Fighter injuries will always be a problem
So the biggest fight of the year has been and gone and we can now look back on a great event and ahead to UFC 149. However as good as UFC 148 was it’s quite difficult, for me at least, not to wonder what could have been if it were not for all the various injuries.
Dominick Cruz was supposed to co-headline the show against Urijah Faber, and then Cruz got injured so Faber is now scheduled to fight Renan Barao. That fight has since been moved to UFC 149. Rich Franklin was meant to fight Cung Le until he stepped in to face Wanderlei Silva a couple of weeks ago after Vitor Belfort got hurt. UFC 148 will do great numbers because the main event is so strong but other fight cards like UFC 149 are not so fortunate. Not only has the original main event completely fallen away but every single fight on the main card has been changed or altered since the card was announced. It’s very exciting to see Hector Lombard making his UFC debut but his fight with Tim Boestch is not an ideal co-main event. Injury has also taken its tole on shows like the upcoming UFC on FOX show where the main event was changed from the thrilling clash between Brian Stann and Lombard to a miss match with Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and Brandon Vera.
It’s very frustrating from a fans perspective as we get very excited to see our favourite fighters competing only to be told we will have to wait, often for an undetermined amount of time. When there is a very good chance that the fights we are paying to see may not happen after all then we can’t be blamed for thinking twice before we buy tickets. The fans from across the pond are not as fortunate as we are as they have to put forward Pay-Per-View money and subscription charges to see all UFC events. It’s not like the UFC does discounts for lesser cards, as anyone who bought UFC 147 will tell you. UK fans don’t have to put forward pay-per-view money so we don’t have to weigh up whether a card is worth it or not. That said staying up until six in the morning for a card of fights that no-one cares about is not exactly fun either.
It is worse from the promoter’s perspective as shows are sold based on the fights that feature. The posters for UFC 148 had to be changed three times before the event went ahead. UFC 149 has been such a problem child that the poster has only just been put out. And how can we forget the fiasco that was UFC 147 where they actually had to try and sell the finale of TUF Brazil to the American market which hadn’t seen the rest of the season on TV at that point. Incidentally if you did buy that PPV then please get in touch with me as I have some magic beans I would like to sell you. It must be maddening for Dana White and the UFC when they have to sell events without any fights to promote. Still it’s better than boxing where events can be cancelled weeks or even days before they are due to take place because the main event got cancelled. At least the UFC can provide alternatives.
Some fans react as if it’s the end of the world that a fight gets cancelled and berate fighters for pulling out. However I don’t blame fighters for pulling out when they don’t feel they can compete at their best. After all we fans can be pretty unforgiving if they do fight with injuries. Jason Miller fought with a knee injury on the pre-lims of UFC 146 and the fans just didn’t want to know. Whenever we hear a fighter tell us he was injured after a fight we tell him not to complain and just pull out of the fight in future. That is sound advice when you are a champion or a fighter with a great sponsorship deal; fighters like George St-Pierre can afford to take eighteen months off to deal with injury. However the vast majority of fighters only earn money by competing in the UFC. Therefore taking extended breaks between fights because you aren’t feeling a hundred per cent is not always an option.
That said look at what happens to fighters who decide to fight through their injuries. When Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua decided to fight Forrest Griffin at UFC 76 with a knee injury he was clearly not himself and got beaten up as a result. Rampage Jackson has suffered in the past as well, not only did he miss weight for his UFC 144 fight with Ryan Bader (which cost him a percentage of his purse) but his takedown defence was severely compromised. I’m not suggesting that every injury is the difference between a win and a loss but when you face the very best fighters in the world on a regular basis it doesn’t hurt to be at your best. Not everyone can pull off a last round submission like Anderson Silva did at UFC 117 and suggesting that anyone can do that only devalues his performance that night.
Over the last few months we have seen so many fighters pull out of their fights that fans have been wondering if there is reason for it. In case you think it has something to do with the fighter insurance that was introduced last year consider how much money that offers. The insurance is there to ensure that fighters don’t have to fight when they are hurt it’s not there as an alternative to fighting. My guess would be that this is a sign of increased fighter pay for the bigger names in the sport. Boxing writers such as ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael have suggested that the UFC pays more money to fighters lower on the card than boxing’s top promoters do. It must be said that UFC a better job of promoting the other fighters on the card which is why half the fights can be cancelled and fans still want to see the shows. Whereas in boxing if the main event gets cancelled the whole show falls apart. With that in mind perhaps fighters in the UFC are ok with pulling out of their fights because they don’t feel the same pressure to compete that high level boxers feel.
If you don’t think that is the main problem then perhaps it has more to do with the ridiculous amount of training fighters put themselves through to prepare for fights. There are so many different disciplines to train in these days so it’s inevitable that fighters will hurt themselves at some point. I can’t help but think that the problem is made worse when a fighter is trying to add something new their game. In this era of MMA fighters need to be good at everything so they can’t exactly ease themselves into things. That said it probably isn’t just down the various different styles of training but also the intensity of it all. All the best fighters seem to come from a hand full of training camps these days. Sparring sessions in camps like Blackhouse or Jacksons MMA must be more intense than some of the actual fights seen at smaller MMA promotions. It’s no wonder these guys end up with injuries when they train with fighters who are better than most of their opponents. UFC President Dana White certainly seems to think this is the case.
‘’I think what’s happening too and me and Joe Silva were talking about this tonight, you have so many talented guys out there now all in the same camp, going at it like they’re fighting for the title, these guys need to tone it down in training a bit and stop hurting each other’’ said White in a recent interview with FUEL TV.
Whether this is the case or not fighters have to train with the best competitors they can and since MMA is still developing so there aren’t that many training camps to begin with. If you don’t go to Jackson’s MMA, American Kickboxing Academy or somewhere like that then you likely won’t get the best out of yourself. The risk of injuring yourself is probably worth it if you improve in the way that GSP and Jon Jones have over the years.
At the end of the day we should not be so judgemental of fighters for pulling out due to injury. For us fighting is just entertainment but for fighters it’s a job. Losing a fight can very damaging to a fighters career particularly if the resulting fight lacks entertainment. We also need to understand that if a fighter does choose to fight with an injury then it might be a sign that they really need the money. I don’t doubt that sometimes injury is just an excuse for a poor performance but we shouldn’t discount it all together in future.
By Rowan Wynne.
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