Nick Diaz Strikes Again

Earlier this week Nick Diaz had failed to show up in a press conference for his fight with Georges St-Pierre. UFC's reaction was quite simple – they removed Diaz from the main event and offered the title fight to Carlos Condit. At that point it seemed as one of the biggest disappointments in the history of the mixed martial arts. Luckily for the fans of the sport and Nick Diaz himself, UFC has given him another chance. Diaz will fight B.J. Penn on the co-main event on the same UFC 137 card. UFC has once again showed that they feel very strong at the moment and that they will not let be intimidated by fighters and will not hesitate to take tough decisions. Where does Nick Diaz stand  after the tough week and what do other fighters think about this straightforward UFC strategy?

UFC Rio and The Best Fighter in the World

UFC Rio event was a big success as a knock out packed pay per view did not disappoint any fan. It was a different experience with Brazilian fans creating an atmosphere we have not experienced before. It was a great night for every fan. The happiest man in the end of the night though, probably was Anderson Silva.

Songs and chants were spread throughout the building before, during and after the fights. Most of the chants had nothing to do with the mixed martial arts or fighting itself, majority of songs were about football. While some fans around the world liked it, others stated that it should not be a part of the MMA event experience.

Fifteen victories in a row, nine title defences. These are Anderson The Spider Silva's records in the UFC. These records will not be beaten soon. If some fans still argued and said that The Spider is not the best fighter in the world, they had to change their minds after the Rio event. Once again Silva crushed yet another number one contender. It was an overwhelming victory. In the middle of the second round in the stand up The Spider put his hands down – a dangerous sign for any of his opponents. Yushin Okami fell for the trap, the rest of the fight was similar to the Silva – Griffin fight, that took place in 2009, one of the most one sided fights in the history of the UFC.

It is hard to say what awaits Silva in the future. He is the best pound for pound fighter in the world today, no doubt about it. There are two possible opponents that Silva might be interested to fight. The first one is Chael Sonnen, the man who almost defeated Silva in a five round battle back in August of 2010. After the fight The Spider stated that he was fighting injured so he might want to redeem himself and prove that the fight could be very different if it would take place again. However, for the fight to happen Sonnen has to win against Brian Stann who looks very strong at the moment.

Another very interesting fight to consider is the super fight against Georges St-Pierre. If the fight happened it would without any doubt be the biggest fight in the history of the sport. Dana White said: 'I am not sure if there is a stadium in the world big enough to hold this fight'. However, GSP has to fight Nick Diaz next. Most of the experts agree that Diaz might be St-Pierre's toughest opponent in a very long time.

Silva versus GSP is a fight that every fan would like to see and the UFC has to do everything they can to make the fight happen as soon as possible while both of the fighters are in their prime.

UFC On FOX

UFC has signed a seven year contract with FOX television network. That means that by the end of this year, there will be no Ultimate Fighter or any other UFC show on Spyke TV. What does the move to FOX give to UFC and the fans of MMA? Could other MMA promotions profit from this deal?

First of all, FOX can be reached by way more people than Spyke, secondly the deal states that UFC material will be shown not only on FOX but also on other two channels controled by FOX. That provides UFC with many more viewers than Spyke could provide. A lot of people will see MMA for the first time when it starts airing on FOX, therefore it is the next step towards making MMA a mainstream sport.

Financial details of the deal haven't been released, but there have been talks of the deal being around 90 million US dollars a year. That means that FOX might be paying around 600 million dollars to have UFC on their network for the next seven years. UFC president Dana White stated that moving to a national network has been their aim for a very long time. He also said that there will be many changes in the way their shows are presented: ''We want to make it a new start''. Utmost changes will take place in their reality show Ultimate Fighter. From now on all the fights will be shown live, every week. The presentation of UFC pay per views will be changed as well – the gladiator intro is going.

These are big changes for the UFC. Could other MMA promotions use it as a push? Possibly. With UFC leaving, there will be a spot for a Mixed Martial Arts show on Spyke which has a lot of MMA fans amongst its viewers. Biggest, non ZUFFA MMA promotion in the world today is Bellator Fighting Championships. They could and should look into possibility to move to Spyke. It might be complicated as both MTV2 (channel Bellator is on today) and Spyke are ran by the same company. When the time comes to move, somebody else but not Bellator management might make the last decision.

The move to FOX is one of the biggest changes in the UFC history. The deal is not only positive for the UFC, it is great for the sport of MMA itself.

Hyping a Mixed Martial Arts Fight

The more people watch a fight, the more money the promotion makes therefore the fighters get paid better. In order to attract people to watch a fight, the fight itself has to be interesting. Many fighters choose to make the battle more entertaining before they step into the cage. They talk. They may say insolent comments about their opponents, they may express their respect. The desired outcome of these pre-fight debates is to make things more interesting. More spectators will be attracted if the fight is personal for the fighter.

There is no solid opinion on the pre-fight hype amongst the fans of MMA. Some people like it when the fighters start hyping the fight, while other fans believe it looks silly and makes MMA look like professional wrestling. When it comes to hyping a fight in the UFC, one name comes to mind faster than any other – Chael Sonnen. His banter before the title fight against Anderson Silva was funny, entertaining and most importantly it made the fight more interesting. ''I'm going to through him on his back and make a hole in his face. Anderson Silva has a black belt under the Nogueira brothers. I think it is like saying that I've got a free toy in my Happy Meal'' With all those bold comments have been made before the fight, everybody expected Chael Sonnen to be great against Silva. And he was.

