Author: By Michael DiSanto

Two weeks ago, my wife and I flew to Atlanta, rented a car and drove two hours due south for a single purpose. Our destination was the tiny town of Unadilla, Georgia.

Let me put the word “tiny” into perspective. Internet research suggests that the town’s population is less than 2,900 people, which is about 20 percent of the capacity of the MGM Grand Garden Arena, a frequent home for UFC events. I’m sure there is a stop light somewhere in town, but we certainly did not come across one during our three-day stay. And literally everyone we came across was about as friendly as they could possibly be. It suffices to say that Unadilla is the quintessential tiny southern town, one where time sort of seems to stand still — in a good way.

Tina and I were in Unadilla for a three-day school on cooking barbecue. No, not the kind of barbecue that you toss into the oven of on top of a gas grill and then smother it with store-bought barbecue sauce. The kind that stirs passion in those lucky enough to come across it. The kind that takes the love and devotion of hours upon hours of low temperature cooking on a smoker or pit after using actual coals and hardwood, meat injected with marinade, and covered with dry rubs and homemade sauces.

We figured that if we wanted to up our backyard barbecue game for friends, family and the benefit of our own taste buds, we should stop with the trial and error, put down the cookbooks, and take a class from the best of the best — none other than the man himself, Myron Mixon of Jack’s Old South, the winningest man in competitive barbecue history.

I know what you are thinking right now. What in the world does barbeque have to do with the UFC? Had someone asked me that question a month ago, my response would have been similar to what I’m assuming you are thinking right now — there are no parallels.

Wrong. Read on.

I happened to wear a BJ Penn walkout tee shirt to the first day class. It was not a purposeful choice. I just grabbed a tee shirt because we were going to be working with meat all day, and first on the agenda was a lesson on cooking a whole hog.

During the first break in the action, one of my table mates pointed to my shirt and asked if I was into the UFC. When I responded affirmatively, he couldn’t wait to talk about his all-time favorite fighter, Chuck Liddell. He was also a giant Forrest Griffin supporter, since the two attended the same school in Georgia – a fact he was very proud of, by the way. This guy was at Myron’s house to help hone his craft ahead of The Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, since he was going to have a tent across the street selling barbecue to make some extra money. He paid close attention to Myron and took lots of notes, but every break consisted of UFC talk.

He wasn’t alone.

Another fine gentleman from South Georgia at our table, a wrestling coach at an alternative school for at-risk youths, joined the discussion during just about every break. This guy showed up in Unadilla with a three-ring folder filled with his barbeque secrets. He was there alone, fiercely focused on honing his craft because he was also a competition cooker, one who earns several thousands of dollars during weekend competitions.

Think about that for a moment. He earns money cooking. He has access to the greatest of the great. Yet, he allowed his focus to wane time and time again to talk about the UFC.  He also talked about how mixed martial arts was a great tool to teach discipline and respect to his at-risk students.

As others overheard the conversation at our table, they took the opportunity to join in. Will Jon Jones survive his title defense against heated rival Rashad Evans at UFC 145 on April 21st?  Will Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre ever fight? Who is the true pound-for-pound king? Favorite fights. Favorite fighters. Other dream matchups. Will anyone beat Junior dos Santos? Those who found out that I write for the UFC wanted to know if Dana White was really like the guy on “The Ultimate Fighter” — still an addicted fan despite his perch atop the Zuffa’s organizational chart. They wanted to know if the fighters were cool guys in person, rather than the unapproachable athletes who dominate many other major sports. And so on and so on.

I dare say that the UFC was the most popular topic of conversation, apart from barbecue, during the three-day class. I overheard lots of conversations on the subject and participated in even more, particularly on the last day when there was as much time spent eating the mouthwatering meats as there was instruction.

I was completely blown away at how many people wanted to talk shop and the level of passion for the sport in a place where I never dreamed I would experience it. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised.

True barbecue has a cult-like following, much like the UFC did before it exploded into the mainstream a few years ago.  These folks are extremely passionate about great ‘cue, just like UFC fans are passionate about mixed martial arts. There is even an online barbeque forum with approximately 50,000 members. I perused it on the plane back home, and it contained lots of passionate, opinionated discussions. The resident ‘cue cognoscenti dropped deep knowledge. Award-winning competitors posted their thoughts. And certainly weekend backyarders dominated the casual talk.

One unwritten message clearly dominates the forum. Great BBQ is something few people truly experience. When one finally comes across something prepared by someone of Myron’s level, they are often hooked for life. They purchase a pit that can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds – just for creating backyard delights. They attend regional or even national contests. And they scour the Internet with an insatiable hunger for ‘cue knowledge.

