Five Points: A Plan to Create Stars in the UFC: The Rivalries (Part 5 of 5)

By Michael Ford

Rivalries and feuds are important for cementing stardom, and illuminating aspects of stars’ personalities. The following potential feuds would be particularly effective at performing these roles for the new stars that the UFC hopes to develop in the coming year.

The first piece in this series focused on the characteristics of the next big UFC stars, while the second concentrated on the process that can make them. The third and fourth pieces identified candidates for stardom, either as heroes or heels. This piece focuses on the potential feuds by which these new stars could be defined.

Pro sports are built on rivalries. Rivalries in team sports can span decades, or engender bad blood based on only a handful of hard-fought battles. And while rivalries between star players are often creations of the media, there still remains a fierce competitive spirit that can often become personal as the stakes of each battle become raised, not just for the teams involved, but for the respective legacies of those players. In individual sports, however, the rivalry between athletes is more distilled, because they are competing directly against one another, without teammates to muddy up the analysis of who the better man (or woman) is, and where they belong in relationship to one another.

Combat sports, however, take it one step further. Fighters are not just attempting to outperform each other, they’re trying to hurt one another as they assert their dominance. A knockout is one of the clearest and unambiguous expressions of dominance, and legacies are made when two combatants attempt to put each other’s lights out, or break each other’s spirits. Of course, when the stakes also include real interpersonal conflict, and the sense that the individuals themselves would taste sweeter victory or more bitter defeat against a hated rival, these battles take on even greater significance.

The best feuds are such because of what they reveal about the people involved. Whether it’s their faults, flaws, or foibles, or their merits, strengths, or virtues, when cast against a worthy foil, individuals often find their defining characteristics illuminated. And thus as the UFC seeks to elevate its stars, it too needs to set them against worthy foils. These feuds would allow fans to gain insight into the personalities of these men, and help cast a narrative that could unfold inside the Octagon, as well as afterward.

1. Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans

This feud has been simmering for almost a year now; all that remains is that the fight be signed, set, and delivered to fans. Evans was Jones’ mentor and friend, and both men claimed that their personal affinity outweighed their professional ambitions. Jones would “wait his turn,” so to speak, and if Jones did acquire the title before Evans reacquired it, Rashad would step aside and let Jones reign. Yet one interview answer changed all that, setting into motion a sequence of events that fractured the Jackson camp, ignited a war of words on Twitter and elsewhere, and ruined many a “special night.”

So far in this feud we’ve seen the best and worst of both men. In the Octagon, both have looked like incredible fighters, the #1 and #2 men in the weight class. If Rashad can equal or exceed his August performance against Tito Ortiz on Saturday night against Phil Davis, he will solidify his position as the top contender. But unfortunately for Evans, Jon “Bones” Jones has looked almost untouchable, notching four dominant stoppage victories over Top Ten 205-ers in 2011, and moving into that shared space of perceived invincibility occupied by Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre. Evans likely will not be able to secure the victory over Jones when they fight, but the stakes of the fight remain high nonetheless. This is because this feud has managed to cast Evans, a man perpetually reviled by large segments of the MMA fanbase, in a sympathetic light, and raise questions about the character of Jon Jones. Jones has seemed at times disingenuous, haughty, petulant, and self-important, all while attempting to assert a moral high ground. Evans, for his part, may be overreacting and emotional, but his grievances are clear, and easily identified with.

For Jon Jones, this feud isn’t simply about being the better man in the cage, it’s about being the bigger man outside of it. If the takeaway point from this feud ends up being, “Sure, Jones is a better fighter, but Rashad was right about him,” then he loses a lot more than one fight. He loses the chance to assume the role of the sport’s signature star. If the fans think that Jon Jones the in-cage competitor is awesome, but Jon Jones the dude is a jerk, then his marketability is severely limited, because you have more opportunities to make fans outside of the Octagon than inside of it. If he continues to be dogged by the lingering sense that he is “fake” or “arrogant,” then the narrative of Jones’ greatness will be weighed down by that caveat. However, mending fences with Rashad, and the resultant show of sincere mutual respect, will go a long way towards helping Jones move on to the next phase of his career, establishing himself as The Best Fighter Ever.

