Does Phil Baroni Belong In The UFC?

Added on Oct 12, 2010 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

This is a question that a lot of people have been asking lately. In fact, a lot of people were scratching their heads when he signed a four fight contract to come back to the UFC as a middleweight. The “New York Bad Ass” did manage to put together a three fight win streak, but none of the three opponents could be regarded as more then fighters to pad his record.

Scott Jansen and Ron Verdadero are both currently 5-9, and Olaf Olanzo was 7-10 when they met. None of these fighters you could really call seasoned, and none of them really faced any real high profile fighters. Baroni did manage finish Jansen and Verdadero, but that also seems to be a common theme in both fighters careers. In fact, I wouldn’t call any of these fighters durable. Not even Olanzo who fought Phil to a unanimous decision.

One could argue, that a veteran like Baroni deserved another shot in the UFC after a three fight run. I get it, and I understand the argument. However, Phil doesn’t seem to be able to win any high profile fights. In fact he is only 3-6 in his UFC fights, and 12-13 overall. When you look at the type of people that are being cut from the UFC, you have to stop and wonder why Phil still hasn’t gotten his pink slip. He only fought twice in 2009, loosing both, and was forced to pull out of his most recent assigned fight versus John Salter because of an injury.

Baroni is now scheduled to fight The Ultimate Fighter contestant Brad Tavres. Tavares is 6-0 in his professional MMA career, and he only fought one pro fight in 2010. Its important to note that Brad had three exhibiton fights in the TUF house. He won one by decision, and the other one via disqualification in a fight against Seth Baczynski. He was handed his first loss by the eventual winner of the TUF contract Court McGee, but he was able to rematch Seth at the finale’, and win via decision. The only fighter he didn’t finish on his record.

Baroni is going back to middleweight, and he did go to Phuket, Thailand to study under Kru Yok, but I am not sure it is enough to put his career back on track. At the age of 34, and a fighter who hasn’t exactly treated his body like a temple, it may be time to question how much longer Phil has in his long career. I don’t want to take anything away from brad Tavares, but a loss for Baroni in this fight will definitly earn him a pink slip from the UFC. If that happens, Baroni will have a hard time convincing any real promotion to sign him to any high profile fights.

1 Comment

Jim

October 13, 2:09 am

Baroni really hasn’t ever beaten a top level fighter–his biggest wins were against ‘Minowa-man’ and a past his prime Yuki Kondo. Still, I have a soft spot for ‘The New York Bad Ass’. He’s entertaining as hell and knows how to sell a fight–obviously if the public doesn’t think he’ll be competitive that’s of little use. Despite that, he’s a fun guy to watch fight. Assuming he can be competitive there’s always a place for a guy who can entertain as well as fight.