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HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from World Series of Fighting 10, and the UFC drops the ball
Jun 25, 2014 - 12:45:03 PM
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from World Series of Fighting 10, and the UFC drops the ball
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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

The World Series of Fighting returned this past weekend with WSOF 10 on NBC Sports Network. Let's get right to it.

World Series of Fighting 10

GOOD: Lance Palmer submits Nick Lobosco

There wasn't a whole lot to the fight, as Palmer was just the better fighter. Lobosco was outmatched on the ground and it was only a matter of time before Palmer finished it.

GOOD: Tyson Griffin vs. Luiz Firmino

Firmino got the better of the grappling, and that gave him the victory. The fight was fine. It wasn't anything great, but both guys tried hard so it was pretty good. Firmino won the decision.

GOOD: Jessica Aguilar vs. Emi Fujino

Aguilar retained her WSOF Strawweight Title with this dominating decision win. The first three rounds were quite good, as Aguilar just basically messed up Fujino's face and ground her down to a nub. After that, things slowed considerably. Fujino's corner really should have stopped the fight in the fourth round, and definitely in the fifth. There was no way Fujino was going to win by that point. Aguilar could have put her hands behind her back like Roy Jones Jr. and let Fujino hit her as much as she could and it wouldn't have done anything.

I give Fujino credit for being tough, but she crossed the line into being stubbornly prideful. If she wasn't going to quit (not that I expected her too) her corner should have stepped in and saved her. I give Aguilar tons of credit for controlling and dominating things so thoroughly, but those last two rounds sucked. It didn't seem as though Fujino was going to be stopped, though, so I don't blame Aguilar too much, but that made the later rounds hard to watch.

GOOD: Rick Glenn stops Georgi Karakhanyan

Glenn took the WSOF Featherweight Title from Karakhanyan after a back-and-forth first round. Karakhanyan damn near had the fight won with an armbar, but Glenn showed some impressive defensive skills and was able to avoid it. Then, in the second round, Glenn poured it on and devastated Karakhanyan with some brutal striking. At some point during that round Karakhanyan broke a rib. It was likely due to a knee to the body from Glenn, but I'm not sure. The fight was stopped in between the second and third rounds, and Glenn became the new champ at 145lbs. It was a damn impressive showing from Glenn.

GOOD: Dave Branch submits Jesse Taylor

Branch got the slick submission win early in the first round to win the WSOF Middleweight Title. Taylor went for a submission early and likely burned his arms out. After that, Branch just locked in the choke and got the tap. Really nice win for Branch.

*************

Viacom shook up Bellator this week as they got rid of Bjorn Rebney and Tim Danaher, bringing in Scott Coker to replace them. Coker was the head of Strikeforce for many years, so this sounds like a good thing. It's too early to tell, but one thing that Bellator will change is definitely a good thing. They plan on getting rid of the tournament format. I love tournaments, but they don't fit as well in the world of MMA. They also hamstring the organization at times, and that's never a good thing.

I really hope that Coker and Viacom make Bellator a big success. I want to see another company push the UFC, that's what makes for a better sport. In the fight between the UFC and Bellator, we all win.

*************

Dana White recently made more comments that have you seriously questioning his standing in the MMA world, and whether he's outlived his usefulness, much as Bjron Rebney outlived his usefulness for Bellator. When talking about a UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson vs. John Dodson rematch he had this to say:

"Too bad if Demetrious doesn't like that fight, that's the fight he's probably looking at."

Johnson has expressed interest in fighting someone other than Dodson, since he already beat Dodson before. He specifically brought up Brad Pickett, who has a win over Johnson. Now, don't get me wrong, I absolutely think that Dodson should be the next man to fight Johnson, but the way Dana said this sends a bad message. Couple this with the accusations of strong-arming that UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones has complained about, and you've got obvious tension among some of your champions with the way that Dana talks about them, and the public statements he makes regarding them.

This is a smaller issue compared to what he had to say regarding UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo, who recently joined the many other UFC fighters who have complained about their pay.

Said White: "It's up to a guy like Jose Aldo to make people care and want to watch your fights."

This was in a discussion about the lighter fighters not being as big of a draw as the heavier ones. And make no mistake, the vast majority of fighters don't do enough to promote themselves. Get on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc and start interacting with people and building a fanbase. Spend 10 minutes a day in front of the mirror practicing how to cut a promo so you're not stumbling over your words and you're able to get people to want to watch you fight. Offer to do an interview with any and all places that will do it. Send out emails to all the MMA sites, and other places like ESPN and Sports Illustrated and Yahoo telling them that you'll do an interview about anything at anytime.

Most fighters don't do that stuff, they forget that this is also entertainment, and that you have to make your name known. Having that said, however, it is also incumbent upon the promoter to actually do their job and promote you. It's a 50/50 deal at most, and this is where the UFC drops the ball tremendously. To hear Dana White say that the onus is on Jose Aldo to make people care and want to watch his fights is absolute garbage. He's playing a shell game and trying to distract attention away from the fact that he has failed miserably at his job, which is to promote fighters.

To be blunt, what he said is a buffoonish statement. A promoter saying that it's up to the fighters to promote themselves. What is his job then? What exactly is he doing? I mean, other than making the company look bad with his constant and ridiculous lies about the use of TRT in the UFC, among many other dumb things he's said. That's not even mentioning the seeds of dissent he sows among the fighters with his public complaints about them.

A fight promoter is supposed to be like your agent, pushing your name out there and making it as visible as they can. That benefits both sides because the fighter gets more popular and makes more money, and the promoter makes more money as well, and is then able to promote more and more fighters, making them more money in the process. This is where the UFC has fumbled the ball to a ridiculous degree.

Why is T.J. Dillashaw not all over the place right now? He just beat a guy who had won 30+ fights in a row, and not only that, but he dominated him. Why isn't Chris Weidman more famous right now? He beat arguably the best fighter in MMA history twice. Granted, the circumstances weren't ideal, as an injury stoppage win takes a bit of the air out of the room, but still, the fact remains that he has two wins over Anderson Silva. Where's the publicity for him? There's plenty of other cases as well, but those are two of the more egregious. Granted, some of this is on the fighters but in that 50/50 split, most of their job comes in the cage. They have to train all the time to become the elite athletes they are. The UFC promotional machine doesn't have to worry about such things, yet they still manage to do less to promote the fighters than the fighters themselves do.


Comments and suggestions can be emailed to me at hydenfrank@gmail.com and you can follow me on Twitter at @hydenfrank


DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from UFC Fight Night 82
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from Bellator 148 and UFC on FOX 18
HYDEN BLOG: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly from WSOF 27, plus thoughts on Frankie Edgar and eyepokes

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