...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Columnist
Anthony Pettis surprised the MMA world earlier this year by being granted a shot against Jose Aldo for the UFC Featherweight Championship, despite fighting his entire career at lightweight. This didn't sit well with featherweight contenders such as Ricardo Lamas, and Jung Chan-Sung, amongst others.
On June 14, Dana White announced via Twitter that Pettis injured his knee and was being pulled from his UFC 163 main event championship fight with Aldo. Replacing Pettis on August 3 will be Jung Chan-Sung, who hasn't fought since defeating Dustin Poirier on May 15, 2012. The Korean Zombie may very well be the most popular contender among the contenders at featherweight, but was he the best choice to be handed the title shot?
Featherweight in the UFC is certainly not hurting for contenders right now. Pettis' abrupt arrival to the front of the line in the division meant that fighters such as Lamas, Jung, Cub Swanson, Dennis Siver, Chad Mendes, Nik Lentz, and even Frankie Edgar were all being shunted aside for someone who had never fought in the division. All but Edgar, who himself dropped from lightweight to an immediate featherweight title shot, have legitimate complaints.
But which featherweight contender should have gotten the shot when it was announced that Pettis was out? Let's take a closer look at the resumes of those contenders. For the sake of this discussion, we're only going to look at the last two years for each fighter. After all, despite having the world's largest collection of old PRIDE and WEC tee-shirts known to man, if you really think that Dana White is aware that Zombie defeated Michihiro Omigawa in DEEP in 2008, or that Cub Swanson holds a 2008 win over Hiroyuki Takaya in the WEC, well you've just got another thing coming.
So let's debate the cases for seven featherweights: Frankie Edgar, Jung Chan-Sung, Ricardo Lamas, Nik Lentz, Chad Mendes, Dennis Siver, and Cub Swanson (in alphabetical order):
Breakdown: Edgar's 0-1 in the featherweight division, and the loss was in a fight with the champ himself, Jose Aldo. He might be the second most talented featherweight in the world, but he needs to do more than look impressive in defeat (three times in a row) before getting a title shot. His resume mandates he get three straight wins before a title shot, but his name might get him there in two.
Jung Chan-Sung: 2-0
Wins: Mark Hominick, Dustin Poirier Losses: None
Breakdown: As we know, The Korean Zombie scored the golden goal, and he's been given the shot. After defeating Dustin Poirier in May 2012, Jung was promised a title shot (which means precisely nothing, of course). Since then, he's been on the shelf, rehabbing from the same shoulder surgery that kept Anthony Pettis on the shelf for most of 2012. Zombie is possibly both the most popular and most exciting fighter on the list of contenders. And if you've been paying attention over the last year, that's much more important to Dana White than anything else.
Ricardo Lamas: 4-0
Wins: Matt Grice, Cub Swanson, Hatsu Hioki, Erik Koch Losses: None
Breakdown: Lamas probably has the biggest pair of gripes. First he got bypassed for Anthony Pettis. Then he got bypassed for Zombie. Either of which can be talked away, but both in a four-month span is a trend. Despite destroying Koch on a Fox show, no one knows who Lamas is right now. And one's Q-rating is more important than one's list of conquests when title shots are being given out. Lamas' aborted fight with the Zombie was supposed to be for a title shot. Hopefully Lamas will either get the shot after Zombie, or will be given a shot with one more win.
Nik Lentz: 3-2 (1 NC)
Wins: Eiji Mitsuoka, Diego Nunes, Hacran Dias Losses: Mark Bocek (lightweight), Evan Dunham (lightweight) No contest: Charles Oliveira (lightweight)
Breakdown: Nik Lentz is 3-0 at featherweight, but is about as anonymous as that guy in the 14th row of section 432. No, not him, three seats to the left. Yeah, that one. Fair or not, that's why he's no closer to a title shot at Jose Aldo than anyone on this list. It's not enough to win anymore; one has to do so in a memorable style. Remember when Jim Miller didn't have that 'it' factor even in the midst of a seven-UFC-fight win streak? He then lost to Benson Henderson and followed up with a memorable destruction of Melvin Guillard and got himself a number one contender fight. Lentz needs that fight if he's going to get into the title picture. If he's offered Ricardo Lamas on short notice and finishes Lamas emphatically, then he deserves to get a shot at Aldo.
Chad Mendes: 4-1
Wins: Rani Yahya, Cody McKenzie, Yaotzin Meza, Darren Elkins Losses: Jose Aldo
Breakdown: I know, right? Other than Yahya two years ago, who has he beaten? He holds wins over Cub Swanson and Erik Koch in 2010, but those wins have nothing to do with the calculus the UFC uses when calculating fights for 2013 and beyond. It's not Mendes' fault that the UFC gave him back to back fights against McKenzie and Meza, but he certainly did as much as he was capable against those two men. Unfortunately for Mendes, he got posterized by Jose Aldo the moment before Aldo ran out of the cage and celebrated his KO over Mendes on the shoulders of his countrymen. Until that moment is not the freshest memory people hold when thinking of Chad Mendes, he's doomed. And let's face it, more people remember the KO loss to Aldo than they remember the KO win over McKenzie.
Dennis Siver: 3-1
Wins: Matt Wiman (lightweight), Diego Nunes, Nam Phan Losses: Donald Cerrone (lightweight)
Breakdown: He just hasn't done enough at 145 to be considered yet. And before you start talking about Edgar and Pettis getting shots with literally no featherweight resume; Edgar came down after beating Ben Henderson and having incompetent judges steal the title from him, and Pettis dropped down as the #1 contender. Siver dropped down coming off of a destruction at the hands of a borderline top-ten lightweight in Donald Cerrone. Siver's fantastic, but he needs two more wins for his resume to withstand the scrutiny, and one more win on top of that because, sadly, no one is going to pay to watch Dennis Siver fight.
Cub Swanson: 4-1
Wins: George Roop, Ross Pearson, Charles Oliveira, Dustin Poirier Losses: Ricardo Lamas
Breakdown: Until Lamas gets a shot, Swanson doesn't. Moving on.
Conclusion: In my world, I would have given the shot to Ricardo Lamas. My next choice would have been the Zombie. Then, in order, Cub Swanson, Nik Lentz, Chad Mendes, Dennis Siver, and Frankie Edgar.
(Attention MMATorch app users: Make sure to upgrade to the latest edition of the MMATorch app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device!)
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
