On Saturday evening, I watched UFC 185 with two friends who work for a highly respected social media company here in Las Vegas. They're up on all the latest and greatest tools and trends in the social world, which is expanding faster than I can keep track.
They told me about a new online polling tool called Wedgies that makes it easy to poll Twitter followers. And, look: I am a sucker for a good poll. I love making them, and I like watching the results come in. So I instantly made one asking readers who would win between Anthony Pettis and Rafael dos Anjos. Eighty percent of the respondents said Pettis, which meant they were just as wrong as the rest of us. Dos Anjos absolutely smoked Pettis to capture the lightweight title.
The next poll sought to determine who the UFC's handsomest fighter is: Luke Rockhold, Elias Theodorou or Lyoto Machida. Rockhold, as expected, ran away with that one and rightly so.
Today, I decided to get a little more serious. The UFC has (knock on wood) an incredible slate of title fights coming up between now and July's International Fight Week card, and I wanted to see which one my followers were looking forward to the most.
The results weren't all that surprising, at least not at the top. Here's where things stood after 239 votes:
1. Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor (45%)
2. Jon Jones vs. Anthony Johnson (32%)
3. Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort (10%)
4. Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald (6%)
5. Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum (4%)
6. T.J. Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao (3%)
Aldo vs. McGregor being at the top shouldn't shock anyone. It will likely go down as the UFC's biggest fight of 2015, unless it pulls a big and surprising fight out of its hat. And Jones vs. Johnson in second place is just about right; Jones is finally developing into a true draw, and Johnson's monstrous run through the light heavyweight division has people intrigued about his chances against the world's best fighter.
Weidman vs. Belfort was probably more anticipated a year ago, but endless delays have taken some of the fire off that one.
The real surprise, at least for me, is the near complete lack of interest in seeing Velasquez return for his heavyweight title defense/unification bout against Werdum in June.
There could be a few reasons interest in the fight is this low.
1. It has been a long time since Velasquez competed in the Octagon. In relationships, they say absence makes the heart grow fonder. But in a star-driven business, absence just makes the fans forget about you. Velasquez hasn't stepped foot in a cage since October 2013. He has fought just four times since his November 12, 2011, loss to Junior dos Santos. Every time he's been scheduled to return, he gets injured again.
MMA fans have long memories, but there comes a point when you just stop getting your hopes up.
2. Werdum has been on an incredible run, but perhaps he hasn't caught on with the fans in the way we'd like him to. He has a ton of personality. He is fluent in three languages. He is charismatic, and he's winning big fights. But he just has not been embraced by fans.
3. And perhaps he has not been embraced because people don't view him as a true threat to Velasquez. This has merit. Outside of his loss to Dos Santos, Velasquez has been utterly dominant in his career. And he paid back that loss to JDS with two brutal beatings that had fans cringing and begging for a stoppage. And Velasquez is a heavy favorite.
But maybe it has nothing to do with the reasons I listed above. Anticipation for Velasquez vs. Werdum might be low simply because there are a bunch of great and interesting fights over the next few months. Fans are being offered a sublime slate of title fights over the next few months. Most of them have interesting storylines. It could be that Velasquez vs. Werdum is so far down the list simply because the other fights are so good.
I don't know if these poll results are an indicator of how well these fights will do on pay-per-view. You don't have to pick just one pay-per-view to order, after all. But they do appear to be a clear sign that the heavyweight championship—historically considered the pinnacle championship in combat sports—has fallen behind in terms of fan interest.
If Velasquez can stay healthy and fight regularly, and put on the kind of performances he's known for, he'll find his way back into the hearts and minds of MMA fans around the world.
But for now, and until he does prove he can stay healthy, it appears as though he's not just second or third fiddle, but fifth. And that's a weird place to be for the world heavyweight champion.
