Champagne or Cold Duck?
Besides Spencer Fisher vs. Thiago Alves, overall, the three-hour pre-show of best of 2005 and UFN III, was hopefully the "lightest" MMA show of this year thus far. The pre show was a whole lot of repetition of a whole lotta TUF fighters in action. This show was not light because of the weight classes, but rather due to the cumulative amount of experience and talent which was presented. Is what the UFC is presenting as top notch MMA to the male audiences of Spike TV truly "the best?" Can you talk about international MMA to anyone in this MTV generated crowd?

Matt Hughes the longest reigning UFC Champion with the most title defenses has one blemish in the Octagon that must be gnawing at his subconscious; BJ PENN. Photography by Nick McDonell

It seems that the more talented experienced professional MMA fighters are who should be on this stage, but are being kept behind or off the scenes, away from the public eye. That is, until the BIG SURPRISE!
While PRIDE with its abundance of talent and tournaments dishes out a smorgasbord of "all you can eat sushi," the UFC and Spike TV are making you beg for each hors devours. I'm starving and these marketing strategists are feeding me left over from last year followed by a live dose of the opening acts.
I mean if you've got James Brown in the house why not let the main act on?
If you've got champagne why serve cold duck?

Pure Filler
In terms of quality MMA, Ultimate Fight Night III was way more filler than substance, especially due to the many quick finishes. And since now even the MMA media gets TV only seating, it was even more treacherous viewing from the sofa. Not only was it like being bloated on beer and eating only stuffing on thanksgiving, but it was also an experiment with commercial and infomercial brainwashing strategies. Out of two hours of programming, only about half an hour was dedicated to MMA fighting.

Matt Hughes is the king who shall be anointed or beaten by legendary mythical warrior Royce Gracie. Photography by Minori Yoshida

The cards for this particular night left much to be desired, considering that it was primarily TUF I + II participants, in other words, young "up n coming" fighters. But the problem is that many of the participants of UFN III don't seem to have the talent to warrant such attention from the UFC.
Remember Robbie Lawler, Phil Baroni? Both very tough and spirited fighters, which Zuffa treated as the "next big thing" once upon a time. As soon as each lost a couple or three bouts, they were out of the Octagon's gate looking for gigs in other MMA shows. Lawler seems to have a lot of balls and talent that most of this playing field has yet to prove. Perhaps Leben vs. Lawler is a worthy confrontation, whadaya say Joe?

It seems that putting too much hype and expectation behind a fighter can suddenly effect their game and fold them, perhaps due to the pressure. So why wipe out an entire weight class of top talent, and now push less experienced participants, trying to pass them off as top shelf MMA talent? Whenever i used used to watch the UFC I always expected top talent. That was an association I had with the Octagon.
Now a days I feel lucky if half the fights are any good, thus the UFN shows, of which only the second really rocked hard.

Main Course
In terms of UFN III, even the supposed climax was anticlimactic, as Tim Sylvia and Asuerrio Silva thought they where only having a sparring session in the small Hard Rock venue and neither seemed to wear much spirit or drive on this particular night.
For one moment I thought Tim was Jens working the jabs and stand up, but he didn't play with the same risk and intensity as team mate Pulver. And having only seen Asuerrio twice in PRIDE, it was disappointing not seeing him force it to the ground instead of hanging around Tim Sylvia's neck in the woods.
It seems that a tree should be chopped, or in this case tripped up or unbalanced from the bottom up in order to equalize the reach and weight disadvantage, but there was no passion.

House Cleaning
The announcement that Royce Gracie was coming back to the UFC to take on Matt Hughes only put a temporary shot of adrenaline into the mix, I expected Zuffa to do something more earth shaking like bringing back the 155 lbs. weight division, or at least a tournament for gods sake. (Royce is probably worth about ten good lightweights)
Although now they are promising monthly shows, why must we wait so far and long in between for each top quality bottle of wine (or bourbon or beer) to be brought to the table? Goddamit, let us see all the talent in one show, and then give us more talent.

Canadian George St. Pierre seems to be the greatest of the shooting stars in the UFC's densely populated welterweight field.. Photography by Dave Mandel

Priorities
I believe George St. Pierre should have been given another shot at Hughes after decimating and perhaps traumatizing Frank Trigg and Sean Sherk, rather than forcing him to confront perhaps the worlds top MMA fighter today BJ Penn. But that would have ruined the big surprise. I mean, although Matt Hughes is currently champion, I don't remember him beating Penn to regain that belt. I only remember BJ completely overwhelming and finishing Hughes in less than one round, and then Zuffa stripping him of the belt for his other ventures. I suppose Zuffa woke up this summer when K-1 rang their bell looking to do some business. (or did Zuffa ring the bell?)

It is interesting that K-1 would risk letting BJ vs. Royce occur in the UFC's Octagon rather than in a Japanese ring, because that is where this all seems to be leading. I remember BJ calling out Royce's name at least a year ago, and after winning a unanimous decision over Renzo Gracie in Hawaii, I'm sure Royce is looking forward to avenging the family honor.

You Are What You Present
Yes, the UFC is promising a lot for 2006 and doing some things right, but these wafer thin UFN cards just don't deliver or pack in the flavor they should. If you are going to make it in the world of the arts they tell you to put your best foot forward, in Mixed Martial Arts if you don't put you best foot forward or keep up your guard you'll get knocked out.

Most people in the mainstream that I talk to about MMA don't even know what it is, and if I mention the TUF TV shows even less respond. The ones that might be familiar with the UFC only remember the cage and they don't even know its called Mixed Martial Arts. We must now ask ourselves if MMA is really reaching the masses?

Official Results Ultimate Fight Night III >>