The Bottom Line: Enough With These Challenges

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.*** If you’ve watched a UFC telecast recently — and there have certainly been a few opportunities of late — you’ve surely noticed the UFC’s current favorite thing in the world. Whether a fighter is on the cusp of a title shot or just improved to 2-4 in the UFC with a win on Fight Pass, that fighter following a win is almost assuredly going to be asked to challenge some other fighter to an upcoming bout. UFC loves these fighter callouts about as much as “Face the Pain” by Stemm, raising the question why exactly this has become so ubiquitous given how it accomplishes nothing of positive value. Most fighters don’t want to pick future opponents. As a result, when most fighters are asked to pick a future opponent, they decline. Listening to fighters say over and over again they’ll fight whoever UFC wants them to fight doesn’t make for good television. You’d have better odds of producing memorable television asking them all if they have any secret talents. Some media members and fight analysts, Chael Sonnen among the most prominent, have responded to this by ridiculing the fighters. Don’t they get that this is their opportunity to take their futures into their own hands? The irony of implying these fighters are stupid for not wanting to call out future foes is that the endeavor of educating them to do so is about as dumb as it gets. One of the best things about UFC today is that the promotion has created a culture whether fighters are happy to take on the best possible opponents simply to prove that they are the best. This is one of the best things about the UFC and it is far from a guarantee in the combat sports. Boxing today is full of fighters who carefully select future opponents and try to build up those …

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