So, my opinion on the article: neither Vera nor Bisping or Leben looked bad in their fights. If Vera was that overrated, Jardine looked bad in having so much trouble to earn a decision. Bisping (so far) and Leben are not real good fighters, both are more or less one-dimensional, Bisping shurely is being protected and marketing-wise built on. Both will never be amongst the top 10 of their weghtclass (well, Bisping might be young enough to advance a bit if being protected long enough).

Jardine on the other hand is a potential top ten fighter who will always hav the chance to win against anybody – but with his arsenal shown recently not in a sustainable way. Just like Lidell, their Styles where good enough (so this did not result in any title chances for Jardine in the past) as long as striking/stand up tactics where underdeveloped in the UFC. There always was a good chance for quite educated punchers an kickers with good takedown defence against brawlers as well as technically poor punching wrestlers and ground wizards. With guys like Evans, Griffin, Jackson and many other at LHW there chances seem fairly diminuished. In so far Vera did’t appear that bad against Jardine, anyone who does’nt quit or get finished while trading with Jardine does quite well. But Vera doesn’t have the tools for title aspiratinons yet, obviously.

Over all: markteing to a ‘fighter from my country/region’ group as well as a ‘knock out highlight’ mass audience, combined with a technical decision-oriented-game-plan favouring judging system will lead to fights like bisping-leben an the likes. At least implement clear (as far as possible) Point systems, at least. I don’t need to hear any more discussions like “is an attempted submission more worthy in the eyes of the judges than a submission escape?” from Goldberg/Rogan or reasoning about the favors of “backpedaling”. I always read in these areas the judging should account for “aggression” and “effective striking”, not he overall game plans of the fighters.
UFC and company, since you won’t quit on the mass marketing strategies, Change the rules! No more 10-point-must rounds! 10-minute first rounds! Draws and rematches if necessary!

You overstate your case on Vera, and completely discount what a talent he looked like in his first several fights at HW. Sure, he hasn’t looked good recently, but you make it seem like there is no cause to think he is any good. Overhyped…maybe. Your criticism overstated…completely.

Same thing with Bisping. He fought a boring fight, for sure. And saying your gameplan is to go for a unanimous decision is just pathetic! But that doesn’t discount that he is a talented fighter, and until this fight, he did destroy his opposition at 185. He even stated himself he isn’t quite ready for a title shot, but apparently he will get a step up in competition with the winner of Franklin/Hendo, so we will get to really guage his skills then. But you make him sound like he is some kind of joke, when the reality is he is a talented fighter on the cusp of top ten status at 185. I didn’t like the way he fought last night, but if he keeps improving, he may be a big headliner one day.

The consistent theme of this article is that the UFC is doing the same thing as EliteXC and hyping fighters who deserve no hype just so the can score with a target audience. Does the UFC want to have successful British and Philipino fighters for their shows in these countries? Sure. But to compare it to Gary/Jared Shaw’s nonsense with Kimbo Slice is just stupid.

Maybe, just maybe, Joe Rogan really thinks that Brandon Vera has the skills to be a monster in the UFC, whether Vera showed that or not.

Maybe Mike Goldberg really thinks Bisping has looked fantastic at 185.

Those things are pretty reasonable things to think. What is not reasonable is to say Kimbo has the best stand-up in MMA, and if he were to box, he would be a top ten HW boxer right now. I don’t think Gary/Jared really believe that nonsense, and nobody thinks it is reasonable to say those things. To compare the too is idiotic. To add to how stupid that comparison was, you only saw what you wanted to see, and neglected the positive comments made about Vera and Bisping’s opponents.

Were it not for your insightful blurb about Luis Cane/Sokoudjou, I would be sending an invoice along for the time I spent reading your poorly thought out opinions.

The Bisping fight was boring? Not to me. Only Anderson Silva has ko’d Leben, who has an amazing chin. Bisping’s game plan was right on the money for any fighter other than the best pound for pound fighter (Silva) on the planet. Leben was frustrated and largely ineffectual. Supposedly he ‘s working on his ground game, but he didn’t make much of an effort to take Bisping down. Bisping has finished other fights, so he doesn’t deserve criticism for failing to ko Leben. I’m no Bisping fan boy, but his striking looked pretty good.

Bisping seemed like a much more exciting fighter earlier in his career. Now he just runs, runs, runs, while trying to out point the opposition, which is just weak.

And no, it’s not sour grapes at Leben losing (I don’t even like Leben and I don’t think he’s a very good fighter). Trying to out point a guy by running is fine for boxing, but lame for MMA. And that goes for freakin’ Machida, as well. He’s good, but his fights are boring as hell.

Here’s a vote for any fighter that actually steps in there trying to end it. And forget the guys who just want to play it safe and win a little decision (that goes for the lay and prayers, just it does for hte runners like Bisping & Machida).

2. Bisping _ran away_ the whole fight. That’s fine, that was his plan. But tell me how he wins all 3 rounds for an unanimous decision without so much as a takedown? Leben had a couple of takedowns and still didn’t get a point. I was glad to see Leben offer up his face as a punching bag for the last 10 seconds of the fight – I knew even if Bisping cranked up his hardest punch he’d never even hurt Leben in the slightest. Bisping is a weak and overrated fighter. I can’t wait to see Henderson or Franklin end his charade.

3. Why are you guys attacking the writer of this article? It’s a good, interesting article. Go write your own if you can do better. Somehow I doubt you can.

It wasn’t a good fight, it wasn’t Machida (who circles, doesn’t go backwards) and Leben made Bisping look like an idiot.

Bisping doesn’t have any power behind his hands, knees, or elbows at 185 and Leben decided to prove that to everyone after Bisping refused to throw anything but jabs while hopping backwards.

It was embarrassing for a main event, Leben should have been given more points for octagon control (he owned the entire cage… Bisping never once showed any sort of aggression or attempts to move in any direction except for away from the fight).

This wasn’t Machida, and for those who think the style was the same… you need to watch some tape, there are similarities and that’s about it.

Haha, I couldn’t have put it better myself! Bisping didn’t run away from Leben the way Starnes back away from Quarry. He fought an intelligent fight and gave Leben’s face a beating with some good punches and knees despite never having him in real trouble.

But it takes two to tango, no? It was a pretty dull fight due to Bisping’s game plan but Leben never had an answer for it and just pressed forward hoping to get into a slug fest. Anyone else would have been trying to put Bisping in the only position where he couldn’t back away – on the mat! – or trying to counter his counters. The fans should blame Leben just as much, if not more, than Bisping for his one-dimensional game plan. Sure it would have been exciting to watch them brawl but we all know which fighter THAT strategy would have favoured.

I think the reason most people are vilifying Bisping – and rightly so, in my opinion – is that he ADMITTED he was going for a decision win. I mean, who ADMITS something like that? It explains why Bisping never went in for the kill, but why couldn’t he say something along the lines of how he’s seen Leben knock out game opponents and didn’t want to be staring at the lighting rig and the opening never presented itself, rather than admit that he was planning to put us through three rounds of Machida-esque back-and-counter fighting?

P.S. This is a completely objective statement as I’m a huge Vera fan (Virginia needs more fighters!) but it’s plainly obvious that the UFC is hyping him in the commentary.

An explanation could be that Joe Rogan knows how amazing Lloyd Irvin and that camp is so he thinks that Vera will perform better, Vera is just not consistent though and until he really becomes consistent he shouldn’t get such high praise (regardless of who he trains with).

Example?