Ennis' Take
ENNIS: Ten Burning Questions For This Summer In MMA
Jun 7, 2013 - 9:50:37 PM ENNIS: Ten Burning Questions For This Summer In MMA

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By: Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist

This summer is packed with MMA events from several MMA promotions. The UFC leads the way with eight cards through the end of August, but there is plenty more to be had between Bellator, World Series of Fighting, and others. With all these events, and more than a few significant fights, we should be able to answer some questions this summer. Let's run down the list.

Question One: How many irrelevant Brazilian fighters can the UFC pack into one event?

So maybe this one sounds a little rhetorical, but seriously: have you seen the card for this weekend's Fuel event? I watch every UFC card that happens from top to bottom, and granted I have a terrible memory, but I can't tell you anything about at least half the fighters on the card. Sure, guys like Erick Silva and Feijao have some real potential, and the main event is significant for the heavyweight standings, but the undercard and some of the main card are just loaded with guys who are of no consequence, at least right now. So the answer to that question? I'm counting fourteen.

Question Two: How viable is World Series of Fighting?

We may not know the absolute answer to this question by the end of the summer, but we could have a pretty good indication. They've got two events planned before the end of August, and then another one in September. If you take a survey of MMA fans, you probably won't find a whole lot who predict that WSOF will be around in three years. Three months could be a different story, but history has taught us several times that a TV deal and scheduled events does not necessarily make for a successful promotion.

Question Three: Who will emerge from the featherweight contenders?

This is probably the most exciting question on the board. Jose Aldo will fight Anthony Pettis at UFC 163, which will decide who the champ is for the next title defense, but who will face the champ is a whole other question. At this point, any one of six fighters could find himself at the front of the line. In fact, all of the potential number-one contender fights take place at UFC 162. Edgar-Oliveira, Swanson-Siver, and probably most significantly Jung-Lamas will likely determine the next featherweight title contender. Edgar-Oliveira is a longshot, but if Oliveira comes out and lays waste to the former lightweight champ while no one else impresses, who's to say he doesn't jump to the front of the line? The summer of featherweight intrigue doesn't stop there, though. You've got Mike Brown fighting Akira Corassani at the FS1 show in Boston to see if the former WEC champ is still alive, then there's Clay Guida-Chad Mendes and Erik Koch-Dustin Poirier in fights to see who can stay in the mix of top-flight fighters in a suddenly stacked division. If you're not excited about the featherweights right now, with all of these fights coming up, I don't know what to tell you.

Question Four: How long can Rampage stay engaged?

Quinton Jackson just barely signed with Bellator/Spike/TNA and just made his TNA debut last night. He probably won't fight (or for that matter wrestle) for quite some time. On the surface, it looks like everything Rampage could want. He's got a bunch of attention from his new suitors, and if you count the alleged four-part reality show coming up, he's got three new platforms to showcase himself. But history has shown that Rampage won't necessarily stay happy despite his employer's best efforts. How long will Bellator be able to keep him happy? Will he start to feel like he's underappreciated again, like he did in the UFC? It's likely that he'll be able to stay happy through the summer, but if he can't, Viacom has an expensive problem on their hands. We've seen Rampage in a bad place mentally before, and it's not pretty. No one's hoping for another episode like that, but with Rampage, is anyone really counting it out?

Question Five: Who can stay afloat in the Welterweight division?

Like the 145-pound division, welterweight has a glut of great and intriguing fights this summer. Historically, welterweight has been a tough division to rise to the top (remember Karo Parisyan's guaranteed title shot?) and that's no different now. Some of the division's marquis fights this summer: Tyrone Woodley vs. Jake Shields, Demian Maia vs. Josh Koscheck, Martin Kampmann vs. Carlos Condit II, Thiago Alves vs. Matt Brown, Jake Ellenberger vs. Rory MacDonald, Robbie Lawler vs. Siyar Bahadurzada. That is a wealth of fights and potential storylines. Johny Hendricks is likely the next welterweight title contender (if GSP can find time to defend his title amid movie roles and potential superfights), but after Hendricks? There are a few front-runners, but given the various outcomes that could come to pass with all of these fights, the field is essentially wide open.

