UFC 133: THE CURSE OF THE MMA PPV

By Sean Farrell

Well, it turns out that the third time isn’t always the charm in MMA. Alessio Sakara and Jorge Rivera is called off AGAIN!

In what was the third and hopefully final attempt at making this fight between the two happen, Alessio Sakara was now forced out of his planned UFC 133 fight against Rivera with a knee injury, I am being told it was an Achilles injury but the facts on injuries in fighting aren’t always accurate when coming from camps.

The two UFC middleweights have been officially set to fight one another on three separate occasions now, dating all the way back to last year. Each of their meetings getting cancelled for one reason or another and honestly if this were a “Superfight” there would be an uproar(Use Pacquiao vs. Maywether as a reference). The UFC 118 bout was called off after Rivera suffered an injury in training, the second was set for UFC 122, but was scrapped when Sakara succumbed to illness at the eleventh hour citing “food poisoning from bad tuna fish.”

A UFC vet since 2005 “Legionarius” holds a record of 15-8, with a UFC record of 6-5. The 29-year-old Italian was riding a three-fight winning streak until he met Matt Serra’s protege Chris Weidman in his UFC debut at UFC Live 3: Sanchez vs. Kampmann this past March and dropped a unanimous decision. Sakara will be replaced by Greek fighter Costa Philippou, who was scheduled to face Rafael Natal on the UFC 133 undercard. Then I received an e-mail question asking “Is UFC 133 cursed?” I must say I can understand that assumption if you look at the way it has been going lately; it certainly has raised my eyebrows.

1st.) EVERYONE under contract as a fighter through the UFC and Zuffa now has health insurance. Expect many more “nagging” injuries to cause fights to be cancelled from this point on. The fighters can now get checked out and make sure they are 100% healthy which is a GREAT thing. Now I for one don’t get this logic but then my #2 reason clears it up. A fighter won’t pull out of a fight and lose the paycheck because insurance will cover treatment of the injury. The UFC’s health insurance doesn’t cover lost wages for injuries as far as I know, but just look at the fighters who have all been confirmed for the 133 event who have pulled out…

Jon Jones – Injured
Riki Fukuda – Injured
Phil Davis – Injured
Vladimir Matyushenko – Injured
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira – Injured
Alessio Sakara – Injured

2nd.) My second observation in all of this is something that may be causing this entirely on its own, that the injured fighter (even a minor injury) doesn’t want to increase his chances of losing the bout because Dana White is cutting guys left and right for losing fights, hell he’s even cut a few after lackluster wins (UFC fighters are as disposable as NFL free agents). Before the buying of every major talent on the market, fighters were allowed to lose without losing their job or even thinking about losing their job EVERY fight. I personally think it is a bit much to cut them for only a couple of losses, yet you keep Chael Sonnen (a blatant cheater) and Tito Ortiz (Who hadn’t won in YEARS until beating Ryan Bader) around because they draw and talk a good game…Vince McMahon and Bob Arum in one is how I always described Dana White and always will. I get it if they don’t win for years like Tito, but Dana does cross the line to make sure its clear that has the power. If I was injured I’d tell them to “Put it off until I’m 100 percent because I don’t want anything other then my abilities contributing to my loss.” Seeing how you’re fighting for your job now and not just for the art or sport of MMA, it makes no sense to have grown men look like they are afraid to do their job and be fired at the end of the day.

Back on the subject of UFC 133, the card is still looking decent regardless of the injuries, but that is because of the current depth of the UFC roster. If you keep cutting the one’s who lose however, who is gonna replace the injured guys then? This is fighting, there is always going to be a winner and loser, not every fight can be a draw on the scorecards.
UFC 133: Evans vs. Ortiz 2 is scheduled to take place on August 6 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Below is the current card as it stands, but it is likely to change.

Rashad Evans (No. 3 LHW, No. 10 PFP) vs. Tito Ortiz
Vitor Belfort (No. 8 MW) vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Chad Mendes vs. Rani Yahya
Johny Hendricks vs. Mike Pierce
Mike Thomas Brown vs. Nam Phan
Alexander Gustafsson vs. Matt Hamill
Jorge Rivera vs. Constantinos Philippou
Mike Pyle vs. Rory MacDonald
Dennis Hallman vs. Brian Ebersole
Ivan Menjivar vs. Nick Pace
Rafael Natal vs. Paul Bradley