Author: Anthony Gannon

Why the MMA Heavyweight Division Has Always Lacked Depth

Since there’s been a heavyweight division in MMA there has always been a discussion about its lack of depth.   It’s not a discussion without merit, it’s just being looked at from the wrong lens. Back in 2005-06 it seemed like Tim …

Since there’s been a heavyweight division in MMA there has always been a discussion about its lack of depth.  

It’s not a discussion without merit, it’s just being looked at from the wrong lens. 

Back in 2005-06 it seemed like Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski fought a dozen times. In actuality, they fought three times, but for a time they were the only decent big guys on the UFC’s roster. Basically, there was no one else for them to fight but each other.

It’s a problem that has always plagued the heavyweight division. Lighter-weight classes are strong up to 15, sometimes 20 fighters. Of course they’re not all realistic title contenders, but they’re high-quality fighters. At heavyweight, we’ve always been lucky to have eight or nine top guys.

The reason there are more quality lighter weight fighters is quite simple: There just aren’t that many athletic, 6-3, 250-pound guys in the world. And most of the gargantuan kids who will grow into these monstrous men are groomed from adolescence for the more traditional stick-and-ball sports. This waters down an already shallow gene pool.  

There’s no shortage of guys standing 5-7 to 5-11 and weighing between 160 and 190 pounds. They’re called lightweights and welterweights, and it’s no wonder why those divisions are the deepest; they’re comprised of average-sized adult males and therefore have much larger talent pools.  

Mark Hunt has recently been hoisted up on the shoulders of MMA fans, not without strain, and shoved into the title discussion. He’s won three straight in the UFC, but with no win coming against top-10 competition he’s a tough sell.  

However, the fact that he’s had such forceful lobbying on his behalf, including the influential voice of Joe Rogan, is a verification of the heavyweight division’s lack of depth and how a fighter needs only a few decent wins to be in title consideration.  

Brock Lesnar was granted a title shot after only a single win in the Octagon. Granted, that was due to his immense popularity, but even with his legion of fans it wouldn’t have been possible to rush him into a title shot in any other division considering his inadequate resume. 

Contrast that with welterweights such as Jim Miller, who even with seven straight victories never earned a title shot, or Jon Fitch, who had to win eight straight to get his shot.  

A heavyweight can get a title fight after only a few wins because there just aren’t that many nimble monsters roaming the planet.  

Call it unfair, but it’s basic economics. It’s the same reason why there’s a pay disparity. Why does a mid-level heavyweight generally earn more than a top-level lightweight? Because there’s a shortage of them, and shortages bring about higher prices.  

On the other hand, surpluses lead to lower prices, and there’s certainly a surplus of lightweights in MMA.  

It’s the same reason why you can get a 37” flat-screen LCD for $250 right now.

During the heyday of the UFC vs. Pride rivalry, the focus was on who had the better fighters. Most divisions were relatively comparable, but Pride was seen as having the superior heavyweight division. In reality, it only had four or five really top-shelf heavyweights to the UFC’s two or three, but in such a shallow talent pool even the slightest disparity has great significance.  

It may seem like a problem, but the heavyweight picture has actually never been better. With a monopoly over the upper level of the sport, the UFC has been able to bring all the best heavyweights under one banner.

The division will probably always be looked upon as the most shallow, but it’s only because of biology and evolution.

Look around. Chances are most of the really big guys you see walking around don’t have the athleticism to bowl 10 frames, let alone compete in a physically demanding, multifaceted sport like MMA.  

The heavyweight division doesn’t have a shortage of quality fighters. The human race has a shortage of enormous athletes.

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UFC: 7 Fights That Changed the Sport Forever

The UFC has come a long way since its inception in 1993. First billed as a “no-holds barred” competition to decide the age-old question of which fighting style reigned supreme, now the sport boasts legions of loyal fans, hundreds of millions of dollars…

The UFC has come a long way since its inception in 1993. First billed as a “no-holds barred” competition to decide the age-old question of which fighting style reigned supreme, now the sport boasts legions of loyal fans, hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue and a long-term network television deal.

The road wasn’t always smooth. There were plenty of bumps, detours and roadblocks. But the wise business decisions made by the current owners, Zuffa, and most significantly, the superb battles put on by the fighters, have produced a mixed martial arts brand that has stood the test of time and prospered.

The future is bright indeed, and these seven fights are the reason why.

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UFC on FUEL 2: Making a Case to Air the Full Card on Facebook

I was as excited as anyone when the UFC announced their blockbuster deal with FOX. It not only meant that our beloved sport took a major step toward mainstream acceptance, but it meant more fights on network television…for free.   That&rsqu…

I was as excited as anyone when the UFC announced their blockbuster deal with FOX. It not only meant that our beloved sport took a major step toward mainstream acceptance, but it meant more fights on network television…for free.  