Question Six: Will Josh Barnett pass a drug test in the UFC?

It's been eleven years since Josh Barnett set foot in the Octagon as "The Babyfaced Assassin." He now re-enters as "The Warmaster" eleven years after capturing the UFC Heavyweight Title only to have it stripped due to a positive steroids test. A storied career in Pride followed by another failed PED test in Affliction (his third overall) and a successful run in Strikeforce, along with several candid interviews, have painted Barnett as a guy who's pretty much going to do what he wants. Does he still want to do steroids?

Question Seven: Can Phil Davis make the leap?

Phil Davis has been here before. He started off 5-0 in the UFC, including wins over likely title contender Alexander Gustafsson and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. All that momentum came to a halt with a unanimous decision loss to Rashad Evans last January on Fox. Davis has since been fed the likes of Wagner Prado and Vinny Magalhaes while his former opponent Gustafsson built on a 4-0 post-loss record by beating Thiago Silva and Mauricio Rua en route to a presumed title shot. Davis has a chance to remedy his situation this summer when he faces another former champion in Lyoto Machida. There are enough former champions at 205 pounds that it's tough to get a title fight without going through one of them. Davis has another shot at it at UFC 163. It will be interesting to see whether he can make the most of it.

Question Eight: How viable is Fox Sports 1, and what will it mean for the UFC?

This is another question to which we won't have a full answer by the end of the summer, but the first couple of events should give us a glimpse. The new Fox Sports channel will be in more homes than Fuel, and it sounds more like a sports channel than Fuel or Speed, both of which sound like racing channels. So if the UFC comes in and does bigger ratings than their Fuel shows, maybe even matching the FX ratings, that's a good sign for them and the network. If they come out of the gate with a whimper, that probably doesn't bode well for at least the short-term viability of the network. Fox sports doesn't necessarily have a sterling reputation as a standalone network (I've always seen the original Fox Sports Network as a bit of a mess with unpredictable programming due to all the local variables), and the UFC does have a history of helping fledgling cable networks with Spike, so it will be intriguing to see if FS1 ends up as a fresh start or a continuation of mediocrity.

Question Nine: Can King Mo win a tournament that's tailor-made for him?

Bellator didn't exactly put together a bracket full of world-beaters for Muhammed Lawal's first light heavyweight tournament. In fact, the light heavyweight division in Bellator has historically been pretty unremarkable, if not full-on bad. But that didn't stop Lawal from walking straight into a spinning backfist from the unsung Emmanuel Newton in the tournament's second round. So now we have a four-man bracket for the promotion's "Summer Series," and the bracket is filled with…four of the same guys from the last time around. Renato Sobral, Jacob Noe, and Seth Petruzelli fill out the murderer's row of opponents, so if Mo can't make it through this one, we may be seeing him on AXS TV before we see him with TNA.

Question Ten: Will the injury bug continue to be a menace?

After a disastrous summer of 2012 that saw a rash of injuries take out basically every fight the UFC wanted to make, 2013 has been a breath of fresh air for fights at the top of the card. But the bug started to rear its ugly head again with UFC 161, taking out the interim title fight between Renan Barao and Eddie Wineland, followed by a fight between Little Nog and Mauricio Rua. The hope is always that it's just a one-time thing with this card, but injuries are the omnipresent threat to the UFC's best-laid plans and fans' anticipation of great fights. It hasn't been too bad so far this year, and hopefully that will continue, or else several of these questions stand to go unanswered.

Questions? Comments? Hit me up on Twitter - @shawnennis, shoot me an email – ennistorch(at)gmail.com, or leave a comment below.


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