White: Boetsch still in 'very, very good position' in title picture following UFC 149

[BluenoseGreig]

Tim Boetsch didn't exactly make a convincing case for a UFC middleweight title shot.

Unlike Chris Weidman's emphatic win over Mark Munoz a few weeks prior, Boetsch's close victory over Hector Lombard at Saturday's UFC 149 event won't have fans clamoring for his immediate shot at champion Anderson Silva.

UFC president Dana White, though, is willing to give the "Barbarian" a pass.

"An impressive win's going to give somebody a title shot," White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "I'm looking for a guy who goes out and performs like Weidman. You go in, and you're ranked low in the top 10, and you take out No. 2 or 3 the way you did – that's what I'm excited about."

Boetsch (16-4 MMA, 7-3 UFC), though, only barely squeaked by Hector Lombard (31-3-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), a former Bellator champion who made his promotional debut on the strength of a 25-fight unbeaten streak. In the pay-per-view co-headliner at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Boetsch picked away at his flatfooted opponent and got the judges' nod via 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28 scores.

Boetsch, who scored a dramatic come-from-behind victory over perennial contender Yushin Okami in his previous bout, has now won four consecutive fights and eight of his past nine.

"I think you like at a guy like Lombard, he comes in on a 20-fight winning streak, and the fight was horrible," White said. "But if you look at a guy like Boetsch, Boetsch is this underdog. He came out of nowhere and beats Yushin Okami. ... He (now) beats a guy on a 20-fight win streak, and he beat one of the best 185-pounders in the world now for a long time. Again, the positive out of the negative. Boetsch won the fight."

A division once void of any real contenders has quickly become what is arguably the UFC's most compelling. In addition to Weidman and Boetsch, Alan Belcher is un-booked and arguably worthy of a shot. Michael Bisping meets fellow contender Brian Stann at UFC 152, ex-champ Vitor Belfort is on the mend following surgery, and despite a recent title loss, Sonnen still remains a possible and marketable opponent for the champ down the line. Even former light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans has hinted at a possible move down to 185 pounds.

But as UFC 149's post-event press conference wore on, Boetsch's title worthiness appeared in question. And the fighter, who believes he broke a foot in the second round of the fight, knew it.

"The vibe in the room says no (I won't get a title shot), but I'm ready for whoever," he said. "I train hard enough, and if I keep beating enough people, I'll get that title shot, and I'll prove what I need to do. I know I can do it. As soon as this foot heals up and I can get back to training, I'm going to grind it out. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get there."

Boetsch was a long shot for an immediate title fight even if he had defeated Lombard in convincing fashion. It's even more unlikely following the narrow victory.

White, though, isn't holding it against him. Boetsch will get another big fight, and he still has a chance to fight for the belt sooner rather than later.

"After beating Okami and Lombard now, this guy has put himself in a very, very good position," White said.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/29836/whit...ng-ufc-149.mma

[Red Tex]

DW is smoking crack as usual.

How in the hell is Tim Boetsch in any type of title picture when he just didn't lose a fight against an over hyped guy from Bellator. Boetsch did not win jack in that fight. He brought nothing to the table, and his only big win was against Okami who is nothing but a lay and pray wrestler. Other than that, Boetsch is far from being any type of legit title contender.

[BluenoseGreig]

I get what you are saying Tex and I agree somewhat too. But....Okami can not be labeled nothing more than a lay n pray wrestler(even if that is more or less what he is!), he was the no.1 contender in his fight previous to Boetsch, so in many respects, rightly or wrongly, Boestch had a big win, top 5'r at that time. Also however lacklustre the win against Lombard was, it was a win against a fighter many regard amongst the top 5/10 in the MW division....so all in all Boestch has now got wins against 2 top contenders meaning he must be in the mix for a shot. Personally I think he needs another win against a Belfort or Sonnen or the like before he gets a sniff at the belt.

[Washed Up]

IMHO...Dana was being "POLITICALLY CORRECT" by saying what he said...Boetsch needs to beat some UFC veterans first!

