It was yet another busy weekend of mixed martial arts as the month of August draws to an end. One FC had maybe its strongest event ever on Friday while, after almost two months without a pay-per-view event, the UFC returned with UFC 177.
Askren’s Asian Adventure
Dubai’s world trade centre was the host for Friday evening’s stacked One FC 19 featuring three title defences and some familiar faces. The main card saw impressive wins for former UFC stars Roger Huerta and James McSweeney while Jadamba Narantungalag defeated Koji Oishi via unanimous decision to win the promotion’s featherweight title. While the main event was a cake walk for MMA veteran Shinya Aoki who finished Kamal Shalorus via submission (rear-naked choke) just over two minutes into the five round bout to defend his lightweight strap.
There was only one man the world was watching for, though, and that was Ben Askren. The former Bellator welterweight champion challenged the One FC title holder Nobutatsu Suzuki for his 170 lbs title. Askren, as always, immediately dove for the takedown and had Suzuki on the floor before five seconds had elapsed in the fight. The US Olympian quickly attacked with ground and pound, hurting his downed opponent badly with a solid knee to the chin – a strike outlawed under normal rules but allowed under One FC sanctions. Suzuki did well to initially survive but it wasn’t long before the pressure told as Askren forced the stoppage just past the first minute. For a man once branded the most boring fighter in MMA it was his fourth consecutive stoppage win
“I mean, he probably should’ve chosen the easy way. That would’ve been a lot easier for everyone involved.” Askren said during his post fight interview referencing the options he gave Suzuki before the fight of either giving up his belt the easy or hard way.
As has been well documented, UFC president Dana White recently denied Askren a spot on his roster before Askren signed for Asia’s top promotion. His grinding style as well as politics between the UFC and Askren’s former employers Bellator were the cited factors in White’s decision not to sign “Funky”. Add the fact Askren is unbeaten, improving his finishing rate, extremely talented on the mic/in the media and that relations between the UFC and Bellator are no longer strained it seems a shame that Askren is still being denied of a place amongst the world’s best in the UFC. There is no doubt Askren is good enough to complete amongst the world’s elite and he deserves to be there. As a company that has prided itself on not letting politics get in the way of making the fights and with unconfirmed rumours of a UFC release clause in Askren’s contract, a change of heart by the UFC’s top brass could hopefully be on the horizon. It would be best for business and it even sounds Dana White might be warming up to the idea with the UFC president saying at last night’s media scrum “If Ben Askren keeps winning, he will get a shot over here.”
Bantamweight Bonus
There’s never a dull moment in the world of MMA, is there? Coming into UFC 177 we were expecting it to be one of the least talked about events of the year. That everything changed on Friday. While preparing for his title rematch against bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, former champion Renan Barao fell ill and injured himself while attempting to cut weight. “The Baron” was subsequently taken to hospital and forced to pull out of his planned fight leaving Dillashaw without an opponent.
In stepped former Bellator champion champion Joe Soto (who was due to fight Anthony Birchak on the undercard) to save the day. It was a fight like nobody expected. Dillashaw came out his usual loose and languid self throwing strikes from all angles. Soto, though, defended most of what was thrown. In the second, Soto began to loosen up himself and arguably took the round with a flurry at each end of the period. Again, Soto defended well in the third but the output of Dillashaw saw him dominate that round and the one that followed as the pace increasingly began to tell on the valiant Soto. By the time the last stanza started Soto was all but running on empty. Dillshaw began to open up and landed an exocet of a right kick to the head of Soto forcing referee John McCarthy to set in and stop the fight. It was exponentially more competitive and enjoyable than anyone expected. Dillashaw may have won the fight but Soto won the heart of anyone watching. With Renan Barao now losing his title shot, it looks like Rafael Assuncao, the last man to be TJ Dillashaw, is the next in line.
Pay-Per-View Problems
Despite UFC 177 delivering in practice, It was a much maligned card on paper. At the end of the day from, a business point of view, what the card line-up looks like decides the success and buy-rate of the event more than what actually happened on the night. UFC 177 was the worst line-up of a numbered event in the modern UFC era and it can’t be denied. That was equally down to injuries sustained in the lead up to Saturday night and the lack of strength and depth in the card from day one.
The international expansion is an easy and increasingly popular factor to blame for the weakness of this card and others, and while it is definitely an issue, the fact remains that if the UFC had chosen to make this card stronger from the start – they easily could have. If the pay-per-view business is to continue alongside the hugely expanded national and international rota in the manner which it currently sits, then the UFC is going to have to make the PPVs stronger both at the top and throughout – even at the expense of other cards. Pay-per-view is designed to be the premium production of the company and it needs to produce a premium product in order to fulfill the additional cost to consumers. If numbered cards like UFC 177 become a more regular occurrence, the pay-per-view side of the UFC’s business will die a death – it’s as simple as that.
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