There are a lot of people who aren’t very keen on the new main event that will see Anderson Silva take on Stephan Bonnar, and when I say “aren’t very keen,” I mean they hate it, and think the UFC are a bunch of jerks for daring to roll out such a lopsided match-up atop a pay-per-view.
Alright, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but not by much.
Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden called it “the worst main event in UFC history” yesterday. Twitter blew up with a bunch of people angrily questioning how the UFC could possibly charge $50 for this fight on pay-per-view, seemingly forgetting that they get four other fights for their money, and the best fighter in the history of the sport is headlining the show now.
No one is claiming this is a marquee match-up that you can’t miss it because this is the greatest fight in the history of fights. This is the UFC making the best of another bad situation – putting a big name in the main event of show that just saw the top two bouts on the card disappear because of injuries.
Here’s the other thing: it could have been worse. If we’re bemoaning the addition of Anderson Silva, what the hell would have happened if the UFC just stuck Bonnar in with Glover Teixeira and tried to have Minotauro Nogueira and Dave Herman headline this bad boy?
What exactly did people want them to do here – continue robbing Peter to pay Paul and bring Jon Jones and Vitor Belfort to Rio just a couple weeks before they’re expected to headline UFC 152 in Toronto?
The funny thing to me is that a lot of the people being critical of this pairing have all kinds of love for Pride, where horrible mismatches took place all the damn time. People who defended Fedor Emelianenko as the greatest fighter in the history of the sport with a record dotted with victories over Zuluzinho and Hong Man Choi are complaining about seeing Stephan Bonnar step into the cage with Anderson Silva.
How does this happen?
Had the UFC just thrown their hands up, sick of all the injuries and complaints about how they handle them, and decided to pack in another event, the same people ripping them for putting Bonnar and Silva together in the main event would be killing them for pulling the plug on a show that is a month away. Instead, the UFC has made the best of a bad situation, and people are blasting them for it.
It doesn’t matter to those critics that this fight came together only after Jose Aldo got in a motorcycle accident or that the options are limited because of a summer filled with injuries and a schedule that has already been laid out for the rest of the year.
After the new main event was announced Wednesday, MMA Mania’s Geno Mrosko offered up his thoughts on Twitter:
Dana White’s angle is that he’s hoping we’ll focus on fighters stepping up to save shit and how that’s cool instead of the fights being shit.
You mean rather than focus on how fighters didn’t step up to save [expletive deleted] at UFC 151 like pretty much everyone did in the wake of UFC 151′s collapse? You mean focus on the fact that we’re getting to see Anderson Silva fight again rather than someone not quite as awesome?
Here’s the other thing: what else was the UFC supposed to do and how come none of the staunchest critics every offer up any kind of alternate solutions?
Complain away, but tell me what they should have done, because I just can’t really think of anything feasible that would have trumped this. Give me solutions, not just your list of gripes with how the UFC is handling the situation.
One last thing before I go: Silva vs. Bonnar makes more sense than Jones vs. Belfort.
Yes, the former is an historic mismatch according to the oddsmakers, but at least the champion is the one moving up in weight, and the over-matched member of the pairing doesn’t have a chance to walk out of the cage as a UFC champion.
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