More importantly, they belong to this informal fraternity of people who believe in their heart of hearts that they know something that the rest of the world does not know – the greatness of top-level ‘cue.  The blogs and forum participants protect the integrity of barbeque with real ferocity.

Sounds just like a UFC fan before TUF skyrocketed the sport into mainstream, doesn’t it?  Longtime hardcore followers know what I’m talking about right now.

For those who still don’t see it, rewind almost a decade ago. The only place for up-to-date information were the forums and the websites that covered the sport exclusively. The big boy media outlets were completely in the dark. The major MMA forums were remarkably similar in size and content to what I saw on the barbeque forum. Lots of unbelievably knowledgeable fans participated on a regular basis. Fighters, stud commentator Joe Rogan, and even UFC boss Dana White participated from time to time – Rogan a bit more often than that. Tens of thousands of fans filled the pages with hundreds of topics and even more posts.

The overriding message on all forums and blogs back in the day? You guessed it. UFC fans knew they were enjoying a sport that the rest of the world didn’t quite understand yet. It was a sport that had such tremendous fan appeal that once it actually caught the attention of the mainstream, it became the fastest growing sport in the world – a sport that the hardcore fans have fought hard to protect through forum posts and blogs.

UFC fans love our sport like fans of few other sports. The same can be said for those who are really into barbeque. I never realized that until my trip to Unadilla. But the parallels between barbeque and the UFC don’t end there. I’ll peel back the onion one layer further.

Go back about a decade, once again. Barbeque competitions, much like the UFC, largely enjoyed an underground existence. No major media coverage. No reality shows on cable television. Not much mainstream appeal.

Mixon was already the king (or close to it) back in those days. I’m sure he made a comfortable living then from his catering business and the sale of his sauces and ribs. I’m sure the money he earned from competitive cooking was nice, but I doubt that it was enough to call it a separate living. Then a reality show on cable television titled “BBQ Pitmasters” came along and changed everything.

Competition cookers now compete for six-figure purses. And the king has ridden the wave of barbeque popularity to transform from a cult king to an iconic figure with international appeal. Not only does he have a New Times best-selling cookbook. He also has a successful restaurant in Georgia with a second on the way in Miami and a ridiculously successful catering business. Oh yes, he also recently hosted Korean delegates on their trip through the south.

Sounds a lot like Chuck Liddell’s career path, doesn’t it? How about Georges St-Pierre? Anderson Silva? It is rise to fame and fortune that parallels that of any number of high-profile UFC fighters who have been in the game since the early 2000s.

Top fighters back in the day were stars solely in the fighting community, had little or no major consumer brand appeal from a marketing perspective and, while they earned enough to pay the bills, they were far from wealthy. TUF changed all that. Guys like Liddell, GSP, Silva, and others have gone from living comfortable lives to being multi-millionaires with true crossover star appeal. Business opportunities, whether owning gyms, holding seminars, appearing in Hollywood movies or on television shows, abound. It is a completely different existence for a top fighter compared to 10 years ago. Just like with barbeque.

The end of the weekend perfectly encapsulates what I’m talking about.

After completely engorging ourselves on Sunday afternoon with the succulent meats that we prepared during the class, Tina and I were walking to our car when a younger guy came up and asked, “Hey, I heard you work with the UFC, is that right?” He said something like that.

I responded in the affirmative, offering my hand in greeting. It was Kyle Brooks, a member of Jack’s New South, the barbeque team led by Myron’s son, Michael Mixon.  Like father like son. After just a year of competition, Michael and crew are already ranked as one of the top new teams on the circuit, nationwide. These guys were fresh off of a big showing at The Sixth Annual St. Patty’s Q in Dublin, Georgia, where they received a perfect score on spare ribs and placed fifth in pork loin.

This was an excellent chance for me to grab a few last nuggets of information from the next generation of competition cookers in my quest for backyard perfection. That opportunity never arose. Why? All Kyle wanted to talk about was the UFC.

To no great surprise, he spoke about our sport with the same glow in his eyes that I saw when he was watching Myron work his magic during class. He kept referring back to guys from the early days of PRIDE Fighting Championships. The best part was he brought up a couple of fights that I hadn’t seen — or maybe I had seen them and had forgotten. I get paid to know a bit about the UFC, and here was a top ‘cue competitor teaching me a thing or two. I loved every minute of it!

For the record, he is picking Jones to win later this month.

Barbeque and the UFC. I guess they aren’t so different after all.

CAN HE KEEP IT GOING?

