It wasn’t entirely surprising that Phil Davis signed with Bellator on Wednesday. It was only surprising how quietly he entered the world of free agency, and how casually people who realized this said, “Oh yeah? Is that right? You going to eat that pickle?”
Davis has always been very “sort of.”
Every now and then it seemed like “Mr. Wonderful” was being primed for a title shot with Jon Jones. That clash was forever down the road for the broad-shouldered former Penn State wrestler who wore the pink shorts. It felt somewhat inevitable, especially considering the dearth of contenders at 205 pounds. But it never materialized. Davis ended up in a “top five-ish” purgatory in the UFC, locked in the land of never-fully-realized potential.
What happened? Something like general dissatisfaction.
Davis won some, he lost some, he compelled people to check their e-mail during his fights. That last thing is a sin. He spit an awkward game, that fell between trash talk and cruise ship comedian. He became a little paradoxical, too…as in, the fights he won might have been more damaging than the ones he lost. He’d knock off contenders and nod off spectators. Whenever he got too big for his britches he got humbled. Anthony Johnson’s handling of Davis at UFC 172 was a course in existentialism. Davis looked right past him and…well, he shouldn’t have looked right past him.
Somewhere along the way, Davis just stopped moving the needle. If there was a word that could be cast over his fights, the one that comes to mind is “frustrating.” That’s not the kind of light you want to give off.
But still, he had moments in the UFC — particularly early on — and that’s where everything gets conflicted. He did invent the “Philmura” against Tim Boetsch, which sent the “Barbarian” into a fit of introspection (and ultimately down to middleweight). He did defeat Alexander Gustafsson in Abu Dhabi before they went on to become training partners. Later, against Glover Teixeira — in perhaps his finest showing — it felt like he might be finally rounding a corner.
Then he gambled. He opted not to re-up on his UFC contract, and then unceremoniously lost against Ryan Bader in Sweden. Again, just like so much in his UFC career, things ended in a state of dissatisfaction. Just kind of “huh.”
Perhaps it was the premature encounter with Rashad Evans back in early 2012 that ended up unmooring him. UFC matchmaking, on that rare occasion, blindfolded a future contender, turned him around 50 times, and handed him a stick on national television. Remember that? It wasn’t that he lost his first pro fight that night; it was that he looked so bad doing so. Evans outwrestled him. Worse, Evans showed that Davis was still just a block of clay, still a long way from resembling anything. Especially a contender.
From that point on Davis’ hype never fully recovered. He went 4-3-(1). The Lyoto Machida victory will forever wear “quotes,” and the Vinny Magalhaes victory will forever beg “why?” It’s best to let the Wagner Prado series just slip into the past without thinking too much about it.
So the move to Bellator can’t help but be…if not a good thing, then definitely a “right-feeling” thing. Davis can compete with elite fighters, but he hasn’t shown that he’ll ever transcend them. In the land of Liam McGeary’s and Emanuel Newton’s and (gulp) Tito Ortiz’s, well, he doesn’t particularly need to. He just needs to be Phil Davis.
And who knows. At 30 years old, he is (probably) coming up on his prime. He may still round the bend yet. From the promotional perspective, Davis is an established name who has some very good UFC scalps in his collection, to go along with the best trapezius muscles this side of Dwight Howard. In Bellator, he may finally get that elusive title shot. He may become the champion. He may stay that way for a long time. All of this is possible.
Phil Davis as something more than Phil Davis is possible. Phil Davis as Phil Davis is probable.
Because even if we didn’t see things playing out quite like this as he began his career 9-0, you can’t help but think that this move might actually be Phil Davis living up to his true potential.
It wasn’t entirely surprising that Phil Davis signed with Bellator on Wednesday. It was only surprising how quietly he entered the world of free agency, and how casually people who realized this said, “Oh yeah? Is that right? You going to eat that pickle?”
Davis has always been very “sort of.”
Every now and then it seemed like “Mr. Wonderful” was being primed for a title shot with Jon Jones. That clash was forever down the road for the broad-shouldered former Penn State wrestler who wore the pink shorts. It felt somewhat inevitable, especially considering the dearth of contenders at 205 pounds. But it never materialized. Davis ended up in a “top five-ish” purgatory in the UFC, locked in the land of never-fully-realized potential.
What happened? Something like general dissatisfaction.
Davis won some, he lost some, he compelled people to check their e-mail during his fights. That last thing is a sin. He spit an awkward game, that fell between trash talk and cruise ship comedian. He became a little paradoxical, too…as in, the fights he won might have been more damaging than the ones he lost. He’d knock off contenders and nod off spectators. Whenever he got too big for his britches he got humbled. Anthony Johnson’s handling of Davis at UFC 172 was a course in existentialism. Davis looked right past him and…well, he shouldn’t have looked right past him.
Somewhere along the way, Davis just stopped moving the needle. If there was a word that could be cast over his fights, the one that comes to mind is “frustrating.” That’s not the kind of light you want to give off.
But still, he had moments in the UFC — particularly early on — and that’s where everything gets conflicted. He did invent the “Philmura” against Tim Boetsch, which sent the “Barbarian” into a fit of introspection (and ultimately down to middleweight). He did defeat Alexander Gustafsson in Abu Dhabi before they went on to become training partners. Later, against Glover Teixeira — in perhaps his finest showing — it felt like he might be finally rounding a corner.
Then he gambled. He opted not to re-up on his UFC contract, and then unceremoniously lost against Ryan Bader in Sweden. Again, just like so much in his UFC career, things ended in a state of dissatisfaction. Just kind of “huh.”
Perhaps it was the premature encounter with Rashad Evans back in early 2012 that ended up unmooring him. UFC matchmaking, on that rare occasion, blindfolded a future contender, turned him around 50 times, and handed him a stick on national television. Remember that? It wasn’t that he lost his first pro fight that night; it was that he looked so bad doing so. Evans outwrestled him. Worse, Evans showed that Davis was still just a block of clay, still a long way from resembling anything. Especially a contender.
