The UFC is going mainstream, which is what it always wanted, but I'm starting to think the Ultimate Fighting Championship was better off underground.
Where nobody could smell its stench.
|
|
| Hey, Michael Bisping, you got away with murder in your home country. (Getty Images) |
Except for that stench.
The stench is growing on several fronts, which is a heartbreaking development for people like me who love mixed martial arts as a sport and the UFC as its top franchise. And it's a scary development because trolls are out there, reveling in ignorance, mistaking the UFC for organized bar fighting. There's nothing we can do about the trolls. Stupid is as stupid does, so when the next media person comes out with a "UFC is barbarism" screed, smile to yourself as you imagine the hack wearing Velcro sneakers.
But the credibility issues that come from within ... that's a major problem. And that problem was further exposed Saturday when Matt Hamill was completely screwed -- not possibly, not perhaps, but completely -- by a horrendous split-decision loss to Michael Bisping. On its face the decision was bad enough. Hamill dominated the first round, probably won the second round, and was competitive in Round 3. One judge saw him winning all three rounds. The other two had Bisping winning two of three.
Just beneath the surface is where the problem, and the stench, grows. See, UFC 75 was in England. Michael Bisping is from England. And more than that, he is considered by the UFC to be a rising star, a potential future champion, and a gateway into the mostly untapped British and western European market. On almost every level the UFC needed Michael Bisping to beat unknown Matt Hamill -- and when Bisping couldn't do it, the judges did it for him.
The horrible decision was the second blatant example in a week of the UFC playing favorites. Earlier, the UFC fired light heavyweight fighter Babalu Sobral for being too slow to release his beaten opponent, David Heath, from a choke hold. Heath tapped in surrender and referee Steve Mazzagatti called the fight, but Mazzagatti had to pry Sobral from his beaten opponent's neck. In the immediate aftermath Sobral said he wanted to teach Heath a lesson for cursing at him during weigh-ins, but days later he said he hadn't felt Heath or heard Mazzagatti over the crowd noise. I don't believe Sobral.
But I do believe this: If Sobral deserved to be fired by the UFC, then so did B.J. Penn for doing the same thing to Jens Pulver on The Ultimate Fighter 5 finale on June 23. Like Sobral and Heath, Penn and Pulver had some bad history, and Penn clearly held onto his choke hold for a few seconds after Pulver had tapped out. Penn basically acknowledged as much in an interview a short time later. But Penn wasn't fired or, near as I can tell, suspended. Why? Because Penn, like Michael Bisping, has star power.
The UFC's favoritism of Sobral over Penn was understandable because, at the end of the day, the UFC owes Sobral nothing. What happened to him was unfair in light of what didn't happen to Penn, but life isn't always fair. We can agree with that and move on.
What (I think) happened to Hamill against Bisping ... I can't move on. At the very least, even if you don't want to get into the potential nefariousness of it, Bisping's split-decision victory should draw more attention to the inadequate way UFC judges are asked to score fights. Most rounds are 10-9 affairs, the winner getting 10 points to the loser's nine, which makes any three-round fight vulnerable to a poor mathematical decision. Two judges had Bisping ahead 29-28, meaning he won two rounds to Hamill's one. Never mind that Hamill probably won the second round and might have won the third. He was so dominant in Round 1 that the next two close rounds shouldn't have been enough to deny him victory.
Put it this way: Two weeks ago Michigan won three of the four quarters against Appalachian State. But who won the game 34-32? See my point?
Scoring is just one of a handful of issues UFC president Dana White has to address -- quickly, publicly -- to ensure his sport survives the mainstream media glare. Steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs have seeped into MMA. That's one topic.
Another issue is the criminally small fight purses, with the UFC offering no explanation for where all its ticket and pay-per-view money goes while fighters often make $10,000 or less per fight. In the Georges St. Pierre-Josh Koscheck UFC 74 headliner, St. Pierre received $140,000 compared to Koscheck's $10,000. At UFC 66 Andrei Arlovski made $145,000 while his beaten opponent, Marcio Cruz, made $5,000. Those kinds of purse discrepancies, combined with Vegas' interest in UFC outcomes, could open up an entirely new can of worms, if you know what I'm saying. And if you don't, ask Tim Donaghy or Hot Rod Williams or Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Meanwhile, if you still believe in the infallibility of the UFC, go to your nearest movie store and rent UFC 63. You'll see lightweight Jorge Gurgel dominate Danny Abaddi and then jerk his head and open his mouth in shock when the first judge's scorecard is announced as 29-28 for Abaddi. The other two judges had Gurgel winning, giving him a split decision, but the scoring of that first judge was mystifying. Later it was reported that the first judge's scorecard had been wrong, that he had meant to give the fight to Gurgel.
Meant to. But didn't. That kind of mistake is frightening.
But now that I think about it ... it's the only way to make sense of Michael Bisping's "victory" Saturday over Matt Hamill.
