brvheart
10-16-2006, 11:43 AM
interesting read from Sherdo..
Looking closely at this past weekend’s UFC inside the Mandalay Bay Events Center, quite a few thoughts popped into my mind.
Not only were a few questions answered, but also some of the results opened up an entirely new packet of queries. And it might take months before these new ones they are truly answered — but in all actuality, that is a good thing.
Already there are people jumping off the Rich Franklin (Pictures) bandwagon, leaping onto the Anderson Silva bandwagon and also ripping into Dana White’s brainchild, his reality series The Ultimate Fighter.
For starters, those of you with even the slightest bit of intelligence should calm your nerves and take a few breaths before jumping to conclusions. There are hundreds of “told you so blah blah blahs” running rampant on our Sherdog forums alone, and that’s not even including the various other mixed martial arts forums and chat rooms on the Net.
Fans and media alike are always a bit too quick to jump the gun, either discounting fighters after losses or hyping them after victories. And it appears to me that most of these individuals simply complain, vent or praise just to do it, without having any sort of validity behind their statements.
For example, there have been quite a few posts over the weekend where some people have called Franklin a fraud, saying he was a terrible fighter to begin with and that Silva exposed him. Others have said already that Kenny Florian (Pictures) was just an over-hyped reality star that doesn’t even belong inside the Octagon. And others have complained since Day One that the Zuffa/Spike TV reality show, which has essentially brought the UFC as close to mainstream as it probably ever will come, is a complete waste of time; a show that will ruin the sport of MMA as a whole.
Granted, some of these statements have validity as long as they convey a message with some sort of intelligence. For me, personally, I enjoy a chance to see both sides of the fence in almost every debate and after watching UFC 64 I can understand one person’s point of view over another.
So, to keep it somewhat entertaining, I’ll elaborate a bit deeper this time around, and give my two cents on Saturday’s UFC and its aftermath.
There is a new sheriff in town and he speaks Portuguese
Most fans and media alike agreed that while Anderson Silva was spectacular in blitzing Chris Leben (Pictures) a few months back, he would be trumped by then middleweight champion Rich Franklin (Pictures). People who really follow the sport agreed that the fight would be decided by whoever made the first mistake, but still most favored Franklin to successfully defend his title. As it turned out, Franklin utilized an improper game plan to attack Silva and it cost him his UFC 185-pound title.
Franklin had been on a roll, ripping apart every fighter thrown in front of him. He was a coach on The Ultimate Fighter 2, starred in a Xyience commercial and because of both his good looks and highlight reel knockouts, eventually became a fan favorite. But like all good things that come to an end, his title reign lasted only two fights and on Saturday night, he suffered the first loss of his UFC career, the second ever blemish in his overall MMA record.
What led to the demise of Franklin’s title reign?
Well, a few factors could be the reason but nobody can actually know at this point. Franklin did look a bit sluggish once the bell rung to start off the contest, and even during the exchanges, “Ace” was stiff and rigid.
Maybe he had a hard time making weight and had become emaciated. Maybe he had some sort of injury that only he and his team knew about. Maybe he took Silva lightly. Or maybe he simply became too brave for his own good and deviated from his originally game plan.
Maybe it was none of the above.
What can be said for certain, however, is the leading factor as to why Franklin was knocked out late in the first round was due to the fact that he was locked inside the cage with Anderson Silva. I’ve said for years that Silva is clearly the best all-around striker in the middleweight division and it could be argued that no other fighter in MMA strikes as perfectly, with as much accuracy or with such concussive force as Silva.
Franklin is a superb striker and his punches are crippling, but his stand-up skill pales to Silva’s in the overall scheme of things. One should look no further than Silva’s decimations of Leben, Tony Fryklund (Pictures), Curtis Stout (Pictures), Jorge Rivera (Pictures), and Carlos Newton (Pictures) to heed this case.
So where do both fighters go from here? The answer, really, is an obvious one. Dana White is becoming smarter in realizing what fighters are more marketable than others and he will probably start lining up such contenders as Mike Swick (Pictures), David Loiseau (Pictures) and others for a shot at not only Silva’s title, but as a medium to allow Silva to rack up more jaw-dropping knockouts.
There is the notion that the winner of the middleweight class on the fourth season of TUF will get a crack at the title, but the peculiar situation is that throughout the entire season thus far, it’s been built up that the winner will be fighting Franklin. The editing team will be hard at work for the next few weeks in order to make sure it is known that the winner won’t be fighting Franklin for his title because, well, he no longer owns it.
