Dana white is a much better match maker than anyone in boxing. in the ufc, the best seem to be fighting the best, no matter what. Since great minds think alike, ill tell you my predictions on what happens next in ufc.

1) the winner of silva vs. Griffen gets a title shot at machida.
2) Evans fights rampage jackson, a fight that was suppose to happen anyway.
3) The winners of #1 and #2 will fight each other.

Great stuff. I may even buy these!

Dana white is a much better match maker than anyone in boxing. in the ufc, the best seem to be fighting the best, no matter what. Since great minds think alike, ill tell you my predictions on what happens next in ufc.

1) the winner of silva vs. Griffen gets a title shot at machida.
2) Evans fights rampage jackson, a fight that was suppose to happen anyway.
3) The winners of #1 and #2 will fight each other.

Great stuff. I may even buy these!

Some nice predictions but they a lil off.

1) If Silva wins he has stated he wont fight for the belt because he feels it would be Lyoto's division, if Griffin wins he's got other people ahead of him
2) Evans wont be fighting Jackson because Jackson is getting the title shot next, White has already stated it
3) who gets the number one contender shot after jackson is up in the air. Griffin can make a case with a win over A. Silva, Thiago Silva and Jardine are fighting, and Shogun Rua is lurking somewhere

Evans vs Jackson would be fireworks tho

Dana white is a much better match maker than anyone in boxing. in the ufc, the best seem to be fighting the best, no matter what. Since great minds think alike, ill tell you my predictions on what happens next in ufc.

1) the winner of silva vs. Griffen gets a title shot at machida.
2) Evans fights rampage jackson, a fight that was suppose to happen anyway.
3) The winners of #1 and #2 will fight each other.

Great stuff. I may even buy these!First off, Dana White is not the principal matchmaker. That title goes to Joe Silva. Mr. White obviously has alot of say in it, but it's not really his main job.

The reason why the UFC can make these great matchups on paper is because A) They don't pay their biggest draw nowhere near boxing's biggest draw, so they can afford to put these bouts B)There's no other MMA organization that can compete with the UFC, they have most of the fighters.

In boxing you have too many promoters, it's organized chaos. And the elite fighters usually come with a heavy price-tag.

First off, Dana White is not the principal matchmaker. That title goes to Joe Silva. Mr. White obviously has alot of say in it, but it's not really his main job.

The reason why the UFC can make these great matchups on paper is because A) They don't pay their biggest draw nowhere near boxing's biggest draw, so they can afford to put these bouts B)There's no other MMA organization that can compete with the UFC, they have most of the fighters.

In boxing you have too many promoters, it's organized chaos. And the elite fighters usually come with a heavy price-tag.

Definitely true. They can afford to put on spectacular events. They don't horde the money that they make, they pump it back into the sport. They use it to advertise themselves. They play old fights on TV multiple times every week. They run TUF. They put on free events 5 or 6 times a year. They purchased the WEC, and are using the company to put free events on TV all year round (most of which are quite good, the same can be said for a lot of the fight nights).

Their fighters actually get payed a lot under the table. Dana writes cheques spontaneously. Buys his fighters cars, and pays out fight bonuses for good performances.

The top fighters are making $400,000 - $600,000 a fight. Plus bonuses, plus sponsorships (they make a lot of money through sponsors, look at their damn shorts!), plus PPV cuts.

$600,000 + doesn't sound like much compared to what boxers make. But boxers are over-payed, for that matter, most athletes are as well.

$600,000 is what joe schmoe makes in 20 years working for $15/hour (actually, he makes about $24,000 less).

Apparently it's working. MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world. They're completely decimating records. They hold the record for highest yearly PPV revenue for 2006, and they broke that record last year.

The last 3 years straight, they've had 7 of the top 10 PPV sales.


Anyways, back on topic. You're right, the matchups usually are pretty good. Easy fights are the exception. Most of the time it takes some deep thought to decide on a winner (unless you're someone like Anderson Silva).

