mma / Columns

411 Fact or Fiction MMA: Will the UFC Give in to Nate Diaz?

May 25, 2016 | Posted by Lorenzo Vasquez

Welcome back to another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! I’m your host, Lorenzo Vasquez III, and I’m glad to bring to you, yet another week, of the low down on the fact or fiction of the MMA world. Summer isn’t officially here, but the MMA landscape is already into the swing of things and there’s more than enough to discuss. If a title is not changing hands, than it’s Conor McGregor making some noise. Last week, Mark Radulich and Dino Zee engaged in a back and forth affair on subjects ranging from the sale of the UFC, Demian Maia earning a title shot, Ronda Rousey not returning in 2016, and the weight cutting policy the UFC is about to enforce. Mark took the early lead, but was soon trailing Dino, who never looked back. Congratulations to Dino who took home the 20-to-15 victory and thank you both for your great efforts.

This week, Robert Winfree steps into the arena for an epic clash with Alex Rella. They will discuss Bellator MMA releasing Will Brooks, Venator FC’s gamble on Jason Miller and Rousimar Palhares, Fabricio Werdum’s knockout loss to Stipe Miocic, Luke Rockhold running wild on Michael Bisping, and much more! Once again, folks, strap in and get ready for the ride. It’s time for another round of, 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! Let’s get the ball rolling…

TALE OF THE TAPE
RED CORNER
Robert “The Last Rider” Winfree
Contributor/Live Coverage Guru/Host, 411 MMA Zone/411 Ground and Pound Radio Show
0-0-0

VS

BLUE CORNER
Alex “Little Mac” Rella
Contributor, 411 MMA Zone
0-0-0


Considering Will Brooks was one of the best lightweights in Bellator MMA, the Viacom owned promotion lost legitimacy by releasing the young fighter and stands to lose big money as potential fights with Benson Henderson and Josh Thomson, among others, are now out the door.

Robert Winfree: FICTION Mostly because I’m not sure how much money they’ll be losing out on. Will Brooks didn’t want to be with the promotion anymore, trying to force him to stay would help very little. Benson Henderson and Josh Thomson are still going to draw about the same and while Brooks is a top tier lightweight he doesn’t draw big numbers, at least not the kinds of numbers that Bellator is willing to pay or fight to keep over. Letting Brooks go when Brooks wanted to go probably helps them a little after they took Quinton Jackson to court forcing him to stay when he didn’t want to, and the money lost is somewhat negligible.

Alex Rella: FICTION Will Brooks is one of the best lightweights in the world and it is a loss for Bellator, but I doubt they’ll lose any money because of it. Their lightweight division is probably their most stacked and they’ll do just fine without him. Brooks was a good champion, but it wasn’t like MMA fans were anxiously waiting for his next fight, though. They have veterans like Thomson, Henderson, Pitbull, Chandler, Marcin Held, and even David Rickels at the top of the division that can make exciting title fights in any combination. Then, you have Brent Primus who is undefeated and Brandon Girtz who has been awesome lately. Their lightweights are a real strength for Bellator, so they can afford to cut Brooks if he was being a headache for them. They have plenty of fighters that will make legitimate champions and plenty of exciting match ups to make with fighters at the top of the division.


Venator FC’s gamble on booking controversial fighters, Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Rousimar Palhares, was set in motion to fail way before both fighters entered the cage and lost by way of submission and TKO?

Robert Winfree: FICTION Unless they expected them to win. Booking controversial figures is an attempt to draw eyeballs, very little else and if nothing else Venator accomplished that. The fights weren’t relevant, or all that good, but using the name value of fighters like Miller or Palhares to get people who otherwise wouldn’t have known about the company’s very existence was always going to work. Venator got more eyeballs and more coverage of their event because of those two, and hopefully they put on a good enough show to get a few of them to tune in next time. at negligible.

