Well, Bellator has made another interesting free-agent signing. This one even took ME by surprise.
Contrary to popular belief, I am not usually informed of upper-management decisions at Bellator unless I am called upon to say something about it in public (interview the fighter, shoot a video etc.). As a result I had no clue that he was signed until read about it online.
Free-agency has been a HUGE story in 2016. Phil Davis made the jump to Bellator, followed by Ben Henderson, then Rory MacDonald, and now Chael Sonnen. In terms of star-power, he has to be the biggest acquisition since Tito Ortiz and has the potential to draw a ton of eyeballs to the Bellator brand.
Free-agency is a great way to draw instant attention to a particular promotion or team, but a lot of strategic thought goes with it. Snagging a coveted free-agent in any sport can be a game changer, but one has to keep their eye on the overall prize: making the team, or promotion in this case, a more competitive unit. In this regard the Bellator signings over the past year fit well into an overall brand-building strategy. The key to that strategy is that all of the free-agent fighters fall into competitive divisions where there are options for instantly relevant fights.
Phil Davis dropped right into the mix at 205 and won a Bellator 4-man tournament in his promotional debut. He defeated King Mo and has a title fight lined up with the undefeated champ Liam McGeary. No need for any softballs or tune-ups: Davis made a huge impact in a competitive division.
Ben Henderson, Rory MacDonald, and Chael Sonnen all have expressed interest in fighting in multiple weight classes. Henderson dove right into the deep end of the pool and took on 170 kingpin Andrey Koreshkov. I admire his confidence and willingness to bang, but his reach in that case clearly exceeded his grasp and he took a one-sided beating in his Bellator debut. The upside to having aspirations in more than one division is that a loss in a move up can be forgiven fairly easily. Case in point: after a bizarre finish to his match with Pitbull, Henderson will now face Michael Chandler for his 155 strap in November. Its been a rocky road, but fans will get the matchup they wanted when both fighters held belts in rival organizations a couple years back.
Chael Sonnen has the same which-way-will-the-knight-move kind of ability (yeah I play chess, go ahead make fun of me). He has had most of his success at 185, but has competed at light-heavy (most recently against Rashad Evans and Shogun Rua) and seems willing to make a fight at 265 for the right dollar amount. While he made reference in his Bellator TV debut to a "legends" ass-kicking tour the simple fact is that there are very few legends actively fighting in Bellator, and even fewer who would make a compelling fight for the American Gangster. Kimbo is gone, Ken Shamrock (provided he ever fights again after 2 terrible showings) would be a like throwing a steak to a wolf, Royce Gracie would be another terrible matchup, and I have heard nothing about the return of Stephan Bonnar. Wanderlei Silva (a name with a lot of history when it comes to Chael) is still serving a suspension and is scheduled to fight overseas before he makes any moves inside the Bellator cage.
The only real "legends" fight that makes any sense is Tito Ortiz. The buildup alone to a fight between two of the biggest trash-talkers in the sport would draw plenty of people in and get unprecedented mainstream coverage (please GOD no more dudes in masks in the cage, I still have nightmares about that night). It's also a fairly easy sell: Tito looked good in his last fight against Liam McGeary. He was lean and looked like he had gotten through camp injury-free. I actually had him ahead until the champ locked in the reverse triangle. If he can do another 6-8 weeks camp (no small task considering his age and history) he could give the fans one last solid performance against Chael.
Lets, for arguments sake, say that Chael's first fight is against Tito and he comes out on top. THAT'S when the real difficulties begin. Although he has been at his best at 185, he hasn't cut to middleweight in 4 years. Cutting weight gets exponentially more difficult as you get older, and dropping to 185 at 39 years old and with 3 years off is no easy task. Although he has expressed an interest in dropping to middleweight again, the physical reality of getting there might be a bit a challenge. Furthermore, there isn't a ton motivation for Chael to make a challenging cut in the first place as the big name fights are currently at 205. Middleweight is an entertaining division is Bellator, but lacks a name with mainstream star power. Rory MacDonald would be an interesting addition to the division and could make a compelling fight against Chael, but I think he will want to test out the waters at welter before making a leap in weight-class.
Assuming he stays at 205, his showdown with Tito Ortiz (a fight with its own set of challenges) is about as easy as the road gets for Chael. Waiting in the wings would be King Mo, Linton Vassel, Phil Davis, and Liam McGeary: ALL of them tough challenges who would love to put a victory over the American Gangster on their resume. If his (hypothetical) performance against Tito were sufficiently impressive, it would be hard to keep him out of a title shot against the winner of McGeary/Davis, two BIG light-heavyweights who Sonnen acknowledges as great fighters.
When it comes to Chael there is a MASSIVE elephant in the room and it involves the label that is the most tenacious in the world of MMA: doper. Everyone knows about the positive tests that led to Sonnen's suspension in 2011 and his retirement in 2014. He can make light of it as much as he likes, but its an issue that Bellator has clearly taken seriously. His contract contains a clause that if he fails a USADA test he forfeits his entire purse, plus a 500,000$ fine. There are few MMA fighter on Earth who could afford a half-million dollar fine. This is a "bankruptcy-level" fine designed to let Sonnen know that he has no wiggle-room when it comes to PEDs. Of course he knows it was in the deal he signed and he manned up, knowing he's got to be clean the rest of his foreseeable career. The problem is that its a tough label to shake. If Chael looks any smaller, or slower, or hell, ANYTHING is different on the scale or in the cage the fans will immediately grumble that the best parts of the American Gangster came out of a syringe. Chael may claim not give a wet fart what the fans think, but the urge to compete generally comes with an urge to leave a legacy you can be proud of and the strictness of the Bellator contract will allow the MMA fans to find out what Chael P. Sonnen is really made of.
On the technical side (the side I'm most interested in), Sonnen is an interesting case to say the least. He has beaten some of the best in the world over the length of his career and has wins over the current UFC champ Michael Bisping, Nate Marquardt, Shogun Rua, and my commentating colleague Brian Stann. On the down side is a history of mental lapses in fights, especially on the ground, many in fights he was clearly winning.
Most current MMA fans remember his performances against Anderson Silva. I must have watched their first fight half a dozen times. MAN he had that fight in the BAG!! When he gave up the fight-ending triangle with 2 minutes left in the fight, he was so far ahead that Silva could have LITERALLY won the round 10-6 and Sonnen would have won majority decision. In the rematch, another he was ahead in, Sonnen's undoing was an ill-advised spinning backfist attempt after he had CRUSHED Silva with his ground and pound for 5 solid minutes.
What the younger fans might not remember are his fights with Jeremy Horn, Renato Sobral, and his first fight with Paulo Filho. In each fight he was on top working his ground and pound and fell by submission. The Sobral fight was about even, he was ahead against Horn, and he was DESTROYING Filho when the end came. Its important to keep in mind that all of these guys had incredible submission games, but it shows that the result of the Anderson Silva fights fit into a troubling overall pattern of technical lapses in competitive, and in some cases dominant, fights. Two of the biggest wins of his career, against Rua and Bisping, have come AFTER this string of late blunders, so hopefully he has addressed that area of his game and made the necessary corrections.
Sonnet's mouth may be front page news to the rest of the MMA world, but I'm intrigued to see what he can do with his fists in the new chair of his career.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Thursday, August 6, 2015
The Burden Of Greatness
Sports fans, and fight fans specifically, have a love-hate relationship with greatness. We love and appreciate a dominant and technical fighter. We reward them with our adoration and pay-per-view dollars and we endlessly analyze their every career move.
What we all want to see is greatness tested. A dominant performance is one thing, it is to be appreciated and admired for sure, but seeing a great athlete having to overcome adversity is what most sports fans really live for. In that moment of determination a god becomes mortal. We fans struggle in our daily lives in a myriad of ways: in our jobs, our relationships, our quests to live elusive dreams. When we see a great athlete stumble, we see a bit of ourselves. The idea that they can overcome gives us a bit more hope that we can do the same.
When we looks back on the career of a true great, we acknowledge the dominate performances, but we WORSHIP the determination of a comeback, an upset, a come-from-behind miracle. Ali is defined by his wars with Frazier. The fact that he said after the second fight "It was like death. Closest thing to dyin' that I know of." defines his heart and courage. The upsets against Foreman and Liston, fighters NO ONE thought he could beat, were the bookends to his Cinderella story.
What lingers in the background of every discussion of a truly great fighter is the questioning of that greatness in relation to the opposition they have faced. In that regard combat sports are comparatively unique. Someone's greatness in another sport (baseball is perhaps the best example) is often defined in statistical terms. In debating the greatest pitcher of all time ERA's, strikeouts, and world series titles will all be cited. The idea of how many great teams and hitters they faced will usually not be an issue. In debating the merits of the '85 Bears as the greatest football team ever, the fact that the Patriots they faced in the Super Bowl weren't that good usually doesn't provide much of a counter argument. In combat sports the level of opposition is EVERYTHING and it is unfortunately completely subjective and relative.
Q: How good is a fighter?
A: They are as good as the opposition they have beaten.
Q: How do you define how good their opposition was?
A: By examining who THEY beat.
…and the serpent eats its own tail.
Both the MMA and boxing worlds, the two worlds in which I make my living and life, have stars who are currently mired in the kind of circular debates that fight fans love the way mushrooms love shit and darkness.
Ronda Rousey recently dispatched yet another "challenger" in under a minute and Floyd Mayweather selected Andre Berto as his "final" opponent. Both fighters are dominant in entirely different, and in fact polar opposite, ways. Ronda has fought 12 times in her MMA career and has gone past a minute a total of three times (Sarah McMann made it by a mere 6 seconds) and only Meisha Tate took her past the first round. Her entire 6-fight UFC career has lasted just under 8 minutes. Considering the fact that she has been the only champ in the division, her dominance is unparalleled in MMA's brief history.
Floyd is a phenomenal 48-0 and has looked almost untouchable doing it. He has taken on the best boxers of his era and made them look like amateurs. He has dominated the likes of Manny Pacquiao. Shane Mosley, Canello Alvarez, and Miguel Cotto. The downside of Mayweather's victories in the eyes of most fans is that they are almost universally unsatisfying. Most casual fans are not enamored with Floyd's displays of technical brilliance: they want drama and action. Unfortunately those are two qualities that are generally lacking from Mayweather's performances. He has one knockout since coming back from a brief hiatus in 2009 and that was a controversial one against Victor Ortiz when Ortiz tried to "hug it out" after a flagrant foul (protect yourselves at all times!) and hasn't scored back-to-back finishes since 2005.
Ronda and Floyd compete in different sports with different promotional systems. In MMA, promotions rule their stable of fighters. The UFC is the sole voice in who the next challenger for Ronda's belt is, so building up that challenger to the best of their abilities is entirely the UFC's problem. The difficulty is that the pickings are amazingly slim. Ronda's UFC opponents have averaged 1.7 UFC fights before they faced the champ, giving the promotion precious little time to build them as contenders. They did a masterful job of building hype around the Tate rematch, despite the fact that their first fight ended brutally in the first round. The promo for the Correia fight that showed a montage of Ronda's victories looked, to me, like an anti-PPV advertisement and begged the question "Why should I pay 60$ for a fight that's going to end in under a minute?" That is, of course, exactly what happened. Having a pet shark is great, its keeping them fed that is the problem.
