While I was always far more of a PRIDE fan in the early to mid 2000s, I was consistently impressed with the job that Joe Silva, the then UFC matchmaker, did. The matches were always sensible, frequently intriguing, and would work in building up a new star regardless of who won.
After taking a break from seriously following MMA, I return earlier this year to find that Joe Silva has retired and been replaced by Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard. I wanted to give them a chance, but after the most recent event, it's clear that they're the Dumb and Dumber of MMA, and at least slightly responsible for the UFC's current woes.
Consider the two main events, shall we?
First up we have Sergey Pavlovich versus Alistair Overeem. Pavlovich is the biggest prospect in all of heavyweight MMA and a potential future world champion. He is big, powerful, moves well, strikes beautifully, and is difficult to take or keep down.
So what do you do? Do you match him up with a mid-level, name fighter that accenuates his strengths and allows him to get a highlight reel knockout in his debut?
Of course not! You match him up with Alistair Overeem, a danger to Pavlovich since he brings a very similar skillset to the table. It's classical lose-lose booking here.
Overeem wins, and so what? After brutal knockout losses to N'Gannou and Blaydes, a win over a new guy only proves that he isn't completely washed up, nothing more. No one is clamoring to see Overeem fight for a title thanks to this win.
Meanwhile, you've derailed a huge prospect in Pavlovich in a major way. If he does become a big star eventually, the early knockout loss to a very past his prime Overeem will be used to discredit him for years to come.
But what if Pavlovich had won? Would it have given him THAT much steam to destroy N'Gannou's and Blaydes' leftovers? Not really. Not any more than if he had beaten a far friendlier match-up in an Arlovski or Oleynik, for instance. Meanwhile, a third straight loss would have completely killed Overeem as any kind of significant name.
Let's move on to the main event, which is even worse.
On the one hand, you have Curtis Blaydes, a guy who was either the top contender for the heavyweight crown, or second after Miocic. A heavily hyped, respected guy that Cormier had paid massive respect to and said he would have defended against if he wasn't retiring at 40.
So what do you do? Why, place him in match-up against a faded, enigmatic contender who is a uniquely bad match-up, and had already beaten him once before.
If Bladyes wins, it does nothing for him. He is no closer to the belt, and N'Gannou would be dismissed as a flawed headcase.
But if Blaydes loses, which happened, he is knocked off as a serious contender and can't easily get back there. Nor can he be easily promoted in that role even if he comes back and wins his next few, as many will dismiss him due to being beaten not once, but twice by N'Gannou.
As if knocking off an excellent contender isn't bad enough, it doesn't do THAT much more for N'Gannou, either. Were N'Gannou to lose, he would be completely dead as a contender. That wouldn't exactly be fair given the tough opponents and stylistic match-ups he faced this year, and that none of them finished him.
But with N'Gannou winning, he is STILL a win or two away from contendership. And it only proves that he has Bladyes' number, not that he has figured out his problems and is once again a force.
TLDR version-
The two main fights were lose-lose for the organization, as opposed to the win-win scenarios Joe Silva would regularly make. You knocked off the best, most interesting title contender at heavyweight AND the hottest prospect in heavyweight MMA on the same night, and got little to nothing for it in return.
Take a bow, Dumb and Dumber. Take a bow.
