Three Reasons There’s Little Buzz For Ufc 88 – Anderson Silva
Ben Fowlkes of Sports Illustrated has noted the lack of heat around tomorrow’s UFC:
You almost have to feel bad for the fighters on Saturday’s UFC 88 card in Atlanta. With the announcement of Randy Couture’s return dominating MMA headlines, the weekend fights in Georgia seem like an afterthought.
Here’s why:
1. Chuck Liddell vs Rashad Evans is not a compelling headliner.
Commenters are split between those who think Rashad has no chance and those who think Rashad’s only chance is to win a decision by evading the fight. While there’s a very high likelihood of a Liddell win resulting in a title shot for Chuck, there’s almost no chance of Rashad getting a title shot with a win. The only intrigue in this fight is whether or not Father Time is finally catching up with Liddell.
2. The Couture announcement stepped on the hype.
Its pretty unusual for a promoter to spend most of the week before a major event promoting an event months down the road. But that’s what Dana White spent the week doing. I don’t blame him, the Couture/Lesnar fight will be a huge record setting PPV, and the timing of the announcement was forced by the realities of legal matters and negotiations. Nevertheless, all the hype for Couture/Lesnar was time spent not hyping Chuck vs Rashad.
3. Despite featuring several name fighters, the undercard is very weak.
You’d think that an undercard with former headliners Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson plus TUF star Matt Hamill, former MW title challenger Nate Marquardt and UFC perennial Karo Parisyan would have some oomph. But it doesn’t. Primarily IMO because Franklin and Henderson should be fighting each other but instead Franklin’s trying to move to 205 and Henderson is fighting for his UFC career against a relative unknown.