From that point on Davis’ hype never fully recovered. He went 4-3-(1). The Lyoto Machida victory will forever wear “quotes,” and the Vinny Magalhaes victory will forever beg “why?” It’s best to let the Wagner Prado series just slip into the past without thinking too much about it.
So the move to Bellator can’t help but be…if not a good thing, then definitely a “right-feeling” thing. Davis can compete with elite fighters, but he hasn’t shown that he’ll ever transcend them. In the land of Liam McGeary’s and Emanuel Newton’s and (gulp) Tito Ortiz’s, well, he doesn’t particularly need to. He just needs to be Phil Davis.
And who knows. At 30 years old, he is (probably) coming up on his prime. He may still round the bend yet. From the promotional perspective, Davis is an established name who has some very good UFC scalps in his collection, to go along with the best trapezius muscles this side of Dwight Howard. In Bellator, he may finally get that elusive title shot. He may become the champion. He may stay that way for a long time. All of this is possible.
Phil Davis as something more than Phil Davis is possible. Phil Davis as Phil Davis is probable.
Because even if we didn’t see things playing out quite like this as he began his career 9-0, you can’t help but think that this move might actually be Phil Davis living up to his true potential.
NEW YORK – It’s been an inauspicious start to “Fight Week” for AKA head coach/owner Javier Mendez. An insomniac, he had to show up in Manhattan on Wednesday on just an hour-and-a-half’s worth of sleep. He hadn’t slept because his sleeping pills were in his luggage. His luggage was lost at the airport. He looked like hell warmed over. These are the kinds of things that a coach endures.
Still, Mendez held pads for Luke Rockhold through the pageantry of the open workouts, which were conducted at the UFC Gym in SoHo. Fans stood by as Rockhold thwapped the pads while Mendez suffered through. It was like watching a man with a raging hangover confront a symphony on a glaring afternoon. Yet he did it gamely.
“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to come here, but Luke says, ‘You’re my coach, you have to come,’” he told MMA Fighting. “I said, ‘I don’t want to hold for you because you f*cking kick me in the head.’ He has this habit of kicking me in the head.”
Mendez perked up when talking about the possibilities for 2015, though. Already he has the heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in his stable, but there are so many AKA guys knocking on the door. There’s Khabib Nurmagomedov, who fights Donald Cerrone on May 23 at UFC 187. Should the Dagestani fighter win, he will likely be next in line to fight new lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos (whom he already beat, convincingly, last April in Orlando).
And he has Rockhold, too. Rockhold looked in great shape just a couple of days ahead of his main event with Lyoto Machida. Should Rockhold defeat Machida on Saturday night at UFC on FOX 15 in Newark, it would springboard him toward a title shot against the winner of Vitor Belfort and Chris Weidman, which also happens at UFC 187.
It is possible that by the end of 2015 there could be three titles in the possession of AKA. Mendez, in his sleep-deprived state, humored the idea the best he could.
“Yeah, sure, it’s fun to think of, but it’s not here,” Mendez said. “Someone made a comment that since Khabib already beat RDA, do I feel he’s the champ? I said absolutely not. The champ’s RDA. He legitimately earned that shot. So, no, I won’t feel that until we accomplish it. Because at the end of the year we could end up with still just one.”
That one is Velasquez, the long-shelved heavyweight who fights Fabricio Werdum at UFC 188 in June to unify the belts. Mendez is certain that Velasquez will walk through Werdum when they finally meet in Mexico City. He is certain that Velasquez will remind everybody just how dominant he is, like he did against Antonio Silva and Junior dos Santos.
“That guy isn’t losing,” he said. “Cain’s doing great. He’s on point. He’s looking great, physically, mentally everything’s right. The goal with him, he wants to come out and he wants to make a statement. And that I will say. He’s going to make a statement in that fight. So he’s going to remind everybody why he’s best. I’m being honest with you — Werdum’s going to get destroyed. That’s just the way I look at it, and Cain’s looking at it the same way. We’re either going to stop him or we’re going to hurt him really bad. He’s going to get a worse beating than dos Santos if he makes five rounds, and that’s a fact.”
One thing that is not a fact, at least in his mind, is the notion that a rivalry is forming between AKA and the Los Angeles-based gym, Kings MMA. Kings is home to both Werdum and Dos Anjos, the guys in the immediate and future crosshairs for his fighters. Though there have been whispers that things are getting contentious between the California-based gyms, Mendez said that he and Kings coach Rafael Cordeiro are friends.
“There’s no rivalry,” he said. “If there is a rivalry it’s the fighters doing it, not the coaches. So, maybe I should rephrase that…if there is a rivalry Daniel [Cormier] and Khabib and those guys are doing that. I’m not involved. The coaches are all friends.”
The AKA team captain Cormier, who fights Ryan Bader at UFC Fight Night 68 on June 6 in New Orleans, is another AKA fighter who could end up with a title shot before 2015 closes out. He lost to current 205-pound champion Jon Jones at UFC 182 in January, but given the dearth of contenders at light heavyweight it’s within the realm of possibility that he could ascend back up the ladder quickly.
Overall, starting with Saturday’s fight with Rockhold and Machida, Mendez has a lot to be optimistic about. Especially since they found his luggage and, as of this writing, it was in the process of being delivered to his hotel.
NEW YORK – It’s been an inauspicious start to “Fight Week” for AKA head coach/owner Javier Mendez. An insomniac, he had to show up in Manhattan on Wednesday on just an hour-and-a-half’s worth of sleep. He hadn’t slept because his sleeping pills were in his luggage. His luggage was lost at the airport. He looked like hell warmed over. These are the kinds of things that a coach endures.
