Author: Ben Fowlkes

Bob Sapp Doesn’t Mind Being Mocked, as Long as He Gets Paid

If you ask Bob Sapp, he’ll tell you that it doesn’t matter what his record is as a fighter.

It doesn’t matter how many times he’s been beaten up, or how many times he’s simply folded up. It doesn’t matter what people say about him on message boards o…

If you ask Bob Sapp, he’ll tell you that it doesn’t matter what his record is as a fighter.

It doesn’t matter how many times he’s been beaten up, or how many times he’s simply folded up. It doesn’t matter what people say about him on message boards or in YouTube comments. It doesn’t matter that he’s lost six of his last eight in MMA, or seven straight as a kickboxer.

It doesn’t matter that his DIY promotion for an August 26 fight in Germany features him ripping a pair of lederhosen off his thickly muscled torso and smashing an egg on his own face in between cartoonish shouts and flubbed lines.

It doesn’t matter if he’s a walking joke to you. So he says.

“We determine success in the fight business by revenue,” Sapp said when I spoke with him this week as part of his media tour to promote his role in the new Conan the Barbarian remake.

In other words, he’s in this strictly for the money, as if there was ever any doubt.

If he gets that money by slipping into an oversized caricature of himself — an alter-ego he refers to, in all seriousness, as “The Beast” — then so be it. If his lot in combat sports is the giant who gets routinely slayed, he doesn’t mind that either — as long as there’s a paycheck in it.

“Even if you’re getting knocked out a lot, [a promoter] wants to put you on his card so you can get knocked out on his card and make things exciting,” Sapp said. “He knows at least something’s going to happen. If you’re very good, that can sometimes actually hurt you. How? Well, the promoter might say, man, he’s going to come over here and beat our champion and will raise his price or will never come back and defend the belt.”

With Sapp, there’s no such concern. It’s even part of his appeal. There’s zero danger that he’s going to roll to a boring decision. There’s very little danger he’ll even make it out of the first round.

At the same time, when you establish a reputation as the enormous buffoon who can be depended on to crash and burn more often than not, isn’t there a point when the money is a hollow comfort?

According to Sapp, not really.

“For me, it’s cold, hard business,” he said, explaining that the fans who mock him on the internet aren’t important because “they don’t have the power to hire, nor do they have to power to fire.”

“You see the comments made about me on the internet, and the internet is a negatively-charged machine when it comes down to talking fighters,” said Sapp. “You never — or very rarely — see fighters on there talking bad about other fighters. The reason for this is simple: both of them are giving and receiving brain damage for a living, so neither one wants to put each other down because they’re in the same boat. You look at keyboard warriors who just want to get on and talk bad about the people in the sport, and the problem is that everyone who’s talking bad, they wouldn’t even be able to fill a stadium with three thousand people.”

It’s a convenient view of the sport from Sapp’s perspective, one where drawing power trumps all. Who cares why people are coming to see you, as long as they’re coming? It’s also a pretty cynical view, but one that has been lucrative for Sapp.

“What it tells me is, they pay if they like you and they pay if they hate you,” he said. “That translates to me making a living.”

When it comes to sheer career hustle, it’s hard to knock the guy. He gets paid as a fighter, a pro wrestler, and an actor. In the new Conan movie he even got to “tackle a horse” thanks to movie magic, he said. In his opinion, “it looks really cool.”

And while some people might look at his record and conclude that he doesn’t seem to be taking the sport seriously much of the time, he said, they don’t realize that it’s all a consequence of that same hustle.

“My schedule fills up so ridiculously hard that you see me fighting and I take a loss or you see me fighting and I look terrible, but you have to go back and if you could see the schedule that I’m on you’d say, this is crazy. There’s nobody who should be fighting on this kind of schedule.”

And maybe he’s right. Maybe nobody should be doing it the way he has. Not unless their goal is to make as much money as quickly as possible, and they don’t care what anyone thinks about them once the ride is finally over.

