FACEBOOK TWITTER RSS APP PODCAST Opinion & Analysis : Roundtables ROUNDTABLE (pt. 3 of 4): What are the worst instances of a fighter receiving an unearned Title shot? Carter, Leet, DeBar and Penick

Mar 17, 2010 - 9:58:54 AM

As an augmentation to Jason Amadi's column this week, name your choices for the worst instances of a fighter who didn't deserve a title shot getting one because they were "more exciting" or more likely to draw? Who lost out as a result, and might it have changed the course of MMA?

ALVIN BENJAMIN CARTER III, MMATORCH SPECIALIST

Brock Lesnar getting a shot at Randy Couture's UFC Heavyweight belt at UFC 91 was one of the worst instances of a fighter being skipped up to a title shot. What had me skeptical was that Lesnar was only 2-1 in his new MMA career, and 1-1 in his UFC career.

Lesnar's victory did help the UFC in many ways, though, and set the stage for the historic UFC 100 pay-per-view. MMA would be different if Brock Lesnar had not won the title from Couture because the sport's overall appeal might not be as broad as it currently is. So, contrary to the question asked here, I was upset that Lesnar skipped ahead at the time, but in hindsight the fans and the sport really won.

LARAMEY LEET, MMATORCH COLUMNIST

This is the UFC’s bread and butter. The UFC is known to be more about pay-per-view buys than competition, but when you are the powerhouse in the sport you make the rules. The list goes on and on for undeserving title shots given by the UFC.

If the Vitor Belfort vs Anderson Silva fight would have happened, that would have been the biggest example ever. Looking back through years of title shots the three that stand out the most to me are: Brock Lesnar vs Randy Couture for the Heavyweight Title, Matt Serra vs George St Pierre for the Welterweight Title, and finally Anderson Silva vs Rich Franklin for the Middleweight Title.

Not only did Brock Lesnar have three MMA fights on his record, but only two fights were in the UFC by the time of his Title shot. Brock Lesnar had gone 1-1 inside the Octagon, and then he got an opportunity to fight Randy Couture for the Heavyweight Title. With only a handful of fights, not even winning all of them, Brock Lesnar was very undeserving of his title shot.

Although he eventually would have gotten one, this one was just too early in his career. But in reality Lesnar was able to sell a lot of pay-per-view buys with his career in the WWE, and that is what earned him a title shot. Lesnar ended up TKO’ing Couture in the second round to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion. Since then Lesnar has been a force to be reckoned with. If he stays healthy he will continue his reign and dominance in the division.

Now that brings us to Matt Serra vs George St Pierre. It was known that the winner of The Ultimate Fighter Season 4 would get a chance at the Welterweight Title following the show, and the UFC was trying to build pay-per-view buys off of The Ultimate Fighter season. It worked and it's something they continue to do.

The winner was Matt Serra; he won the season and obtained a shot at St Pierre for the Welterweight Title despite only being 1-1 at welterweight before getting a shot at the gold. We all knew that the winner of the season would get a very undeserving shot, and as such no one expected them to win. The fight between Serra and GSP ended with everyone’s jaw on the ground as Serra won by TKO in what is, in my opinion, the biggest upset in UFC history. Matt Serra sustained an injury after the fight and we had to wait a year for him to defend his crown. St Pierre went on to get a rematch and won by TKO to regain his title.

My last on the list is Andrson Silva vs Rich Franklin. Anderson Silva had only one fight in the UFC before getting a shot at Rich Franklin’s Middleweight Title. As we all know, Silva destroyed Rich Franklin and became the Middleweight Champion. Silva can sell a fight with his amazing stand-up skills alone, and sooner or later he would have gotten a chance at the belt; but with all the hype and talk at the time of his skills he got the chance sooner than was probably earned. Since then Silva has become the dominant Champion in our time and is one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world. It just took a couple title defenses to prove it.

CORY DEBAR, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR

I have to say I appreciate what Dana White does by trying to put the most popular fights together for the MMA community. Mr. White has said many times this is where boxing has failed the fan base and he does not want to repeat boxings shortcomings. However, that does not always make all fight fans happy, because they will not always agree on who deserves a title shot and who should have to fight a few more fights to earn the opportunity.

I think the most glaring change in the past few title shots is the missed opportunity of Quinton Jackson fighting for the title versus Lyoto Machida. By that not happening he instead has wavered back and forth between stating he wanted to fight for the title and that he wanted to fight Rashad Evans. This may have led to some of his recent comments and actions towards the UFC brass. But, Mauricio Rua showed that his comeback from multiple injuries was complete and I am looking forward to seeing the rematch with Lyoto Machida.

JAMIE PENICK, MMATORCH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

A lot of our writers have jumped to Brock Lesnar leapfrogging Interim Champ Antonio Nogueira as the most egregious example of a fighter getting his Title shot undeservedly, but at the time, outside of Fabricio Werdum, there weren't really a whole lot of arguments to be made for anyone else getting a shot at Couture at the time.

Nogueira and Frank Mir were already locked up for the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter and were set to face each other that December, so in setting up the four man "tournament," Lesnar made sense from a business standpoint, and a competitive one in hindsight considering he beat Couture and then Mir.

So for me the clear example was Vitor Belfort getting scheduled to face Anderson Silva. Belfort jumped ahead of two very deserving challengers in Nate Marquardt and Dan Henderson after winning a catch weight bout with Rich Franklin. Granted, the fight ultimately did not take place, but it had been on its way before Belfort went down with an injury.

It has already changed the course of one fighter's history, as Nate Marquardt went from an all but guaranteed shot to not even in the picture for a bit after losing to Chael Sonnen last month. Had he gotten his second shot with Silva he may have had a chance to become a UFC Champion for the first time, but instead he's now back to climbing up the ladder.

It also was one of the things that led to Dan Henderson leaving the UFC, as he didn't get the Title shot he was promised after his UFC 100 victory over Michael Bisping. It wasn't near the only factor in his defection, but it played its part.

Belfort will be a tough challenge for Silva if the two still meet here down the line. No one's arguing his skill or his merit as a legitimate challenge to the Title. He simply hadn't done anything to justify placing him in that spot over Henderson and Marquardt when the UFC made that move.

[Brock Lesnar art Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

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