The Friday Five 4-22-11
by Mike Williams on April 22, 2011

Welcome to the Good Friday edition of the Friday Five. To post your responses and join in on the fun, simply register for our forum here.  It costs nothing to join and will give you the opportunity to post in this thread and many more with other passionate mma fans.

The MMA Genie

You're walking along a beach and you find a lamp. It appears to be a magic lamp. You pick it up and rub it and out comes a Genie who identifes himself as "The MMA Genie."  You immediately believe this because he does look a lot like Bas Rutten. The Genie grants you three wishes that are mma related. What are your three wishes?

UFC Event Locations

The UFC has already shattered ticket sale records for its debut in Toronto and the attendance records will fall on April 30 when the event takes place. The UFC has recently broken into the countries of Germany and Australia and soon make its long-awaited return to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Where should the UFC be looking to hold a major event?

Fighter's Union

Randy Couture recently spoke to ESPN about his position on a fighter's union. Although he sees some potentially good things, he also stated that unions can "sometimes get carried away."  What are your thoughts on a potentially unionized sport?

UFC Flyweight Division

There's been talk of a Zuffa flyweight division but nothing has materialized to this point. If fighters like Yasuhiro Urushitani and Mamoru Yamaguchi could be signed, they could be the base for a 125lb. weight class with some potentially exciting fights. Is a flyweight division something you'd like to see in the UFC?

Royce Gracie to return?

Rumors swirled about the possibility of Royce Gracie returning for a UFC fight on the Rio card. Dana White has recently denied those rumors. Gracie is an obvious legend in the sport but he was dominated and TKO'd by Matt Hughes five years ago and he's now 44 years old. Do you have any interest in witnessing the return of the winner of UFC 1?

 |  (6) Comments thug4less: My Three Wishes: 1. Fighters would get paid better. 2. Women's MMA would get a bigger push. 3. Schools for MMA judging would be opened. In terms of new event venues, I would have said Japan but we see how that's worked. Realistically, there's not really any good places outside of North America, the E.U., and Aussie-land with some South American countries. Mexico? Not with the continued chaos down there. Abu Dhabi? Who knows what's going to happen in the Middle East. Yeah, it's just not looking good for getting new places to go. I think a union needs to happen if these fighters can't get some kind of base medical coverage and wage stablization. Unions almost always become super-corrupt bueracratic cesspools and Randy is right about them getting carried away but, at first, they do much more good than harm. Flyweight division? Yes, please. Royce Gracie? No, thank you. fredshaulage: There are plenty more places in North America and the EU to debut before taking on too many unstable countries. They still have PPV. I like Amsterdam for the next big Euro city to get a UFC event. It would be a huge boost in giving more MMA exposure to the Netherlands where kickboxing is king and where it's difficult to find a gym to train MMA I would be in favor of a union for the fighters IF it was run by the fighters who know what they need rather than outsiders who dictate what they think the fighters need. I would also like to see a very strict education process and exam for all current and future judges in MMA. Flyweights? Hell yeah! Royce Gracie v.s. Brock in a no rules no time limit no submission death match would be perfect. mike5k: Three wishes; 1- Alvarez to the UFC. 2- Fight Nights on network television, ESPN, or some kind of mainstream channel every week in a deal that the UFC and the fighters make enough money that they can do away with pay per view. 3- Better education/ stricter standards for judges and referees. Places; New York is an obvious choice. I think Tokyo would be good for the UFC. I think they should also explore more parts of Australia. The Sydney crowds have been awesome. Union; I'm a project manager for work that's 100% union and unions here are strong, too strong in my opinion. We pay operating engineers almost $80/hour (including their benefit packages) and sometimes it's to sit in the truck all day to "cover" some of our equipment that they don't know how to run. They also get paid for a full day to turn pumps and/or welding machines on and off, which they only have to do 3-4 times a day. They don't even fuel them, only turn them on and off. I can only imagine what would happen if a fighter's union got to be that strong. Shorter rounds? Less rounds? No head kicks? I mean, it could really harm the sport if this isn't handled carefully. Flyweights; I actually think the sport needs more time to develop some more good flyweights before the elite promotion starts a division. It won't take much longer. Royce; I'm a nostalgic kind of guy and I saw Royce during his peak so I would love to see him return. I would only want to see him fight somebody that he has a realistic shot at competing against though and that's not anyone currently on the UFC roster I'm afraid. No disrespect to Gracie here, it's just that 44 is getting up there and the sport has changed. Because of what he and his family brought to the sport, everyone has some degree of jiu-jitsu defense. Jambi: my thrree drunk wishes: Alvarez and Melendez in the UFC (think about the matches against Guida,Pettis, Edgar, Sherk??) Better judging.( No more wrestling oriented. Sure, wrestling has a big big part in succes but c'mon, seriously. forgot about the third one but it was awesome.
HOW WILL THE THIAGO ALVES VS. MARTIN KAMPMANN FIGHT END AT UFC ON FX 2?
Alves def. Kampmann via TKO/KO
Alves def. Kampmann via submission
Alves def. Kampmann via decision
Kampmann def. Alves via TKO/KO
Kampmann def. Alves via submission
Kampmann def. Alves via decision
TAKE ANOTHER POLL!