Point: The UFC booking Fabio Maldonado against Stipe Miocic is an awful decision.
Contributor: Ben Kohn
What the hell is the UFC thinking? Seriously, I cannot fathom why in the world Joe Silva thought this fight would be a good idea. Miocic is currently the #7 ranked Heavyweight in the world, is 5-1 in the UFC with his lone loss belonging to Stefan Struve. He has wins over #9 ranked Roy Nelson and #11 ranked Gabriel Gonzaga, is a former NCAA D1 wrestler and Golden Gloves champion and has won 7 of his 11 wins by way of KO. He’s 6’4 and 240 pounds with very good cardio, especially for a heavyweight. He hits hard, in combinations, and has absolutely brutal ground-and-pound to boot.
Fabio Maldanado is a middling light heavyweight who isn’t even in the top-15 of the UFC rankings. He’s 4-3 overall in the UFC and his best win is over unranked Gian Villante, the only fighter he’s beaten who’s still employed by the UFC. He blocks the majority of his opponents strikes with his face, has zero submission game whatsoever, and has been taken down a total of 16 times in his last 6 fights. He doesn’t have the skills or abilities to ever make it into the top of the division and is the definition of an action fighter. Miocic on the other hand was set to face former Heavyweight Champion Junior Dos Santos in a fight that could very well have been a #1 contender’s match for Miocic. To go from headlining a card with a former champ and #1 ranked Heavyweight, to fighting a non-ranked Light Heavyweight is ludicrous on every single level.
The worst part about this whole matchup is that we all know this will be marketed as a legitimate and even fight by Dana and co. when it’s the farthest thing from it. There’s almost no way Maldanado wins this fight. Despite his pro-boxing record, he has not shown one-punch KO power and his best weapons revolve around his body punching attack. He doesn’t even have any semblance of a kicking game. Miocic is a really good striker who has power and speed, excellent combination punching and mixes kicks and body shots in beautifully. Throw in that he has far better movement than Fabio and this is a recipe for disaster. Fabio can get seriously hurt in this fight and it’s careless, irresponsible, and downright dangerous matchmaking. The UFC made a big mistake here and I’m seriously upset and worried for Maldanado’s health.
Counterpoint: The UFC booking Fabio Maldonado Against Stipe Miocic Isn’t an Awful Decision.
Contributor: Luke Irwin
Fabio Maldonado is a fighter.
Moreso than just about any other person in any walk of life, can you affirm this man’s profession. He is a prizefighter through and through.
Between amateur and professional, his listed fights alone reach a whisper from a hundred, and who knows how many more went undocumented in primitive-era Brazillian MMA/boxing record-keeping.
Fabio Maldonado is 34 years old. Fabio Maldonado will never fight for a UFC world championship. I know it, you know it, Ben knows it, and Fabio knows it.
So, what the hell are we arguing about?
Of the thousands of fighters hoping to one day make their mark in the sport of mixed martial arts, how many actually make it to a legit regional professional promotion like Pancrase, Deep, Rage in the Cage, Shooto, Extreme Challenge, Xtreme Kombat, NAFC, NAAFS, Fight Time, Nitrix Champion Fight, Ultimate Challenge, West Coast Fighting Championship, or countless others? Of those very, very rare fighters, how many can actually get to a promotion that has a national following and feed? Promotions like Tachi Palace Fights, One FC, Road FC, King of the Cage, or Cage Warriors, amongst others? What about out of even those tiny amount of fighters that get on a promotion that has a national television deal? You’ll be watched by people all over the country and world on their televisions! No bouncing around trying to find shitty streams, no desperately trying to find your plug to charge your laptop before it goes out, but you, on a 65″ high-definition screen, where an entire party of people can see you, where the biggest obstacle is where your parents left the remote when they were watching Law & Order earlier in the afternoon. Bellator, Legacy, Titan, World Series of Fighting, RFA…you’ve made it. You’re on national television doing what you love. But there’s still one more obstacle to climb.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship.
UFC.
Once you get there, you think, you’ve made it. It’s there. So you get there, and you get rattled a bit. You win a few, you lose a few. These are, after all, the best fighters on the planet. Every loss could merit a release from the promotion you’ve worked so goddamned hard to get to, so you do your damndest to make sure the UFC and the crowd get their moneys worth. You soldier through a few wins, likely taking years off of your life, just to stay afloat.
Then your chance comes. Junior dos Santos pulls out of his fight against Stipe Miocic. In your home country. In your home state.
“Because the house always wins. Play long enough, you never change the stakes, the house takes you. Unless, when that perfect hand comes along, you bet big, and then you take the house.” – Danny Ocean, Ocean’s Eleven
An even smaller subset of making it to the UFC, the chance to main-event a UFC event.
A UFC show on national television.
A UFC show in your home country.
A UFC show in your home state.
This is Fabio Maldonado pushing his chips into the center of the table for all they’re worth.
Has he taken a beating over the course of his career? Of course! That’s how he prefers it. But he isn’t Jeff Lacy, he isnt Chuck Liddell, he isn’t Gary Goodridge. He’s a cognitive, functional, human being. Will he pay the price down the road? Possibly, but so could any fighter. It only takes one fight to destroy a life, look at Magomed Abdusalamov or Gerald McClellan. He was born in Sao Paulo, he lives in Sao Paulo, and he found himself with the rare opportunity to headline a nationally-televised card in Sao Paulo. He’s the headliner on the fight poster, he’ll have the last walkout, and his family gets to watch as Fabio Maldonado gets to be a UFC headliner for the first, and probably only, time in his life.
He may win, and he may lose. He’s a heavy underdog, although, make no mistake, this isn’t exactly Wepner getting in the ring with Ali. Miocic is a fine fighter, but he’s hardly Ivan Drago. However, Maldonado probably will take a beating, and he’ll probably dish a good one out, too. When the hand is raised in victory, it will most likely be Stipe Miocic’s.
But win, lose, or draw, this is the pinnacle, the highlight of Fabio Maldonado’s career, and he’s earned the right to plant his flag on this hill and pay the consequences.
-Ben Kohn can be reached @agentbenten or at [email protected].
-Luke Irwin is your editor and can be reached @UndercardSuper or at [email protected]
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