Women's MMA Boring Me Recently

First I want to state that this is nothing against women's mixed martial arts. This is simply my view of the situation. When women's mma first burst onto the scene, it almost never failed to deliver. For nine minutes, these women would go out and put on a show. Most the times there were limited to no spells of inactivity, but recently something has changed. There are a couple causes to this I believe. The first one is five minute rounds and the second one is the growth of the sport.

Let’s concentrate on the five minute rounds first. The first women's mma bout that I ever watched was three minute rounds and had nothing but action from the opening bell to the end of the bout. I came away shocked at just how much I had enjoyed watching it. I found that this trend continued over the next couple years as I even got to the point I was looking forward to the women's matches. Yet recently I have found more disconnect and boredom while watching their fights. They seem more methodical, more defensive, and dare I say it, more afraid to lose. Could this be because they have more time to work out the fight and they are not forced to go balls to the wall for three minutes to win the round? Or maybe there are other factors in play.

The other angle that you can look at this from is the growth of the sport. There are female mma organizations out there now, and more organizations are lending themselves to putting women's mma bouts on their cards. This is a great thing for the sport, but it also puts a lot more pressure on the upper tier women. Wins and losses become more and more important as getting on television is a big deal for these women and their sponsorships/magazine spreads/modeling. The reality is that being a women's mma fighter is not about just being a women's mma fighter. There are many other factors in play. I think we often see this in mma in general, fighters become timid and careful to avoid being finished over the course of the fight. This usually leads to more stalling, and more fighters only training to maintain positional advantages, but overall they ultimately take less risks. Maybe this is just the growth stage of women's mma as well, but only time will tell whether it can sustain or whether it will lose support over the years.

Bellator Providing Opprotunity to Free Agents

While no one will argue that Roger Huerta was one of the biggest signings in Bellator's young history, I believe it revealed just how attractive Bellator is to certain fighters. Huerta chose to sign with Bellator over any other organization. This marks the first time a major mixed martial arts free agent has chosen to sign with Bellator. Some people will immediately point to Eddie Alvarez and Hector Lombard, but neither of those fighters were a known commodity in the North American market.

I believe it’s important to explore the reasons that Roger Huerta arrived at this decision and it’s actually pretty simple. This is an opportunity that offers three of the major factors a fighter looks for in fights, money, and exposure. With Strikeforce you can get money and exposure, but many fighters have certainly struggled getting consistent fights. The biggest part of this equation for a guy like Roger Huerta has to be getting a high volume of fights in a short period of time. Huerta has only fought once since a decision loss to Kenny Florian in August of 2008.

During his time away from the sport Roger looked to become a movie star among other things. I was expecting a less then motivated fight from him against Grey Maynard and I came away very impressed. One thing that likely hurt Huerta in that fight was his time out of the cage. Bellator offer a chance to change that with three fights in a 12 week span against solid competition (Toby Imada and Jorge Masvidal to name a few).

In addition to the three fights in a short period of time, Roger can not only pick up $100,000 by winning the tournament but additionally collect sponsor money on three live broadcasts on Fox Sports South over those 12 weeks. While beating Imada or Masvidal will not put Huerta back in anyone's top 10, it will give him a super fight that could. Along with the money and the three quick fights comes a chance to face Eddie Alvarez if you win the tournament. This is a bout that could help propel Roger back into the spotlight and even back in the UFC once his Bellator contract would expire.

While Roger Huerta is the fighter with the most name value signing with Bellator this season, there are many other fighters who will benefit from the experience and exposure that Bellator can offer them. One such fighter is Joe Warren who gained experience on the fly during DREAM's FW Grand Prix in 2009. 2010 will see him compete for Bellator and try to become a household name in the United States. The cage time will be a huge benefit for Warren early in his career.

There are several fighters I believe should jump at the opportunity to join Bellator in Season 3 if an offer is extended to them. One such fighter is Jake Rosholt. Jake is staying active on the independent circuit and has a reasonably high profile fight against Jeremy Horn later this month on HDNet. He was a guy that was green while in the UFC and we watched as he grew and had growing pains in front of our eyes. I believe the three fights in 12 weeks could really benefit him. Also a possibility of fighting Lombard at the conclusion of the season would be a great fight for both guys. While we won’t know just how big a player Bellator will become in the mixed martial arts free agent market, I believe it’s something to pay attention over the coming year.

Quick Reactions: TUF 11 Just Got Interesting

With word breaking this morning that Chuck Liddell will face Rich Franklin and not Tito Ortiz at UFC 115, the mma community is buzzing with speculation. Filming of The Ultimate Fighter 11 was supposed to begin on January 21st and typically the seasons run about six weeks. This would mean the season would end around March 4th.

If you have followed the story very closely you realize there was a series of very cryptic tweets from Tito Ortiz as the month of February was winding down. With news coming out about the opponent change we are left only to speculate on what may have went on during the production of this season.

