Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: No More Champions Coaching The Ultimate Fighter
Nov 5, 2014 - 3:35:03 PM HYDEN BLOG: No More Champions Coaching The Ultimate Fighter

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez was scheduled to defend his belt against Fabricio Werdum at UFC 180. He had to pull out of that fight, though, because he injured himself in training. This was supposed to be the big fight for the UFC's first event in Mexico, and now it's all shot to dust. I'll address this later, because the replacement fight of Fabricio Werdum vs. Mark Hunt is still a good fight, but they wanted Velasquez to fight in Mexico because he's got Mexican heritage, and that would have been good to drum up support.

Injuries happen, and it's a part of the game, but what really sucks about this is that the UFC had Velasquez waste time coaching a season of The Ultimate Fighter. This is such a monumental waste of time for these high-level fighters. Champions and anybody in the title mix should not be coaching these seasons, they should be fighting. If Velasquez had fought Werdum when they were both ready and able to fight, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Velasquez hasn't fought since October 2013, and he's not scheduled to return until March 2015 at the earliest. So he's basically out for a year and a half because of this coaching commitment, along with other injuries. This isn't the first time a champion or title contender has been sidelined for months because of coaching a season of TUF, and it won't be the last. It doesn't always turn out like this, though, with a champion being out of action even longer because of an injury after a coaching stint, but one time is too many.

Coaching a season of TUF is a nice way to raise the profile of the fighters a bit, but there are other ways to accomplish this. You can have them be guest commentators or analysts on the 27 million shows the UFC insists on having each month, or do extended interviews with them. There are a lot of different ways to do this without taking away from the one thing these guys should be doing the most, fighting. I'm afraid of this happening to other champions as well. Divisions get held up enough without adding TUF coaching gigs into the mix.

As for the question of who should be coaching these seasons of TUF, it should be older guys who are no longer going to compete for titles. The UFC has announced that Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Anderson Silva are going to coach an upcoming season of TUF. I think that's a pretty great way to handle it. I'm a little on the fence about Silva coaching, but that's because it's not clear if he'll even compete for a title again. We know Shogun won't compete for a title again. Injuries, age, punishment taken, etc. have all closed the door on Shogun competing for a title ever again. That makes him a perfect guy to coach a TUF season.

Ideally, the UFC should get these older guys who are either still fighting or retired to be the coaches. Guys like Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Frank Mir, B.J. Penn, and others fit this bill. They could even try to get guys like Georges St-Pierre if he wants to coach but not fight, or Carlos Condit as he rehabs from his knee injury, or other guys who are either dealing with injuries or just aren't that interested in fighting anymore.

The Ultimate Fighter is going to get the ratings it usually gets, regardless of who the coach is. You might be able to goose the ratings a little bit with some of the more popular fighters, but you'd rather see those guys fighting on pay-per-view anyway. That's a much more valuable use of their time.

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I mentioned earlier that Mark Hunt will be taking Cain Velasquez's place at UFC 180 and will be fighting Fabricio Werdum for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Title. Velasquez is scheduled to come back in March 2015, so the idea of creating an interim belt is pretty pointless, but the UFC obviously just wants to advertise a title fight for UFC 180, because the rest of the card is rather weak. The only other fight of note on the card is Ricardo Lamas vs. Dennis Bermudez, which is a good fight, but UFC 180 is still a pretty thin card.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to Hunt vs. Werdum as I think both guys have good stories. Hunt has a great comeback story, and he's also an extremely exciting fighter. That walk-off knockout he had over Roy Nelson is like something from a tall tale. Hunt has done a lot in his career, as has Werdum. What makes Werdum interesting to me is the improvement we've seen in his striking game. Werdum took out Travis Browne with his striking, and everyone knows what he can do on the ground. It's great to see a guy improve himself and become a more well-rounded fighter. It's disappointing that Velasquez got hurt, but Hunt vs. Werdum is a nice replacement.


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