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UFC 141 Fight Card: Why Jon Fitch Needs to Make a Statement

Let me describe a fighter for you and you try to guess who I’m talking about.This man (let’s call him “Fighter X”) is one of the top contenders in his division. In fact, he could very well be ranked No. 2 in the world behind the champ. Fighter X comes …

Let me describe a fighter for you and you try to guess who I’m talking about.

This man (let’s call him “Fighter X”) is one of the top contenders in his division. In fact, he could very well be ranked No. 2 in the world behind the champ. Fighter X comes from a wrestling background and uses that style predominantly in his fights. Fighter X is considered a “grinder” and relies on constant pressure to break an opponent’s will.

Who am I talking about? If I added “Fighter X just challenged someone to a loser leaves town match,” I’d be talking about Chael Sonnen.

But if I said “Fighter X hasn’t lost a fight in three years, has been promised and denied title shots, has given the champ his most exciting title defence, and has been the undisputed No. 2 in his weight for nearly half a decade,” then I’m talking about Jon Fitch.

Here’s a simple question: Does Jon Fitch need to win his next fight? The answer: Only if he wants to keep his job. So I guess that’s a yes.

If we believe the rumours, then Jon Fitch is scheduled to face off against Johny Hendricks at the year end Lesnar-Ubereem Card.

Originally, Fitch wanted a rematch with BJ Penn in order to settle the score. That got shut down when Dana White declared that “The Fans” didn’t want to see that particular rematch. It’s a good thing Dana has such a Vince McMahon-esque grip on “what The Fans want.”

With that fight gone, Fitch then wanted to take a fight at UFC 139 in his backyard of San Jose in November. White agreed to this as long as Fitch was willing to face his training partner and friend Josh Koscheck. After suggesting that fight, I’m guessing White made this face.

Okay, so the Lesnar-Ubereem card isn’t such a hard spot to find yourself, really, except that he’s facing Johny Hendricks. Johny Hendricks who, on paper, has all the right tools to be the anti-Fitch missile. Elite wrestling: Check. Gritty style: Check. Epic beard: Oh, you know it.

This is almost a lose-lose fight for Jon, as Hendricks is a fringe welterweight contender at best. I don’t see Fitch stomping his foot and screaming for a title shot after three rounds of Hendricks. Actually, I do, I just don’t see management caring one bit.

Does Fitch need to win? Absolutely. A loss won’t just mean ejection from the title picture, it could even cost him his job. Dana White has fired Fitch for less in the past.

And even with a win, nothing is certain about Jon’s future. There’s still no clear timeline regarding his title shot and no one—from UFC brass, to media, to the average fan—is standing up to applaud him as the heir apparent. A win lets him keep his job, that’s about it.

Am I telling Fitch to change his style? Hell no. This is sports, baby. And in sports winning is God. Jon Fitch doesn’t have to necessarily be the World’s Most Exciting fighter to be popular. Fitch need only look to the top of his division to see that.

But still, the least he could do during his post-fight interview is to challenge someone to a loser leaves town match. Then make a racially charged comment or two. Then cheat in a title fight.

Then we might finally have a reason to care about you, Jon. But if you lose against Hendricks we could very well be looking at the next Bellator Welterweight Champion.

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UFC on Versus 6: What’s On The Line in EVERY Fight?

Mention “free UFC world title fight on network TV” to your casual MMA fan and chances are they’ll start telling you all about Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos, coming live on FOX this fall! Hold on just a second.Before the heavywe…

Mention “free UFC world title fight on network TV” to your casual MMA fan and chances are they’ll start telling you all about Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos, coming live on FOX this fall!

Hold on just a second.

Before the heavyweights take MMA to the next level on network TV, a different set of UFC champions are set to throw down for free under the bright lights of network TV.

For the bantamweights, this is a moment to step out from under the shadows of their heavyweight comrades—and that’s important, since I don’t think Demetrious Johnson could step out from Cain Velasquez’s shadow in real life if he tried.

Backing up the title fight on the network card are some intriguing undercard matchups, featuring scrapy lightweights, just as scrappy welterweights, and your obligatory heavyweight slugfest.

What does it all mean? What exactly is at stake when the lights go down in Washington, D.C. Saturday night? Well, let’s find out shall we? Opening the show, a pair of lightweights with a lot to prove…

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UFC 137: Why Everything Bad Is Secretly GSP’s Fault

Being a fan of any sport, team or athlete entails certain rules. You know what I’m talking about, here.If you’re a Yankees fan, then a Red Sox fan probably hates your guts. If you’re a Maple Leafs guy, chances are your neighbor, the H…

Being a fan of any sport, team or athlete entails certain rules. You know what I’m talking about, here.

If you’re a Yankees fan, then a Red Sox fan probably hates your guts. If you’re a Maple Leafs guy, chances are your neighbor, the Habs fan, and you don’t get along. If you’re a Cowboys fan and your dad is a Redskins kind of guy, chances are you don’t talk much over Thanksgiving dinner. And if you’re Lebron James, well, everyone sort of hates you. That’s just the way it works.

MMA fandom has it’s rules, too. There’s the general ones, like “Boo every close decision no matter what” and “There’s no such thing as the wrong moment to start a USA chant!”. The one I’d like to focus on today is one of the foundational rules of the modern MMA fan: everything is GSP’s fault.

Boring fights. Bad matchmaking. Lopsided title matchups. Angry fans. The Hindenberg crash. Anything you can think of, cynical MMA fans are already blaming GSP for it. You want to be a “hardcore” MMA fan and not just one of those TapouT wearing “casuals”? Time to break with all your friends, tell your girlfriend she’s a lovestruck idiot, and start hating you some GSP.

Case in point: this whole GSP/Nick Diaz fiasco that went down this past week.

When Nick Diaz failed to show up to the UFC 137 press conference, I think most people’s reaction was “surprising, but not shocking.” When Dana White bounced Diaz from the main event because of it, people’s jaws fell a little closer to the floor. And when White then re-inserted Diaz back into the event – this time as the co-main event – people were downright floored.

The only thing that wasn’t surprising was Nick Diaz finding a way to blame it all on that filthy, filthy coward GSP.

Of course, Diaz also blamed his handlers, the UFC, the media, and the very institution of press conferences themselves for his inability to be even basically aware of his own affairs. His accusations lose some of their sting when they’re half weed-induced paranoia – and that’s the reasonable half.

Back on topic: blame GSP. It’s all his fault. When he heard Nick Diaz was being dropped from the title fight he should have stood up, ripped off his pinstripe suit Hulk Hogan-style, and demanded the original fight be put back together, brotha! But he didn’t, clearly because he’s deathly afraid of Nick Diaz.

GSP should have stuck his neck out for the completely unreliable, disrespectful, arguably undeserving challenger who can’t stop talking smack about him. And he should have done it solely because he took the time out of training to do his job like an idiot while Diaz stayed home, broke in his new bong, and played “Call of Duty” like a real man!

But alas, St. Pierre didn’t stick up for Diaz because, see, he’s not a “real fighter”. Hey, don’t take my word for it. According to Diaz, a “real fighter” like BJ Penn would throw down if, say, Diaz called him a little b*tch on the streets. Whereas GSP would need at least 3 months to come up with a gameplan, do some gymnastics, and fly out to Oakland to train with the Amber Lamps guy.

“Not a true fighter”.

What a strange thing for a #1 contender to call the champion he’s challenging. What a strange thing for so many fans to call the biggest crossover star in Mixed Martial Arts history.

Ask those fans why they think that, and the answer usually boils down to “he’s boring! He fights safe! He doesn’t finish people anymore! He doesn’t dominate and put away over matched competition, the way Anderson Silva does!”. Yes, because Anderson Silva’s never been in a boring fight, and always goes for the finish – just ask Thales Leites, Patrick Cote, or Demian Maia.

Yes, some of St. Pierre’s most recent fights have gone to decision, and haven’t exactly been barn-burners either. Luckily, the rule applies itself here again. Forget reasonable expectations for a fight, forget analysis and good judgment and basic common sense. Is a GSP fight boring? Then blame GSP – it’s as simple as that.

Like when he fights Jake Shields, a guy with elite level BJJ, a reputation as a grinder, and a chin capable of withstanding a Dan Henderson haymaker. What are the odds GSP is going to finish that guy? He probably isn’t a tighter BJJ player, and he probably can’t punch harder than Dan freakin’ Henderson. Combine that with Jake’s rep for slow, plodding fights, and you have what sounds to me like a surefire decision on your hands.

I’ve just described the normal, rational though process. That process doesn’t apply in this case, because it ignores the golden rule: blame GSP.

On second thought, this rule doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. I need a little clarification here. GSP haters of the world: I turn to you.

Let’s assume the worst about him for a moment. Let’s assume everything you haters say about GSP is the gospel truth. Let’s assume for the moment that he’s a mentally weak, pillow-fisted front runner with a shaky set of whiskers and an aversion to risk, and in every fight he’s looking to jab, jab, double-leg to a decision win.

