Let's try something new for a change. Instead of me posting a" tl,dr" article every now and then, I'll make one article covering multiple subjects. Kinda like the weekly news round up format I did. So let's see how this goes.
PED epidemic within the UFC
So, UFC has decided to "clean up the sport" and make random drug tests more frequent with the ultimate goal being that they test every fighter on their roster. Sound awesome, right? What could possibly go wrong? Well, how about fighters testing positive for banned substances, like a lot.
Anderson Silva, Hector Lombard, Jon Jones, Nick Diaz all tested positive for banned substances. The good news here is that more random testing is going to be performed and performance enchaining drugs will not being tolerated. Dana White even held a special press conference addressing the situation and reveled that they will do random drug test more frequently and the punishments will be even more severe. The bad new is that with drug testing becoming more frequent more fighters will emerge with failed drug tests. UFC MW Tim Kennedy said on the subject: "It's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better". I'll agree with him, more tests will more then likely mean more fighters testing positive, which will affect the fight cards. However, this is a long term process and growing pains are a part of it.
"...because we're the hot girls"
I'd like to state that I started writing this months ago(that's why the content here is a bit outdated) and at that time Paige was just another pretty face with a potential for greatness, Carla Esparza was a newly crowned champion, the Women's strawweight division was just barely introduced and everything was very new, fresh and relatively unknown. Since then, EVERYTHING changed. Paige now has an exclusive and probably very lucrative sponsorship deal with Reebok and is on a 2 fight win streak in the UFC. Carla Esparza lost her title as quickly as she won it and we saw the rise of the divisions new champion and future superstar, Joanna Jerzejyzyk. Joanna is coming off a vicious third round tko victory against Jessica Penne in her first title defense at last night's UFC: Berlin fight card. With her brutal and precise Muay Thai striking and still improving ground game, Joanna is looking to dominate the division for quite some time. It's quite amazing how quickly things change in mma....and how long it took me to make this article.
Female strawweight prospect, Paige VanZant made comments about here upcoming bout with Felice Herring saying that she expected to be matched up against Herring because they are both hot. The comments made the mma community a bit uppity, most notably fellow female 135lbs fighter Joanne Calderwood who said that it should not be about looks but about skill. Which is true. Ones looks shouldn't be a determining factor in making sport based decisions. However, the Women's 135lbs division is less then a year old, the champion has yet to defend her belt and the talent pool is very, very modest. So any chance at getting exposure these girls can get they should take it and run with it. Getting 2 attractive females who are also skilled fighters to face each other is a no-brainer from a marketing perspective. Pretty girls grab people's attention fairly easily and going by Paige's comments she's quite aware of the situation and is embracing it.
CM Punk training hard for his debut
Al Bundy understood this 20 years ago and he was a fictional character!
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| VanZant(middle) at a Reebok launch party accompanied with #1 FW contender Conor McGregor (left) and former LHW champion Jon Jones(right); source |
CM Punk training hard for his debut
Both Ben Askren and Tyron Woodley have made statements that CM Punk is taking his new career choice seriously and that he's hard at work for his debut. Ben Askren was not so pleased when it was announced that Punk signed with UFC with a 0-0 record at 36 years young. However, from the looks of things, Punk made him a believer by putting the hard work in the gym. Since I've already written a lengthy article about UFC signing Punk and what too expect from it, I'm gonna go straight to the point here. Punk's got a whole lotta work in from of him before he steps inside the Ocatgon. Ultimately I think his chances of winning a fight will largely depend on the level of competition he will face. Askren has mentioned that Punk could probably end up fighting in the welterweight division with the weight loss increasing as he trains away. Going down a division solves no problem for Punk. The welterweight division is filled with big names and hard fights, and with the return of the former champion still being a possibility the division will only get deeper. Whatever division Punk settles for he should be very careful when picking his opponent. All it takes is a bad stylistic match up to make you realize you're not the toughest guy in the world.
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| CM Punk posing for a UFC promotional photoshoot; source |
UFC's Reebok sponsorship deal costing fighters money
The dreaded Reebok sponsorship deal start date is getting ever so closer and frankly many fighters are not happy with what it bring to the table. Myles Jury, Brendan Schaub (who went as far as saying that with the deal in place he is forced to retire from competetive mma fighting), Donald Cerrone and even the Featherweight champion himself, Jose Aldo have all spoken against the Rebook sponsorship deal. Some have even pointed out that with the exclusive deals with Reebok they will LOSE money and sponsors. Now from what I gathered this is gonna be a very radical and controversial change and has zero to no chances of going smoothly. Dana White has been promising that the deal in the long term is a great thing for the sport and has been very supportive of it. The question is what exactly does Rebook bring to the table? What makes it so special? Well the plus side is that the fighters that are having trouble getting sponsors will now have a sweet Reebok deal in place with all it's perks. That means kickass custom made fight attire, sponsorship money and various Reebok products. That's the good news. The bad news is...well everything else. A lot of fighters have sponsorship deals that will now have to be terminated because of the nature of the Reebok contracts and therefore lose money. Not only that but tenure based payouts means that new fighters in the UFC will make less money with Reebok then they could potentially with other sponsors. The deal starts july 11th, and things are not looking bright. But, time will tell if this was a good move or a bad move.
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| Johnny Hendricks, one of the few fighters satisfied with the Reebok sponsorship took to twitter to show off his sweet new Reebok merch prior to his UFC 181 bout with Matt Brown. ; source |
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know everything. What can I say, my laziness got the best of me. I already have some thing on the way so I hope that I'll get them out faster than it took me to make this. So, until then....I'm your awesome blogger, Armbar and this is my ranting spot. I wish you all an awesome summer holiday filled with sun, booze, mma and of course, my blog.
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