Mayweather competes in one of the most storied divisions in boxing history. Hall of famers like Ray Robinson, Pernell Whitaker, Tommy Hearns, and Ray Leonard have all called it home and the champ at 147 is almost always among the pound-for-pound kings. Floyd's run has had no lack of names and now that he has faced, and dismantled, Manny Pacquiao its hard to say he has ducked anyone in the division. His critics haven't pointed to his lack of opposition, but to his lack of finishing instincts. Floyd has always fallen into the "hit and not get hit" category of fighters and chooses to out-box his opponents, even when the opportunity to finish them seems to present itself.
Floyd has come to the point in his career that he can choose who he wants to fight and his choice of Andre Berto has his "final" test has raised more than a few voices of criticism. Berto was once an elite welterweight, but is 3-3 in his last six fights. I called his last fight against Josesito Lopez and although he won by KO, he was behind on the scorecards and didn't look like the Berto of old. On my personal list of possible Mayweather contenders Berto would have been behind such names as Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Amir Khan, Shawn Porter, and Kell Brooke. All of them have fought better talent more recently than Berto and are fresher in the minds of boxing fans old and new. That being said, I still don't believe any possible name gives Floyd much trouble at this stage in his career. He is simply too fast, too smart, and too elusive for anyone to land a serious punch against him.
The boxing public want desperately to see Floyd have the kind of moments that Ali had against Frazier and Robinson had against Turpin and Fulmer. Can he stand being bloody, exhausted, behind on the scorecards? Can he find it in his heart to come back and dig deep for a victory that requires not just technique, but will and determination as well? It is unlikely we will ever know. The only undefeated fighter is father time, and unless Floyd allows himself to stick around the sport long enough for time to erode his skills no one will be able to tarnish his spectacular record.
Ronda decimates contenders we didn't know anything about, while Floyd picks apart the biggest names in the sport and cruises to a unanimous decision. Both results kind of leave you thinking about all the things you could have bought with that money you spent on a PPV.
Of the two fighters, Ronda is the only one with a true challenge on the horizon. Cyborg is in a similar position to Ronda in terms of her dominance in the sport of woman's MMA. She hasn't lost since her MMA debut and has KO'd 12 out of 14 victims. Much like Rousey, she has a rare combination of speed, aggressiveness, and power.
The difficulty in making a "superfight" between Ronda and Cyborg lies in two parts. The first issue is their weight disparity. Cyborg competes 10 pounds heavier than Ronda and its a ROUGH cut. Cyborg publicized a picture of her stepping on the scale at 175 shortly after a fight, a weigh-in difference of 30 pounds. Given female physiology that is an AMAZING amount of weight. Weight is usually cut by "wringing" the moisture out of muscle tissue. Considering that women have, on average, 33% less muscle than men of comparable size the cut is usually much harder for females. Dana White has publicly stated that the champ, Ronda in this case, doesn't move up in weight: if Cyborg can't make 135, tough beans. Dana has said a lot of outlandish things, but his logic on this point is pretty solid. Ronda would be giving Cyborg a HUGE physical advantage in stepping up to 145 to take her on. Catch weights have been proposed, but nothing is yet written in stone. Considering Cyborg's difficulties with 145, anything lower is a massive promotional gamble. Huge hype would be behind a Cyborg-Ronda fight and Cyborg not making weight would be a disaster for everyone involved.
The second issue is: she might win. MMA fans tend to forget that we have been down a similar road to this one before. Gina Carano was, in many ways, Ronda before Ronda. She was a fighter with legit skills and movie-star good looks. She didn't have the finishing ability of Ronda, but was nonetheless 7-0 when she squared off with Cyborg in 2009. There is a sinking you see in the pit of most fighters' stomachs when their opponent takes their best punch and comes forward smiling, I saw that look in Gina Carano pretty early against Cyborg. Cyborg dominated the fight and stopped Gina with one second to go in the first round. Gina has yet (as of August 2015) to fight again and seems to have decided that starring in movies would be better for her overall health.
One of the results of Cyborg's destruction of Gina is that interest in woman's MMA took a nose-dive. She had three fights as Strikeforce champ and none of them were competitive. Her four fights in Invicta were equally one-sided, only Marloes Coenen took her past the 2nd round in either promotion. Dana's much publicized "Wanderlei in a dress" comments underscore the fact that she doesn't have the sex appeal of Gina or Ronda, nor is english her first language. To trade a crossover star like Ronda for the fighting machine that is Cyborg is a nightmare for the Zuffa brand.
The aforementioned weight disparity raises other questions if Cyborg should prove victorious. The first is: Could Cyborg defend the belt or make weight for a rematch? It would be a miracle for Cyborg to make 135, or even 140, for a showdown with Ronda. IF she can, and wins, what then? If the fight is competitive at ALL there will be calls for a rematch and Cyborg has to make weight again, but this time with the advantage of having already won and being able to say "At my weight or live with your loss".
The second question is what would be done with Cyborg if she can't make 135 with any consistency. There is (as of August 2015) no 145 women's class in the UFC. To have Cyborg win her megafight with Ronda, only to then fight elsewhere, makes the result a complete wash for the UFC.
The simple fact is that the UFC brass might not have many choices when it comes to Ronda's next fight. Ronda-Tate 3 is on the table but, as I have previously mentioned, the first two fights weren't particularly competitive and its unlikely a trilogy would be a stand-alone PPV draw. The Cyborg-Ronda fight would be EASILY the biggest woman's fight in MMA history and should draw huge buy numbers. The flip-side to the problems with Cyborg winning is that Ronda winning makes her an even bigger star and a loss might not be the end of the world if a catchweight is in place as there is no shame in a loss to a naturally bigger fighter.
Fans love that special moment when a the invincible look vulnerable and the gods look like they might just be humans after all. Only time will tell if either of these seemingly superhuman fighters will be tested for our viewing pleasure. If they are, we will be able to tell our kids where we were and how we felt during an historic moment. The great thing about the majesty of sports is seeing the unexpected, that moment that you just had to be there for...
What we all want to see is greatness tested. A dominant performance is one thing, it is to be appreciated and admired for sure, but seeing a great athlete having to overcome adversity is what most sports fans really live for. In that moment of determination a god becomes mortal. We fans struggle in our daily lives in a myriad of ways: in our jobs, our relationships, our quests to live elusive dreams. When we see a great athlete stumble, we see a bit of ourselves. The idea that they can overcome gives us a bit more hope that we can do the same.
When we looks back on the career of a true great, we acknowledge the dominate performances, but we WORSHIP the determination of a comeback, an upset, a come-from-behind miracle. Ali is defined by his wars with Frazier. The fact that he said after the second fight "It was like death. Closest thing to dyin' that I know of." defines his heart and courage. The upsets against Foreman and Liston, fighters NO ONE thought he could beat, were the bookends to his Cinderella story.
What lingers in the background of every discussion of a truly great fighter is the questioning of that greatness in relation to the opposition they have faced. In that regard combat sports are comparatively unique. Someone's greatness in another sport (baseball is perhaps the best example) is often defined in statistical terms. In debating the greatest pitcher of all time ERA's, strikeouts, and world series titles will all be cited. The idea of how many great teams and hitters they faced will usually not be an issue. In debating the merits of the '85 Bears as the greatest football team ever, the fact that the Patriots they faced in the Super Bowl weren't that good usually doesn't provide much of a counter argument. In combat sports the level of opposition is EVERYTHING and it is unfortunately completely subjective and relative.
Q: How good is a fighter?
A: They are as good as the opposition they have beaten.
Q: How do you define how good their opposition was?
A: By examining who THEY beat.
…and the serpent eats its own tail.
Both the MMA and boxing worlds, the two worlds in which I make my living and life, have stars who are currently mired in the kind of circular debates that fight fans love the way mushrooms love shit and darkness.
Ronda Rousey recently dispatched yet another "challenger" in under a minute and Floyd Mayweather selected Andre Berto as his "final" opponent. Both fighters are dominant in entirely different, and in fact polar opposite, ways. Ronda has fought 12 times in her MMA career and has gone past a minute a total of three times (Sarah McMann made it by a mere 6 seconds) and only Meisha Tate took her past the first round. Her entire 6-fight UFC career has lasted just under 8 minutes. Considering the fact that she has been the only champ in the division, her dominance is unparalleled in MMA's brief history.
Floyd is a phenomenal 48-0 and has looked almost untouchable doing it. He has taken on the best boxers of his era and made them look like amateurs. He has dominated the likes of Manny Pacquiao. Shane Mosley, Canello Alvarez, and Miguel Cotto. The downside of Mayweather's victories in the eyes of most fans is that they are almost universally unsatisfying. Most casual fans are not enamored with Floyd's displays of technical brilliance: they want drama and action. Unfortunately those are two qualities that are generally lacking from Mayweather's performances. He has one knockout since coming back from a brief hiatus in 2009 and that was a controversial one against Victor Ortiz when Ortiz tried to "hug it out" after a flagrant foul (protect yourselves at all times!) and hasn't scored back-to-back finishes since 2005.
Ronda and Floyd compete in different sports with different promotional systems. In MMA, promotions rule their stable of fighters. The UFC is the sole voice in who the next challenger for Ronda's belt is, so building up that challenger to the best of their abilities is entirely the UFC's problem. The difficulty is that the pickings are amazingly slim. Ronda's UFC opponents have averaged 1.7 UFC fights before they faced the champ, giving the promotion precious little time to build them as contenders. They did a masterful job of building hype around the Tate rematch, despite the fact that their first fight ended brutally in the first round. The promo for the Correia fight that showed a montage of Ronda's victories looked, to me, like an anti-PPV advertisement and begged the question "Why should I pay 60$ for a fight that's going to end in under a minute?" That is, of course, exactly what happened. Having a pet shark is great, its keeping them fed that is the problem.
Mayweather competes in one of the most storied divisions in boxing history. Hall of famers like Ray Robinson, Pernell Whitaker, Tommy Hearns, and Ray Leonard have all called it home and the champ at 147 is almost always among the pound-for-pound kings. Floyd's run has had no lack of names and now that he has faced, and dismantled, Manny Pacquiao its hard to say he has ducked anyone in the division. His critics haven't pointed to his lack of opposition, but to his lack of finishing instincts. Floyd has always fallen into the "hit and not get hit" category of fighters and chooses to out-box his opponents, even when the opportunity to finish them seems to present itself.
Floyd has come to the point in his career that he can choose who he wants to fight and his choice of Andre Berto has his "final" test has raised more than a few voices of criticism. Berto was once an elite welterweight, but is 3-3 in his last six fights. I called his last fight against Josesito Lopez and although he won by KO, he was behind on the scorecards and didn't look like the Berto of old. On my personal list of possible Mayweather contenders Berto would have been behind such names as Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Amir Khan, Shawn Porter, and Kell Brooke. All of them have fought better talent more recently than Berto and are fresher in the minds of boxing fans old and new. That being said, I still don't believe any possible name gives Floyd much trouble at this stage in his career. He is simply too fast, too smart, and too elusive for anyone to land a serious punch against him.