I have but two questions:

Why can’t this man be beat? If his strategy never changes, and he has all those obvious weaknesses, why can’t anybody beat him? Hell, why in the last three years – while fighting the toughest list of title challengers of any champion in MMA – has no one even come close?

And the second question: why is every boring fight entirely his fault? I mean Jake Shields said he was going to take GSP down and submit him. In the event, he didn’t connect on one single takedown. Why aren’t you guys mad at Jake for being so ineffective? Why don’t we hate him for not doing anything in that fight except trying to park his thumb in GSP’s eye socket?

Josh Koscheck said he was going to knock GSP out. For 25 minutes, GSP stood right in front of him, and he couldn’t get anything going, even before Georges broke his face. Don’t we hate him for abandoning his wrestling, abandoning his kickboxing, and forgetting to pull the trigger?

Dan Hardy knew he was going to fight GSP for months, and that his only chance to win was on the feet. Don’t we hate him for being so inadequate in his defensive wrestling?

For most fans, asking these sort of questions is both daunting, and unnecessary. Instead, let’s just agree to keep blaming GSP for the obvious reasons we’ll never admit to each other: he’s got a funny accent, our girlfriends would leave us for him, and he really doesn’t need or care about the support of hardcore MMA fans, the bastard.

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UFC Fight Night 25: Should Jason MacDonald Retire If He Loses to Alan Belcher?

I believe this upcoming UFC Fight Night has the distinction of being the first ever UFC card to totally steal the name of an earlier UFC event. And I’m not counting episodes 1-100 of “Ultimate Knockouts”, or my suggestion for &ldqu…

Yes, the original UFC “Battle on the Bayou” will always hold a special place in my heart. As a young(er) fan watching the event on VHS, I will never forget the image of Frank Shamrock slamming Igor Zinoviev like he was a 50-pound sparring dummy. A 50-pound sparring dummy that had slept with his wife.

It was a different era in mixed martial arts. An era of underground fights and penny pinching promoters (say that three times fast), of fading popularity and no money and efforts to ban the sport. Certainly no one was making Oscar contending movies starring Nick freakin’ Nolte about our little sport back then.

It was a different age, a bygone era, a time so distant it has faded to lore.

It was March 13, 1998.

Less than a year later, Jason MacDonald made his professional MMA debut. Talk about being O.G.

Since then, MacDonald has been almost to every extreme this sport has. He’s fought from one end of Canada to the other, becoming a legend on Canada’s regional circuit. He fought in a lot of dingy armories and high school gyms for little more then promises and bragging rights.

To vaguely quote Mike Goldberg, “More than paying his dues in the sport of MMA, is Jason MacDonald!” At least I think he said that.

Inside the UFC, MacDonald has done it all, from the PPV marquee fights to the undercard curtain-jerkers. From being “in the mix” for a belt to being cut from the organization. He’s experienced the elation of a surprising victory and the heartbreak of a shocking defeat—and that’s just the few times I’ve seen him live.

He fought Rich Franklin, Chris Leben, Yushin Okami and Demian Maia, and gave all those men as much (or more) than they could handle.

This Saturday is, from a personal standpoint, bigger then all those fights for MacDonald. A win gives him the chance at another run in the sport’s big leagues. A loss almost certainly means the end of his UFC tenure. It could also very well signal the end of his MMA career as well.

MacDonald isn’t exactly standing on rock solid footing career-wise at the moment. As mentioned, “The Athlete” has already been bounced from the UFC following a loss to Nate Quarry. After putting together a few wins on the Canadian regional circuit, MacDonald was given a “for one night only” ( you lose, you’re gone) UFC return against John Salter to fill an undercard spot in Montreal last year.

One botched take-down attempt later, and MacDonald had a broken leg, another loss on his record, and some serious questions about his future.

Luckily, Dana White proved to be a man of his word. Kinda. After a year on the shelf, White honored his original deal with Jason and booked him another “for one night only” appearance, this time on the UFC 129 undercard in Toronto in April. This time, MacDonald took care of business, won his fight in the opening frame, and thus maneuvered his way into this card.

Still, the numbers are against J-Mac. He is 37-years-old with over a decade of full-time fighting under his belt. His fight with Alan Belcher this Saturday will be his 40^th career bout. MacDonald has fought only two times in the last two years, with lots of downtime to recover from a serious injury. He’s 1-3 in his last four UFC fights.

Those are damning statistics for any fighter to face. But MacDonald has some unique advantages, as well.

