UFC Fight Night: Fight For The Troops... Don't Our Troops Deserve Better?

American Troops need our support. They always have and always will. They need to know that they are not forgotten about, even when it seems that their own government has stopped caring.

On December 10th, the UFC is putting on UFC Fight Night Fight for the Troops. This is a live event with proceeds going towards the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. All but 30 tickets are to be given away free of charge to active military personnel. The remaining 30 are to be auctioned off with proceeds going towards the fund.

This sounds like a wonderful concept. In fact it is a wonderful concept; too bad that our troops didn't warrant A-list fighters.

Here is the current scheduled fight card (the fights that are scheduled to air in the time allotted):

Frank Edgar Vs. Matt Wiman

Tim Credeur Vs. Nate Loughran

Steve Cantwell Vs. Razak Al-Hassan

Mike Swick Vs. Jonathan Goulet

With the main event being:

Josh Koscheck Vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida

All due respect to all of these fighters, but are you people serious? Your idea of really giving to the troops is setting up a fight cards with these guys? Get real.

The only fighter that did not win his last fight was Josh Koscheck, who lost the welterweight No. 1 contender fight to Thiago Alves just a month ago at UFC 90. At least the UFC had enough respect to find fighters that have at least a one-win streak going.

But what does this fight card really say? "We want to support our troops, but don't want to lose out on title-fight PPV revenue." Not to mention that it will be a nice tax break for the UFC.

To their credit, MMA fans don't see the other organizations putting these events on, and the UFC has shown their support by having Fight Night events in the troops honor, but this seems like a half-assed attempt at an incredibly kind gesture.

Let's give the troops a title fight. Let's give the fans a free title-fight. Sure, I know that it is a business, but why not have the event on PPV and give all the PPV money to the fund? That would probably be too generous.

There is nothing wrong with this event or the intent, except that it seems more like another way for the UFC to get viewers without having to do so at the expense of even a No. 1 contender.

Koscheck, Yoshida, Cantwell, Goulet and Edgar are very good in their weight classes, but they will probably never get higher than a No. 1 contender match, and none of these are even that much.

If the UFC really wants to show some support, why not throw in a No. 1 contender fight? Or a title fight? Don't use time as an excuse, this event could be held at any time. Future pay-per-view cards don't even have tickets for sale yet, move could have been made.

Instead, fight fans and soldiers will be treated to fighters that may put on a great show, but in the end, were only good enough to put on a free card, not PPV.

Something about this just doesn't feel right.

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