However, Sonnen did not run his mouth like that through out his career. It started in UFC 104. He was to fight Japan's Yushin Okami. There wasn't a lot of hype for that fight, Yushin is known to be a man of few words, many fans were not looking forward to this fight. Sonnen was very disappointed when he found that the fight will be on the preliminary card and will not even be shown on the television. Sonnen realised that if his opponent does not try to sell the fight, Chael has to.

Chael Sonnen has his own view on hyping a fight. He believes that everything that is said before a fight, has to be true. Sonnen expressed his discontent with Josh Koscheck for his behaviour after the title fight with Georges St Pierre. Koscheck had started a campaign of taunts and sneers before the fight. However, after the fight, Koscheck admitted that all the bold statements were made to only hype and promote the fight. Chael Sonnen found it to be very dishonest and stated that he stands behind every thing he has said before a fight.

Having an interesting personality in MMA is very important. It is not an easy skill to master but being loud before a fight has saved and created careers in this sport.  

What is Next for the Demolition Man

I spoke about the Golden Glory camp fighters having been fired by Zuffa in my last post. Amongst the fighters who have lost their jobs, there was The Demolition Man Alistair Overeem. The situation with Overeem is pretty clear, today he is a top 5 heavyweight fighter in the world therefore for him fighting anywhere else but in UFC would be unfair. Alistair knows it, Dana White knows it and most importantly MMA fans know it. The questions are: when is he coming to UFC and who will he fight?

Getting the Demolition Man into the UFC as soon as possible should be a task number one for Dana White. The upcoming fight between Junior Dos Santos and Cain Valasquez will determine the owner of the UFC Heavyweight championship belt. Joe Silva (UFC matchmaker) definitely has to think about the future (and he does). A question arises: who will be the next heavyweight contender? There is no such defined and ready to fight for the title fighter as there is one in the light heavyweight division. Rashad Evans has been ready to fight for the title for the last two years. Heavyweight division needs that man too. Alistair is not ready to be that man yet.

Now, if we bring Alistair to the UFC, everything would immediately become very interesting. I have heard people saying that Overeem should get an instant title shot and I do not agree with it. He is relatively new in the heavyweight class and still has to prove himself. In his last fight, he won against a man who was lying on the mat by himself for the half of the fight and Alistair wasn’t impressive in his victory. So who should The Demolition Man fight in his first UFC fight? Well, Frank Mir has built some momentum by winning two in a row. By winning this fight Overeem would definitely open the gates of UFC loudly. It has been said that Brock Lesnar is feeling better, we saw him hunt again. Now that would be a fight that could headline any Event.

Today it is still not clear when Lesnar will come back and Frank Mir still does not have an opponent for his next fight. For these reasons alone I believe that a fight against Frank Mir could be a perfect first fight in  the UFC for the Demolition Man.

Zuffa and Strikeforce – Business as Usual

It seems that Zuffa is doing everything they can to close down the Strikeforce as soon as they think it is time to. They are doing what they have done before with Pride and ECW. Even though keeping Strikeforce as lower league of UFC, where they could build up younger fighters and then bring them to UFC might seem like a great idea to many fans of the sport, Dana White and Fertitta brothers are good businessmen, it seems that somewhere behind the closed doors of Zuffa decision has been made to close down the Strikeforce. When? By the time Strikeforce’s contract with Showtime runs out, and it will happen soon, might be a good guess.

To understand what Zuffa (owner of UFC) has been doing, one should look at the list of the fighters who have left Strikeforce to join UFC. Strikeforce Welterweight champion at the time Jake Shields, their number one contender Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller and finally, possibly best fighter under the contact with Strikeforce – Nick Diaz who will face number one pound for pound fighter in the world Georges St-Pierre for the UFC Welterweight title in UFC 137 this October.

What is more, they have fired every fighter who was managed by the Golden Glory management team. Dana White said that he is not happy with the way Golden Glory requires the fighter money to be paid to the management team first. Amongst the fired fighters there was Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem. This conflict not only messed the whole heavyweight class up, but possibly ruined their heavyweight tounament, the only thing that lately seemed to go right for Strikeforce. One of the fighters was Marloes Coenen, she has just lost her title to Miesha Tate, it brings a lot of problems to the female competition in Strikeforce as Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos Strikeforce Women’s Featherweight Champion cannot find a worthy opponent for more than a yearnow. But what does UFC or Dana White care, they have many times stated that they are not interested in Women’s fights.

With Fedor Emelianenko being almost not relative any more after his three fight loss streak, does Strikeforce still have world class fighters, fans would like to see fight? The answer is a weak yes. There aren’t a lot of interesting fighters left. The fighter on the top of the list is of course Strikeforce Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez, but looking at the way Zuffa has treated Strikeforce after the big deal, it is only a question now when Melendez moves to UFC. Dan Henderson’s contract has just ended and Hendo has made it clear that he is interested inrenewing his contract with Strikeforce. Paul Daley as everybody probably knows will never come back to UFC after what happened after his fight with Josh Koscheck. Tyron Woodley might be the last very interesting fighter under the Strikeforce wing.

So yes, what seemed to be an amazing promotion one year ago, is now turning in to an almost dead show. And we shouldn’t be surprised, it did happen before. Dana White said, and I quote: ”Business as usual”.