Martin Kampmann arguably scored the most significant win of his mixed martial arts career by stopping Thiago Alves with 48 seconds left in their main event bout on Friday night. The quality of the win puts him right in the thick of the welterweight mix. And the come-from-behind nature of the win creates a buzz among fans that probably puts him closer to the top of the mix than the middle.

Kampmann now has back-to-back welterweight wins for the third time in his UFC career. But he has never won three in a row. Jake Shields and Paul Daley spoiled his last two bids for three straight. The big question in my mind is whether Kampmann will be able to take his career to the next level by racking up a third-straight win. If so, he may very find himself staring at a title shot.

ALVES CONTINUES HIS BUMPY RIDE

When the calendar turned the page for the start of 2009, Alves was the consensus number two welterweight in the world. He was in the midst of a seven-fight winning streak, including back-to-back one-sided wins over Josh Koscheck and Matt Hughes. Then, he ran into some guy named Georges St-Pierre and everything changed.

Alves got dominated by GSP, and that sparked a bumpy ride for the Brazilian. The loss to Kampmann is his fourth loss in his last six fights. That is a stark contrast to the seven-fight winning streak that earned the “Pitbull” his first title challenge.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Alves needs to change up something about his game, whether it is his preparation, his approach inside the cage, the amount of weight that he cuts or maybe just his mental state. I actually think the final item in that list is the big issue for him. Alves believed that he was invincible during his winning streak. He hasn’t struck me as having the same unyielding self-confidence since the GSP fight.

BENAVIDEZ NOW THE MAN TO BEAT

Many thought that Ian McCall was the top flyweight in the world and the odds-on favorite to be the inaugural UFC 125-pound champion. Joseph Benavidez changed all that with a single counter right hand that destroyed Japanese Shooto 123-pound champion Yasuhiro Urushitani on Saturday night.

Benavidez has long been viewed as a title contender, though as 135 pounds, not 125 pounds. In 17 professional fights heading into Saturday night, the Team Alpha Male standout had but two losses. Reigning bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz owns both of them. Nobody else solved the Benavidez riddle at bantam, so I was a bit surprised to see him labeled as the number three guy (behind McCall and Demetrious Johnson) in the four-man flyweight tourney. The win over Urushitani, particularly in light of the stalemate between McCall and Johnson, elevates Benavidez to the odds-on favorite, in my opinion, heading into the championship bout.

JOHNSON-MCCALL SCORING ERROR THROWS A WRENCH INTO THE TOURNAMENT

We need to crown a champion in the newly minted 125-pound division, which is why UFC President Dana White arranged for the four-man tournament that began on Friday night. Unfortunately, the world will have to wait longer than anticipated because Johnson and McCall still have unfinished business.

I obviously know that Johnson was announced as the winner in the Octagon following the fight. The result appropriately drew a raucous response from the crowd. Hearing Johnson named as the winner certainly stunned me. I had McCall a 29-27 winner. He completely dominated the third round, resulting in a 10-8 score on my card, whereas I split the other two rounds between the guys. But the first round was close enough that I can’t really complain about anyone scoring it even or one point in favor of either fighter. However you score that first round, I still think McCall deserved the win.

Nevertheless, I’m going to skip the expected diatribe on the need for quality judging because the controversy wasn’t solely their fault this time. Instead, Craig Waller, the Executive Director of Combat Sports Authority of New South Wales, shares in the blame. He simply failed to correctly tabulate the judges’ cards. Johnson did not win. The fight was scored a majority draw.

To his credit, Waller has stepped up to take ownership of his mistake. Hey, we are all human. Mistakes happen. Maybe a calculator is in order next time. Or, better yet, maybe there should be a procedure in place where someone has to check the math to avoid this type of situation in the future.

Had someone checked the scoring, the combatants would have come out for a fourth round. Unlike with most other UFC fights, the tournament bouts were supposed to be draw-proof by implementing a fourth round where the judges had to decide a winner, regardless of how the action unfolded in that final stanza. But the mistake wasn’t identified until after the result was announced, so it was too late to rectify the situation.

Depending on the timing of the rematch and the condition of the winner, Benavidez, not Johnson, may end up being the big loser in this whole situation. Johnson has to rematch a guy that he clearly struggled with, but Benavidez may be forced to sit on the sidelines for longer than he would like while Johnson and McCall finish what should have been finished on Saturday night.

 

 

Author By Michael DiSantoPosted on February 27, 2012

A DIFFERENT LEVEL

There are MMA strikers. And then there are pure strikers.

