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D. FOX: Hello? UFC? Are you listening?
Aug 24, 2015 - 9:00:25 PM D. FOX: Hello? UFC? Are you listening?

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By: Dayne Fox, MMATorch Contributor

Last Thursday night I went to sleep knowing that Ronda Rousey was going to be making a big announcement on Good Morning America. I didn't know what to expect, as I was under the assumption that Miesha Tate would be getting the next shot at Rousey as both the UFC and Rousey had pretty much already said so. When I woke up Friday, I looked up what the announcement was, and immediately my heart sank: Rousey would be facing Holly Holm on January 2 at UFC 195 for the Women's Bantamweight Championship.

My disappointment had nothing to do with dislike for Holm. It had everything to do with throwing a fighter not ready for primetime into the shark tank too early. Why is the UFC sending Holm in against Rousey when Holm had a hard enough time getting past Raquel Pennington just six months ago? Holm did look better against Marion Reneau in her last appearance… but since when did beating Marion Reneau warrant a title shot?

The ideal scenario would be to give Tate her third shot at Rousey and allow Holm and Amanda Nunes to either fight one another to determine the next contender or allow them to fight separate opponents, and award the shot to whoever looks most impressive. I will admit that Holm's skill set is ideal for defeating Rousey, but she is still new to the sport of MMA, as she has only been focusing on the sport full-time for about two years. True, she had dabbled in it while she was still boxing, but top level development doesn't occur without full-time attention, and Holm wasn't focusing on MMA at the time.

I know I'm not the only one that feels this way, as forums and Twitter have blown up over the announcement, littered with disappointment at the announcement for the same reason I did. This is the kicker for fans, though: The UFC likes to claim it gives fans the fights they want. I don't know how much more loud and clear we can be: This is NOT the fight we want.

Mike Dolce came out and publicly questioned why everyone is hating on Holly Holm. Well, we aren't hating on Holm, we're hating on the match that was made. Do you want to see the Golden State Warriors defend their title against the Minnesota Timberwolves? The ‘Wolves have all sorts of young talent in Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Zach LaVine, but they aren't ready for primetime yet. Neither is Holm. Dolce also pointed out her combat sports credentials. Yes, Holm was a champion boxer. Boxing is not MMA. When Cyborg Justino stepped into a Muay Thai ring for a match against one of the top Muay Thai fighters in the world in Jorina Baars, she had her ass handed to her. Pure Muay Thai striking is different than MMA Muay Thai striking, just as pure boxing is different from MMA boxing. Your style changes significantly when the threat of the takedown is there. Intelligent fans realize that there is a difference in the sports, and to try and tell us otherwise is to insult the people that are paying your bills.

Notwithstanding, I can see why the UFC is putting Holm into the spotlight at this time. Holm will be 34 by the time her fight with Rousey takes place and I can see the UFC being worried about her beginning to physically deteriorate. This is a legitimate concern, especially seeing as how Holm already had a long boxing career. But is it an appropriate reason to usurp a deserving contender? I don't think so.

Another reason I can see them throwing her in there is marketing reasons. Holm being a former boxing champion taking on the invincible Rousey is something that can be sold. Some people don't give a crap about credentials. Remember when Rousey faced fellow Olympian Sara McMann? Overall the PPV sales were disappointing, coming in around 340,000.

People want personality. Bethe Correia made herself a draw against Rousey because she ran her mouth and made boastful proclamations. It didn't do her any good when it came to actually fighting, but initial reports have come back showing somewhere in the neighborhood of 900,000 buys. Perhaps you could argue that the high sales were because Rousey came into her own in the public eye… so why should it matter who her opponent is so long as they have earned their shot? Holm isn't going to be doing any talking, it isn't in her personality. Tate? You better believe she would trade barbs with her nemesis! Serious swing and a miss here.

On top of the disappointment in Rousey-Holm, the UFC had already made another announcement regarding a title about a week earlier, when it was announced Fabricio Werdum would defend his title in a rematch against Cain Velasquez. Hardly anyone was excited by that news, but fans had some sort of clue when fights for potential contenders Andrei Arlovski and Stipe Miocic were announced ahead of the Werdum-Velasquez announcement.

