UFC 152 has gone through some significant changes as a direct result of the cancellation of UFC 151, including a new main event of Jon Jones and Vitor Belfort to assure us two title fights on September 22nd. Of course, that meant one fight had to go from the main card to prelims on FX, and unfortunately Evan Dunham yet again is on the prelims. His fight with T.J. Grant isn't even the leading fight on FX, that belongs to Igor Pokrajac vs. Vinny Magalhaes. In an interview with MMA Weekly, Dunham expressed his thoughts about no longer being on the PPV.
"Definitely when I first heard about it, I was bummed out about not being on the main card," Dunham told MMAWeekly Radio.
"I know that I always put on good performances. I think I put on fights that people like to see but it was the main card. I got bumped, I was a little bummed, but there was nothing I could do about it. I just realized it is what it is and decided to move forward."
For someone who is 6-2 in the UFC with 2 FOTN performances and a SOTN win, Dunham has been on a PPV main card exactly once. His excellent fight with Sean Sherk was the best fight at UFC 119 (not that many other fights could challenge it) but Dunham fell victim to ridiculous judging. Unfortunately, because of that awful split decision loss, followed up with Melvin Guillard's KO of him in January 2011, he fell off the contender radar. He's since beaten Shamar Bailey and Nik Lentz, both on prelims of free shows, and is trying to put his name in the crowded hat of LW contenders.
I really don't think Matt Hamill vs. Roger Hollett should be on the main card ahead of Dunham/Grant, especially given that Hamill/Hollett is essentially an irrelevant fight, but the positive is that Dunham still gets TV time on FX. There would certainly be more reason to be upset in the "dark fights" age of UFC prelims before September 2009. Hopefully an impressive win for Dunham would mean A.) He starts getting top 15 guys again and B.) He finally gets back on the main card.
SBN coverage of UFC 152: Jones vs. Belfort
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