Cheick Kongo is a striker, one of the best in mixed martial arts. Mark Hunt is a pure striker, one of the best in the world.

We use the phrase “world-class” way too much, when it comes to describing skills of a particular MMA fighter. There are very few world-class strikers in MMA. You can probably count them on one hand. Hunt is among them. That isn’t me going out on a limb. This guy is the former K-1 champion. For those who don’t know, K-1 is the top of the food chain, in terms of striking competitions. I’ll take the K-1 heavyweight champion over the heavyweight boxing champ any day.

Hunt’s reaction after the fight says it all. He is a man of few words. He expected to win. He knows he is the best striker in the heavyweight division. Next question.

I am struggling to think of another fighter in the UFC who has improved more in his late 30s than Hunt. He turns 38 in less than a month, and he is now on a three-fight winning streak after surviving a six-fight losing streak. Yes, you read that correctly. Mark Hunt lost six consecutive fights from 2006 to 2010.

Approaching his 38th birthday, this is the best Mark Hunt that the world has ever seen. I can wait to see what’s next for the Super Samoan.

I’d love to see him scrap with Pat Barry, by the way. That would be a standup fan’s dream matchup.

HUH?

Wow….I’m left speechless….or, as is the case here, wordless.

Jake Shields DID NOT win every round against Yoshihiro Akiyama on Saturday night. Look, I don’t have a dog in this fight. It’s not like I have an Akiyama bias. If anything, I have a Shields bias – he is a great guy, a lot of fun to hang out with, and one of the true gentlemen in the sport.

But he didn’t win all three rounds. Shields even admitted as much in his post-fight interview.

This is yet another example of why we need to further educate the judges in our sport. That score was bizarre, absolutely bizarre.  

For the record, I scored the fight 29-28 for Shields. I scored the first round for Akiyama. He controlled the action with effective aggression, landed several meaningful strikes, and put Shields on his back. Shields won the second, in my opinion, because he completely dominated the standup game. He didn’t land anything of consequence, but he kept touching his foe over and over. The third was easy to score. Shields almost finished it, and Akiyama should have lost a point for grabbing the fight two (or maybe even three) times.

This was a fight where judges got it wrong and right at the same time. Shields won; just not every round.

By the way, the fight proves to me that Akiyama should stay at welterweight. That is the best he has looked in the UFC, in my opinion. I’m less convinced that Shields should remain at welter. He seemed exhausted midway through the second round. Thus, I think the weight cut is too much for him at this point in his career.

The “man weight” he has added in the last four or five years makes welterweight too difficult. I’d like to see Shields move up to middleweight and see what he can do. Sure, he needs to fix his striking deficiency, if he wants to compete with guys with great takedown defense. But I think that 185 pounds might be the best weight class for him at this point.

“THE BARBARIAN” HAMMERS HIS WAY INTO CONTENTION

People who suggest that a cornerman is irrelevant probably didn’t watch Tim Boetsch come back from oblivion to knock out Yushin Okami. Boestch got dominated in the first two rounds. Then, as he stood from his stool for the final stanza, his head cornerman, Matt Hume, said “You’ve just got to be super aggressive this round, son.”

Translation: You are losing the fight and need a stoppage to win.

Boetsch took those words to heart and obliterated Okami in the final round. It was one of the more impressive final round comebacks in recent memory. There was nothing in the first two rounds that suggested that Boetsch had any shot at winning. Instead, it seemed like just another routine unanimous decision for Okami, who is one of the most difficult riddles to solve in the middleweight division. Yet, “The Barbarian” refused to be denied, and he somehow found a hole in his foe’s game – defending the uppercut in the clinch. Okami had no answer, so he went to sleep.

Boetsch didn’t just make himself relevant in the division. He is now an instant contender. How can I be so certain? In his last 23 Okami fights, only five men, including Boetsch, hold a victory over him. Anderson Silva. Rich Franklin. Chael Sonnen. Jake Shields. And Tim Boetsch. Yep, he is now legit.

PETTIS GOES “SHIN TO CHIN”

Joe Rogan is the best in the business. I’m going to take that one step farther. He is the best color man in any major sport. I said it. Flame away. I don’t care. I’ll still read the comments anyway. Rogan coined a phrase that I’m going to use again and again. Anthony Pettis went “shin to chin” with Joe Lauzon, resulting in the most spectacular high kick knockout of 2012 to date.

For anyone who wasn’t a WEC fan back in the day, Pettis holds a win over Benson Henderson. Actually, it was more than a win. It was a win punctuated by a ninja kick that swiped the WEC lightweight championship from Henderson’s grasp. But for a hiccup against Clay Guida in his UFC debut, Pettis would have been fighting Frankie Edgar tonight, not Lauzon.

