Slow Period For MMA News

It's been a slow month or so for mixed martial arts news, as obscure HDNet and HERO'S results flood the pages of most MMA-dedicated blogs. But it wasn't always like this. As recently as this past summer, it always seemed like a blockbuster match was being announced or a superstar fighter was being signed. Recently, however, the excitement seems to be missing from MMA. And here's why:

Rivalries Resolved

The major rivalries that were responsible for UFC's popularity surge over the last year have been dying out. Interest has waned, one fighter won the majority of the contests, or one fighter so emphatically beat his opponent that there is no clear need for a rematch. Any way you break it down, Liddell/Ortiz, Penn/Pulver, and many others just aren't as fun as they used to be. These rivalries ending wouldn't be a problem (after all, good things do need to come to an end) if they were replaced with equally entertaining rivalries. You can't tell me that I'm supposed to watch Liddell take on Ortiz and Rampage and then enjoy a Keith Jardine fight. It's not happening. From top to bottom in the UFC, eras have come to an end, with the obvious exception of Hughes/GSP which has only taken a detour to the grave due a freak win by Matt Serra. Everything else, however (Couture/Sylvia, Silva/Franklin, etc.) has gone by the wayside in the last few months. It's made for odd match ups, like Ortiz/Evans, that would never have been booked last year.

PRIDE Is Dead

The competition bred by PRIDE was not solely successful in creating a "What If?" atmosphere. It also served to force the UFC to constantly examine what they were doing and how they could make it better. As recently as February of this year, PRIDE held an event headlined by Henderson and Wanderlei in Las Vegas. For the UFC, that was enough warning. They chose to buy out PRIDE before it threatened their stateside hegemony. But when the Ferttitas bought out PRIDE, they also opted out of being forced into making improvements to their own organization. Had PRIDE made the successful jump to the States (and it looked as if they would, with a 2 million dollar gate), White and Co. would have to work overtime to come up with new ways to sell fights, new rivalries, new fighter personas, and everything else it takes to remain afloat in a competitive business environment. Now, they need none of this, instead choosing to move at their own pace and headlining each card with just one super fight instead of many. If PRIDE were still an independent entity, we never would have seen a card like UFC 77, with one main event and countless other battles with little significance. And we would certainly never see a UFC 78, consisting of a main event that deserves to be either a swing bout at a PPV or a main event at a Fight Night. Surely it shouldn't be the main attraction at New Jersey's first event since UFC 53! It is, unfortunately, and this has come about simply because White has the option to make it this way. No one is forcing his hand as PRIDE had started to do earlier this year.

Fighters Signed

Back when the Rampage Jackson/Mirko Filipovic signings were announced, it was as if a bomb had been dropped on the MMA world. Acquiring such free agent talent automatically meant a myriad of new matches in two different divisions. It was exciting and it was new. Then came Nogueira, Henderson, Shogun, and Wanderlei. The novelty was destroyed as essentially every big name was brought under one roof. And while there's something to be said for accumulating the biggest names in order to create the best match ups, there's also an interesting element in having great fighters that exist outside of the world's best organization. With the exception of Fedor, there are very few "What If?" scenarios that are still worth contemplating. The Light Heavyweights have all but been swept up (with the exception of Soukoudjou, who doesn't look like he's going anywhere soon), and the rest of the divisions don't warrant signing (see Kang's recent KO loss and Filho's near-loss). With no free agents left, every fight is a possibility and no fights are impossible. For a sport built on unpredictability, that's a scary thought.

Bad Booking

As a paying customer, I believe that every fight on a PPV card should have title implications or at least be exciting. At the most recent event, UFC 77, other than the title fight and the Sylvia-Vera bout (which I'll agree had title ramifications, but sure as hell wasn't exciting), nothing that was televised was worth an ounce of the fan's time. Stephan Bonnar provided fans with an exciting, unimportant bout, while the two remaining fights on the main card contained neither excitement nor title consideration. Even more frustrating to the fans, the more exciting fighters (Jason MacDonald and Demian Maia) were kept on the under card in Machida-like fashion. The UFC 78 card is so weak that on the website, it specifies "This fight has massive implications!" as though the UFC needs to convince people that the statement is true. The UFC would like you to focus on the fact that both men are TUF winners and are technically undefeated. What you should be focusing on is that most analysts believe Bisping lost his last fight, and Evans stalled his way to a draw with Tito Ortiz. The secondary fight on the card appears to be the Parisyan-Chonan bout, which appears to have absolutely no implications, unless there's some obscure connection I'm missing. If anyone can hype a fight and make it seem worthwhile, it's certainly the UFC P.R. machine. Apparently, when you market events this well, you don't even need to book interesting fights.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel and it comes in the form of UFC 79. Whether this incredible event is just plain luck, a UFC reaction to bad buys for UFC 77 and UFC 78 (anyone else see the three-pack they've been pushing on PPV subscribers?), or it marks the dawn of the post-PRIDE era, no one can be sure. What the UFC needs in order to make a successful transition in completely unchartered waters is a set of great fights at this event. It was just last December that Liddell v. Ortiz II took place, providing the UFC with enough momentum to remain viable throughout the year. If they can get another blockbuster out of Hughes, Liddell, and Wanderlei, they might just be able to repeat.

Originally written for MMAMadness.com