Why is Velasquez getting a rematch? He lost definitively when Werdum submitted him in a guillotine choke in the third round at UFC 188, and Werdum was getting the better of him striking before that point as well. Many like to say that Velasquez was a dominant champ, but he had only completed two title defenses, both against opponents he had already beaten in Junior dos Santos and Bigfoot Silva. Throw in the fact that he had a 20 month layoff as champion, fans were ready for a new face for the title. Umm… UFC? This is NOT the fight we want to see.

How about Werdum against a resurgent Arlovski? The re-emergence of Arlovski has been awesome enough, and a hell of an easy story to sell, but it adds more intrigue when it is pointed out Arlovski already owns a victory over Werdum. Granted it came back in 2007, but it's a victory nonetheless! How about Stipe Miocic? Miocic dismantled Mark Hunt in his last fight, a guy who gave Werdum serious problems just this past November. If it weren't for a questionable judges decision against Junior dos Santos in December, Miocic would be riding a five-fight win streak. Speaking of dos Santos, isn't he the guy who sent Werdum packing from the UFC in 2008 when a then unknown dos Santos pulled off one of the biggest upsets seen in the sport? So doesn't Werdum have unfinished business with him?

Any of these options would have been more favorable to the fans. But no. We are being told we get another immediate rematch for a former champion. Hasn't the UFC learned from this? Fans don't want to see it.

Remember the lukewarm reaction when it was announced Renan Barao would receive an immediate rematch against T.J. Dillashaw? How about when there were talks about Robbie Lawler and Johny Hendricks going at it a third time? The first two fights were great, but fans wanted something new. We ended up with one of the greatest fights our sport has seen this past July when Lawler and Rory MacDonald went to war.

Another reason fans don't care for them is due to how rare it is the champion regains their belt. B.J. Penn was dominated thoroughly by Frankie Edgar in their second bout after their closely contested first fight. Edgar ended up on the short end of the stick again when he rematched Benson Henderson (even if Edgar really did win that fight). And we all remember what happened with Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman. Barring major controversy, or following a reign that is undeniably dominant, fans don't want to see immediate rematches!

What's that you say? Tate would have been getting a rematch? While that is true, Tate had earned another chance at Rousey by beating four other fighters since her loss to Rousey. Even those reluctant to see her fight Rousey again would admit she had earned her way back. So it wasn't an immediate rematch, but a deserved chance after reproving herself. The same could be said of Robbie Lawler picking up two wins in between his fights with Hendricks. He too earned his title shot once again even if Hendricks hadn't faced anyone else as he recovered from surgery.

I haven't even mentioned the bogus matchmaking involved in putting Alexander Gustafsson in there with Daniel Cormier. Gustafsson is coming off an absolute shellacking from the man Daniel Cormier beat to earn the Light Heavyweight Title, Anthony Johnson. And yet he walks into a title shot over Ryan Bader, a guy riding a four-fight win streak against increasingly difficult competition. The reasoning is that Gustafsson would sell better.

While the pay-per-view hasn't taken place - which obviously means I can't put a number on the sales for this show - I don't hear Gustafsson doing any selling. Bader? He was selling a fight with Cormier at the post-event press conference at UFC 187 when Cormier took the belt. A natural rivalry was already brewing as Cormier was trading barbs with him as well. What has Cormier done to sell his fight with Gustafsson? Nothing. He has no beef with Gus, so he doesn't care to sell it.

Gustafsson had an epic battle with Jon Jones, and beyond that, fans have cared about him about as much as they care about Bader. Don't get me wrong because I'm a fan of Gus, but he should NOT be getting that title fight. The danger here is Cormier is heavily favored. Should he beat Gustafsson, that will be Gustafsson's second failed bid at the title and third loss in four fights. How excited will fans be to see him receive a third shot? That could possibly kill his chances at getting the rematch against Jones that so many have clamored for whenever the Baddest Man on the Planet returns… at least for a long enough time that fans could end up caring less.

Fans are not stupid, so don't tell us we are by insinuating that we don't know what we want. Maybe I'm overreacting, but… oh what's the use. No one is listening anyway…