2. Michael Bisping vs. Chael Sonnen

Although these two men were just recently booked to fight one another on Saturday night, they have been circling each other for a while now. They were the UFC’s first choices to coach the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter, before Nevada licensing issues kept Sonnen, who was coming off of a suspension, from accepting the position. Bisping, who feels that he is unfairly demonized by the MMA media, points to Sonnen as a fighter who doesn’t face nearly the scrutiny that he does. Sonnen, for his part, has not fired off the kind of verbal offense that he has proven capable of in the past, but has instead dismissed Bisping as irrelevant to his title aspirations. And up until recently, he was right.

Sonnen’s combination of pro wrestling heel antics and actual wrestling takedown acumen has fueled a resurgence in his career, culminating in a near-defeat of the current Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva. That he ultimately tested positive for elevated testosterone was largely irrelevant; for over four rounds, he made the champion look human, vulnerable even. Since he returned from his suspension he has had the inside track on a rematch with Silva, but Bisping feels like his first shot at Silva is long overdue.

After Bisping’s one-sided victory over Jason “Mayhem” Miller netted him a spot on the UFC on Fox card, he began to use his spot at press conferences to talk past his original opponent Demian Maia, and engage with Sonnen, who agreed with former Team Quest teammate Dan Henderson‘s contention that Silva is milking an injury to avoid facing both him and Sonnen, but would gladly face Bisping. The implication was clear: Bisping, who was a KO victim of Henderson’s, was an easy matchup for the champion, while the other two men were not.

Bisping walks around with a chip on his shoulder the size of Scotland, and while others choose to laugh off Sonnen’s antics, Bisping takes offense, feeling disrespected. The last time Bisping felt disrespected by an opponent, he had a near-meltdown in the cage against Jorge Rivera, blasting him with an illegal knee, and spitting at Rivera and his cornermen after the fight. Even during a largely one-sided fight against Miller, a few taunts led to Bisping throwing an illegal kick. While the likelihood of Bisping losing his cool during his fight is slim, it is still present, and will persist throughout the contest.

Short of a definitive finish, it remains to be seen whether either fighter will show respect for the other after the final bell. And if there is a close or split decision, it is entirely likely that the losing fighter will contend that he was robbed. If that were to happen, bad blood could linger, and a true rivalry would be born. Their saga would demand a second chapter at some point, and UFC brass would be keen to book it as soon as possible. From a trash-talking perspective, they’ve only scratched the surface. Sonnen hasn’t gone into his full bag of zingers, and Bisping hasn’t let loose an obscenity-laced tirade in the direction of Sonnen. Bisping-Sonnen is a feud that could have some legs.

3. Nate Diaz vs. Frankie Edgar

Edgar and Ben Henderson will be competing for the UFC Lightweight title later this month, and while both men are fantastic fighters with interesting personalities who have put together tremendous strings of exciting fights, neither men have had a true feud. Frankie Edgar fought Gray Maynard three times, yet the fights ultimately proved to be more of a showcase for Edgar’s heart and determination than an epic conflict of personalities. Edgar dug deep and broke Maynard twice while himself not breaking. If he were to do the same to Henderson, it would remind us that Edgar is a great fighter, but it wouldn’t make him a star…especially because the fight will likely not be seen by enough fans on PPV to make an impression on them.

However, somewhere down the line, what awaits the eventual champion is a date with Nate Diaz, the Stockton, California firebrand who brings street style to the MMA cage, mixing high-volume boxing with Gracie jiu-jitsu, and throwing in double-birds and F-bombs. Diaz is probably one win away from a shot at the belt, and for a fighter who is adamantly against being friendly with fighters in the same “bracket,” the idea of being respectful and cordial with either of those two men is a non-starter.

A feud between Frankie Edgar and Nathan Diaz would offer a study of contrasts. Frankie’s a working class kid from Jersey with a wrestling background, who has developed into one of the best boxers in the lightweight division. While he is open about his past as a “knucklehead” growing up a stone’s throw away from the Jersey Shore, he has since matured into a respectable champion and family man. He still has his boys from back in the neighborhood, but he doesn’t let their boisterousness detract from the professional responsibilities that come with being the UFC Lightweight Champion.