Still, Mendez held pads for Luke Rockhold through the pageantry of the open workouts, which were conducted at the UFC Gym in SoHo. Fans stood by as Rockhold thwapped the pads while Mendez suffered through. It was like watching a man with a raging hangover confront a symphony on a glaring afternoon. Yet he did it gamely.
“I was hoping I wouldn’t have to come here, but Luke says, ‘You’re my coach, you have to come,’” he told MMA Fighting. “I said, ‘I don’t want to hold for you because you f*cking kick me in the head.’ He has this habit of kicking me in the head.”
Mendez perked up when talking about the possibilities for 2015, though. Already he has the heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez in his stable, but there are so many AKA guys knocking on the door. There’s Khabib Nurmagomedov, who fights Donald Cerrone on May 23 at UFC 187. Should the Dagestani fighter win, he will likely be next in line to fight new lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos (whom he already beat, convincingly, last April in Orlando).
And he has Rockhold, too. Rockhold looked in great shape just a couple of days ahead of his main event with Lyoto Machida. Should Rockhold defeat Machida on Saturday night at UFC on FOX 15 in Newark, it would springboard him toward a title shot against the winner of Vitor Belfort and Chris Weidman, which also happens at UFC 187.
It is possible that by the end of 2015 there could be three titles in the possession of AKA. Mendez, in his sleep-deprived state, humored the idea the best he could.
“Yeah, sure, it’s fun to think of, but it’s not here,” Mendez said. “Someone made a comment that since Khabib already beat RDA, do I feel he’s the champ? I said absolutely not. The champ’s RDA. He legitimately earned that shot. So, no, I won’t feel that until we accomplish it. Because at the end of the year we could end up with still just one.”
That one is Velasquez, the long-shelved heavyweight who fights Fabricio Werdum at UFC 188 in June to unify the belts. Mendez is certain that Velasquez will walk through Werdum when they finally meet in Mexico City. He is certain that Velasquez will remind everybody just how dominant he is, like he did against Antonio Silva and Junior dos Santos.
“That guy isn’t losing,” he said. “Cain’s doing great. He’s on point. He’s looking great, physically, mentally everything’s right. The goal with him, he wants to come out and he wants to make a statement. And that I will say. He’s going to make a statement in that fight. So he’s going to remind everybody why he’s best. I’m being honest with you — Werdum’s going to get destroyed. That’s just the way I look at it, and Cain’s looking at it the same way. We’re either going to stop him or we’re going to hurt him really bad. He’s going to get a worse beating than dos Santos if he makes five rounds, and that’s a fact.”
One thing that is not a fact, at least in his mind, is the notion that a rivalry is forming between AKA and the Los Angeles-based gym, Kings MMA. Kings is home to both Werdum and Dos Anjos, the guys in the immediate and future crosshairs for his fighters. Though there have been whispers that things are getting contentious between the California-based gyms, Mendez said that he and Kings coach Rafael Cordeiro are friends.
“There’s no rivalry,” he said. “If there is a rivalry it’s the fighters doing it, not the coaches. So, maybe I should rephrase that…if there is a rivalry Daniel [Cormier] and Khabib and those guys are doing that. I’m not involved. The coaches are all friends.”
The AKA team captain Cormier, who fights Ryan Bader at UFC Fight Night 68 on June 6 in New Orleans, is another AKA fighter who could end up with a title shot before 2015 closes out. He lost to current 205-pound champion Jon Jones at UFC 182 in January, but given the dearth of contenders at light heavyweight it’s within the realm of possibility that he could ascend back up the ladder quickly.
Overall, starting with Saturday’s fight with Rockhold and Machida, Mendez has a lot to be optimistic about. Especially since they found his luggage and, as of this writing, it was in the process of being delivered to his hotel.
NEW YORK – Second chances in the UFC are often made of necessity (read: desperation), and that’s essentially what happened for Chris Camozzi. On Friday, when Yoel Romero was officially removed from his fight with Ronaldo Souza, the mad scramble for a replacement was on. According to Dana White, exactly one person had his hand up.
And that was Camozzi, who wasn’t even in the UFC anymore. He was cut seven months ago after losing four straight fights, beginning with a loss to “Jacare” himself back in May 2013.
In this case it took a spiral to make things come full circle.
On Saturday night, Camozzi will get all the second chances he could ask for when he tries his luck again against “Jacare” in the co-main event at UFC on FOX 15 in Newark, N.J. Because he was willing to step up and do what on paper looks like a suicide mission, Camozzi has a new contract with the UFC. It didn’t hurt that since being issued his walking papers that the Factory X fighter has won a couple of fights in the interim, either.
The UFC always admires guys who are motivated and willing. The promotion loves timely spontaneity.
“Every time someone drops out of a fight on a card at middleweight [Camozzi] reaches out to [matchmaker] Joe Silva,” Camozzi’s training partner, Chase Hackett, said on Wednesday during the open workouts in Soho. “He’s been ready ever since he got cut, and he’s been just getting better. He’s worked on a lot of things and he’s been healthy and he’s always tried to jump at opportunities like this. When he heard that Romero got hurt, he reached out to Joe Silva and said he was ready to fight Jacare again. He was woken up by a text from Silva that said, ‘are you serious about fighting Jacare again?’ He said absolutely, and here we are.”
Here we are. Camozzi, who went through a mild workout session for a throng of fans at the UFC Gym in Chinatown, has been installed as a 7-to-1 underdog against the contender Souza. He was in a wedding the night before he got the call to step in. But, his training partner says, he has remained in shape. Camozzi just fought on March 6 in Denver, in a bout where he stopped Wes Swofford with a kick that “busted his leg.”
Camozzi told the media on Wednesday that the actual way he lobbied for the Souza fight was via MixedMartialArts.com, where he openly volunteered his services.
“It turns out Joe Silva reads the Underground, because the next morning I got a text from him,” Camozzi said.