The boxing public want desperately to see Floyd have the kind of moments that Ali had against Frazier and Robinson had against Turpin and Fulmer. Can he stand being bloody, exhausted, behind on the scorecards? Can he find it in his heart to come back and dig deep for a victory that requires not just technique, but will and determination as well? It is unlikely we will ever know. The only undefeated fighter is father time, and unless Floyd allows himself to stick around the sport long enough for time to erode his skills no one will be able to tarnish his spectacular record.
Ronda decimates contenders we didn't know anything about, while Floyd picks apart the biggest names in the sport and cruises to a unanimous decision. Both results kind of leave you thinking about all the things you could have bought with that money you spent on a PPV.
Of the two fighters, Ronda is the only one with a true challenge on the horizon. Cyborg is in a similar position to Ronda in terms of her dominance in the sport of woman's MMA. She hasn't lost since her MMA debut and has KO'd 12 out of 14 victims. Much like Rousey, she has a rare combination of speed, aggressiveness, and power.
The difficulty in making a "superfight" between Ronda and Cyborg lies in two parts. The first issue is their weight disparity. Cyborg competes 10 pounds heavier than Ronda and its a ROUGH cut. Cyborg publicized a picture of her stepping on the scale at 175 shortly after a fight, a weigh-in difference of 30 pounds. Given female physiology that is an AMAZING amount of weight. Weight is usually cut by "wringing" the moisture out of muscle tissue. Considering that women have, on average, 33% less muscle than men of comparable size the cut is usually much harder for females. Dana White has publicly stated that the champ, Ronda in this case, doesn't move up in weight: if Cyborg can't make 135, tough beans. Dana has said a lot of outlandish things, but his logic on this point is pretty solid. Ronda would be giving Cyborg a HUGE physical advantage in stepping up to 145 to take her on. Catch weights have been proposed, but nothing is yet written in stone. Considering Cyborg's difficulties with 145, anything lower is a massive promotional gamble. Huge hype would be behind a Cyborg-Ronda fight and Cyborg not making weight would be a disaster for everyone involved.
The second issue is: she might win. MMA fans tend to forget that we have been down a similar road to this one before. Gina Carano was, in many ways, Ronda before Ronda. She was a fighter with legit skills and movie-star good looks. She didn't have the finishing ability of Ronda, but was nonetheless 7-0 when she squared off with Cyborg in 2009. There is a sinking you see in the pit of most fighters' stomachs when their opponent takes their best punch and comes forward smiling, I saw that look in Gina Carano pretty early against Cyborg. Cyborg dominated the fight and stopped Gina with one second to go in the first round. Gina has yet (as of August 2015) to fight again and seems to have decided that starring in movies would be better for her overall health.
One of the results of Cyborg's destruction of Gina is that interest in woman's MMA took a nose-dive. She had three fights as Strikeforce champ and none of them were competitive. Her four fights in Invicta were equally one-sided, only Marloes Coenen took her past the 2nd round in either promotion. Dana's much publicized "Wanderlei in a dress" comments underscore the fact that she doesn't have the sex appeal of Gina or Ronda, nor is english her first language. To trade a crossover star like Ronda for the fighting machine that is Cyborg is a nightmare for the Zuffa brand.
The aforementioned weight disparity raises other questions if Cyborg should prove victorious. The first is: Could Cyborg defend the belt or make weight for a rematch? It would be a miracle for Cyborg to make 135, or even 140, for a showdown with Ronda. IF she can, and wins, what then? If the fight is competitive at ALL there will be calls for a rematch and Cyborg has to make weight again, but this time with the advantage of having already won and being able to say "At my weight or live with your loss".
The second question is what would be done with Cyborg if she can't make 135 with any consistency. There is (as of August 2015) no 145 women's class in the UFC. To have Cyborg win her megafight with Ronda, only to then fight elsewhere, makes the result a complete wash for the UFC.
The simple fact is that the UFC brass might not have many choices when it comes to Ronda's next fight. Ronda-Tate 3 is on the table but, as I have previously mentioned, the first two fights weren't particularly competitive and its unlikely a trilogy would be a stand-alone PPV draw. The Cyborg-Ronda fight would be EASILY the biggest woman's fight in MMA history and should draw huge buy numbers. The flip-side to the problems with Cyborg winning is that Ronda winning makes her an even bigger star and a loss might not be the end of the world if a catchweight is in place as there is no shame in a loss to a naturally bigger fighter.
Fans love that special moment when a the invincible look vulnerable and the gods look like they might just be humans after all. Only time will tell if either of these seemingly superhuman fighters will be tested for our viewing pleasure. If they are, we will be able to tell our kids where we were and how we felt during an historic moment. The great thing about the majesty of sports is seeing the unexpected, that moment that you just had to be there for...
Friday, July 11, 2014
Crossroads
I'm getting to the point in my MMA career that I'm old enough to have seen many a fighter hang up their gloves. Usually, when its all said and done, there is one fight you can look back on in that fighter's career that was the beginning of their decline. "Crossroads" fights are sometimes subtle, but more often than not they are exceptionally brutal. As one boxing journalist once said "Once it's beaten out of you…it's gone forever."
There are many reasons for a Crossroads fight. Sometimes a fighter's opponent discovers a strategy that other fighters begin to imitate (Buster Douglas is the all-time trailblazer of this category), other times a single fight destroys a fighter's confidence, or the years simply catch up to an aging legend. The worst, in my opinion, in the "unmasking" fight where we discover that a fighter just wasn't as good as the hype that surrounded them and their veil of protection is lifted by realistic matchmaking.
Whatever the cause, a fighter after their Crossroads moment is never really the same. For better or worse, here are some of the Crossroads fights in MMA that stand out in my mind:
Wanderlei Silva vs. Mirko Cro-Cop
Pride-Final Conflict Absolute, September 10 2006
When most people think about the glory days of Pride they think of a prime Wanderlei Silva and the path of destruction he tore through the middleweight (LHW in modern weight classes) division in his championship reign. To call the guy an animal is a bit inaccurate, most animals won't charge right at you and soccer-kick you to death like you stole something from them.
Silva ripped the title from the seemingly invincible submission ace Kazushi Sakuraba (more on that later) and would go undefeated in his weight class from 2000-2005. On the way he defeated Dan Henderson, Rampage Jackson (twice), and would batter Sakuraba two more times. After avenging the only middleweight loss of his Pride career by defeating Ricardo Arona in December 2005, Silva made the ill-advised jump to heavyweight for the Pride Absolute Grand-Prix in 2006.
The first round went well: Silva handed the iron-headed Kazuyuki Fujita his first real KO loss. Unfortunately for Silva, the Fujita win would be his last of the tournament. In the semis he met Mirko Cro-Cop, the K-1 standout who's high-kick was the most feared weapon in MMA. Cro-Cop was in his prime and the Brazilian wild-man had bitten off more than he could chew.
The wild aggression that had made Silva the most feared middleweight in the world played right into the hands of the polished Croatian southpaw and Silva's punching power paled in comparison to the man who had made his career in the heavyweight division. Cro-Cop battered Silva from the beginning, countering his wild attacks with straight lefts and well-timed kicks. On the ground it was more of the same as Cro-Cop countered Silva's submission attempts and made him pay with vicious ground and pound. When Silva rose to his feat after being smashed into the canvas his face was a bloody mess and his eye was grotesquely swollen, but he probably wishes he had never gotten up. As soon as the stand-up fight resumed, Cro-Cop let loose with his famous left kick to the cranium. The "Axe Murderer" crumpled to the canvas unconscious. It was one of the most thorough beatings I had ever had the displeasure of witnessing at the elite level of MMA.
Wanderlei and Cro-Cop both left the crumbling Pride banner for the UFC when the promotion was bought out by Zuffa. As of 2014 Wanderlei is still active, although embroiled in a PED controversy, and has fans that will still pay money to see him fight, but it isn't the Wanderlei of old. Silva has yet to win back-to-back fights in the UFC and has never been more than a fringe contender, even with a drop to 185. I think the old Silva that terrified some of the greatest in the world at 205 never got up from the canvas on that September night in Japan almost 8 years ago.
Record before: 31-5-2
Record since: 4-7
Chuck Liddell vs Rampage Jackson
UFC 71-May 26, 2007
Everyone who trained MMA in the early 2000's (if that's what we call that decade) spent at least one sparring session getting beaten up trying to imitate Chuck Liddell. He was flat-footed and kept his hands near his nipples, but he was frustratingly difficult to hit and had sledgehammers where his hands should have been. He wrestled D-I at Cal Poly SLO had was known as the ultimate sprawl-and-brawl wrecking machine. He had the wrestling pedigree and the short range power to keep even the most determined wrestlers at bay: Randy Couture, Kevin Randleman, and Tito Ortiz all found this out the hard way. After devastating the iron-chinned Randy Couture (who had slugged it out with heavyweights and had never been KO'd) to claim the LHW belt in 2005, Liddell looked unstoppable.
He defended his title 4 times, all of them by one-sided KO.
Rampage had beaten Liddell by corner stoppage in 2003 in Pride (yeah, it was weird back then, guys could actually move between promotions) but in the eyes of most fans that was a lifetime ago. This new "UFC Champion" Liddell was considered the favorite in most people's eyes when the two met again in 2006.
Liddell's undoing in their 2003 matchup was the takedown and ground-and-pound of Jackson. In the rematch, Jackson's boxing would prove to be the decisive factor. Liddell had gotten away with breaking some of the cardinal rules of striking during his MMA career, but had gotten away with it using a combination of power and aggressiveness. Liddell also made his name, especially in the UFC, by taking on wrestlers with rudimentary striking skills. In Pride both Guy Mezger and Alistair Overeem had Liddell in trouble before he landed the KO shots that put them away. Rampage possessed the fundamental skills and physical power to make Liddell pay for his unorthodox style. Just before the 2-minute mark of the first round Liddell threw a body shot from mid-range without bringing his hands back to his chin. When he did, Rampage unleashed a hook to the jaw that dropped the champ cold. With a howl, the Liddell era was over.
It didn't seem like it at the time, but the fall for Liddell would be far and fast. He would win only one more fight and, more disturbingly, was being KO'd in increasingly brutal fashion before calling it quits in 2010.
Record before: 20-3
Record since: 1-5
Ricco Rodriguez vs Tim Sylvia
UFC 41-Febuary 28, 2003
Whenever you are known as "The MMA fighter on Celebrity Rehab" something has gone REALLY wrong with your life. There was a time when Ricco was poised to be the next big crossover star in MMA. Not only was big, athletic, and technical, he was also young and knew how to talk to a camera. He was part of Team Punishment and trained with Tito Ortiz at the height of his skills and popularity in the UFC. His roots gave him crossover appeal with the emerging Latino market and the guy knew how to win, and win impressively.
Ricco started in 1999 and when he met Randy Couture in 2002 for the UFC Heavyweight Championship he had only one loss on his record. He had made his UFC debut a year earlier and had rattled off four straight TKO victories, Randy would be number five.
