Dana White and UFC Are Biggest Winners After Fedor Emelianenko's Defeat
by Luke Thomas on Jun 27, 2010 11:39 AM EDT in News
While White and all of MMA fandom lost out on what could've been gigantic fights, the coffin closed on another lingering argument that simply wouldn't go away. It's now official: the UFC is the NFL of MMA. They now house the number one fighter in every single division (bantamweight and above) and solid majority of the rest of the top contenders in each division. That criteria itself was part of Nate's argument about why the UFC shouldn't be considered the NFL of MMA. With that T crossed and I dotted, the debate is over.
Moreover, one wonders if other organizations will even have the capability to ever produce another division leader (they certainly will not at heavyweight). It's conceivable the Japanese organizations, for all their floundering, could produce a fighter who holds the top spot in the lighter weight classes, but it's unlikely unless they demonstrate some kind of unheralded dominance. They'd have to string together a huge line of dominating wins against whatever competition can be cobbled together. And without access to the rest of the highly-ranked division housed Stateside, climbing the rankings ladder to the top spot is going to prove difficult.