| UFC Pride Fighting |
On Saturday night, The UFC was coming off probably the biggest two weeks in their short history. The parent company of the UFC, Zuffa purchased the rival PRIDE Fighting Championships promotion out of Japan which completed UFC’s unbelievable journey to become the number one MMA promotion in the world. UFC 69 was supposed to be a transitional show to showcase the two most marketable welterweights against quality opponents.
Oh, what 18 minutes and 25 seconds can do.
Diego Sanchez was in position to capitalize on the most desired demographic that any promotion would love to get. The Hispanic demographic has shown time and time again to bring in huge revenues for WWE as well as boxing. Diego Sanchez since winning the Ultimate Fighter Season One competition has been rolling with wins over such fighters as Karo Parysian and Joe Riggs. On this night, he was facing fellow TUF alumni Josh Koscheck. Koscheck, who Sanchez defeated on the first season, has improved on every part of his game since entering the sport as a pure wrestler with very little striking training. Koscheck out struck Sanchez for a unanimous decision in this heated grudge match that didn’t live up to the hype. Sanchez seemed tentative and Koscheck played the safe route to the win.
For the past five months, George St. Pierre has been promoted at the best pound for pound fighter in the world since his destruction of Matt Hughes in November. Matt Serra won the lowest rated Ultimate Fighter, "The Comeback" season, with a boring three round decision of Chris Lytle. Serra, a Gracie Ju-Jitsu Black Belt out of Long Island was only getting this shot due to winning a tournament with fighters who basically were on the verge of retiring or fighting for the smaller MMA promotions around the world. The fight only took 3:25. Everything you would expect if your name is Matt Serra. Serra knocked out St.Pierre after dominating him standing and finishing him on the ground. The UFC was treating this fight as a mismatch to the point where Dana White and Joe Rogan both stated that the only way Serra would have a shot was to land a lucky punch. They were half right; Serra landed about 15 lucky punches.
The UFC was planning on the big St. Pierre vs. Hughes 3, which was going to take place in Montreal, which would be reminiscent of the Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels (without the screw job) level heat with Diego Sanchez waiting in the wings as the undefeated Latino star. Instead we have Josh Koscheck who is a very good wrestler who 95% of the fan base does not like to the point where he is actually embracing it with a promo after his fight against Sanchez that every heel in wrestling should study for the way to get heat. We also have the flagship of the UFC Welterweight division who was winding down his career until entering a reality contest.
This is the perfect example of how MMA and professional wrestling are so alike. They can take a money making angle and totally kill it. Only the UFC is a shoot and can probably rise above and make this into a positive. At least, no one is related Dana White.
I hope you enjoyed my first article and I will be planning on more