Whatever the case, Camozzi gets a rare chance at redemption, and on Wednesday in New York he looked like a man who understood the situation. When Camozzi fought “Jacare” in 2013 he was riding a four-fight winning streak, but might have been getting a little too comfortable in the Octagon. This time, with no time to over-think things, Camozzi is counting his blessings.
And really, willingness to step in is only half the equation. Everybody in Camozzi’s camp knows that it would have been easy for “Jacare,” who has really nothing to gain status-wise by taking on a patchwork replacement whom he’s already beat, to turn down the bout.
“I was actually a little surprised that somebody like ‘Jacare’…it’s tough, because you fight, you train, you have your whole camp, you cut weight, you’re on your way out here only to find out your opponent changes,” Hackett said. “He beat Chris before, and Chris wasn’t even on the roster. It’s a tough fight for somebody like that to take because he’s in title contention. A loss to Chris could change things for him, so it’s a risky thing for him to take, just the opposite of Chris. But that goes to show you that he’s a fighter as well, that it doesn’t matter who it is, where it is, he’s ready to go.”
It also goes to show that willingness is a synonym for opportunity in the UFC. And these last-minute alterations have cost plenty of fighters in the past. Rick Story infamously lost to Charlie Brenneman after his original opponent, Nate Marquardt, was pulled from competition of the eve of the fight. Brenneman set Story back several years by beating him that night in Pittsburgh.
Can the 7-to-1 underdog Camozzi do the same thing in Newark? Vegas may say no, but stranger things have happened.
“It’s a win-win for Chris,” Hackett said after holding pads for his guy. “Obviously he has the tools to beat Jacare, and he can beat him. And if he wins this fight it catapults him to the top of the division. You can’t say no to that.”
NEW YORK – Second chances in the UFC are often made of necessity (read: desperation), and that’s essentially what happened for Chris Camozzi. On Friday, when Yoel Romero was officially removed from his fight with Ronaldo Souza, the mad scramble for a replacement was on. According to Dana White, exactly one person had his hand up.
And that was Camozzi, who wasn’t even in the UFC anymore. He was cut seven months ago after losing four straight fights, beginning with a loss to “Jacare” himself back in May 2013.
In this case it took a spiral to make things come full circle.
On Saturday night, Camozzi will get all the second chances he could ask for when he tries his luck again against “Jacare” in the co-main event at UFC on FOX 15 in Newark, N.J. Because he was willing to step up and do what on paper looks like a suicide mission, Camozzi has a new contract with the UFC. It didn’t hurt that since being issued his walking papers that the Factory X fighter has won a couple of fights in the interim, either.
The UFC always admires guys who are motivated and willing. The promotion loves timely spontaneity.
“Every time someone drops out of a fight on a card at middleweight [Camozzi] reaches out to [matchmaker] Joe Silva,” Camozzi’s training partner, Chase Hackett, said on Wednesday during the open workouts in Soho. “He’s been ready ever since he got cut, and he’s been just getting better. He’s worked on a lot of things and he’s been healthy and he’s always tried to jump at opportunities like this. When he heard that Romero got hurt, he reached out to Joe Silva and said he was ready to fight Jacare again. He was woken up by a text from Silva that said, ‘are you serious about fighting Jacare again?’ He said absolutely, and here we are.”
Here we are. Camozzi, who went through a mild workout session for a throng of fans at the UFC Gym in Chinatown, has been installed as a 7-to-1 underdog against the contender Souza. He was in a wedding the night before he got the call to step in. But, his training partner says, he has remained in shape. Camozzi just fought on March 6 in Denver, in a bout where he stopped Wes Swofford with a kick that “busted his leg.”
Camozzi told the media on Wednesday that the actual way he lobbied for the Souza fight was via MixedMartialArts.com, where he openly volunteered his services.
“It turns out Joe Silva reads the Underground, because the next morning I got a text from him,” Camozzi said.
Whatever the case, Camozzi gets a rare chance at redemption, and on Wednesday in New York he looked like a man who understood the situation. When Camozzi fought “Jacare” in 2013 he was riding a four-fight winning streak, but might have been getting a little too comfortable in the Octagon. This time, with no time to over-think things, Camozzi is counting his blessings.
And really, willingness to step in is only half the equation. Everybody in Camozzi’s camp knows that it would have been easy for “Jacare,” who has really nothing to gain status-wise by taking on a patchwork replacement whom he’s already beat, to turn down the bout.
“I was actually a little surprised that somebody like ‘Jacare’…it’s tough, because you fight, you train, you have your whole camp, you cut weight, you’re on your way out here only to find out your opponent changes,” Hackett said. “He beat Chris before, and Chris wasn’t even on the roster. It’s a tough fight for somebody like that to take because he’s in title contention. A loss to Chris could change things for him, so it’s a risky thing for him to take, just the opposite of Chris. But that goes to show you that he’s a fighter as well, that it doesn’t matter who it is, where it is, he’s ready to go.”
It also goes to show that willingness is a synonym for opportunity in the UFC. And these last-minute alterations have cost plenty of fighters in the past. Rick Story infamously lost to Charlie Brenneman after his original opponent, Nate Marquardt, was pulled from competition of the eve of the fight. Brenneman set Story back several years by beating him that night in Pittsburgh.
Can the 7-to-1 underdog Camozzi do the same thing in Newark? Vegas may say no, but stranger things have happened.
“It’s a win-win for Chris,” Hackett said after holding pads for his guy. “Obviously he has the tools to beat Jacare, and he can beat him. And if he wins this fight it catapults him to the top of the division. You can’t say no to that.”
The good news is that Mirko Cro Cop is alive. The bad news is he’s going to have to deal with that dastardly media a little more. Wins don’t come without consequence. But man, enough of the dumb stuff — that was some heedless violence going on over there in Krakow. A sanctioned stretch of gore where everybody’s elbows were sharper than skate blades and people bled like bloody hell.
