A Lesson from Last Year: That 'Terrible Card' Produced a Top Contender (and Various Other Talking Points)
One year ago, everyone moaned about Marina Rodriguez being hustled into a main event assignment. Now, she's one of the top contenders in the talent-rich strawweight division.
Three-hundred-and-sixty-odd days ago, MMA Twitter felt the sky was falling when TJ Dillashaw announced he his main event pairing with Cory Sandhagen was going to have to be pushed back because he’d suffered a gnarly cut above his eye.
A day later, Diego Sanchez got pulled from his fight with Donald Cerrone and released from the UFC and folks lamented the loss as if a championship pairing was being pulled from the lineup.
The remaining card, which was bolstered by an impromptu main event matchup between Marina Rodriguez and Michelle Waterson, was maligned.
Actually, maligned doesn’t feel like a strong enough word. It was bludgeoned. Dragged, as the kids would say.
There was no reason to watch in the eyes of many experts and key observers because the highly anticipated main event was scrapped and the shopworn veteran few people legitimately wanted to see still competed was no longer going to compete. Everyone else on the card wasn’t worth tuning in to see, and the main event made absolutely no sense.
Marina Rodriguez won that main event assignment against Michelle Waterson, proving she could go five rounds with an established Top 10 talent and giving her two victories in the first half of 2021.
Five months later, she did the same against Mackenzie Dern, picking apart everyone’s favourite Brazilian jiu jitsu stylist over 25 minutes to push her winning streak to three and establish herself as a legitimate Top 5 talent in the division we all agree is the best on the female side of the roster.
And five months after that, Rodriguez added another victory to her total, edging out Yan Xiaonan to secure her fourth consecutive win and cement her standing as one of the top contenders in the 115-pound weight class.
Because of the depth of the division, she might have to win another fight before she challenges for championship gold, but regardless of what comes next, just under one year after being labeled as someone unworthy of a main event assignment and the centerpiece of a card that was slammed by a lot people that are supposed to know a thing or two about this sport, Rodriguez sits at No. 3 in the strawweight rankings, No. 9 in the women’s pound-for-pound rankings, and on the cusp of title contention.
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Alex Morono replaced Diego Sanchez in that matchup with Donald Cerrone that a lot of people were apparently really jacked up to see.
He accepted the fight on May 3, walked into the Octagon on May 8, and stopped “Cowboy” in the first round, extending the veteran’s run without a victory to six.
Since then, Morono has gone on to add victories over David Zawada and Mickey Gall to his resume, pushing his winning streak to three and putting him in a position to take on another member of the welterweight middle class whenever he makes his next start, and yet I would wager that very few of those people that were excited to see Cerrone get in there with Sanchez — or are excited to see the old gunslinger get back out there next weekend against Joe Lauzon — have paid any real attention to the guy that whipped his ass on short notice last year and hasn’t stopped winning since.
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Neil Magny was on that card too, paired off with Geoff Neal in a fight that many in the media and hardcore set argued should have been promoted to the main event, rather than hustling Waterson and Rodriguez into the cage last.
That evening, Magny did what he’s done pretty consistently since losing his first two UFC appearances: he found a rhythm, worked behind his jab, and showed he’s one of the 10 best welterweights on the roster by out-landing and out-working Neal over the course of 15 minutes.
Last month, the former Ultimate Fighter contestant and Elevation Fight Team member was finally back in action, doing the same thing in a close battle with Max Griffin on a somewhat maligned, but actually quite good fight card in Columbus.
In the moment, everyone praised Magny for his willingness to constantly step in there with tough opponents and consistently put up solid results, and he’s further validated that reputation by signing up to fight Shavkat Rakhmonov in June, but where was that love and respect when he was doing the same thing by stepping in there with Neal?
Why does it only seem to come when the famous people on the broadcast or the loudest, most prominent voices in this sport say it? And why does it fade from our memories so quickly?
That event also featured the triumphant return of Gregor Gillespie, whom everyone was jazzed to see come back a month earlier before his fight with Brad Riddell was scrapped. He turned in a truly gutsy effort against Diego Ferreira, rallying to earn a second-round finish that affirmed his standing as a Top 15 lightweight.
He hasn’t competed since and that’s shame because lightweight is tremendous right now and it’s even better when “The Gift” is active.
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So why am I telling you all of this?
Well, I think the way things have progressed in the year since all kinds of people crapped all over that fight card is illustrative of a few things.
1. A whole lot of people don’t really care about results and performances
If they did, they’d still be paying attention to Morono and wondering aloud where he fits in the welterweight division, given that he looked outstanding against “Cowboy” and hasn’t lost since.
But the people that were keen on seeing Sanchez-Cerrone don’t care about results and performance — they care about spectacles, and stories that will generate traffic, which is perfectly valid way to consume and cover the sport, but also seems like a really terrible way to judge the quality of a fight card, because that’s what really happened when everyone dumped on t his card last year.
