Hyden's Take
HYDEN BLOG: A Look Back at Some of 2014's Top MMA Stories
Dec 31, 2014 - 11:00:28 AM HYDEN BLOG: A Look Back at Some of 2014's Top MMA Stories

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By: Frank Hyden, MMATorch contributor

2014 was a very interesting year in the sport of MMA. Let's take a look back at some of the bigger stories of the past 12 months.


2014: The Year of Injuries

It's not completely accurate to say this, but it sure seemed as though injuries wrecked more cards than usual. Injuries are a part of the sport, but they reached ridiculous levels this year. If it wasn't UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez hurting himself and seriously damaging UFC 180 in the process, it was UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman getting injured and having his planned UFC 181 title defense postponed. UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo hurt himself and had to postpone his planned UFC 176 fight until UFC 179, leading the UFC to cancel UFC 176 in the process. UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones got hurt and had to delay his UFC 178 fight with Daniel Cormier until UFC 182.

UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson and UFC Bantamweight Champion T.J. Dillashaw are the only guys who didn't get hurt. And actually, Dillashaw has had surgery for bursitis this fall, but he shouldn't miss any more time than usual. And on top of that, Dominick Cruz was supposed to get the next title shot at Dillashaw, but he tore his ACL again and is out for a long time. Then, Raphael Assuncao, who was thought to be in the mix for a title shot, broke his ankle and he's out for a while. UFC Lightweight Champion Anthony Pettis didn't get hurt this year, thankfully, but he was only scheduled to fight once, making his first in-cage appearance of the year aaaaaaa few weeks ago at UFC 181. The UFC thought it was better to waste his time filming a coaching gig on The Ultimate Fighter than defending his belt.

Johny Hendricks won the vacant UFC Welterweight Championship at UFC 171 against Robbie Lawler, even though he had injured himself prior to the fight. He required surgery, which delayed his rematch against Lawler, who would go on to win the title from Hendricks at UFC 181. UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey dealt with some injuries of her own this year as well.

This is just the champions, it doesn't even take into account the other fighters who have suffered injuries this year. It reached ridiculous proportions. You almost couldn't believe that all these injuries happened. It became an all-too-often occurrence to check the news and see another fight was delayed or canceled due to injury.

Class-action lawsuits

This is a still developing story so there's a lot left to find out here, but this is huge stuff. Former UFC fighters Cung Le, Jon Fitch, Nate Quarry, Dennis Hallman, Javier Vasquez, Brandon Vera, and Pablo Garza have all been named as plaintiffs in three different class-action lawsuits against the UFC. Allegations of a monopoly and unfair treatment concerning wages and such are the main issues. There's a lot more to come from this story, but this is something that won't go away or be resolved for a while. These guys wouldn't have gone to all this trouble, and the lawyers wouldn't have come on board, unless they felt there was something here. We'll have to see how this shakes out, but this is most definitely a huge story. The uniform deal with Reebok that the UFC signed this year, which will go into effect mid-2015, will likely play a role in this story as well. That's why I didn't make it its own story. That, and we don't know all the details yet.

Overall dilution of cards

I've already beaten this subject to death, so I won't go on for too long here, but this is something that is really weakening the sport. The UFC has diluted their fight cards so much that casual fans are lucky to know even the participants of one fight, yet alone multiple fights. That's not the best way to judge a card, of course, but even if you're a hardcore fan and know most of the guys fighting, you're bound to be disappointed with the lack of card depth you see. And yet the UFC insists on scheduling more and more cards. It's one thing to have a weak card for a FOX Sports 1 event, it's a whole other thing to have a pay-per-view with a weak card. The UFC usually books one good fight per pay-per-view these days, and when you couple that with the injuries I mentioned up above, you're courting disaster. The UFC has had to cancel two events in their history, UFC 151 in September 2012 and UFC 176 this past August. That just shows how weak the cards were.

The UFC has done this for years, and they should be humiliated and embarrassed that they've had to cancel cards because of their weak booking. I know it's not a team sport, but you shouldn't be so reliant on one fight or fighter. That's just bad business. I'd like to think that they will change, but it doesn't look that way.

Anyhow, these are just a few of the bigger stories of the past year. I look forward to some big stories to come in the next 12 months. I hope everyone had, and has, a good holiday. Here's to hoping that 2015 is a good year.

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