UFC 125 Preview

UFC 125 is Saturday night and while normally I would offer predictions, I just can't bring myself to care about this event. There are a multitude of reasons that I think are relevant and that will cause many fans to pass on this card, quite possibly making it one of the least watched title fights since the Ultimate Fighter and subsequent boom in the sport.

The Date – I get that the UFC always tries to have a year end card. Others than last year's injury riddled bust, they have done a good job, but this year is a whole different animal. Sports fans in general are going to be tired Saturday. They will have been watching football all day and while the hardcore fans will order this card, they order every card. The UFC needs casual fans and to crossover into the regular sporting conscience if it wants to be a truly major sport. Holding a championship fight card on New Year's the night before the end of the NFL season and after an entire day of college football is just not a way to draw any casual fans.

The Main Event – Let's face it, Frank Edgar and Gray Maynard, the main event combatants, are relatively boring fighters who have the charisma of doorknobs. There is just no way to sell this fight and while it probably needed to happen, putting it as the Main Event on one of the biggest cards of the year is not a great idea to keep it as one of the biggest cars of the year. In addition, Maynard really only has one route to victory and its a boring one: grind Edgar out for a decision from top control. While he did that successfully once before, it was one of the more boring MMA fights I ever watched. Re-watching that fight earlier today was about as boring as can be and 15 minutes of my life that I will never get back.

The Co-Main Event – Brian Stann and Chris Leben is just bad. I realize that Jose Aldo was injured and couldn't fight but this is still a terrible co-Main. Stann is barely a main card level fighter and while Leben is exciting, he is not an elite fighter at the level of many other co-Main fighters. Considering this fight has little to no relevance in the middleweight championship picture, it is not worthy as a co-Main. In addition, this fight makes no sense for Leben. Back in the summer, Leben beat Yoshihiro Akiyama who got a Main Event against Michael Bisping. Why does Leben, the winner of that fight, get the lightly regarded Stann?

That said, there are some good things on this card. Mainly, everything else. The rest of this card looks very enjoyable (with the exception of Phil Baroni, why is he still in the UFC?). Too bad the fights will be televised by Ion (where are they on my channel list in some cases, or in untelevised limbo for the others. I would really like to see both Mike Brown and Antonio McKee but that's not an option and I would like to watch Josh Grispi and Marcus Davis if I can remember to turn to it and I can find Ion. The matchmaking looks good, just not enough with a terrible couple of fights on the top of the card.