Do You Care About the "Politics" of matchmaking?

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isnotnormal

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A lot of you seem impossible to please. Everybody was complaining about seeing ANOTHER Tate vs Rousey fight, and now that we get the match up that everyone on here was asking for a lot of you are still complaining (Dana is a liar/Miesha is the #1 contender/too soon for Holm/Holm isn't ready/etc.).

All inconsistencies aside, do you guys care more about who truly deserves the title shot and has campaigned for one? Or do you just want good fights against top guys in the division? Because even though some of the upcoming title fights are necessarily having challengers that have earned it (Gus, Condit, Holm, Cain), all of those contenders are still top guys in the division (although the Cain fight really annoys me).

Look at Robbie vs Condit. Most people here agree that is a badass fight and should be awesome, but Condit is clearly not the number one contender. But does anyone want to ALREADY see another Hendricks vs Lawler fight? And isn't Condit a more interesting matchup than Woodley?
 
If I was them I would make matchups to the best of my ability with the interest of business in mind and take note of some high reputation MMA news sites opinions. I would also ignore MMA fans most of the time because they don't seem to really know what they wants and complain about every decision ever made.
 
I just want action (fights)

All of this bullshit about who "deserves" this or that means nothing because the UFC isn't a sports league, it's a promotional company.
 
I think Tate deserved the rematch over Holm getting a shot. It may be a forgone conclusion that Tate will not beat Rousey. Like, ever. Yet, she has fought and beat high-ranked competition. WMMA top-ranked competition, but whatever. Holm is going to get rocketed into the Top 5 for no reason, whatsoever, other than to make it seem like Rousey's fighting worthy competition.
However, politics aside, Holm vs. Rousey is a much more interesting clash of styles.
 
Funny thing about forums like this, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So long as thats the case, there will be people that disagree with ANY announcement. And those same people who disagree are more apt to express it than those that casually agree or are ok with a match-up or announcement. So both sides are still out there, you generally just here the complaints more..
 
Tate vs Zingano for #1 contender next
 
There's supposed to be a bit of logic behind the matchmaking. Instead we get people getting title shots with unimpressive decisions over unranked fighters, people getting title shots off of losses, etc.
 
How about Dana Baldfather just shut his loose jowly mouth and not make 100% claims and guarantees only to renege on them? This isn't just about bad matchups, it's about the constant stream of lies and shit coming from the UFC.
 
As long as their top fighters not on a losing streak, I'm fine with good fights. For example, Gus over Bader makes sense to me because even though he's on a streak, Bader rarely looks impressive and has never beaten a top fighter. Gus has, so that's a far more intriguing fight.
 
i accept it. big difference.

funniest part is no matter how many times this cycle repeats (e.g. there is no clear cut next contender - or the clear cut next contender is a rematch many don't want - no matter who they chose people whine & moan) - and it's been repeating as long as i can remember - a bunch of fans act like it's a new thing.

fighter A is champ. fighter B, C, D and E all have good reasons for being the next contender, and all have good reasons against. and no matter who is picked, Chicken Little fans act like the MMA sky is falling. AfuckingGAIN.

it's quite hilarious, actually. but it would be funnier if they all weren't such utter cliche's about it.
 
TFanatic said:
As long as their top fighters not on a losing streak, I'm fine with good fights. For example, Gus over Bader makes sense to me because even though he's on a streak, Bader rarely looks impressive and has never beaten a top fighter. Gus has, so that's a far more intriguing fight.
Click to expand...
To be fair to Bader, he's beaten both Phil Davis and OSP. Who has Gus beat?
 
I'd like to see the politics almost completely removed. I'd love to see the matches determined strictly by MMA ELO rankings and a series of predefined rules such as "if the fighters fought within the last year then the next highest ranked competitor will be chosen instead for the next match" and "if the fighters fought twice previously within the last two years then instead the next highest ranked competitor will be chosen". It would make this more of a SPORT.

Sure there would be occasional drawbacks. But in general it would be for the best and all the fighters would know where they stood as would the fans. It would completely remove the bullshit with the matchmaking.
 
They put on the better fights with pretty much all of the 4 title fights. They make sense style wise and promotional wise.

Holm got the shot over Tate, it make sense because Ronda already beat Tate twice so a new and undefeated contender is better. Fans complain about the fight that she is not ready, well the division is shallow and are working with what they have. And the promotional angle works as well with Holm having a boxing background and everything.

Gus and Condit are certainly the better fights style wise and they will sell better. Were they really gonna take Woodley/Lawler to the stadium to fill 70K people?? Condit fight sells better and is no question a better fight style wise.

