Are UFC Championship Titles Legit?

Something dawned on me today and that was how different the UFC is than any other combat sport. I hate to say this however, the UFC is structured similar to the WWE Wrestling (Sports Entertainment) rather than other established entities like Boxing for instance.

If someone was to ask you who the number one contender is for any of the Weight classes, could you tell me definitively or just speculate based on "popular" opinion. This is how the WWE operates... by fan feedback just the same as the UFC is currently operating with regard to a non-existent rankings formula, no clear contention formula or elimination format.

So who gets to fight the "Champ" in the UFC ? The answer to who gets to fight the Champ is decided by the person holding on the remote control who is also in control of whether to press the "buy" button or not for the UFC Pay-Per-View event. Not any different than how the WWE decides who gets a title shot at a Wrestlemania event.

So why on Earth is Randy Couture automatically given a Heavyweight title shot against Tim Sylvia when he has been retired for almost a full year now AND he retired a Light Heavyweight and hasn't fought in the Heavyweight ranks for years.

Seriously, if the UFC is interested in gaining 'Mass Appeal' and legitimacy as a professional sport then they better get their act together and frame some concrete contention formula similar to other legitimate pugilistic sports.

Here is an excerpt from MAXFighting.com which explains why the UFC is still operating as a side show and isn't yet ready for prime time with the Sporting establishment:

"The UFC has none of this... It has whim and fancy. Who is the hot item for now??? Or simply, who is available??? as with Eilers. To drive the point, how did Eilers, who lost his previous UFC bout then get a shot at the title, while the guy who defeated him fought on the undercard of that very same event???

They brought in Eilers because the other two or three opponents before him had to cancel for various reasons... fine... you need to fill in a body for the fight. But for goodness sake, do not make it a "title" fight.

Remember when Ken Shamrock got a shot at the "title" in 2002 when he return to the UFC after not fighting there since 1996. He even lost his previous MMA bout in PRIDE less than a year before the title bout.

How does that work??? That is like putting the Bears in the Superbowl because one team could not make it, and the Bears did great in 1985."

I for one would like to see MMA in the United States legitimize and the UFC is the perfect vehicle to make this happen, if they want to.

For speculative MMA Top Ten rankings, check out MMAWeekly.

I still think Kurt Angle could put a serious hurt on Randy Couture any day of the week and THAT would be worth the PPV buy.

End of rant :)