Pressure On UFC Champions?!

This has been in my mind lately. Since MMA and the UFC have become mainstream it seems (especially in the last 18 months) that there has been increasingly high pressure on champions to go out every fight and dominate and demolish their opponents. For instance, even tough GSP hadnt lost a round in years until saturday night, he hasnt finished an opponent since BJ. Silva has also shown like he has felt the pressure, his fight with Maia was nothing short of strange, Sonnen almost beat him and the fight with Vitor could be put down to just a moment of excellence. This could also be said for Brock, and maybe even BJ, who has probably looked better in his fights against the bigger fitch and hughes than his two title fights with Edgar?? Even Aldo didnt look as impressive as he has before, on saturday night. Is this just a case of opponents getting better and the sport growing, or is it a case of massive pressure on the shoulders of champions?? Discuss.....

All different cases. GSP got poked in the eye... badly. Silva's fight with Maia was strange, who knows why he did that, and he was injured when he fought sonnen. Brock is simply a worse fighter than Cain. BJ has always had a problem with motivation, hence looking bad against Edgar twice.

in my opinion.

@ minotauro11 Yeah i completely agree with BJ's motivation.GSP could come down to the eye injury, he also pulled a groin in his fight with alves. So he may just be unlucky.

Not just for champions tough, pressure can be seen in other big fights, just ask kenny florian or nate the great.. those guys feel the heat too much.

I suspect it's not the extra pressure of the situation, but simply that when you put the best guys against the best guys you end up with a lot of close fights.

And then as minotauro says, just a lot of different situations when you look at what happened in individual fights. 

Champions represent the best of the best and so with that they inherit a certain aura. As such they are expected to dominate their oppenent and most of the time just KO/submit them.

Silva gets bored if his oppenents aren't challeneging and Silva was injuired and he was pretty much bored with Maia. His KO of Vitor is a reminder that when push comes to shove, Silva just KTFO of you.

GSP just went against a more improved Sheilds and also had half his vision lost (you try finishing a fight against a dangerous oppenent like that). He didn't want to break Dan Hardy's arm (hence why he never submitted Hardy) which is admirable but in a sport like MMA, a hint of weakness (I also imagine Shinya Aoki being horrified at someone refusing to break someone's arm).

BJ Penn is stubborn and dosen't adapt, hence why Edgar beat him twice as he kept doing the same thing even when it wasn't working (trying to counterpunch Edgar). Also as noted, his motivation can be an issue.

Aldo just had weight drained issue. The thing is he was still dangerous and re-gained control of the fight at the end of the 3rd round to the beginning of the 5th round when Hominick gained super strength from that sick lump in his head.

Jon Jones (who hasn't been addressed) will have added pressure of being a fast rising star who has made everyone to look like a complete amateur and continue in doing so. I really do beleive the only person right now who can beat Jon 'Bones' Jones is Jones himself.

That's my take on it anyway.

I believe there is more pressure on their shoulders because UFC is becoming so main stream. The judging criteria is really putting pressure on them to finish fights because judging=horrible. Dana White is hyping up so much fighters that fighters are trying to take their opponents heads off to actually get any form of light shun on them. Edgar is just too fast for the sluggish BJ and it was his style that overwhelmed BJ. Matt stood in front of him instead of looking for a take down and paid for it. Fitch was surprised by BJ's wrestling.
As much criticism as GSP gets he *Should* be taking more risks and you see all the other champions actually finishing. However you can argue that the WW division is stacked and GSP is just on a whole other level. The other weight classes you have guys in the HW division with Power. Which usually ends in a finish. The LHW division is full of fighters with styles that fit perfectly to face off against each other. That's why that belt may keep getting passed around like a hot potato if Jones faces against Machida(In my opinion I think Machida could take it).
@Mystical Ninja. GSP didn't have the proper technique on the submission he had on Hardy. He could have broke it if he had it properly locked. He didn't and had to eventually let it go. Reason why he went backstage and talked to Renzo and was corrected for his technique.

You both (@body/@ninja) very good points.  If we could meld those two posts into one, it would be perfect.  Judging perception is huge as is the aura @ninja spoke of.. while the competition keeps getting better.

@ninja.. Thats exactly what i meant by this post, its defiately debatable to say that pressure has got to the champs, and its also very true to say that all have faced tougher opponents and most have had some sort of injury. I think it is overcoming all these obstacles that creates the greatest champions of all.

I forgot to mention Brock Lesnar. This is a guy who has been thrown into the deep end with what you could call "on the job training". Add to the fact he looks like a monster and is well known as a former WWE superstar and well you can see the added pressure of not just winning but proving he has the skills to back up his talk and proving his doubters wrong. Against Valasquez, he was just used the wrong gameplan.

If Brock dosen't lose motivation and works on his weaknesses he will become a force to be reckon with (even more).

@Body I could have sworn I read somewhere (I think 411Mania) that GSP admitted during on of his submission attempts that he decided not to apply it more because he didn't want to break Dan Hardy's arm. Well if he didn't whatever *shrugs*.  I do remember him saying in the post-fight interview that he did want to work on his technique as you pointed out.