Definitely true. They can afford to put on spectacular events. They don't horde the money that they make, they pump it back into the sport. They use it to advertise themselves. They play old fights on TV multiple times every week. They run TUF. They put on free events 5 or 6 times a year. They purchased the WEC, and are using the company to put free events on TV all year round (most of which are quite good, the same can be said for a lot of the fight nights).

Their fighters actually get payed a lot under the table. Dana writes cheques spontaneously. Buys his fighters cars, and pays out fight bonuses for good performances.

The top fighters are making $400,000 - $600,000 a fight. Plus bonuses, plus sponsorships (they make a lot of money through sponsors, look at their damn shorts!), plus PPV cuts.

$600,000 + doesn't sound like much compared to what boxers make. But boxers are over-payed, for that matter, most athletes are as well.

$600,000 is what joe schmoe makes in 20 years working for $15/hour (actually, he makes about $24,000 less).

Apparently it's working. MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world. They're completely decimating records. They hold the record for highest yearly PPV revenue for 2006, and they broke that record last year.

The last 3 years straight, they've had 7 of the top 10 PPV sales.


Anyways, back on topic. You're right, the matchups usually are pretty good. Easy fights are the exception. Most of the time it takes some deep thought to decide on a winner (unless you're someone like Anderson Silva).
they still have a long way to go to catch up to boxing no doubt, but they are doing good.

they still have a long way to go to catch up to boxing no doubt, but they are doing good.

If you mean catch up with fighters pay, you're right. Though to be honest, I'm not sure that I think they SHOULD pay their fighters what big name boxers are making.

If you're talking about how much money the UFC makes, I'm afraid you're not right. The biggest boxing events are pulling slightly higher PPV numbers. But because the UFC puts on far more events (most of which are quite good), MMA is raking in a lot more money than boxing.

The pattern through the last 3 years for the top 10 PPV's has been this.

7 UFC PPV's, 2 wrestling PPV's, and 1 boxing PPV in the top 10.

Technically, he's not that great of a match-maker. He owns all the major players in the MMA world, in the U.S., especially.

If he didn't control all the contracts, he'd have a much harder time. Like boxing does.

If Bob Arum or Oscar De La Hoya owned all the contracts without a fear of the guy taking off to another company, you think they'd struggle with match ups?

He's a decent businessman, but I don't like his ideas and style, overall.

Technically, he's not that great of a match-maker. He owns all the major players in the MMA world, in the U.S., especially.

If he didn't control all the contracts, he'd have a much harder time. Like boxing does.

If Bob Arum or Oscar De La Hoya owned all the contracts without a fear of the guy taking off to another company, you think they'd struggle with match ups?

He's a decent businessman, but I don't like his ideas and style, overall.

That's a good point, but the UFC has been creating great matchups since they started to take off (arguably since day one).

Also, it's never like it's just the main event that is exciting and difficult to predict. Most cards are packed top to bottom with fights that are exciting, and difficult to call.

Of course, there's the occasional event here and there that at least appear to be full of clear cut fights. But even then, we're often proved wrong.

Also, they don't really own all the major players, they are the major player. Zuffa owns the UFC, and the WEC (and technically Pride, but it's defunct, and very few contracts carried over). They own one of the dozens of other MMA promotions, many of whom are of decent size. Some of them are just as big, or even bigger than the WEC. Affliction, Dream, and Strikeforce, for example.

Realized that by "major players" you meant fighters, not promotions. But I decided to leave my post as is. I will say that while they do own a large majority of the best fighters, there is still a ton of talent fighting elsewhere.

Some of the P4P best, fighters who are good enough to challenge the UFC champs, are in other organizations.

Affliction arguably has a stronger Heavyweight division then the UFC. Ton of great Japanese, Korean, Brazilian, and European athletes fighting elsewhere as well.

But I'm going to stop talking, getting a bit long winded. :no: