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By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Columnist
As we move on to 2012, we'll take a look back at the year that was in 2011 with MMATorch's 11 of 11. For the first 11 days of 2012, several MMATorch writers will be providing top 11 lists in a number of different categories regarding the year of MMA in 2011. Today we continue with Rich Hansen's 11 biggest stories of 2011.
11.) Alistair Overeem leaves Strikeforce and signs with UFC
On July 29, Strikeforce released Alistair Overeem, despite his being their heavyweight champion and being a semi-finalist in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. I'll never forget the moment when the news broke. It was the day before Fedor vs. Henderson, and I was at the Tilted Kilt in Elgin, IL with Chuck Mindenhall, Damon Martin, Brian Hemminger, Duane Finley, and Steve Meulhausen. And never have I heard more cell phones chirp, chime, and vibrate during the ten minutes when that story broke. It was really quite the surreal moment.
But now that I have both name-dropped and made the story about myself enough to nauseate even the least cynical, Alistair Overeem's journey to the UFC is really a hell of a story. Less than two weeks before the trave-sham-ockery of his Strikeforce release, Overeem pulled out of the ill-fated Grand Prix because he said he wouldn't be ready to fight until October while Strikeforce wanted him to fight in September.
It was originally believed that his unwillingness to fight in September was the reason for his release. Later it was believed that a philosophical dispute between the UFC and Overeem's gym, Golden Glory, was the real reason for his release. Yet others believe that his entire release was a sham, orchestrated by the UFC to legally get him under UFC contract as soon as possible. Regardless of the reason, Overeem is now the number one contender for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett are the only two heavyweights still under contract with Strikeforce, and Strikeforce will be abandoning the division entirely in 2012.
10.) The saga of Nick Diaz
While there were questions and conspiracy theories galore to the manner of Alistair Overeem's transfer to the UFC, Nick Diaz's transfer to the UFC was very straight forward. He threatened to box somebody named Jeff Lacy, and he used that leverage to get himself not only signed to the UFC, but his return fight to the UFC would be a title fight against reigning Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre.
Except for the fact that Nick Diaz skipped out on three press conferences to hype the fight because he couldn't handle the pressure of being in a UFC main event, leading to Dana White pulling him from the title fight in a fit of pique and replacing him with Carlos Condit, who wound up not fighting St-Pierre because St-Pierre got hurt so Diaz wound up fighting B.J. Penn in the main event of the same event Diaz got pulled from because he couldn't handle the pressure of being in the main event of the exact same event he eventually main evented anyways.
I'll give you a moment to digest all of that.
OK. Nick Diaz did flake out of his media obligations, and was pulled from the UFC 137 card. A couple days later, he was placed in a co-main event fight on the same card, against B.J. Penn. When Georges St-Pierre pulled out of the main event fight, Nick Diaz versus B.J. Penn was promoted to the main event. In one of the best fights of the year, and in the defining moment of Diaz's career, Diaz manhandled Penn en route to a unanimous decision victory.
Actually, the defining moment of his career, considering that this is Nick Diaz we're talking about after all, very well may have been when he called out GSP in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. The champion St-Pierre then demanded to face Diaz instead of Condit next, pretty much as a direct result of Diaz's call out.
And in a final twist, St-Pierre pulled out of the February, 2012 fight with Diaz, and now Diaz will face Carlos Condit for the UFC Interim Welterweight Championship.
9.) WEC fighters debut in the UFC
It's hard to believe that it's been a mere 13 months since the WEC was melded into the UFC. On December 16, 2010, Benson Henderson dropped his WEC Lightweight Championship to Anthony Pettis in what was regarded by many observers to be the 2010 Fight of the Year, and what was factually the last fight in the history of the WEC.
After the conclusion of that fight, nobody really knew how well lightweights such as Pettis, Henderson, and Cerrone would hold up against the UFC's 155 pound roster. It was believed that Cerrone was not good enough to hang, Pettis was too flashy, and Henderson looked great against lesser talent. Since then, Cerrone has gone 4-1 in the UFC. Pettis is likely one fight away from a UFC Lightweight Championship shot. And that title shot might very well be a rematch with Benson Henderson, who has earned a title shot of his own after going 3-0 in the UFC in 2011.
The 155'ers weren't the only fighters to come over from the WEC either. Jose Aldo was named the UFC Featherweight Champion, and has defeated Mark Hominick and UFC vet and former lightweight Kenny Florian. Dominick Cruz has skyrocketed up the pound for pound lists by defeating Urijah Faber and Demetrious Johnson, the former fight headlining a UFC PPV event, and the latter fight being the first UFC title fight to air live on basic cable.
8.) Randy Couture retires
While he may not have gone out in the manner he would have liked, Randy Couture went out on his shield in 2011. Couture announced his retirement in the cage after being on the receiving end of one of the most spectacular knockouts of all time, eating a remarkable crane kick at the hands of foot of Lyoto Machida.
Couture gracefully announced his retirement immediately following the fight, and seemed completely at ease with his decision. Unlike legends like Jens Pulver, Chuck Liddell, et. al., Couture was able to leave on more or less his own terms. Between overseeing Xtreme Couture and a burgeoning action movie career, Couture is moving on from his mixed martial arts career with his head held high.
7.) Jon Jones' year
Nobody in the history of the sport has had a better year than Jon Jones had in 2011. He began the year by choking out undefeated Ryan Bader. The Bader fight wound up being a title eliminator, because at the conclusion of the fight he was offered a title fight with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua when Joe Rogan announced to the world that Rashad Evans was unable to challenge Rua for his title in a mere six weeks time.
Jones could have fought Rua after six minutes off instead of six weeks, and it wouldn't have made a difference. The freakishly athletic Jones destroyed the legendary Shogun, and captured the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship via TKO in round number three. From the first ten seconds of the fight, there was no doubt in anyone's mind who was going to win that fight, including Rua himself.
Six months later, Jones owned Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, choking Rampage out in the fourth round. While Jones had never gone into the fourth round in any of his previous fights, it seemed as if Jones was toying with the slower Jackson, and the outcome was never in doubt.
Jones ended 2011 in style, choking out Lyoto Machida with a wicked standing guillotine in the second round in the UFC 140 main event. While Jones did, in fact, lose the first round, the finish over Machida was possibly the singular image of the year, savagely releasing Machida so that the unconscious Dragon would fall to the mat like 204 pounds of dead weight.
The only individual year that compares with Jones' 2011 is Shogun's 2005. But the point of this article is not to debate the merits of Jones' 2011 to Shogun's 2005. Rather, it is to commemorate the fact that the rise of Jon Jones is one of the biggest stories in mixed martial arts in 2011.
6.) UFC PPV buy rates dropped significantly
Thanks to "MMAPayout.com Blue Book" for all numbers listed below.
It wasn't all puppies and rainbows for the UFC in 2011. The UFC, which is in fact a pay-per-view business as much as it is anything else, suffered a 30% drop in their average PPV buyrate from 2010 to 2011. For a company whose number one profit center is the sale of PPVs, this can only be considered a disturbing trend.
In 2010, the UFC put together 15 PPV events (discarding WEC 48). Those 15 events sold approximately 9,000,000 buys, for an average just north of 600,000 per event. In 2011, the UFC pumped out 16 PPV events. Those 16 events sold approximately 6,750,000 buys, for an average of about 420,000 per event. The UFC in 2010 had 3 PPVs that sold more than 1,000,000 units. In 2011, that number was 0. In 2010 the UFC had 4 events that sold less than 500,000 units. In 2011, that number was 12.
Now that we know the numbers, why did this happen? Of course, the question is not as simple to answer as it is to ask. It's difficult to quantify if the UFC has peaked, if the quality of the cards was diminished, if the UFC has flooded their own market, or if the price point is too high in this sluggish economy.
However, there are two factors that we can quantify. In 2010 and 2011, the two biggest PPV draws in the UFC were Georges St-Pierre and Brock Lesnar. St-Pierre and Lesnar fought one time apiece in 2011. UFC 129 sold 800,000 units headlined by St-Pierre. UFC 141 sold 800,000 units, headlined by Lesnar. Those were the two best selling shows of 2011 for the promotion. In 2010, GSP and Lesnar fought twice apiece. Those 4 events sold an average of 945,000 units.
To paraphrase former Boston Celtic head coach Rick Pitino, Brock and Georges aren't walking through that door. Lesnar has retired from the sport after his shellacking by Alistair Overeem, and St-Pierre's career is in doubt due to injury concerns. While the UFC's deal with Fox (to be discussed later, oops, spoiler alert), will undoubtedly help the PPV portion of the business, it is unknown if that help will push the numbers up, keep them steady, or simply slow an irreversible downward trend.
5.) Viacom buys Bellator
Just a few months ago, the future of Bellator was in doubt. They were a distant number 3 in North America, trailing not only the UFC but Strikeforce as well. Bellator was stuck with a bad TV contract on MTV2, a network that was hardly a fit for their preferred target demographic (non-11 year old girls). The Chicago based promotion was hemorrhaging money like the forehead of Joe Stevenson against B.J. Penn, and the future was bleak.
Meanwhile in Commissioner Gordon's office, the UFC was in a testy contract negotiation with Viacom, parent company of Spike TV. Ultimately, the UFC decided to leave Spike for a network deal with Fox, leaving Viacom without any mixed martial arts programming.
Enter Bellator. Viacom struck fast, buying a majority ownership stake of Bellator, and later announcing that Bellator would move from MTV2 in 2013. In the meantime, Spike TV would hold onto the UFC's library and aggressively counter-program UFC on Fox/FX/Fuel TV with as much taped UFC programming as possible.
In 2011, Bellator went from an unknown future as the #3 promotion in a flooded market to being the solid #2 with corporate ownership very motivated to see Bellator grow and prosper. All and all, not a bad year for Bellator. Now if only they could find a way to get Jay Hieron and Eddie Alvarez a chance to fight for the gold without having to go through three other fighters in 10 weeks, amiright?
4.) UFC fighters get medical insurance
This is one of those stories that doesn't have much impact on the fan, but is life-changing for 99% of the UFC roster. Before June 1, if a UFC fighter got injured in training, the fighter was entirely on their own to pay for the medical care they would need to regain their health. This fact would force fighters desperate for an opportunity or a paycheck to fight through and outright conceal injuries, leading to many a negative consequence for themselves.
For reasons that can only be described as "the right thing to do," Zuffa announced on May 9 that as of June 1, all fighters under contract with Zuffa would be covered under a Zuffa-sponsored health insurance plan. Zuffa announced that they would pay 100% of all premiums for all fighters.
The response to this news was rare in the fact that everybody in the MMA community responded in the same manner; unanimous praise. Fighters now have the peace of mind to know that they can train to their fullest without the risk of bankruptcy, and that they can be as close to 100% as possible when entering the cage. As for fans, they now know that when a fighter takes the cage, there is a much smaller chance of seeing an individual fighter lay an egg due to being in the cage when they're nowhere near 100%. While the insurance plan isn't perfect, it is absolutely one of the best things to happen to the industry in a long time.
3.) UFC debuts in Toronto and Rio with best shows of the year
UFC 129 and UFC 134 were the two best events of the year. Part of the reason each event was so highly regarded was due to the rabid crowd and wonderful atmosphere of the host cities.
Toronto has long been known as the UFC's best market, consistently selling more PPVs per capita than any other major city in North America. When MMA was finally legalized in the province of Ontario, the UFC came to town in a big way, by selling out 55,000 seats and putting on the first stadium show in the promotion's brief history. And the fighters lived up to the moment, as 11 of the 12 fights on the UFC 129 card were memorable. Georges St-Pierre defended his title in a struggle with Jake Shields. Jose Aldo beat hometown favorite Mark Hominick in a fight of the year candidate to hold on to his belt. There were great fights and fantastic finishes, and everybody left the arena delirious.
