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[neonatural45]

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.

The UFC highers scouts to watch the smaller orgs and well..... scout. Plus Yoshiyuki Yoshida beat Kikuchi so he was pretty well known. I agree with the short notice fighters though, that must be frustrating as hell.

Originally Posted by 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.

Rampage wasn't in Pride went he signed with the UFC, they bought the org he was in.

Not to mention you named 6 fighters out of Pride's whole roster. He only did well with one division, that being lightheavyweights and he still didn't sign guys like Lil Nog and Arona (who is still a free agent as far as I know.)


Not to mention he did dick moves to some of the fighters, such as offering Joachim Hansen have his regular contract to fight in the UFC, and telling Mark Hunt that he was going to fight and leaving him on the shelf for a year.


edit: Martin Kampmann also came over in the WFA deal

[LefthookStcrook]

Originally Posted by neonatural45

The UFC highers scouts to watch the smaller orgs and well..... scout. Plus Yoshiyuki Yoshida beat Kikuchi so he was pretty well known. I agree with the short notice fighters though, that must be frustrating as hell.



Rampage wasn't in Pride went he signed with the UFC, they bought the org he was in.

Not to mention you named 6 fighters out of Pride's whole roster. He only did well with one division, that being lightheavyweights and he still didn't sign guys like Lil Nog and Arona (who is still a free agent as far as I know.)


Not to mention he did dick moves to some of the fighters, such as offering Joachim Hansen have his regular contract to fight in the UFC, and telling Mark Hunt that he was going to fight and leaving him on the shelf for a year.

Source for that?

From my understanding Hunt was signed with the UFC they had him in the US and were talking about proposed matches when Hunt himself told them(Silva,Dana or whoever)that he wouldnt be able to or would have trouble making the 265 pound limit, weeks after the deal fell through. I never herd anything about Hunt saying he could make weight, and the UFC saying "OK cool hows next year sound?"

MMANEWS.COM | Dana White Unleashes Loads Of Big News On Ferrall Show

10th Bullet down, dana says Hunt is under contract, from the old PRIDE contract. ill try to find the other thread about him saying he wont/couldnt make 265 cuz i know i read it here.

[neonatural45]

Originally Posted by Lefthookstcrook

Source for that?

From my understanding Hunt was signed with the UFC they had him in the US and were talking about proposed matches when Hunt himself told them(Silva,Dana or whoever)that he wouldnt be able to or would have trouble making the 265 pound limit, weeks after the deal fell through. I never herd anything about Hunt saying he could make weight, and the UFC saying "OK cool hows next year sound?"

MMANEWS.COM | Dana White Unleashes Loads Of Big News On Ferrall Show

10th Bullet down, dana says Hunt is under contract, from the old PRIDE contract. ill try to find the other thread about him saying he wont/couldnt make 265 cuz i know i read it here.

You really expect Dana to just say "well yah, we offered him stuff, didn't deliver though" If it did happen?

anyways here is the link to the interview

Rogue Magazine - Re-match Fedor for Soldier of Fortune

[Palma]

owned...

[Diegonightmare]

I do think that the effort to be an armchair matchmaker and to be critical of Joe Silva's work is < than the actual difficulty of Joe Silva's job.

Secondly I think that it's easy to look at anyone's job and think "how hard can that be, sheesh" but once you're in the position suddenly you become aware of 10x the difficulties, the stakeholders, the conflicting priorities, the considerations, the complexity, etc etc that you thought were there.

Thirdly I think Silva's job by its nature is one that I don't give a damn HOW well he did it, there would be a decent % of MMA fans (who are by their nature a pretty cagey bunch, no pun intended) that would take issue with it. The old damned if you do and damned if you don't.

We've discussed at good length more than a few times on these boards the problem of building up a fighter's hype by letting him fight people he can beat, vs. always giving him huge fights or giving him those fights right off the bat. Both of them have their pros and cons, and we can go over all of that ground again in this thread if anyone's forgotten.

I think Silva does a good job and I think he's improving in his job. The matchups and the cards over the last, let's say year to 15 months, IMO have been very good overall.

Would I, personally, do some things differently in his role than he does? For sure. For one I'm a fan, so I'd want more superfights. I'd want title fights more often. But if I were actually in his role, and had to deal with all the complexity he has to deal with, then by definition I'd no longer be "me" - that is, just matchmaking from a fan's perspective - so it becomes more difficult to so easily generalize.

[LefthookStcrook]

Well i read the article, deffinatly a good read. It does seem the UFC dicked him around a bit waiting for a fight eh, props for posting a source. I cant really be surprised, they've dont it before. But still even he mentions his weight might have been a reason they "didn't want me"

Q. So any shows in America, open to negotiation?
A. Absolutely bro, I mean if the dollars are right I will fight. It doesn’t have to be UFC. I think one reason they didn’t want me is because I am too fat. Once upon a time they offered me ***,***$ to fight on a show when I was getting way more on Pride. So it was not enough, well that’s what my manger said. I was in good form but maybe the weight issue stopped them and of course the money. America is a good option and I will beat whoever I have to.

His weight could have been a reason for them shelfing him,(they shelfed hendo for no reason) everyone knows the 265 limit, whats Dana gonna do with a fighter whose ready is ready to fight, but cant make weight? Nothing.

Im sure if Hunt was under weight and told them he was ready to fight, he would have gotten a fight, granted it might have taken a while(see hendo), but he would have got one. If he could make weight i truly beileve he would be fighting in the UFC, why would they contact him if they had no intrest in him

and yes plama i was deffinatly "owned", i jus asked if he had a source cuz lots of people make statements like that without acually knowing for sure, it happens all the time:headscratch: