UFC curiously attempting to sever ties with AKA

While doing some late-night web browsing, I came across some interesting articles regarding the UFC and one of the top MMA gyms in the country, American Kickboxing Academy.

Evidently, some AKA fighters have refused to re-sign with the UFC due to a provision in their contracts which would force them to surrender the rights to their likeness for life to the UFC. The fighters have wanted to negotiate these very valuable merchandising rights, and the UFC has taken a strict take it or leave it policy.

This could have huge implications for the UFC and MMA in the U.S. as a whole. Top UFC fighters such as Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch, Cain Velasquez and Mike Swick train with AKA and if they all were to leave the UFC, they could provide the kind of starpower that could propel a rival MMA promotion to the level on which the UFC currently sits.

It also will take quite a few stars out of the UFC. Fitch's last fight was a loss to George St. Pierre for the UFC Welterweight title. Koscheck is a TUF season-one alum and one of the most well known fighters TUF has produced. Swick was also a member of the first season of TUF and has amassed a 7-1 record inside the Octagon while splitting his time between welterweight and middleweight. And Velasquez is one of the few, young prospects in the very thin, very weak heavyweight division. In fact, Koscheck and Fitch are considered two of the top-10 welterweights in the world, while most consider Swick in the top 15.

Add the loss of these AKA fighters to the fighters that have recently been released by the UFC and Zuffa Inc. (the company that owns the UFC and World Extreme Cagefighting) and the UFC seems to be letting go of some of its top fighters.

The UFC/Zuffa has recently cut Marcus Aurelio, Fabricio Werdum, Paulo Filho and Jason Lambert and could add Fitch, Koscheck, Swick and Velasquez. All of these fighters, except Lambert, have been cut within the last week. That means that in the span of a single week, Zuffa has parted ways with three top-15 welterweights (Fitch, Koscheck and Swick), a top-20 lightweight who holds a victory over Takanori Gomi, one of the top-three lightweights in the world (Aurelio), a top-10 heavyweight (Werdum), a top-10 middleweight (Filho) and one of the few prospects it has at heavyweight (Velasquez).

The potential winner in this situation could be Strikeforce, the San Jose, Calif.-based MMA organization. Strikeforce is one of the few MMA promoters that actually makes money because it specializes in building local stars while having a few elite fighters on the roster. Considering AKA is also located in San Jose, if Strikeforce were to sign the quartet of AKA refugees, Strikeforce could make a move to increase its operation and rival the UFC. Throw in the fact that Strikeforce has been signing some of the top Japanese fighters (namely Kazuo Misaki and Yoshihiro Akiyama, both of whom the UFC needs to challenge Anderson Silva) and it has a roster that has plenty of fighters that can sell pay-per-views.

The exodus of the AKA from the UFC is not entirely surprising, though. For years, the UFC has been able to use the fact that it is the only viable MMA organization in North America as leverage to bully fighters. It knows it's the top dog and so do the fighters, so in the past, fighters have caved to the UFC's demands. However, the UFC may have bitten off more than it could chew with this one. Severing connections with one of the nation's top gyms is a bad move on the UFC's part. AKA has a track record of producing top-level fighters and it will likely produce more great fighters and the fact the UFC won't have access to them means their competitors are going to get future stars without having to worry about competing with the UFC.

It will be interesting to see how this unfolds over the next couple of months, but I think Dana White and the UFC will end up regretting making this decision.

A look at the title pictures in the UFC

On Saturday, The UFC completed it's UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar pay-per-view. The main event featured the ever popular Randy "The Natural" Couture losing the UFC heavyweight championship belt to former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar in what the UFC billed as "the biggest fight in UFC history." Lesnar winning the belt could mean a new era is dawning in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Naturally, this got me to thinking about what this means to the heavyweight division and, as an extension, the rest of the weight classes. So here's a mix of speculation and what I'd like to see happen in each of the weight classes as far as future championship fights.

Heavyweight
Current champ: Brock Lesnar
Contenders: Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Frank Mir, Gabriel Gonzaga

Lesnar's victory over Couture was a monumental victory. The fact that Lesnar has only four pro fights, yet is the new champ creates an interesting situation where the top fighter in the heavyweight division is vastly inexperienced. On Dec. 27, the UFC will stage the next part of its heavyweight tournament when Mir fights Nogueira for the right to take on Lesnar in 2009.

I doubt Lesnar will be able to defend his belt considering his submission defense has looked suspect in his young career, and seeing how Mir and Nogueira are world-class grapplers, I would look for Lesnar to get submitted regardless of who he faces. From there, there really aren't any contenders in what is arguably the UFC's weakest division. Couture is 45 and no one knows how many fights he has left. The Nogueira vs. Mir loser will probably have to win a couple of fights before he gets another crack at the belt, and Gonzaga really has padded his 10-3 record against opponents of little consequence. Consider that Gonzaga is 6-2 inside the octagon, yet outside of his upset victory over Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, he has defeated Carmelo Marrero (1-2 UFC, now fights at light heavyweight), Kevin Jordan (0-2 UFC, 2-3 in his last five fights), Fabiano Scherner (7-7 overall, 0-2 UFC, 2-6 with one No Contest in his last nine fights), Justin McCully (1-1 UFC) and Josh Hendricks (0-1 UFC). Overall, Gonzaga's wins inside the octagon have come against opponents that have a combined record of 73-30-4, but a 3-10 record in the UFC.

The only other option, aside from making a big signing outside the organization, could be either Cain Velasquez or Shane Carwin--two young prospects the UFC has high hopes for. Both are young, but Lesnar won't defend his belt until spring '09 at the very earliest, and it may not be until summer or fall. That would give Carwin and Velasquez some time to get some more fights under their belt. Currently, neither Carwin nor Velasquez are ready to challenge for the belt, but then again, neither was Lesnar.

Next: light heavyweight