The last time Mirko Cro Cop and Gabriel Gonzaga fought was at UFC 70, when the underdog Gonzaga erased the Pride legend with a head kick. That dropped a lot of jaws in 2007, enough to reimagine the pairing eight years later. This time, at UFC Fight Night 64 in Poland, with Gonzaga (now 35) operating as the heavy betting favorite, things were equally cuckoo.
Gonzaga was having his way with Cro Cop, to the point where the eulogists were warming up in the back. He was on his shoulder blades for good portions of the first two rounds, a position where he looked every bit his age (40). Then, in the third round, just as Gonzaga was trying to muscle him once again down to the canvas, Cro Cop smashed an elbow into his skull that changed everything. Suddenly the takedown attempt turned into a desperate grasp to stay conscious. When Cro Cop got on top of Gonzager — as Dan Hardy calls him — he dropped some of the meanest heavyweight elbows on record into Napao’s brow. The blood began to pool.
That’s when referee Leon Roberts dove in to stop the action, like the merciful man he is. And that’s how you treat a main event.
Now, what does it mean? This is where it gets tricky, but, realistically, not a whole hell of a lot. Somebody had to win. And that somebody regardless of anything wasn’t (and isn’t) destined for another run at the belt. Not that it was ever about that in this particular fight, which materialized from a stretch of imagination and necessity. Poland needed a good main, and Cro Cop is Croatian, which was close enough.
Still, Cro Cop made the most of it.
And it was admirable to see Cro Cop — even without the checkerboard on the shorts — turn the tables on Gonzaga and pump one last fist as he turns toward the twilight. The thing is, though, we all know that isn’t likely to be the case. In all likelihood we’ll see seeing Cro Cop fight again. This makes three wins in a row, after all, and this time it was against somebody not named Satoshi Ishii. If anybody asks how he got the gash about his eye, Cro Cop can roll out the old fight adage: You should see the other guy.
The truth is, I wouldn’t necessarily mind seeing Cro Cop fight again. Even if he looks a little stiffer and a little less mobile he still carries just so much possibility in his fists and feet. Besides, it’s fun to see the curmudgeon answering media questions in the lead-up like somebody who’d rather be — in the words of Luke Thomas — drinking Ebola from the cooler. It’s always a joy to behold his stoicism, too. Did you see him take that knee right to the whamberries in the second round? His expression never changed. What is his expression? Nineteenth Century longshoreman.
But then again, that was a pretty high note to go out on, if he cares about such ridiculous things as “high notes.” The bloodbath at Krakow, when he turned the tables on Gonzaga — not bad. It wasn’t the most glorified fight heading in, but he made it memorable. He evened the score on Gonzaga eight years after watching so much slip through his fingers back in Manchester in 2007, when it felt inevitable he was headed for a title shot. He exacted some revenge. He pulled off some stuff that 99% of the world’s quadragenarians couldn’t come close to. It’s an easy place to close the door on his career.
And an easier place to realize just how open the door still is.
The good news is that Mirko Cro Cop is alive. The bad news is he’s going to have to deal with that dastardly media a little more. Wins don’t come without consequence. But man, enough of the dumb stuff — that was some heedless violence going on over there in Krakow. A sanctioned stretch of gore where everybody’s elbows were sharper than skate blades and people bled like bloody hell.
The last time Mirko Cro Cop and Gabriel Gonzaga fought was at UFC 70, when the underdog Gonzaga erased the Pride legend with a head kick. That dropped a lot of jaws in 2007, enough to reimagine the pairing eight years later. This time, at UFC Fight Night 64 in Poland, with Gonzaga (now 35) operating as the heavy betting favorite, things were equally cuckoo.
Gonzaga was having his way with Cro Cop, to the point where the eulogists were warming up in the back. He was on his shoulder blades for good portions of the first two rounds, a position where he looked every bit his age (40). Then, in the third round, just as Gonzaga was trying to muscle him once again down to the canvas, Cro Cop smashed an elbow into his skull that changed everything. Suddenly the takedown attempt turned into a desperate grasp to stay conscious. When Cro Cop got on top of Gonzager — as Dan Hardy calls him — he dropped some of the meanest heavyweight elbows on record into Napao’s brow. The blood began to pool.
That’s when referee Leon Roberts dove in to stop the action, like the merciful man he is. And that’s how you treat a main event.
Now, what does it mean? This is where it gets tricky, but, realistically, not a whole hell of a lot. Somebody had to win. And that somebody regardless of anything wasn’t (and isn’t) destined for another run at the belt. Not that it was ever about that in this particular fight, which materialized from a stretch of imagination and necessity. Poland needed a good main, and Cro Cop is Croatian, which was close enough.
Still, Cro Cop made the most of it.
And it was admirable to see Cro Cop — even without the checkerboard on the shorts — turn the tables on Gonzaga and pump one last fist as he turns toward the twilight. The thing is, though, we all know that isn’t likely to be the case. In all likelihood we’ll see seeing Cro Cop fight again. This makes three wins in a row, after all, and this time it was against somebody not named Satoshi Ishii. If anybody asks how he got the gash about his eye, Cro Cop can roll out the old fight adage: You should see the other guy.
The truth is, I wouldn’t necessarily mind seeing Cro Cop fight again. Even if he looks a little stiffer and a little less mobile he still carries just so much possibility in his fists and feet. Besides, it’s fun to see the curmudgeon answering media questions in the lead-up like somebody who’d rather be — in the words of Luke Thomas — drinking Ebola from the cooler. It’s always a joy to behold his stoicism, too. Did you see him take that knee right to the whamberries in the second round? His expression never changed. What is his expression? Nineteenth Century longshoreman.