*Possible Spoiler Alert*- Please do not continue reading as posted below is what some might construe as a spoiler even though it remains only a rumor at this time.

MMAJunkie.com stated in their article today that Tito Ortiz was unable to finish the filming of TUF Season 11 and Rich Franklin was brought in to replace him. While no one knows the details, it would certainly line up with the timing of the tweets. Reports from Fighters Only additionally say that Ortiz being removed from the fight is not health related, but could affect Tito's future as a fighter.

I don’t know about everyone else, but that is about as good of buildup for a season of The Ultimate Fighter. I hope word does not leak out about what happens on the show so that when it finally airs we can all sit back and watch it unfold. Does Tito do something that causes him to get kicked off of the show and possible out of the UFC? If so, what exactly could he have done? Is it something in his personal life (I really hope not for his sake)? The speculation is going to be insane over the next few months and based on the timing of the tweets, we may not find out till the second half of the season.

Often times mma fans talk about how we don’t really like the reality portion of the TUF shows, but most mma fans are actually suckers for drama. When Fedor was a free agent or when Pride was close to being sold, the speculations and rumors going around were absolutely insane and most of the online community bought into them. Now TUF Season 11 offers an intriguing coaching dynamic, 28 up and coming middleweights, and an end of season fight that has much more intrigue then I initially expected (I was far from excited for Chuck vs Tito III). I can’t wait to come home from Ultimate Fight Night 21 live on March 31st and watched the first episode.

Noah Hubbs aka Buffaloblue

Dominant Champions - Are We Bored With Them?

The sport of mixed martial arts has constantly grown and evolved over the past 16 years. For years there were debates over who were the best between Pride and UFC. While that still exists to some extent with Fedor, the current mixed martial arts landscape finds the majority of the top-level fighters in the world fighting for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. There has not been a title change in the UFC since Lyoto Machida knocked out Rashad Evans at UFC 98.

Since January 1^st, 2009 there has been exactly one title change. We are currently in a day and age where many fans see BJ Penn, Georges St. Pierre, and Anderson Silva as the most dominant fighters in their respective weight classes. They have seemingly faced all challenges and with each one we are left to wonder if the next challenger even has a chance. Their dominance in recent fights has lead fans to ask how they would do at a higher weight class instead of who the next title challenger might be. Anderson Silva has already proven that he can win in dominant fashion at light heavyweight and there have even been discussions about him accepting a fight at heavyweight.

This doesn't address the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions though. Many viewed Machida as one of those unstoppable fighters until he faced off against “Shogun” Rua. That rematch should give us the next legit opportunity at a title change. Brock Lesnar currently is the UFC Heavyweight Champion in what has to be considered the most fascinating and wide open of all the weight classes. There are many questions regarding Lesnar’s ability to return from his sickness and find the form he had before.

I am going to turn my focus back to BJ Penn, GSP, and Anderson Silva. I started thinking about it the other day and wondered when was the last time I felt like one of these guys could legitimately lose their title. As an avid BJ Penn fan I would like to say it was GSP vs. BJ II, but the reality is that I made a reasonable size bet on GSP in that fight. Each of these fighters have fights in the next month against guys that are all ranked in the top 7 of their respective weight classes and have earned their title shot.

The problem is that when I look at the matchups I feel like I already know who is going to win. This is a title fight, and is supposed to be the highest level mixed martial arts in the world and it’s seemingly a continual lopsided battle. This is not to take away from their opponents as they are very strong opposition who earned their title shots, but rather it highlights the skill level that BJ, GSP, and Anderson are on. My first thought was that the dominant champs are taking something away from the matchups and even leading me to wonder if the dominant champions are boring. Not boring in their styles or their skill, but boring in the fact no one is on the same competitive level.

It took me about three seconds to realize I was out of my mind and that dominant champions are going to help create some of the most memorable moments of the upcoming decade. Imagine if BJ Penn doesn’t lose a fight in 2010 or 2011 while defending his belt 4 times and possible taking a welterweight bout. In February of 2012 someone is able to break through and defeat BJ Penn. That will likely be a moment none of us would soon forget. The talk of the mixed martial arts world for the next several months leading into the new champion’s next fight would be off the charts. This is not even taking into account how big the rematch could be down the road.

Any fighter that is able to defeat BJ Penn, GSP, or Anderson Silva will quickly become recognized alongside the best in the world. While we certainly view Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Mauricio Rua, and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as some of the best fighters in the world at light-heavyweight, we rarely hear them mentioned as the world’s best 3 or 4 fighters due to the fluid title situation in the division. Having a dominant champion may not always seem like the most exciting thing during some of their lopsided victories, but if you keep the big picture in perspective and appreciate the level they are fighting at then it will lead to some of mixed martial arts defining moments.