It wasn’t that there was no chance the fights were going to be exciting or produce instructive results — it’s that there were no longer any big names or juicy stories to write about because Dillashaw was out, Sanchez got bounced (though that provided a couple weeks of content and remains fertile ground folks are happy to till from time-to-time), and the bad blood fight between he and Cerrone was lost to the ether.
Anyone that genuinely cared about what transpired in the Octagon would have known that a win for Rodriguez would be another step in the right direction following her second-round stoppage win over Amanda Ribas earlier in the year. They could have seen a path for the Brazilian to climb into the title mix, given that he only loss in the UFC was a debatable split decision setback against former champ Carla Esparza, who could have fought for the title last year and will do so next weekend.
But there are large portions of the audience and segments of the media that care far more about narratives and storylines than strict results, and while I get that mixed martial arts is both sports and entertainment, the results matter and need to be covered and discussed far more.
2. Not enough people have an eye to the future
This connects direction to the first point, because if I can look at that fight in May and map out a path for Rodriguez rising into contention, others can too; it’s as simple as that.
Sure, it’s a three- or four-fight process from that bout with Waterson last May, but shouldn’t that be part of what we’re doing as experts and trusted voices tasked with covering this sport, speaking about these fight cards, and discussing these athletes?
Not only has that element of things been reduced in recent years as the focus has shifted to various other pieces of the industry, it also feels like any fight that doesn’t have immediate championship ramifications gets deemed “unimportant,” which is unconscionable to me because every fight matters and leads somewhere.
Now, not every fighter is going to rise through the ranks and become a champion, so obviously, not every fight carries the same weight or significance, but that’s where we, as trusted experts in this field, should be able to identify which competitors could emerge as contenders and potential champions and spotlight them long before they reach that point.
What’s frustrating about this is that it currently happens selectively, with only the most hyped, most highly visible prospects in the sport. No one had any problem shouting about the potential of Sean O’Malley or Khamzat Chimaev when they burst on the scene, because they were right there for everyone to see and people clearly wanted to hear as much about them as possible.
But it’s harder to do with guys like Cory Sandhagen, who debuted a month after O’Malley, turned in better performances in each of his first two outings, and was clearly the superior prospect.
You had to pay attention to see Sandhagen coming — to recognize the maturity in his striking against Austin Arnett, the value and weight of his comeback finish of Iuri Alcantara, and to forecast his future as one of the best bantamweights in the world.
It was all there to be seen if people opted to focus on more than just the noisiest fighters in the space.
3. These are things people complain about all the time, but are in our control to change
There are plenty of fair and valid reasons to criticize the UFC (or any promotion) and the media should absolute do so when warranted. Two that come up quite frequently in relation to the UFC are that the promotion often makes fights based on business interests and name-brand appeal rather than results, and that it doesn't do a good enough job introducing fans to fighters and showcasing emerging talent.
Both are true and areas where the promotion could certainly make some improvements.
What’s ironic to me is that many of the same people that often voice these concerns or frustrations argue in favour of higher star-power pairings and results being a secondary or tertiary variable to consider in matchmaking major bouts, or show little interest themselves in familiarizing themselves with emerging talents and spotlighting them for members of their audience.
Rather than exclusively being critical of the UFC for the errors you feel they make, why not be the voice for the change you’d like to see in the sport?
Where are the editorials calling for fighters on lengthy winning unbeaten streaks like Belal Muhammad or Arnold Allen getting championship opportunities?
Where were the features — written, audio, video, whatever — on either one of them or any of the myriad other competitors with compelling stories heading into their next fight?
Where are the previews explaining that despite a lack of major names, the upcoming Fight Night event is actually quite good because two or three fights down the line, one or two of the competitors could be in the title conversation?
We get inundated with stories and tidbits and Twitter news about a fraction of the athletes on the roster, and are told — either literally or through a lack of coverage — that no one else matters, until one of those athletes emerges, at which point it’s malpractice that the UFC hadn’t made them a bigger star or given them a greater opportunity to connect with the audience.
Given the sheer volume of coverage there is in the MMA space these days, you would think it impossible that fighters could be three, four, or five fights into their UFC tenure and still considered unknowns, but that happens with alarming regularity.
The number of events and “on to the next one” nature of the UFC schedule are always blamed, but couldn’t more time be spent paying attention to actual fights than combing Twitter and Instagram to see who said what about who and calling it news?
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Everyone wants to advocate for these fighters getting better treatment from the promotion, but how about giving it to them yourselves?
Stop saying these cards don’t matter.
Stop acting like there is no reason to pay attention to the majority of these athletes and matchups.
Stop telling people not to care.
That “terrible card” from a year ago served as the launch point for Rodriguez to become a top contender in one of the most competitive divisions in the UFC, and I’m sure there have been tremendous performances and breakthrough fighters on all the other events folks wrote off over the last year as well.
And if you don’t believe me, meet me back here next wee — I’ll go get the receipts for you.