THE UFC'S RUINATION OF FIGHTERS THROUGH MISMATCHES (OR DANA WHITE IS GOING TO HELL)

Check this article out, for anyone who remembers Bill Burgess' rant on how the right hand of God shall ***** slap the **** out of Dana, Joe Silva and the UFC by ******* them over with injuries. It's a good read on the UFC's lackluster matchmaking as of late.


The writer mentions Chad Mendes vs Cody McKenzie, Phil Davis vs Chad Griggs, Jeff Hougland vs Yves Jabouin, Jeff Hougland vs Renan Barao (the original fight), Rory MacDonald vs Che Mills, Rousimar Palhares vs Mike Massenzio, Nate Quarry vs Rich Franklin, Dan Hardy vs GSP, Erik Koch vs Jose Aldo, BJ Penn vs Matt Hughes III, Josh Koscheck vs Matt Hughes and Yoshihiro Akiyama vs every guy he's ever faced.

He's forgetting Jon Fitch being consistently ****** over time and time again, but let's save that one for later.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

who knew bill burgess was a real writer.

the article has a point though, the UFC's getting rid of competitive fights and purposely trying to create KOs.

Some of those fights shouldnt have ever come to mind but others where only bad in hindsight after the fight played out. I do agree though that the matchmaking as of late has me scratching my head a lot.

ufc copying bellator. :- } thats why i  like bellator, more finishes.

UFC's creating **** matches, why are they purposely trying to harm fighters? It's obvious that guys like Cody McKenzie shouldn't be fighting ******* Chad Mendes. I wanna front kick Joe Silva in the face.

I think some of the UFCs matchmaking is ridiculous, but at the same time I love it! It is a huge mismatch in alot of these fights. Like McKenzie/Mendes, that is a massive mismatch for McKenzie, and on top of that that will be McKenzie featherweight debut fight which makes it twice as bad! But, even though its a gigantic mismatch I love them because what happens McKenzie wins? His debut against Mendes and he wins? That would make him right up there at the top of the division just 1 fight in! What if Chad Griggs goes in and finishes a guy like Phil Davis? Situations like that are awesome to see in MMA and I personally enjoy mismatches for that sole reason alone.

Mismatches are alright but then there's fights like Che Mills vs Rory MacDonald and Chad Mendes vs Cody McKenzie where one guy has an advantage over the other guy in every ******* way. That's awful.

Tim Boestch vs Yushin Okami was a mismatch but it was alright because Tim Boestch had a legitimate shot of winning because of his strength and the power in his fists. 

Che Mills was in no way shape or form better than Rory MacDonald and his only chance was a lucky shot a la Matt Serra. That's the problem I have.

Che Mills vs Rory MacDonald is easily one of the biggest mismatches I can think of. 

Serra/GSP I realize was a massive mismatch but I did think that Serra had the advantage on the feet going into it. Did he? Probably not, but I thought he did and I also thought his BJJ would be superior to GSP's so that fight to me was much less of a mismatch than Che Mills vs Rory MacDonald.

 Its very clear they are giving Rory guys way outside of the top 10 so he can keep racking up wins then soon enough he will have to fight just 1 top 10 guy before a title shot, Im not a hater of Rory or anything but it seems like most of the fights he has been in are deliberate mismatches. 

* Edited at 05.21.2012, 12:44 PM ET *

Agreed with Tacos last half of his statement (in his 2nd to last post). We all know it's fighting, anything can happen, styles make fights. These mismatches can help light the fire of a guy like McKenzie if he were to win against a fighter who just fought for the title. Though I think the real reason he and Chad Griggs dropped down is to get new contenders in the division for Jones and Aldo to possibly face in the future, though why would they match Cody with Chad, I don't know. 

And I see he is still talking about Hardy/GSP. Does he keep forgetting the 7 fight win streak he was on prior to the title fight? Though really, a lot of the fights I see listed aren't that far fetched, there could be a simple explanation for all of them, though knowing him, he only wants fights that makes sense as far as rankings go. 

I think Che Mills was set up with Rory simply cause of his TUF status. They went from all the way back to the first few TUF's having nearly every guy in the house become a big draw. Even today, Leben draws a decent number for being Chris Leben, and he makes a lot of money cause of it. They were rolling the dice with Mills. It didn't work

* Edited at 05.21.2012, 12:48 PM ET *

I think this point in the article is interesting: "McKenzie has one tool in his arsenal, one. The fact that he's in the UFC is shocking."