 

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Monumental TV Deal Expands UFC’s Reach, but Sport Remains the Same

Filed under: UFCFarewell, Gladiator Intro Man. We hardly knew ye.

The UFC is headed to Fox, which, according to Dana White, means big changes are in the works. That gladiator who’s been gearing up at the start of every televised event for what feels l…

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Farewell, Gladiator Intro Man. We hardly knew ye.

The UFC is headed to Fox, which, according to Dana White, means big changes are in the works. That gladiator who’s been gearing up at the start of every televised event for what feels like centuries now is just the first to go. You can bet he won’t be the only casualty as the UFC upgrades its TV presence courtesy of a seven-year deal with FOX, which will bring a live UFC event to network TV this fall.

In other words, remember how your grandfather used to tell you about boxing’s heyday, when you could sit down on Friday night and watch Rocky Marciano or “Sugar” Ray Robinson duke it out on network TV in between commercials for shaving cream and hair tonic?

Yeah, this is kind of like that. Or at least, it could be, even if it probably won’t change the entirety of the MMA landscape the way some might expect.

Here’s where we are obliged to remind ourselves that this is not MMA’s first foray into live network TV. EliteXC did it, and so did Strikeforce, but both organizations did it with CBS, which never got entirely comfortable with being in the “bloodsport” business and so didn’t push MMA quite as hard as it could have.

But with a seven-year deal that will bring UFC programming to several different FOX properties, from the cable TV hinterlands of Fuel and FX to the network giant itself, the UFC now has a TV partner that isn’t just dipping its toe in the water. As White likes to say, the big challenge for a promoter is simply letting people know there’s a fight on Saturday night. When you can wave that banner during NFL games and sitcoms alike, that part of the job gets a lot easier.

At the same time, there were some conflicting messages coming out of Thursday’s press conference to announce the landmark deal. For starters, take the bold claim from FOX executives that you can hardly find an 18-35 year-old man in America who doesn’t know something about the UFC.

A) That’s not completely true, as any MMA journalist who has ever tried to explain what he or she does for a living to a confused stranger on an airplane already knows, and B) Even to the extent that it is true, what does that mean for the sport’s potential growth via network television if the public has already heard about MMA and formed an opinion on it?

Say, for example, you’re an average American pro football fan. Say you see an ad for an upcoming UFC event on FOX flash across the screen while you’re watching your beloved Seattle Seahawks play (a stretch, I know, but stick with me). Say you’re one of those aforementioned American males who has heard of the UFC before, who maybe even knows who Brock Lesnar is, but who has never seriously considered sitting down to watch an entire event before.

What’s going to change your mind this time?

Maybe it will be the fact that it’s on free TV, and on a channel you don’t have to search for. Maybe it will be the association that already exists in your mind between FOX and pro sports you enjoy. Or maybe it will be nothing, since you’ve heard of the UFC before and made either an unconscious or conscious decision not to learn anything else about it, plus the Seahawks just fumbled on the goal line so you have other things to worry about just now.

The difference may be the UFC’s willingness to roll out its biggest stars for free events on FOX, foregoing short-term pay-per-view dollars for the opportunity to create some long-term fans. The things that make Lesnar a guaranteed pay-per-view draw are the same things that might convince John Q. Sportsfan to forego his Saturday night movie date so he can stay home and watch the UFC on FOX.

Is that guy going to become a Gray Maynard fan after that one night? Probably not, and he may never get interested enough in the sport to so much as chip in on a pay-per-view. Does it matter? Not really. That’s because the UFC is already legitimate. It’s already mainstream, or at least as mainstream as two men fighting in a cage is ever going to get.

The FOX executives are mostly right when they say that, in general, most American males have some idea of what the UFC is. They also have some idea of whether they like it or not, and the channel it’s broadcast on isn’t likely to make a huge difference either way.

Of course more people will watch a UFC event on FOX, if only because more people watch what’s on network TV in general, even when it’s godawful. Some people might even take it more seriously when they see it on network TV, but some will also see it as the sporting version of ‘Temptation Island’ and dismiss it just as easily as they did when it was stuck way up on the cable dial.