Alex Rella: FICTION I thought this weekend was a real success for Venator FC. Be honest, did anyone know anything about Venator FC before these fights were announced? Nope, not at all. Their owner went out and booked a bunch of veterans, including some controversial ones, and it paid off. He got a ton of publicity and two fighters that were previously on his roster picked up the biggest wins of their careers. Nobody knew who Emil Weber Meek was before this, but he wrecked one of the most dangerous welterweights in the world. Now I want to know when he’ll be fighting again. The same goes for Mattia Schiavolin to a lesser extent for choking out Mayhem Miller. Yea they both lost, but the owner brought in a ton of attention to his relatively unknown company and built up the resume of two of his current roster guys.


News breaking that Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta were unable to come to terms on a deal with Nate Diaz to rematch Conor McGregor, is a sign that the UFC is going to have to cave much more, than when the rematch was first booked, into Diaz’s “demands” if they want this fight to come to fruition?

Robert Winfree: FACT Though I’m not sure they will cave, if they want that rematch they’re going to have to. Nate Diaz is in a rare position of power, as despite the fight itself making zero sense and mattering not at all people are clamoring for a Diaz vs. McGregor fight again. It was the main event of one of the two best drawing PPV’s in the UFC’s history and while Diaz has been a decent but not exactly elite level lightweight he’s suddenly in a position to get more concessions from the UFC simply by virtue of beating McGregor. I had no interest in the first fight between those two and less in the rematch, but if the UFC does want to cash in on it then they’re going to have to play ball with both Diaz and McGregor to a much greater extent than they have in the past.

Alex Rella: FACT Yea I guess so. The Diaz have had various moments where they’ve been difficult to work with and this time the ball is completely in Nate’s court. He beat their biggest draw and was all ready to go for a rematch before McGregor-White drama called it off. Diaz is likely holding out for more money at this point. It’s not unreasonable to argue to make the same amount of money as the guy you just beat. It makes sense they’ll have to give in more since the fight was called off and now McGregor and White are desperate for that rematch. Nate made millions after the first fight, it’s likely he’s trying to make enough money from this fight to live off of for the rest of his life.


SWITCH!

The UFC would be better off developing and promoting a 145-pound division for Cris Cyborg, than continuing to have her fight at a catch weight of 140-pounds which makes little sense other than using her to draw attention?

Alex Rella: FICTION I see nothing wrong with having Cyborg fight occasionally in the UFC at 140. She’s never going to make 135, so throw her in some fun fights with bantamweights that are willing to step up. There are more options for her this way as the women’s featherweight division is maybe the thinnest division in all of MMA. Even if the UFC absorbs Invicta’s roster, it’s not really worth it. Cyborg has already beaten their few top featherweights like Charmaine Tweet and Faith Van Duin. Or it’s filled with average fighters Peggy Morgan or Latoya Walker. Plus, Bellator has been building themselves up a solid featherweight division over the past couple years, so they have the rest of the division’s top fighters like Marloes Coenen. The only remaining intriguing featherweight fight for Cyborg at this point is Julia Budd, but she’s signed with Bellator. I just don’t see the point of creating a division for her. Cyborg is better off occasionally wrecking some random featherweight in Invicta to defend her title and then coming to the UFC for special attraction fights.

Robert Winfree: FACT Though it’s relatively close. Cris “Cyborg” Justino has arrived and has proven to be something of a star now that she’s being exposed to a wider audience, and the question of how to handle her moving forward is a legitimate one. I have no problem with her only doing catch weight fights and serving as a draw in that capacity as it would allow her to keep fighting for Invicta as well and she’s easily the biggest name in that promotion. That being said, propping up a featherweight division around her in the UFC isn’t the worst idea in the world. When women’s bantamweight was introduced it was little more than a prop around Ronda Rousey, yet with her anchoring that division more fighters came to it, they trained hard and now the division is in a very healthy place even if Rousey never fights again. The same thing could be done with Cyborg, she’d annihilate the competition for her first several defenses but gradually more fighters would come in and develop skills to contend with her leading to a healthier division. Objectively the only wrong way to handle Cyborg going forward would be for her to never fight in the UFC again, so whether the UFC gives her a division to try and grow or just keeps doing super fights they can’t really go wrong.


