Dana not even offering Stipe the backup fight with Pavlovich

[blaseblase]

This struck me as odd, something the UFC has never done before. Typically they will try to make the last minute replacement and throw the fighter under the bus if they refuse.

Dana claims he didn't want to disrespect Stipe by offering him the fight. This is BS right? Seems like it was purely a business decision. Especially since Stipe seemed open to the idea.

Sidelined Stipe Miocic accuses UFC of making him wait for injured Jon Jones — ‘It wasn’t my choice’

Stipe Miocic breaks silence over UFC 295 withdrawal, claims the promotion is making him wait for the injured Jon Jones while Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich battle it out for the interim belt.

www.mmamania.com

My guess is they didn't want to pay Stipe the contracted salary and realized he would turn down a last minute pay cut. See what happened at UFC 209:

https://www.mmaweekly.com/news/tony-ferguson-not-happy-about-not-getting-paid-his-full-ufc-209-show-money

"The UFC tried, even that late in the game, to line Ferguson up with another opponent, Michael Johnson. Ferguson and the UFC couldn't come to terms on a deal though, as Ferguson said that he wasn't willing to take a pay cut for the bout."

 

[Copper Burner]

They want to wring one last big payday out of Jones. Stipe is the only heavyweight that he is willing to fight. Yes, the UFC is going to sideline Stipe for Jones. They also know that Stipe wants Jones, so they know that he isn't going to complain that much.

Why does it matter?

 

[Pierced7681]

Both Jones and Stipe have likely indicated to the ufc they’re retiring after they eventually fight, so it was not worth wasting Stipe’s time by asking him to step in against Pavlovich who was the backup. Stipe wouldn’t have taken the fight if they did ask, the ufc knew that, and they’d rather just wait for Jones to heal up and rebook it

 

[DestinedAussie]

This struck me as odd, something the UFC has never done before. Typically they will try to make the last minute replacement and throw the fighter under the bus if they refuse.

Dana claims he didn't want to disrespect Stipe by offering him the fight. This is BS right? Seems like it was purely a business decision. Especially since Stipe seemed open to the idea.

Sidelined Stipe Miocic accuses UFC of making him wait for injured Jon Jones — ‘It wasn’t my choice’

Stipe Miocic breaks silence over UFC 295 withdrawal, claims the promotion is making him wait for the injured Jon Jones while Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich battle it out for the interim belt.

www.mmamania.com

My guess is they didn't want to pay Stipe the contracted salary and realized he would turn down a last minute pay cut. See what happened at UFC 209:

https://www.mmaweekly.com/news/tony-ferguson-not-happy-about-not-getting-paid-his-full-ufc-209-show-money

"The UFC tried, even that late in the game, to line Ferguson up with another opponent, Michael Johnson. Ferguson and the UFC couldn't come to terms on a deal though, as Ferguson said that he wasn't willing to take a pay cut for the bout."

I would assume not being offered was to do with $$$. He likely has a much larger amount to fight Jones and UFC weren't willing to pay him that to fight Pav. They didn't neg. with him because they knew they couldn't come to an agreement.

 

[OldBoy91]

I bet Pavlovich wishes they had lol.

 

[nostradumbass]

They didn't have any confidence he'd beat either of them and didn't want to spoil the Jones fight.

 

[Tweak896]

If Stipe wanted fights he'd probably get them. UFC wants as many top HWs as they can. As usual we'll never know because I think pre-fight stuff is confidential.

 

[Fact Checker]

I think the UFC didn’t want Stipe to get his washed block knocked off before the Jones fight.


They obviously knew there was a good chance of him getting KO’d.

 

[Goat Poster]

They need give Stipe a fight even if its some top 15 can before he fights Jones again. If he doesn't do it people are gonna shit all over the Jones fight and it will impact PPV's.

He already is old as fuck and I don't think the narrative "is this old guycompletely washed or not" gonna help sell the fight when you got an interim champ which you could put a match in a UK stadium for the reunification and the old man got brutally knocked out in his last fight 3 years ago.
If they just go ahead with this it's absolutely promotional malpractice. There's no way right? They're just not making it public for marketing or to just keep options open since there's many injuries and you never know...etc... right?

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

They need give Stipe a fight even if its some top 15 can before he fights Jones again. If he doesn't do it people are gonna shit all over the Jones fight and it will impact PPV's.

He already is old as fuck and I don't think the narrative "is this old guycompletely washed or not" gonna help sell the fight when you got an interim champ which you could put a match in a UK stadium for the reunification and the old man got brutally knocked out in his last fight 3 years ago.
If they just go ahead with this it's absolutely promotional malpractice. There's no way right? They're just not making it public for marketing or to just keep options open since there's many injuries and you never know...etc... right?

if they give Stipe a fight vs a top 15 and he gets murdered that would confirm "this guy is completely washed" and make the Jones fight look even worse. it's like you said right now, we can only speculate. but if he got a fight vs Pavlovich and got 1 shotted, well, what's the point of him fighting for the belt other than Jon only wants to fight him because he's not comfortable fighting any of the active HWs.