In his first title defense, Ricco was the heavy favorite against Tim Sylvia. Sylvia was a virtual unknown at the time. He sported an impressive 14-0 record but only had one UFC fight under his belt and his opponent, Wesley Correira, was the kind of fighter who got offended if you didn't hit him. He was a giant at 6'8" but was seen as slow, plodding, and one-dimensional.
The odds were 5-1 if memory serves me, and some people from Maine made SERIOUS money that night (Sylvia was from Maine, did I mention that?). Ricco started out with the right idea, sticking and moving from the outside as Sylvia pawed with the jab. Ricco ended up in guard, but couldn't find the arm-bar despite a couple of attempts. Just past the 3-minute mark Sylvia countered a Rodriguez kick with a VICIOUS straight right hand that sent Ricco to the canvas. The follow-up GnP left Ricco with eyes wide shut and the Miletich Team celebrated yet another champion.
As far as "falls from grace" are concerned, I don't remember any as fast as Ricco's. He only fought one more time in the UFC and suffered a decision loss to Pedro Rizzo. He fights on to this day, but has never defeated top opposition since his upset loss to Sylvia. Along the way he has had much-publicised substance abuse issues and hopefully he now has them under control.
Record before: 14-1
Record Since: 39-20-1
Wanderlei Silva vs Kazushi Sakuraba
Pride 17-Championship Chaos, March 25 2001
Before you thought of Wanderlei Silva as the king of Pride, you thought of Kazushi Sakuraba. The man who was known as "The IQ Wrestler" made his name in Japan as the man who handed the Gracie family their first MMA loss when he defeated Royler Gracie by (somewhat controversial) referee stoppage in their November, 1999 Pride showdown. He went on to beat three more Gracies, two by stoppage. His list of victims wasn't limited to the Gracies either, during his superstar run he defeated some of the top names of his era: Carlos Newton, Vitor Belfort, and Guy Mezger to name a few. He was a tricky wrestler with a "go-for-broke" submission style that seemed to be the Kryptonite of some of the best BJJ fighters of the time.
When the Wanderlei fight was announced I was training with Team Punishment in Huntington Beach. When I talked about it with my grappling coach Fabiano Iha, he just shook his head and said "They can't protect him from that guy."I didn't understand what he meant at the time. Sakuraba had beaten the best in the world, and one can hardly look at his record and say it was padded. What I think Fabiano meant is that Sakuraba was the perfect foil for certain BJJ-minded fighters. The Gracies, and their disciples (Belfort, Alan Goes, Carlos Newton), had made out-techniquing and out-grappling Sakuraba a point of pride. They didn't just want to beat him, they wanted to show that he could be undone with jiu-jisu technique.
Wanderlei felt no such restrictions.
To call their 2001 showdown a "fight" is an insult to combat sports, it was a felonious assault that no one got arrested for. Silva charged across the ring in vintage "Axe Murderer" style like a windmill with limbs. Sakuraba answered back as best he could, and even wobbled Silva briefly (a hallmark of Silva's career) but the outcome was never really in question. Wanderlei wasn't pulling guard or rolling for knee-bars, he was savagely attacking, and against that offensive style the "IQ Wrestler" had no answer. The end came with Sakuraba curled up on the canvas with Silva unloading soccer kicks on his bloody head. In a brutal 1:38 the torch was passed to the new king of Pride.
Despite the one-sidedness of the contest, Sakuraba would fight Silva two more times, losing both by brutal stoppage (anyone remember the broken collarbone in their 2nd fight? NASTY). Sakuraba would fight until 2011, but his days as the consensus #1 were over and he descended into the "win-some-lose-some"journeyman years at the end.
Record before: 12-2-2
Record since: 14-13-1
Dan Hornbuckle vs Ben Askren
Bellator MMA 22-June 17 2010
What a difference a round makes. Dan Hornbuckle entered his welterweight tournament final fight against Ben Askren as the clear favorite. It was a status he had enjoyed since joining the promotion's 170lb tournament in the previous spring. He was know as having a "black belt in intensity" and had made his name with a highlight reel KO over Akihiro Gono in Japan. In his first two Bellator fights he had scored first round submissions over Tyler Stinson and Steve Carl. He was tall, well-rounded, and spoke in sound-bites (the editors loved him), he seemed destined for promotional gold.
Ben Askren was the dark-horse of the tournament. I saw him win his two national titles at Missouri and was blown away by his unorthodox style. The question was whether such a style translated to MMA, where more basic "Matt Hughes-style" takedowns tend to be the norm. Askren got to the tournament final by beating the same guy, Ryan Thomas, twice due to a volcano eruption keeping Jim Wallhead trapped in England. The first ended with a bone-headed referee call, and the 2nd was a clear (if unspectacular) unanimous decision.
Before the fight, Hornbuckle told us he would "stop Ben's takedown for two minutes and that will break his spirit."
He couldn't stop it for two seconds.
Asken took Hornbuckle down with an ease that defied description. He didn't just take him down, he tossed him around like a rag-doll for a solid five minutes. The guard that had spelled the end of Tyler Stinson and Steve Carl wasn't even a road-bump for Askren as he countered submissions, passed to dominate positions, and peppered him with a steady diet of ground-and-pound. The Dan Hornbuckle who sat on his stool in-between rounds one and two was a different man than the one who has refused to shake hands before the fight. Gone was the "black belt in intensity" and warrior swagger that had paralyzed lesser opposition. Dan had his head down and barely nodded as Conan Silvera tried to get him back in the fight. For the next 10 minutes Askren put on a wrestling clinic and thrilled the home-town fans with his utter dominance and coasted to a unanimous decision.
Ben went on to dominate the rest of his opponents (with the exception of Jay Hieron, that was close) with the same style that had befuddled Hornbuckle. "The Handler" never got back on track in Bellator, despite two more tournament spots. He still fights, but has yet show the dominance he displayed before he fell to the "Funk".
Record before: 21-2
Record since: 3-6
Fabricio Werdum vs Fedor Emelianenko
Strikeforce/M1 Global- June 26 2010
No Emperor reigns forever. I was cage-side for this fight. Having worked for M1 for 2 years I got to spend a lot of time with Fedor and his team. His soft-spoken personality wasn't exactly what an American fight fan would expect from a man who dominated the Pride heavyweight division. From his debut in Rings in 2000, to his epic run in Pride, Fedor demolished the greatest heavyweights of his era. Mark Coleman, Minotauro, Heath Herring, Mirko Cro-Cop, Andre Arlovski, and Tim Sylvia were all defeated, many in spectacular fashion. He had an unorthodox low-hands striking style that generated tremendous power and his movement on the ground was aggressive and smooth, especially for such a big fighter. He ripped the Pride heavyweight belt from around the waist of Minotauro and never looked back.
The big question was where the big man would land after the collapse of Pride. The UFC did it's best, but couldn't reach a deal with "The Last Emperor" and he landed with the upstart Strikeforce in 2009 after two fights with Affliction's short-lived promotion. After a KO win over Brett Rogers, Fedor squared-off with BJJ world champion Fabricio Werdum in 2010 in San Jose.
Werdum was, at the time, a dangerous heavyweight who had somehow flown under the radar of most fans. He had beaten some serious names (Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem, and Brandon Vera) but had been unable to win more than two fights in a row against elite talent. He had incredible submission skills and decent hands, but in the minds of most fans Fedor had taken on better talent and had rarely been tested.
The difficulty with Fedor's unorthodox style is that it requires timing, timing requires practice and confidence. The negative side-affect of Fedor's management constantly squabbling on his behalf was that he didn't fight with the regularity with which he had fought in Pride. Leading up to the Werdum fight he hadn't fought more than twice a year since 2005 and only once in 2008.
Fedor looked tentative from the outset. What I remember most clearly was his hesitation to attack Werdum on the ground, this is the same man who DOVE into Minotauro's vaunted guard, haymakers swinging. When he finally did engage his timing was off, and he paid the price. Werdum immediately locked up a TIGHT triangle from his back. Fedor fought valiantly, but had nowhere to go against one of the greatest grapplers in the world. When Werdum transitioned to the arm-bar, it was tap or snap and Fedor chose the former. The "Last Emperor" gave up his crown at 1:09 of the first round. Half the crowd went nuts, the other half sat in stunned silence.
Fedor fought on for another two years, but with his aura of invincibility gone his heart never seemed to be in it. Despite his end, I still think (in 2014) he ranks as the greatest heavyweight in MMA's young history.
Record before: 31-1-1
Record since: 3-3
Tito Ortiz vs Ken Shamrock
UFC 40-Vendetta, Nov 22 2002
For those who remember seeing it on PPV, this was a must-see grudge match of epic proportions.
In the first UFC Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie were the only two fighters who had any business actually being in the cage. Ken looked like a He-Man action figure in life-size and had cut his teeth in Japans Pancrase circuit in the early 90's (yeah there were some works, but thats how it worked in those days). He had decent standup, basic wrestling, and murderous foot-locks. His only UFC losses were to Gracie and Dan Severn (the Severn match is an insomnia cure) and his fan base was rabid and loyal. At the height of his MMA success he transitioned to the WWE for bigger paychecks during the UFC's "dark days" of the late 90's and didn't return to real combat for four years, this time under the Pride banner in Japan.
Taking four years off in the late 90's was like cryogenically freezing Red Grange in 1925, waking him up in 2014 and having him try out for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the game was not the same. Gone were the days when guys would try to elbow their way out of a heel-hook Pat Smith style. Ken had his moments after going back, most notably a great performance against Kazuyuki Fujita. Ken was dominating the ranked Japanese heavyweight until he began having chest pains and had his corner throw in the towel (insert your own PED joke here).
Ken returned to the UFC and immediately got a shot at a PRIME Tito Ortiz. Tito and Ken had been at each other's throats since Tito demolished Guy Mezger and donned an insulting t-shirt in celebration (ok, ok, it said "Gay Mezger is my bitch", there happy now?!?!). I remember John McCarthy literally picking Tito up and carrying him away from a screaming Shamrock to prevent an in-cage brawl (these things happen in MMA). The two almost came to blows at the press conference when Tito burst out laughing at Ken's predictions for the fight.
Animosity makes for great hype, but its a poor substitute for preparation. Ken looked slow and his gigantic muscles made him about as efficient as a Formula 1 car with off-road tires. Tito battered him on the feet and took him down with ease. Ken was out of gas midway through the first round and resembled a walking punching-bag for the rest of the fight, a bag that bled profusely and swelled horribly. By the end of the third round Ken looked like a mutant and his corner mercifully called a halt to the beating and the fight.
If anyone doubts that money is the deciding factor in the matchmaking of any promotion, just remember that Ken faced Tito two more times. The fans ate up both rematches, despite the fact that Ken clearly didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of winning either. Shamrock was doomed by two harsh realities: his body was past the point where he could endure the training necessary for modern MMA, and the era in which his skill-set was competitive had come and gone.
Ken was never again a factor at the elite level. He fought on until 2010, mostly due to the drawing power of his name as opposed to his ability to compete.
