@ swank - just a personal feeling here, and not even enough information for me to form a strong opinion one way or another, but I'm thinking that maybe Zuffa wants to get away from that Interim title deal.
Interim titles by and large are problematic in the longterm, and definitely longterm is the Zuffa MMA viewpoint.
Sure, God forbid, if someone like GSP or Silva got hurt, then I could see Dana reaching into his bag of tricks, but as things stand now there is no distinct challenger at 170, and too many inter-personal issues at 185.
IMO more titles is the LAST thing the front office needs.
At 170 there needs to be a structed series of fights to determine a number one 170 contender that both the UFC and the fanbase can be engaged by, and also pose some sort of threat to GSP.
At 185, Dana needs to call Silva, Hendo, and Marquardt into his office, shut the door, and remind everyone who's the boss, and that HE'LL decide who's fighting who.
And there will absolutely be no more public sh!t like, "I'd rather Hendo and Nate fight then me fight both of them", or "I don't want Nate at 185, I want Silva, or I'm going back to 205".
Way to solve this is for Dana to make a decision that'll correct his fu<k-up of offering 2 different contenders a title match, and ensure that his decision is one all concerned can live with.
As best as I can tell, Marquardt is the only man in this bromantic triangle that isn't whining like my 2 year old goddaughter when the backyardigans gets shut off.
So yeah swank, definitely a good idea, and no I don't think it's getting old, but sorry I'm not onboard with more titles, as I prefer better title defense planning and strategy by Dana White, and a little less title defense diva-tude by some of the fighters, and their managers...
