The Benefits of UFC Dominance Over MMA, part 1,732

Every other sports fan in America is spoiled rotten, and MMA fans should demand more.  Football fans take for granted that they will see Tom Brady against a succession of the greatest defensive talent on Earth, assembled by men that have been in and around the game for decades, on a week to week basis.  Baseball fans see Albert Pujols facing down Cy Young candidates on a routine basis and think nothing of it.  Basketball fans knew that the Bulls runs of the 90's were not choreographed or predetermined - they had to earn every win, against hungry clubs that wanted nothing more in the world than to knock of Jordan and company.  These things - the best athletes at their respective games, each tested and at constant risk of being replaced by someone younger, cheaper or better, competing against each other under the same rules time and time again - were, and are, assumed.

MMA - indeed all combat sports - have never been like that.  Nobody looks at the CFL and argues that they have players that would excel in the NFL (Doug Flutie and Warren Moon being notable exceptions - but again, they came to the NFL after proving their worth elsewhere).  You won't hear "hardcore" golf fans arguing that there are guys on the Asian Tour that are jockeying to be the next Tiger, because it's impossible to know until they're actually competing with the best.  Roger Federer was surpassed by Rafael Nadal the only way that it can legitimately happen - by besting him on the biggest stages the sport had to offer at the time.

Instead, a quick overview of the SBN/USAT MMA Rankings (full disclosure: I am a contributor) shows a very different landscape.  According to the rankings, three of the top seven lightweights in the world (Gilbert Melendez, the perennial contender for Most Overrated Fighter On Earth that is Shinya Aoki, and Eddie "My Best Win In The Last Two Years Is Josh Neer" Alvarez) reside outside of the UFC - which is, for those still fighting the nightmares, the premiere MMA league in the world.  There are similar outliers in other divisions - a Jacare here, a Werdum there - but nowhere is the top ten as fractured as it is at 155.  Indeed, for a while there, I had to stuff cotton balls into my ears to stop the blood from flowing because people were arguing that Shinya Aoki was the #1 lightweight in the world.  As long as there exists significant talent outside of the UFC, there will exist extraneous belts that dilute the public understanding and respect for the sport (a la boxing's alphabet belt situation).

The silver lining in all of this is that we're getting there.

Next week, we will see the other four members of the top seven - #1 Frankie Edgar, #2 BJ Penn, #4 Kenny Florian and the tragically underrated #7 Gray Maynard - competing in what is essentially the greatest lightweight tournament in the history of the sport.  Largely lost in the hoopla over Randy Couture vs. James Toney, the two most important fights on the card are unrivaled in terms of talent and relevance for the lightweight division.  For all the bitching you hear from people that like Grand Prixs, there has been absolutely no discussion of this.  Two brackets, #1 v #2 and #4 v #7, with the winners battling in what is sure to be yet another #1 v #2 match-up.  Meanwhile, while Alvarez is preparing to fight a Roger Huerta that has gone 1-3 in his last four fights (2-3 if you count that fat prick Bobino in Texas), the rest of the best are fighting the best of the best.  That's the way I likes it - drug tested, competently overseen, well compensated MMA.  It's just awesome.