Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: The UFC is Off Balance With Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen
Oct 24, 2012 - 9:25:24 AM HYDEN BLOG: The UFC is Off Balance With Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

MMATorch columnist Brad Walker wrote a very good piece last week about how Chael Sonnen fighting Jon Jones for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title after coaching against him on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter is a joke. I want to chime in with my thoughts.

I understand the entertainment aspect of the UFC has to play a large role in everything that they do. It's something I've argued for a long time. Yes, MMA is a sport first and foremost, but it's also entertainment. If something isn't interesting people won't tune in. At the same time, though, you can't just go for pure entertainment at the expense of the sport.

Anderson Silva vs. Stephan Bonnar was a fun little romp, but that's the exception to the rule. That was a fight made on short notice in order to save an upcoming PPV event. It also wasn't a title fight and wasn't billed as being a titanic clash between elite fighters. The promos for the fight said you would either see a spectacular knockout or a historic upset.

Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen isn't a fight made on short notice in order to save a PPV. It is a title fight, and it will be billed as a titanic clash between elite fighters, even though pretty much everyone out there is going to know that Jones will likely destroy Sonnen. Jon Jones is a better wrestler than Anderson Silva. In the first Silva vs. Sonnen fight, Sonnen was able to use his wrestling to hold Silva down. Sonnen had an advantage in that he was juiced up for the fight in that his testosterone levels were at a ratio of 16.9 to 1; a ratio of 4 to 1 is the maximum allowed so that means that Sonnen's levels were over four times the max allowed, clearly indicating his use of synthetic testosterone. Silva also had injured ribs leading in to the fight.

The rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen was a totally different story. The first round played out the same as the first fight, with Sonnen taking Silva down and holding him there, although after seeing Silva put himself in danger against Stephan Bonnar it's possible that Silva allowed Sonnen to take him down in the first round and keep him there. It's crazy, but possible. In the second round, Silva stuffed Sonnen and put him out with a vicious barrage.

Silva is a better striker and submission artist than Jones, but Jones is the better wrestler. If Silva can stuff Sonnen's takedowns it stands to reason that Jones can do the same. That is the only weapon that Sonnen has outside of his motor. I think Jones is going to annihilate Sonnen, which invalidates the UFC's premise that Sonnen deserves to leapfrog everyone else in the light heavyweight division.

I don't think that Lyoto Machida, Dan Henderson, or Mauricio Rua have a good chance of beating Jones, but I think all three of those guys have a better chance than Chael Sonnen does. Let's look at it from an entertainment perspective. Is Sonnen really a draw? Is he more of a draw than the three above I mentioned? It's true that the rematch between Silva and Sonnen did big numbers in the 1 million buys range, but how much of that was based off of the possibility of seeing Silva lose? There was very real doubt among a lot of fans that Silva could lose. A lot of fans don't follow the ins and outs of MMA like we do, they don't have MMA sites bookmarked on their computers so they may not even have known that Sonnen popped a drug test. All they knew was that Sonnen came closer to beating Silva than anyone had in years.

In order to sell this PPV the UFC is going to have to hype up Sonnen as a legit threat to Jones. They're basically going to have to lie. This is a very short-sighted move. They may do good numbers with this card, although I would argue that they could achieve equal numbers with any of the three I mentioned previously. There's only so many times the UFC can hype up a guy before the public starts tuning them out.

The UFC realizes that they have to give a lot of attention to the entertainment aspect of the sport, and for that they should be commended. However, they can't neglect the sporting aspect of the sport either. They need to find the right balance. In this case, I think the balance is off quite a bit.


Comments and suggestions can be e-mailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com