But — and I type this with much respect to the combatants — who out of the cast of contenders even stand a remote chance of wresting the middleweight title from Silva? The answer is nobody and in the grand scheme of things, that is a priceless situation for Zuffa to be in right now.
Most everybody knows that knockout artists sell more than any other sort of fighter save for Randy Couture (Pictures) or cats with loud mouths like Tito Ortiz (Pictures) and Muhammad Ali. Just peak back over the years and see which fighters were the most popular: Mike Tyson (brutal knockout power), Oscar De La Hoya (early in his career when the fame started to kick in, he was knocking out everybody), Chuck Liddell (Pictures) (savage KO power), Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) (highlight reel KOs), Mirko Filipovic (Pictures) (probably the best KO artist in MMA today) and Marvin Hagler (enough said).
With Silva now their champion, it surely is a Capuan predicament for both Zuffa and Silva.
Sure, Patrick Cote (Pictures) has enough pop to put people to sleep, but he is nowhere near the type of striker that Anderson Silva is. Just look at his memorable tussle with Leben to realize that and if Silva can obliterate Leben, he’ll do the same to Cote. Travis Lutter (Pictures) is an exceptional fighter but his only chance of survival is to bring Silva to the ground (Anderson has been submitted only twice and once was via the greatest submission I’ve ever seen). Edwin Dewees (Pictures) just can’t beat Silva and neither can Pete Sell (Pictures), it’s as simple as that.
So that leaves a handful of fighters in PRIDE and the WFA who can not only hang with Silva, but who can also beat him. For starters there is Matt Lindland (Pictures), a man who was publicly promised twice a shot at the middleweight title from Dana White, only to get booted from the UFC due to a contractual loophole. Lindland can and probably will beat Silva, provided they ever face off (rumor has it that the UFC desperately wants to re-sign Lindland).
PRIDE 185-pound champ Dan Henderson (Pictures) is probably the fiercest middleweight on the planet and he’d likely stop Silva via brutal ground-and-pound. And then there is the vastly underrated Paulo Filho (Pictures), in my opinion the best all-around man at 185 pounds. He’s just now starting to gain some recognition and it’s Filho, Lindland and Henderson that provide the biggest threat to Silva if there was the slightest chance any combination of those fights ever happening, assuming Zuffa sticks with Silva (more on that later).
As for Franklin, it might be hard for him to bounce back from this loss without first rebuilding his career by stomping out a few tune-up fights. If the UFC was smart, which for the most part they are, they would allow Franklin to fully rest, let his shattered and distorted nose heal and once he’s ready, let him feast on meager opposition.
Now I am all about pitting the best against the best every time out, but from a marketing standpoint, it would be crucial for the UFC to rebuild Franklin, an obviously popular fighter. And unless White allows Silva to fight the guys from PRIDE or the WFA, by the time Franklin is ready to bounce back Silva will still be the champion with about four more destructive title defenses under his title belt.
Florian deserves more respect; Sherk is simply that good
Sean Sherk (Pictures) waited for this moment ever since he dropped a spirited decision to UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes (Pictures) in 2003. Sherk toiled away, almost quitting mixed martial arts before racking up important wins and being invited back into the UFC.
Sherk dropped down to lightweight and after a few strokes of good fortune he found himself in the middle of a UFC lightweight title fight. The man standing across for him the same title was TUF 1 runner-up Kenny Florian (Pictures).
Seconds before the bout kicked off it was a rather precarious moment for each fighter, as they stood equidistant from the lightweight title. One had worked diligently in smaller shows after losing in his first UFC title bid. The other had far fewer fights and enjoyed huge (for MMA standards) fame from being a reality TV star. Both had earned their title shots in vastly different fashion, yet each was as deserving of the lightweight belt, again, for different reasons.
The true deciding factor on the fight’s outcome centered on whether Florian would be able to stuff Sherk’s shots and keep the fight on his feet for as long as he could. Florian has a solid Muay Thai background and his kicks do more than enough damage. However, if Florian was to be unsuccessful in keeping Sherk away from his legs, most knew Florian would be pulled out to sea and drowned in deep, bloody, treacherous shark-infested waters (put intended without shame).
The answer to that question, the most important inquiry of them all, was answered merely a few seconds into the contest.
