As a fan of mixed martial arts, I admit I am a purist. I remember sitting down as a teenager with my dad and brother watching the very first UFC 1. I love the sport and catch as much action on television as I can. As I see it, the more successful promotions out there, the better for the MMA fan.
Joe Soto Is A Champion, Not A Prospect
So here’s my gripe.
All the supposed MMA fans and bloggers are out here cursing over not getting see the bouts they want to see. I’ve never seen this level of strife like this before online. We want Fedor vs Lesnar. We want BJ vs Aoki. Blah. Blah. Blah. There is a reason why we aren’t getting these fights. Because Dana White and Zuffa are blocking them from happening.
It is important to remember that the UFC is just a promotion, they are not a league. Their champions are actually paper champions, not real champions. Champions are crowned by sanctioning bodies, not the Don King of MMA. White has taken the purity of UFC 1 and turned the UFC into biggest sports entertainment rival to WWE.
What irks me most are bloggers and MMA columnists that push this drivel that a fighter can only earn his stripes by fighting under the Zuffa banner, either UFC or WEC. In a column I ran across yesterday on BleacherReport.com by correspondent Ken Foss, he pastes Bellator’s current champion Joe Soto as a prospect and that “Because Bellator has slumbered, Joe Soto’s stock has stagnated. Even so, he’s still arguably the top prospect at 145 pounds, and it’s only a matter of time before we see this 22-year-old beating up on WEC featherweights.”
BleacherReport’s Foss goes right for the jugular on Bellator, diminishing their accomplishments and asserting that Soto has made a mistake in fighting for them instead of WEC. As pointed out in a response comment to the story, Joe Soto was the highest paid featherweight fighter in the world in 2009. Needless to say, it impossible to be a prospect when you made more money than anyone else at your weight class.
Foss then tries to compare a salary paid to a failed NFL player to try and back up his point while sticking to his guns that Soto isn’t the best until he fights in WEC. Too bad that correlation makes no freaking sense at all since fighter pay is tied to success in the cage and NFL players get their first contract before they ever take the field and its based on their draft order.
It’s this kind of naivete that really hurts the sport. Bellator is one the bright spots in MMA. Guys like Foss, who hase probably never watched any of Bellator’s fight cards or attended one of their events are instantly experts that Bellator is bush league and piss all over it. In their minds, you are nothing until you kiss Dana White’s ring.
In my opinion, kudos to Joe Soto for controlling his fighting destiny and bucking the ranks. Bellator is primed for a great second season and Soto is the man to watch. And I’ll put my money down right now that next year, Foss will be eating his words, because money talks and bullshit walks. Bellator pays more and they will get the better fighters in the long run at featherweight.
