Agreed, some sort of tournament and/or some amount of time and more fights before a title fight would be better. I don't think they need to rush into having a championship fight until they have enough fighters to warrant such a designation.
In the case of Fedor it was appropriate, IMO, since he is considered by nearly everyone in the world to be the best HW. It's a little different in the case of Silva and Franklin. Franklin was the legitimate champion and Silva was a pretty damn impressive challenger coming in. Neither Babalu or Tito could be considered a legitimate LHW champion at this point. I could be wrong, but I think a few more fights should occur.
They wanted the Fedor-Sylvia fight to be 5 rounds so they made it a championship fight. Funny that it took less than 1/10 of 1 round to get it done but you get the point.
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Originally Posted by rugoatee
I don't think the contractual obligations have anything to do with his book. That is a different matter entirely. I believe there are non-compete clauses in the contracts that extend past the date of the last fight on the contract.
It's not a non-compete clause, it's a 60 day exclusive negotiations clause. When a UFC fighters contract expires, the UFC has 60 days of exclusive rights to that fighter to negotiate a new contract. If a contract is not agreed upon before the 60 days is up, then the fighter is free and clear to negotiate with whoever.
That 60 day exclusive rights period is actually up today. His last fight was May 24 and today is 2 months to the day of that. The Atencio quotes were probably from a few days ago. I can tell you now, the Ortiz signing speculation will now heat up substantially now that he's free and clear to sign anywhere.
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Originally Posted by rugoatee
Agreed. That is a major obstacle in making this fight happen. Tito is going to want the money Sylvia got (which was obscene).
Tito could get in the ring and shadowbox and break dance and sell more PPVs than Sylvia.
Last edited by hunterkiller; 07-24-2008 at 07:24 AM.
It's not like they have a lot of options. They are an upstart organization.
IMO, what they should do is sign another solid LHW and have a 4 man tournament between Babalu, Tito, Lil Nog and whoever, their other LHW is over the course of 2-3 events and then name one of them the champ.
You also have to remember, Anderson Silva was MW champ after only beating Leben to get his shot at Franklin and Fedor only beat Sylvia in Affliction to get his HW championship from Wamma. It's not like it's highly unusual.
They're just looking for some solid talent with a big name and a former champion to build the organization. No Tito, shouldn't just be named champion if he beat Babalu, they should all have to earn it.
I don't see a reason why you can't have a title fight for the LHW belt in Affliction right away. It doesn't really matter who has the belt really. They are going to make the best fights they can regardless. Also, it will help them promote the event better if they can add another title fight to it.
I think people feel it is not the same level of competition as other orgs but who cares. It is a start up org and the right guys will fight each other eventually. The reality is the UFC LHW champ is the real world champ so why does it matter if you also have an affliction champ right out of the gate?
It is their org, their fighters and they can crown any champ they want. From a business standpoint, it makes all the sense in the world. I would do it if I were them.
It's funny that you say that because Ortiz owns a victory over the "real world champ."
It's also funny because Fedor owns 2 victories over the UFC's real world HW champ as well.
Didn't say anything about HW.
And the UFC has the deepest talent pool at that weight class so imo the champ of that org/weight class is the champ. Every ranking I have seen on the internet confirms that.
Yes Tito holds a controversial victory over the current champ. But things change. Fighters get better and worse as their careers rise and fall. Forrest is definitely on the upswing and has gotten better every fight. Much better fighter then when they fought. It was his first big fight in the spotlight and he was admittedly very nervous.
Of course we will never knoiw, but if they fought now, I doubt Tito would win. But styles make fights. At the time, Forrest was a good matchup for Tito and he took advantage of it. Since then Forrest has improved in every area of his game and I feel that Tito now, is no better than he was then.
It's funny that you say that because Ortiz owns a victory over the "real world champ."
It's also funny because Fedor owns 2 victories over the UFC's real world HW champ as well.
Being fair tho, Forrest has done BIG things since he lost to Tito, he has beaten the 2 #1 ranked fighters at LHW, which very few ppl thought he could do.
Tito on the other hand really hasn't done anything since he beat Forrest, and until he actually looks dominant again, he is what he is, a big draw, a whole lotta mouth and not much else.
