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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The UFC's booking of Chael Sonnen against Jon Jones has brought up many questions throughout the MMA world, and one of the issues that many have is the balance between sport and spectacle. The booking has no merit from a sporting perspective, as Sonnen is nowhere near the most qualified fighter for a title fight. From a spectacle standpoint, Sonnen makes for a brash, outspoken foil for Jones, and the UFC hopes that leads to more viewers on The Ultimate Fighter and a high-selling pay-per-view event.
But straying further away from sport than is typical for the organization doesn't sit well with everyone. One of those is UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos, who expressed his feelings on the issue in a recent interview with a Brazilian radio station.
"It's kind of out of order," he said on Brazilian station Beat 98 (transcribed by Fighter's Only). "Nowadays, the UFC is prioritizing those fights which will sell well. A prime example of this was Chael Sonnen, who sold his fight very well. [Alistair] Overeem has followed the same path."
Of course, dos Santos will fight Cain Velasquez a second time instead of Overeem, who attempted to talk his way into dos Santos' next fight despite being ineligible for licensure until two days prior to the Champ's next scheduled fight. Now, his attention is on Velasquez, who will attempt to recapture the belt that dos Santos took from him last year.
"This time, as Cain himself said he wants the fight to be longer, at least the fight will happen," dos Santos said. "He is an excellent wrestler and I believe he will want to take it to the floor. He will try to do to me what he did with Silva.
"But I'm not afraid, I am 100% ready to defend the belt. A fight is a fight, you never know how it will be, maybe it will go faster than last time."
Penick's Analysis: The UFC has always had fights on their broadcasts that they believed would sell well over what was the most sporting choice. Of course, when it comes to title fights it hasn't always had the disparity between champion and challenger as Sonnen-Jones presents. It's been lopsided in the past, just not to this extent, so the negative reaction from many hasn't been surprising at all. It's interesting to hear dos Santos comment on Overeem here, though, because he's essentially giving in to that with his desire to fight Overeem due to his comments. At least that fight has more merit as a competitive title fight.
[Junior dos Santos art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_14763.shtml
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