 

[MrAlottaCheese]

I asked Stipe about this at 295, he said he wasn't called about the interim fight and heard abt it in real time

 

[El Fernas]

Pavlovich or Aspinall dont elevate Stipe's draw power, they will just put him to sleep without making the UFC millions in the process and Stipe retires after either way, not worth it for the UFC, Jones vs Stipe is the name fight to make and they will stick to that.

 

[Goat Poster]

if they give Stipe a fight vs a top 15 and he gets murdered that would confirm "this guy is completely washed" and make the Jones fight look even worse. it's like you said right now, we can only speculate. but if he got a fight vs Pavlovich and got 1 shotted, well, what's the point of him fighting for the belt other than Jon only wants to fight him because he's not comfortable fighting any of the active HWs.

I'm not shitting on them not giving Stipe the shot at the interim. I'm shitting on giving him the shot in the 1st place and then not make him fight after it gets postponed.

If you are seriously considering the possibility that he gets beat by the bad part of the top 15 you think everyone is gonna be super pumped for this fight? Stopped twice, 2-2 on last 4 brutally knocked out by 1 punch on the last fight.


Even if they make a match before another reason they should never give him the shot is that he can legitamely win(not discounting that, we don't know where he is at) or just fluke win and then the UFC champ is has a special place in the collection of highlight reels of a dude who fights in the PFL. How bad does it look when the best UFC HW champ got murdered by someone out of the org. It makes a total joke of the division. With them announcing fights over every Francis announcement I would think this would concern them.

Maybe ppl who buy PPV's like Stipe and they have the metrics to prove but I can't really believe Jones fighting in a stadium in the UK isn't much bigger than Stipe. He must have footage of Dana nelking the boys or something like that...

 

[CombatCyborg]

Seems like it was purely a business decision.

I don't think there's any question, both Stipe and Jon are looking at what it would mean to their legacies if they beat each other. You understand Jon sees Stipe as a very winnable fight, Stipe must think the same about Jon.

 

[Leinster Rugby]

Stipe looks like he could hardly walk last video I saw

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

I'm not shitting on them not giving Stipe the shot at the interim. I'm shitting on giving him the shot in the 1st place and then not make him fight after it gets postponed.

If you are seriously considering the possibility that he gets beat by the bad part of the top 15 you think everyone is gonna be super pumped for this fight? Stopped twice, 2-2 on last 4 brutally knocked out by 1 punch on the last fight.


Even if they make a match before another reason they should never give him the shot is that he can legitamely win(not discounting that, we don't know where he is at) or just fluke win and then the UFC champ is has a special place in the collection of highlight reels of a dude who fights in the PFL. How bad does it look when the best UFC HW champ got murdered by someone out of the org. It makes a total joke of the division. With them announcing fights over every Francis announcement I would think this would concern them.

Maybe ppl who buy PPV's like Stipe and they have the metrics to prove but I can't really believe Jones fighting in a stadium in the UK isn't much bigger than Stipe. He must have footage of Dana nelking the boys or something like that...

i don't understand what giving Stipe a bottom 15 is going to do for the legitimacy of the match. it proves nothing other than Stipe is a top 15 HW. it doesn't prove he deserves to fight for any title.

 

[AP_RESURRECTION]

They want to save that win for Jones, big fight and a lucky fight to get as you can say you beat an ex champ and all. That’s a gift these other guys prob haven’t earned yet.

 

[Chet Ubetcha]

Stipe / Jones is the draw. Stipe is also not a company man -- he has no problem bucking the system or calling out BS, which I'm sure Dana doesn't want to have to deal with if Stipe were to win the (interim) championship. It's also not worth risking Stipe losing the backup fight and then having the money fight of Stipe and Jones fall apart.

 

[Clark Rogers]

This place gave UFC ten metric tons of shit for the way they handled the end of Dos Santos career there, but on the other hand thinks Stipe should've fought Pav. There's some irony in there

 

[killakillakilla]

It’s obvious- Jones won’t fight anyone else BUT Stipe, and rusty Stipe would likely be the underdog vs Pav. so the UFC needed to sideline Stipe to wait for Jones to heal from injury.

However, this might be best for Stipe if the fight vs Jones really brings in as much cash as they anticipate.

The grey area question imo is- would Jones vs Stipe really be as much of a blockbuster event as the UFC believes? I still don’t see any reason to believe that.