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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief Our poll this week on MMATorch.com looks at what could be improved upon in the presentation of UFC pay-per-views. So far, leading in the votes is a list of Champions and a clear Top Five list for each of the division's challengers. Following behind that are more training videos and tutorials on the styles of key fighters.
Having a clear top five list for each division would be a great item to have in an ideal UFC. Unfortunately, it's not something we're likely to see, at least not anytime soon. The UFC's current model for the most part gets the top challenger into a title fight, but fighting style and marketability are an increasing factor in determining who's at the top of the card. And from there, there's been no criteria set up in the UFC to clearly determine who ranks where in each division.
The most obvious evidence of this model is in the middleweight division, where Yushin Okami has still not received a title shot despite only one loss in the Octagon, to former Champion and UFC 99 headliner Rich Franklin, and only two losses on his record in the last five years. That other loss is to another headlining fighter, though in a different organization, as he dropped a decision to Jake Shields three years ago. Okami's problem is he's not an exciting fighter. Five of his fights have reached the judges scorecards, and of the three that have been finished, only one was before the third round. It's left him on the outside looking in, while Patrick Cote and Thales Leites have leaped ahead of him. He's still not anywhere on the radar of Joe Silva and Dana White as far as getting a shot, with Demian Maia and Nate Marquardt getting the nod in what's being looked at as a possible number one contender fight this summer.
The point is, with multiple fighters making claims to a shot, and the decision ultimately being at the discretion of Silva and White, there is no way to state exactly who ranks above whom in the divisions. We can all sit and debate who we'd put where, but there are no finite criteria to determine the placement of fighters and thus no true way to have a top five listed on each show. Would it improve the presentation were they to give us something, anything, on this subject? Quite possibly, but until they decide to announce a set system for determining who goes where it's all subjective.
The other two top vote getters in this poll are items that can be addressed, though. I'm not so sure more training videos are a necessity, though I do like the way Strikeforce presents their fighters with the training videos and something similar would make an interesting visual to take the place of the "sit down interview with a black backdrop" that's been the staple of every UFC show. What I would like to see, though, are visual breakdowns of fighter styles.
The talk coming out of Lyoto Machida's win has been a lot about style and technique. He's got such a different way of fighting than anyone else that steps in the cage against him that he's a complete enigma to his opponents who can't understand why they can't figure him out until it's far too late. On the same token, Machida has a way of finding and exploiting any weakness his opponent may show him, no matter how large or small. A breakdown of past fights or moments in past fights to highlight different skill sets or different themes that are being talked about during the fights would go a long way to educate a large majority of fans to a different side of the sport they may not think about when they go to the bar or a buddy's house to watch the show. Showing the differences between an elite level jiu jitsu fighter and simply a good jiu jitsu fighter, or the same thing with the boxing skills of one fighter to another, these are things that could help fans gain more knowledge about the sport they love or the fighters they're watching. It would certainly be more welcome over a constant stream of plugs and time wasters that do nothing more than fill a lull between fights on a show.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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