Pettis is absolutely among the 155-pound Preferiti. It will be interesting to see what Dana White and Joe Silva have in store for him next.

YAMAMOTO CONTINUES HIS RAPID FALL

There was a time, not that long ago, when purported hardcore fans and fan blogs searched for any reason to anoint a non-UFC fighter as the “best in the world.” In my opinion, it was their way of showing the message board world that they knew something that the rest of us supposedly didn’t. Sometimes those folks had it very wrong. Sometimes they didn’t.

There is an argument that in 2005 those folks had it exactly right. Those were the days that many viewed Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto one of the very best fighters in the world, pound for pound. That year, he won an elite Japan-based lightweight tournament. He followed up a perfect 4-0 in 2005 with a four-second knockout of Kazuyuki Miyata in what remains one of the fastest knockouts in the history of the sport.

Suffice to say, Yamamoto was a beast back then, and at a paltry 5’4, he was almost always fighting much bigger opponents. Yamamoto remained in the pound-for-pound discussion through 2007, racking up a total of 14 consecutive wins. But injuries and a long hiatus from the sport changed everything.

Yamamoto has now lost five of his last six fights, including three in a row, despite dropping all the way to bantamweight. I’m not sure what has gone wrong with one of the most popular fighters in Asia. Maybe dropping a couple of fights in a row crushed his confidence? Maybe he is just on a stretch of bad luck? Maybe?

If we are being honest with ourselves, Yamamoto is in very real danger of becoming just another opponent, if he doesn’t right the ship soon. Three straight losses in the UFC often results in a man to go find himself in a smaller promotion before returning to the bright lights of the Octagon. I don’t know if that fate awaits Yamamoto or not. Only Dana White can answer that question. What I do know is that a man who used to be viewed as one of the best is in the midst of a dramatic fall from grace.

GOMI DOESN’T FOLLOW IN YAMAMOTO’S FOOTSTEPS

Everything I said above about Yamamoto being a legend before ever coming to the UFC applies to Takanori Gomi as well. I’ll go so far as to say that he absolutely was the very best lightweight in the world when he was the reigning PRIDE Lightweight Champion. I don’t think there was any doubt about it.

Like Yamamoto, Gomi fell on extremely hard times, though his struggles started half a year earlier, at the end of 2008. He dropped five of eight fights from November 2008 through September 2011. Riding a two-fight losing streak (both by stoppage) heading into UFC 144, Gomi needed a win as badly as anyone on the card.

Mission accomplished. Well done, “Fireball Kid.” Well done.  The win certainly keeps him relevant in the UFC’s lightweight division. The living legend needs to do more in order to move into actual title contention, but he certainly is still relevant.

Forget the background blather. Let’s get right to the point.

Benson Henderson will be the bigger, stronger man when he steps into the cage to challenge Frankie Edgar for the UFC lightweight championship this Saturday night. In fact, he will likely be the bigger man by 10 pounds or more, which is a big difference when comparing lightweights.  

That is an extremely relevant point when analyzing the main event of the UFC’s long-awaited return to Japan. It’s not relevant in the sense that it is a unique disadvantage for Edgar to overcome. He faces the same uphill battle in every fight.

It is relevant because Henderson may very well be the first man since Gray Maynard in April 2008 who will come to the cage keenly focused on actually using those physical superiorities to his advantage during the fight. In other words, I firmly believe that Henderson is coming to take the title by putting on a wrestling clinic.

Well, he had better show up with that kind of game plan. Otherwise, he won’t stand much of a chance at winning, absent the ever-present chance at landing a fight-altering strike.

How can I be so certain, you wonder? Did you watch Edgar’s last four fights? Did you see him dominate BJ Penn on the feet? Henderson is a good, accurate striker. But he is not Penn’s fistic equal. Henderson has serviceable, creative kicks. Yet, he isn’t out there winning any point-style striking matches with basically anyone over the last few years – black belt in Taekwondo notwithstanding.

Coming out and dominating the action in a striking match is not Henderson’s game. It is, by contrast, Edgar’s game. In fact, Edgar has made his championship living by using constant movement to create ever-changing angles and a difficult-to-hit target, while darting in and out with short, effective bursts of strikes. Most of those are thrown with his hands, though he will mix in the kicks, as needed, to keep his opponent honest.

Edgar uses his success on the feet to open the door for takedowns. The champ has an uncanny ability to enhance his already solid wrestling skills by seamlessly transitioning between strikes and takedowns. That is something that very few mixed martial artists truly do well. Georges St-Pierre being the other notable exception to the rule.

