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Joe Silva on Being the UFC’s Matchmaker: “It’s Very Frustrating”

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Joe Silva on Being the UFC’s Matchmaker: “It’s Very Frustrating”

http://cdn.cagepotato.com/www/wp-con...matchmaker.jpg
(’Don’t call us. We’ll call you.’)

UFC fighters constantly reference matchmaker Joe Silva when talking about the future of their careers, and yet we usually hear so little about the man who decides so much. Somehow Florida Today caught up with him recently to find out what he’s looking for and what it’s like to choose the guys who fight on MMA’s biggest stage:

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“I’m looking for a well-rounded athletic fighter, but the most important thing to me is record,” said Joe Silva, the UFC’s vice president of talent relations. “It’s very frustrating in my job. I don’t look for victims. I pride myself in making competitive matchups.”

“I don’t care what happens in the gym. Lots of people do well in the gym. Going in the cage is a completely different thing, so I want to know how many fights do you have and who did you fight.”

“Did he beat up a bunch of guys who, this was their first fight? Or did he beat up a bunch of guys who had multiple fights and this much experience?”

“(In early MMA) if you had somebody who didn’t understand jiu-jitsu, you could beat them without being much of an athlete. Nowadays, everybody knows. There’s no secret techniques. People know, and they cross-train. Being an athlete quite often is what makes the difference.”

So you’re telling me that in modern MMA I have to not only know my stuff, but also be a great athlete? In other words, it’s like every other major professional sport. So basically I’ve got no chance, is what you’re saying. Well that’s just great.

Of course, we could always take issue with what Silva says are his criteria for choosing fighters and then ask how he decided that Rob Yundt, who had beaten a bunch of nobodies in Alaska, should debut in the UFC against Ricardo Almeida, but we won’t do that. Because even we have to admit that most of the time Silva does a hell of a job.

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Has any fighters been lead to slaughter idk but Joe Silva is awesome at putting fights together. Like most all I want is a good fight and hes doing a great job.

Rob Yundt took the fight on like 7 days notice......

and I don't like Joe Silva, he did a shit job bringing Pride fighters over to the UFC last year

i think joe does a good job, i'm sure it is alot harder than most people realize to put together the most competetive matchups......not all of them will be great, some will be very one sided but i think he does a good job of matching styles together to make good fights

That job can't be that hard. All you have to do is be a fan of the sport and listen to the fans for the matchups they want.

Here's a hand Joe for UFC 90. Write it down.

Rampage-Forrest II
W. Silva-T. Silva
Okami-A. Silva
Machida-Bonnar II

I think if Joe does a hell of a job, I could care less what guys (Pride or otherwise) receive what treatment, or what their supposed ranking is, I like the idea of generating a fight by subjective matchmaking, not by numbers...

It's not a perfect system but no system is perfect. Either way I think the guy's done a tremendous job of establishing exciting fights or intriguing match ups at least on paper... the rest is up to the fighters...

Tito/Machida turned out of be a great fight imo when I was expecting a rather boring or limited engagement, as did Tavares/Winman, Burkeman/Hazelett, etc...

The UFC may not have every fighter I want to see, but they certainly have the marketshare on quality of match ups...

How can he complain, it is a dream job.

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Originally Posted by chuck norris (Post 499833)

How can he complain, it is a dream job.

That is an easy thing to say as a fan, I am sure if that was your day to day job you might feel a little differently about it

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Originally Posted by neonatural45 (Post 499819)

Rob Yundt took the fight on like 7 days notice......

That kind of pissed me off too. Somehow i doubt many guys were beating down the door to fight Almedia on 10 days notice.

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Originally Posted by neonatural45 (Post 499819)

and I don't like Joe Silva, he did a shit job bringing Pride fighters over to the UFC last year

Wrong he did his job perfectly, with the exception of Nog. I think the guys he brought in were matched upto succeed or fail, depending on who they were.

And the whole

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Has any fighters been lead to slaughter idk

is a bunch of poopoo.

How many layups have TUFers gotten on their paths to Top 10 status versus others. Think Karo could have gone 9-2 with Diego Sanchez's opponents?

Or somehow booking Bisping / Evans as a Main Event.

I'm not trying to dog Joe Sylva personally, but don't act like this guy is fair or always puts together the best match ups.

And as far as the frustration, I can buy it.
I wouldn't want to have Dana in one ear telling me who to set up and then have fighters and managers in the other telling me who they will, won't, and want to fight.

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Originally Posted by thecoylewis (Post 499823)

No shit huh? If he wants to quit his frustating job i'll do it...

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Originally Posted by sandywh (Post 499872)

Wrong he did his job perfectly, with the exception of Nog. I think the guys he brought in were matched upto succeed or fail, depending on who they were. .

I dont think he did a bad job of setting the PRIDE fighters up with good fights when they were in the UFC, I think he did a shit job of getting them here. He got maybe half the great fighters in PRIDE, no good lightweights, 1/3 of the champions, and the ones he did get were generally put on the shelf for awhile before they first fought.

For the most part, most PRIDE stars were given great paths to the belt when they were in the UFC