Still, the increased viewership on those network TV nights will make a huge difference to sponsors and to the fighters who rely on those sponsors for a hefty chunk of their annual income. Make no mistake: this is big.

But the fact that the UFC managed to make a seven-year deal with a network like FOX should tell us that MMA is already big. The UFC is not becoming mainstream or legitimate because of this deal; the UFC got the deal because it’s mainstream and legitimate.

That doesn’t mean the entire world will suddenly fall in love with MMA. Anything with this much real blood in it has built-in limitations. If you hated the idea of two guys in compression shorts elbowing each other in the face on Spike TV, you’ll probably still hate it on FOX and FX.

Too bad though, because you’re probably going to have to hear about it a lot more often now.

 

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Brock Lesnar Is Back, and That’s Bad News for Prairie Dogs

Filed under: UFC

In case you were wondering how Brock Lesnar spent his summer vacation, the fine folks at Fusion Ammo have released this video of him having a sponsor-rific time killing prairie dogs with assault rifles in North Dakota.

Is it possible…

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In case you were wondering how Brock Lesnar spent his summer vacation, the fine folks at Fusion Ammo have released this video of him having a sponsor-rific time killing prairie dogs with assault rifles in North Dakota.

Is it possible that they’ve gone a little overboard with the guitar riffs and explosion effects in this video, considering the fact that they’re on a glorified varmint hunt with advanced high-caliber weaponry? A little, yeah.

But God bless him, nothing seems to fire Lesnar up as much as getting out in the great outdoors and killing for fun. And sure, he takes a moment to relax with some hoagies and some beef jerky (also sponsors) and talk about his MMA career, too.

“I believe there’s still a bright future in the UFC for me,” Lesnar says, after discussing his recent operation and bouts with diverticulitis. “My health is a hundred percent. I feel great. My motivation is there and I want to get on the map again. I want to become the UFC heavyweight champion again and I believe I will do that.”

In the meantime, however, he appears to be having a pretty good time bouncing small mammals across the plains with high-powered firearms.

Granted, prairie dogs are considered a pest in many places, so they probably won’t be missed too terribly in Selfridge, N.D. At the same time, there’s something incongruous about a gigantic man getting so excited about killing rodents from a great distance. Not that there’s not skill involved, but when you’ve got a scope and a shooting rest and the prairie dog has only his dichromatic vision and cooperative social instincts, it’s not exactly a sporting contest.

Of course, Lesnar is probably entirely unconcerned with the segment of the population that might be turned off by seeing him pop prairie dogs for fun. After all, he’s getting sponsor dollars for this “hunt,” and it’s not as if he was courting the PETA crowd before this video came out.

Still, when he talks about how shooting prairie dogs gave him a “respect for the smaller stuff” — and by stuff he means caliber, not the small, furry animal he just decapitated — do you think he paused at all to appreciate the irony of his own statement? No, me neither.

 

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Krzysztof Soszynski Says at Least 85 Percent of Fighters ‘Definitely Using’ PEDs

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The use of performance-enhancing drugs in MMA is far more widespread than most people realize, according to UFC light heavyweight Krzysztof Soszynski, who told Ariel Helwani on Tuesday’s edition of The MMA Hour that there are far more elite fighters using steroids, testosterone, and other PEDs than there are fighters who compete totally clean.

“I would definitely say somewhere in the percentage of 85 percent of guys are definitely using, especially the guys who can afford it are definitely using,” said Soszynski. “I would even go as high as 95 to 96 percent of the top level athletes that are definitely using it. You can clearly see it.”

Soszynski has been out of action with a knee injury since his decision victory over Mike Massenzio at UFC 131 in June, but the rehab process opened his eyes to the easy availability of performance-enhancers in MMA, he said.

“I even had someone talk to me about stem cell injections. You’re looking at stuff like EPO, and at least five or six different counterfeit drugs out there that people are using and they’re not even detectable in the body. It’s just amazing to me how far athletes are willing to go to make their mark in this sport.”

