UFC Nashville was the UFC’s latest offering of their saturated and often forgettable Fox Sports 1 schedule. While some reasonably interesting match-ups littered the card including a headliner between perennial contenders Glover Teixeira and Ovince St. Preux in the headline spot, the overall product did little to get fans talking in the lead up. Without Jon Jones leading the division it is difficult for the other fighters to gain any traction with the fans.
The show itself felt like little more than the hangover from UFC 189. With a card that got so little attention, and garnered such a small fan response, it’s almost difficult to believe the headliner was a match up between a pair of top ten light heavyweights who could conceivably be a pair of wins away from a title fight with a victory.
So with a reasonably significant main event between two of the divisions top ten, why didn’t we care about the card?
First of all there’s the obvious, despite being ranked highly Teixeira entered the bout on a two fight losing skid, and despite riding a pair of wins in recent performances, St. Preux lopsided loss to Ryan Bader was still fresh in our memories.
However, when it comes to the significance of a main event bout recent wins and losses aren’t everything in the eyes of viewers. Most fans understand that all it takes is one emphatic victory to put a fighter firmly on the path to a title shot, and this was the case between Teixeira and St. Preux.
The true problem when it comes to a light heavyweight match up getting fans talking is that regardless of how close the winner is to a title shot, the current title picture is a stairway to nowhere.
For the last four years the light heavyweight division has been ruled by Jon Jones. Jones ran a busy schedule taking on all of the division’s best and proved to be a cut above the rest at 205. His career is currently on pause due to his actions outside the cage and the division is treading water awaiting his return.
At the top of the heap is Daniel Cormier, who after losing a decision to Jones in January was offered the chance to fill the spot vacated by the now former champion when he was suspended indefinitely. Cormier won the vacated belt by defeating Anthony Johnson. His first title defence will come in October against Swedish striker Alexander Gustaffson, who is best known for giving Jones one of his stiffer tests but ultimately coming up short, He will receive a title shot despite coming off first round knockout loss earlier this year to Johnson.
While UFC may be doing there best to keep the light heavyweight title picture interesting, we can be forgiven as fans for not feeling desperate to tune in for a championship bout that will not feature the division’s top fighter in competition.
With the next title fight lacking significance due to the current run of the champion and challenger including big losses as recently as this year, we look to who’s next in line.
That honour goes to the winner of the UFC 192 co-headliner between Rashad Evans and Ryan Bader, one obvious thing the two contenders have in common? They have both fought Jon Jones, and they were both handled. If you’re sensing a pattern here – you may be on to something.
The light heavyweight division has no shortage of talented competitors and potential for entertaining fights, but the reality is the division was cleaned out by a dominant champion who was then pulled away. His challengers were left to do their best to rebuild with whatever fan interest they could generate.
This is bad news for a fighter for Glover Teixeira, because despite an entertaining and impressive victory in Nashville, it takes a lot more than a few big wins to pull a whole division out of one mans shadow.
