UFC on Fox 4 review

The fourth installment of UFC on Fox was almost a home run.  The team of Menefee, Couture, and Stann did an excellent job, once again, and all the fights were good.  We got to see the return of Mike Swick, which was nice, along with a great fight between Lauzon and Varner and a nice KO from Machida.  The only thing that kept this show from being a home run was the fact that Brandon Vera was in the main event.  He's won three fights in the last in the last three years, none of which were against particularly impressive competition, yet he's in the main event?  I realize he was an injury replacement, but he was not worthy of fighting a contender.

The fact that Vera was even considered for a fight with Shogun is proof that UFC is stretched thin with talent right now; which I think is due to a lack of new stars and too many events.  In the last couple of years, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Forrest Griffin, Matt Hughes, BJ Penn, Rich Franklin, Brock Lesnar, "Minotauro" Nogueira, Rampage, and Tito Ortiz have all retired or essentially become irrelevant.  This has resulted in a pretty big superstar deficiency, because I think the only new "must-see" fighters to come along are Jon Jones, Junior Dos Santos, Cain Velasquez, and Jose Aldo (and I'm not even sure those guys have moved into being automatic draws yet).  As a result, I think the UFC needs to cut back some on the number of events they put on.  With an increasing number of events and a decreasing number of true stars, we're left with situations like Rich Franklin-Wanderlei Silva main eventing a PPV or Brandon Vera headlining a Fox card.

The UFC needs to cut down to 12 PPVs per year.  With a lesser number of events, they'll be able to load shows with more talent.  This will help events that may not have a true money fight and it will help create better replacement fights, in the event of injuries.  Dana has said that fans want more fights, but I think it's better to have quality over quantity.  If some fans want more than 12 PPVs and four Fox cards, then add more FX and Fuel TV cards.  Fans that want to watch as many events as possible would likely be satisfied with non-marquee events.  But when it comes to marquee events, less of them is more.  It's better to have shows too loaded than shows stretched too thin.