Alvarez: "I'm not sure what the promotion's take is, but that's where I stand," Alvarez said. "Those are the guys I want to get my hands on. I've said it from the very beginning: Fighting the best guys in the world doesn't pay as good as the circus. I want to join the circus. I'm trying to get that circus money. "As far as Nurmagomedov, I just don't get how you become the No. 1 contender without actually fighting guys who are ranked in the top 10. It kind of baffles me. The lightweight division right now is a bunch of guys who fight opponents ranked in the top 30 and never actually take a risk and fight a top-5 guy. I can walk into a restaurant and knock five guys out, become 5-0 real quick. It's about the quality of opponent. You have to beat the right guys to call yourself the No. 1 contender." http://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/17255301/ufc-champion-eddie-alvarez-shy-desire-big-payday Woodley: "At the end of the day, I'm the one who's in control of my bank account," Woodley said. "I'm the one who's in control of my four kids, my wife, the house that I want to pay off this year. These things are realistic goals that are within reach with the right fight. So, I don't have to explain to them. I don't go to their house and say hey, I don't think you should get this promotion because Johnny, your coworker, deserves it more than you. I'm going to go tell your boss that I'm going to get this other guy the promotion. I don't do that. "So with that said, I'm not taking away anything from Stephen ‘Wonderboy.' He's a phenomenal fighter. He's done a great job. He's not new as far as competition or youth, but he's fairly new to the higher levels of mixed martial arts. Think about when Johny Hendricks had beaten Martin Kampmann, Jon Fitch, (Josh) Koscheck, Carlos Condit, and what happened to him? Nick Diaz came along, he fought Georges St-Pierre because he was a bigger draw, a bigger name. The same thing happened to Rory MacDonald, the same thing happened to Frankie Edgar. We didn't see an immediate title shot against Conor McGregor, though he deserved it. We saw [McGregor] about to fight RDA, then after that he fought Nate. "So when you get to this point, in my opinion, you can start calling some of the shots. Georges St-Pierre said he wanted to fight me, and I'm going to say yes." http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/8/2...s-want-for-money-fights-says-stephen-thompson Put Bisping in this category, too. He skipped over most of the top contenders to fight 45-year old Dan Henderson and the UFC allowed it.
I wonder if some kind of bracket would work in the UFC? Bellator has tried it with mixed results. Injuries are the spanner in the works but they have enough fighters to work around it. The system they have now, with Silva/Shelby/White and whoever else booking whatever the can manage, putting together shows that may or may not have consequential fights, creates this situation where champions have no regard for pecking order beyond their own "my turn to hold or go home with the ball" mentality. One thing the UFC could do for sure is having definitive "title eliminator" fights. They are so wishy-washy about them right now.
