Author: James MacDonald

Tito Ortiz and the 3 Most Tired Acts in Mixed Martial Arts

The well-known phrase “jump the shark” is often used to describe someone or something that has lost its initial appeal—the phrase itself has arguably jumped the shark at this point.
As news filtered in about Tito Ortiz’s fractur…

The well-known phrase “jump the shark” is often used to describe someone or something that has lost its initial appeal—the phrase itself has arguably jumped the shark at this point.

As news filtered in about Tito Ortiz’s fractured neck late last week, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the expression.

MMA is still in its infancy, but it has grown old enough to see many of its former stars cling desperately to whatever relevancy remains.

This list laments those faded stars who continue to chase the spotlight despite the mixture of scorn and apathy that greets their every move.

As always, feel free to include your own suggestions in the comments.

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Ultimate Fight Night 30: Examining the State of the UFC’s British Invasion

Having completed yet another increasingly reluctant trip to the UK for Ultimate Fight Night 30, it’s time to once again examine the UFC’s commitment to establishing its brand in ol’ Blighty.
Let’s be clear before going any furth…

Having completed yet another increasingly reluctant trip to the UK for Ultimate Fight Night 30, it’s time to once again examine the UFC’s commitment to establishing its brand in ol’ Blighty.

Let’s be clear before going any further: British MMA fans have it pretty good. While our American cousins are bankrupting themselves to purchase every PPV, we get to watch every single event for free—besides the cost of BT Sport, that is.

This generally means having to stay up until 6 a.m., at which point we are usually so adrenalized that we end up shadowboxing with the coat rack and putting our slumbering loved ones in an armbar.

But pushing back bed time is a small price to pay for the privilege. Bearing that in mind, do we really have anything to complain about?

Back when UFC events were being aired on ESPN UK, Dana White took every opportunity to assure British fans that “everything is going to be golden over there” once the right television deal comes along.

The recent deal with BT Sport was supposed to be the one. It not only meant the creation of original content for the UK audience, but it also offered the UFC an opportunity to better market its product on this side of the pond.

Prior to the current television deal, MMA didn’t have much of a presence in the UK. Sure, the sport was always likely to maintain what little presence it did enjoy due to the Internet and the loyalty of its hardcore fans.

There was no potential for growth, however. ESPN UK would air the live events, with little or no promotion to complement the events. The broadcast deal was as vanilla as possible, designed to keep the promotion in the UK consciousness until something better came along.

So, has the situation improved since the launch of BT Sport in August? Not really, to be brutally honest.

In place of UFC Tonight, we get UFC: Beyond The Octagon. Unfortunately, the shows are not of comparable quality.

While the former frequently breaks the biggest stories and boasts appearances from the organisation’s top stars, the latter continues the tradition of feeding the UK audience a mixture of local and prelim-level talent.

The quality of BT Sport’s coverage plummeted further still during UFN 30 on Saturday night. Compared to the professional production offered on Fox Sports 1, UK fans were treated to a show that looked like it was put together by some high school students with a camcorder.

I half-expected Caroline Pearce, the show’s anchor, to exclaim, “And boom goes the dynamite” during the replay of Lyoto Machida’s headkick knockout of Mark Munoz. Either the UFC is oblivious to the wants of the British fans, or it is effectively helpless to address them.

The problem has never been the absence of original content. We don’t want UK versions of superior US shows. What we want is for our live events to be headlined by bona fide main-eventers.

Packing the rest of the card full of local talent is fine, but when it comes time for the main event, we want to know that the fight we are watching has consequences beyond the present.

We want title implications, big stars and all the bells and whistles of a Las Vegas PPV. Our expectations are unrealistic, though. No television deal is equipped to address the biggest issue faced by the UK market: the prohibitive time difference between the US and the UK.

For the UFC to meet our lofty expectations, the organisation would be forced to consistently take a massive hit on PPV. Putting the likes of Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre or Anderson Silva on a PPV in Europe at 2 p.m. EST would cost the UFC millions of dollars in lost revenue.

To borrow a phrase from Luke Thomas, it would be promotional malpractice for Dana White and Co. to furnish a UK event—and arguably any European event—with its most bankable stars. Until something unforeseen happens that would allow the UFC to stage a star-studded event in the UK, we need to recalibrate our expectations.

No amount of complaining is going to make a difference, and nor should it. Some fans may be loath to hear it, but the future of the sport is tied to the UFC’s success. What is good for the UFC is currently what is best for MMA.

If the UK has to put up with a few events headlined by mid-carders, we should be willing to take it on the chin for the sake of sport’s continued growth.

 

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Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos: Positives and Negatives for Both Fighters

Another weekend, another terrific UFC event. Dana White and Co. are on a roll and UFC 166 did nothing to halt the organisation’s momentum.
The main event between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos for the UFC heavyweight title turned out to be …

Another weekend, another terrific UFC event. Dana White and Co. are on a roll and UFC 166 did nothing to halt the organisation’s momentum.

The main event between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos for the UFC heavyweight title turned out to be an extremely lopsided affair, yet it remained compelling throughout.

What did each fighter do well and what will they be looking to improve for the future? For those interested, read on for my take on last night’s action.

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UFC 166: Is Daniel Cormier a Legitimate Threat to Jon Jones?

It seems like only last week we were lamenting the chronic lack of depth in the UFC’s light heavyweight division.
Once the promotion’s marquee weight class, Jon Jones’ recent dominance over his light heavyweight peers had seemingly re…

It seems like only last week we were lamenting the chronic lack of depth in the UFC’s light heavyweight division.

