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[LethalStriker]

Any idiot can armchair matchmake, you all can't hold a candle to what Joe Silva does. Part of his job is to recruit and find new fighters and keep on building up the UFC roster. How many of you people knew who Roger Huerta, Martin Kampmann, Goran Reljic, Cain Velasquez or Yoshiyuki Yoshida were before they debuted in UFC? Probably none of you. And considering how much overtime Joe Silva had to work on the UFC 85 card proves the job isn't that easy. Anyone can write up a handful of fight cards on paper but getting the fighters to agree to the specific matchups, dealing with fighters having medical suspensions and all that isn't that easy.

[hunterkiller]

Originally Posted by bigsemi

The first 3 look good, but why would machida take a step back to fight bonner? if lyoto is not going to get the title shot he deserves, then maybe fight with shogun or chuck would make more sense

Uh because I was being realistic. They said Machida is scheduled to fight in October. Chuck is fighting in September so that takes him out of it. Shogun won't be back until December at the earliest so he's out. There's no one else available.

[Killinginthenameof]

how didn't he do a good job with signing Pride fighters? He def. went after the heavyweights and middleweights in getting: Wandy, Cro Cop, Hendo, Nog, Rampage, Shogun. All these Pride guys were free agents so they were free to do as they pleased.

Does Joe do the matchmaking for WEC? If so, he got Paulo there.

It may look like an easy job to us....because all we think he needs to do is check "dreammatches" and see what the fans say, but he does have to deal with a lot of bullshit from fighters not wanting to fight certain guys....and that's just a bunch of fucking drama.

I gotta admit though....I was sick of seeing Kos and Diego fight cupcakes after they lost to GSP and Fitch. If your good enough to get a fight vs that top level of WW competition and you lose via decision....you should def. get a fight vs a fighter in the same category. i would've much rather seen a Kos/Karo or Diego/Hughes. Leave the cupcakes for Burkman

[LethalStriker]

Does Joe do the matchmaking for WEC? If so, he got Paulo there.

He might help out but Reid Harris and Scott Adams run the WEC.

[Palma]

Originally Posted by LethalStriker

Any idiot can armchair matchmake, you all can't hold a candle to what Joe Silva does. Part of his job is to recruit and find new fighters and keep on building up the UFC roster. How many of you people knew who Roger Huerta, Martin Kampmann, Goran Reljic, Cain Velasquez or Yoshiyuki Yoshida were before they debuted in UFC? Probably none of you. And considering how much overtime Joe Silva had to work on the UFC 85 card proves the job isn't that easy. Anyone can write up a handful of fight cards on paper but getting the fighters to agree to the specific matchups, dealing with fighters having medical suspensions and all that isn't that easy.

How many fighters are out there in no-name orgs that would have done just as well? Probably 10X as many... There is tons and tons of talent out there; there just isn't enough venues to show case them all.

Besides, 95% of the fighters in under UFC contracts were brought in for the undercard fights. The ones who won are still around the ones who lost are gone... it's not like Silva knew that fighters like Huerta would go as far as he has gone. Almost every fighter they bring in from small no-name orgs. are undefeated with 6 to 12 fights under their belt.

As far as getting fighters to agree to certain matchups... Silva does not deal with the negotiations, Dana does. If Dana wants a certain matchup to happen (that Silva created) I doubt he is going to take "No" as an answer from any fighter.

Sure it isn't easy... for a career it's pretty damn easy and interesting compared to what most people on this board do for a living. There really is no good reason to bitch about it. If Silva doesn't like his job I'm sure there are over 1,000 qualified people ready to fill his position.

[Ifightforaliving]

ang new middlweight champ of mmanews Palma!

[ChuckBooty]

A couple suspect match-ups that come to mind are Cro Cop/Sanchez and Pulver/Lauzon. Neither of those fights worked out how the UFC wanted them to...but I think this policy of "warm up fights" is pretty much over. Thank God.

[LefthookStcrook]

Originally Posted by sandywh

Rampage is marketable was pushed. I personally think Nog was set up w/ Herring to lose. A lot of people though CroCop got setup for failure against GG, I'm one of them.

Herring and Silva came over early so they weren't held down. But look at Henderson. Put on the shelf for that long only to fight Rampage and Silva in his first 2 fights. Damn! I can understand not wanting to pay some of the guys their Pride contracted money, but why not get at least one fight from Hunt? or any of the other guys they let sit for a year?

I gotta disagree here man alot of the PRIDE fighters were set-up to be champions, think about it for a sec:

Rampage got a title shot in his 2nd fight after beating Marvin Fucking Eastman!

Anderson got a title shot in his 2nd fight after beating Chris Leben

Cro Cop was fed a HUGE can(bigger then Eastman) in Eddie sanchez and fought for the #1 Contender spot in his 2nd fight(GG). Did you really think CC was "set-up" to fail aginst GG? come on man be honest with yourself, that was one of the biggest upsets in MMA history

Dan Henderson came into the UFC and fought for the LHW title in his 1st fight then for the MW title in his 2nd fight

And NOG fought Herring in his 1st fight then got a title shot in his 2nd fight

I dunno how anyone can say the were"set-up for defeat"
Alot of them fought for the title in under 2 fights, everyone always says/said PRIDE fighters were better and dana wanted to find out,and we did, some were and some werent.

The only ones i could see someone making a case for being "Set-up" is:

Soko- got thrown to Machida in his 1st fight(When the hype was surrounding him)

Shogun- Fought TUF1 Winner Forrest, everyone thought Shogun would blow past Forrest so i dont think this was a " set-up" either, Forrest pulled off the upset

And Wandy- Fought Chuck in his 1st UFC fight, yea thats a pretty rough fight but there was bad blood and a fight that was 6 years in the making

Just dont think they were set up for failure bud, JMO tho:headscratch:



And PS: Hunt WAS offered a UFC contract but told them he would have trouble making the 265pound limit(i know i know hes made it before) but for some reason he told them he would have trouble making the weight so they said fuck it

[LethalStriker]

There's no reason at all why Hunt can't make 265 except for the fact that he's just too lazy to get down in weight properly. He'd rather just fight in Japan without having to worry about cutting weight. He's what 5'10" or so, how can someone at that height not be able to make 265 unless they just don't want to?

[LefthookStcrook]

Originally Posted by LethalStriker

There's no reason at all why Hunt can't make 265 except for the fact that he's just too lazy to get down in weight properly. He'd rather just fight in Japan without having to worry about cutting weight. He's what 5'10" or so, how can someone at that height not be able to make 265 unless they just don't want to?

Yea pretty much, hes made under 265 before(i really cant remember which fight) and its a shame he wouldnt do it to fight on the biggest stage in north america Oh well i guess, my point is that is was Marks fault, Joe Silva cant be blamed for not bringing Hunt to the UFC, cuz he did. Its all up to Mark after that