UFC's Bad Luck Continues Leading Into New Year
November 2, 2009
MMA Weekly reports that due to their respective surgeries, Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida will both be out until early 2010 and will not be available for UFC 108 in early January:
The only real downside is that in both cases, doctors found a little more to repair than they initially expected, so the necessary rehabilitation following such procedures will keep both champions sidelined for the coming months, narrowing the field of available main-eventers for the promotion.
In Silva’s case, doctors had to remove three bone fragments instead of the expected one. There was hope that he would be able to fight Vitor Belfort at UFC 108, but that isn’t going to happen.
“I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but he’s not fighting Jan. 2,” confirmed Soares.
The timing actually works out fairly well for the UFC. Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar recently had to withdraw from UFC 106 due to a severe case of the flu, so his bout with Shane Carwin was pushed back to UFC 108, providing a marquee match-up for the main event.
Payout Perspective:
Although MMA Weekly tries to argue for fortuitous timing here, the fact is that UFC cannot be happy with how many major fights have fallen apart over not only the last month or two, but over the last several days as well. In addition to losing Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida through probably the spring of 2010, Thiago Alves was forced to pull out of a rematch with Jon Fitch (booked for December 12) practically before the fight had even been announced and Kurt Pellegrino suffered a back injury, forcing him out of a scheduled December 5 fight against Frankie Edgar.
MMA Weekly also presumes that Brock Lesnar’s fight with Shane Carwin is going to come off without a hitch at UFC 108. The last we heard about Lesnar, however, was that he was still sick, even after three and a half weeks, with the flu.
Has Lesnar recovered? Has he begun training again? Without answers to these questions, it’s probably a mistake to consider Lesnar/Carwin set in stone for January 2.
And if UFC loses that fight on that night, it looks like what UFC had hoped would become a yearly tradition — a HUGE ppv at the end of the year — was actually a mere aberration based on a confluence of factors at the end of 2008 unlikely to repeat themselves year in and year out.
What UFC appears to need more than anything in order for there to be smooth transition from pay-per-view to ppv is good luck; unfortunately, all the organization has seen since the surprise ppv hit that was UFC 101 has been luck of the other stripe.
If Lesnar/Carwin remains on the books for January 2, everything happening this week will seem little more than a minor inconvenience in the scheme of things. If, however, the fight falls apart, UFC’s string of bad luck will seem more like a curse, with fighters, company executives, and fans wondering when it will finally end. The “big” new year show would have Rashad Evans vs. Thiago Silva on top, and while that’s one-half of a main event, the other half isn’t drawing ppv buys.
If Lesnar/Carwin falls apart, I’d suggest UFC do the following: (i) scrap the rumored Houston Alexander/Kimbo Slice fight; (ii) call Chuck Liddell; and (iii) book Chuck Liddell vs. Kimbo Slice as the main event of UFC 108.
Sure, the Sherdog forum fans will complain that nobody wants to see Chuck vs. Kimbo (just as “nobody” wanted to see Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock), but the truth is everybody would want to watch that fight. It is as they say mega-buys.
No Lesnar/Carwin on January 2, I say book Chuck’s return at 215 lbs. catch weight against Kimbo Slice.
8 Responses to “UFC's Bad Luck Continues Leading Into New Year”
Got something to say?
Agree with you. It’s all sort of scary for Zuffa until they can get some of these injured or sick fighters in the cage. One inadvertant elbow to the eyebrow in training and yet another headliner is scratched.
Hey Dana, karma is a b****!
[...] [...]
So take a legend of the sport like Chuck. Put him in a no win situation where a win over Kimbo does nothing for him. And more likely a bad match up due to a aged chin and reflexes causes him to be KOed by someone who isnt well rounded enough to do anything with the Huge win he just got. That really makes no sense at all.
IMO, Kimbo pecks on that chin that was to fragile at 205. Being 1 punch KOed 3 times and the KO to Shogun was pathetic because Rua has no power in his hands at all. But does landing that punch make Kimbo better than he really is? NO. He would still lose to anyone hack with a ground game. So you didnt create a PPV draw by getting a Kimbo win. You just threw Chucks legacy and a little of MMAs down the drain when Kimbo loses to even c level guys at the bottom of the barrel like Jake O’Brien.
Chuck vs Kimbo would be shooting yourself in both feet.
Its best to let Kimbo KO Houston (who has been dropped in almost every single fight in the UFC) then Kimbo can fight a contender is wouldnt have the risk of losing like Chuck. Have Santos take out Kimbo on the feet more than likely and let Santos piggyback off the Kimbo popularity. Get eyes on the new commodity.
Always enjoy BrainSmasher’s dissenting arguments.
Well we’re coming from different points of view. Although I acknowledge Kimbo’s punchers’ chance against Chuck, I think he’s a fairly safe match-up for Chuck, among the safest that can be made (nobody’s a joke in UFC), and at this point I don’t think we’re looking at opponents who can do something for Chuck’s career, as that is so obviously on the downside it doesn’t even need saying.
Chuck/Kimbo is a big ppv fight, at least so long as Kimbo doesn’t get blitzed by Houston Alexander either on free television or ppv.
Is your alternative solution going with Rashad/Thiago Silva as the Jan. 2 main event?
I agree with you that the fight would sell. But i think it would just be a dead end. Also i dont think Evans/Silva should be the headliner. But your choice of using Chuck was great. But why waste (imo) Chuck on Kimbo at HW when you can have Chuck face and boost guys like Vasquez or Santos who can take that boost in recognition and run with it to a title fight and maybe Superstar headliner status.
Add Kimbo verses a lessor name to the card. After all Kimbo fans will tune in regardless who he fights. SO te PPV would be the same. But the future impact will be great the eiter Chuck rebounds for 1 last run at glory at HW with a win over a prospect. Or the Prospect becomes a well known draw after beating Chuck. Either way it impacts many PPVs rather than just Jan 2.
I enjoy and respect you comments on this site Mr Wolf. Keep up the good work.
eDDie on November 2nd, 2009 10:26 AM -Hey Dana, karma is a b****!
Umm, the UFC is having it’s biggest year ever and Dana will make tens of millions of dollars in 2009.
I think he’s doing OK.
Sometimes a ppv is just a ppv – and that is to generate lots buys and cash.
If Chuck’s contract is structured for a percentage of PPV buys, then he would have every incentive to fight someone like Kimbo.
Does is really matter what happens to Chuck’s ‘legacy’ at this point in his career.
It’s all about the money – and Chuck’s gonna need some retirement money pretty soon.