Last night seemed like any other day. I did my daily routine before crashing in my humble abode, watched a few Dexter re-runs before dozing away. When I awoke hours later I opened my eyes and seemed to be in an alternate universe.
The rumor that I had hoped was just that, a rumor had been proven to be true. Dan Henderson was forced out of his first UFC light-heavyweight title opportunity.
It’s essentially a time-honored tradition that if a challenger is forced out of his championship bout that the door is left open for another challenger to step up to the plate, this was not the case though.
Chael Sonnen, Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva all raised their hand and were willing to fight the 205-pound king on eight days’ notice but Jones refused to fight on September 1 which ultimately forced the UFC figureheads hand to cancel the event.
UFC 151 will forever be a ghost event that never happened and an interesting future trivia note but it also points to a much larger problem.
I remember a time, not too long ago, that when the UFC or Pride Fighting Championships promoted an event I got overwhelmingly excited, as if all my Christmases had come at once. When the top promotions only went to the well a few times a year it gave months and months of anticipation with all the commotion on one event.
Inevitably for this sport to grow and the UFC became the only game in town to significantly line your pocketbook they had to expand. With this has come a lot of good, more fighters have had a chance to earn a living and provide for their families for punching opponents in the face.
As you could imagine, it also serves as the proverbial double-edged sword. The UFC has continued to expand more and more each year as they partnered with the FOX and push to expand more and more internationally.
Once upon a time, die-hard fight fans threw down their cash on pay-per-views no matter what fight was on top because they were essentially junkies who needed their fix. Today, to keep up with everything is essentially a chore to the UFC’s core group of viewers.
Not to mention, pay-per-view’s aren’t cheap and your typical sports fan who works a nine-to-five job doesn’t have upwards of $100 per month to burn to watch a cage-fight, forcing them to pick and choose or find alternative means.
Linking with the FOX network thus far has hindered the UFC more than it has helped in many ways too. With the deal they are now promised to give content between pay-per-view, Fuel TV, FX and FOX.
With this many avenues to please it has continued to water down events more and more, leaving us with upcoming main events like Stipe Miocic vs. Stefan Struve and Travis Browne vs. Antonio Silva which would both be first fight on a pay-per-view in an ideal world.
Another real issue right now is they only have a handful of stars that can really move the needle, even their pound-for-pound king and long-running middleweight champion Anderson Silva isn’t a box office attraction without the right opponent.
The UFC has a seven year deal with FOX and ultimately I expect them to grow their brand and become bigger than ever with their support but I feel they need to have a sit down with the executives with FOX and talk about lessening the schedule for the forthcoming year.
When it comes down to it, I love this sport, I have since the first time I saw it. If I ever find myself on my death bed with a few hours to go I will make my family bring down my Pride 2000 Openweight Grand Prix DVD so I can go out with a bang.
I am not the type of supporter that they have to worry about, I’ll be here through thick and thin but most people aren’t as crazy as me, most people will just give up rather than dedicate thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of their life.
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