UFC Sweden: Why We Can’t Have Pretty Things

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I’ve been holding off on writing this for the last couple days because I was hopeful that people within the MMA community focus on the positives from this past weekend or start looking ahead to this weekend’s Ultimate Fighter Finale – or the upcoming FOX show or the pay-per-view after that – rather than continue to fixate on what was missing from Saturday’s event in Sweden.

Why I was so naive is beyond me.

Here we are on Monday morning, and people are still complaining about Saturday’s Fuel TV event from the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. A full week after we officially learned Alex Gustafsson would not be taking on Gegard Mousasi in the main event, people are still upset that Alexander Gustafsson didn’t take on Gegard Mousasi in the main event.

Despite a main card that produced three finishes and the Fight of the Night, the major talking point remains Mousasi’s performance in a high risk/no reward fight with a short notice unknown, where he picked with a terrific jab for 15 minutes on a bum wheel that is going to require surgery.

Before someone starts in with the criticism, allow me to say the following:

The UFC dropped the ball by not scheduling a better co-main event for this card. They relied too heavily on the local star power of Gustafsson, only to have the worst case scenario happen, leaving the card without any major star power at the top of the marquee.

There is no denying the above statement, but there is also, in my opinion, absolutely no use in continuing to clutch to that misstep with anger and frustration that renders everything else about the event insignificant.

I’m not saying this was a great card — it wasn’t; there weren’t a lot of recognizable names for casual fans, and as is always the case with international shows, there was a heavy reliance on international fighters, many of whom are relatively inexperienced when it comes to the top levels of the spot.

As entertaining as the event ended up being – and it was a fairly entertaining event overall – that doesn’t suddenly change the fact that this was a mediocre card.

It’s the same way a terrific night of action in Bellator doesn’t suddenly make them into true competitors for the UFC. As great as the action may be – and Bellator had a very good first showing on Spike TV with Season 8 – it’s still a notch or two below the UFC.

Here’s the thing that has always confused me though: if we can praise Bellator and/or Invicta for exciting events with lesser known fighters, why does an entertaining card from the UFC with similar components immediately get put into the running for the worst card ever?

That’s the headline question at Bloody Elbow right now: Was UFC on Fuel 9 the Worst UFC Ever?

It wasn’t even close and shouldn’t even be a question.

It’s not like the UFC intended to have Gustafsson get hurt, and Mousasi have to face Ilir Latifi on four days notice with a bum knee. Prior to Gustafsson’s removal, there weren’t many open or vocal lamentations about the lack of star-power on this card. As is often the case, everyone was content to proceed without complaint until the worst case scenario happens, only to start in with the “This card is brutal! Curse the UFC!” calls after the fact.

Rather than seeing the strong performance on this fight card – Ross Pearson looked good, Conor McGregor’s tremendous debut and upside, Diego Brandao’s development, the Pickett-Easton fight – the consensus from the critical masses has been to fixate on the one thing that didn’t go as planned, and use that as the basis for grading the entire event.

Yes, the main event was a tepid affair, but we’ve seen worse – recently – and been asked to pay $50 for worse on pay-per-view. How quickly we forget about the debacle that was UFC 149 last summer in Calgary or the tremendously poor UFC 119 pay-per-view from Indianapolis a couple years ago.

And really, if we’re being honest, at least this card didn’t get the UFC 151 treatment and completely vanish from existence. You know what’s worse than an okay event with a mediocre main event and no real names? No event at all.

I’m not saying we have to gush over every event and just be happy that we’ve got shows to watch every weekend, but have a little perspective and allow for a little leeway from time-to-time.

If a free (you know what I mean) fight card that suffers the biggest loss possible at the most inopportune time imaginable, yet still delivers a solid Saturday worth of action is in the running for “Worst. Event. Ever.” how do you grade truly regrettable events?

For comparison’s sake, let’s look at UFC on FX 7 and the February Fuel TV show. They weren’t anything too special — there were a couple solid fights and entertaining finishes on each of those shows, just as there were in Sweden this past weekend, with the one big difference being that those shows had main events that stayed together and ended with finishes.

