Jim Miller (Photo/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)The UFC is an entertainment company with a specialization in putting on shows featuring mixed-martial arts. To make money they organize fights featuring men they believe will draw large crowds and big money. It's a refined equation that never mandates they promote fights featuring the most skilled combatants. The UFC puts on the fights fans want to see -- the ones that will make them turn the channel and open their pocketbooks.
With that in mind, it's a bit easier to understand what influenced UFC President Dana White and matchmaker Joe Silva when they set our to recruit talent for the UFC on FOX 3 scheduled for May 5th in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Under pressure from fans for more excitement during their network broadcast the executives chose a cast of made-for-TV good guys, troubled youths, violent foreigners and their most-hated (but popular) heel in the entirety on MMA.
Despite of their central-casting appeal, the fighters are loaded with talent, starting with headliners Nate Diaz and Jim Miller. Miller, a Garden State native is coming off a first-round submission victory over Melvin Guillard at the UFC on FX Jan. 14, a rebound he needed after a deflating decision loss to Benson Henderson. Miller is considered one of the promotion's most reliable action-creating stars -- often finding little issue with creating minute-long mat scrambles, or stand-and-trade face-punching battles. He's not overly marketable, but his opponent might be the antagonist capable of emboldening his cookie-cutter image by ripening him up for an emotional conflict for all to watch on UFC: Primetime.
Diaz, younger brother to the recently defeated welterweight title contender Nick Diaz, shares Miller's aptitude for work on the ground, and possibly his enjoyment at being punched in the face (He'll also earn the UFC spillover from those who enjoyed the controversy surrounding his brother Nick, and those that genuinely hate Stockton.) Title implications are at stake, but the UFC won't be selling viewers on these men holding straps as much as they will the classic turn at good versus evil; the white-capped homebody Miller versus the black-capped homeboy Diaz. As disparate as their images appear, their fighting styles are similar aggressive jiu-jitsu black belts with punching power -- and should help ensure that fans will see two bloody faces and plenty of submission attempts. And the UFC likes a bloody face.
In an attempt to firm up the appeal of the card UFC president Dana White announced this weekend that he'd be adding former NCAA Division I wrestling champions Josh Koscheck and Johny Hendricks to the undercard. Fans might mistake this as nothing more than a high-level wrestling match, but the UFC is clued-in to one of the most important realizations in MMA -- high-level wrestling negates itself.
Koscheck sells. He's been the promotion's top-selling heel since joining the cast of the first The Ultimate Fighter in 2006. For Koscheck, who is coming off a boring decision victory over Mike Pierce, Hendricks could be the last hurdle before regaining a chance to fight for the belt against interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit. The UFC understands that Kos' constant baiting of fans and veteran status in the promotion (20 fights over six years), help guarantee that they'll receive a larger audience. Do well and Kos may even earn a third shot at securing the title from Georges St. Pierre.
Across the cage is Johny Hendricks, a competent striker looking to add Koscheck to his impressive list of recent knockout victims. The Oklahoma State wrestler (and coincidentally at one time the greatest heel in NCAA wrestling history) has won his last three fights, including two Knockout of the Night performances with a TKO victory of T.J. Waldburger and a 12-second KO finish of Koscheck's best friend and training partner, Jon Fitch.
After the pitter-patter main event of the UFC on Fox 2 the UFC realized that high-level wrestling gets cancelled out, leaving wrestlers with little more to do than stand and strike.
But that is wish and conjecture, hopeful thinking and daydreaming. If the UFC wants to convert fans from free television to $55 high-definition pay-per-views they're going to need at last one guaranteed stoppage, one must-see moment from the fight.
Enter: Rousimar "Toquinho" Palhares, top middleweight and owner of the scariest finishing move since Mortal Kombat. If the other match-ups only included the damaging psychology of the heel, it's Palhares who completes the entendre by showcasing the catastrophic damage that can be done by simply grabbing one and giving it a yank.
Palhares' opponent, UFC veteran Alan Belcher is a respectable fighter who is riding a solid three-fight winning streak (Wilson Gouveia, Patrick Cote, and Jason MacDonald) over the past 14 months, including a Submission of the Night bonus for his rear-naked choke of Cote. But don't be fooled, though Belcher's willingness to fight top opponents is admirable and his jiu-jitsu serviceable (he's a black belt), the fight with Palhares is only an entry point for the UFC to ensure that there night ends with at least SportsCenter-worthy finish.
It's not the UFC's fault that Palhares is the best heel-hooker in the history of the world (save possibly Milos of Croton), but their willingness to feed Belcher's ACL to the Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert is comical in its transparency. Palhares will heel hook Belcher, it's as sure a thing as you can predict in MMA.
The UFC on FOX 3 is hoping to attract more PPV buys and increase the viewership numbers from which fans derive so much validation. Whether or not the fights end up being entertaining is anyones guess, but the men in suits have done all they can to ensure that the lead-up to the fight compels you to watch, and that the stylistic match-ups presented on fight night cause a few bloody noses and torn knee ligaments.
And agree or disagree, at least this one's free.
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