[Red Tex]

I get what you are saying Tex and I agree somewhat too. But....Okami can not be labeled nothing more than a lay n pray wrestler(even if that is more or less what he is!), he was the no.1 contender in his fight previous to Boetsch, so in many respects, rightly or wrongly, Boestch had a big win, top 5'r at that time. Also however lacklustre the win against Lombard was, it was a win against a fighter many regard amongst the top 5/10 in the MW division....so all in all Boestch has now got wins against 2 top contenders meaning he must be in the mix for a shot. Personally I think he needs another win against a Belfort or Sonnen or the like before he gets a sniff at the belt.

Lombard was no top contender. Lol!

Why was he a top contender in your mind? Because Dana White is desperately looking for some new blood to throw at Silva where he automatically leap frogged Lombard at the top of the ladder as far as contenders? Lombard's top contender status was just as phoney as a 4 dollar bill and many fighters talked about that. Boetsch did not beat Lombard. He simply did not lose, but that was not a win. He lost. He just happened to be fighting a guy who also lost.

This whole thing is a perfect example of how many times I continually say that the UFC guys (DW, Joe Silva) run their business like complete morons with how they try to promote certain fighters and their divisions. They tried to take Lombard and prop him up as this tip top guy to beat Silva potentially, and the guy couldn't even beat Boetsch. Now we're supposed to believe that Boetsch is a top contending bad ass, because he luckily got his hand raised in what was probaby the worst fight of 2012 where Boetsch proved absolutely nothing??? What kind of succers does the UFC think are watching this stuff?? This is WWE stuff right here. Had Tim Boetsch had some great impressive fight where he finished Lombard or beat the snot out of him for 3 straight rounds, than sure I could see more hype after a victory like that against Lombard, but this was nothing but a match up that the UFC put together where they expected their new over hyped fighter to be able to breeze by. They picked a fighter in Boetsch who isn't elite, but is just good enough to where they can say they didn't feed him some bottom feeding can. Boetsch got his hand raised by accident, and spoiled the party for the UFC promoters against an over hyped guy from Bellator, and we're not supposed to believe that Boetsch is a top contender??

[BluenoseGreig]

I see that you clearly do not rate Lombard but not only the UFC(morons) rate or rated Lombard, many more MMA journo's and fans also rate(d) Lombard very highly, surely you cannot dispute that? As for Boetsch not winning he only had his hand raised, again that is all that matters, he won, regardless of how unimpressive it was...and it was very unimpressive. As for picking Boetsch to fight Lombard because he was not elite, well he was not the initial fight planned for Lombard and there is no way he was going straight into a fight with a Belfort, for example, because that would have been stupid too, after all people said he needed to work his way up the UFC title picture!

I absolutely agree with you though, that Boetsch is nowhere near a top contender....at least not yet! And if you have watched the post fight presser which these quotes etc were taken from, it is quite clear that Dana White does not either....the quotes need to be in context!

[Red Tex]

I see that you clearly do not rate Lombard but not only the UFC(morons) rate or rated Lombard, many more MMA journo's and fans also rate(d) Lombard very highly, surely you cannot dispute that? As for Boetsch not winning he only had his hand raised, again that is all that matters, he won, regardless of how unimpressive it was...and it was very unimpressive. As for picking Boetsch to fight Lombard because he was not elite, well he was not the initial fight planned for Lombard and there is no way he was going straight into a fight with a Belfort, for example, because that would have been stupid too, after all people said he needed to work his way up the UFC title picture!

I absolutely agree with you though, that Boetsch is nowhere near a top contender....at least not yet! And if you have watched the post fight presser which these quotes etc were taken from, it is quite clear that Dana White does not either....the quotes need to be in context!