He’s won “Submission of the Night” three times, “KO of the Night” once and has a reputation for exciting, dramatic fights. He’s also a known commodity to Canadian MMA fans, someone they’ll care about and pay to watch. He’s a great “gatekeeper” that can test new guys on the way up. So from a promoter’s viewpoint, he’s still a fighter to have on the roster if he wins Saturday.

MacDonald also has an advantage in that Alan Belcher may be the only guy at middleweight with worse luck than him. A serious eye injury in training almost ended Belcher’s career; now he makes his return to the Octagon after a year and a half on the shelf. He may not be the same fighter he was when he left.

Which is good, cause at last viewing, Alan Belcher was a “talented” middleweight (see what I did there?) who was a handful for anyone. And he’s fighting in his backyard, so you know he’ll be bringing it come fight night.

So MacDonald stands, as he so frequently has, as the answer to a question. Is Alan Belcher still a top level middleweight? That’s the question the UFC wants answered in the booking of this fight.

But the question I’m more interested in is—Is Jason MacDonald still a UFC-level fighter?

Belcher has time and coming off such a bad injury fans and media will likely forgive a loss. But for MacDonald, it’s do or die. Win, and you get to write a couple more chapters into an already long and storied UFC career. Lose, and that book could very well be closed forever.

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UFC 137: Facing BJ Penn Is All the Punishment Nick Diaz Deserves

Of all the opponents Nick Diaz has faced in his career—many of whom are world class fighters—I think we always knew that the hardest obstacle for Nick Diaz to overcome would be Nick Diaz. The story of Nick’s MMA career reads like a recurrin…

Of all the opponents Nick Diaz has faced in his career—many of whom are world class fighters—I think we always knew that the hardest obstacle for Nick Diaz to overcome would be Nick Diaz.

The story of Nick’s MMA career reads like a recurring, cyclical narrative about great potential cut down by bad personal choices.

Mention his first stint in the UFC, and most people will tell you about the fight he had at the hospital with Joe Riggs and not the all-out wars he put on in the Octagon. His most signature win—over Takanori Gomi in one of my favorite fights of all time—today shows up as a “No Contest” on Diaz’s record after his post-fight urinalysis contained enough THC to get Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg high off the fumes.

And then this.

Coming over from Strikeforce, Diaz was given everything a fighter in his position could ask for. Money. Top billing on a PPV. An immediate title shot against the most popular fighter in the sport. All he had to do was “play the game” as Dana White put it.

After no-showing two back-to-back press conferences to promote his UFC 137 fight with GSP, White pulled the plug on Diaz as a title challenger, and gave Carlos Condit a shot at St. Pierre’s strap. It looked like it was “game over” for Diaz (see what I did there?).

Now we get word that Diaz is back on the 137 card again, this time in the co-main event slot, ironically filling in for Carlos Condit against BJ Penn. It’s like the top guys at 137 played a game of musical chairs, and this is what we were left with.

St. Pierre vs. Carlos Condit. BJ Penn vs. Nick Diaz. If I went back in time 6 months and told any MMA fan these fights would be happening on the same card, I’d guarantee they’d start salivating like Pavlov’s pooches at bell ringin’ time.

So of course, fans are pissed off about it now.

Why is the UFC “rewarding” Nick Diaz for missing press conferences by keeping him on as the co-main event? Why go through all the hassle and “scandal” of shuffling your main event, only to keep the guy you just booted fighting on the same card? Why is Nick Diaz not being punished for so royally screwing the pooch on this one?

Here’s a little newsflash for the howling, vigilante mob that MMA fans so quickly become: Diaz has been punished. See that event poster that used to have his face on it? Notice how it’s not there anymore? See that highly visible, heavily promoted, highly lucrative PPV main eventing world title match that was the culmination of everything he’s ever worked for in his whole career? See how he doesn’t have that anymore?

To go by most fans, what Dana White should have done was cut Nick from the UFC, expunge his name Frank Shamrock-style from the UFC history books, then drive up to Stockton and strangle Diaz to death like Tony Soprano.

Cutting Nick Diaz outright is the UFC cutting off its nose to spite its face. The UFC would lose a visible, well-known face in a division increasingly dwarfed and overshadowed by GSP. Nick would go on fighting on the small circuit, in Japan, or would take a boxing match like he originally planned. Life for all parties would go on.

The only people “punished” in that situation are the fans, who lose out on some potential Nick Diaz classic wars in the UFC welterweight division. Does him skipping a press event really irk you enough to make you pass fights like Diaz vs. Alves, Diaz vs. Diego 2, or—wait for it—Diaz vs. Penn?

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Besides, the way the 137 card worked out is, to my mind, the closest thing you can get to “justice” in MMA matchmaking.

