The new MMA general news, events and thoughts thread

[David]

I'm thinking of figthers who would fight any opponent, Chuck Liddell, Wandy Silva and Donald Cerrone come to mind as examples of that.

The first two come from the era of "anyone, anytime, anywhere", whilst the last of those guys isn't a champion and probably won't ever hold a UFC strap.

[wandshogun09]

Edgar was a former Lightweight champion, and there was a huge upside for Aldo fighting him. Absolutely no upside in fighting Pettis at the moment, and I can fully understand why he and his camp don't want the fight at this point.

 

I get that, Aldo vs Edgar was a long talked about superfight. But if Aldo doesn't want Pettis who does he want? Pettis was the last ever WEC Lightweight champ. He's coming off a spectacular stoppage of Cowboy which has everyone talking about him. There's more hype on him than ever right now. That's surely more upside than a guy like Lamas, who is a tough fight but little hype on him, even after mauling Koch.

 

Pettis is the biggest fight available right now for Aldo.

 

whilst the last of those guys isn't a champion and probably won't ever hold a UFC strap.

 

To be fair he didn't mention titles at all. He's just on about fighter mentality

[The Natural]

whilst the last of those guys isn't a champion and probably won't ever hold a UFC strap.

 

To be fair he didn't mention titles at all. He's just on about fighter mentality

 

Thank you.

[David]

whilst the last of those guys isn't a champion and probably won't ever hold a UFC strap.

To be fair he didn't mention titles at all. He's just on about fighter mentality

That's what I'm talking about as well. Your mentality changes when you're the champion in this day & age.

[wandshogun09]

Bit disappointed that no-one asked Dana about Melvin Manhoef at the media scrum.

 

Manhoef spoke recently about a possible UFC move on the MMA Hour;

 

"I think everybody would want to be fighting in the UFC, because it's one of the biggest organizations at the moment. I'm a fighter and I want to entertain people, so for me it'd be nice to fight in the UFC. If the chance is there, I'm going to do it, 100-percent.

 

I have fought everywhere. K-1, DREAM, Strikeforce; and the only thing that is missing is also the UFC. If it happens, it happens, and I want it to happen.

 

I finish everybody with my hands, and now also my knees. If I fight, it's always like this. It's not the time to get a snack or something, you know?"

 

He also said this...

 

"I would like to fight fighters who like to stand and brawl. Wanderlei is one of those guys. He is like one of my idols."

 

Wandy vs Manhoef! Please let it happen.

 

He mentioned Bisping and Cung Le as potential opponents as well.

[Supremo]

I've always said that my main peeve with Dana is that he talks about the NFL in the same breath as the UFC

Then just say that then. It's a weird gripe to have, as we've discussed in the past, but whatever. Just say it.

Do your thing and check my posts from the past two years! I've brought up the fact that White mentions the NFL & MLB when talking about the UFC in many of these debates!

The operative word there is, "just." I've even bolder it to help you out. I know you've mentioned this gripe before. I remember proving how pointless and weird it was. But in telling you to, "just," say it, I'm not addressing the gripe at all, I'm actually addressing the nonsense you've said before and after. In some weird attempt to justify or qualify the gripe, you talked rubbish about Dana, "denying," style plays a part in cuts and talked about Fitch's case being indentical to Hardy's and Garcia's. My point was to drop all that nonsense because none of it is true. It's like when you won't just admit you dislike Chael's promos and instead talk about how they don't work at drawing, make him into a laughing stock, or whatever. Just explain your gripe. Don't attempt to back it up with shit you've just made up that's easily disproven.

 

And fuck the rankings because they're always going to book fights and fighters that fans want to see. It's a business. It's a business. It's a business.

Why fucking bother introducing them?!?

Probably because FOX wanted them, I imagine.

 

EDIT: Since I've got the reputation of going back and looking over things for a laugh, I thought I'd check if we'd discussed Fitch in the past. This discussion is interesting in retrospect. People like myself could see this day coming years ago. The moment Fitch got himself the reputation of having boring fights then his card was marked forever.

[cleslie92]

On Aldo, what's the betting that this is just him testing the waters to see how much pull he has in the UFC and having seriously misjudged it? I mean, if GSP can demand a fight with Nick Diaz that Diaz doesn't deserve, and Chael can talk his way into a title shot with Jon Jones, maybe Aldo thinks he can dictate who he fights as well.

[Heatseeker]

Nick Diaz didn't earn the GSP fight? Seriously brah?

 

11 fight win strike.

Left Strikeforce as WW champion.

Destroyed BJ Penn.

 

His loss to Condit was pretty spilt with the MMA online community too. Are you referring to the missing press conference?

 

Chael was the only one that was willing to take on Jon Jones on 11 or however many days there was... notice. Too fucking right he deserves the shot since Jones has wiped the LH division anyway.

[wandshogun09]

Dana on the scrum said he was close to pulling Diaz out of the title fight next month because of all this shit going on with him no-showing interviews and stuff. Then later during the same scrum, one of the Zuffa guys told him Nick has now fulfilled everything they wanted from him regarding the Countdown so it's still on.