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If it's going to be for a belt, I'd rather see Nogueira fight Sobral. I think they're both favored over Tito anyway, and at least they've got a couple solid wins recently as opposed to coming off a big loss.
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Originally Posted by bega
How's that different from Fedor. He had only one fight.
And before I get slammed for mentioning Tito and Fedor in the same sentence I want to say that Fedor has deserved to be crowned as a champ after only one fight
Not slamming you, but pointing out Fedor was the standing champion of PRIDE FC and has no legitimate losses on his record...or even if you want to count the tourney cut, no losses in 8 years.
That's a little different than a steady decline in performance in the UFC and having been completely outclassed in his last fight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thecoylewis
It's funny that you say that because Ortiz owns a victory over the "real world champ."
It's also funny because Fedor owns 2 victories over the UFC's real world HW champ as well.
I wouldn't compare them. Nog was already established as a fighter with a world class skillset, and Fedor beat him solidly. Forrest was still pretty green two and a half years ago, and Tito's win was a controversial split decision.
Other than his relentless self-promotion garnering more attention to Affliction with the mainstream media and TUF crowd, I honestly can't see anyone making a case for Tito getting a title shot for his next fight.
Conversely, I think doing so would open the door to a lot of legitimate criticism about the integrity of Affliction's belts. You can say what you want about Dana's integrity, but he's undeniably very deft with a soundbyte...and this would be giving him a slow pitch down the middle to hit out of the criticism park.
I think the best thing Affliction could do would be to sign a few other LHW's and set up a tourney...something a lot of fans want and that Dana has said will never happen in the UFC.
It would be just another illustration of Affliction bringing things to the fans that the UFC won't [or can't, in the case of Fedor...].
well we all know how this fight will turn out. (refer to my gif below) Tito is a d list hollywood dude now. Sobral is a warrior.
WAR BABALU!!!
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If it's going to be for a belt, I'd rather see Nogueira fight Sobral. I think they're both favored over Tito anyway, and at least they've got a couple solid wins recently as opposed to coming off a big loss.
That's a little different than a steady decline in performance in the UFC and having been completely outclassed in his last fight.
I wouldn't compare them. Nog was already established as a fighter with a world class skillset, and Fedor beat him solidly. Forrest was still pretty green two and a half years ago, and Tito's win was a controversial split decision.
Other than his relentless self-promotion garnering more attention to Affliction with the mainstream media and TUF crowd, I honestly can't see anyone making a case for Tito getting a title shot for his next fight.
Conversely, I think doing so would open the door to a lot of legitimate criticism about the integrity of Affliction's belts. You can say what you want about Dana's integrity, but he's undeniably very deft with a soundbyte...and this would be giving him a slow pitch down the middle to hit out of the criticism park.
I think the best thing Affliction could do would be to sign a few other LHW's and set up a tourney...something a lot of fans want and that Dana has said will never happen in the UFC.
It would be just another illustration of Affliction bringing things to the fans that the UFC won't [or can't, in the case of Fedor...].
rh
I agree, I was making the observation when ruggoatee saying the UFC's LHW champion was the real champion. I agree Forrest is the best LHW in the world right now. However, I don't believe that just because they have the deepest talent pool gives their belt the unquestionable "real" belt in the world.
There was a time when the UFC HW division was the deepest HW division in the world but that didn't mean they had the real champ because they didn't have Fedor. There's always going to be someone out there that can give another org's fighter a run for their money.
As far as Tito goes, no I don't think he should get to come in and automatically fight for the Affliction belt. Babalu and Nog both won their first fights there, they should get that honor. If they want to throw Tito in that mix because he's a big name that sells PPVs, then fine but at least make it a tournament.
Oh and ruggoatee, don't be so sure that Babalu would just jump in the ring and throw Tito around. You may get your feelings hurt if they ever fight. I'd love to see it and have been waiting for that match to happen for years. Instead we got Tito-Rashad or Shamrock II and III.
Last but not least, of course Forrest is a different fighter than he was the last time he and Tito fought. It's hard to gauge where Tito is right now because he just fought who I think is the 2nd or 3rd best LHW in the world and I don't think he looked as bad as Machida just looked great. The later that fight got Tito looked better (that brutal body shot aside.)
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