Record before: 25-7-2
Record since: 3-7
Roger Huerta vs Eddie Alvarez
Bellator MMA 23- October 21 2010
Yeah, I know: Huerta had lost 3 out of his last 4 fights going INTO the fight with Eddie Alvarez. So why is this a Crossroads fight Jimmy? I'm glad you asked: those losses were competitive decisions while the Alvarez fight was a massacre from which Huerta never recovered.
For a time Roger Huerta was MMA's golden boy. He had Zoolander good looks and had solid skills to go with his all-action style. Everyone remembers his appearance on the Sports Illustrated cover which heralded the "crossover" of MMA into the mainstream. He was poised to become the biggest face in the sport as it began the biggest expansion it had ever known.
Behind that celebrity status there were lingering questions however. Huerta's first five fights in the UFC were against promotional newcomers with little big-fight experience. They were solidly in the game-but-not-dangerous category and allowed to Huerta to keep amassing wins while he avoided the bigger names in a loaded 155 division. Clay Guida was the only name of note on Huerta's record, a solid win, but not one that would erase lingering doubts about his abilities against top-5 fighters.
I spoke to Monte Cox, Huerta's former manager, once about why he left Cox's stable. Cox responded bluntly: "I told him not to fight Florian because he would lose, the kid didn't want to hear it and left."
Cox was right-on with his assessment. Huerta stayed in the fight against Florian, but never had Ken-Flo in any real danger as he lost his first UFC fight by unanimous decision. A split-decision loss to an undefeated Gray Maynard followed a year later.
When I joined Bellator, Huerta's jump to the promotion was HUGE news in the MMA world. Despite back-to-back losses, Huerta still had serious drawing power in the UFC. Bellator (to my limited understanding, I wasn't around for the negotiations) gave a lot to get the young superstar and most people put him as the favorite in his first 155 tournament. Pat Curran really began his rise in Bellator with his upset of Huerta in their semi-final round fight in Boston. Huerta seemed flat, almost as if he expected "lesser" fighters to give up against him. Pat kept pushing and won a close split decision (not a unanimous as is sometimes listed) and derailed "El Matador"'s run in Bellator.
An injury to Pat Curran gave Bellator the chance to put together the "super-fight" they had wanted from the beginning and Huerta took on Eddie Alvarez in a non-title fight in front of Eddie's hometown Philly fans. An early kick from Eddie clearly damaged Huerta's leg, and it was all downhill from there. I don't think the injury had much of an impact on the outcome of the fight personally. Eddie was faster, stronger, and more polished with his striking technique. Huerta's pressing style, combined with his lack of one-punch KO power, gave Eddie all of the opportunities he needed to tee-off on the frustrated Huerta. The crowd went nuts every time an Eddie Alvarez right hand snapped Huerta's head back, and it happened a lot. As the fight dragged into round two, it was clear the Huerta was just out of his league. At the end of the 2nd, Huerta's eye was completely swollen shut and his knee was providing him with zero stability. Huerta didn't protest as the doctor mercifully called an end to the fight before the start of the third.
The gulf in skill between Huerta and the elite of the division was painfully obvious. When we talked after the fight Monte Cox freely admitted that he knew Huerta couldn't take on the best and Eddie was, and is (as of 2014), one of the best at 155. Huerta would only fight two more times, losing both by stoppage.
Record before: 21-3
Record since: 0-3
There are many reasons for a Crossroads fight. Sometimes a fighter's opponent discovers a strategy that other fighters begin to imitate (Buster Douglas is the all-time trailblazer of this category), other times a single fight destroys a fighter's confidence, or the years simply catch up to an aging legend. The worst, in my opinion, in the "unmasking" fight where we discover that a fighter just wasn't as good as the hype that surrounded them and their veil of protection is lifted by realistic matchmaking.
Whatever the cause, a fighter after their Crossroads moment is never really the same. For better or worse, here are some of the Crossroads fights in MMA that stand out in my mind:
Wanderlei Silva vs. Mirko Cro-Cop
Pride-Final Conflict Absolute, September 10 2006
When most people think about the glory days of Pride they think of a prime Wanderlei Silva and the path of destruction he tore through the middleweight (LHW in modern weight classes) division in his championship reign. To call the guy an animal is a bit inaccurate, most animals won't charge right at you and soccer-kick you to death like you stole something from them.
Silva ripped the title from the seemingly invincible submission ace Kazushi Sakuraba (more on that later) and would go undefeated in his weight class from 2000-2005. On the way he defeated Dan Henderson, Rampage Jackson (twice), and would batter Sakuraba two more times. After avenging the only middleweight loss of his Pride career by defeating Ricardo Arona in December 2005, Silva made the ill-advised jump to heavyweight for the Pride Absolute Grand-Prix in 2006.
The first round went well: Silva handed the iron-headed Kazuyuki Fujita his first real KO loss. Unfortunately for Silva, the Fujita win would be his last of the tournament. In the semis he met Mirko Cro-Cop, the K-1 standout who's high-kick was the most feared weapon in MMA. Cro-Cop was in his prime and the Brazilian wild-man had bitten off more than he could chew.
The wild aggression that had made Silva the most feared middleweight in the world played right into the hands of the polished Croatian southpaw and Silva's punching power paled in comparison to the man who had made his career in the heavyweight division. Cro-Cop battered Silva from the beginning, countering his wild attacks with straight lefts and well-timed kicks. On the ground it was more of the same as Cro-Cop countered Silva's submission attempts and made him pay with vicious ground and pound. When Silva rose to his feat after being smashed into the canvas his face was a bloody mess and his eye was grotesquely swollen, but he probably wishes he had never gotten up. As soon as the stand-up fight resumed, Cro-Cop let loose with his famous left kick to the cranium. The "Axe Murderer" crumpled to the canvas unconscious. It was one of the most thorough beatings I had ever had the displeasure of witnessing at the elite level of MMA.
Wanderlei and Cro-Cop both left the crumbling Pride banner for the UFC when the promotion was bought out by Zuffa. As of 2014 Wanderlei is still active, although embroiled in a PED controversy, and has fans that will still pay money to see him fight, but it isn't the Wanderlei of old. Silva has yet to win back-to-back fights in the UFC and has never been more than a fringe contender, even with a drop to 185. I think the old Silva that terrified some of the greatest in the world at 205 never got up from the canvas on that September night in Japan almost 8 years ago.
Record before: 31-5-2
Record since: 4-7
Chuck Liddell vs Rampage Jackson
UFC 71-May 26, 2007
Everyone who trained MMA in the early 2000's (if that's what we call that decade) spent at least one sparring session getting beaten up trying to imitate Chuck Liddell. He was flat-footed and kept his hands near his nipples, but he was frustratingly difficult to hit and had sledgehammers where his hands should have been. He wrestled D-I at Cal Poly SLO had was known as the ultimate sprawl-and-brawl wrecking machine. He had the wrestling pedigree and the short range power to keep even the most determined wrestlers at bay: Randy Couture, Kevin Randleman, and Tito Ortiz all found this out the hard way. After devastating the iron-chinned Randy Couture (who had slugged it out with heavyweights and had never been KO'd) to claim the LHW belt in 2005, Liddell looked unstoppable.
He defended his title 4 times, all of them by one-sided KO.
Rampage had beaten Liddell by corner stoppage in 2003 in Pride (yeah, it was weird back then, guys could actually move between promotions) but in the eyes of most fans that was a lifetime ago. This new "UFC Champion" Liddell was considered the favorite in most people's eyes when the two met again in 2006.
Liddell's undoing in their 2003 matchup was the takedown and ground-and-pound of Jackson. In the rematch, Jackson's boxing would prove to be the decisive factor. Liddell had gotten away with breaking some of the cardinal rules of striking during his MMA career, but had gotten away with it using a combination of power and aggressiveness. Liddell also made his name, especially in the UFC, by taking on wrestlers with rudimentary striking skills. In Pride both Guy Mezger and Alistair Overeem had Liddell in trouble before he landed the KO shots that put them away. Rampage possessed the fundamental skills and physical power to make Liddell pay for his unorthodox style. Just before the 2-minute mark of the first round Liddell threw a body shot from mid-range without bringing his hands back to his chin. When he did, Rampage unleashed a hook to the jaw that dropped the champ cold. With a howl, the Liddell era was over.
It didn't seem like it at the time, but the fall for Liddell would be far and fast. He would win only one more fight and, more disturbingly, was being KO'd in increasingly brutal fashion before calling it quits in 2010.
Record before: 20-3
Record since: 1-5
Ricco Rodriguez vs Tim Sylvia
UFC 41-Febuary 28, 2003
Whenever you are known as "The MMA fighter on Celebrity Rehab" something has gone REALLY wrong with your life. There was a time when Ricco was poised to be the next big crossover star in MMA. Not only was big, athletic, and technical, he was also young and knew how to talk to a camera. He was part of Team Punishment and trained with Tito Ortiz at the height of his skills and popularity in the UFC. His roots gave him crossover appeal with the emerging Latino market and the guy knew how to win, and win impressively.
Ricco started in 1999 and when he met Randy Couture in 2002 for the UFC Heavyweight Championship he had only one loss on his record. He had made his UFC debut a year earlier and had rattled off four straight TKO victories, Randy would be number five.
In his first title defense, Ricco was the heavy favorite against Tim Sylvia. Sylvia was a virtual unknown at the time. He sported an impressive 14-0 record but only had one UFC fight under his belt and his opponent, Wesley Correira, was the kind of fighter who got offended if you didn't hit him. He was a giant at 6'8" but was seen as slow, plodding, and one-dimensional.
The odds were 5-1 if memory serves me, and some people from Maine made SERIOUS money that night (Sylvia was from Maine, did I mention that?). Ricco started out with the right idea, sticking and moving from the outside as Sylvia pawed with the jab. Ricco ended up in guard, but couldn't find the arm-bar despite a couple of attempts. Just past the 3-minute mark Sylvia countered a Rodriguez kick with a VICIOUS straight right hand that sent Ricco to the canvas. The follow-up GnP left Ricco with eyes wide shut and the Miletich Team celebrated yet another champion.
As far as "falls from grace" are concerned, I don't remember any as fast as Ricco's. He only fought one more time in the UFC and suffered a decision loss to Pedro Rizzo. He fights on to this day, but has never defeated top opposition since his upset loss to Sylvia. Along the way he has had much-publicised substance abuse issues and hopefully he now has them under control.
Record before: 14-1
Record Since: 39-20-1
Wanderlei Silva vs Kazushi Sakuraba
Pride 17-Championship Chaos, March 25 2001
Before you thought of Wanderlei Silva as the king of Pride, you thought of Kazushi Sakuraba. The man who was known as "The IQ Wrestler" made his name in Japan as the man who handed the Gracie family their first MMA loss when he defeated Royler Gracie by (somewhat controversial) referee stoppage in their November, 1999 Pride showdown. He went on to beat three more Gracies, two by stoppage. His list of victims wasn't limited to the Gracies either, during his superstar run he defeated some of the top names of his era: Carlos Newton, Vitor Belfort, and Guy Mezger to name a few. He was a tricky wrestler with a "go-for-broke" submission style that seemed to be the Kryptonite of some of the best BJJ fighters of the time.
