The new MMA general news, events and thoughts thread

[Egg Shen]

Gastelum/Belfort also looks like its set at 185lb for March 11th in Brazil. Guess the big name fight kept Kelvin at Middleweight.

[Mr Tibbs]

Dana White just announced they're officially creating a women's Featherweight belt and Holm vs De Randamie on Feb 11th will be to crown the first champ.

 

Good chance Holm becomes the first women's two weight world champ then.

I'm sorry, but this is fucking nuts!!  Why are you creating a division where there is no natural 145's except Cyborg.  If your going to create a new weight division, why not do it at a 125lbs.  The one thing this company doesn't need is more belts!  It can't draw with its existing champions, never mind new ones!  If Holms does win and Cyborg comes in to challenge, Holly is going to get slaughtered!  Its a fight she's turned down already because her people have said its a size mis-match!  This profit drive is leading to the group making some stupid decisions!

[lambyUK]

To be fair, Holm looks ill at the weigh in's at 135llbs. For me she's a natural 145llber.

 

That said you're completely right regarding the profit drive. The only reason they aren't waiting for Cyborg is they need to stack the 208 card due to satisfying shareholders. 

[Chunk]

To be fair, Holm looks ill at the weigh in's at 135llbs. For me she's a natural 145llber.

 

That said you're completely right regarding the profit drive. The only reason they aren't waiting for Cyborg is they need to stack the 208 card due to satisfying shareholders.

Also Cyborg will murder anyone she faces, so that point is pretty irrelevant.

 

Not knowing a lot about women's MMA outside the UFC, is there any talent the UFC will be looking to poach or is it a pretty big step down in calibre?

[ColinBollocks]

I imagine they've had a look at the Brazil, a huge market for them, and realised they can never have enough Brazilian champions. Chances are come 2017 they'll only have Aldo as a disputed champion.

[the_mole]

Cyborg is a draw she was over as fuck in her hometown PPV and did good US ratings in her only headline fight, a weak card at that.

 

Several females are drawing better ratings on cards than their male equivalence, even if they aren't main eventers. That's probably why Paige Van Zandt is headlining above Urijiah Faber in his last fight.

[TildeGuy~!]

Junior Dos Santos returns against Stefan Struve on a fight night card February 19th

[Egg Shen]

Struve is getting laid out there.

 

Not sure where i stand on the 145lb division. I've lost interest in the women's fight really outside of the top ones and having extra fights sprinkled throughout the cards doesn't do much for me. For the women involved it's great though, i still just think the UFC should embrace Invicta a little more and perhaps promote it as the UFC Women promotion. I still understand why the big fights will happen on full UFC PPV's and so on, but i think it should operate as one promotion.

[the_mole]

Struve is getting laid out there.

 

Not sure where i stand on the 145lb division. I've lost interest in the women's fight really outside of the top ones and having extra fights sprinkled throughout the cards doesn't do much for me. For the women involved it's great though, i still just think the UFC should embrace Invicta a little more and perhaps promote it as the UFC Women promotion. I still understand why the big fights will happen on full UFC PPV's and so on, but i think it should operate as one promotion.

You have, ratings suggest otherwise, casual female fans aren't going to order Invicta on fight pass, they might order a PPV or watch FS1 if a fight catches their eye, they tried separate brands for the smaller guys but eventually merged, they want the UFC as the main brand when people think MMA, for either sex.

[WeeAl]

This could work out very well financially for Holly. If she wins the belt, she has got back on the horse after a two fight losing streak, and made herself the first two weight womens champ in the UFC in the process. With this I would guess come PPV points for her defence.

 

If Holm defends against Cyborg then it could be the retirement plan. A percentage of that PPV could be worth taking the fight to her. As a challenger maybe it wouldn't be worth it.

 

Should she win then she's stopped both Rousey and Cyborg and has the massive rematches as options after that. Should she lose then she could possibly retire if she wishes having won two titles and a good bit money in the process.

[wandshogun09]

JDS already walloped Struve once, he'll do it again. Bit underwhelmed by that announcement. It's been ages since we saw JDS and this is all we get? I'd rather have seen JDS vs Barnett myself. Or Arlovski or Browne. Or they could've even had a Lewis or Ngannou step up against Cigano. All fresh fights and most likely exciting. Instead we get a rematch of a 30 second clobbering. Why?

[Egg Shen]

 

Struve is getting laid out there.

 

Not sure where i stand on the 145lb division. I've lost interest in the women's fight really outside of the top ones and having extra fights sprinkled throughout the cards doesn't do much for me. For the women involved it's great though, i still just think the UFC should embrace Invicta a little more and perhaps promote it as the UFC Women promotion. I still understand why the big fights will happen on full UFC PPV's and so on, but i think it should operate as one promotion.

You have, ratings suggest otherwise, casual female fans aren't going to order Invicta on fight pass, they might order a PPV or watch FS1 if a fight catches their eye, they tried separate brands for the smaller guys but eventually merged, they want the UFC as the main brand when people think MMA, for either sex.

Valid points.

 

How many casual female fans are brought in by the female fights? I imagine Ronda and Paige and a few others spike the viewership (Ronda massively) but does the lower fights on the card generate much business from a female perspective? Genuine question, i've never thought about it before.

 

I still think Invicta being re-branded as the UFC with a slight twist on the name is a good idea though.

[the_mole]

http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/9/27/13081116/cris-cyborg-helps-deliver-solid-ratings-for-ufc-fight-night-95

 

http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/12/13/13943200/ufc-206-prelims-do-second-lowest-numbers-of-the-year

 

 

http://www.bjpenn.com/mma-news/alexa-grasso/ufc-fight-night-98-viewership-ratings-peaked-alexa-grasso-fight/

 

Holm-Shevchenko easily beat the last Fox card in ratings.

 

That's just a few recent ones, I don't exactly know the reason, maybe idiot fans think they can beat up guys who they outweigh, females preferring it, the fact most girls aren't that well rounded compared to the guys and can be a bit sloppy I don't know.

[Egg Shen]

Couple of fights announced for Denver:

 

Donald Cerrone vs. Jorge Masvidal...outstanding.

Andrei Arlovski vs. Francis Ngannou...goodnight Andre.

[ColinBollocks]

It's incredible how active Cerrone it. I know he stays this way because his bills are silly and he's probably going broke after he's done fighting, but nonetheless the man is a tank.

 

Speaking of Cerrone being a tank, he's only lost 2 fights in 15 (the fearsome RDA twice, when RDA didn't lose much). That's 15 fights in over 3 years fighting at the top level. Cerrone gets some abuse for being a bottler, but his record is immense. He's one of the few top fighters that seems to have maintained their insane consistency after the PED testing.