At the same time, Soszynski expressed a degree of empathy for PED users in MMA, and expressed doubt that the problem could ever be fully eradicated.

“If there’s a substance you can take out there that’s going to make you bigger, stronger, more explosive, going to help you train harder, going to help you train longer, and it’s going to help with your recovery as well, and you know if you take it the right way and follow the right instructions, you’ll never get caught for it, wouldn’t you take it?”

Soszynski said the current system that most athletic commissions use of testing fighters just prior to fight night is completely ineffective, since that’s when “you’re only going to catch the dumb guys, who have no idea what they’re doing.”

Instead, he said, MMA needs random, out-of-competition drug-testing.

“I totally agree [with random testing]. Ten weeks out, eight weeks out, six weeks out — that’s when all the training happens. That’s when you’re training at your hardest, at your peak. Every athlete who knows how to train properly knows they’re going to have to taper off two weeks, two and a half weeks out from their fight so they’ll be in perfect condition for their fight. All the hard training happens eight, ten weeks [from the fight]. That’s the time when everybody’s doing their drug abuse and that’s when they’re taking their testosterone and their steroids. That’s when I think fighters should be tested.”

As for fighters like Nate Marquardt and Chael Sonnen, who have recently argued that they have a legitimate medical reason to undergo testosterone replacement therapy, Soszynski said that it creates an uneven playing field to allow some fighters to inject themselves with hormones but not others.

“My thought on that is very simple: either everybody does it, or nobody does it. If guys are doing it and the commissions are allowing these guys to do it as long as they get to a certain level within their bodies, then we all should be allowed to take it as long as we get our levels to a certain number. That’s what I believe.”

Soszynski, who’s no stranger to a pro sports drug culture after experiences with pro wrestling and competitive bodybuilding, added that while most fighters might be on PEDs, he’s among the small percentage that isn’t.
My thought on this is very simple: either everybody does it, or nobody does it.
— Krzysztof Soszynski
“I haven’t used [PEDs] for mixed martial arts,” he said. “Back in the days when I was a bodybuilder, obviously it was a little different. But for mixed martial arts, I don’t. I don’t believe in it.”

As for whether that puts him at a disadvantage, Soszynski said he knows of “a bunch of guys in the sport who don’t [use PEDs] and who are very successful,” but at the same time, “I feel like we should be on an even playing field.”

Then again, just because Soszynski might want it that way — and might fear for MMA’s reputation in the long run if it doesn’t address the PED issue — that doesn’t mean he’s terribly optimistic about the chances of weeding it out completely.

“It’s just part of guys trying to become the best,” said Soszynski. “You want to become the best, you’re going to do anything and everything you can to become the best, and this is one of those things.”

 

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The use of performance-enhancing drugs in MMA is far more widespread than most people realize, according to UFC light heavyweight Krzysztof Soszynski, who told Ariel Helwani on Tuesday’s edition of The MMA Hour that there are far more elite fighters using steroids, testosterone, and other PEDs than there are fighters who compete totally clean.

“I would definitely say somewhere in the percentage of 85 percent of guys are definitely using, especially the guys who can afford it are definitely using,” said Soszynski. “I would even go as high as 95 to 96 percent of the top level athletes that are definitely using it. You can clearly see it.”

Soszynski has been out of action with a knee injury since his decision victory over Mike Massenzio at UFC 131 in June, but the rehab process opened his eyes to the easy availability of performance-enhancers in MMA, he said.


“I even had someone talk to me about stem cell injections. You’re looking at stuff like EPO, and at least five or six different counterfeit drugs out there that people are using and they’re not even detectable in the body. It’s just amazing to me how far athletes are willing to go to make their mark in this sport.”

At the same time, Soszynski expressed a degree of empathy for PED users in MMA, and expressed doubt that the problem could ever be fully eradicated.