That’s a big deal. Being a MMA fan is expensive. In 2011, the UFC put on 17 pay-per-view events. At about $50 a pop, that comes to $850 a year. Plus there’s that necessary Showtime subscription to watch all the Strikeforce action. So we’re talking upwards of $1,000 a year.

The FOX deal meant that there would be more fights on free TV, and that’s never a bad thing.  

But what’s up with FUEL TV?  

I don’t know about you, but I don’t get it. Very few people I know get it. Obviously that makes watching the events on the channel problematic.  

The UFC has done a marvelous job of presenting every fight to the fans. They started off using Facebook, which was ingenious. Then they started airing the undercard action on FX and FUEL. Now they’re doing main cards on FUEL with the undercards on Facebook.  

I’ve got to hand it to Dana White, he made good on a promise of a few years ago to make every single fight the UFC puts on available to the fans.  

But hardly anyone has access to FUEL. It’s available in only 36 million homes in America. Compare that to Spike and FX, which are available in nearly 100 million homes, and you can see the problem. 

I understand that it was just part of the deal. Fox wanted to shore up the lagging FUEL network, and what better way to do that then to put the UFC on there? After all, the UFC made Spike TV what it is today. 

But MMA fans are missing out on some very quality matchups due to the limited reach of the channel. Presumably they’re working on deals with more cable providers to remedy this. And that’s great, but in the meantime we’re missing fights like Diego Sanchez vs. Jake Ellenberger, and the upcoming Alexander Gustafsson vs. Thiago Silva fight at the UFC on FUEL 2 event taking place this Saturday.  

These are important fights that should be widely available.  

I propose an uncomplicated solution: put the FUEL fights on Facebook as well. It wouldn’t affect ratings; it’s hard to imagine anyone who has FUEL opting to watch a fight on some low quality, tiny Facebook feed when they can watch it on the big screen. And the undercard is already going to be on Facebook, so it’s not like they’d have to jump through hoops to make this happen. The system is already in place.  

It’s a simple fix to a simple problem, at least until the execs at FUEL can get their product out to a much larger audience.  

MMA fans are fanatical. We need our fights, and we get very irritated when we cannot watch them.  

So let us join in solidarity and begin a Twitter campaign to Dana White with this simple request. If it’s simply not doable, then fine. But if it is, then it’s worth a shot.

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MMA News: Is Jon Jones the Next Big Thing?

Whenever discussing the dominance of a particular fighter it’s become customary to add the disclaimer that in MMA no one is infallible.The reason is simple: No matter how great a fighter seems, no matter how unbeatable they appear, this is MMA, and eve…

Whenever discussing the dominance of a particular fighter it’s become customary to add the disclaimer that in MMA no one is infallible.

The reason is simple: No matter how great a fighter seems, no matter how unbeatable they appear, this is MMA, and eventually everyone loses.

That’s why we love this sport though, isn’t it?

After all, we watched in amazement as Matt Serra shocked the world by knocking out Georges St. Pierre when he seemed invincible. We were dazzled when Ryo Chonan busted out a radical flying-scissor-heel-hook on Anderson Silva. We wept when Fabricio Werdum locked that triangle onto the mighty Fedor.

The one incontrovertible truth in MMA is that everyone loses.

Jon Jones is the latest hype train we’ve hopped onto. He’s young, freakishly gifted, and it looks like it’s going to be a while before he loses.

His 2011, four-fight run of absolute conquest is without question the most impressive single year by any mixed martial artist of any time. Ryan Bader, Shogun Rua, Rampage Jackson, Lyoto Machida—he didn’t simply beat them. He destroyed them.  

So does Rashad Evans have a chance when he faces Jon Jones on April 21? 

Of course he does. He’s a bad dude with a lot of power. He has a chance…it’s just not a very good one.

Jones isn’t the best striker out there, nor is he the best grappler. What he is the best at is utilizing his gifts, in particular his length. His 84.5” reach is the longest in the sport. A jab appears to come from across the cage, a front kick from the fourth row.

Others with similar reach, such as Stefan Struve, have no clue how to utilize that immense advantage to their benefit. Jones gets it, and it’s that ability to control the distance that makes him so dominant.

If an opponent is lucky enough to get inside of his range, they then have to contend with his devastating Greco-Roman skills, spinning back-fists, suplexes, flying knees and a plethora of other forms of hurt.

Basically, what makes that huge reach so advantageous is that it’s complemented by his impressive short game.

And that’s what makes Jon Jones so great; not one particular skill, but the sum of all his components. It’s rare that a fighter is ever able to concoct such a potent elixir of all their particular talents, especially at the tender age of 24.

Jones’ trainer, the esteemed Greg Jackson, has done a masterful job molding his gifted pupil into—dare I say it—the perfect fighter.

Most fighters are limited by their abilities, so their trainers must work around those limitations to accentuate strengths while protecting weaknesses.

Jones has no such confines.

His primacy at such a young age is a testament to that. Even the lone blemish on his record (a disqualification loss to Matt Hamill) was a brutal display of other-worldly dominion.

