Through the Past Darkly: Belfort's future, alligator warning, little warriors

With Vitor Belfort‘s latest win, the UFC has a problem on its hands.

On paper, there’s no way to avoid calling him the No. 1 contender. He just got done knocking out the last reigning Strikeforce middleweight champ at UFC on FX 8 with a kick that looked like something out of “Bloodsport.” Before that he starched perennial contender Michael Bisping with a boring ol’ no-spinning-stuff-required head kick. Since returning to the UFC in 2009, only two fighters have beaten him: Anderson Silva and Jon Jones.

Anyone else with those credentials would have already been planted at the front of the line to face the winner of Silva’s UFC middleweight title defense against Chris Weidman this summer. But Belfort (23-10 MMA, 12-6 UFC) brings with him some difficult baggage, and you have to think the UFC knows it.

As UFC color commentator Joe Rogan pointed out on Twitter this past Saturday night, Belfort’s most recent win creates an “interesting problem.” Here we have a fighter who’s run up a winning streak in Brazil, where the brand new commission apparently sees no problem with allowing a known former steroid user to use synthetic testosterone (which is itself a steroid) to counteract hypogonadism (which is itself one of the known side effects of steroid use). The state athletic commissions here in the U.S. may not be perfect, but most of them are sharp enough to see the inherent problem with allowing pro fighters to use TRT therapeutic-use exemptions like they’re methadone prescriptions.

That leaves the UFC with a few different options: 1) Give Belfort a title shot in Brazil or some other location not known for its stringent oversight of MMA events (but, c’mon, probably Brazil), 2) Encourage him to apply for an exemption in Nevada, hoping that the more transparent approval process might legitimize his testosterone use, 3) Use the promise of a title shot to coerce him into getting off the juice and fight au naturel, or 4) Don’t give him a shot at all.

Option 1 is probably the easiest to implement, but also the riskiest. The UFC is the fight promotion that loves to boast about how it saved MMA by “running toward regulation,” let’s not forget. How would it look it if has to outsource a title fight just to enable the drug use of one of its fighters? And what if Belfort wins? What, we’re going to keep the UFC middleweight champ in Brazil the way you’d lock a crazy relative in the attic?

Options 2 and 3 look better, but one requires the NSAC to admit that it doesn’t care how you ended up with low testosterone, and the other requires Belfort to admit that he doesn’t really need TRT after all.

Option 4 might seem like some form of karmic justice, but it’s actually pretty unfair to Belfort since the UFC essentially would be punishing him for something it was totally fine with at one point, then changed its mind on when it become a public relations headache.

The point is, there are really no good options here. Not for the UFC, and not for Belfort. Is he the No. 1 contender? Based purely on wins and losses, absolutely. Can the UFC tiptoe around the testosterone issue all the way to a Belfort title fight, without tripping over its own feet somewhere along the way? I doubt it.

But, fine, enough about testosterone. For now. What else happened in Jaragua do Sul this past Saturday?

Attention UFC middleweights: Beware of alligators

Most of us probably expected Ronaldo Souza (18-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC) to beat Chris Camozzi (19-6 MMA, 6-3 UFC), but I’m not sure if even the most ardent “Jacare” supporters expected him to look quite that dominant from start to finish. His striking continues to improve, but he doesn’t pursue it at the expense of his ground game. That sounds simple enough, but look at how many wrestlers and submission artists have struggled with that delicate balance over the years. They put so much time into improving their standup that they can’t wait to show it off. Then they forget all about their fantastic ground games as they pin their hopes on a striking game that’s anywhere from decent to very good.

Not “Jacare.” He now seems totally comfortable on his feet, but he’s still very aware that it’s his ground game that’s truly terrifying for opponents. You can bet there are some UFC middleweights who watched his performance on Saturday night and then put on the gi before hitting the mats on Sunday morning. If he keeps this up, there’s no reason to think he won’t be fighting for a UFC title soon.