Delirious is likely not strong enough a word to describe the atmosphere in Rio on the evening of UFC 134. Carnivale comes to mind. Zuffa loaded the card with Brazilian fighters, as 11 of the 12 fights feature at least 1 Brazilian fighter. In the 8 fights that featured Brazilian versus non-Brazilian, seven of those fights ended with the hand of a Brazilian raised high in the air. Edson Barboza won Fight of the Night. The heroic Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who lives three miles from HSBC Arena, won Knockout of the Night. Shogun Rua thrilled the audience by slaughtering Forrest Griffin inside of two minutes. Anderson Silva defended his title by first picking apart and then absolutely thrashing Yushin Okami in the second round.
The Toronto and Rio cards were so successful for the UFC that the UFC has since returned to Toronto with UFC 140, is running UFC 142 in Rio next weekend, and is likely to host a stadium show in Sao Paulo in June of 2012. For a company that has a spotty record finding rabid overseas markets, these are two rabid markets that Zuffa needs to do everything possible to keep passionate for their product.
2.) UFC signs with Fox, ends relationship with Spike
I know, I know, you were expecting this to be #1. You all know by now that the UFC signed a deal with Fox, and in this deal Fox will air four shows per year for each of seven years. Also in the deal, FX will air several cards and The Ultimate Fighter, and little-watched Fuel TV will air other UFC programming, including live cards.
The UFC has been rumored for a few years time to sign a network TV deal. That they signed was less of a shock than it was a marker that they were ready to take their shot to go fully mainstream. Fox is doing everything in their power to help the UFC thrive, just as the UFC is doing everything in their power to help Fuel TV grow. You cannot watch a Fox Sports production without seeing promotions for the next big UFC spot. And you cannot watch Fuel TV without seeing a UFC show.
It is feasible to believe that when this deal expires in 2018 that the UFC will average close to 1,000,000 PPV buys. That every UFC show on Fox will garner 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 viewers. That your local sports page will have big UFC fights on the cover. And maybe seven years from now I'll look back and say that this was not only the biggest story of 2011, but of all time. But right now, with all the evidence in hand that we have…
1.) UFC buys Strikeforce
...eliminating their #1 competitor and going from a 90% to a 99% market share is a slightly bigger story; not just for now but for the long run as well. For years Dana White and fight fans have had one dream; to see the best fighters fight the best fighters, period. And now that's no longer a dream, that's routine.
According to the most recently published USA Today / SB Nation fighter Rankings of the top 25 fighters in each of seven weight classes (not including flyweights), 143 of the 175 ranked fighters are under contract with Zuffa. The only heavyweights not under Zuffa control are Fedor Emelianenko and Cole Konrad. There are ZERO light heavyweights outside of Zuffa. At middleweight, two of the five middleweights outside of Zuffa were released by the UFC (Nate Marquardt and Thales Leites) and the other three (Shlemenko, Khalidov, and Lombard) aren't exactly being demanded by most UFC fans. It goes on just like that per division.
Let's look at the five best fighters in the world outside of Zuffa. If not best, at least most desirable to Zuffa. In my opinion, those names would be Ben Askren, Michael Chandler, Eddie Alvarez, Shinya Aoki, and Pat Curran. You tell me, right now; if the UFC signed any or all of those fighters tomorrow, how much of a difference would it make to Zuffa? If you answer was "less than zero" then give yourself a cookie, because you're right! Not one of those guys moves the needle even slightly. I love Ben Askren's attitude, Michael Chandler's will, Eddie Alvarez's boxing, Shinya Aoki's savage streak, and Pat Curran's diverse skillset. And even as the most hardcorey of hardcore fans of the sport, I know my life doesn't change one small bit if all five of them sign with Zuffa tomorrow.
The fact of the matter is that as a direct result of their purchasing Strikeforce in 2011, the UFC holds paper for literally every single fighter that they covet. Airing on network television is huge, but owning the contract of every single fighter on the planet that you want is a bigger deal.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
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