Latest news about Anderson Silva updates, UFC has its finger on the pulse of its fans. And then there are times when it seems to completely miss the boat.
Case in point: Dana White’s comments to MMAJunkie.com regarding a possible Anderson Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre “superfight,” something White said he’s “shocked” that fans keep demanding.
“It starts to get to the point where I’m like, ‘I guess if everybody wants to see this fight, maybe we make this fight,’” he said.
These are the words of a guy who would stare long and hard at a falling anvil before deciding to move out of the way.
There’s a real reason why audiences are rabid about the fight: Few times in the sport’s history have two athletes have been so uniformly dominant. The promise of one finally appearing human is an exciting prospect. The minute St. Pierre or Silva loses — from the UFC’s perspective, probably the most opportune time to make the fight — all of that anticipation goes out the window. As enjoyable as it was to see Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva in 2007, that match would’ve blown synapses in 2005. Timing is everything.
White is probably not oblivious to this, but he’s likely suspicious of sacrificing one pound-for-pound guy’s reputation for the sake of a one-night payoff (though it’d be a huge one night payoff). That’s sensible, but it’s also the kind of bureaucratic bungling that’s prevented boxing from making a lot of historic bouts over the past 30 years. It’s bad enough we’ve missed some big fights because of conflicting promotions. If two fighters are under the same employer, there’s no reason not to capitalize on it.
A religious experience: UFC exits Utah
Dana White imagines a day when the UFC holds 100 events per year around the world. I see a day in which quality control takes a serious hit.
MMA isn’t fast food, and there is no assembly line for an organized UFC experience — not unless they can clone event coordinator Burt Watson 50 times over.
The UFC may have gotten a taste of what it’s like to overextend itself in Utah, where the promotion was forced to bite the bullet and port over an Aug. 2 Versus television event to San Diego as a result of poor ticket sales. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the poor sales were due to the show being scheduled for a Sunday evening — traditionally a day of rest for the Mormons of Salt Lake City. Dodging blood splatter might not fit that description.
