I'm just making sure UFC isn't pulling the wool over our eyes for like the 240th time. It's well known that good wrestlers are held back in favor of untested strikers and it makes me sick. Seems like I won't have to punch another hole in my wall!
All in all funny, in what I believe is a laughing with you sense. But we do know that their stand and bang boys are their cash cows and what is being referred to when the UFC’s reps identify someone as an “exciting fighter” and what will make a “good fight”.
When I think on it there seems to be valid good business rationale to it as well. The majority of fighters on the roster are middling tough men of a general above average skill level, extraordinary toughness, and fearless will. The truly elite super talents who have the ability to impose a scary fight ending ground game and the wrestling to get the fight there are very very few, but when they do come around they are the most dominant force in the sport.
So I get it that they wanna milk the great strikers of their exciting fights with those foolish enough or lacking in skill otherwise t avoid mixing it up I’ll advisedly on the feet with them. It keeps the casual majority entertained and populates social media with ko advertising to keep on pulling that fat of the land on in.
So yea. They undoubtably do have this intent and it is well represented with a smirking ‘plausible deniability’. Eventually it reaches its financial incentive of maturity for bursting the bubble in the event of things like Conor vs Khabib, gane vs jones, Merab vs Sean, and presumptively whatever lies ahead for Poatan and Topuria in their eventual striker vs grappler confrontation. I think the only instance in which that has really come to invert itself are the occasions like Liddel v Couture 2 and Silva v Sonnen. It’s generally anomaly that the striker prevails and tends to depend most on how extraordinary the grappler is at implementing a pedigree grappling game in an mma arena.
Those of us who’ve been watching forever know where it’s all headed: striker vs grappler. It is, was and will continue to be the big debate and duality of this sport. My own familiarity with this is what fuels my anxiety to see it happen when the foreshadowing is presented.