But then again, that was a pretty high note to go out on, if he cares about such ridiculous things as “high notes.” The bloodbath at Krakow, when he turned the tables on Gonzaga — not bad. It wasn’t the most glorified fight heading in, but he made it memorable. He evened the score on Gonzaga eight years after watching so much slip through his fingers back in Manchester in 2007, when it felt inevitable he was headed for a title shot. He exacted some revenge. He pulled off some stuff that 99% of the world’s quadragenarians couldn’t come close to. It’s an easy place to close the door on his career.
And an easier place to realize just how open the door still is.
The thing about Phoenix Jones is that you genuinely get the feeling that none of what he does at night is a publicity stunt. Or at least very little of it. He’s only fighting Friday in the World Series of Fighting so he can further fund his crime-fighting initiative. He only signed with WSOF because that particular promotion was rogue enough not to intervene as he goes about thwarting totalitarian street thugs in Seattle.
Publicity is merely a side effect of his day job.
If you don’t know, Jones — whose real name is “Ben Fodor,” a fact that’s both insignificant and important — has a whole superhero get-up, which includes a mask, a bulletproof vest, an eight-pack of armor abs, and a phaZZer gun, which fires rubber bullets. It’s many thousands of dollars worth of comic book badassery. And he takes his duty damn seriously. When he’s not fighting in the cage — which might be the most anticlimactic thing about him — he’s patrolling the meaner neighborhoods of the Emerald City, making the people there think twice about breaking the law. When they do, he steps out of the shadows like an avenging angel of conscience.
Really, what’s not to admire about a bootleg Batman with a chip on his shoulder?
(Well, the police up there certainly don’t know what to do with him. He isn’t exactly making them obsolete. And the fuzz can’t help but give him sideways glances because you just know they’re like what the hell? And some of the citizens aren’t sure what to make of him either. The what the hell’s are a little contagious. Make no mistake, there are insurance issues. But other than those easily overlooked matters he’s a perfectly acceptable crusader of justice).
And it isn’t a publicity stunt, even if what I’m doing here right now — and what lots of us are doing over the last couple of weeks — is giving him publicity. He’s been quietly improving his superhero outfit for years, adding flame retardant material and stab plates, all kinds of supergeeked out accoutrement as his income allows. And he’s been exacting his brand of street justice, night-by-night for over five years, one purse-snatcher at a time. He’s not above stopping for a selfie, so long as it’s taken en-route to some place positively red with crime activity.
It just took ESPN a long time to getting around to that SportsCenter profile that rocketed his fame. And really, that was all sort of incidental. Phoenix Jones would have just continued going about confronting the raging Seattle crime spree whether the cameras ever showed up or not. It’s all very unlazy, what he does. Very noble and unnerving. He’s a person who converted an urge to action into his own personal cause. (In his third job, he works with kids going by the name “Ben Fodor.” The onion has many layers).
Yet the guy who walks into the cage to fight Emmanuel Walo — by the way, a super-villain’s name if there ever was one, The Evil Dr. Walo — at Foxwoods Resort and Casino on Friday night will be doing it so that one day he can afford a Phoenixmobile. Or a newer, superer high tech suit of armor. He’s doing it so that he can fight more crime. Bigger crime. Perhaps even one day white-collar crime, against the iciest of the world’s most loathsome perps…fraudsters, extortionists, embezzlers, lawyers, publicists.
Phoenix Jones versus The Wolf on Wall Street has a ring to it.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Phoenix Jones versus Random Criminal A is pretty unique for the sports world. Phoenix Jones the fighter (5-0-1) versus Emmanuel Walo is happening because of it. Phoenix Jones as a concept keeps falling between fiction and nonfiction. Phoenix Jones the vigilante is enough to inspire the imagination. What to make of this character? And will our unmasked hero escape the clutches of The Evil Dr. Walo in the dungeon at Foxwoods, or will he meet with certain doom?
Stay tuned…
The thing about Phoenix Jones is that you genuinely get the feeling that none of what he does at night is a publicity stunt. Or at least very little of it. He’s only fighting Friday in the World Series of Fighting so he can further fund his crime-fighting initiative. He only signed with WSOF because that particular promotion was rogue enough not to intervene as he goes about thwarting totalitarian street thugs in Seattle.
Publicity is merely a side effect of his day job.
If you don’t know, Jones — whose real name is “Ben Fodor,” a fact that’s both insignificant and important — has a whole superhero get-up, which includes a mask, a bulletproof vest, an eight-pack of armor abs, and a phaZZer gun, which fires rubber bullets. It’s many thousands of dollars worth of comic book badassery. And he takes his duty damn seriously. When he’s not fighting in the cage — which might be the most anticlimactic thing about him — he’s patrolling the meaner neighborhoods of the Emerald City, making the people there think twice about breaking the law. When they do, he steps out of the shadows like an avenging angel of conscience.
Really, what’s not to admire about a bootleg Batman with a chip on his shoulder?
(Well, the police up there certainly don’t know what to do with him. He isn’t exactly making them obsolete. And the fuzz can’t help but give him sideways glances because you just know they’re like what the hell? And some of the citizens aren’t sure what to make of him either. The what the hell’s are a little contagious. Make no mistake, there are insurance issues. But other than those easily overlooked matters he’s a perfectly acceptable crusader of justice).
And it isn’t a publicity stunt, even if what I’m doing here right now — and what lots of us are doing over the last couple of weeks — is giving him publicity. He’s been quietly improving his superhero outfit for years, adding flame retardant material and stab plates, all kinds of supergeeked out accoutrement as his income allows. And he’s been exacting his brand of street justice, night-by-night for over five years, one purse-snatcher at a time. He’s not above stopping for a selfie, so long as it’s taken en-route to some place positively red with crime activity.
It just took ESPN a long time to getting around to that SportsCenter profile that rocketed his fame. And really, that was all sort of incidental. Phoenix Jones would have just continued going about confronting the raging Seattle crime spree whether the cameras ever showed up or not. It’s all very unlazy, what he does. Very noble and unnerving. He’s a person who converted an urge to action into his own personal cause. (In his third job, he works with kids going by the name “Ben Fodor.” The onion has many layers).
