Sitting at home watching the first UFC show on Versus last night and I found myself amazed at just how well the organization can hype a fight in any way they want. They won’t usually hype the undercard fights too much, but the main event is always hyped in a way so that you don’t know what the outcome is going to be or you second-guess yourself on what should be a complete lock.
I was in the second boat last night with Jon “Bones” Jones going up against Vladimir Matyushenko. On paper, this one should have been a no-brainer as Jones is 16 years younger, 4 inches taller and has a reach advantage of 10 inches against his Russian opponent. Not to mention that Jones had only lost once in 11 professional fights due to DQ because of illegal strikes. The loss overshadows the fact that he was completely destroying Matt Hamill before resorting to the illegal tactics.
But there I was last night falling into the trap of the UFC hype machine as they did a wonderful job in pointing out that Matyushenko has won 12 of his 13 fights, has faced some of the biggest names of all-time in the sport and had been a 12 year MMA pro. 12 years in MMA is unheard of considering that the UFC was just in its infant stages 12 years ago as it tried to rid itself of the reputation that the very first no-rules show gave it.
But if you dig a little bit deeper, there are a ton of holes in how the UFC hyped the veteran Russian. For starters, the 12 wins came against fighters that only hard-core fans would ever have heard of. Of course, his one loss in that span was when he went up in class against Antonio “Little Nog” Nogueira as he was stopped by KO in the 2nd round.
Now, time to dissect the UFC’s 2nd point about how he’s faced the best in the world. That point is valid, but he’s the classic fighter that gets to a certain level and plateaus. Once faced against top-10 level fighters, he simply can’t pass the test. Every time he stepped up to face Tito Ortiz, Andrei Arlovski, Nogueira and Jon Jones last night, he failed. Why did I think for a second that at the age of 39, he was finally going to find the secret to winning and pull the upset? But there I was second-guessing myself.
Just like I second-guessed myself a tiny bit for GSP vs. Dan Hardy or Rashad Evans vs. Rampage and how I’m second-guessing myself a tiny bit for the upcoming Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen fight on Saturday night. The UFC does a great job of making one-sided fights into must-see TV and I commend them for it. It’s just shocks me that I fall for the same trick every single time.