Sonnen, Cruz, Edgar, Velasquez Are Fighters That Can End the UFC's 'Star Search'

The UFC is growing rapidly, and was perfectly lined up to get even bigger in the next year. Unfortunately for Dana White, and MMA fans in general, there is a rapidly shrinking list of “star” fighters that the UFC can count on to attract fans. Chuck Liddell is gone. Randy Couture is gone. The careers of other brand-name fighters like Matt Hughes, Wanderlei Silva, Kenny Florian and BJ Penn are all undeniably approaching an end.

On top of that, the UFC’s single biggest PPV draw, Brock Lesnar,  after his UFC 141 loss to Alistair Overeem and it is highly unlikely that his decision will change (which often happens in the UFC). The second biggest draw, seemingly-unstoppable Welterweight Champion, Georges St-Pierre, recently underwent major surgery on his knee. There are rumbles that this injury could be career-ending, and whether or not this proves true, it is difficult to believe GSP will come back as the same fighter that remains undefeated since April 2007, even though he anticipates a November 2012 return. To top it all off, #1 Pound-for-Pound fighter, and UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson Silva is apparently planning to retire after his current UFC contract expires, which is likely to occur in 2013.

With only one dependable draw that is immediately available (Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones) the UFC needs to build their fighters’ brands. Quickly. Luckily, they have a deep pool of talent, both young and old, that they can work with.

Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber

The UFC’s decision to have Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz star in the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter (the show’s 15th and first under the UFC’s contract with Fox) is actually a stroke of sheer genius. The increasingly bitter rivalry between the two will work well as the season’s centerpiece, which can help pad ratings for the season itself and more importantly can benefit the UFC greatly by adding extra exposure to either fighter.

Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz is undoubtedly an elite fighter. He is presently on a 10-fight win streak (nine of those fights in the WEC or UFC). He handily won his rematch with Urijah Faber and had little trouble keeping the belt out of the hands of Demetrious Johnson. Unfortunately, Dominick Cruz is also probably the least-known UFC champion, and had his most recent title defense relegated to cable television. Giving Cruz some spotlight can do a lot to help his drawing power and bring more attention to the bantamweight division as a whole.

Urijah Faber was handily the most popular fighter in the WEC and is one of the UFC’s most identifiable and marketable entities. The UFC stands to gain a lot if the already-popular Faber has a championship belt around his waist. Cruz vs. Faber III is a solid headline for an event, and should Faber end up winning their rubber match, expect an incredible media blitz to surround him.

Ultimately, though, the UFC is in a win-win situation with this threematch. Should Cruz win what would be the highest-profile fight of his career, he would start gaining the notoriety he deserves, which may give him the fame to allow the UFC to start building cards around him. Meanwhile, if Faber wins, he could become a serious money-grabber.

Frankie Edgar

The UFC’s lightweight division is by far their deepest. At this moment, though, there is not a fighter among them who can headline a card that gets 500,000 PPV buys. Even the epic UFC 136 card, which was stacked top-to-bottom with excellent fights and sported the sure-to-be-exciting Edgar vs. Maynard III as a headline, only totaled an estimated 225,000 buys. When you consider that now-welterweight (and possibly retired) BJ Penn drew more than this (an estimated 280,000 buys) headlining the injury-riddled UFC 137 card, and consistently averaged over 500,000 buys during his reign as lightweight champion…it does not bode well for the UFC’s ability to depend on the division for revenue at this time.

The thing is, there are loads of strong lightweights that can put forth exciting fights. Above all, though, UFC needs current-champion Frankie Edgar to string together more wins…and keep them exciting.

Edgar is a relatively likable character and a solid fighter, but nothing keeps a successful UFC veteran from gaining fans more than an inability to finish fights, which we have seen numerous times with distance-focused fighters like Jon Fitch and Yushin Okami. Because Edgar shocked many when he knocked out Gray Maynard (the shock coming largely from the fact that he actually knocked somebody out), his drawing power has been limited.

The “Frankie Edgar Brand" has a high ceiling, but he is going to need to continue to string together electrifying fights if he wants to start getting the same buys that BJ Penn did. He has a tall order against former WEC lightweight champion Ben Henderson, but the fight could be the sort of fast-paced thriller that can help propel Edgar to the next level.

Chael Sonnen

He is an explosive wrestler. He has a huge ego. He can beat down opponents verbally or physically. Fans either love him or hate him but will always tune in to see him fight. We are not talking Brock Lesnar here. We are talking about Chael Sonnen.

This is a no-brainer, really. Lesnar was one of the UFC’s biggest stars ever and Chael Sonnen is following in his footsteps in almost every way. The only difference between the two, really, is that Sonnen is even more willing than Lesnar ever was to put himself out there, and constantly proves the old saying “any publicity is good publicity” true. His willingness to tell champions that they “suck,” provoke Twitter fights with Octagon Girls and rant about athletes in other sports on ESPN keeps him in the spotlight at all times.

He used this to end up as the co-main event for UFC on Fox 2 where he will have millions watching his title eliminator bout with Michael Bisping. If he wins, he will get his long-awaited rematch with Anderson Silva in what could be one of the UFC’s biggest events ever. Sonnen is already one of the biggest draws in his division, but can also become one of the UFC’s cash cows if he can win the belt.

Cain Velasquez

While Brock’s personality was a big reason for his popularity, another major factor was his mammoth size. Heavyweight fights are always the most appealing for casual fans, and with Brock gone, the UFC needs a personality to put front-and-center for the division.

While Junior dos Santos beat Velasquez in front of an estimated 8.8 million fans at the first UFC on Fox event, Dos Santos’ personality does not fit the mold of a heavyweight fighter. Dos Santos is warm and cuddly. He is nice, humble, respectful, loves his mommy and prays every day. He is also likely shelved for the better half of 2012 because of recent knee surgery, and is likely to return to a bout with Alistair Overeem.

By no means does Cain Velasquez have a bad attitude, but rather than having a full-blown “nice guy” personality, Velasquez is best categorized as a tough everyman. He is smart, articulate, hardworking and loves his family, but also serious, gritty, no-nonsense and definitely not on the list of people you would want to mess with.

On top of all that his Mexican heritage has consistently been a big part of marketing Velasquez. Before his title bout with Brock Lesnar, he UFC took every possible opportunity to point out how Cain Velasquez was in place to become the first fighter of Mexican descent to become a heavyweight champion. He has also actively been working with Spanish-speaking media outlets like Telemundo and Univision to bolster the UFC’s popularity among Mexican-Americans.

It remains to be seen how much of a draw Velasquez is, however, given how few PPV cards he has headlined (just two, and one was his title bout with Lesnar). Regardless, Velasquez’s efforts probably have not been in vain and he could easily become the top PPV dog in the heavyweight division once he comes back from shoulder surgery in April.