I am the pressure. I am the sport.

I was going to write a post today about how ridiculous it was for Dana White to give the winner of the Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua vs Brandon Vera fight a title shot against champion Jon Jones (assuming Jones defeats Dan Henderson on Sept 1st).  But then, while I was at work, a funny thing happened.  Dana White changed his mind (imagine that!).  It’s not the first time that it’s happened and won’t be the last, but the abruptness of the switch was what caught me off guard.  The title contender status has been extended to cover the Lyoto Machida vs Ryan Bader bout.  Despite each of these fighters having lost to White has said that whomever impresses him the most out of the two bouts will gain the next title shot.  The implication in this 4-way mini-sweeps is that Rua will get the shot at Jones if he beats Vera.  If he falters, the winner of the Machida – Bader fight will get their second shot at the champ.

I like Brandon Vera and I’m excited to watch this matchup up Muy Thai practitioners, but to give him the chance to be in a title-eliminator bout would have been an absolute folly.  He was once touted as an up-and-coming, undersized heavyweight but never materialized as the title-contender some thought he would become.  He dropped down to light-heavy and has been underwhelming to say the least.  His greatest win was over Frank Mir in 2006, when Mir was still on the mend after his near career ending accident.  In his last 3 fights he had been destroyed by Jon Jones, in his run to the title, and Thiago Silva.  Both fights saw Vera’s face rearranged, but the Silva loss was overturned after he failed a drug test.  Not much in his resume to warrant a top-ten ranking, let alone a title shot. Continue reading →