Florian couldn’t defend the takedown and Sherk was too skilled and too powerful to be caught in any submission thrown his way. Even though Florian opened up a nasty gash on Sherk’s head, Kenny’s lack of experience against such powerful and explosive fighters like Sherk was crystal clear.
As it turned out, Sherk had his way with the lankier Florian and won a lopsided (on paper, anyway) unanimous decision. When it was all said and done and after the blood had dried on the Octagon canvas, Sherk made a resounding statement, one that proclaimed him as arguably the most dangerous fighter at 155 pounds. Florian, as good and underrated as he is, was simply a fighter déclassé.
Sherk has a ton of potential opponents lined up to take a stab at stealing his title, but no matter whom it is nobody will steamroll the muscle-bound “Shark.”
Hermes Franca (Pictures), Yves Edwards (Pictures), Joe Stevenson (Pictures), Clay Guida and Josh Thomson (Pictures) all pose substantial threats to Sherk’s new throne, but I don’t see any one of them toppling him.
Again, just as in Silva’s situation at middleweight, it seems as though the two biggest threats at lifting the UFC 155 pound lie in the Land of the Rising Sun: Gilbert Melendez (Pictures) and Takanori Gomi (Pictures). Hopefully after Sherk is settled into his new UFC champion contract and after he builds a larger fan base, he can lock horns with either of PRIDE’s two finest lightweights.
The massive failure of the massive Frenchman
As it turns out, Cheick Kongo (Pictures) isn’t what he was cracked up to be. It was clear that over the past few months Zuffa was doing everything it could to uncover and then erect a new dominant heavyweight, a fighter who could possibly make the paltry UFC division respectable again.
Face it, the only man under contract who has a remote chance of snatching Tim Sylvia (Pictures)’s title is Andrei Arlovski (Pictures), but who in their right mind wants to see a fourth encounter between the two, especially after the dreadful rubber match at the atrocious UFC 61 card?
The answer is nobody.
So Zuffa concocted a plan to build the menacing Kongo by having him blow through cannon fodder hopeful Carmelo Marrero (Pictures). As it turned out, not only can Kongo not defend a takedown at this juncture, he also can’t apply a guillotine, a Kimura or an armbar.
Sure, he can strike all day long and his knees are lethal, but it’s almost pitiful to see this “next great thing” get steamrolled by literal unknown Marrero. Kudos goes to Marrero for not crumbling under the pressure and easily toppling Kongo. Now if only he would have gotten that deserved unanimous decision.
Will this and past seasons of TUF hinder the UFC?
The answer is not really.
Sure, every fighter from the reality shows have thus far suffered losses except for Sanchez, Michael Bisping (Pictures) and Rashad Evans (Pictures) (Kendall Grove (Pictures) will be tasting defeat very quickly if he’s rushed, trust me), but that doesn’t mean that the show is sapping integrity from the UFC or MMA in general.
In fact, watching these guys lose just further demonstrates that in order to keep winning in this sport or to keep an unblemished record intact, you have to be a superior fighter, a sensational warrior.
Also, when each one of these reality stars gets his head caved in, it just further separates true contenders from pretenders. Fighters will always lose and that is a simple fact of this sport. It takes a keen eye and some luck to uncover that special fighter, one who will become an all-time great.
TUF at least gives the UFC and fans a simple basis of recognizing talented fighters. Once these popular fighters either win or lose to journeymen, contenders or champions, hopefully then the trained observer will be able to differentiate between a platinum-selling album and a supermarket bargain bin piece of recorded garbage.
UFC 64 in general, an adequate card at best
While it wasn’t dreadful to watch like UFC 61 or 33, Saturday’s card certainly doesn’t rank up there among the top 30 in UFC history. There were a few decent fights, a few terribly boring ones and one great knockout. That combined does not a great event make, believe me.
The trend these days with the UFC is that even though there is a treasure trove of available fighters at Zuffa’s disposal, only a few men actually go out there with the mindset of winning at all costs. Usually I’ll watch fights unfold and within a few minutes I know exactly that a fighter is out there trying not to lose when he should be trying to win. When fighters are trying at all costs to win, it always makes for better action. And these days everybody knows that even if you lose as long as you are exciting, you’ll be welcomed back into the UFC. It would be great if every fighter understood this.
