Looking at the month of August, the world of MMA will be pretty quiet. Sadly, many big names like Bellator, ONE FC, KSW, and ROAD FC are taking the month off. Thankfully, they will be back in the fall.
The UFC will have an extremely busy August as they run four shows. The first will be UFC 163 on Saturday August 3rd. The main event will be Jose Aldo defending the UFC Featherweight Championship against "Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung. In the co-main event, we have Lyoto Machida vs. Phil Davis.
On Saturday August 17th, the UFC will debut on FOX Sports One. The main event will feature Mauricio "Shogun" Rua taking on Chael Sonnen. The co-main event will be Alistair Overeem vs. Travis Browne. Another fight that's scheduled is Urijah Faber vs. Yuri Alcantara.
On Wednesday August 28th, UFC will hold UFC on FOX Sports One: Condit vs. Kampmann II. The main event will be a rematch between Carlos Condit and Martin Kampmann. The two fought back at UFC Fight Night: Condit vs. Kampmann on April 1, 2009. Kampmann won the fight by split decision.
Finally on Saturday August 31st, UFC will hold UFC 164. The event will see Ben Henderson vs. Anthony Pettis for the UFC Lightweight Championship. The fight will be a rematch from WEC 53 where Pettis defeated Henderson in the promotion's final event to win the WEC Featherweight Championship. The co-main event will see Josh Barnett vs. Frank Mir. The fight will be the first for Barnett since UFC 36 back on March 22, 2002.
(Thoughts: August will see the UFC's biggest weakness on display. For a long time, some fans have complained that the UFC has oversaturated themselves with too many events which result in thin cards. Sadly all these August shows are very thin. The main event and co-main events on each look good but the rest of the cards feature a bunch of unknowns. The UFC really needs to learn less is more.)
Also WSOF will return with their fourth event on August 10. The event will feature the return of WSOF staples Tyrone Spong and Marlon Moraes. WSOF President Ray Sefo will fight at the event. Finally in the co-main event, former UFC fighter Tyson Griffin will take on 2006 and 2007 HERO'S Middleweight Grand Prix Tournament Winner Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante.
(Thoughts: For a WSOF card, WSOF 4 looks solid as it has several of their created stars as well as some familiar names.)
DEEP will also hold their DEEP - 63 Impact where PRIDE veteran Kazuhiro Nakamura will fight Henry Miller in Miller's retirement fight.
(Thoughts: This fight is a joke fight. Miller has a negative 6-15 and hasn't won a fight in years. While Nakamura is fighting a can and coming off fighting Daijiro Matsui who is another can it's nice to see King Kaz have a good year. He won his first title earlier this year by winning the DEEP Middleweight Title.
WSOF hasn't created any stars yet. They are continuing to highlight their own guys though, which is indeed good.
ReplyDeleteThe UFC CAN'T learn less is more, not at this point. They have contracts to fulfill. Yes, the cards are more strained, but I'm starting to realize something - the more cards there are, the more people get exposed, and the more people that get exposed, the more the amount of cards will match up with the amount of notable talent. It'll never be perfect, but let's face it - in the past, there were never minor league shows. It was all pay-per-view. Some of these events are tailored for the hardcores, or people who care more about the fighting than the particular fighters (which is a very large portion of fans).
The main events are great, no contending that. In August, we will see...
Mir v Barnett
Pettis v Henderson
Aldo - Zombie
Shogun - Chael
Faber - Alcantara
Condit - Kampmann II
...and more! That's incredible when you look at it that way. I'm probably just going to skip prelims unless there is a specific fight I care about, like watching Aaron Riley and hoping he gets a miracle win; more than likely, he's going to be turned into a punching bag in a hard to watch beating for the journeyman.
Good stuff, Ry.
I kind of disagree about the WSOF stuff. Sure Marlon Moraes isn't a "star" like GSP but I think he's kind of one in the MMA community. He's making a name for himself and he's ranked top 10 on Sherdog.
ReplyDeleteAs far as contracts are concerned. No one forced the UFC to sign a deal where they have to run that many shows and I'm sure FOX would understand that having too many events can too damaging. They wouldn't want so many events if the star power is lacking and has a negative impact in the ratings.
Sure the main events look good but that's not the problem. The main and co-mains are good but the rest leaves something to be desired. Look at it like this.
The UFC 163 card has Aldo/Zombie, Machida/Davis, Ferreira/Santos, Leites/Watson, and Linker/Tome. Now what if the 163 and FS1 1 main card was combined. We could have Aldo/Zombie, Machida/Davis, Shogun/Sonnen, Overeem/Browne, and Faber/Alcantara. Now that's stacked. I have nothing with the FOX Sports 1 stuff but it seems like there's something every week. UFC 163 on 8/3, FS1 1 8/17, FS1 2 8/28, UFC 164 8/31. Seems like a lot when you have a free card three days before a ppv.