Issue 061

April 2010

Why the UFC needs Fedor before it holds all the aces.


There is little doubt that, in 2009, the Ultimate Fighting Championship gathered even more momentum globally, but I would contend that it remains 20% short of ‘owning’ the global market as the supreme leader.  

Let’s pause for a moment. In the Noughties, MMA went global – truly global – led by the UFC. It was a decade which put its silhouette on the mainstream sports horizon. In 2001, the UFC was sold for $2 million. Yet, by 2008, according to Forbes it had the power to generate $250 million in revenue per annum, and that figure continues to grow exponentially. Last autumn, in the United States, Spike TV averaged 3.4 million viewers for TUF 10: The Heavyweights, 72% higher than the average audience for the first 14 weeks of the NBA season. That is incredible. 

In the next decade, MMA will grow beyond anything anyone ever imagined. But so much of that will come down to the UFC, which, as I contended in FO issue 13 last month, is growing too rapidly and spreading its roster too thinly.  

Right now, the UFC is 20% short of ‘owning’ the market, because of the heavyweight division. Look at the top five pound-for-pound fighters in the world in the UFC’s five divisions: BJ Penn (lightweight), Georges St Pierre (welterweight), Anderson Silva (middleweight) and Lyoto Machida (light heavyweight) are the standouts. Yet, at heavyweight, Brock Lesnar remains far from a pound-for-pound contender. 

That title, beyond question, goes to Fedor Emelianenko, head and shoulders above the rest. Sign Fedor, and the UFC will ‘own’ all other organizations in MMA. Had Dana White managed to sign the Russian sambo fighter Emelianenko in 2009, the UFC would have had the dominant champion in five divisions, and all seven if you add the WEC (which UFC owners Zuffa bought in September 2006).  

Regardless of what they might say, the UFC needs the ‘Fedor Factor’.


Wallhead lights the way against injustice for fighters the world over.

There was closure on what I felt was one of the injustices in the sport, late in 2009, when Jimmy Wallhead, one of Europe’s top welterweights, inked his named on the dotted line for US-based MMA organization Bellator Fighting Championships.

I had made no secret of my view that I felt Wallhead was being overlooked by the leading mixed martial arts organisations, and said so in this column. I even joined a Facebook group supporting his case. Wallhead had won his last six fights, and nine of his last 11, with wins over UFC veterans Jason Tan and Steven Lynch, and in November 2009 a unanimous decision against former TUF contender Che Mills. The quiet man from The Midlands in the UK will now get the exposure he craved. The wider picture, I believe, is that it is a shot in the arm for judo fighters, whose skills are often underrated in MMA.

Dan Hardy, the British welterweight who faces the precipice against supreme UFC 170lb champion Georges St Pierre in Newark, New Jersery, on March 27, revealed to me that Wallhead’s grappling skills are sublime from his judo base (Wallhead earned his judo blackbelt aged 16), and that both he and fellow UFC welterweight Paul Daley have learned great defensive techniques through Wallhead’s skills.

Given that Bellator events are being shown on FOX Sports Net and its regional sports network affiliates – including a 30-minute highlights show compacted for late night viewing on NBC – I expect Wallhead to become a sought-after fighter. His inception into Bellator begins on April 8, with the start of an eight-man 170lb tournament, which includes Dan Hornbuckle, Jacob McClintock and former NCAA wrestling champion and US Olympian Ben Askren.  


Wishes for 2010

Since it is that time when the industry stand-outs are basking in the afterglow of winning in the FO World MMA Awards, here are my wishes for 2010 and, indeed, the most important decade ever for MMA:

  • Escape from the procrustean New York State legislation that has precluded mixed martial arts from Manhattan, and the start of UFC events at Madison Square Garden. When the historic event takes place it will be a ‘must-see’ for fans from all over the world. My contacts tell me it is not the foregone conclusion that some were reporting late in 2009, but I understand the UFC’s Marc Ratner and his team are confident that they are now in the final stages of shifting the paradigm against anti-MMA propagandists within politics.  
  • The return to full health of Brock Lesnar, and the staging of Lesnar-Mir III.  
  • The UFC pulling out all the stops to sign Fedor Emelianenko.
  • Lesnar-Emelianenko taking place before the end of 2010.
  • Reformatting of The Ultimate Fighter series.
  • Greater mainstream media recognition for the sport. 
  • No deaths or extreme injuries (as every year). 
  • With UFC global expansion, greater thinking to bring title fights outside Las Vegas and the United States. Fans around the world deserve it. 
  • The return of Quinton Jackson and his unfinished business with Rashad Evans. 
  • The top WEC contenders added to UFC events.  

Gareth A Davies is boxing and MMA correspondent for The Daily Telegraph  


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