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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
We're now less than a week away from UFC on FX 8 in Brazil after two weekend's off for major events, but we haven't been devoid of things to talk about. That's mostly thanks to Eddie Alvarez and Bjorn Rebney, but there have been several other topics to discuss as well. To cap off the weekend, I've got a few final comments on those talking points, along with some thoughts on some of our reader reactions and poll results.
--An important thing to keep in mind in the Eddie Alvarez-Bellator situation is that it's going to come down whatever the terms were in Alvarez's initial contract with Bellator. Though their attempt to add in "material terms" to the early release letter constitutes suspicious wording, that document itself wouldn't have necessarily had an effect on the court case, because what matters is the original contract he signed with them. If the matching clause in that deal has the "material terms" wording written into it, that's an issue for Alvarez, but we haven't seen that yet. However, what Alvarez has done by releasing that information is deal another blow to Bellator from a PR standpoint, especially given Rebney's insistence that he was making false statements. Because the fact of the matter is Alvarez was telling the truth regarding what they sent to him and how it needed to be changed. But again, that itself doesn't do anything for Alvarez, and it's going to come back to interpreting the merits of Bellator's "match" to the UFC deal in court.
--Our weekend reader question asked whether fans would like to see a mixture of divisional relevance and "grudge matches" or super fights from the UFC, or whether all of the UFC's fights should have some measure of relevance to the title picture. Responses were varied, as some argued the merits of the personal battles being settled in the cage, while others desired more of a sporting-orientation to the proceedings. It's an interesting discussion to see what viewers are more geared towards, and taking into account pay-per-view numbers and TV viewership, the UFC has to hit the right mix to please a majority. We've seen supposed "grudge matches" not play out as expected, or in the case of Jones-Sonnen not perform perhaps as well as the UFC expected, and part of that is the lack of competitiveness in that fight. Having the "grudge" aspect boosted things in the GSP-Nick Diaz fight, but that was also seen as a lot more competitive than Jones-Sonnen. We're likely to see similar results in the pay-per-view numbers in some of the upcoming events, especially given a relatively tepid response thus far to this month's UFC 160 event. Fans do want to see legitimate fights, especially on top, but if you find the right mixture in there of a relevant fight that has a little extra heat to it, that's when they can go above and beyond normal business.
--This plays into a poll we ran on Sunday, asking which of the current headlining fights currently on the UFC's schedule fans were most anticipating. Anderson Silva's return against Chris Weidman constituted 42% of the vote, but it was somewhat surprisingly not the leading fight. That went to the Featherweight Championship bout between Jose Aldo and Anthony Pettis, which has a bit of that mixture we were just talking about. Pettis, as a legitimate challenger to the UFC Lightweight Championship and the former WEC Lightweight Champion in his own right, represents a legitimate challenge for Aldo, and has a bit of that "super fight" feel to it because of how exciting both fighters can be. Taking in 49% of the vote, it's the most anticipated of the current main events, and those two fights take up the meat of interest from fans right now. That fight is my most anticipated on the summer schedule as well, as I can't imagine a way in which it disappoints, but it is quite telling that the other headlining fights during that time aren't inspiring near that level of anticipation right now.
--Working off of that further, it goes into the reader discussion from earlier in the week regarding the frequency of UFC events. As they're running more and more - and look to increase that further on Fox Sports 1 - it's only natural that many of the free TV events and pay-per-view cards may start thinning out even further. They've been putting together some really good cards on free TV, and sometimes better than pay-per-view, and with so many events to fill the distribution could shift further. Considering pay-per-view remains one of their biggest sources of revenue, they've got to find the right fights to sell there, but they also want to bring eyes to free TV. That means we'll likely see a lot more pay-per-view cards sold on the strength of one to two fights on top, because they'll need to take many of those pay-per-view co-main event fights to put on Fox and Fox Sports 1 headliners.
--Given we've been out of the "fight week" grind these last couple of weeks, there's been a lot less fight news, leading the way for more analysis and reflection on other recent topics. I wanted to take a moment to comment on the piece from our newest contributor, Cameron Lyman, who took a look on Sunday at the career of Jon Jones, and how the 25-year-old Champion has kept us talking all this time. It's a nice retrospective on the progression of Jones and the twists and turns he's taken in the eyes of the public as well as in the cage. But reflecting back on what he's done so far, it's still amazing how quickly he rose up the ladder in the UFC. I can still remember seeing something special in the 21-year-old kid who made his debut in Minneapolis back in 2008 at UFC 87. That was the one time I met Jones in person, albeit briefly, and while it was impossible to know just how far he'd go and how quickly it would happen, the raw talent was there that night in his fight against Andre Gusmao. That much was undeniable, and we have been talking about him ever since.
--One final, non-MMA note: I hope everyone enjoyed this Mother's Day and their brief respite from major MMA action. I myself spent a very nice day with the many "mothers" in my life, beginning with a 5K walk with my wife, daughter, and a few of our friends for the annual Race For The Cure at the Mall of America, then a group dinner later in the day with my parents and in-laws. In the grind of this sport, for those who either cover everything or watch everything or work directly with those organizations running constantly, these types of days don't come around very often. So again, I hope all of our readers have had a nice break from fights these last two weeks, and are ready for another busy run as we get into the summer!
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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