That’s really all that was different.

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Here’s the thing that has always confused me though: if we can praise Bellator and/or Invicta for exciting events with lesser known fighters, why does an entertaining card from the UFC with similar components immediately get put into the running for the worst card ever?

This sums it up perfectly.
Why does a decent-to-good card have to be beaten down because it didn't have a lot of star power?

I think the problem was that as soon as word got out that Gustaffson was injured and off the card, people realized how little star power there was left on the card and immediately went "Well, this is gonna suck!! Thanks a lot, Dana, you asshole!", while completely forgetting that there have been many, many PPV events that have been absolutely stacked with big names, only to deliver snoozefests from top to bottom.

With that said, Dana and the UFC execs only have themselves to blame for this criticism, as undeserved as it may be. You'd think they would've learned their lesson about relying so heavily on main events and filling the rest of the card with B-level fighters after the UFC 151 disaster. If that didn't slap them sufficiently enough in the face to wake them up, I don't know what will.

I will never ever understand people complaining about free cards.

People are fucking amazing.

I am going to go off on a total weird angle here, but this reminded me of something I had not thought of in years.

I work at a large company with a cafeteria run by and outside organization. Well about ten years or so ago it was a holiday week so the cafeteria was going to be closed as the outside company was not open but my company was still open (skeleton crew pretty much). Well one of the employees that worked for the cafeteria company decided to be nice and actually came in on his day off and made one or two of the large carafs of coffee for everyone (we have like 6 in the caf that get refilled at least a few times each per day) and left with a sign on it that said "free coffee enjoy ". This person did this without being paid and without being asked and it was free.

Well after a couple of hours the coffee obviously ran out and that was it for the day. Some fucking bitch in my company left a note on the coffee because it was empty when she got there that said "If you are going to do something, do it right or dont do it at all. Two carafs? Really? Thanks for nothing."

I never forgot that. I swear if I ever saw who did it I would of been fired for punchign someone.

People truly do amaze me.

Sorry for the rant. I hadn't thought about that in a long time...lol

Dude, do you work at the same place as me? LOL! I can picture that exact scenario playing out at my job!
And yes, I woulda had to choke a bitch if I knew who did that.

Well you live in NY too. Are we sure we dont work in the same place? lol!

That would be a funny coincidence, but I'm afraid that the likely truth is much sadder than that;
No matter where you go, there's at least a handful of middle-aged bitches with nothing better to do with their time than complain endlessly and turn ever little thing into a gigantic conflict as often as possible.

I hate people.

^^^
Amen.
Not counting you guys, there's only like 4 people in this world that I don't hate with all of my soul.

Triggerman99 wrote:

^^^
Amen.
Not counting you guys, there's only like 4 people in this world that I don't hate with all of my soul.

Meh even including you guys there is only 4 people I don't hate in this world.

holy shit! look who came poppin out of the wood works! its gay suit!

LOL!
OK, let me rephrase;

I don't hate any of you guys (current or former contributers), but of the general douchebag population that I have to deal with in regular life on a daily basis, yeah..... there's like 4 that I don't despise in a serious fashion.

besides you guys, those dirty commies make me uneasy. the reds are always planning something.

oh, and Fist, his fake calm, devious demeanor makes me wannu hack this site with some gay gifs.

the commie wrote:

oh, and Fist, his fake calm, devious demeanor makes me wannu hack this site with some gay gifs.

Chrom wrote:

lol!

LOL!

What the fuck just happened?!

do i have to put lols and haha's all aver the place for you guys to realize im joking?
im pretty sure in relation to my commie comment, the fist one is also a joke

No I knew you were joking. That's what made it so funny.

the commie wrote:

do i have to put lols and haha's all aver the place for you guys to realize im joking?
im pretty sure in relation to my commie comment, the fist one is also a joke

haha, i definitely knew you were joking too dude. i tried finding a good smilie as a response. i thought the shocked one was a good one.

in soviet russia...humor understands you.

whatever, its late and thats as good as i can do