That style of attack is all the more effective when facing an opponent who is leading with crazy bombs or sitting back hoping to counter with big power shots. Thus, if Henderson comes out looking to overwhelm Edgar on the feet, he will likely suffer the same fate as Penn and Maynard.

Don’t get me wrong. Henderson, or anyone else, for that matter, can always land a fight-altering strike at any moment. You know, an unseen punch on the jaw, temple or just behind the ear; a perfectly timed flying knee; or maybe a well disguised shin across the head. But we are talking about a guy who has a career knockout-win ratio of 13.3%.

Translation: there is nothing in his past to suggest that the likely outcome of Saturday’s bout will be a knockout win by the challenger. Again, it is certainly possible, just not likely.

Of course, that brings us back to the question of what can Henderson do to maximize his odds at winning. If I was running his training camp, I would have that guy watching tape on Edgar-Maynard I about 20 times a day.

Maynard’s dominant, wrestling-based win over Edgar is the only film out there of Edgar losing. Nobody has ever beaten him by knockout. Nobody has ever outpointed him with strikes. Nobody has ever submitted him. But Maynard outwrestled him en route to a decisive victory.

I will never understand why Maynard didn’t repeat that game plan in his second and third fights with Edgar. I don’t want to hear any of this nonsense about Edgar taking away the takedowns early. Maynard did nothing but headhunt in the next two fights of the trilogy until he was basically out of gas and out of options. He never focused on takedowns early in those later fights.

Henderson needs to remember where Maynard came up short and remain singularly focused on getting the fight to the ground.  That doesn’t mean shooting haphazardly for takedowns. Edgar is too quick and mobile to end up on his back from a random, long-distance takedown attempt.

The challenger should, instead, use strikes to close the distance, so that he can clinch with the smaller Edgar. That means throwing punches just for the sake of throwing punches. But he should be stepping forward while doing so, always maintaining his lead right leg on the outside of Edgar’s lead left leg. Edgar loves to circle out to his own left, so that is the best way to cut off the cage.

Once the champ is within reach, Henderson needs to force him up against the cage and use his weight advantage to start to drain Edgar of his energy and quickness. He needs to lean on the New Jersey native. Push on him. Grind away on the cage. Make Edgar expend a lot of energy defending.

If the opportunity presents itself, he can trip or throw Edgar to the floor. Maybe a high crotch would be effective, since he does have a big size and strength advantage. Heck, maybe an old-school, backyard pull to the ground, sort of like Nick Diaz did to Carlos Condit in the final round of their recent bout, is the best way to get the action to the ground.

Basically, I don’t care what Henderson does to get the fight to the ground. He just needs to get it there early in each round, and keep the action down as long as he possibly can.

Go back and watch Edgar-Maynard I. You will see what I’m talking about. Henderson certainly has the wrestling chops, athleticism, size and strength to execute the exact same game plan that Maynard used to defeat Edgar back in 2008.

Then again, so did Sean Sherk, Jim Miller, Matt Veach and Tyson Griffin. They all came up short. If Henderson doesn’t fight a near perfect fight, odds are that he will come up short, too.

QUICK FACTS:

Frankie Edgar
•    30 years old
•    14-1-1 overall
•    3-0-1 in UFC title fights
•    9-0-1 in last 10 fights
•    4-0-1 in last 5
•    Reigning UFC Lightweight Champion (3 successful defenses)
•    21.4% of wins by KO/TKO
•    21.4% of wins by submission
•    57.2% of wins by judges’ decision
•    80% of UFC fights lasted the distance (6-1-1 in those fights)
•    1 UFC win by submission; 2 in by KO
•    Four-time Fight of the Night winner
•    Knockout of the Night – KO4 over Gray Maynard at UFC 136
•    Current layoff is 141 days
•    Longest layoff of career is 308 days

Benson Henderson
•    28 years old
•    15-2 overall
•    First UFC title fight
•    9-1 in last 10 fights
•    4-1 in last 5
•    4 consecutive fights have gone the distance (3-1 in those fights)
•    13.3% of wins by KO/TKO
•    53.3% of wins by submission
•    33.3%of wins by judges’ decision
•    Has never been knocked out as a professional
•    Fight of the Night – UD3 over Clay Guida at UFC on FOX1
•    Current layoff is 106 days
•    Longest layoff of career is 236 days

Quinton Jackson is a legend in the sport.