“If there’s a substance you can take out there that’s going to make you bigger, stronger, more explosive, going to help you train harder, going to help you train longer, and it’s going to help with your recovery as well, and you know if you take it the right way and follow the right instructions, you’ll never get caught for it, wouldn’t you take it?”

Soszynski said the current system that most athletic commissions use of testing fighters just prior to fight night is completely ineffective, since that’s when “you’re only going to catch the dumb guys, who have no idea what they’re doing.”

Instead, he said, MMA needs random, out-of-competition drug-testing.

“I totally agree [with random testing]. Ten weeks out, eight weeks out, six weeks out — that’s when all the training happens. That’s when you’re training at your hardest, at your peak. Every athlete who knows how to train properly knows they’re going to have to taper off two weeks, two and a half weeks out from their fight so they’ll be in perfect condition for their fight. All the hard training happens eight, ten weeks [from the fight]. That’s the time when everybody’s doing their drug abuse and that’s when they’re taking their testosterone and their steroids. That’s when I think fighters should be tested.”

As for fighters like Nate Marquardt and Chael Sonnen, who have recently argued that they have a legitimate medical reason to undergo testosterone replacement therapy, Soszynski said that it creates an uneven playing field to allow some fighters to inject themselves with hormones but not others.

“My thought on that is very simple: either everybody does it, or nobody does it. If guys are doing it and the commissions are allowing these guys to do it as long as they get to a certain level within their bodies, then we all should be allowed to take it as long as we get our levels to a certain number. That’s what I believe.”

Soszynski, who’s no stranger to a pro sports drug culture after experiences with pro wrestling and competitive bodybuilding, added that while most fighters might be on PEDs, he’s among the small percentage that isn’t.
My thought on this is very simple: either everybody does it, or nobody does it.
— Krzysztof Soszynski
“I haven’t used [PEDs] for mixed martial arts,” he said. “Back in the days when I was a bodybuilder, obviously it was a little different. But for mixed martial arts, I don’t. I don’t believe in it.”

As for whether that puts him at a disadvantage, Soszynski said he knows of “a bunch of guys in the sport who don’t [use PEDs] and who are very successful,” but at the same time, “I feel like we should be on an even playing field.”

Then again, just because Soszynski might want it that way — and might fear for MMA’s reputation in the long run if it doesn’t address the PED issue — that doesn’t mean he’s terribly optimistic about the chances of weeding it out completely.

“It’s just part of guys trying to become the best,” said Soszynski. “You want to become the best, you’re going to do anything and everything you can to become the best, and this is one of those things.”

 

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Shawn Tompkins’ Sudden Death Leaves ‘Huge Void’ in Las Vegas Fight Scene

Filed under: UFCJohn Gunderson remembers very clearly the first time he met Shawn Tompkins. He was fighting at an IFL event in 2007 and Tompkins was sitting ringside. Though he was then a coach for the IFL’s Los Angeles-based team, Tompkins wasn’t corn…

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John Gunderson remembers very clearly the first time he met Shawn Tompkins. He was fighting at an IFL event in 2007 and Tompkins was sitting ringside. Though he was then a coach for the IFL’s Los Angeles-based team, Tompkins wasn’t cornering anyone that night, Gunderson recalled. He was only a spectator, at least in theory.

That didn’t last long.

“He ended up kind of coaching me along all during the fight,” Gunderson said. “Afterward he came up to me in the back and told me he’d like to work with me. That kind of stuck in my mind for about six months, and that’s when I decided to move to Las Vegas. I moved out to Las Vegas specifically to train with him.”

Talk to enough fighters in the Las Vegas MMA scene and you’ll hear similar stories over and over again. Tompkins was the guy who saw something in them. He was the one who gave them a place to train, a place to sleep, a surrogate home on holidays spent far from their families.

After attending an MMA event on Saturday night in Ontario, Canada, according to reports, Tompkins went to bed and never woke up. He died of an apparent heart attack, according to brother-in-law Sam Stout. He was 37 years old.