When considering, Fabricio Werdum’s tendency to lunge his head forward and step into the pocket, it is not so surprising Stipe Miocic, with his sound fundamental boxing, was able to knockout the former champion?

Alex Rella: FACT Yea he fought really weird in that one. Werdum has established himself as a great striker in recent years, but he was practically asking to get knocked out against Miocic. Miocic is a great boxer and Werdum was just running into him with his face leaning forward. Maybe it was a bad night or a poor strategy, but it wasn’t a surprising result considering Miocic’s boxing and Werdum’s face hanging out there. I will say though, that it was surprising during the fight, but I didn’t think he would get knocked out like that before the fight started. I don’t remember Werdum leaning forward that much in any fight before this one.

Robert Winfree:FACT I can’t tell you all how badly I was kicking myself over predicting this one wrong. I just didn’t pay enough attention to some of Werdum’s bad habits and I slept a little on the power of Miocic. Werdum breaks his stance frequently and when doing so is off balance, all fighters who switch frequently are inevitably hit by something that catches them like that even greats like Dominick Cruz or Demetrious Johnson, but his poor posture and linear movement really came back to bite him as Miocic was able to circle and counter. I’m not sure if Miocic is the man to break the three defense barrier that proved impassable to every single UFC heavyweight champion thus far, but he’s a darn good fighter and exploited Werdum’s weakness to the utmost.


There is no reason to think middleweight champion Luke Rockhold’s rematch with Michael Bisping will be any different than their first bout; hence, the UFC would have done better to pair a fresh face with Rockhold instead of Bisping?

Alex Rella: FICTION Sure Rockhold is likely going to win this one too, but who else is there? Jacare would have made sense, but he’s hurt. The only other top ten middleweight on a winning streak is Robert Whittaker, but he needs one big win before he moves into that title picture. Bisping has name value, he’s on a three fight winning streak, is a legitimate top five middleweight, and just picked up the biggest win of his career against Anderson Silva. Maybe it isn’t a fresh fight that and maybe it has a similar outcome, but there weren’t any other choices. It just makes perfect sense to put Bisping in here.

Robert Winfree:FICTION But only based on the latter half of the statement. I expect this fight to go worse for Bisping than their first meeting did, but Bisping is the best option right now. The top two choices, Yoel Romero and Chris Weidman, are unable to fight due to a suspension and a serious injury respectively and the next guy down, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, is injured enough to keep him from making the UFC 199 date. Next on the list of available viable contenders is Michael Bisping. Bisping is on a winning streak and coming off of a win over Anderson Silva, he can talk enough to help sell the fight, and is healthy and willing to do so on very short notice. If you look at the middleweight division below Bisping, you get guys like Tim Kennedy, who hasn’t fought since losing to Yoel Romero in September of 2014; or, Anderson Silva who just lost to Bisping and doesn’t have a win on his record since beating Stephan Bonnar after his failed drug test got the win over Nick Diaz overturned and just had major surgery. Bisping was the best choice given the circumstances, I can’t see him winning this fight in any way besides Clucky decision, but this is still the best of a bad situation.


So who won? Did Robert steal the show? Or, did Alex leave Mr. Winfree trailing behind? You’ve got until midnight eastern on Saturday to vote, so make sure you make your voice heard!


And that’s it for today, but as always, we’ll be back next week with another contest! Be sure to leave your comments below. And please, be sure to vote!

Also, follow 411’s various and sundry zones on Twitter for your daily 411 fix!

411 Wrestling Zone Twitter
411 Movies/TV Zone Twitter
411 Music Zone Twitter
411 Games Zone Twitter
411 MMA Zone Twitter