Hardcore fans know that this guy has been universally recognized as one of the best 205-pound fighters in the world, across all promotions, since 2003. Nine years is a long time to remain relevant in the “what have you done for me lately” sport of mixed martial arts. But “Rampage” is far from ordinary.

When the 33-year-old ultimately decides to hang up his vale tudo gloves, his resume will hold its own with just about anyone’s, even if he doesn’t achieve another noteworthy milestone. To wit, he was the first fighter to unify a UFC and PRIDE championship.  He accomplished that goal when he successfully defended his UFC light heavyweight championship against Dan Henderson, who was then the PRIDE Middleweight (205-pound) Champion.

He was a finalist in the 2003 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix, ultimately losing to then-champion Wanderlei Silva. At that time, the Silva was universally regarded as the best 205-pound fighter in the world. Rampage was unquestionably the number two guy.

One fight after joining the UFC, Rampage did what many thought to be the unthinkable. He savagely knocked out iconic champion Chuck Liddell with a counter right hand that was so ferocious that Liddell dropped like he had been taken out by a 12-gauge shotgun.

Rampage successfully defended the title one time, something matched by only five of the 10 other men who have worn the belt. Many believe the judges robbed him of the golden strap in his 2008 defense against Forrest Griffin. Robbed or justly scored, the fight will go down in history as one of the best ever. Several media outlets selected that bout as the 2008 Fight of the Year.

Suffice it to say, Rampage is a fighting legend. By contrast, his opponent on Saturday night is still trying to make a true name for himself in the sport.

Ryan Bader has long been one of the top prospects in the light heavyweight division. But he hit a bit of a rough patch in the first half of 2011, dropping back-to-back fights to eventual champion Jon Jones and former champion Tito Ortiz. Those were the first two losses of Bader’s career. He righted the ship back in November with an impressive first-round knockout of Jason Brilz. But Bader is still trying to find his way in the land of the light heavies.

Don’t mistake those contrasting descriptions for a suggestion that this isn’t a meaningful fight. Quite the opposite is actually true.

A win by Rampage doesn’t do anything in terms of advancing his standing in the division. It is a fantastic payday, of course. It is an opportunity to perform one more time in front of the local Japanese fans who helped turn him into a superstar. And it is an opportunity to stay busy in an attempt to ward off ring rust, something he has not done in recent years.

A loss, on the other hand, would be devastating. Bader has never before toppled an A-list foe. Thus, if Rampage falls as the first such victim, it would draw into question the former champion’s short-term relevance in the division.

Sounds like a no-win situation, doesn’t it? It certainly does to me, which means Rampage had better come out looking to make a statement because he simply cannot afford to lose or even eke out a close win.

For Bader, Saturday is a no-lose situation. He’s the underdog, so a loss to Rampage does nothing to truly hurt his standing.

A win, however, lets the genie out of the bottle. Bader instantly becomes a championship contender, if he can score a victory over Rampage. It erases all lingering questions following the losses to Jones and Ortiz in a way that the Brilz win simply cannot.

All that means Rampage will likely come out swinging for the fences, possibly mixing in some of his long lost wrestling skills. Bader will be fighting loose and free, focusing solely on the upside associated with fighting Rampage. If that happens, this should be a tremendous spectacle for the fans because these guys matchup extremely well on paper – far better than their respective standing in the division would otherwise suggest.

Let’s get to the matchup.

Most probably expect to read “Rampage needs to keep the fight standing, whereas Bader needs to take the action to the ground.” True. But there is more to this matchup than the obvious.

In fact, I’m going to reprint my breakdown on Rampage versus Jones, substituting Bader’s name for the current champion, a few little tweaks here and there, and a quick lead-in paragraph, because I believe that description perfectly describes this matchup, with a quick lead-in paragraph to set it up.

Bader is an exceptional boxer, when one takes into account that he only began dedicating himself to that form of martial arts in the last few years. The former amateur wrestling champion possesses head movement, footwork and arsenal of punches that are well beyond his years of training. Plus, his hand speed and knockout power are enough to make anyone cringe, including Rampage. He relies on his overhand right too much. Other than that nit-picky note, I think he is one of the better true boxers in the division.

Yet, as good as Bader is on the feet, he wants no part of a fisticuff exchange with Rampage. Trust me on that one. Rampage is one of the game’s most versatile punchers. He can knock out anyone with a single punch from either hand. Chuck Liddell got his lights turned out with a looping right. It was the first time anyone left Liddell in an unconscious heap in his illustrious career. Rampage put Wanderlei Silva to sleep with an equally vicious left hook. And he hurt Rashad Evans with a couple different shots thrown in short, compact fashion.

