Somehow I managed to not notice until I read MMASuPreMaCy’s fanpost this morning that WAMMA has managed to get it’s rankings featured on ESPN’s MMA Live. As any long time reader of this site knows, I have my share of problems with WAMMA, but this goes beyond just my personal issues with them.
This is a chance for WAMMA to increase its credibility. This is quite possibly the last chance for WAMMA to prove that they are willing to stick to their own stated purpose of crowning one true champion in each weight class without promotional boundries.
WAMMA must crown Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, and Rashad Evans as their champions.
The reason why this must happen is simple; WAMMA’s ranking system is one of Champion, 1, 2, 3, 4…etc. When these rankings pop up on the screen if the only two weight classes that show a “champion” are Heavyweight and Lightweight it is going to immediately dent the credibility of WAMMA in the eyes of people who to that point had never heard of it, let alone in the eyes of the hardcore fans who have mostly written them off already.
It is going to be pretty difficult for ESPN to show these rankings without commenting on the lack of champions in the Welterweight, Middleweight and Light Heavyweight classes. And the only comment that could be had anyway is “the UFC refuses to work with WAMMA” which is not going to look good for WAMMA to the casual observer. The general public is going to assume that there is something wrong with WAMMA when they are told that the biggest promotion in the world refuses to work with them. There is no true value right now to being a renegade sanctioning body, fighting against the evil giant. Especially when objective viewing shows that it would only be a fight against truth anyway.
Rashad Evans beat Forrest Griffin when Forrest was ranked #1 in WAMMA’s own rankings, his upcoming fight with Lyoto Machida is a #1 vs. #2 fight which is perfectly in line with WAMMA’s own “best fighting the best” goal. Anderson Silva defeated Dan Henderson when Silva was ranked #1 and Hendo #2. Georges St. Pierre defeated Jon Fitch when that was a #1 vs. #2 fight, GSP next fights Thiago Alves in another #1 vs. #2 fight. There is no excuse that the competitive matchmaking is not there, it most certainly is and continues to be. The only thing that didn’t exist in these fights was a chance for WAMMA to get it’s hands on some easy cash.
So WAMMA, the ball is in your court. Crown the most deserving fighters as your champions and maybe get a little credibility back as you gain exposure on an ESPN studio show or continue to show yourselves as what you have proven to be thus far. One king, one crown…as long as you can make a buck.