By the time the news got back to Las Vegas, where Tompkins and wife Emilie had lived for the past several years, the shock washed over everyone who knew him.

“You don’t want to believe it at first,” said Gunderson. “I just talked to him the other day. When you’re close with someone and you’ve just talked to them, you don’t want to believe that they’re just gone. You don’t know how to believe it. It’s so surreal.”

Tompkins rose to prominence as an MMA trainer when he worked as an assistant coach for the IFL’s Los Angeles Anacondas. Initially, the team was fronted by MMA legend Bas Rutten, who brought Tompkins on to help with striking training. But as Rutten moved into a full-time color commentary role for the IFL, he chose Tompkins to succeed him as head coach.

In the IFL days, Rutten used to tell the story of how he met Tompkins years earlier at a seminar. At first Tompkins struck him as just another “party boy,” Rutten said, but when he traveled to Los Angeles to train with Rutten and was willing to sleep on the mats in the gym just for a chance to learn from one of the greats, Rutten began to realize that maybe his first impression was misguided.

Rutten wrote on his Twitter on Sunday that Tompkins had texted him just a day earlier “telling me he loved me, so, thank God, I called him to tell him it was mutual.”

Benji Radach, who fought for Tompkins when he took over the IFL squad from Rutten, remembered him as a coach who was passionate about the sport, but also fun to be around outside the gym.

“He was a lot like Bas, actually,” Radach said. “He liked to screw around and have fun, but when it came time to get down to business he was serious and all about hardcore training. It was some of the hardest practices you could be in. … He loved the sport. The thing about Shawn, he could goof off, be a fun dude, but he loved the sport and he made it his life.”

UFC welterweight Mike Pyle, who worked with Tompkins when he was a coach at the Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas, said it was Tompkins’ sense of humor he’d remember most.

“He was a funny guy, man. He could really make you laugh.”

At the same time, Pyle said, he was committed to his fighters — especially the core three who he brought up through the ranks.

“He was so dedicated to the sport, dedicated to his guys, and he brought up some studs from young ages with Chris Horodecki, Sam Stout, and [Mark] Hominick. He developed some great fighters in those three.”

It was Horodecki, Stout, and Hominick who were always the most closely associated with Tompkins, regardless of what gym he was working out of at any given time. Tompkins was married to Stout’s sister, and had brought Horodecki along since he was a teenager who had to lie about his age to enter kickboxing tournaments.

Though all three have dealt sparingly with the media since news of their mentor’s death, they’re the core contingent that’s been hit hardest by the news, said Gunderson.

“I was close with him, but not like those guys,” Gunderson said. “They were like his little brothers.”

But given the way fighters in the Vegas scene typically hop from one gym to the next to get all their training needs met, Xtreme Couture coach Joey Varner said there is hardly a pro fighter in all of Sin City who hadn’t benefited from Tompkins’ expertise at one point or another.

“I mean, literally. Every single guy at [Xtreme] Couture’s — from Randy [Couture] to Vitor [Belfort] to Ray Sefo to Gray Maynard to Jay [Hieron] — guys at the other gyms in town, every single person here has worked with him or had some relationship with him.”

The fact that Tompkins touched so many lives is why the loss is so devastating to the entire Las Vegas fight community, said Varner, who was instrumental in bringing Tompkins to Couture’s gym in the first place.

“It’s really just one of those holy s–t moments in life. You expect to see someone around, and they become this fixture, part of the scene, part of life, and then suddenly you remove that piece and it’s just this big huge void that everyone can’t help but stare at.”

For the fighters who worked with him, like Gunderson, the techniques and skills he imparted seem secondary now, almost like a byproduct of being around him. What they remember more is his generosity of spirit, like the time he traveled with Gunderson for a fight in Abu Dhabi, and raised no objection about sleeping on the floor of the hotel room all week.

“He was just very giving like that. Or you’d go into the gym and he’d be holding mitts for guys, four or five rounds a guy and there’d be five or six guys lined up. They weren’t paying him to do it, either. He did it because he loved it and wanted to see them become better fighters. That was Shawn. If you needed a sparring partner, he’d strap up and spar with you. That’s just how he was. He could get four hours of sleep, but he’d still be there in the morning working with guys.”

