Intro
At UFC 188, then current champion Cain Velasquez and interim champion Fabricio Werdum finally faced each other. Werdum came out victorious in a very one sided fight where Werdum displayed outstanding stand up technique and dominate Cain in the clinch, where Cain punished and destroyed Junior Dos Santos twice. The fight ended midway through the 3rd round with Werdum securing a guillotine choke that made Cain tap almost instantly. Complete and total domination by the BJJ master. Werdum already had 2 contenders lined up and ready to get a crack at his newly earned championship belt, in the shape of Stipe Miočić and Andrei Arlovski. Stipe was coming of a dominant doctor stoppage win against the unbreakable Samoan, Mark Hunt and Andrei just got out of an insane first round stoppage win against Travis Browne. Both men had rightfully earned the right to fight the Brazilian. However, with little to no news regarding their potential contentdership for the title both men accepted further fights. Stipe faces Ben Rothwell at UFC Fight Night 76 and Andrei just got a not very convincing win against Frank Mir at UFC 191.
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| This pretty much sums up the entire 15 minutes of the fight, source |
The Problem
UFC's heavyweight division always gets a bad rep from MMA fans because it seemingly lacks in quality fighters when compared to lower weight classes. Which, unfortunately, was true most of the time. However, not anymore. Today's hw division is very much alive and thriving with excellent fighters and potential and exciting match ups. There is only one problem. It's former champion and current champion are keeping the division hostage. Now the fact that Cain and Werdum are rematching wasn't that much of an issue when it was first announced. Though no date or event was announced, everyone was under the impression it will happen either in the tale end of 2015 or early in 2016. Which would be ok. There would be no shortage in fresh contenders, for the winner of the fight and the contenders would just have to figure out who goes first. Now, this is where the real problem starts. At the UFC 191 post fight press conference, Dana White, announced that the fight would take place in March at the earliest. Now this complicates things quite a bit. Firstly, let's get something out of the way. Andrei Arlovski more than deserves to fight for the belt. He is a former UFC champion, he's facing an amazing career resurgence with his 10-1-1(4-0 in the UFC) win streak and he isn't getting any younger. He's 36 years old, with his first pro fight being in 1999. This is very likely his last chance to fight for a major heavyweight title. The secondly, the problem is that UFC is having the best Heavyweight division in years and they are burning through contenders because of a pointless rematch. Cain showed nothing in his Werdum loss that would guarantee him a second chance. Andrei will more than likely fight once or maybe even twice more before he gets to see the winner of Cain/Werdum rematch. With that they are risking loosing a top contender and a great comeback story, that could come crashing down. Also, by the time the championship rematch takes place, the dreaded "injury bug" could show it's ugly face and ruin everyone's day. Which is already(sort off) happening as both Frank Mir and Andrei Arlovski are facing a potential 6 month medical suspension.
The Solution
EDIT:
Looks like the champ wants an earlier fight after all. Either the backlash from the fans forced him to change his mind, or Dana White is pulling information out of his ass, as per usual. This still doesn't change the fact that the division is at a standstill and top contenders are forced to fight against each other or wait indefinitely for their title shot which may or may not come.
The solution is pretty simple actually. Have Velasquez fight someone else and give the title shot to Andrei Arlovski. The contender gets the fight he deserves and the former champion fights his way back up. But, since this is obviously not happening, there needs to be a long term solution for these situations. It's almost an unwritten rule that an immediate rematch happens when a championship belts exchange owners. It's a clear case of making money fights over logical fights. This is a very unnerving trend. It keeps the belt hostage and division stops moving until the rematch happens. Now what's particularly interesting about this rematch is that it seems that the champion is requesting this fight happens in march. Unless baring a nagging injury, the champion should be forced to defend his belt at earliest convenience for the organization he is the champion off. Which for some reason isn't happening. What baffles the mind in this story is that the big boss, Dana White is "a-ok" with it. Dana has the ability to force fighters to fight earlier if he wishes so, and(If its to believe Cung Le's version of events) he has done so in the past. So It really makes no sense in letting the freshly crowned champion sit on his belt and defend it when he feels like it. Neither does throwing your hands in the air and saying "that's when the champ wants to fight" with a turd eating grin slapped across your face.
Final Thoughts
Now let's be honest. This isn't the first time UFC made money fights over logical ones. Ryan Bader was promised a title shot against the newly crowned LHW champion Daniel Cormier when it was announced that Alexander Gustafsson is stepping in his place, even though he's coming off a loss.
Fun fact: Anthony Johnson is the one loss Andrei Arlovski suffered since having his career resurgence
Miesha Tate was promised her 3rd shot at Ronda Rousey publicly by Dana White. She even began the training camp for the trilogy fight when it was announced that they are going with Holly Holm against Ronda instead. Chael Sonnen was a master in talking himself into undeserved high profile fights. He fought against Jon Jones for the LHW belt, even though he didn't fight in that weight class for over 8 years and his last fight being a loss. I could go on for a while, since these things happen quite often and they will continue to happen until it has an effect on the division as a whole. Which is something that could very well end up happening to the Heavyweight division with the rematch fight.
Okaaay. Well, this was fun to write. I'm now on twitter, so you can follow me there. I tweet and retweet MMA news and stuff. I'm still on facebook, so you can check me out over there also. Oh and I'm on madbarz (I-i-i workout) also. So...follow me there and try beating my scores, if you can. That's all from me. Talk to you all soon.
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