Oh for Christ's sake. ANOTHER interim title?! For those of you not paying attention in the back, this leaves us with a grand total of one UFC belt actually in play HW: Randy drama LHW: Rampage has a broken hand and is rumoured to be doing the next series of The Ultimate Farce MW: Still in play. As far as I know, Anderson's still healthy but he's running out of people to fight WW: Put on hold for TUF, now Serra's injured we get an interim belt. At least we're more likely to see the Serra/ GSP rematch but with both guys coming in with just 5 weeks notice on this one, we may not see the best match LW: Sherk's 'roid drama. Penn/ Stevenson fighting for an interim belt Far from an ideal title situation
And yet Dana White still lives in the deliusion that the UFC is the "premiere mixed martial arts competition".
i've been trying to get some momentum behind an interim top contender match; ie, after henderson is demolished, tanner fights okami. the winner changes weight class while the loser is designated as interim top contender and then fed to mecha-anderson, in the hopes that it may appease him.
Geez, I'm incommunicato for a few days and this is what I return to? Too bad Serra can't fight, but in all fairness I thought we'd eventually see Hughes-GPS 3 anyways. I mean, I would prefer Serra as a coach, he seems cooler to hang out with, but I'd give Hughes the edge in that matchup. Now it's possible that THAT match will never happen. And in the meanwhile, guys like Karo and Fitch just continue to fight each other for the title shot that never comes. In al fairness to the UFC, they've had a string of bad luck with their champions lately. As much as I loathe an interim belt, I think they're doing the best they can with what they have. In a division as stacked as the WW is, I don't think they should keep the title, interim or otherwise, on the shelf and undefended for too long. Not unless they want to send half their Welters to WEC or something just so they can finally vie for a shot somewhere.
Exactly. There's too many "top dogs" in the UFC welterweight division. Some very good fighters may never get the shots they deserve. Let's face it, either Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre has been involved in every WW title match for six years. Send some of your "very good but not quite top level" WW's to your "feeder", the WEC. Now they can fight for a title (WEC's Welterweight), and you've cleaned out an oversized division. I don't expect this to actually happen, but I'd honestly like Zuffa to have two separate but equal MMA orgs. Like what COULD have happened with the Pride purchace. With the exception of MW and maybe HW, you've got divisions overflowing with deserving tallent who will never get a title shot in their prime because of the waiting list of challengers and the fact that the title's only defended 2-3 times a year. Look at the current WW situation. Karo's already beaten the current champ, and I wouldn't count him out against GSP. Fitch and maybe Kos could be trouble for Hughes. I think Fitch and Sanchez could beat Serra, and I think Lytle beat him in their match. So who's going to be in the next two title matches? Either or both GSP or Hughes. They're great fighters, but not the only guys who are title-worthy.
Just checking, lol. Only one fighter I can think of has actually gone down to the UFC (name eludes me at the moment), and that was actually because he naturally fights 145 and Dana's a size queen when it comes to the UFC and relegates his smaller fighters to the bush leagues. I don't see a mass exodus of fighters down to the bush leagues, although anything can happen, I guess. I agree, though, that it seems to be the same crew over and over and over with too many guys waiting in the wings.
