Theirs your answer

The problem is that the UFC can only market certain things. Lightweight fighters do badly on payperview.

At the same time the UFC is doing several things

1 - Consolidating the monopoly they want to build. Right now they are Microsoft in MMA, no challengers. Like Msoft they dont really innovate, they just buy up the rest of the market share and strangle the competition. It is possible for a rival organization to go head to head with them and it will happen. It depends on Japan to a large degree and a few other factors Ill save for another thread.

2 - They OWN champions in every division. At 84 kilod and under they have Anderson Silva, Dan Henderson who is signed to a 3 fight 2 million dollar contract which will be the end of the road for him in the UFC because he lost 2 fights and is now dispensable; and if Anderson Silva ever decides to jump ship or look bad they will bring in their WEC champion to shore up the division or replace who they have. Same for all the other weight classes.

3 - It also is a farm team for the UFC. Beleive me when I tell you who's wearing the belt isn't necessarily the most skilled or the far and away best in comparison to other orgs, Ive trained with Paul?o Filho and frankly he could fight anyone at that weight and win. Other divisions have similiar situations and they want to see who the crowds respond to moreso than who's the best.

Tim Sylvia is an excellent fighter. Minotauro is more exciting. If Tim wins 3 or 4 fights in a boring way, they will find a way to get him out and bring in someone the crowd likes. They can always give that WEC guy a shot, after all, fighting hard for less money and less attention - gonna come in real motivated. In the meanwhile they can groom Brock Lesnar or whoever they want to be the all-American

This is a side note, but I am convinced that the UFC wants the WWE audience. They brought Brock in against a fighter (Frank Mir) tailor-made to beat him, a big heavy and expendenble (after his motorcycle acccident) Jiu Jitsu fighter. Brock is a mosntruos wrestler with little BJJ experience, he was obviously gonna slam Mir and get submitted. All the WWE fans would take note and I guarantee you they will return to see him and his next fight will be someone tailor made to lose against Lesnar while they bring him up and groom him to fight for the title.

WEC is like having high priced insurance with a liquidity policy

Right. Im agreeing with you. I'm using BJJ as a generic term for everything on the ground after a takedown. So much so, that personally I am having a problem because I am 10x the submission wrestler I am than a gi fighter and I need to get my gi black belt to teach. On top I use wrestling to get takedowns and then I use no gi Jiu Jitsu techniques to pass the guard, get a leglock, defend off of my back, whatever.... They're usually the same techniques I use in BJJ but modified, et al, I just find that the gi offers a lot of chances to stall, use sport technique versus practical technique etc..... and the stand up is more Judo.

Jeff Monson, a guy who has beaten 5x BJJ champ Saulo Ribeiro no problem, just got his gi black belt after about 10 years of dominating the submission scene. I think he deserved that black belt about 6 years ago, but thats what politics are about.

As for the Brock fight, if you want a real good insurance that a physically overwhelming wrestler is going to lose, put him up against a tall, long-legged ground fighter.

You're pretty sure that barring the unexpected; an injury, a stand-up knockout, a tactical error on Mir's part its a no-brainer

Lesnar will walk in and slam Mir to kingdom come, and then not know what to do besides throw some punches. Mir, being experienced can defend that easily enough and has 3 rounds to take advantage of the bigger,stronger wrestlers experience and work for a submission. He's already done it against 7 foot Tim Sylvia and he is a relatively cool-headed fighter.

I thik that the intention was for that to happen (and it did) and now Lesnar has drawn the attention of WWE fans who see one of their stars lose and draw possible others into the fold. Dollars to doughnuts Lesnar is sent to train with an experienced ground school and learns how to box and becomes a legitimate contender.

He would be the perfect UFC champ, a division 1 wrestler with the WWE market crossover, a potentially nlimited amount of WWE wrestlers following suit; bringing their fans along with them, physcially huge and all-American, and he.knows how to play the part.

Minotauro will continue as the champ for a while. His first opponent was Heath Herring, a guy he'd beaten 2x before. Then they put him in versus the unpopular champion and he wins. I personally give Mir little chance to beat Nogueira, as Minoutauro is a very good boxer, (his twin brother was the Bronze medalist in the Pan American games) and better on the ground than Mir, and I see no one in the UFC who can give him a legitimate threat barring unforeseen mistakes,injuries, whatever.

Lesnar will have plenty of time to learn a ground and pound game with a good boxing game and kick defense. Hes a smart division 1 athlete who is intelligent and motivated. He will be hard to beat.

some good matches on right now on WEC on Versus. I think they are live.
I do wish that they wouldn't continously show repeats, it cheapens the product. Also, why does versus have their MMA shows on Weds. night, the same night Spike has UFC unleashed on?

Chael Sonnen dominated in his match and hit a sweet suplex.
I thought he left himself open a few times for submissions that might have gotten him in trouble against a top BJJ guy.

The first person who truly belends BJJ/No gi with world class wrestling and good stand up will be nearly impossible to beat

Im raising a glass of beer hoping its gonna be me.

Chael Sonnen is an excellent MMA fighter. He gave Babalu a fight and then some.

Fedor will .ose to a BJJ fighter who lears how to wrestle really well or a wrestler who learns the ground really well. Did you see how Matt Lindland got double unders on him like nobodies business. If he had a ground submission game to match he would have won