Dana White slapped every fight promoter on the planet in the face earlier this week by stripping UFC Women’s Featherweight Champion Germaine de Randamie of her championship.
de Randamie did not test positive for any banned substance, but rather refused to defend her title against Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, who has a history of failing such tests, and missing weight.
The former champion was accused of dodging Santos by many media outlets. Did these same outlets also delete their browsing history by Santos campaigning to fight then-UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey, but only at 145 lbs?
White stripped de Randamie for “ignoring her responsibility as a champion to fight any and all challengers.” The UFC set up the 145-pound division as a favor to Santos. Santos responded by being accused of failing another PED test, and was yanked from the inaugural title fight against Holm. Cyborg was cleared of her test, and was rewarded with an immediate title shot at UFC 214 against current Invicta FC Women’s Featherweight Champion Megan Anderson. Anderson ironically won her title after Santos vacated it once signing with the UFC.
Not only is Santos fighting for a championship at UFC 214, but so is Jon Jones. Jones will have his long-awaited rematch against Daniel Cormier for the Light Heavyweight Championship as the main event. “Bones” was the first fighter in UFC history to have a championship stripped twice, after a hit-and-run incident and a PED violation of his own. White said on ESPN after stripping Jones for the second time on 9 November 2016:
"Jon Jones has blown it in every way shape and form a guy with that much talent can blow it. Greatest talent ever and the biggest screw-up ever."
White publicly stated Jones would never fight for a title again. I guess this confirms that Wanderlei Silva and Tito Ortiz will get LHW title shots by the end of 2017, right?!
Somewhere Bellator president Scott Coker is licking his chops. Coker has to know that White caving under pressure from the divas in the UFC is going to piss a lot of his other talent off. Bellator can only profit from this, right? Then again, Coker found a way to ruin Strikeforce, and abolished the tournament format--that made Bellator a welcome distraction from the UFC status quo--while the ink was still drying on his contract.
White put Ronda Rousey and George St. Pierre into title fights, after both had been away from the cage for over a year. Rousey got knocked out in :48, and St. Pierre was yanked from his fight against Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping after claiming he would not be ready until November.
The irony with Coker is that the women in Strikeforce went on to be a bigger success than the men who jumped up. Rousey, Santos, current UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes, and former champion Miesha Tate all flourished, but Luke Rockhold and Cormier may be the lone male competitors to make any significant impact in the UFC. Gilbert Melendez, Jacare, and Gegard Mousasi have all been rather pedestrian under the UFC banner.
Coker even signed Phil Brooks to a fight in his debut. Oh wait...that was Dana too...my bad! Coker’s professional wrestler under contract is current TNA Heavyweight Champion Bobby Lashley, who is 15-2 in his MMA career, including 5-0 in Bellator. You would think that if Bellator ever decided to have a HW champion again (their title has been vacant since May 2016 after Vitaly Minakov was stripped for failure to defend) that Lashley’s name would be near the top of the contender’s list.
Is it too late to market “Steroid-a-mania” for the Cyborg and Jones fights next month?
-JC24