Cain? Well the UFC certainly has an agenda with this one, whatever it is. I didnt think Cain should have got the fight because he was beaten so dominantly. I felt that Andrei was the better fight, but again they have their own direction here.

In that fight promotions game its not always the highest ranked or most deserving fighter that gets the shot. Its the fight that makes the most sense style wise, business wise and ranking wise and the UFC considers all 3 factors. This is how the fight game works plain and simple.
 
Most title shots are earned so I have no problem when every once in a while a match gets made that doesn't make a lot of sense from a rankings stand point. Shit happens and fights need to be made. No reason for anyone to get all up in arms about it.
 
I accept it because like it or not, MMA is about sports entertainment and promotion. It's not an amateur sport and if it were just about winning, more fighters would fight like Fitch or Askren.

I like Meisha, but can see why they put Holm up first. Sucks that they told Meisha she had the shot then reneged though.

Condit is an interesting matchup but I think Woodley is more deserving and would rather see that. Condit had his shot and now I'd like to see Woodley get his.
 
TFanatic said:
As long as their top fighters not on a losing streak, I'm fine with good fights. For example, Gus over Bader makes sense to me because even though he's on a streak, Bader rarely looks impressive and has never beaten a top fighter. Gus has, so that's a far more intriguing fight.
Click to expand...

Gus never beat a top 5 fighter while Bader has. The only reason Gus even has relevance is due to losing a close fight and nut huggers.
 
JKS said:
They put on the better fights with pretty much all of the 4 title fights. They make sense style wise and promotional wise.

Holm got the shot over Tate, it make sense because Ronda already beat Tate twice so a new and undefeated contender is better. Fans complain about the fight that she is not ready, well the division is shallow and are working with what they have. And the promotional angle works as well with Holm having a boxing background and everything.

Gus and Condit are certainly the better fights style wise and they will sell better. Were they really gonna take Woodley/Lawler to the stadium to fill 70K people?? Condit fight sells better and is no question a better fight style wise.

Cain? Well the UFC certainly has an agenda with this one, whatever it is. I didnt think Cain should have got the fight because he was beaten so dominantly. I felt that Andrei was the better fight, but again they have their own direction here.

In that fight promotions game its not always the highest ranked or most deserving fighter that gets the shot. Its the fight that makes the most sense style wise, business wise and ranking wise and the UFC considers all 3 factors. This is how the fight game works plain and simple.
Click to expand...

I think Condit is a fan favorite amongst hardcore fans not casuals. Even though Condit is one of my favorite fighters he doesn't pull number at least not yet.
 
Lovetap said:
I'd like to see the politics almost completely removed. I'd love to see the matches determined strictly by MMA ELO rankings and a series of predefined rules such as "if the fighters fought within the last year the no the next highest ranked competitor will be chosen instead". It would make this more of a SPORT.

Sure there would be occasional drawbacks. But in general it would be for the best and all the fighters would know where they stood as would the fans.
Click to expand...

It doesnt work like that in the business of the fight game. It does for pro team sports, but a system like the UFC has is put in place so the company and fights are the most sellable and profitable for that organization but also offer the best competitors and fighter moving up. The issue with what you're suggesting wont work because the rankings system is open to interpretation and opinion based but would also clog up the title and creates repetitive fights. What qualifies one win better then another? If a title contender or fighter loses where does he go? What's the basis for who fights who?

This creates even more problems then anything. You have champ, then #1 vs #2, #3 vs #4, #5 vs #6 and so on. Guys win and move up for title shots, right? Not exactly, this will create so many problems. Suppose a fighter gets injured....#1 is out so who does #2 fight?? They gotta take the next highest guy out and change the fights. This would be a nightmare for fighters training for a particular guy. What happens if they cant find a opponent and #2 and #3 or #4 wins, do they move up over #2? Also, with the system would just move way too slow and you would have the same top 10 guys fighting each other, the system now make it easy for new guys to always enter the top 10. You also have to consider that just cause a guy is ranked higher doesnt mean he's better and more deserving of better fights. Right now you can have a guy outside the top 15 come in a knock of a top 5 guy. What your suggesting wont work in the fight game, it doesnt fit the dynamix of the sport.

Its nothing to do with being more of a "sport" The "sport" aspect is the competitive aspect of the game. What you're talking about is the business and promotions side and that wont change in the fight game, its been like that in boxing and mma for decades and the best and most efficient system.
 
It's always been a joke. It's the joke that keeps on giving.
 
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