Yet the guy who walks into the cage to fight Emmanuel Walo — by the way, a super-villain’s name if there ever was one, The Evil Dr. Walo — at Foxwoods Resort and Casino on Friday night will be doing it so that one day he can afford a Phoenixmobile. Or a newer, superer high tech suit of armor. He’s doing it so that he can fight more crime. Bigger crime. Perhaps even one day white-collar crime, against the iciest of the world’s most loathsome perps…fraudsters, extortionists, embezzlers, lawyers, publicists.
Phoenix Jones versus The Wolf on Wall Street has a ring to it.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Phoenix Jones versus Random Criminal A is pretty unique for the sports world. Phoenix Jones the fighter (5-0-1) versus Emmanuel Walo is happening because of it. Phoenix Jones as a concept keeps falling between fiction and nonfiction. Phoenix Jones the vigilante is enough to inspire the imagination. What to make of this character? And will our unmasked hero escape the clutches of The Evil Dr. Walo in the dungeon at Foxwoods, or will he meet with certain doom?
At some point in time, perhaps when it’s all just a drifting memory, Saul Almeida will look back on his fight camp for Chris Foster as the one where he shot out of a cannon and right through the roof of the circus tent.
Almeida was minding his own business in Boston, training for his April 10 fight for WSOF, when the UFC’s World Tour happened through town on March 25. Jose Aldo, one of the principals being trotted all over the globe to promote his July 11 title fight with Conor McGregor, asked Almeida to be his interpreter for the event. They had been friendly in the past, so he did. And the next thing he knew he was headed to New York, then Toronto. London. Dublin. He and the subject were being ridiculed by the imported Irish, and later the native Irish, and really just about everybody floating down the River of Guinness in between.
Aldo’s very serious looking translator guy became the vicar of vicarious, and you know something? He loved it.
“It was crazy,” he says. “It was awesome. We got to travel. We forgot about time and where we were. We just lived in the moment every day. Every step of the way it was crazy. The fans were crazy. You just had to deal with it, but it was definitely fun. Aldo enjoyed it too.”
Almeida found himself translating words — for the best featherweight mixed martial artist the world has yet known — that wouldn’t be suitable for bathroom walls. And just as suddenly the sound of his own voice was enough to incite pandemonium. By the last leg in Dublin, he was just another part of the theater. If looks could kill, Almeida would have offed McGregor long before the World Tour reached his native land. It was clear he didn’t care for the Irishman’s behavior, and he didn’t hide the fact behind those daggers.
All of this couldn’t have been ideal with a fight just two weeks out. Then again, it was perhaps the best thing that has ever happened to the 25-year-old Almeida in his professional career. It became a global training camp.
“I was able to train as we traveled, like in Toronto, we had the Muay Thai gym,” Almeida says. “Aldo’s friendly with those guys so we went over there and got to train. In London, we trained at the hotel. We were able to train on the go.”
He was also able to make acquaintances with key UFC personnel, too, such as Dana White, who mediated at each port along the way. And now his WSOF bout with the fellow New Englander Foster might become a showcase for what Almeida hopes will become his future boss.
Suddenly the stakes a little higher, and people are paying a little more attention.
“It’s cool to get this fight with WSOF…but at the end of the day I took it because it’ll be at Foxwoods, which is an hour away,” he says. “I’m fighting a guy that I wanted to fight locally anyway, so it worked out. It’s a one-fight deal. So I’ll go in there, and I’ll do what I got to do, finish this, and then give Uncle Dana a call. I’ll be calling him personally after the fight.”
A featherweight himself, Almeida trains these days with Carlos Neto BJJ in Boston, with forays at American Top Team as time permits. At one time “The Spider,” as he’s called because of his long limbs, trained with Team Noguiera. He’s riding a four-fight winning streak, which kicked off at Bellator 110 when he scored a unanimous decision over Andrew Fisher.
As a fighter, there were moments during the World Tour when he wanted to do away with ceremony and inflict bodily harm on McGregor.
“I wanted to go and slap Conor myself,” he says. “Maybe one day. When he snatched [Aldo’s] belt [in Dublin] I should have been quicker. When he went for it, I should have grabbed it and kept it.”
How things would have played out if he had will forever be locked in imagination. Almeida was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and moved to the Boston area at age eight. It was there that he took up karate, eventually working his way to a black belt. By ten, he was doing jiu-jitsu and could already speak fluent English. He wrestled for his high school team, and he took up boxing. He went piecemeal through the martial arts before he began to mix them.
In other words, he wouldn’t have been afraid to mix it up with McGregor.
But he was a little afraid of translating some of the messages being sent to Aldo from the open mic moments at these World Tour events.
“Some things I didn’t translate to him, I didn’t pass it down,” he says. “I told him the important stuff. When somebody is yelling, ‘Hey Aldo, I got something for you…you’re a b*tch, you’re a p*ssy,’ I’m not going to turn to him and tell him that. That’s the greatest featherweight of all time. You can’t be disrespectful like that. He doesn’t know what they’re saying, so I just don’t pass it down. He would tell me what he wanted to get across, what he wanted to say and I would. That’s it.”
And it was Almeida who told Aldo he should greet the crowd in Ireland with a message that he was the “king of Dublin,” the sentiment that nearly tipped the whole thing into hysteria and ended with McGregor snatching the belt.
“We were up in the room before we came down, and we were talking,” Almeida says. “I was like, man, you’re the king. Why don’t you just say you’re the king of Dublin? And [Aldo] was talking about how it always rains in Dublin, and when he came he brought the sunshine, because the sun came out a little bit. But when we go down there, the first question goes to him. And he starts out by saying he’s the king of Dublin and the thing about the sun and rain. Then everybody goes crazy, and Conor jumps up…it was a little bit crazy there from that point.”