Nate, however, is a working class kid from California with a BJJ background, who too has developed into one of the best boxers in the lightweight division, albeit with a style much more reliant upon jabs, activity, and body punching than footwork, head movement, and quickness. At 26, Diaz is no kid, but he is surely more knucklehead than family man, and he keeps it too real to be caught in a suit. The fierceness of his loyalty to his training partners “The Skrap Pack” is evidenced by his vitriol for fighters like Tyson Griffin who have left the camp, and by his willingness to throw down at a moment’s notice to back them up. After all, who can forget the infamous Nashville brawl? Diaz won’t no-show a presser or conference call like his brother would, but he’s certainly not about to speak in cliches and platitudes in order to uphold an ideal of professionalism or respect. There is a very real sense that World Champion Nate Diaz would be the same guy he was when he first burst on the scene: brash, outspoken, and prone to talk shit, but ready to back it up.

Where Nate wants to incite an opponent to brawl recklessly, confident that he will eventually overwhelm him with volume, Edgar remains under control, exploiting holes in his opponent’s offense, and taking over later in the fight, once he has frustrated and flustered the opposition. Both men are confident that they cannot be broken, and both men believe their toughness is unmatched. Will Nate pull Frankie into “knucklehead” mode, and make it a down and dirty street brawl? Or will Edgar elude Diaz’s swarming offense with deft evasion, technique, and defense, winning with precision over volume, and “outclassing” the Stockton native? In the run-up to the fight, these are the questions that would be asked, and to the extent that the fight itself raises the stakes on the kind of man each purports to be, whichever man comes out on top validates his worldview. Then again, whoever wins might have to do so while fighting in the other’s comfort zone — the Efficient Boxer might have to “just scrap,” while the “Scrapper” might have to execute efficiently and precisely. Despite the study in contrasts, a feud of this magnitude might be resolved by finding out that these two men aren’t so different after all.

4. Frank Mir vs. Josh Barnett

Strikeforce heavyweight competitor Josh Barnett is most likely two fights away from earning another opportunity in the UFC, despite testing positive for anabolic steroids on multiple occasions. Regardless of that checkered aspect of his past, he is still a decorated mixed martial artist, a former UFC heavyweight champion, and one of the top heavyweights in the sport. Frank Mir is also a former UFC heavyweight champion, but as a fighter whose career as a top-level MMA fighter has only included Octagon competition, he has received both the benefit of UFC exposure and the detriment of UFC fans seeing him at his best and at his worst, without the “aura” of having achieved success in the legendary PRIDE organization. Thus, the path towards being recognized as an all-time great is more arduous for Mir, who still needs a few more wins, despite the resume that he has accrued.

In Barnett you have a fighter who enjoys the fuzzy overlap between MMA and pro wrestling, particularly in Japan, and any opportunity he can use to cut a pro wrestling “promo,” or work a match during open workouts, will be taken. Even his “catch wrestling” submission style owes a lot to early professional wrestling. Mir, you may recall, was once Brock Lesnar‘s nemesis, and was one of the more vocal opponents of the idea of pro wrestling and mixed martial arts overlapping in that way. The outspoken Mir would not hesitate to deride Barnett’s accomplishments or his aspirations, and when it comes to the question of who the better submission grappler is, would relish the opportunity to use his jiu-jitsu to either make Barnett tap, or make his arm snap.

However, Josh Barnett is always willing to speak his mind as well, and with no losses in recent memory, he would likely tout his winning streak (assuming it continues) as a reason that he should be considered a better fighter than Mir. After all, historically the heavyweight division outside of the UFC has been stronger than the UFC’s division. The Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, with its collection of heavyweight stars, was at one time considered to be a tournament whose winner could stake a claim to being the top heavyweight in the sport, and Barnett is one win away from claiming that mantle. In any event, the battle of outsized egos leading up to the fight would be almost as intriguing as the heavyweight battle that would take place inside the Octagon.