Sure, he had his run-ins and his falling outs, Gunderson said, but who doesn’t in this business? He was no saint, and didn’t claim to be. One thing people knew and could count on was that Tompkins was a coach who dedicated his life to his fighters. Whether they needed someone to help them perfect their left hook or they needed a couch to sleep on, Tompkins gave them everything he had.

And now, at just 37 years old, he’s gone.

“Words can’t even describe how terrible it is,” said Gunderson. “You never expect something like this. That’s life though, right? It comes and goes so fast.”

 

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Falling Action: Best and Worst of UFC on Versus 5

Filed under: UFCYou can say this for the UFC’s free fight cards: they’re always worth your money, even if you pay for them by sitting through the same few commercials over and over again.

Last night in Milwaukee fight fans got treated to a little piec…

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You can say this for the UFC’s free fight cards: they’re always worth your money, even if you pay for them by sitting through the same few commercials over and over again.

Last night in Milwaukee fight fans got treated to a little piece of MMA history, as one of the sport’s great battlers called it quits and went out on a triumphant victory. If you didn’t feel a little choked up watching Chris Lytle hug his kids in the Octagon after a brutal scrap to end a hard-nosed career, better check your battery life, because you may be a robot.

It’s great to see those moments broadcast live to the entire cable TV universe, but it wasn’t all puppy dogs and rainbows at UFC on Versus 5. Now that we’re faced with the sober reality of Monday morning, it’s time to sort through all the winners, losers, and everything in between.

Biggest Winner: Chris Lytle
It’s so rare to see pro fighters walk away when it’s time. It’s rare to even see them walk away when it’s a quarter past time. Usually, the appeal of the money and fame combines with the addictive power of adrenaline and the unbreakable spirit that got them here to begin with, and the result is a person who wants to hang on to a fighting career until promoters and fans are stomping on his fingers to get him to let go. Lytle had seen that in action enough to know he didn’t want to find out what it felt like, and so he made the perfect exit at the perfect time. From the opening moments of the bout he fought like a man who was determined to see someone get beat up and he didn’t particularly care who it was. After boxing Hardy up and surviving a few wobbly scares of his own, a submission finish in a fight that he never tried to take to the mat feels like the absolute right ending to Lytle’s great career. Heading out with $130,000 in bonuses probably doesn’t hurt either. So long, Chris. Thanks for the memories.

Biggest Loser: Dan Hardy
He fought exactly the fight that Lytle wanted him to, right down to the ill-advised takedown with his neck wide open in the third. That’s four straight for our mohawked friend, and he should be very grateful that the UFC loves his fighting style and his attitude so much that it doesn’t mind when one or both results in a losing streak that would embarrass the Detroit Lions. But his losses aside, keeping Hardy is the right move here. The UFC has been too quick with the cuts in the past, as if it’s impossible for fighters to go through a lull and come back strong. Hardy fought for the welterweight title a year and a half ago. On Sunday he was one half of the Fight of the Night, so it would be hypocritical to reward his efforts and praise his fighting style while also giving him his walking papers. I know, the UFC has done that very thing in the past, but that doesn’t make it right. Eventually, however, Hardy might have to choose between fighting smart and fighting to the UFC’s liking. Reminder: just because you want to stand and bang, that doesn’t mean you have to stand in only one spot, exactly where your opponent’s left hook knows how to find you.

Most Surprising: Ben Henderson
With a win over Miller, he joined a very small club that includes only the current UFC lightweight champion and the current no. 1 contender. By battering Miller into a bloody mess, Henderson established his own club where he, as the only member, gets to write the bylaws (first rule: haircuts are optional). It’s one thing to survive all Miller’s submissions and eek out a decision. It’s quite another to shrug off those submissions and punish him severely for each attempt. Miller is a very good lightweight, and we’ve never seen anyone take it to him like Henderson did. Put this kid in a fight with Clay Guida and you’ll have your next lightweight challenger by the time the dust clears. Also, getting down on bended knee to plead for the UFC to give your teammates a look? Yeah, that’s a pretty awesome move.

