The various MMA forums are buzzing Tuesday morning with the news that the coaches of The Ultimate Fighter Season 8 will be heavyweights Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir.
The show will feature Lightweight and Light Heavyweights and begin airing September 17th. This show is expected to lead up to a "Interim" Heavyweight Title match between the two coaches after the show, most likely in December.
As I have noted, this is quite the hot topic on the forums today, and the response is overwhelmingly negative across the board, from the experts to the self-proclaimed "hardcore fans."
Personally I disagree whole-heartedly with all of these people. Now before you stop reading and simply scroll down to leave me an angry comment about not knowing anything about MMA, allow me the opportunity to at least explain my position.
One of the knocks on these two as coaches is that it will suspend the potential title match until after the show. Without the show the match would have likely been on a card in September at the earliest, three months earlier than it is likely to take place now if in fact this is booked for December.
I agree with this—I want to see this match take place and I don't want to have to wait until December to watch it. Going this long between title bouts is very frustrating, but in this particular case I can look the other way because I think two things are accomplished by delaying the fight.
The first thing accomplished is that the match gets the hype it deserves. Everyone wants to say that the UFC Heavyweight Division is on life support and about to die. I can't argue with that, but I don't believe it is because of a lack of talent. This isn't a deep division, but it is top heavy.
Nogueira is an incredible athlete and one of the best heavyweights in the world. He beat Tim Sylvia and I believe, if given the chance, he could take Randy Couture as well.
Behind Nogueira is a bevy of good contenders, including: Mir, Cheick Kongo, Brock Lesnar, Brandon Vera, Gabriel Gonzaga, Fabricio Werdum and Heath Herring.
Talent is not the problem.
The problem is that UFC has lost all the talent that it had spent so much time marketing in Sylvia and Couture, and now possibly Arlovski.
So if the problem is too little press, then what better way to gain some than through The Ultimate Fighter?
Nogueira and Mir has the makings of a great heavyweight fight. Before his injury Mir was the best heavyweight in the UFC, and I don't see a reason to believe he is not near that form again, if not all the way there.
This will be a great fight, but without any marketing people won't watch it. People don't pay for pay-per-views when they don't care about the main event.
What having these two guys on The Ultimate Fighter does is make people care about this match. It will get people to purchase the show, and if these two put on the kind of match I believe they will, it will make people care about the division once again.
UFC didn't lose all their heavyweight talent, they just lost the talent that was being promoted.
It's time to shift gears, and this is the way to do it.
The other thing that will be accomplished by postponing this match is that it will give the heavyweight contenders a chance to sort themselves out a bit.
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