The author comes across as spewing a bunch of paternalistic ********, if you ask me. These are grown men and fighters. If it was up to the author, McKenzie would not even be afforded the opportunity to test himself on the biggest MMA stage in the world, let alone see how he fairs against someone like Mendes. I'd rather have the shot and lose than be told that I am not good enough to be considered for a shot at all. No doubt that everyone of the fighters the author points out would agree with that.

"Cody gets nothing from this fight at all, other than his paycheck to show and maybe a pat on the back for taking the fight." 

And the chance, however much a long shot, that he wins. The author apparently has no competitive instinct at all. 

* Edited at 05.21.2012, 1:33 PM ET *

Yeah, the fact that coming into TUF, everyone knew he had the guillotine, and that he still found a way to win during and after the show, that says something. Even though a lot of us hate Brock, he still had a right to be in there cause he could compete. 

"The author comes across as spewing a bunch of paternalistic ********, if you ask me. These are grown men and fighters. If it was up to the author, McKenzie would not even be afforded the opportunity to test himself on the biggest MMA stage in the world, let alone see how he fairs against someone like Mendes. I'd rather have the shot and lose than be told that I am not good enough to be considered for a shot at all. No doubt that everyone of the fighters the author points out would agree with that."

 X2, well said dude.

I just feel like the UFC doesn't force anything upon anyone.  McKenzie dropped down, and the decision of who he fights is a two-way street.  Granted it's a complete mismatch and I doubt McKenzie would win, but I'm sure there are a ton of factors behind the scenes that fans and journalists are unaware of.  And as for promoting these fights as if they are not mismatches, it's their job to do so.  Now I don't know if Joe Rogan really believed that Che Mills had a chance to win, but he obviously couldn't say otherwise.

I agree and disagree.  Just gotta keep in mind mismatches can go both ways and really skyrocket a fighter's career if they win as such a huge underdog.  Also gotta keep in mind that the fighters are the ones who choose to sign on the dotted line.  I'm sure many are afraid to refuse in case they're cut, but either way you're rolling the dice.

Rory MacDonald vs Carlos Condit could've been seen as a mismatch, but showed everyone just what a huge, budding talent that Rory was.
Jon Fitch vs Johnny Hendricks, a fight where hardly anyone gave Hendricks a shot, but instead it catapulted him into a fight with Koscheck which he also won.  Very quickly became a top 5 WW, no easy feat.

There's tons of other examples, they just come to mind quickly for some reason.

Also should consider that a lot of fights look even on paper, but end up being very one-sided fights.

Overall, I don't question Joe Silva's matchmaking abilities, he's absolutely the best in the business at it.

Rory MacDonald was the favorite going into the fight vs Condit, that fight was an upset.

I think people aren't undestanding what I'm saying: MISMATCHES ARE FINE. PERFECTLY FINE. BUT IF THE OPPONENT IS BETTER THAN THE OTHER GUY IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE, THAT'S A ******* PROBLEM.

By god. Johny Hendricks has a powerful left hand and he had a chance to beat Jon Fitch with it. Cody McKenzie has nothing but a guillotine, and against a top 3 featherweight, that's ******* useless.

Jung/hominick seemed like a pretty big mismatch. So did ortiz/ bader.

As long as the fights are entertaining I just dont care much about the matchup as long as it makes some sense, dont have a barely top 20 guy fight for a #1 contender but other than that Im more worried about if a matchup will be entertaining.

Bader didn't know it at the time, but he was in a number one contenders bout against Jones, then lost to a guy that hadn't won since 2005.

I agree completly with this thread, fighters they are trying to hype will always get easy fights, but then theres some guys that never get a break

One of the reasons the UFC can get away with putting together mismatches is that they are fairly well isolated from criticism from their fans.  We fans have only very indirect ways of venting our frustrations. 

One of the ways is to buy / not buy a PPV.  But that is imperfect because some of us can't afford to buy them, even if we want to.  And if a mismatch is on a card with fights you want to see, what you gonna do.  Boycott the event and miss the fight you want to see?

Same with the TUF TV series.  The number of those watching is not an accurate measure of anything in particular.
If the UFC were really smart, they'd give their fans an outlet to express their desires.  Let fans make a card!

Worse mismatches I remember.  Serra/GSP, MacDonald/Mills, Hendricks/Fitch, Fitch/Simpson, Shogun/Vera.