The difference between a robbery and debatably bad decision

As the third round drew to a close, I thought Evan Dunham (14-4 MMA, 7-4 UFC) had it. He was more aggressive than Rafael dos Anjos (19-6 MMA, 8-4 UFC), had clearly won the takedown battle, and, as Fightmetric stats later showed, just barely got the better of the overall striking game. It was close, but I expected Dunham to get his hand raised. Then he didn’t, and of course the Internet exploded with the familiar din of fight fans shouting, “Robbery!!!”

I don’t want to go all don’t-leave-it-in-the-hands-of-the-judges here, because I really hate that cliche. In a three-round bout, fighters will leave it in the hands of the judges sometimes. That’s just going to happen, and judges should be competent enough to keep that possibility from becoming a threat. Instead of telling fighters to avoid the judges at all costs, what we should really encourage them to do is make the judges’ job as easy as possible. Because if it’s close – if your best argument for why you deserve the decision is based on something as subtle as the fact that you took more forward steps than the other guy did – you’re courting disappointment. Judges don’t do subtlety. Especially if you’re fighting a Brazilian in Brazil, you’ve got to paint your masterpiece in bold, bright colors. Anything less, and you end up with a long flight home and plenty of time to wonder what would have happened if you’d just done a little bit more.

One tough commodities trader, telling it like it is on UFC fighter pay

John Cholish is done with MMA now, or so he would have us believe. It was just a hobby for him, and one that actually cost him more money than it made him at times, he said, so he’s hanging up the gloves and heading back to Wall Street. He did get one last shot in on his way out the door, however, and this one was aimed squarely at the UFC’s pay structure.

“I’m fortunate enough that I have a job that provides for me really well,” Cholish told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) after his submission loss to Gleison Tibau. “I give a lot of these guys credit that fight at this level. I think they could be compensated much better based on the income that the UFC takes in. Fortunately, I can just walk away and I’m OK with it. By no means do I mean it disrespectfully toward any other fighters because I think they do a great job. But hopefully Zuffa and the UFC will start paying them a little better.”

There are a lot of lower-tier fighters in the UFC nodding their heads at that statement, even if they’re scared to say it so publicly without a job in finance to fall back on. It’s rough business, this cage-fighting stuff, and not just in the physical sense. Keep winning without letting it get boring, and you’ll be paid handsomely. Do merely well enough to stick around in the world’s top MMA organization, and you may still be struggling to make ends meet after a couple of years of trying. Maybe that’s what we should expect from a sport that’s as selfish as pro fighting. If you’re the 10th best pitcher in Major League Baseball, you’re a millionaire. If you’re the tenth best welterweight in the UFC, you might spend the best years of your career dreaming of the day when you earn as much as someone making the MLB league minimum.

Want to see the flyweights? Hope you’ve got a Facebook account

John Lineker (21-6 MMA, 2-1 UFC) and Jussier Formiga (15-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) – both of whom are top 10 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA flyweight rankings – notched big wins on Saturday night. But unless you’re up on your social media game, you might have missed it. These were the only two flyweight bouts on the UFC on FX 8 card, and both were relegated to the Facebook prelims.

Meanwhile, unranked middleweights Rafael Natal (16-4-1 MMA, 4-2-1 UFC) and Joao Zeferino (13-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC) kicked off the broadcast with a ho-hum display of the 50/50 guard that drew boos from the crowd and nearly made UFC lightweight Michael Chiesa lose his mind on Twitter. (Seriously, no one hates 50/50 guard more than Chiesa. And I mean no one.)

This brings us back to the chicken and egg problem of the flyweight division. Is it hard for UFC’s littlest warriors to gain traction with the fans because we don’t see enough of them on the main card? Or are they not getting on the main card because they have no traction with the fans? I don’t know, but it seems to me that if you’re going to have the division in the first place, you might as well try to get off the online stream and onto TV when you have the chance. Facebook is a great place to stalk ex-girlfriends, but not so great for a fighter trying to build a fan base.

For complete coverage of UFC on FX 8, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.