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The UFC is bringing out the big guns this weekend. Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, and Matt Hughes are all favorites in the top three fights on the card. Penn is probably the number three pay-per-view draw in MMA right now, Silva is perhaps the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and Hughes is one of the remaining "names" from when the UFC took off back in 2005. Its a can't miss event, right? Well, for me, yes. I'll watch any and all MMA I can get my hands/eyes on. For casual fans? Probably.
Those are three of the most recognizable names in the UFC and name recognition is fairly key in selling a show. But what about the people in the middle? You know who I'm talking about. There's a large pay-per-view buying contingent out there who waits for the big shows to order because they don't have the disposable coin to drop on MMA every three weeks.
Certainly this would qualify as one of those big shows, no? As I said, there's three huge names involved. Unfortunately, standing across from those three will be something less than big "names". In fact, all three are dramatic betting favorites in their fights.
Silva will defend his middleweight crown against jiu-jitsu dynamo Demian Maia. Penn defends the lightweight strap against perhaps his most well-rounded challenger in Frankie Edgar. And then there's Hughes, a fighter well past his prime, content on taking fights that pose little risk for him, stepping in against 43 year old, UFC debuting Renzo Gracie. Oh sure, that last name gets MMA fan's hearts racing, but are we really supposed to think a 43 year old man coming off of a three year layoff, whose style is tailor made for Hughes, is going to take out the (second) greatest welterweight of all time?
After watching Demian Maia take a nosedive to the canvas from one Nate Marquardt punch, do we really expect him to be able to get the greatest striker in MMA down to the mat? Well rounded as he is, Frankie Edgar will be giving up significant size to Penn, not to mention the fact that Penn is just plain better in every conceivable area (wrestling, you say? You'll believe me after Penn has stuffed his umpteenth takedown and responds with a double leg of his own in the fourth round).
Past the Big Three, the rest of the card, while very deep with quality fights, offers nothing in the way of important fights. No #1 contender bouts. No one just a step or six away. Just a bunch of dynamic, evenly matched fighters.
So now that I've talked all you fence-sitters out of laying down your hard earned cash for this show, allow me to win you back. Every UFC event of the last several years has taken place in either a Las Vegas casino or a basketball/hockey arena or large events center. With the exception of doing a Fight for the Troops show out of an airplane hangar with a couple thousand soldiers in their fatigues, every show looks basically the same. Same wide shots of the arena. Same generic faces in the crowd. Same entrances through Gate 110. Well if there's one thing I can guarantee you, its that this UFC event will look and feel unlike anything we've ever seen.
For the uninformed, several months back the UFC announced that it had sold a 10% share of the promotion to Flash Entertainment. What's Flash Entertainment, you ask? Its a subsidiary of the government of the United Arab Emirates. They're charged with, well, bringing entertainment to the country. They've hosted some of the biggest names in the music industry, putting on concerts by Aerosmith, Beyonce, and Kings of Leon. Now they're dipping their collective big toe into the MMA game.
UFC 112 will take place at Concert Arena at Ferrari World on Yas Island. It will also take place... outdoors. See here's where the fun comes in. For the professional wrestling fans out there, you may remember Wrestlemania's 9 and 24 which both took place outside. You may also remember that both times there was a structure erected over the ring in case of rain. Apparently, we'll be getting no such structure at UFC 112. Granted, the structure would've only prevented one of the possible weather disasters, and seeing as this will be in the desert, and deserts tend to be kinda dry, maybe it won't be such a big deal.
The desert does, however, present a couple of other dilemmas. First and foremost, the heat. The event will be taking place at 10p.m. local time, so at least the sun will be down by then. However, its still likely that the temperature will be well into the 80's for most, if not all, of the card. That's a big difference from the climate controlled arenas the fighters are used to. Will every fighter be drenched in sweat for the opening bell?
And what about the wind/sand. It is the desert, after all. What if a big gust of wind picks up and dusts the mat with a layer of sand? Could we actually see Demian Maia avoiding taking the fight to ground? Fighters generally slip on slick logos, but this event offers the chance to see fighters slip due to a variety of things; sweat, rain, or sand. The fighters could find themselves fighting two opponents, the man standing across from him and the elements.
That's not to mention the crowd. The United Arab Emirates is a predominantly Islamic country, and while they may be one of the more "socially advanced" countries in the Middle East, its still unlikely you'll be seeing 15,000 spectators in the usual Affliction/Ed Hardy/Silver Star garb.
Despite the presence of familiar faces inside the Octagon, this will be unlike anything we've ever seen before. There's some serious train-wreck potential here. Forget the fighters, its everything else about this show that makes it must-see TV.
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