A bunch of has been's are chasing big money fights in a "Legends" series

When you are an MMA fighter in the UFC or really anywhere else you need to realize that you have a expiration date. This is true in all other sports as well and MMA is actually more forgiving than other competitive sports. Not many NBA players maintain their excellence well into their 30's but in UFC it is not uncommon for 40 year olds to be competitive.

However, at some point you have to recognize that it might be time to hang up the gloves and move on. I don't know exactly why it is that so many of these UFC stars of 10 years ago keep popping up trying to create enough hype to have these sort of events that have nothing to do with the current rankings, but that is exactly what Cub Swanson is trying to do.


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Maybe I am being a little bit cruel here but Cub was a contender years ago but now he isn't even ranked and when he comes back out of the shadows pushing for fights that nobody asked for it does see a bit like desperation. Cub wants to organize a "Legends" PPV that will involve himself, Anthony Pettis, Urijah Faber, and Jose Aldo. I think this is a little unfair to Aldo because he still has a chance as far as his current streak is concerned, he won his last fight at his new weight division and looks like a beast.

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That being said, we all know that Aldo is one or perhaps 2 losses away from being released from the MMA. Dana White doesn't hang on to guys that underperform and this is especially true if you used to be something fantastic but now you aren't really very impressive. It doesn't help if you are older as Dana rarely hangs on to older fighters who appear to be past their prime. It also doesn't help if you can't cut a good trash-talking promo because you don't speak English.

Cub Swanson is clearly chasing money here and Urijah Faber, who I really like... has he even had a Win in years? I don't even know. The California Kid has been around for so long but lately it seems like he can't crack the top 10 if we paid off his opponent.

For the time being Cub Swanson is trying his best to attract as much attention to himself because he actually does have a fight coming up in UFC 256 vs Daniel Pineda. Perhaps if he puts up a strong showing in this fight Dana will be receptive to a "Legends" section. But for now at least to me Cub's suggestion just seems a bit pathetic. He knows that he doesn't have a title run left in him and this is almost certainly true of all the other guys also, especially Urijah Faber.

I suppose I would watch it if it were going to happen in the same way that I will watch Mike Tyson's upcoming "old man fight" vs Roy Jones Jr. When we see these guys fight it's like going back and playing your favorite video games from the early 2000's. It's fun at first but after a few minutes (rounds) you realize the newer games (newer fighters) are a lot better and this is just a normal part of the passage of time.



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6 comments
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I don't know. If the right names were in the hat it would be good to see if they still have it. They obviously wont be at the same level as in their youth but it would be interesting to see the big names in the sport again. It's why people watch any masters sports. Not for the quality but for the nostalgia.

Look at the interest for mike tyson and he is way past his ranking days.

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I agree to a certain extent. I just don't see Dana White allowing it since some of these legends are still reasonable draws for lower cards. I suppose anything is possible. I've always had a soft spot for Urijah Faber (did I spell that right?) but he is well past his prime.... I'd watch it, it just seems like they are chasing money and I suppose there is nothing wrong with that because we all would do the same thing.

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I suppose you could say i feel a little bit sorry for these guys. Outside of the top guys in the industry most of these guys don't really make a ton of cash. I was looking at the payments for some of the minor cards the other day and the people were getting as little as $10,000. Now that probably seems like a lot to us because the fight only lasted 8 minutes or so but what about the months of training and the fact that most of these guys only fight 3 or 4 times a year at most?

I think people would watch it but unless Dana authorizes it I don't see it happening.

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great points. This is something that a lot of people don't factor in. We all just presume that all of these guys are multi-millionaires and for most of them, this isn't the case at all. Fact of the matter is, in MMA, a mid-level accountant probably takes home more cash than your average MMA fighter and doesn't have to recover from head trauma nearly as frequently.

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