As Strikeforce heavyweight talent is integrated into the UFC, that heavyweight division will continue to stratify, with clearer tiers taking shape from fight to fight. What would be at stake in this fight would not just be current positioning within the hierarchy. For a fanbase and media that is quite prone to revisionism, the outcome of this fight represents a way for either fighter to rewrite his legacy in victory or defeat. A Barnett win reinforces PRIDE superiority, as well as validates the division that Strikeforce was putting together before it was acquired by Zuffa, particularly if the other Strikeforce transplants experience success. A Mir win allows him to notch another win over a PRIDE name, and continue to fuel the narrative that the “legends” of PRIDE were overrated, and that the UFC has always been the place where true legacies are forged. Moving forward, we know that will be the case, but as the sun sets on an earlier era, Mir has the opportunity to help recast that era in a much more pro-Zuffa light. And in doing so, Mir will have established himself as perhaps the greatest “company man” that the UFC Heavyweight Division has ever seen.

5. “King Mo” Lawal vs. “Rampage” Jackson

Hardcore mixed martial arts fans know that this feud has been bubbling for years, when an up-and-coming Muhammed Lawal had a heated argument in a van with UFC superstar Quinton Jackson that was captured on video and uploaded to an MMA site. For a fighter who has made “Black on Black Crime” his catchphrase, the notion of taking on another African-American light heavyweight is far from a new one, and for mixed martial arts fans, most of whom only think of black on black crime when they think of the Rampage catchphrase, the prospect of the fight was very intriguing.

Muhammed Lawal is keenly aware that young African-American light heavyweights are going to be compared to Rampage, especially if they are wrestlers. He has gone on record in support of Rashad Evans, who believes that Jackson panders to white fans by trafficking in stereotypes, playing into them, and “cooning” for their amusement. He has also stated that he believes that Rampage has a problem with other black fighters, perhaps because of the so-called “H.N.I.C. Syndrome.” If there can only be one, he believes, then Rampage wants to be that one, and feels threatened by the idea of someone “taking his spot.” Of course, Lawal has no desire to take Rampage’s “spot” as a fan favorite, but in a way, he does want to beat him, and take his spot in the Top Ten at 205.

However, because the two fight in different organizations, they get asked about fighting one another by the MMA media, but have not been able to get the fight signed. Instead, they trade barbs through that same media, and on Twitter. It gets crass, profane, and often ugly, but the hatred is 100% authentic. And while traversing the racial minefield is very difficult for MMA media, if more mainstream sports outlets pick up on this rivalry, they’ll be able to present the controversy in a more textured and nuanced way. It will polarize and galvanize fans, and in turn, raise the stakes of this matchup. Boxing fans understand how intra-racial politics informs rivalries dating as far back as Ali-Frasier, and basketball has seen its fair share of rivalries between players and teams tinged with racial undertones, even in recent years.

If and when these two square off, we can expect the gloves to come off verbally, as neither fighter will hold back his hatred for the other. Any and everything will come into play, from Lawal’s steroid test to Rampage’s “motorboating” incident, and the potshots will fly at a mile a minute. Politically incorrect things will be said, and pre-fight footage will be littered with bleeps. And by the time the Octagon door closes, anticipation will be at a fever pitch. For King Mo, it would be a chance to back up his harsh words, solidifying his status as one of the top fighters in the sport, and for Rampage, it would be an opportunity to deliver a high-profile ass-whupping, and shut Mo’s big mouth. And neither fighter’s career would be the same afterwards.

For us to truly see the best of the UFC’s emerging stars, they can’t simply be showcased in the cage, or make their names on competition alone. Each needs to be pit against an opponent in a matchup that has the opportunity to define him. Through that high-stakes challenge the fans’ perception of that fighter can come into sharper focus, for better or worse. Each of the feuds listed above has the potential to crystalize or reinvent how a star is viewed by the masses, and will lay the foundation for future narratives, which are the building blocks of legacies. Every star leaves a legacy, and with Zuffa looking for new feet to fill big shoes, the time for these fighters to step into them and chase their legacies is now.