Fighting a dangerous top 5 opponent Vs. Waiting for a title shot

Garnet_StrongerThanYou

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Looks like the days of a top contender fighting another top guy while the champion is busy are over.

Young Conor Mcgregor used to fight anyone on route to his title shot.

GSP fought Koscheck coming off his loss to Serra. I always respected that.

Rich Franklin always fought a bunch of contenders after his losses to Anderson.

Nowadays guys just wait.
 
It's not good for the promotion or the fans. I don't really give a fuck about the titles. I just want to see crazy fights.
 
I get it. Your career can be over at any moment. Gotta get that guaranteed money when you can

even if you completely believe in your abilities. if you risk that big payday you could get injured even if you win the extra fight and it all goes down the drain. Should definitely always respect the hell out of guys that do choose to risk it though.
 
There seems to be a big difference in pay between those fights many times. And if you lose one fight, you lose the opportunity to fight for the belt. So anyone who is focused on making more money (or has an agent who is) will typically wait. The UFC seems to often try to wait certain fighters out, since they know fighters want to fight and dont want to sit on the bench, and often times people bite and take fights. Like Colby Robbie recently even though Colby thinks he should get a title fight. He was just not going to fight otherwise, and he seemed to work something out with the UFC. Same with Ferguson recently.
 
What's a bit sad is they're sort of admitting they won't be able to defend it for very long if they're that scared of the top 10.
 
Fighters union could fix that problem. Big paychecks even in non-title fights for things like win streaks, activity level and quality of opponent.
 
Fighters union could fix that problem. Big paychecks even in non-title fights for things like win streaks, activity level and quality of opponent.
THat and the Ali act are discussed and discussed, but dont seem like they will ever happen.
 
That's why everyone respects Frankie Edgar. He didn't have to take that Ortega fight, but wanted to fight for the fans. Didn't work out for him, but at least Dana did the right thing and gave him his shot.
 
Goddamn. This thread really sheds light into how shitty it is to be a fighter.

You can lose it all by being one.
 
Tony is the perfect example of fighting anyone the UFC has put in front of him, and has the right to wait for Khabib.
 
Edgar fought Ortega when Holloway couldn't make it.
 
Edgar fought Ortega when Holloway couldn't make it.
Edgar gets undeserved title shots left and right so it didn't really matter. He already got one against Holloway, now he will drop 1 weight class and get yet another title shot against cejudo.
 
Not a fan of Colby but why should he be getting paid less for fighting for the title than fighting Robbie Lawler
 
Tony is the perfect example of fighting anyone the UFC has put in front of him, and has the right to wait for Khabib.

He didn't fight Max and I believe he also turned down Johnson before

However, he certainly has earned his shot because of the streak he's currently on
 
It worked out for Tyron but no one else springs to mind
 
Fighters got better at negotiating.

With all due respect,,, I'm not sure about this

Top 10 guys now right..... Maybe top 5.

They sit out and demand fiddy % more pay... But the sitting means they only are fighting about once a year.... So they are making less than if they had fought twice at the going rate.

The UFC needs to get better at negotiating so that Champs are prolific... If the top guys (including champs) were fighting twice a year, we could have all the top contenders receiving the shots they earned.... Plus the occasional super fight... All without holding up divisions...

One or two are getting big bank via waiting... But not most of them.
 
He didn't fight Max and I believe he also turned down Johnson before

However, he certainly has earned his shot because of the streak he's currently on
The UFC wanted to cut his pay to fight Johnson, because it wasn't as big as the Khabib fight. Can't blame him.

He was on a 7 fight win streak when he took on promotional newcomer in Lando, and that almost ended very bad for him. He's definitely paid his dues, on top of a great win streak.
 
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