...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
What do you think the UFC could find as a replacement for Barao-Wineland in the UFC 161 main event? Or are they stuck with something like Shogun-Nogueira?
RICH HANSEN, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
The model for UFC 161 was to put a really strong undercard with marketable names underneath a champion who isn't an established PPV draw. However, any PPV is benefited in general by having a title fight on it. That's not going to happen here, so this will be an interesting case study to see how much effect losing a non-drawing champion will hurt the overall number. If it's me, I book Faber-Wineland 2 and promise the winner a shot against Barao. That's right, an unofficial Interim Interim Bantamweight Title fight. Then move it to third on the card behind Shogun-Nogueira 2 and Evans-Henderson.
If Faber is unwilling to take the fight on short notice (and unwilling to be known as the man who murdered MMA in the Canadian prairie-land), then I would book Wineland vs. Yves Jabouin and find a replacement for Dustin Pague who is currently fighting Jabouin on Facebook. OK, he's not *currently* fighting Jabouin on Facebook, but it would be cool if Yves Jabouin and Dustin Pague just got into a massive Facebook beef right as I was writing this out...
FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Well, I'm hoping they can find a good fight to put on there. I think the loss of a title fight really weakens this card. I'm not really sure what fights they could actually move, though. They might be stuck with the loss of this good fight with no decent replacements. They need to at least add another interesting fight, though.
ERIC HOBAUGH, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Since Mauricio Rua vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Rashad Evans vs. Dan Henderson are still on the card, I do not think this loss will be a total disaster. The Henderson vs. Evans match-up could have headlined a free TV card and some of the most recent PPV's have been terrible, so I think this fight could be the new headliner.
CAMERON LYMAN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR
The only fighter that would make sense to step in as a Barao replacement would be Urijah Faber and Wineland would be putting his title shot on the line. I don't see a problem with moving Woodley-Sheilds up to the main card and adding a B-class fight to the card. In terms of a main event caliber fight addition, it will be hard to put that together in a month without taking from another card.
ANWAR PEREZ, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
With the announcement that Barao is injured, I can see the UFC just playing it safe with a Shogun-Nogueria main event. It should be a decent enough hook for the fans, plus, if they can sell Rich Franklin-Wanderlei Silva 2 to a PPV audience, they can sell this main event too.
DAN MOORE, MMATORCH UK COLUMNIST
Although they have a bit more time than usual - they'll probably stick with what they have. They've got a lot of fight cards to fill over the coming months and their options are rather limited. They could conceivably call up Urijah Faber to replace Renan Barao - but that doesn't make any sense to me - because it wouldn't be for a title.
They would be better off removing Wineland altogether and re-scheduling their interim title fight for a later date. I believe they'll stick with what they have and pray to god that Evans, Henderson, Rua, or Nogueira don't get injured. Another withdrawal from this card would be absolutely catastrophic.
[Urijah Faber art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
(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.