No matter what happens after his fight with Foster, Almeida isn’t done assisting Aldo. In May he will head down to Rio de Janeiro, to Aldo’s camp at Nova Uniao, and help the featherweight champion prepare to defend his belt.
How?
By emulating McGregor, the larger-than-life figure who, inadvertently, gave him a share of the spotlight to begin with.
“I have a style like Conor, I can spar like that, I can train like that,” he says. ”So, that’ll be pretty cool.”
As will the memory of this strange moment in time when training for Chris Foster became translating the public crossfire between Ireland and Brazil.
At some point in time, perhaps when it’s all just a drifting memory, Saul Almeida will look back on his fight camp for Chris Foster as the one where he shot out of a cannon and right through the roof of the circus tent.
Almeida was minding his own business in Boston, training for his April 10 fight for WSOF, when the UFC’s World Tour happened through town on March 25. Jose Aldo, one of the principals being trotted all over the globe to promote his July 11 title fight with Conor McGregor, asked Almeida to be his interpreter for the event. They had been friendly in the past, so he did. And the next thing he knew he was headed to New York, then Toronto. London. Dublin. He and the subject were being ridiculed by the imported Irish, and later the native Irish, and really just about everybody floating down the River of Guinness in between.
Aldo’s very serious looking translator guy became the vicar of vicarious, and you know something? He loved it.
“It was crazy,” he says. “It was awesome. We got to travel. We forgot about time and where we were. We just lived in the moment every day. Every step of the way it was crazy. The fans were crazy. You just had to deal with it, but it was definitely fun. Aldo enjoyed it too.”
Almeida found himself translating words — for the best featherweight mixed martial artist the world has yet known — that wouldn’t be suitable for bathroom walls. And just as suddenly the sound of his own voice was enough to incite pandemonium. By the last leg in Dublin, he was just another part of the theater. If looks could kill, Almeida would have offed McGregor long before the World Tour reached his native land. It was clear he didn’t care for the Irishman’s behavior, and he didn’t hide the fact behind those daggers.
All of this couldn’t have been ideal with a fight just two weeks out. Then again, it was perhaps the best thing that has ever happened to the 25-year-old Almeida in his professional career. It became a global training camp.
“I was able to train as we traveled, like in Toronto, we had the Muay Thai gym,” Almeida says. “Aldo’s friendly with those guys so we went over there and got to train. In London, we trained at the hotel. We were able to train on the go.”
He was also able to make acquaintances with key UFC personnel, too, such as Dana White, who mediated at each port along the way. And now his WSOF bout with the fellow New Englander Foster might become a showcase for what Almeida hopes will become his future boss.
Suddenly the stakes a little higher, and people are paying a little more attention.
“It’s cool to get this fight with WSOF…but at the end of the day I took it because it’ll be at Foxwoods, which is an hour away,” he says. “I’m fighting a guy that I wanted to fight locally anyway, so it worked out. It’s a one-fight deal. So I’ll go in there, and I’ll do what I got to do, finish this, and then give Uncle Dana a call. I’ll be calling him personally after the fight.”
A featherweight himself, Almeida trains these days with Carlos Neto BJJ in Boston, with forays at American Top Team as time permits. At one time “The Spider,” as he’s called because of his long limbs, trained with Team Noguiera. He’s riding a four-fight winning streak, which kicked off at Bellator 110 when he scored a unanimous decision over Andrew Fisher.
As a fighter, there were moments during the World Tour when he wanted to do away with ceremony and inflict bodily harm on McGregor.
“I wanted to go and slap Conor myself,” he says. “Maybe one day. When he snatched [Aldo’s] belt [in Dublin] I should have been quicker. When he went for it, I should have grabbed it and kept it.”
How things would have played out if he had will forever be locked in imagination. Almeida was born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and moved to the Boston area at age eight. It was there that he took up karate, eventually working his way to a black belt. By ten, he was doing jiu-jitsu and could already speak fluent English. He wrestled for his high school team, and he took up boxing. He went piecemeal through the martial arts before he began to mix them.
In other words, he wouldn’t have been afraid to mix it up with McGregor.
But he was a little afraid of translating some of the messages being sent to Aldo from the open mic moments at these World Tour events.
“Some things I didn’t translate to him, I didn’t pass it down,” he says. “I told him the important stuff. When somebody is yelling, ‘Hey Aldo, I got something for you…you’re a b*tch, you’re a p*ssy,’ I’m not going to turn to him and tell him that. That’s the greatest featherweight of all time. You can’t be disrespectful like that. He doesn’t know what they’re saying, so I just don’t pass it down. He would tell me what he wanted to get across, what he wanted to say and I would. That’s it.”
And it was Almeida who told Aldo he should greet the crowd in Ireland with a message that he was the “king of Dublin,” the sentiment that nearly tipped the whole thing into hysteria and ended with McGregor snatching the belt.
“We were up in the room before we came down, and we were talking,” Almeida says. “I was like, man, you’re the king. Why don’t you just say you’re the king of Dublin? And [Aldo] was talking about how it always rains in Dublin, and when he came he brought the sunshine, because the sun came out a little bit. But when we go down there, the first question goes to him. And he starts out by saying he’s the king of Dublin and the thing about the sun and rain. Then everybody goes crazy, and Conor jumps up…it was a little bit crazy there from that point.”
No matter what happens after his fight with Foster, Almeida isn’t done assisting Aldo. In May he will head down to Rio de Janeiro, to Aldo’s camp at Nova Uniao, and help the featherweight champion prepare to defend his belt.
How?
By emulating McGregor, the larger-than-life figure who, inadvertently, gave him a share of the spotlight to begin with.
“I have a style like Conor, I can spar like that, I can train like that,” he says. ?”So, that’ll be pretty cool.”
As will the memory of this strange moment in time when training for Chris Foster became translating the public crossfire between Ireland and Brazil.
