This match nothing to celebrate
Emelianenko vs. Mitrione more akin to a Legends Tour
This is one of those weird weekends in mixed martial arts where tons of people are taking shots at the UFC for the quality of the fight card being offered in Halifax Sunday evening while getting really excited about the action set to take place inside the Bellator MMA cage on Saturday night.
Both events are headlined by heavyweight matchups, but only one features heavyweights who are currently relevant, yet it is the card with a diminished star making his North American return that is garnering far more headlines. Such is the power of Fedor Emelianenko and the often inexplicable way MMA fans evaluate events and their worth.
Sunday’s UFC event at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax is far from stellar, boasting a mishmash of Canadian talent, some familiar names and a main event featuring Derrick Lewis and Travis Browne, but in terms of recent performance and overall quality, it’s the vastly superior offering of this weekend’s two televised fight cards, yet the Bellator event the night before is the card most people are talking about right now, simply because Fedor is back.
And by back, I mean fighting, because Fedor hasn’t been Fedor in quite some time and his bout with Matt Mitrione on Saturday in San Jose feels more akin to the “Legends Tour” offerings the company has put tent poles around in recent years than a truly meaningful, competitive fight. The names on the main card carry more clout than those featured on the UFC event the following evening, but the same holds true when the NHL Old Timers blow into town, but they’re never going to get more attention than the Canucks, no matter how nostalgic people feel for the stars of their youth.
A week after discussing whether Anderson Silva is damaging his legacy by continuing to compete even though he held his own against the current UFC middleweight and UFC light heavyweight champions last year and just beat (debatably) a Top 10 fighter in Derek Brunson, people are working themselves into a lather because the 40-year-old Russian heavyweight legend, who won a suspect decision against Fabio Maldonado last summer, is stepping into the cage again.
I understand fondly remembering the iconic fights that made Emelianenko the best heavyweight in the history of the sport and earned him consideration for “greatest of all-time” status regardless of weight class, but that dude is gone. And while I’m curious to see what happens when he and Mitrione hit the cage on Saturday, I won’t be putting much stock in the results and grimace every time I hear how complaints about the poor quality of Sunday’s UFC event from people who get excited about the “Senior PGA Tour” of mixed martial arts that Bellator is becoming.
We talk all the time about how the UFC struggles to build new stars, but some of that falls on the fans and their lack of interest in backing anyone who isn’t a big name and this situation illustrates that to a tee.
Lewis has a compelling backstory and an off-kilter, affable personality; he also has five straight wins, devastating power and a chance to become a legitimate contender with a win over Browne on Sunday.
This is his second straight headlining assignment on free television, yet if the time comes later this year when he’s stationed in the co-main event on pay-per-view or headlining a FOX show, fans will complain about the UFC giving such prime real estate to a relative unknown who “no one really cares about.” (Note: I care, Derrick. I care.)
But those same fans will tune in the night before to watch Mitrione and the once-great Emelianenko throw haymakers at each other until one of them lands and the fight is finished — I’m setting the over/under for how long the fight lasts at three minutes — and say it was awesome. (sigh) Me? I’ll watch both because that’s just what I do, but only one of them is meaningful and truly relevant to me and it’s not the one with the biggest names. Enjoy the fights. E. Spencer Kyte covers MMA for The Province and hosts the Keyboard Kimura Podcast. Follow him on social media (@spencerkyte) and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.