Misc. Debris
I found it amusing to see PRIDE fighters Mark Coleman (Pictures) and Kevin Randleman (Pictures) hanging out at the arena after the event. They were taking pictures and promoting Saturday’s PRIDE event in Las Vegas. I wonder if the Zuffa Police Department spotted them and had the two removed because suddenly the Hammer House brothers were mysteriously absent. …
Don’t believe the hype, UFC 64 was not sold out. I wonder if the main event kept fans away or if there it’s just too many UFC events these days — all with hefty price tags — that has kept the fans away. Obviously, the Mandalay Bay Events Center was a near sell-out, but gone is the silly talk of tickets going for $9,000 on EBay. In fact, most scalpers I spoke to were in desperation and trying to get rid of their tickets at face either value or below.
Speaking of EBay, when that whole “$9,000 ticket” on the bidding Web site was running rampant in the MMA news, I actually never saw such an instance. I hit up EBay all the time and when the reports of such an absurd notion that a UFC event’s ticket was selling for $9,000, I jumped to try and find it. Naturally, no such find on my end and I’m convinced it was all marketing smoke and mirrors.
It’s funny how when I mentioned that nonsense back in February, the UFC has never made such a ludicrous statement since. What’s the word I am looking for? You know the one. …
What saddened me after witnessing Silva literally rearrange Franklin’s face is the fact the thousands in attendance inside the arena booed Silva after he won. I can understand that Franklin has a legion of fans, if the fight was stopped prematurely or if Silva used illegal tactics, but to boo a guy after winning in such emphatic fashion, to me, is classless. One positive from that occurrence, though, is that Silva probably couldn’t care less about being booed. …
One last thing about Anderson Silva, he speaks no English. How is the UFC going to market this guy when he can’t speak the common language of the States? My guess is that if fans don’t care for him because he knocked out Franklin or that he is from a foreign country, Lindland will be resigned just so Zuffa can have an English-speaking champ.
Naturally, I am not accusing Zuffa of bigotry or that they are unsympathetic to a fighter with a language barrier, but I remember both the Alamo and Murilo Bustamante (Pictures) when he held that very belt Silva now possesses. Zuffa is a brilliant marketing machine and I’m curious to see how well they handle the non-English-speaking Silva. My opinion is that Zuffa will try like hell to make Silva a star regardless of the fact that he only speaks Portuguese and if he can’t transition his skills into huge monetary gains for Zuffa, Lindland or even Henderson will miraculously be signed.
Looking closely at this past weekend’s UFC inside the Mandalay Bay Events Center, quite a few thoughts popped into my mind.
Not only were a few questions answered, but also some of the results opened up an entirely new packet of queries. And it might take months before these new ones they are truly answered — but in all actuality, that is a good thing.
Already there are people jumping off the Rich Franklin (Pictures) bandwagon, leaping onto the Anderson Silva bandwagon and also ripping into Dana White’s brainchild, his reality series The Ultimate Fighter.
For starters, those of you with even the slightest bit of intelligence should calm your nerves and take a few breaths before jumping to conclusions. There are hundreds of “told you so blah blah blahs” running rampant on our Sherdog forums alone, and that’s not even including the various other mixed martial arts forums and chat rooms on the Net.
Fans and media alike are always a bit too quick to jump the gun, either discounting fighters after losses or hyping them after victories. And it appears to me that most of these individuals simply complain, vent or praise just to do it, without having any sort of validity behind their statements.
For example, there have been quite a few posts over the weekend where some people have called Franklin a fraud, saying he was a terrible fighter to begin with and that Silva exposed him. Others have said already that Kenny Florian (Pictures) was just an over-hyped reality star that doesn’t even belong inside the Octagon. And others have complained since Day One that the Zuffa/Spike TV reality show, which has essentially brought the UFC as close to mainstream as it probably ever will come, is a complete waste of time; a show that will ruin the sport of MMA as a whole.
Granted, some of these statements have validity as long as they convey a message with some sort of intelligence. For me, personally, I enjoy a chance to see both sides of the fence in almost every debate and after watching UFC 64 I can understand one person’s point of view over another.
So, to keep it somewhat entertaining, I’ll elaborate a bit deeper this time around, and give my two cents on Saturday’s UFC and its aftermath.
There is a new sheriff in town and he speaks Portuguese
Most fans and media alike agreed that while Anderson Silva was spectacular in blitzing Chris Leben (Pictures) a few months back, he would be trumped by then middleweight champion Rich Franklin (Pictures). People who really follow the sport agreed that the fight would be decided by whoever made the first mistake, but still most favored Franklin to successfully defend his title. As it turned out, Franklin utilized an improper game plan to attack Silva and it cost him his UFC 185-pound title.
Franklin had been on a roll, ripping apart every fighter thrown in front of him. He was a coach on The Ultimate Fighter 2, starred in a Xyience commercial and because of both his good looks and highlight reel knockouts, eventually became a fan favorite. But like all good things that come to an end, his title reign lasted only two fights and on Saturday night, he suffered the first loss of his UFC career, the second ever blemish in his overall MMA record.
What led to the demise of Franklin’s title reign?
Well, a few factors could be the reason but nobody can actually know at this point. Franklin did look a bit sluggish once the bell rung to start off the contest, and even during the exchanges, “Ace” was stiff and rigid.
Maybe he had a hard time making weight and had become emaciated. Maybe he had some sort of injury that only he and his team knew about. Maybe he took Silva lightly. Or maybe he simply became too brave for his own good and deviated from his originally game plan.
Maybe it was none of the above.
What can be said for certain, however, is the leading factor as to why Franklin was knocked out late in the first round was due to the fact that he was locked inside the cage with Anderson Silva. I’ve said for years that Silva is clearly the best all-around striker in the middleweight division and it could be argued that no other fighter in MMA strikes as perfectly, with as much accuracy or with such concussive force as Silva.
Franklin is a superb striker and his punches are crippling, but his stand-up skill pales to Silva’s in the overall scheme of things. One should look no further than Silva’s decimations of Leben, Tony Fryklund (Pictures), Curtis Stout (Pictures), Jorge Rivera (Pictures), and Carlos Newton (Pictures) to heed this case.
So where do both fighters go from here? The answer, really, is an obvious one. Dana White is becoming smarter in realizing what fighters are more marketable than others and he will probably start lining up such contenders as Mike Swick (Pictures), David Loiseau (Pictures) and others for a shot at not only Silva’s title, but as a medium to allow Silva to rack up more jaw-dropping knockouts.
There is the notion that the winner of the middleweight class on the fourth season of TUF will get a crack at the title, but the peculiar situation is that throughout the entire season thus far, it’s been built up that the winner will be fighting Franklin. The editing team will be hard at work for the next few weeks in order to make sure it is known that the winner won’t be fighting Franklin for his title because, well, he no longer owns it.
But — and I type this with much respect to the combatants — who out of the cast of contenders even stand a remote chance of wresting the middleweight title from Silva? The answer is nobody and in the grand scheme of things, that is a priceless situation for Zuffa to be in right now.
Most everybody knows that knockout artists sell more than any other sort of fighter save for Randy Couture (Pictures) or cats with loud mouths like Tito Ortiz (Pictures) and Muhammad Ali. Just peak back over the years and see which fighters were the most popular: Mike Tyson (brutal knockout power), Oscar De La Hoya (early in his career when the fame started to kick in, he was knocking out everybody), Chuck Liddell (Pictures) (savage KO power), Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) (highlight reel KOs), Mirko Filipovic (Pictures) (probably the best KO artist in MMA today) and Marvin Hagler (enough said).
With Silva now their champion, it surely is a Capuan predicament for both Zuffa and Silva.
Sure, Patrick Cote (Pictures) has enough pop to put people to sleep, but he is nowhere near the type of striker that Anderson Silva is. Just look at his memorable tussle with Leben to realize that and if Silva can obliterate Leben, he’ll do the same to Cote. Travis Lutter (Pictures) is an exceptional fighter but his only chance of survival is to bring Silva to the ground (Anderson has been submitted only twice and once was via the greatest submission I’ve ever seen). Edwin Dewees (Pictures) just can’t beat Silva and neither can Pete Sell (Pictures), it’s as simple as that.
So that leaves a handful of fighters in PRIDE and the WFA who can not only hang with Silva, but who can also beat him. For starters there is Matt Lindland (Pictures), a man who was publicly promised twice a shot at the middleweight title from Dana White, only to get booted from the UFC due to a contractual loophole. Lindland can and probably will beat Silva, provided they ever face off (rumor has it that the UFC desperately wants to re-sign Lindland).
PRIDE 185-pound champ Dan Henderson (Pictures) is probably the fiercest middleweight on the planet and he’d likely stop Silva via brutal ground-and-pound. And then there is the vastly underrated Paulo Filho (Pictures), in my opinion the best all-around man at 185 pounds. He’s just now starting to gain some recognition and it’s Filho, Lindland and Henderson that provide the biggest threat to Silva if there was the slightest chance any combination of those fights ever happening, assuming Zuffa sticks with Silva (more on that later).
As for Franklin, it might be hard for him to bounce back from this loss without first rebuilding his career by stomping out a few tune-up fights. If the UFC was smart, which for the most part they are, they would allow Franklin to fully rest, let his shattered and distorted nose heal and once he’s ready, let him feast on meager opposition.
Now I am all about pitting the best against the best every time out, but from a marketing standpoint, it would be crucial for the UFC to rebuild Franklin, an obviously popular fighter. And unless White allows Silva to fight the guys from PRIDE or the WFA, by the time Franklin is ready to bounce back Silva will still be the champion with about four more destructive title defenses under his title belt.
Florian deserves more respect; Sherk is simply that good
Sean Sherk (Pictures) waited for this moment ever since he dropped a spirited decision to UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes (Pictures) in 2003. Sherk toiled away, almost quitting mixed martial arts before racking up important wins and being invited back into the UFC.
Sherk dropped down to lightweight and after a few strokes of good fortune he found himself in the middle of a UFC lightweight title fight. The man standing across for him the same title was TUF 1 runner-up Kenny Florian (Pictures).
Seconds before the bout kicked off it was a rather precarious moment for each fighter, as they stood equidistant from the lightweight title. One had worked diligently in smaller shows after losing in his first UFC title bid. The other had far fewer fights and enjoyed huge (for MMA standards) fame from being a reality TV star. Both had earned their title shots in vastly different fashion, yet each was as deserving of the lightweight belt, again, for different reasons.
The true deciding factor on the fight’s outcome centered on whether Florian would be able to stuff Sherk’s shots and keep the fight on his feet for as long as he could. Florian has a solid Muay Thai background and his kicks do more than enough damage. However, if Florian was to be unsuccessful in keeping Sherk away from his legs, most knew Florian would be pulled out to sea and drowned in deep, bloody, treacherous shark-infested waters (put intended without shame).
The answer to that question, the most important inquiry of them all, was answered merely a few seconds into the contest.
Florian couldn’t defend the takedown and Sherk was too skilled and too powerful to be caught in any submission thrown his way. Even though Florian opened up a nasty gash on Sherk’s head, Kenny’s lack of experience against such powerful and explosive fighters like Sherk was crystal clear.
As it turned out, Sherk had his way with the lankier Florian and won a lopsided (on paper, anyway) unanimous decision. When it was all said and done and after the blood had dried on the Octagon canvas, Sherk made a resounding statement, one that proclaimed him as arguably the most dangerous fighter at 155 pounds. Florian, as good and underrated as he is, was simply a fighter déclassé.
Sherk has a ton of potential opponents lined up to take a stab at stealing his title, but no matter whom it is nobody will steamroll the muscle-bound “Shark.”
Hermes Franca (Pictures), Yves Edwards (Pictures), Joe Stevenson (Pictures), Clay Guida and Josh Thomson (Pictures) all pose substantial threats to Sherk’s new throne, but I don’t see any one of them toppling him.
Again, just as in Silva’s situation at middleweight, it seems as though the two biggest threats at lifting the UFC 155 pound lie in the Land of the Rising Sun: Gilbert Melendez (Pictures) and Takanori Gomi (Pictures). Hopefully after Sherk is settled into his new UFC champion contract and after he builds a larger fan base, he can lock horns with either of PRIDE’s two finest lightweights.
The massive failure of the massive Frenchman
As it turns out, Cheick Kongo (Pictures) isn’t what he was cracked up to be. It was clear that over the past few months Zuffa was doing everything it could to uncover and then erect a new dominant heavyweight, a fighter who could possibly make the paltry UFC division respectable again.
Face it, the only man under contract who has a remote chance of snatching Tim Sylvia (Pictures)’s title is Andrei Arlovski (Pictures), but who in their right mind wants to see a fourth encounter between the two, especially after the dreadful rubber match at the atrocious UFC 61 card?
The answer is nobody.
So Zuffa concocted a plan to build the menacing Kongo by having him blow through cannon fodder hopeful Carmelo Marrero (Pictures). As it turned out, not only can Kongo not defend a takedown at this juncture, he also can’t apply a guillotine, a Kimura or an armbar.
Sure, he can strike all day long and his knees are lethal, but it’s almost pitiful to see this “next great thing” get steamrolled by literal unknown Marrero. Kudos goes to Marrero for not crumbling under the pressure and easily toppling Kongo. Now if only he would have gotten that deserved unanimous decision.
Will this and past seasons of TUF hinder the UFC?
The answer is not really.
Sure, every fighter from the reality shows have thus far suffered losses except for Sanchez, Michael Bisping (Pictures) and Rashad Evans (Pictures) (Kendall Grove (Pictures) will be tasting defeat very quickly if he’s rushed, trust me), but that doesn’t mean that the show is sapping integrity from the UFC or MMA in general.
In fact, watching these guys lose just further demonstrates that in order to keep winning in this sport or to keep an unblemished record intact, you have to be a superior fighter, a sensational warrior.
Also, when each one of these reality stars gets his head caved in, it just further separates true contenders from pretenders. Fighters will always lose and that is a simple fact of this sport. It takes a keen eye and some luck to uncover that special fighter, one who will become an all-time great.
TUF at least gives the UFC and fans a simple basis of recognizing talented fighters. Once these popular fighters either win or lose to journeymen, contenders or champions, hopefully then the trained observer will be able to differentiate between a platinum-selling album and a supermarket bargain bin piece of recorded garbage.
UFC 64 in general, an adequate card at best
While it wasn’t dreadful to watch like UFC 61 or 33, Saturday’s card certainly doesn’t rank up there among the top 30 in UFC history. There were a few decent fights, a few terribly boring ones and one great knockout. That combined does not a great event make, believe me.
The trend these days with the UFC is that even though there is a treasure trove of available fighters at Zuffa’s disposal, only a few men actually go out there with the mindset of winning at all costs. Usually I’ll watch fights unfold and within a few minutes I know exactly that a fighter is out there trying not to lose when he should be trying to win. When fighters are trying at all costs to win, it always makes for better action. And these days everybody knows that even if you lose as long as you are exciting, you’ll be welcomed back into the UFC. It would be great if every fighter understood this.
Misc. Debris
I found it amusing to see PRIDE fighters Mark Coleman (Pictures) and Kevin Randleman (Pictures) hanging out at the arena after the event. They were taking pictures and promoting Saturday’s PRIDE event in Las Vegas. I wonder if the Zuffa Police Department spotted them and had the two removed because suddenly the Hammer House brothers were mysteriously absent. …
Don’t believe the hype, UFC 64 was not sold out. I wonder if the main event kept fans away or if there it’s just too many UFC events these days — all with hefty price tags — that has kept the fans away. Obviously, the Mandalay Bay Events Center was a near sell-out, but gone is the silly talk of tickets going for $9,000 on EBay. In fact, most scalpers I spoke to were in desperation and trying to get rid of their tickets at face either value or below.
Speaking of EBay, when that whole “$9,000 ticket” on the bidding Web site was running rampant in the MMA news, I actually never saw such an instance. I hit up EBay all the time and when the reports of such an absurd notion that a UFC event’s ticket was selling for $9,000, I jumped to try and find it. Naturally, no such find on my end and I’m convinced it was all marketing smoke and mirrors.
It’s funny how when I mentioned that nonsense back in February, the UFC has never made such a ludicrous statement since. What’s the word I am looking for? You know the one. …
What saddened me after witnessing Silva literally rearrange Franklin’s face is the fact the thousands in attendance inside the arena booed Silva after he won. I can understand that Franklin has a legion of fans, if the fight was stopped prematurely or if Silva used illegal tactics, but to boo a guy after winning in such emphatic fashion, to me, is classless. One positive from that occurrence, though, is that Silva probably couldn’t care less about being booed. …
One last thing about Anderson Silva, he speaks no English. How is the UFC going to market this guy when he can’t speak the common language of the States? My guess is that if fans don’t care for him because he knocked out Franklin or that he is from a foreign country, Lindland will be resigned just so Zuffa can have an English-speaking champ.
Naturally, I am not accusing Zuffa of bigotry or that they are unsympathetic to a fighter with a language barrier, but I remember both the Alamo and Murilo Bustamante (Pictures) when he held that very belt Silva now possesses. Zuffa is a brilliant marketing machine and I’m curious to see how well they handle the non-English-speaking Silva. My opinion is that Zuffa will try like hell to make Silva a star regardless of the fact that he only speaks Portuguese and if he can’t transition his skills into huge monetary gains for Zuffa, Lindland or even Henderson will miraculously be signed.