I absolutely can and will dispute that. Lombard hasn't beaten shit in his career. Sure his win/loss record looks great as he has fought a ton of cans and nobodies, but his status as far as the top guys goes was accurately an "unknown" before this fight. You can't call a guy like that anything until he starts fighting the top guys. Several fighters including Bisping and a few others complained about this and they had ever right to complain, because Lombard was being held on a pedastool without beating anyone legit. Regardless of how many MMA writers or UFC execs wanted to prop this guy up there, none of that was realistic until Lombard started beating the best guys at MW. He finally got his chance against a mid tier guy and was not only unable to beat this guy, but he flat out sat there for 3 rounds and hardly tried to engage at all. And this was with a potential title shot on the line.

If anything this should serve as a good lesson for the UFC pundits that tried to sell this guy as a potential top contender just because Anderson needed new blood to fight. How about being honest and calling this guy what he was which was an unknown in the division. I'm sick to death of the UFC and their inconsistency and indecisiveness where they can't figure out if they want to be a legit sport or like an entertainment machine like the WWE. They need to stick to one angle and stick to it.

[Cisco]

It's not hard to see why Lombard was being touted as a top guy. The manner in which he dispatched all of his opponents was devastating, cans or not. I still think he had UFC jitters, but that remains to be seen yet. We will find out soon enough. While its true he was untested and hasn't earned his shot at the title many of us here absolutely believe that he needed a devastating win to earn that and anything less would not be satisfactory.

[BluenoseGreig]

I absolutely can and will dispute that. Lombard hasn't beaten shit in his career. Sure his win/loss record looks great as he has fought a ton of cans and nobodies, but his status as far as the top guys goes was accurately an "unknown" before this fight. You can't call a guy like that anything until he starts fighting the top guys. Several fighters including Bisping and a few others complained about this and they had ever right to complain, because Lombard was being held on a pedastool without beating anyone legit. Regardless of how many MMA writers or UFC execs wanted to prop this guy up there, none of that was realistic until Lombard started beating the best guys at MW. He finally got his chance against a mid tier guy and was not only unable to beat this guy, but he flat out sat there for 3 rounds and hardly tried to engage at all. And this was with a potential title shot on the line.

If anything this should serve as a good lesson for the UFC pundits that tried to sell this guy as a potential top contender just because Anderson needed new blood to fight. How about being honest and calling this guy what he was which was an unknown in the division. I'm sick to death of the UFC and their inconsistency and indecisiveness where they can't figure out if they want to be a legit sport or like an entertainment machine like the WWE. They need to stick to one angle and stick to it.

I was not asking you to dispute whether or not Lombard was elite or top tier, what I was pointing out was that not only the UFC held him in high regard but many MMA fans and Journalists also did! My point was that you said the UFC were morons for hyping Lombard as a challenger for Anderson, it was not only the UFC who did this.

And Cisco, yes you are also correct, we pretty much all said on here that for Lombard to get near Anderson he needed to be devastating in beating Boetsch.

[Red Tex]

It's not hard to see why Lombard was being touted as a top guy. The manner in which he dispatched all of his opponents was devastating, cans or not. I still think he had UFC jitters, but that remains to be seen yet. We will find out soon enough. While its true he was untested and hasn't earned his shot at the title many of us here absolutely believe that he needed a devastating win to earn that and anything less would not be satisfactory.

It is not easy to see why he was hyped up considering who he had fought. When you haven't even fought the lower level UFC guys in your career, than you are still unproven and more of an unknown.

Rampage Jackson 5-5 (If you want to count his loss to Machida. I am, because he didn't win that fight. Otherwise 6-4)
Shogun Rua - 4-4
Gomi 2-3
Shields 2-2 (He arguably lost to Kampmann)
Nick Diaz 1-1


Here's a few guys that came over to the UFC and were the big fish where they were prior to coming there. It hasn't been a cake walk for any of them, and they all soon realized how the talent level increases. When you're not fighting and beating the best guys, you don't get the ability to have that much hype. Lombard wasn't beating guys nearly as easily as someone like Bones was in every fight when people hyped him early. Lombard did not have that same type of dominant skill.