There’s a palpable buzz right now in MMA. Just look around you.
The UFC will air its sixth show on FOX on Saturday. On Tuesday, it debuted a new and improved version of its staple program “The Ultimate Fighter” on FX. Last week Bellator premiered on Spike TV and averaged almost one million viewers.
Women are in the UFC now and headlining events. There’s even an all-women’s promotion in Invicta FC that’s thriving.
Over the past 15 years, it’s easy to forget the kind of leaps the sport has made. And 2013 might be the year that MMA gets to a new level. It’s an incredible time to be a fan.
If the injury bug stays away, the next few UFC cards are loaded. UFC 156 on Super Bowl weekend alone is ridiculous. Jose Aldo faces Frankie Edgar for the featherweight title in the headliner with Alistair Overeem vs. Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Rashad Evans vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira also on the card.
Can you imagine Evans, one of the top five draws in UFC history, not even in the co-main event? That just doesn’t happen.
This Saturday’s FOX card has a flyweight title fight between champion Demetrious Johnson and John Dodson as the main event. Legendary slugger Quinton “Rampage” Jackson meets Glover Teixeira and Anthony Pettis faces Donald Cerrone in a battle of two of the most explosive athletes in the UFC.
Bellator is doing big things, too. Its first card on Spike featured two title fights – lightweight champion Michael Chandler dominated Rick Hawn and Pat Curran retained his featherweight title by beating Patricio “Pitbull” Freire in a five-round thriller.
On Thursday, Bellator will hold a welterweight title bout between champion Ben Askren, a dominant wrestler, and challenger Karl Amoussou, a lethal striker. Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed Lawal will debut and stars Douglas Lima and Ben Saunders will start their run in the company’s welterweight tournament.
It feels like something big is about to happen. Bellator, now owned by media giant Viacom, seems like it’s positioning itself to go to war with the UFC.
It’s almost reminiscent of when WWE and WCW starting going toe to toe in the ’90s. WCW was behind for a long time before it started the NWO storyline and things took off. Bellator isn’t on pay per view yet like WCW was, but there are comparisons that can be made.
Then there’s Invicta, World Series of Fighting, Resurrection Fighting Alliance, Legacy Fighting Championship, Xtreme Fighting Championships, Shark Fights and plethora of others. One or two of those might end up on Showtime, which needs to fill the void left by Strikeforce.
MMA still has a long way to grow. This year marks the 20th anniversary of UFC 1, the birth. Every other mainstream sport has been around for decades or over a century. MMA is still an infant by comparison.
Up until now, mixed martial arts has crawled and it has walked. Maybe 2013 is the year it starts to run.
Evans interested in Silva fight: Anderson Silva doesn’t have his next opponent set right now. So why not Rashad Evans?
Evans needs to get by Antonio Rogerio Nogueira on Feb. 2 in Las Vegas at UFC 156. And if he does, I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t drop from light heavyweight to middleweight and challenge Silva. If Evans can’t make the cut, Silva could always come up and meet him.
There doesn’t seem to be a standout middleweight top contender right now. Silva is interested in the biggest money fights. Evans is one of the top draws in UFC history. Makes all the sense in the world to me.
“I believe I can beat Anderson Silva,” Evans said on the UFC 156 conference call Monday. “The build that I have is something that he would have a hard time dealing with. But first and foremost, it would be an honor itself.”
Evans said the weight cut would be difficult. He walks around at nearly 230 pounds. But light heavyweight is a dead end for him right now. He’s already lost to champion Jon Jones and doesn’t figure to be in line for a rematch any time soon.
Silva-Evans might not be the superfight people are clamoring for, but it would be a nice diversion for the pound-for-pound king until Georges St-Pierre and/or Jones are ready.
What’s wrong with Nick Diaz?: Is this the same guy who flips the bird at his opponent just about every fight?
Nick Diaz seemed downright pleasant at the UFC 158 press conference Wednesday in Montreal to promote his welterweight title fight against champion George St-Pierre. The last time the two were supposed to fight two years ago, Diaz completely blew off the press conference and president Dana White pulled him from the main event.
“It wasn’t very professional on my part, but I just was ready to fight,” Diaz told reporters Wednesday. “I was ready to go to the fight and fight. I thought that was the important part but I had to learn my lesson. So, there’s a lesson learned from this, and now I’m ready to fight.”
Maybe Diaz is just thankful he got the title fight now despite coming off a loss to Carlos Condit and a lengthy drug-related suspension. Either way, this should be an incredible fight March 16.
Quick jabs: In an interview in this week’s Sports Illustrated, Dana White said Anderson Silva will “fight both” Jon Jones and Georges St-Pierre “before he retires.” He prefaced it with the world “probably.” To quote the UFC boss, we’ll see what happens. … Queens resident Uriah Hall looked very good on the premiere of “The Ultimate Fighter,” beating Andy Enz by unanimous decision. His Muay Thai looked very sharp and Hall is extremely athletic. He was Sonnen’s second pick and seems to be one of the favorites to win the show. … Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal told The Post he would try to recruit Quinton “Rampage” Jackson after his final fight with the UFC on Saturday at UFC on FOX 6. “I’m gonna give him a few weeks,” Lawal said, “and then I’m gonna text him and say when you’re ready to talk, hit me up.”