during the UFC’s tenure with FOX and has decided to avoid all that by condensing things a bit. Again, I certainly hope so but I’m not holding my breath.
This upcoming weekend with be the first time since mid-August that there isn’t a UFC event taking place. That’s 12 straight weeks with an event happening. We’re all fight fans here but that kind of torrid pace is absurd, especially considering the time demands of each of those events. If you watched all of them you spent over three full days watching the UFC. That’s a lot to ask, even of your hardcore fanbase, and the sheer volume of it depresses the excitement truly great fights should generate. At some point, it all just becomes a wall of noise that muffles everything else.
So in summation, I agree that it is super weird the UFC has only five events on the books for 2020 and I sure do hope it’s because they’re finally going to scale back to a more reasonable 30 or so events a year, but that’s probably not actually what’s happening and it’s more likely that like, Dana just forgot to book venues or something.
The UFC has announced a pretty good card for Raleigh on the same night as Cyborg’s Bellator debut. 1. The UFC is competeting with Bellator or is there extra beef coming from Dana with how she left? 2. Is JDS/Blaydes and Frankie/Sandhagen enough to hurt Bellator’s numbers?
— Blake (@Woolman7242) November 14, 2019
So I don’t think “beef” is the right way to describe this. To me beef would be something real and substantive, like Dana going out of his way to do something seriously harmful to Cyborg. However, I don’t think there’s anyway to look at this and not view it as Dana sending a message. It’s perhaps 20 percent personal and 80 percent business. He’s done this plenty of times before with other big Bellator events and Cyborg’s debut certainly marks that.
As for the actual substance of the card playing a role in counter-programming, I’d say probably but not by some massive amount. Junior dos Santos is a well-liked former UFC heavyweight champion and Frankie Edgar has been one of the most prominent fighters in the sport for nearly a decade. Those are two big names to be running up against Cyborg—who is certainly a more well-known commodity than either—and where the UFC will do minimal marketing for this card, Bellator is likely going to give the full court media press on theirs. Add in the fact that it’s 2019 (will be 2020 come fight time) and most people are able and usually choose to watch more than one thing at a time, and I doubt Raleigh will seriously hurt Bellator’s numbers. But for the UFC it’s basically a free roll, so they might as well. Such is the benefit of being the dominant presence in the market and being partnered with the premiere sporting news outlet in the world.
First Time Long Time: why did they do Frankie Edgar like that matching him up against Cory Sandhagen? Love you, mean it.
— Jed Meshew II (@JedKMeshew) November 18, 2019
Great question Dr. Meshew. And I have no earthly idea why they would do that but boy howdy does it seem like a horrible choice.
Make no mistake about it, Cory Sandhagen is a monster. Aside from being enormous for the weight class, this is a kid who has legitimate title aspirations. If bantamweight wasn’t as muddled as it currently is what with T.J. Dillashaw’s fustercluck and Henry Cejudo doing his level best to fight anyone other than top contenders, Sandhagen might have gotten a title shot off the Raphael Assuncao win. Instead now he gets to face an aging Hall of Famer cutting down to 135 pounds for the first time. There is real potential for this to turn into a massacre.
And for what? Sure, a win makes Edgar an easy title contender but also, Frankie Edgar is Frankie F*cking Edgar. He doesn’t need a win at bantamweight to justify a title shot, he just needs to be Frankie Edgar. Plenty of fighters have gotten title shots with less. But if for some reason the same organization that has let Henry Cejudo and Conor McGregor play fast and loose with title shots has now deemed that a top-10 all-time fighter needs more creds to merit one, then why the hell pick Sandhagen when Dominick Cruz is still ostensibly trying to fight?!?
In a world in which Edgar decided to drop to 135 after losing dominantly to Jose Aldo, Cruz-Edgar would’ve been a massive fight. It still is a big fight and it’s one where the winner would be a legitimate title contender and the loser wouldn’t be put out to pasture. It’s a fight with pure upside. Sandhagen is the opposite of this. It’s a fight where Sandhagen will likely win and in so doing he’ll knock off one of the bantamweight division’s best promotional tools. And to make matters worse, because it’s Edgar’s first time at 135 he won’t even get the full benefit of beating a Hall of Famer! Instead, it’ll all be muddled by the weight cut and questions will arise over whether this was a good decision for Edgar. This seems like incredibly bad matchmaking from just about every conceivable angle to me, so here’s to hoping MMA Rocky has one more rabbit left in his hat.
When colby beats usman he’s gonna have a couple of options which do you think would be best for us as fans masvidal vs colby or my personal favourite that iv not heard mentioned is colby vs adesanya
— James Rees (@JamesRees83) November 12, 2019
To be clear, I think what would be best for us as fans is if Colby Covington was summarily walloped by Kamaru Usman and decided to retire from MMA and public life for good. However, since I don’t foresee that second part happening (and honestly, the first part is seeming less and less likely as well) I guess that’s so much the worst for us.
But to answer your question, should Covington claim the UFC welterweight title, he will have no shortage of good opponents. First up, undoubtedly will be his former teammate and “best friend” Jorge Masvidal. I honestly wouldn’t be at all shocked if later on we discover that Masvidal and Covington cooked up this beef behind closed doors at American Top Team to gin up interest in a bout but, moreso than Usman, the Covington-Masvidal beef seems to be striking a chord. Maybe it’s because most people know what it’s like to be betrayed by a friend or maybe it’s a simple as Usman—a good champion and interesting enough person—not actually being a captivating talker. Whose to say which is true? All I know is that should Covington win, Masvidal will assuredly be next in line.
Following that, I suspect Tyron Woodley will work his way back into the conversation. Woodley has curiously decided to stick around the welterweight division despite middleweight currently being wide open and he being completely out of the title picture so long as Usman is champion. A Covington win would suddenly kick open that door and give Woodley a chance to finally get the fight with Colby he tried to make happen for nearly a year.
Aside from those two, there are a number of other welterweights in contention that I suspect would take precedence over any weight jumping. 170 pounds is either the second or third best and deepest division in the sport (behind 155 and arguably 145) so in a just world Covington would need to defend his title. However, all of that being said, Covington vs. Israel Adesanya is actually a sneakily interesting fight.
I spoke about it a few weeks’ ago in Hot Tweets but Covington is a seriously underrated fighter because people hate him so. But he’s very good and his high-pressure, wrestling-based style is exactly the kind to give Adesanya problems. I happen to think Izzy is one of those supreme talents and so he’d find a way to win anyway but it’s a fight I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing one day. Too bad instead what will happen is Colby will win the belt, immediately call out Khabib Nurmagomedov and then say something (many things) provocative before ultimately getting stripped of the belt when he tries to hardball negotiate with the UFC again.
Leon Edwards vs. Demian Maia for the vacant UFC welterweight title, coming third quarter of 2020.
Thanks for reading this week and thank you for everyone who sent in Tweets! Do you have any burning questions about at least tacitly related to combat sports? Then you’re in luck because you can send your Hot Tweets to me, @JedKMeshew and I will answer them! Doesn’t matter if they’re topical or insane. Get weird with it. Let’s have fun.
This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts
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