When the Wanderlei fight was announced I was training with Team Punishment in Huntington Beach. When I talked about it with my grappling coach Fabiano Iha, he just shook his head and said "They can't protect him from that guy."I didn't understand what he meant at the time. Sakuraba had beaten the best in the world, and one can hardly look at his record and say it was padded. What I think Fabiano meant is that Sakuraba was the perfect foil for certain BJJ-minded fighters. The Gracies, and their disciples (Belfort, Alan Goes, Carlos Newton), had made out-techniquing and out-grappling Sakuraba a point of pride. They didn't just want to beat him, they wanted to show that he could be undone with jiu-jisu technique.
Wanderlei felt no such restrictions.
To call their 2001 showdown a "fight" is an insult to combat sports, it was a felonious assault that no one got arrested for. Silva charged across the ring in vintage "Axe Murderer" style like a windmill with limbs. Sakuraba answered back as best he could, and even wobbled Silva briefly (a hallmark of Silva's career) but the outcome was never really in question. Wanderlei wasn't pulling guard or rolling for knee-bars, he was savagely attacking, and against that offensive style the "IQ Wrestler" had no answer. The end came with Sakuraba curled up on the canvas with Silva unloading soccer kicks on his bloody head. In a brutal 1:38 the torch was passed to the new king of Pride.
Despite the one-sidedness of the contest, Sakuraba would fight Silva two more times, losing both by brutal stoppage (anyone remember the broken collarbone in their 2nd fight? NASTY). Sakuraba would fight until 2011, but his days as the consensus #1 were over and he descended into the "win-some-lose-some"journeyman years at the end.
Record before: 12-2-2
Record since: 14-13-1
Dan Hornbuckle vs Ben Askren
Bellator MMA 22-June 17 2010
What a difference a round makes. Dan Hornbuckle entered his welterweight tournament final fight against Ben Askren as the clear favorite. It was a status he had enjoyed since joining the promotion's 170lb tournament in the previous spring. He was know as having a "black belt in intensity" and had made his name with a highlight reel KO over Akihiro Gono in Japan. In his first two Bellator fights he had scored first round submissions over Tyler Stinson and Steve Carl. He was tall, well-rounded, and spoke in sound-bites (the editors loved him), he seemed destined for promotional gold.
Ben Askren was the dark-horse of the tournament. I saw him win his two national titles at Missouri and was blown away by his unorthodox style. The question was whether such a style translated to MMA, where more basic "Matt Hughes-style" takedowns tend to be the norm. Askren got to the tournament final by beating the same guy, Ryan Thomas, twice due to a volcano eruption keeping Jim Wallhead trapped in England. The first ended with a bone-headed referee call, and the 2nd was a clear (if unspectacular) unanimous decision.
Before the fight, Hornbuckle told us he would "stop Ben's takedown for two minutes and that will break his spirit."
He couldn't stop it for two seconds.
Asken took Hornbuckle down with an ease that defied description. He didn't just take him down, he tossed him around like a rag-doll for a solid five minutes. The guard that had spelled the end of Tyler Stinson and Steve Carl wasn't even a road-bump for Askren as he countered submissions, passed to dominate positions, and peppered him with a steady diet of ground-and-pound. The Dan Hornbuckle who sat on his stool in-between rounds one and two was a different man than the one who has refused to shake hands before the fight. Gone was the "black belt in intensity" and warrior swagger that had paralyzed lesser opposition. Dan had his head down and barely nodded as Conan Silvera tried to get him back in the fight. For the next 10 minutes Askren put on a wrestling clinic and thrilled the home-town fans with his utter dominance and coasted to a unanimous decision.
Ben went on to dominate the rest of his opponents (with the exception of Jay Hieron, that was close) with the same style that had befuddled Hornbuckle. "The Handler" never got back on track in Bellator, despite two more tournament spots. He still fights, but has yet show the dominance he displayed before he fell to the "Funk".
Record before: 21-2
Record since: 3-6
Fabricio Werdum vs Fedor Emelianenko
Strikeforce/M1 Global- June 26 2010
No Emperor reigns forever. I was cage-side for this fight. Having worked for M1 for 2 years I got to spend a lot of time with Fedor and his team. His soft-spoken personality wasn't exactly what an American fight fan would expect from a man who dominated the Pride heavyweight division. From his debut in Rings in 2000, to his epic run in Pride, Fedor demolished the greatest heavyweights of his era. Mark Coleman, Minotauro, Heath Herring, Mirko Cro-Cop, Andre Arlovski, and Tim Sylvia were all defeated, many in spectacular fashion. He had an unorthodox low-hands striking style that generated tremendous power and his movement on the ground was aggressive and smooth, especially for such a big fighter. He ripped the Pride heavyweight belt from around the waist of Minotauro and never looked back.
The big question was where the big man would land after the collapse of Pride. The UFC did it's best, but couldn't reach a deal with "The Last Emperor" and he landed with the upstart Strikeforce in 2009 after two fights with Affliction's short-lived promotion. After a KO win over Brett Rogers, Fedor squared-off with BJJ world champion Fabricio Werdum in 2010 in San Jose.
Werdum was, at the time, a dangerous heavyweight who had somehow flown under the radar of most fans. He had beaten some serious names (Gabriel Gonzaga, Alistair Overeem, and Brandon Vera) but had been unable to win more than two fights in a row against elite talent. He had incredible submission skills and decent hands, but in the minds of most fans Fedor had taken on better talent and had rarely been tested.
The difficulty with Fedor's unorthodox style is that it requires timing, timing requires practice and confidence. The negative side-affect of Fedor's management constantly squabbling on his behalf was that he didn't fight with the regularity with which he had fought in Pride. Leading up to the Werdum fight he hadn't fought more than twice a year since 2005 and only once in 2008.
Fedor looked tentative from the outset. What I remember most clearly was his hesitation to attack Werdum on the ground, this is the same man who DOVE into Minotauro's vaunted guard, haymakers swinging. When he finally did engage his timing was off, and he paid the price. Werdum immediately locked up a TIGHT triangle from his back. Fedor fought valiantly, but had nowhere to go against one of the greatest grapplers in the world. When Werdum transitioned to the arm-bar, it was tap or snap and Fedor chose the former. The "Last Emperor" gave up his crown at 1:09 of the first round. Half the crowd went nuts, the other half sat in stunned silence.
Fedor fought on for another two years, but with his aura of invincibility gone his heart never seemed to be in it. Despite his end, I still think (in 2014) he ranks as the greatest heavyweight in MMA's young history.
Record before: 31-1-1
Record since: 3-3
Tito Ortiz vs Ken Shamrock
UFC 40-Vendetta, Nov 22 2002
For those who remember seeing it on PPV, this was a must-see grudge match of epic proportions.
In the first UFC Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie were the only two fighters who had any business actually being in the cage. Ken looked like a He-Man action figure in life-size and had cut his teeth in Japans Pancrase circuit in the early 90's (yeah there were some works, but thats how it worked in those days). He had decent standup, basic wrestling, and murderous foot-locks. His only UFC losses were to Gracie and Dan Severn (the Severn match is an insomnia cure) and his fan base was rabid and loyal. At the height of his MMA success he transitioned to the WWE for bigger paychecks during the UFC's "dark days" of the late 90's and didn't return to real combat for four years, this time under the Pride banner in Japan.
Taking four years off in the late 90's was like cryogenically freezing Red Grange in 1925, waking him up in 2014 and having him try out for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the game was not the same. Gone were the days when guys would try to elbow their way out of a heel-hook Pat Smith style. Ken had his moments after going back, most notably a great performance against Kazuyuki Fujita. Ken was dominating the ranked Japanese heavyweight until he began having chest pains and had his corner throw in the towel (insert your own PED joke here).
Ken returned to the UFC and immediately got a shot at a PRIME Tito Ortiz. Tito and Ken had been at each other's throats since Tito demolished Guy Mezger and donned an insulting t-shirt in celebration (ok, ok, it said "Gay Mezger is my bitch", there happy now?!?!). I remember John McCarthy literally picking Tito up and carrying him away from a screaming Shamrock to prevent an in-cage brawl (these things happen in MMA). The two almost came to blows at the press conference when Tito burst out laughing at Ken's predictions for the fight.
Animosity makes for great hype, but its a poor substitute for preparation. Ken looked slow and his gigantic muscles made him about as efficient as a Formula 1 car with off-road tires. Tito battered him on the feet and took him down with ease. Ken was out of gas midway through the first round and resembled a walking punching-bag for the rest of the fight, a bag that bled profusely and swelled horribly. By the end of the third round Ken looked like a mutant and his corner mercifully called a halt to the beating and the fight.
If anyone doubts that money is the deciding factor in the matchmaking of any promotion, just remember that Ken faced Tito two more times. The fans ate up both rematches, despite the fact that Ken clearly didn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of winning either. Shamrock was doomed by two harsh realities: his body was past the point where he could endure the training necessary for modern MMA, and the era in which his skill-set was competitive had come and gone.
Ken was never again a factor at the elite level. He fought on until 2010, mostly due to the drawing power of his name as opposed to his ability to compete.
Record before: 25-7-2
Record since: 3-7
Roger Huerta vs Eddie Alvarez
Bellator MMA 23- October 21 2010
Yeah, I know: Huerta had lost 3 out of his last 4 fights going INTO the fight with Eddie Alvarez. So why is this a Crossroads fight Jimmy? I'm glad you asked: those losses were competitive decisions while the Alvarez fight was a massacre from which Huerta never recovered.
For a time Roger Huerta was MMA's golden boy. He had Zoolander good looks and had solid skills to go with his all-action style. Everyone remembers his appearance on the Sports Illustrated cover which heralded the "crossover" of MMA into the mainstream. He was poised to become the biggest face in the sport as it began the biggest expansion it had ever known.
Behind that celebrity status there were lingering questions however. Huerta's first five fights in the UFC were against promotional newcomers with little big-fight experience. They were solidly in the game-but-not-dangerous category and allowed to Huerta to keep amassing wins while he avoided the bigger names in a loaded 155 division. Clay Guida was the only name of note on Huerta's record, a solid win, but not one that would erase lingering doubts about his abilities against top-5 fighters.
I spoke to Monte Cox, Huerta's former manager, once about why he left Cox's stable. Cox responded bluntly: "I told him not to fight Florian because he would lose, the kid didn't want to hear it and left."
Cox was right-on with his assessment. Huerta stayed in the fight against Florian, but never had Ken-Flo in any real danger as he lost his first UFC fight by unanimous decision. A split-decision loss to an undefeated Gray Maynard followed a year later.
When I joined Bellator, Huerta's jump to the promotion was HUGE news in the MMA world. Despite back-to-back losses, Huerta still had serious drawing power in the UFC. Bellator (to my limited understanding, I wasn't around for the negotiations) gave a lot to get the young superstar and most people put him as the favorite in his first 155 tournament. Pat Curran really began his rise in Bellator with his upset of Huerta in their semi-final round fight in Boston. Huerta seemed flat, almost as if he expected "lesser" fighters to give up against him. Pat kept pushing and won a close split decision (not a unanimous as is sometimes listed) and derailed "El Matador"'s run in Bellator.