 

For now anyway. The fight week press conference is the last possible obstacle. As long as Nick shows for that (surely he will), we should finally get to see this fight. He'll show up for the weigh in and the fight no problem.

 

What a ballache though. I won't believe this is going ahead until Buffer is calling their names.

 

EDIT - Hope that's the case cleslie. I doubt Aldo is scared of Pettis. I think its probably coming more from Andre Pederneiras. Dana mentioned it was Pederneiras saying this stuff in London. He's also the one who is advising Aldo to hold off on moving to 155. He's a highly respected figure in MMA, especially among Brazilians, Aldo's likely following his advice.

[cleslie92]

Nick Diaz didn't earn the GSP fight? Seriously brah?

 

11 fight win strike.

Left Strikeforce as WW champion.

Destroyed BJ Penn.

 

His loss to Condit was pretty spilt with the MMA online community too. Are you referring to the missing press conference?

 

Chael was the only one that was willing to take on Jon Jones on 11 or however many days there was... notice. Too fucking right he deserves the shot since Jones has wiped the LH division anyway.

 

I suppose you're right, I guess I'm just not a fan. I thought the loss to Condit was fair personally. I just don't see the logic in beating the number one contender then demanding a fight with the number two contender. No, you take on the next number one contender, who was probably Johny Hendricks. That and him no showing press conferences and interviews just makes me think he's an arrogant prick!

[wandshogun09]

I'm telling you, GSP called out Diaz not because he was ducking Hendricks, but to get out of fighting Anderson Silva. I really believe that and I even predicted before GSP fought Condit, that he'd call out Diaz if he won, to deflect the talk of him fighting Anderson (check the UFC 154 thread).

 

Dana was pushing hard for GSP vs Anderson if GSP beat Condit. GSP didn't want it and the only way to get out of it and keep Dana happy was to say something basically amounting to "Sorry I'm not giving you a superfight with Anderson. But I'll give you the next best thing - a grudge match with Diaz that's been years in the making".

 

GSP turning down Anderson for Johny Hendricks wouldn't cut it. With GSP vs Diaz, Dana still cashes in, GSP doesn't have to fight Anderson but instead gets a much more winnable yet still profitable fight and the fans get a long awaited grudge match.

 

GSP is a shrewd cunt.

[cleslie92]

I'm telling you, GSP called out Diaz not because he was ducking Hendricks, but to get out of fighting Anderson Silva. I really believe that and I even predicted before GSP fought Condit, that he'd call out Diaz if he won, to deflect the talk of him fighting Anderson (check the UFC 154 thread).

 

Dana was pushing hard for GSP vs Anderson if GSP beat Condit. GSP didn't want it and the only way to get out of it and keep Dana happy was to say something basically amounting to "Sorry I'm not giving you a superfight with Anderson. But I'll give you the next best thing - a grudge match with Diaz that's been years in the making".

 

GSP turning down Anderson for Johny Hendricks wouldn't cut it. With GSP vs Diaz, Dana still cashes in, GSP doesn't have to fight Anderson but instead gets a much more winnable yet still profitable fight and the fans get a long awaited grudge match.

 

GSP is a shrewd cunt.

 

Very true. He seems really scared of fighting Anderson, but surely the payday for that fight would be huge? And if you lose, you've only lost to the best ever.

[wandshogun09]

GSP is a smart guy. He wants to make as much coin as he can before taking the risk of fighting Anderson. He draws well on PPV regardless of opponent. With the grudge element, GSP will rake it in fighting Diaz and he'll most likely win.

 

And remember GSP gets a cut of PPV. Him fighting Diaz will draw more than him fighting Hendricks, so it's a great business move. Now GSP vs Anderson, promoted right, would likely be huge, but it's risk vs reward. GSP probably thinks - why eat one whole pie now to get full when I can take one bite of lots of pies and get full that way?

 

Compare it to Mayweather vs Pacquiao in boxing. Arum didn't want it because there was a high probability of his cash cow Pacquiao losing. So he kept booking Pac against fighters who he had more chance beating, milk him for all he's worth and 'save' the superfight for later. Problem is Pacquiao lost before 'later' came and now we've lost that fight, or at least it will never be as meaningful if it does happen.

 

I think GSP's doing similar.

[DarloKid]

regarding the money aspect am sure i read somewhere GSP gets like 9 million dollars a fight, is this true

[wandshogun09]

I don't know how accurate that is but he certainly makes a lot more than his reported purses. For UFC 154 for example, the official disclosed amount which was released was $470,000 and that's including a $70K FOTN bonus. He got $400,000 as his disclosed base pay ($200K to show/$200K to win).

 

He's on considerably more though. His PPV cut alone blows his disclosed pay out of the water. If Eddie Alvarez was offered up to $2.50 per buy then you can bet GSP is getting more than that. And UFC 154 did 700,000 buys. You do the maths. Well over $1.5 million, on top of the $470K.

 

I'd be skeptical he's making $9 million per fight but who knows. So little information is released that it's mostly guesswork. But between his base pay, PPV cut plus sponsorship money and these other mysterious "discretionary bonuses" which Lorenzo Fertitta said are sometimes "multiples of what's in the contract", I daresay he picks up a cool $4 or 5 million a fight, if not more.