With a co-main event that features a featherweight tilt it may not be the best time to point out that the UFC may not be doing the best job possible of promoting their 2 new divisions. Then consider the words of Dana White this week as he said that the company is on the verge of adding a flyweight division and one might start to wonder if they don’t have too many balls to juggle in the limited amount of TV time they have. I am referring of course to one Dustin Poirier who we last saw demolishing Josh Grispi who was the reigning #1 contender in the featherweight division at the time. His reward is to take a step back to the Facebook (and now Youtube) Prelims and battle virtual unknown Jason Young who will be making his UFC debut. It is inconceivable to think that if somebody were to knock off the #1 contender in the light heavyweight division that they would be rewarded by being knocked all the way down to the bottom of the card. So perhaps if the UFC wants us to take their feather and bantamweight divisions seriously they should start leading by example.
One of the more interesting bits of matchmaking on the prelim card finds undefeated (thank you Australian judges) Nick Ring taking on another UFC first timer James Head. Ring is clearly filled to capacity with talent but has struggled mightily with injuries. He too is taking a step down from the Spike portion of the card and gets a man who bought himself a ticket into the promotion by defeating the same Gerald Harris who was booted from the company in November for boring a whole lot of Detroiters.
On the Spike TV portion of the card we get to see Jesse Bongfeldt taking on Chris Weidman in what the oddsmakers seem to think will be a very one sided affair. It is the second trip into the Octagon for both fighters but there is a sense that Weidman is destined for future title shots whereas Bongfeldt might just be hanging on by a thread. There is also a strong candidate for Fight of the Night honors as Sam Stout will square off against Yves Edwards. The 34 year old Edwards will be entering his 58th career pro fight and is coming off a very strong performance at Fight for the Troops 2 where he netted not only Submission of the Night but also Fight of the Night bonuses. Of course things probably would not have turned out so well had his original opponent, Melvin Guillard, not been bumped way up the card into the main event.
Other fights will see Michihiro Omigawa vs. Darren Elkins, Joey Beltran vs. Aaron Rosa, Krzyzstof Soszynski vs. Mike Massenzio. None of those stand out as must sees to me but I trust the system and the divisions that the UFC is building and understand that not every single fight on every single card is going to be important or entertaining. On a whole though this prelim card is one of those that seem to be suspiciously good. You could easily transplant Stout/Edwards into a co-main event slot on a Fight Night card and use the Spike TV lead up to promote somebody like a Poirier or a Ring. Then again now that everything is televised we the fans and they the fighters have less to bellyache about. Sure those two guys should hypothetically move up the card not down with wins but they are still getting exposure and if they keep winning there is no way that the UFC would keep depriving them of the big time.