The most terrifying thing about Jon Jones is that he is the UFC light-heavyweight champion who has run through the division’s top competitors, and he has yet to be really tested.

Against Rampage, he ran into a guy he couldn’t easily toss around like a grappling dummy. Against Machida he finally got punched square in the face. He easily adapted to those contingencies, and still dominated.

What’s going to happen when someone finally puts Jones on his back? That’s what we need to see before we go declaring Jon Jones the Second Coming.

If anyone can test him it’s Rashad Evans.

Rashad is probably the most effective wrestler in the light-heavyweight division. It’s quite clear that standing outside of Jones’ range eating knuckles and shins all night is a fool’s errand. Someone has to get in his face and put him in some trouble.

Rashad could be that guy. Make no mistake, aside from being a skilled fighter, Rashad is a winner, and that’s his greatest asset.

I fully expect Jones to beat Rashad in a fairly commanding performance, but I will feel cheated if I don’t get to see Jon Jones put into another challenging position, just to see how he reacts to it.

You would think that as the champion any questions about passing tests would be put to rest. The guy is at the top of his division. He’s already passed all the tests.

But this isn’t about that. He’s already the best 205-pounder in the world. These tests are to see if he’s the best fighter in MMA.

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Can Chael Sonnen Beat Anderson Silva the Second Time Around?

Back at UFC 117, Chael Sonnen came within two agonizing minutes of pulling off the seemingly impossible: beating Anderson Silva. It just wasn’t to be on that fateful night in the summer of 2010. On June 23, however, Sonnen will get a second chanc…

Back at UFC 117, Chael Sonnen came within two agonizing minutes of pulling off the seemingly impossible: beating Anderson Silva. It just wasn’t to be on that fateful night in the summer of 2010. On June 23, however, Sonnen will get a second chance.  

In that bout, Sonnen repeatedly took Silva down and put enough of a beating on him to keep the fight in his domain. But at the 3:10 mark of the fifth round, Chael pulled a classic Sonnenism and succumbed to a dramatic triangle choke. It was the eighth submission loss of his career.

Even with such a crushing defeat, though, Sonnen had achieved a feat no other man has in the Octagon: he showed that Anderson Silva is human; he bleeds red and puts his pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us, and it’s possible he can be beaten.  

The question on everyone’s mind is the same: Can Sonnen Xerox his last performance (at least the first 22 minutes of it) without falling victim to the submission threat that has plagued his entire career?

Sonnen has only one path to victory against Silva: relentless takedowns and enough activity to keep the fight on the mat, the same blueprint he used in their first fight.

Silva is too devastating a striker for Sonnen to survive in the stand-up realm for very long. He simply must take Silva down at the beginning of every round and keep him there.  

But that leaves him susceptible to Silva’s submissions, which are some of the finest in the sport. Five rounds is a long time to fend off submissions when you have been as historically atrocious at defending them as Sonnen has.  

Not to mention the fact that Chael was suspended after their fight for having four times the allowable testosterone/epitestosterone ratio for athletes. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that’s a performance enhancer, and whether it helped Sonnen is a futile debate.

The urinalysis confirmed it was in his system, and that fact alone leaves a gigantic question mark lingering over his awesome performance.  

It can be argued that a fighter with a legitimate testosterone deficiency who uses medically prescribed testosterone replacement therapy under the close supervision of a doctor is simply evening the playing field, but four times the allowable limit can be seen as nothing other than trying to gain an unfair advantage, or to put it more bluntly, cheating. Even with that advantage, Chael couldn’t get the job done.  

Anderson Silva is a killer possessing the most varied offensive arsenal the sport has ever seen. Once he calibrates the distance from his fists to his opponent’s chin and those hands start spinning, it’s usually just a matter of time.

Bizarre decision wins against Patrick Cote, Thales Leites, and Demian Maia aside, Silva has finished every one of his 11 other opponents in the UFC. That’s a staggering feat.

Other phenomenal fighters, such as Georges St. Pierre, are given a pass for failing to finish at the top level, while Silva has consistently finished the best the sport has to offer.  

Sonnen, on the other hand, is not a killer. Of his six wins in the UFC, only one has ended before the final buzzer: a dominating submission win over Brian Stann. Chael is more a grinder; a point fighter.

A title fight is 25 minutes. Sonnen will likely be able to plant Silva on his back on most of his takedown attempts, and he’s active enough to stay in dominant position, but he does little damage, and must win a decision.  

Sonnen needs every second of those 25 minutes to win. Silva needs but a nanosecond. Chael had his chance back at UFC 117 when he was oozing with testosterone and fought a nearly perfect fight.

Too many things have to go right for him to win, while too many things have to go wrong for Silva to lose. The odds simply do not favor a Sonnen victory.  

The stars have to be perfectly aligned. The moon has to be in a harmonious two-step with the seas. And the gods of submission defense would have to be feeling mighty charitable for Chael Sonnen to pull this off.

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