Carlos Condit has built his UFC resume on tough, gritty wins mixed with spectacular finishes. He remains to my mind the only “UFC grown” challenger left for GSP’s belt, meaning he earned his shot by fighting his way up the ranks. After he starched Dong Hyun Kim, I actually believe he had a better case for a title shot than Diaz did. Him getting a crack at the belt is both fitting and should result in a heck of a fight.

And Diaz? Well to me, a fight with BJ Penn is a form of punishment in and of itself, since “The Prodigy” represents a horrible stylistic matchup for him.

Is it a worse matchup then GSP would have been? That’s debatable, however there are a couple factors that potentially make this fight more dangerous for Diaz. Against the Canadian, Diaz knew he had only one thing to fear, expect, and prepare for: the takedown. Sure, it may have proven his downfall, but at least he knew what to train for and (hopefully) defend against with his BJJ.

GSP’s standup might have been effective, but it would only have set up the takedown. Against Penn, Diaz has to worry about a fast opponent with great technical boxing and proven one-hit KO power. As a high-volume puncher, he also has to worry about Penn’s legendary chin and un-cut-able skin, Finally, Penn has the sort of killer instinct that some of Diaz’s past opponents (and possibly even GSP) lack.

Put another way: if Diaz had flopped to the canvas like he did against Paul Daley against BJ Penn instead, the fight would have ended a minute later with Penn licking Diaz’s blood off his gloves.

So to all you angry fans out there: relax. No one has any right to be angry here. Not Diaz, who’s lucky he still has a place on this card at all. Not Penn, who traded one exciting, winnable fight for another. Not the UFC, which gets to keep it’s blockbuster October event (mostly) intact. And not the fans, who will be treated to a great fight and a (supposedly) routine GSP title defense, just like they were before all this went down.

In fact, the only person with a legitimate gripe is St. Pierre himself, who took time off training, dusted off the old pinstripe suit, and got his “best GSP you’ve ever seen” stock answers ready only to be rewarded with frustration, and 11^th hour change of opponent, and the loss of his head coach. Talk about a burr in your saddle.

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Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix: Do We Care About This Tournament Anymore?

Tournaments are like the Tower of Babel in the combat sports world.In the beginning, everyone is enthusiastic, the will is there and it truly seems like the impossible can be pulled off.Then you get halfway through it, pour hundreds of hours of work in…

Tournaments are like the Tower of Babel in the combat sports world.

In the beginning, everyone is enthusiastic, the will is there and it truly seems like the impossible can be pulled off.

Then you get halfway through it, pour hundreds of hours of work into it, only to realize everyone is speaking a different language, and no one knows what the Sam Hill is going on.

Confusion and frustration are the curses levied by the fight gods on every single-elimination style tournament, which seems kind of unfair, as tournaments are supposed to epitomize what fighting is all about: a no-BS way to determine who the best is.

Alas, it is not for mere mortals to try to touch the face of God.

It was with a sense of resigned disappointment that I read of Alistair Overeem’s departure from the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament—and then the promotion itself—in recent weeks.

I mean, this sort of thing was bound to happen sooner or later, right?

Just look at the pandemonium that befell the “Super Six” boxing tournament on Showtime, the same network that houses Strikeforce (for the time being, at least). No tourney is immune from the chaos.

But in that case, the frustration was “worth it,” as the Super Six was the launching pad from which U.S Olympian Andre Ward catapulted into boxing’s elite ranks, whether or not he beats Froch.

But post-Ubereem, what exactly are we left with in the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament?

This is a tournament without Fedor, unarguably its biggest draw at the start, who could have used a win here to regain his grip on the heavyweight throne (how strange that notion seems now in hindsight).

It’s a tournament without Werdum, who could have added to the legitimacy of his Fedor win and BJJ credentials to become a bona-fide heavyweight superstar.

It’s a tournament without Andrei Arlovski or Brett Rogers, two (mild) draws who could have used a tournament win to revive lagging fan interest in their careers.

And most frustrating of all, it’s a tournament without Overeem, the Strikeforce heavyweight champ and K-1 Grand Prix winner who could have ridden a win right into the top five rankings in the world, justifying at long last his years of (arguably undeserved) hype from MMA fans around the world.

Now the only place to catch Overeem is in the unemployment line—and by that, I mean the next United Glory show, crushing cans like he was working in a recycling plant.

Same old, same old.

I’m still crossing my fingers, toes and God knows what else that Overeem will make his way to the UFC sooner rather than later.

What does that leave us in the tournament field? Let’s break it down, shall we?

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