An injury to Pat Curran gave Bellator the chance to put together the "super-fight" they had wanted from the beginning and Huerta took on Eddie Alvarez in a non-title fight in front of Eddie's hometown Philly fans. An early kick from Eddie clearly damaged Huerta's leg, and it was all downhill from there. I don't think the injury had much of an impact on the outcome of the fight personally. Eddie was faster, stronger, and more polished with his striking technique. Huerta's pressing style, combined with his lack of one-punch KO power, gave Eddie all of the opportunities he needed to tee-off on the frustrated Huerta. The crowd went nuts every time an Eddie Alvarez right hand snapped Huerta's head back, and it happened a lot. As the fight dragged into round two, it was clear the Huerta was just out of his league. At the end of the 2nd, Huerta's eye was completely swollen shut and his knee was providing him with zero stability. Huerta didn't protest as the doctor mercifully called an end to the fight before the start of the third.
The gulf in skill between Huerta and the elite of the division was painfully obvious. When we talked after the fight Monte Cox freely admitted that he knew Huerta couldn't take on the best and Eddie was, and is (as of 2014), one of the best at 155. Huerta would only fight two more times, losing both by stoppage.
Record before: 21-3
Record since: 0-3
Monday, February 20, 2012
The art of begging
I might be dating myself with this one but does anyone remember Royler Gracie vs Sakuraba? It was an incredibly significant fight at the time. Royler was the technician of the undefeated Gracie family and Sakuraba was the Japanese icon of Pride. One image that really told the story of that fight was the one of Royler scooting on his butt, literally ASKING Sakuraba to come down to the mat and grapple with him. Sakuraba ummmm... "forcefully declined" by kicking Royler's legs until they were bright red.
I was reminded of that fight when I saw Nick Diaz lose to Carlos Condit in their welterweight showdown. Diaz seemed to want to trash-talk Condit into a brawl, where he could use his volume-punching attack to score a TKO. Condit, under direction from his coach Greg Jackson, refused to have any part of it. He kicked and moved, frustrating Diaz and winning a unanimous decision.
The reason it reminded me of the Gracie fight is because both guys seemed at the mercy of their opponents' reluctance to fight THEIR kind of fight, and their inability to make their opponent fight in their realm highlighted certain technical deficiencies in their respective games. Royler had few other tools outside of his BJJ, and Diaz doesn't have great footwork. Diaz had always used his superior height and range to corral opponents. In the style of George Foreman he would use his arms, rather than his feet to keep opponents in the corner and unload. Against the rangy 6'1" Condit, Diaz would have no such advantage. Diaz followed Condit around the cage taking leg kicks and seemed unable to cut off the cage with his feet.
The attitude of Diaz after the fight was to be expected, not because it was fair, but because Diaz is Diaz. Complaining that your opponent didn't fight the way you wanted him to is absurd, you have to MAKE him fight the away you want him to, and he clearly couldn't do it.
One thing you can never count on is a Greg Jackson trained fighter caring about anything but winning. Does anyone remember Emmanuel Steward slapping the chest of Lennox Lewis in-between rounds during his fight with Mike Tyson and SCREAMING at him to quit throwing jabs and finish the fucking fight? That was his ANTI-Greg Jackson impression. That dude doesn't care how far ahead you are or what round it is, hell, even if the crowd is launching water bottles into the ring. His philosophy is that if you are ahead, then keep doing what you are doing. If you want exciting finishes, then play the video-game.
Breaking down Jackson's fight strategy is fairly simple: do whatever is easiest based on your opponent's weaknesses and your strengths. GSP lost a lot of fans with his performance against Dan Hardy. Most people thought the Brit was tough, but not exactly deserving of a title shot after 4 solid performances against less-than-top-10 talent. GSP dominated that fight from bell to bell, but the fact that there WAS a bell at the end was somewhat disappointing. He came close to finishing a few times, but wasn't willing to possibly give up his solid positioning for a finish.
Jackson never slapped GSP in the chest like Emmanuel Steward, he never raised his voice, he didn't even politely suggest that he perhaps do his career, and the viewing public, a little favor by finishing a fighter who was clearly technically outmatched. He doesn't think that way as a coach. MMA pundits often refer to him as Yoda, but if Yoda had trained Luke like Greg Jackson, that showdown with Vader would have taken 40 minutes. Im not knocking the guy as a coach, I think he's one of the best, but the idea that Diaz could "dare" one of his students into brawl is ridiculous, you're more likely to dare a rattlesnake into a blender.
So the showdown will, more than likely, be Condit vs GSP. Ironically, the difference between two Jackson-trained fighters may come down to who takes the risk at the right time.
The welterweight division is shaping up nicely in the UFC and some young, hungry talent is asserting itself. I don't actually hold out much hope for an exciting fight between Carlos Condit and GSP. Unless the time off and injuries have really slowed him down, GSP is simply too technical for Condit and his wrestling is the best in the game. Condit has KO power, but I don't see GSP trading on the feet much. It might actually benefit Condit to do the same thing he did against Diaz and run-and-gun his way to a decision.
GSP is not a fighter, he's a mixed martial artist. He is technically gifted and almost never puts himself in harms way. He is the living embodiment of Jackson's "just win" philosophy. The problem is that he tends to shut down under duress. In the 3rd round of his fight with Jake Shields he scratched his eye and simply stopped fighting. He knew he had 3 in the bag and decided to coast, and this was after he stayed on the feet for 3 rounds against a guy who couldn't break a potato-chip with a punch and failed to KO him.
The guy who beats GSP is the guy who can make a brawl out of it and has the KO power to remind him of his loss to Matt Serra. Diaz has the right mentality, but lacks the takedown defense and one-punch power. Condit may also fall victim to GSP's stellar MMA wrestling.
Of the crop that is out there now, I think Jake Ellenberger and Johny Hendricks might have the most favorable combination of skills. They are both compact, solid wrestlers (Hendricks being world-class) with heavy hands. They might be able to keep it on the feet long enough to remind GSP how much he hates getting hit. Unfortunately, the fights to see who gets to face GSP are often more entertaining than the championship fights themselves.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
One loud critic
I read recently that Wanderlei Silva "silenced the critics" with his 2nd round TKO over Cung Le.
To really evaluate that statement, one has to understand exactly what most of the critics were saying about Wanderlei and whether or not his win over Le countered those statements. Personally, I don't think he even came close.
The first thing the critics were saying is that Wanderlei Silva is more than a few fights past his prime. Its often said that the trajectory of a career can change in a single fight. The fight that marked the downward slope of Silva's career was his Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix showdown with Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic.
For the ones that have only seen him in the UFC, Cro-Cop was the baddest of the bad in Pride. Everyone talks about his left high-kick, but he had the whole package when he fought in Japan. He had fast hands, good combinations, as well as great footwork that he used to SET UP his devastating finish. By the time he hit the UFC he relied too much on his one-shot weapon and opponents took advantage of his limited arsenal. When Silva collided with Cro-Cop he was at the top of his game and was coming up from 205 to challenge the best in the division.
Cro-Cop didn't just beat him, he DEMOLISHED him. Cro-Cop gave him the kind of beating that ends careers. He dominated him on the feet, landed some nice ground and pound, then turned out his lights with his signature head kick. Silva's face looked like hamburger at the end of the fight.
He was never the same: since that vicious loss he has gone 3-5, equaling the number of losses he had in his entire CAREER before the Cro-Cop fight. In Pride he was a devastating, brutalizing machine that destroyed the best in the division. Rampage, Ricardo Arona, a PRIME Sakuraba (3 times), Guy Metzger, and Dan Henderson all fell before his whirlwind attack. He didn't just win, he took guys apart.
The fighter that defeated Cung Le was a shadow of the Pride powerhouse. What he showed is that he still has tremendous finishing instincts. He took a bad beating during that fight before finding his way inside and finishing Le. He seemed hesitant and unsure of his timing. The bombs-away style Silva has always employed requires speed and confidence, two things Silva lacked in the Le fight. If you saw Silva in his prime, there is no doubt in your mind that his best days are behind him.
The second things the critics have said, those who really care about Silva as a fighter and as a human being, is that his health is in serious jeopardy. Of his 11 losses 6 have been by KO/TKO, 4 of those have been in the Cro-Cop fight and beyond. Silva never had a great chin, he was rocked in victories over Rampage, Sakuraba, Shungo Oyama, Dan Henderson, and Guy Metzger, and only Rampage and Henderson are known as power punchers. In his KO losses he has been absolutely devastated. All of his KO losses (other than his first, which was via cut) left him stretched out on the mat. Silva is the kind of fighter that goes out on his shield, and its been happening more and more frequently.
One horrific KO can cause permanent damage, 5 can leave you a stuttering wreck. No one who loves the sport and recognizes what Wanderlei has done for it wants to see him end up that way. The win over Le won't repair his damaged neurons, or make his chin any stronger.
Winning that fight was probably the worst thing that could have happened to him. He is now scheduled to fight Vitor Belfort after they finish coaching their respective teams on The Ultimate Fighter. I wrote about the Belfort-Silva rematch in my "Top Fights of All Time That Never Happened" blog. What I wrote about was that considering the wars Silva has been through and the inconsistency of Belforts performances, this rematch was unlikely. The only thing that has changed has been the consistency of Belfort. He has looked faster and stronger at 185, going 4-1 and dispatching ALL of his victims by KO.
The problem is that Silva still has name recognition and can put asses in seats. The Belfort/Silva rematch has a certain historical appeal to the older fans who remember their 1st encounter, but this fight should have happened 10 years ago, and those 10 years have been significantly harder on Silva.
Cung Le is not a top-10 middleweight. Chris Leben, who flattened Silva in his previous fight, is not a top-10 middleweight. Vitor Belfort IS a top-10 middleweight with serious KO power. This fight only makes sense to those blinded by a light that has long-since faded. Silva has serious heart and I know he'll put everything into his fight with Belfort. I can only hope that, win or lose, he chooses to make this fight his last and the critics can be unanimous in their praise of one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time...
Friday, December 2, 2011
Requiem for a lightwight
"This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away...to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was."
-Yoda
I have actually opened up an MMA blog with a Yoda quote, I think I deserve some credit for that.
It's my opinion that there is NO WAY BJ Penn stays retired for a significant amount of time, but for the purposes of this blog let's assume his career is finished and can be looked back upon in it's entirety. If that is the case I firmly believe that his end as a mixed martial artist can be traced back to a single date: January 31st, 2004.That was the day he choked out the previously unstoppable Matt Hughes and won the welterweight crown. Thus began his love-affair with the welterweight division, a division in which he would never be physically competitive.
