Chris Weidman & Luke Rockhold are ticketed for an epic confrontation at UFC 194. | Photo: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com
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Since there’s an Ultimate Fighting Championship event nearly every weekend, it’s easy to get caught up in the promotional fervor that advertises whatever’s next as the greatest thing to happen in mixed martial arts competition. It’s paramount not to fall in that trap. This is about sifting through the hyperbole to land on a concrete conclusion: Five-round, 25-minute title fights have never been better; and there’s reason to believe that one upcoming title fight may, in fact, be the most elite offering to date.
Middleweight champion Chris Weidman will defend his title against former Strikeforce titleholder Luke Rockhold at UFC 194 on Dec. 12 in Las Vegas. From a competitive standpoint, it’s the most compelling fight in middleweight history, and given that each top-flight fighter is 31 years old, it may be the beginning of a rivalry that shapes the 185-pound division’s future.
With the UFC adhering to a feverish live event pace, it’s important to step back and understand that this fight is years in the making. Throughout Anderson Silva’s unparalleled 10 UFC title defenses, from 2006 until 2013, there was no young threat to squash the middleweight torchbearer’s historic reign. Silva was already four title defenses deep when the man to eventually end his run at the top, Weidman, debuted in MMA in 2009; Rockhold was still a Strikeforce Challengers series fighter. Weidman and Rockhold -- representing New York and California, respectively -- became two of American MMA’s high-end prospects. The sport’s nature begged the questions: It’s not a matter of if Silva falls, but when, and who takes him out?
Young guns Weidman and Rockhold talked about getting their chance at Silva publically, but privately, they dubbed each other as the future at middleweight and therefore future rivals. In their minds, it was a race to see who got in the cage with Silva first. Weidman had the advantage of being in the UFC, while Rockhold struggled against the perception that Strikeforce was home to lesser quality fighters.
The modern fighter’s advanced athletic pedigree and monetary support can shotgun a ready combatant into a title shot, even if there’s nothing other than a hunch to declare he or she is able to tackle monoliths like Silva.
That was the case for Rockhold when he captured Strikeforce’s 185-pound crown from Ronaldo Souza in September 2011. He’d never even been out of the first round, let alone gone a full 25 minutes. Coming off an 18-month layoff into a title fight with no discernible name wins to his credit to upset “Jacare” represents the most successful step up in competition in memory. Rockhold’s coup was unrightfully counted as a knock on “Jacare,” whose eight-fight winning streak over the last three years has put to rest any notion of discrediting him.
Two months after Rockhold made an unsuccessful UFC debut, Weidman dethroned Silva with a left hook on Fourth of July weekend in 2013. There was still a massive divide on Weidman’s believability as a credible challenge to Silva. The New Yorker earned his shot by leaving Mark Munoz unconscious with a well-timed right elbow, but he didn’t have the roaring momentum required to build a match with someone of Silva’s stature. The Ray Longo-Matt Serra protégé flipped MMA on its head, snapping Silva’s historic winning streak while becoming one of six modern fighters ever to capture undisputed UFC gold with an undefeated record. Weidman’s three title defenses have seen him defeat three of the best Brazilian fighters ever in his weight class: Silva, Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort.
Meanwhile, Rockhold rebounded from his devastating knockout loss to Belfort with a four-fight winning streak to set up his showdown with Weidman. Silva ruled the middleweight division for nearly a decade. However, in the last four years, Weidman and Rockhold have claimed that the future is now and they are it. The opportunity to prove it against a streaking elite contemporary is a rarity.
The consolidated MMA landscape demonstrates how this is years in the making. Weidman and Rockhold were the best homegrown UFC and Strikeforce fighters, alongside Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier. The difference is light heavyweight, where Jones and Cormier tangled, has a decorated history of big fights. Middleweight has lagged behind because of Silva’s dominance. The well-rounded technique and intangibles Weidman and Rockhold possess standing across from each other is, coupled with Jones-Cormier, the best challenge going in American MMA. It’s a fight to propel the 185-pound division forward, a crash course they have been driving toward for four years.