Rampage also has tremendous wrestling skills, though he has completely ignored them of late. The last time we saw Rampage use anything close to resembling his wrestling was in his five-round thrashing of Henderson four years ago. By contrast, in PRIDE, Rampage was famous for slamming and then ground-and-pounding his opponents. I will never know why he has turned away from that strength as of late.

Conventional wisdom suggests that Rampage should rely on his wrestling and physical strength to put Bader on his back, and force him to address the one major hole in his game that Jones exposed during their February 2011 fight. He showed no real ability to deal with Jones’ top game, so I see no reason why he would do any better with Rampage, since the former champion has absolutely brutal ground and pound, as well as excellent top control.

Of course, only Jones has been able to put Bader on his back and keep him there. Don’t expect Rampage to follow suit, despite the fact that devising a game plan to create takedown opportunities may be his best chance to win.

Unfortunately for Rampage, he is far too enamored with his boxing skills to concern himself with takedowns. He won’t be looking for a takedown, unless a Bader strike puts him on ice skates. Trust me on that one. I’m absolutely certain of it. Rampage will come out looking to throw hands with Bader to the exclusion of every other facet of his game, just like he does in every fight. That is true no matter who he is fighting. And it will be true on Saturday night.

Bader needs to take advantage of that one-trick-pony approach to the game by refusing to engage in a boxing match with Rampage. He should take a page out of Griffin’s playbook and kick Rampage’s lead leg until the challenger can no longer put any weight on it.

Rampage walks down opponents with laser-like focus, always looking for an opening to land a lead right hand or counter anything. I’m not sure if Rampage’s tunnel vision causes him to fail to identify kicks in time to check them. I don’t know if he stands with too much weight on his front leg. Or, maybe he just doesn’t respect anyone’s leg kicks. Whatever the case, that lone strike singlehandedly won the title for Griffin in their 2008 bout.

It can also win the fight for Bader on Saturday night.

Bader can also take a page from the game plan used by Jones and Rashad Evans in wins over Rampage – use strikes to set up takedowns. Rampage sits down on his punches so much that he routinely leaves himself open to takedowns, just like he leaves himself open to leg kicks. Once on the ground, he has virtually no offensive submission game from his back. He can defend pretty well, and he certainly has the ability to scramble back to his feet or sweep, but he isn’t going to catch Bader or anyone else with an armbar, triangle choke, gogoplata or any other submission from the guard.

Back to the original writing.

Unlike with the Jones fight, I don’t think that Bader has more tools at his disposal once the cage door shuts. Instead, I think Rampage is the man with more ways to bring the fight to an abrupt end, solely due to his arsenal of fight-ending punches and his top game. I also think he is the one with the greater physical advantages.

Yet, this fight has upset written all over it, according to most. There are many who believe that Rampage is on the downside of his illustrious career. There is no denying the fact that he has not shown any growth in his game since joining the UFC. In fact, one could easily argue that he has shown competitive regression.

Whether that is from the long, self-imposed breaks he has taken over the last few years or his waning focus due to acting or other outside interests is up for debate. What is not up for debate is the fact that Rampage performs better when he fights regularly. He is 7-1 in UFC fights with less than 200 days between contests. That lone loss came at the hands of Jones, a guy many believe to be the both the present and future of the division.

When the cage door shuts, it will have been 155 days since Rampage’s last fight.

I’ll let you decide what that means.

QUICK FACTS

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
•    33 years old
•    6’1, 205 lbs
•    73-inch reach
•    32-9 overall
•    3-2 in last 5 fights
•    7-3 in last 10 fights
•    13-5 in Japan
•    Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion
•    Former PRIDE 205-lb Champion (defeated reigning champ Dan Henderson after UFC/Pride acquisition)
•    First man to unify UFC and PRIDE titles
•    406-day reign as champion; 1 successful title defense
•    2 submission losses in 41 professional fights
•    Stopped 3 times by strikes as a professional
•    Knockout of the Night — KO1 over Chuck Liddell at UFC 71; KO1 over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92 
•    Fight of the Night – UD5 loss to Forrest Griffin at UFC 86; UD3 over Keith Jardine at UFC 96
•    Current layoff is 155 days
•    Longest layoff of his career is 448 days

Ryan Bader
•    28 years old
•    6’2, 205 lbs
•    74-inch reach
•    14-2 overall
•    3-2 in last 5
•    8-2 in last 10
•    First fight in Japan
•    TUF: Season 8 winner
•    Both career losses by submission
•    No post-fight awards
•    Current layoff is 99 days
•    Longest layoff of career (excluding time on TUF) is 216 days