UFC on Fox 9: Johnson vs. Benavidez (12/14/2013) - Sacramento, CA (Sleep Train Arena)

[The Natural]

Vitor Belfort's another. When he hurts a fighter, his swarms finish 'em.

[epwar]

 

thecodymckenzie ?@thecodymckenzie 16h

For sale: fight shorts, now that i can't return them thanks to herb dean. you owe me $35 bucks herb

[epwar]

 

"Earned" might be stretching it as Zuffa has a definite Team Alpha Male bromance going on.

Umm...Have you been watching these fights?  Faber basically mauls everyone without a belt, Mendez just beat a guy without the ability to breathe and Joe B. is probably the second best flyweight in the world.  How much more do you want these guys to do?

 

 

Team Alpha Male has been given remarkably easier paths to title shots that most.  Chad Mendes didn't fight a single top 10 guy before fighting Aldo for the title; Faber only has to beat Brian Bowles to get another title shot in a new division; Benavidez fought a non-top 10 guy to get to the first Flyweight title (granted they had just started the division).  That isn't a conspiracy.  

[supremebve]

As long as Chael Sonned exists, I can't really see myself complaining about people getting questionable title shots.  Vitor vs. Jones, Diaz vs. GSP, and probably about 10-15 title fights I can't think of are probably worse than any of the Alpha Male guys title shots. 

 

I think Aldo is #1 all time as far as guys who will put you out of your misery at the first sign of weakness.  Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort, and Urijah Faber are very close #2s. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

Benavidez smashed everyone except for DJ. He earned his shot.

[glfpunk]

They all earned their shots. I don't know why you're entertaining epwar. He can't really believe that.

[Elsalvajeloco]

With bantamweight and featherweight, you can always make the "well, guy X won 3 or 4 fights and hasn't challenged for a belt yet" argument. With flyweight, there wasn't anyone except Lineker (who hasn't learned how to make weight yet). You can't even remotely try to challenge that.

[epwar]

Benavidez smashed everyone except for DJ. He earned his shot.

 

I didn't say his second title shot wasn't earned.

[Elsalvajeloco]

And you have no argument for the first one either.

[TheVileOne]

 

Benavidez smashed everyone except for DJ. He earned his shot.

 

I didn't say his second title shot wasn't earned.

 

 

You said his first one wasn't, which is BS.  That's how the tournament was designed.  This ignores that at the time Benavidez moved down, he was arguably in the top 3 or top 5 easily at bantamweight.  The only reason Johnson and McCall had to fight again is because a schmuck failed at math.  So either Johnson or McCall only needed one fight to get to the flyweight title as well.  

 

As for Mendes, who else was a more viable contender at the time?  Rankings before that time were pretty diluted in general.  You can easily argue that his wins over Erik Koch, Cub Swanson, and Omigawa (at the time) were top 10 wins.  He was 6-0 in WEC and UFC going into the fight, so how did he not earn his shot?  He was easily more deserving than Kenny Florian.

 

The only other guys that have decent win streaks right now other than Faber at bantamweight are Takeya Mizugaki and Raphael Assuncao, both guys that Faber FINISHED.  When Faber moved down he submitted Mizugaki, a former WEC title contender and Eddie Wineland a former WEC bantamweight champion who debuted in the UFC going of a 4 fight winning streak in the WEC.  

 

The idea that the Team Alpha Male fighters don't "earn" their shots is a myth.

 

Them being failures at title bouts, I mean blast away.  0-5 in UFC title bouts in just over two years is nothing to write home about.

[epwar]

 

The idea that the Team Alpha Male fighters don't "earn" their shots is a myth.

 

In Zuffa's WEC, Faber lost his belt to Mike Brown.  He had to face one guy to earn a rematch and that guy was JENS F'N PULVER, a dude he had already beat.  But, yeah, no favoritism there.

 

When Brown lost the belt to Aldo, Faber again only had to beat one guy to earn a title shot.  That guy was unranked Raphael Assuncao.

 

When Faber finally got to the UFC, he only had to face -- take a wild guess -- one guy to earn a UFC title shot against Dominick Cruz.  That was Eddie Wineland, a guy ranked no. 12 at the time.

 

Then, like I said earlier, Faber had to only fight one more guy (Brian Bowles, a legit dude who had been out a year and a half) to get a Interim Bantamweight title shot.

If you think beating one person (usually non-top 10) is earning a title shot, feel free to keep believing that.  The only surprising thing here is I actually believe Faber has earned a title shot now if they give it to him, having beaten four guys in a row.

[TheVileOne]

 

 

The idea that the Team Alpha Male fighters don't "earn" their shots is a myth.

 

In Zuffa's WEC, Faber lost his belt to Mike Brown.  He had to face one guy to earn a rematch and that guy was JENS F'N PULVER, a dude he had already beat.  But, yeah, no favoritism there.

 

When Brown lost the belt to Aldo, Faber again only had to beat one guy to earn a title shot.  That guy was unranked Raphael Assuncao.

 

When Faber finally got to the UFC, he only had to face -- take a wild guess -- one guy to earn a UFC title shot against Dominick Cruz.  That was Eddie Wineland, a guy ranked no. 12 at the time.

 

Then, like I said earlier, Faber had to only fight one more guy (Brian Bowles, a legit dude who had been out a year and a half) to get a Interim Bantamweight title shot.

If you think beating one person (usually non-top 10) is earning a title shot, feel free to keep believing that.  The only surprising thing here is I actually believe Faber has earned a title shot now if they give it to him, having beaten four guys in a row.

 

 

Yeah, Faber was the former champion and defended the belt four times.  And guess who got the first shot at Mike Brown?  Leonard f'n Garcia.  His two wins?  Hiroyuki Takaya and...Jens Pulver.  

Who else was a viable candidate than the former featherweight king and probably No. 2 guy in the world in the weight class at the time?  Aldo wasn't there yet at that point.

 

In the UFC, you are blatantly ignoring that Faber had already debuted at bantamweight in the WEC.  He submitted Takeya Mizugaki who had fought for the WEC bantamweight title in his first fight.  Wineland at the time was coming off four straight wins before their UFC fight.  So Faber had two wins at bantamweight before he fought Cruz in the UFC.  The reigning champion was a man Faber beat and submitted at a higher weight class.  So how was that not a viable fight?    

 

Raphael Assuncao was in the top five featherweights when Faber defeated him.  

 

Then, like I said earlier, Faber had to only fight one more guy (Brian Bowles, a legit dude who had been out a year and a half) to get a Interim Bantamweight title shot.

 

 

Wrong again.  He was out for one year after he lost the belt to Cruz.  So he was still arguably top 5 at that point.  Debuted in the UFC in March 2011, defeated Damacio Page.  Then he beat Takeya Mizugaki over the summer before fighting Faber in November.  He was out for over a year and a half after the Faber fight, lost to George Roop, and failed his drug test.

[epwar]

Apologies, I confused Bowles first year out with his most recent year and a half out.