brock should be stripped. end of story. he may be #1 contender, but he's been out for a year (and only 4 fights to his name anyway).
sillypants - brock should be stripped. end of story. he may be #1 contender, but he's been out for a year (and only 4 fights to his name anyway).
Brock's last fight was 8 months ago, not a year. Brock has 5 fights to his name, not 4. Titles should be lost and won in the Octagon. End of story.
They had to be cautious with the fight taking place in New Jersey and all...
Didn't KenFlo get his hat stolen there last time the UFC was there?
What makes you think some fan won't try and steal the belt?
victorpoprock - Well, I do know that they get a new belt for each title fight. They don't give the champs actual belt to the challenger if he wins. Every time you win a title fight, you get another belt. So that's probably why they had another belt out there when GSP fought. He wanted to walk out with his belt, and they had the other one to award the winner of the fight. I remember a while back Dana talking about one of the times they changed their belt designs that they awarded replicas until they had the new style belts made. Could this possibly be it? Maybe they are having the belts redesigned so they are just giving out the replicas until they get the new ones in??
This has been discussed ad-nausium. They haven't given new belts for successful defenses since the 20's. The belt designs have changed and when they did, current champs were given new designed belts. I could see them giving out the replicas now if they decided to go back to giving belts for defenses. Would make sense finanically to give away the $100 toys instead of a $5k belt each time.
RLL - Maybe they want the replica's to get more air time in an attempt to SELL more of them to the fans. Fans might be more likely to buy a belt that looks "just like GSP's"
The real belt community has been asking for licensed identical copies of the real belts for 6+ years. Every time a licensing deal has been brought up, we were told Dana didn't want the fans to have identical belts as the fighters that they could claim was ring used and the other confusion that comes with it.
There are many who would pay the $5-$6k a 100% authentic copy would cost, and that includes a generous licensing fee to Zuffa.
I'm sure they are already selling plenty of the new replicas as it is and wouldn't need to give them to champions to further promote their sale. Seems to go in the opposite direction of what their stance on belts have been in the past.
I was telling my buddies watching the fights, "why is everyone getting the fake belts tonight? they're too shiny to be real." No one knew wt5 I was talking about.
Nice work on educating the UG Sandman!
The way the WWF replicas work, is that the leather is stamped with "WWE Licensed Replica #xxx" so you know it isn't a ring used belt, and the number stamped keeps track of how many are out there. Also the artwork is slightly modified. Under a banner on the main plate in very small type is "WWE Licensed Replica 2004 Reggie Parks".
IE;
They could easily have UFC/WEC/PRIDE authentic licensed belts follow the same protocol to keep them from being passed along as ring used/awarded belts.
PTSandman, I'm designing a belt for a local promotion. Do you mind answering a few questions? Do you have an email address I can contact you at?
Ansari why not just ask them here? Seems everyone is pretty interested on the topic.
I hate the toy belts. =<br />
Toy
vs. real
I have a serious question. Not a troll, I promise.
Are you sure they just didn't start polishing the metal? It seems like the old belts don't have sheen and could easily be an updated, polished version. I don't have the eye to tell metals by eye, and I trust you Sandman.
The Daner posts here, I wonder if he'd be kind enough to address this matter if they are indeed the fan replicas they are giving the champs.
Here's my thought.
The champs get to keep their belt as long as it's successfully defended once. So even if GSP lost he would've have kept the real belt that he's successfully defended prior.
As such, Hardy would be given the replica that night (that's why it's on hand)and given the real belt later if he defends successfully. But this doesn't explain why they just didn't put the old belt back on GSP once he won (perhaps it was already taken back to the dressing room???).
As for Carwin, interim champ gets interim belt.
It would be interesting to hear Dana's take.
Most legit thread I've read lately... thanks PT.. I remember after the Penn fight you noticed the fake belt being handed out and mentioned it...
It would be awesome if DFW jr would reply to this.
Maybe Cindy or Beth will read this thread and get TheDana's attention for an answer.....
TheBlazilian - .
Are you sure they just didn't start polishing the metal? It seems like the old belts don't have sheen and could easily be an updated, polished version. I don't have the eye to tell metals by eye, and I trust you Sandman.
No. The real ones have triple stacked plates and the toy ones have double stacked plates. The toy belts also have white emeralds were as the real ones were more blue. The belts of late are 100% the ones they sell on the UFC site.
Freqman -
But this doesn't explain why they just didn't put the old belt back on GSP once he won (perhaps it was already taken back to the dressing room???).
I have no idea. All i know having 2 belts out there, and shown at the same time on PPV, when there is only one championship being defended is quite confusing.
ttt
Good god GSP is a huge fucking WW. And I know Shane has admitted to only being 6'2 but geez GSP doesnt look that much smaller in that pic. With the exception of Shane's fist being the size of GSPs face. GSP is plenty big to be fighting Anderson.
awilson82 - Good god GSP is a huge fucking WW. And I know Shane has admitted to only being 6'2 but geez GSP doesnt look that much smaller in that pic. With the exception of Shane's fist being the size of GSPs face. GSP is plenty big to be fighting Anderson.How about GSP comes down to fight GSP? Maybe not to 170 but close? A catch weight between 170 and 185?
they need to get a new belt ready when Brock becomes to all time greatest MMA fighter.
I'm hoping Carwin can derail that though.