Its difficult to imagine in the modern era of MMA how a fighter, even with BJ Penn's extraordinary Jiu-Jitsu credentials (he was the first non-Brazilian to win a black belt world title), could make their MMA debut in the UFC, but thats exactly what he did against Joey Gilbert on May 4th, 2001. After finishing Gilbert in the 1st round, his level of competition picked up considerably. He would finish both Din Thomas and Caol Uno in devastating fashion before getting a much-hyped title fight against lightweight kingpin Jens Pulver. Penn didn't fight with his usual "bombs away" style and lost a 5 round majority decision. It was the kind of loss that inexperienced fighters need early on, and from there big things were still expected of the young prodigy.
After his first loss, he tore though Paul Creighton before entering a mini-tournament for Pulver's vacated belt. He beat Matt Serra and got a controversial draw with Caol Uno in their rematch for the belt. Unfortunately the UFC basically began ignoring the lightweight division and left the title vacant from 2001-2006. BJ left the UFC to DOMINATE Takanori Gomi at Rumble on the Rock, then returned for his fateful fight against Matt Hughes at 170.
I understand why he did it at the time. The UFC had no title for him to fight for, and Matt Hughes was on an historic run in the division. He had little to lose and a lot to gain, and BOY did he deliver. He took the champ to the mat early and ROCKED him with a vicious right hand before finishing him off with his signature rear-naked. That was the beginning of a BIZARRE trend in BJ Penn's spectacular-yet-inconsistent career.
BJ has a total of 8 losses, only 3 of those are in the lightweight division, and 2 are to the same fighter (Frankie Edgar). BJ had a total of 7 fights in the UFC's welterweight division and went 2-4-1 with BOTH of his wins coming against Matt Hughes.
BJ's unreal talent seemed to come with an almost pathological obsession with testing his competitive limits. The other loss of his career came at the hands of LIGHT-HEAVYWEIGHT Lyoto Machida. BJ's ambition had almost a freak-show quality to it, it was as if he wanted to prove that his phenomenal talent could overcome every physical limitation but, as his record shows, it couldn't.
One must also remember that he insisted on taking on the cream of the welterweight crop. He had no softballs, no tune-ups, and asked for no mercy. He took on Matt Hughes, GSP, Jon Fitch, and Nick Diaz. Thats a murderer's row of talent and he took it on despite his well-known distain for the rigors of training (in fact, I would say he gave away one fight apiece to GSP and Matt Hughes due to his shallow gas tank).
Changing weight classes has always been the way to attract big paydays in combat sports. Most of the great fights in boxing history outside of the heavyweight division happened because one of the combatants was willing to get out of their comfort zone. The reason that is so difficult in MMA is 2-fold:
#1. There are fewer weight classes and therefore more of a weight difference between them.
#2. The grappling inherent in MMA makes the size difference MUCH more of an issue
Between the limits of 154-175 there are 4 distinct weight-classes in boxing. Between roughly that same span in MMA (155-170)there are 2. Given the wrestling background of many MMA fighters and the weight-cuting techniques they have mastered, there is an ASTRONOMICAL size difference between those 2 weight classes in MMA, a size difference BJ Penn was never able to overcome.
Roy Jones Jr. went from 160 pounds, all the way to heavyweight and defeated John Ruiz. How was he able to accomplish this this? Because in boxing, speed kills and no one was faster in his prime than Roy Jones Jr. The difference in MMA is that nothing negates speed like being picked up and slammed into the mat, and that happened to BJ throughout his welterweight fights.
The frustrating thing is that against the best lightweights in the world he was simply magnificent. Matt Serra was the only lightweight he couldn't finish and his list of victims is a who's who of the division. He didn't just defeat guys like Sean Sherk, Din Thomas, Diego Sanchez, and Kenny Florian, he DESTROYED them. For comparison's sake: current lightweight king Frankie Edgar out-boxed Sean Sherk and earned a clear unanimous decision, BJ Penn OBLITERATED Sherk with a flying knee and waved off the fight. He wasn't just fun to watch at 155, he was awe-inspiring, but he just wasn't content to stay there.
Despite his hall-of-fame credentials, he never defeated more than 3 lightweights in a row. He was always looking to stretch his horizons, despite never quite clearing out an increasingly talented lightweight division. It would be nice to see how he would do against the new, hungry breed at 155, guys like Gray Maynard, Ben Henderson, and Donald Cerrone. But if Penn's last performance was truly the end there is a certain fitting poetry to it: it was against a gigantic welterweight against whom he fought hard, but was physically outmatched. If we see him again, I hope he takes a lesson from that fight and keeps his sights firmly on the lightweight division...
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
For the love of fighting
You have to love fighting more than you love winning. You will always fight, you won't always win.
That's what I always tell the fighters I teach. Joe Warren might be the perfect example of why I preach that philosophy.
In the opening video piece they always play for Joe Warren he says a line about why he fights:
"I love belts, I love crowds, and I love winning, so this is right up my alley"
Everyone loves those things Joe. How about MRIs? Hospitals? Cage-side physicians asking you seemingly ridiculous questions like "What is your mother's name?" and "Can you tell me what day it is?" Do you like your cornerman telling you the details of a fight you can't remember? Seeing someone's hand raised at your expense...?
That is the flip-side of the sport. It's a reality "The Baddest Man on the Planet" must now live with. People get involved in sports for the thrill of victory, not the agony of defeat. Fighting carries that agony to a uniquely personal level. This is not a team sport, the blame for defeat or victory rest squarely on the shoulders of the combatant. The same can be said for tennis, but Raphael Nadal can lose a dozen matches without a single concussion check. If you lose you have no one to blame but yourself, and the physical and emotional consequences can be devastating, especially in the case of Joe Warren.
Joe is an emotional fighter, thats been obvious from the beginning. He psyches himself up for every fight and makes the fight as intensely personal as possible. His talks about the horrors he is going to inflict on his opponent, and talks, and talks, until he has convinced himself that victory is already assured. The vulnerability of this approach is that it only works as long as you believe it. The toll of that KO is much harder on a fighter who has blown himself up to superhuman proportions. Not every fighter would have taken that loss with tears streaming down their face, but with Joe Warren it was inevitable.
Joe Warren got to become Bellator champion in part because he believed that what happened against Alexis Vila couldn't happen to him. Now that he has been faced with the stark reality that he can be knocked out, moving forward will not be an easy task.
Fighters with a wide range of skills, guys like GSP, Bernard Hopkins, and Ernesto Hoost, can come back from defeats with a relatively simple formula. They can analyze what they did wrong, tweak their training, eliminate the mistakes, and go to their next fight with a different game-plan. Joe Warren does not have a wide range of skills. Sure, he has outstanding wrestling, but his submission game is rudimentary and his boxing is basic at best. As far as the technical aspects go, he has very little to fall back on.
A large part of Joe Warren's success as a fighter lies in his ability to take a beating and keep on coming forward. The big question is "Will Warren have the ability to take that beating now that he knows he can be knocked out?" Warren never fought to protect himself, he never hesitated to push the pace of a fight, even when he was taking hellish punishment. Having felt the devastation of a brutal KO, that "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" style may go out the window.
The simple biological fact is that chins don't get stronger. Warren had taken two wicked beatings in his last featherweight fights before he faced Vila and they certainly might have contributed to his poor performance in his last two fights. Fighters like Alexander Arlovski, Wanderlei Silva, and Roy Jones Jr. can all attest to the fact that once the ability to take a shot goes, it's gone for good.
Joe Warren would have had a tough road under the BEST of circumstances. Even if he had taken the 135 belt (no easy task in and of itself) he still would have had consecutive title defenses against two of the best featherweights in the world: Patricio Pitbull and Pat Curran. Now, however, he has to face Pitbull (a man who sees Joe Warren's face every time he goes to sleep) after suffering the worst loss of his career.
It will take "The Baddest Man on the Planet" to overcome the obstacles Joe Warren has in front of him. He will have to find out if he really has championship heart? Can he still walk through an avalanche of punishment to claim victory?
Does he love fighting, or does he just love winning?
That's what I always tell the fighters I teach. Joe Warren might be the perfect example of why I preach that philosophy.
In the opening video piece they always play for Joe Warren he says a line about why he fights:
"I love belts, I love crowds, and I love winning, so this is right up my alley"
Everyone loves those things Joe. How about MRIs? Hospitals? Cage-side physicians asking you seemingly ridiculous questions like "What is your mother's name?" and "Can you tell me what day it is?" Do you like your cornerman telling you the details of a fight you can't remember? Seeing someone's hand raised at your expense...?
That is the flip-side of the sport. It's a reality "The Baddest Man on the Planet" must now live with. People get involved in sports for the thrill of victory, not the agony of defeat. Fighting carries that agony to a uniquely personal level. This is not a team sport, the blame for defeat or victory rest squarely on the shoulders of the combatant. The same can be said for tennis, but Raphael Nadal can lose a dozen matches without a single concussion check. If you lose you have no one to blame but yourself, and the physical and emotional consequences can be devastating, especially in the case of Joe Warren.
Joe is an emotional fighter, thats been obvious from the beginning. He psyches himself up for every fight and makes the fight as intensely personal as possible. His talks about the horrors he is going to inflict on his opponent, and talks, and talks, until he has convinced himself that victory is already assured. The vulnerability of this approach is that it only works as long as you believe it. The toll of that KO is much harder on a fighter who has blown himself up to superhuman proportions. Not every fighter would have taken that loss with tears streaming down their face, but with Joe Warren it was inevitable.
Joe Warren got to become Bellator champion in part because he believed that what happened against Alexis Vila couldn't happen to him. Now that he has been faced with the stark reality that he can be knocked out, moving forward will not be an easy task.
Fighters with a wide range of skills, guys like GSP, Bernard Hopkins, and Ernesto Hoost, can come back from defeats with a relatively simple formula. They can analyze what they did wrong, tweak their training, eliminate the mistakes, and go to their next fight with a different game-plan. Joe Warren does not have a wide range of skills. Sure, he has outstanding wrestling, but his submission game is rudimentary and his boxing is basic at best. As far as the technical aspects go, he has very little to fall back on.
A large part of Joe Warren's success as a fighter lies in his ability to take a beating and keep on coming forward. The big question is "Will Warren have the ability to take that beating now that he knows he can be knocked out?" Warren never fought to protect himself, he never hesitated to push the pace of a fight, even when he was taking hellish punishment. Having felt the devastation of a brutal KO, that "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" style may go out the window.
The simple biological fact is that chins don't get stronger. Warren had taken two wicked beatings in his last featherweight fights before he faced Vila and they certainly might have contributed to his poor performance in his last two fights. Fighters like Alexander Arlovski, Wanderlei Silva, and Roy Jones Jr. can all attest to the fact that once the ability to take a shot goes, it's gone for good.
Joe Warren would have had a tough road under the BEST of circumstances. Even if he had taken the 135 belt (no easy task in and of itself) he still would have had consecutive title defenses against two of the best featherweights in the world: Patricio Pitbull and Pat Curran. Now, however, he has to face Pitbull (a man who sees Joe Warren's face every time he goes to sleep) after suffering the worst loss of his career.
It will take "The Baddest Man on the Planet" to overcome the obstacles Joe Warren has in front of him. He will have to find out if he really has championship heart? Can he still walk through an avalanche of punishment to claim victory?
Does he love fighting, or does he just love winning?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)