What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger. This couldn't be more true in the case of UFC 79. Last week the UFC found itself on the receiving end of a knockout punch. Matt Serra had been forced to pull out of the main event at UFC 79 due to a back injury he suffered in training.
The end of the year pay-per-view events have been the UFC's bread and butter. It is usually a show stacked with great fights and big name fighters and is meant to cap off another year and kick off the next. UFC 79 already featured the superfight between the UFC's former 205 pound champion Chuck Liddell and PRIDE's former 205 pound champion Wanderlei Silva. This fight was considered by many, including myself, to be the best fight on the card.
However, the main event featuring Matt Serra vs Matt Hughes for the welterweight title had so much hype behind it that it, alone, could have powered the UFC 79 money making machine. Hughes and Serra have been seen for the last few months duking it out in a war of words and blogs on the Ultimate Fighter reality show. The millions who watch the show would watch UFC 79 just to see a season's worth of bickering come to a head in one hell of a grudge match.
But you hear this time and time again: "In MMA, anything can happen."
And for the umpteenth time this year, it has.
So the UFC found itself scrambling to get back to its feet after being knocked on its ass. The found themselves with countless questions. What do we do now? Do we headline UFC 79 with Liddell vs Silva? Does Hughes stay on the card? If so, who does he fight? Do we create an interim title? Those questions and more are what had the UFC begging for mercy. The UFC frantically called on a number of its welterweights to step up, but none would heed the call.
But thankfully, we Canadians are a crazy bunch of bastards.
Enter Georges St. Pierre.
After receiving news that Hughes needed an opponent at UFC 79, Georges St. Pierre made the call and demanded the fight. The UFC relayed the message to Hughes, Hughes made the decision and a new main event, stronger than the first, was made.
Hughes vs. St. Pierre III for the interim welterweight title!!
The UFC officials now carry around a smile from ear to ear as UFC 79 has gone from good to bad to simply amazing in just a few short days. UFC 79 is now possibly, at least on paper, the best UFC event this year. On top of the Liddell-Silva fight, a fight I've been waiting to see for years now, I also get to see my favourite fight in St. Pierre take on the man he won the title from for the interim title.
This also means that, if St. Pierre wins, he will most likely defend the title instead of fighting for it in Montreal. If this happens, then watch out UFC - Canadian fans are insane! We love our hockey and we love our MMA! If St. Pierre headlines an event in Montreal to defend the welterweight title, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guarantee that the crowd in Montreal will be the loudest crowd the UFC has ever seen. If you've ever been to a Montreal Canadiens game at the Bell Centre, you know as well as I do that earplugs are sometimes a requirement! And the fans in Montreal love MMA just as much as they love their hockey team.
The way the UFC can pull together great fights and call on fighters in such short notice is nothing less than remarkable. This is a big reason why I love this sport; the UFC does everything in its power to bring to the table great fights for the fans to see. You don't see a champion fighting tomato cans in the ring. When a fighter becomes champion, he fights nothing but the best that the organization has to offer. It is a very fan friendly approach to matchmaking and is a major reason why the UFC and MMA is becoming such a dominant sport. Not only do the matchmakers do a great job and putting the best against the best, but the fighters themselves demand to fight the best. St. Pierre demanded this fight, Hughes accepted the fight knowing that St. Pierre is the best fighter he could possibly be fighting. We also saw Forrest Griffin demand a fight with Shogun Rua! Randy Couture resigned partly due to the fact that he wouldn't be able to fight Fedor Emelianenko. MMA fighters are a completely different breed, they possess a certain level of respect, pride, and dignity that is hard to find in today's athletes.
The UFC suffered a setback, but they got back on their feet, and what didn't kill UFC 79, definitely made it stronger! I'm pumped!
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1 comment:
I was so pumped to hear about this fight going down. I didn't expect it to happen, but i'm happy it is. Having Alves or Fitch fight Hughes wouldn't of had much spunk to it. The past few PPV's have been a dissapointment, but that streak should stop with UFC 79. This is amazing and I hope to see GSP take on Matt Serra sometime in the spring in Montreal. And I agree, the fans would blow the roof off the place.
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