Worst Game Plan: Amir Sadollah
So he came into a fight with one of the most experienced kickboxers in the UFC and decided it would be a good idea to keep it on the feet in the early going, huh? As much as I respect a man who’s always looking to test himself, in retrospect that doesn’t seem like such a good idea. Sadollah needed to get this fight to the mat, and he should have known that. Instead of making that his primary goal, he went toe-to-toe with “Bang” and only tried for takedowns right after getting rocked, when his lunging attempts were more desperation than technique. That’s exactly the kind of thing people are talking about when they talk about the difference that experience makes. Sadollah hung tough and took his beating like a man, so he’ll likely benefit from this painful little lesson. Let’s just hope he only has to learn it once.

Weirdest Post-Fight Request: Duane Ludwig
You’d think a 33-year-old man would have other things to think about after a big win than getting Joe Rogan’s signature on his MMA doll — sorry, action figure. But hey, we all have our quirks, I suppose. The strangest thing is how quickly he had that thing ready. That means he probably asked one of his cornermen to bring it down to the cage with them, at which point I imagine Trevor Wittman looking at him and fighting the urge to say, ‘You’re a grown man, Duane!’ As for Ludwig’s plea to get the UFC to acknowledge his record for the fastest knockout, there he actually has a good point. Maybe Dana White can send an intern down to the copy shop to print up an official-looking certificate to give him. Then Ludwig can put it in his rec room along with all his autographed MMA dolls action figures. At least he’s a savvy enough collector to keep them in their original packaging, which is more than I can say for a certain host of a certain MMA Hour.

Most Brutal: Donald Cerrone
In case you couldn’t tell, “Cowboy” is just straight-up mean. He has very little regard for the feelings of others, and seems to take immense pleasure in their pain. A lot of people think that’s common among pro fighters, but it really isn’t. Most guys just want to win and dominate. They might even feel a little bad about punishing someone more than necessary. Cerrone? Let’s just say that if the UFC ever goes under, he could find work as a freelance debt collector. Since coming over from the WEC, he seems to have only improved his overall game and even learned to come out of the gates a little quicker. I’m not sure if he’s got all the tools necessary to get to the top in this division, but he certainly has the ability to lay down some beatings and instill fear in some hearts along the way. For now, that’s good enough.

Sharpest Decline: Charles Oliveira
Remember when he was the undefeated whiz kid coming straight outta Brazil? Once he got above the level of the Efrain Escuderos, his ascent stalled. Not that he’s gotten an easy road, mind you. He got thrown in against Jim Miller, which is a tough draw for any lightweight. Then he had the unfortunate (very) illegal knee incident against Nik Lentz, which cost him a win. But against Cerrone he quickly looked like a man who didn’t really want to be in there. Calling time for what was far more of a leg kick than a groin shot should have been the first sign. Crumpling up after that pitiless body shot was the last. There’s no question that he’s got skills, and he’s still young enough for these to be valuable learning experiences, but he needs to grow up in a hurry if he’s going to hang at this level for very long. In case the matchmaking hasn’t already tipped him off, perhaps someone should point out that the UFC doesn’t take it easy on anyone.

Most in Need of a New Weight Class: Joseph Benavidez
Give credit to the Joe-Jitsu master, he’s perfected the art of closing the distance against taller opponents, probably because he’s been doing it his whole career. The fact that he’s been this successful against bigger guys at 135 pounds only strengthens my belief that he’s essentially the de facto champ in the 125-pound division, which exists in the UFC only as a promise at this point. Soon, they say. Soon they’ll gather up the little fellas and start this new weight class. That day can’t come soon enough for Benavidez, who seems like he’d be absolutely dominant if he could ever get the chance to pick on someone his own size.

 

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