The last four years have delivered the UFC’s most memorable championship bouts to go the distance. Weidman-Rockhold is a believable pick to enter that fray. It’s UFC 194’s co-main event. The main event pits featherweight champion Jose Aldo against Irish foil Conor McGregor. McGregor’s ability to generate hype never before seen for the UFC’s longest-standing champion elevates UFC 194 to what could be the biggest pay-per-view on record. Aldo-McGregor is definitively the most significant fight below 155 pounds and stands to push the lower weights into a new stratosphere. It’s a landmark event to call attention to the last half decade’s competitive surge in which fighters can perform well beyond whatever hype might be affixed to them.
There’s a distinct turnaround from competitive title fights of yesteryear compared to today. Think back to New Year’s Day in 2011: Then-lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard fought to a draw, launching UFC title fight drama to a new level. With all due respect to previous title performances -- Randy Couture-Pedro Rizzo, Jens Pulver-B.J. Penn or something more modern like Machida-Mauricio Rua -- Maynard beating Edgar pillar-to-post in the opening round for a surefire 10-8 score, only to have “The Answer” inch his way back to force a stalemate, redefined the game. That fight defined a five-round contest having three acts the way a 12-round boxing fight naturally does.
Edgar-Maynard 2 set the year on fire with 364 days to go in 2011. That allowed for Georges St-Pierre and Jake Shields to draw 55,000-plus to Toronto for the most-attended UFC fight ever; the debut of lower weight champs Aldo and bantamweight Dominick Cruz; and “Shogun” Rua-Dan Henderson setting an impossible standard for five-round non-title main events, so future contenders could have a 25-minute experience before challenging for the belt.
It was a pivotal year for the sport’s competitive nature, capitalizing on the attention Brock Lesnar garnered in 2010. However, 2012 slowed considerably for the UFC -- thanks to the shadow of the cancelled UFC 151 event -- but it did crown Demetrious Johnson as flyweight’s inaugural champion in September of that year. That five-round performance for “Mighty Mouse” at the expense of Joseph Benavidez established his excellent title reign, which has demanded the rest of the sport catch up to his ahead-of-the-curve execution.
Ronda Rousey led the charge for women’s MMA in the UFC come 2013. She’s the rising tide that’s lifted all ships despite never having the need for five-round fights. Her never-before-seen popularity has benefitted the UFC brand and brought us substantial 25-minute championship classics: Jones-Alexander Gustafsson in September 2013, St. Pierre-Johny Hendricks in November 2013 and Aldo’s rematch with Chad Mendes in October 2014.
What Edgar, Johnson, Rousey and many others have done over the last four years is lift the sport’s standards across divisions, not just in their own weight classes.
That brings us to 2015, which is positioned to be the best year in UFC history when all is said and done. This year kicked off with the finest-promoted fight in UFC history, Jones’ title defense against Cormier -- a true grudge match and ongoing rivalry with numerous historic implications; Rafael dos Anjos then pulled off an all-time great title upset with thorough authority over flashy lightweight champion Anthony Pettis; Fourth of July weekend peaked with UFC 189 -- arguably the most exciting event to ever hit the Octagon -- and Robbie Lawler’s welterweight title defense against Rory MacDonald in a “Fight of the Year” frontrunner; Cormier and Gustafsson had their own gut-check five-round light heavyweight classic title fight in a marquee division; and Rousey’s upcoming Nov. 15 title defense against Holly Holm is expected to break the 55,000-fan attendance record by a projected 15,000 fans.
Still ahead, barring a terrible setback, Weidman faces Rockhold for the middleweight title; and there’s also Aldo’s showdown with McGregor. It’s the perfect ending to 2015 -- a co-main event that could be one of the most competitive title contests ever supporting the most fervent promotion for a main event. That each alters the landscape of its division for the better is an ideal for title fights, but it’s not always the norm. These past four years produced grand results when it comes to championships, and there is momentum to believe the UFC and the sport can continue this trajectory.
UFC 194 -- the competitive nature of Weidman-Rockhold, in particular -- solidifies the idea that sometimes it’s not hype. Sometimes it’s the truth.
Danny Acosta is a SiriusXM Rush (Channel 93) host and contributor. His writing has been featured on Sherdog.com for nearly a decade. Find him on Twitter and Instagram @acostaislegend.