Once the promotion’s marquee weight class, Jon Jones’ recent dominance over his light heavyweight peers had seemingly rendered the division void of any intrigue.

But over the past few weeks, Alexander Gustafsson and Daniel Cormier have apparently emerged as legitimate threats to Jon Jones’ crown.

Granted, the emergence of two contenders to the 205-pound throne hardly warrants breaking out the party hats, but the division has been so starved of a compelling supporting cast that I’ll take what little I can get.

The threat posed by Alexander Gustafsson is self-evident at this point. In a star-making performance, the Swede took the champion to the brink at UFC 165.

But what about Daniel Cormier, whose next bout seems destined to be at 205 pounds?

We know what the former Olympian is capable of, but should we reserve judgement until we see how he deals with such a significant weight cut?

Cormier’s struggles with the scale at the 2008 Beijing Olympics have been well-documented, so it’s not unreasonable to question whether the drop to 205 pounds will have a deleterious effect on his performance inside the cage.

The suggested headline for this piece included an amusing typo:

“Is Daniel Cormier a Legitimate Treat to Jon Jones?”

I looked at this Freudian slip of a headline and questioned whether my long-suffering editor’s typo is a more suitable headline than my own.

OK, so I’m stretching the truth a little. The inclusion of the erroneous headline was a post-hoc decision, since I felt I could get a little mileage out of the amusing slip.

My point stands, though.

Many fans think Cormier possesses the requisite tools to unseat Jones, but very few column inches have been dedicated to how the pair match up physically.

With the former Strikeforce Grand Prix champion coming down from heavyweight, the assumption seems to be that size and weight won’t be a major factor in the outcome of any eventual fight.

In reality, Cormier fights at heavyweight because he carries around a significant amount of extra body fat. His frame is more naturally suited to the light heavyweight division.

Additionally, the discrepancy in both size and reach appears almost insurmountable on paper, with Jones enjoying a five-inch height advantage and an astonishing reach advantage of almost a foot.

While Cormier coped masterfully with a somewhat similar handicap when he faced Josh Barnett, the 34-year-old has never dealt with anyone who excels at capitalising on his physical advantages in the quite the same way as Jones.

Of course, height and reach would be less of an issue if Cormier employed a similar style to his friend and AKA teammate Cain Velasquez, who is near-peerless at closing the distance and wearing down opponents against the cage.

The former Olympian is instead more content to remain primarily on the outside, popping in and out of range to deliver his surprisingly versatile attacks—his level changes have also turned into a thing of beauty.

Though capable of grinding opponents up against the cage, it’s hard to imagine Cormier being able to consistently close the distance and control the much-larger Jones.

Based on amateur credentials alone, Cormier would appear to hold the wrestling advantage. But as I am often at pains to point out, amateur wrestling credentials don’t necessarily guarantee success inside the cage.

That being said, if there is one particular area of intrigue in this fight, it will be whether the former Oklahoma state standout can bring his amateur wrestling experience to bear and take Jones to the mat.

Strain as I might, I can’t imagine this scenario actually playing out, nor any scenario that ends with Cormier’s hand being raised.

However, I’ve been wrong many times before. For the sake of the light heavyweight division’s health, this is one of those rare occasions when I would gleefully eat my own words.

 

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Cain Velasquez and Fedor Emelianenko: Examining the GOAT Question

In light of the promotion for UFC 166’s main event between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos, it is perhaps unsurprising that the most prominent talking point to emerge from last night’s chaos concerns the UFC heavyweight champion’…

In light of the promotion for UFC 166’s main event between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos, it is perhaps unsurprising that the most prominent talking point to emerge from last night’s chaos concerns the UFC heavyweight champion’s place in history.

From the moment Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan hailed Velasquez as the greatest heavyweight to ever strap on a pair of 4 oz gloves, you could almost hear the army of Fedor Emelianenko devotees furiously typing out their strongly-worded rebuttals.

While I’m sympathetic to their perspective, I also appreciate the reasoning behind the claim of the UFC’s commentary duo.

As the dust settled and we began to dissect what we had just witnessed, I engaged in a lengthy Twitter exchange with MMA Sentinel’s Iain Kidd and B/R MMA’s own Hunter Homistek, in which we debated the merits of the competing perspectives.

Whether you’re discussing tennis, boxing, MMA, soccer or any other sport you’d care to mention, the sticking point is almost invariably the question of how to compare eras—or indeed whether it’s fair to even make the comparison.

In Hunter’s own excellent piece on the subject, he makes the following point about the ubiquitous G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time) debate:

“You cannot fault the man [Emelianenko] for competing in an era of mixed martial arts that was not as deep or as competitive as it is today.”

He’s not wrong, either. We can no more blame Fedor for his level of competition than we can credit Cain for his.

However, there are a number of ways to approach such discussions, each of which seems to be increasingly subjective.

As a fan of the hard sciences, I appreciate the desire to take a quantitative approach and make it purely a numbers game.

But as a social scientist by trade, I can’t help but also view the discussion from a qualitative perspective.

If we simply do the G.O.A.T math, Velasquez’s record doesn’t hold a candle to Fedor’s lengthy period of dominance throughout the noughties.

“The Last Emperor” ran through the best the heavyweight division had to offer, going undefeated for almost 10 years.

In contrast, Velasquez has two consecutive title defences under his belt and a career record of 13-1.

Case closed, it would seem.

Do the numbers tell the whole story, though?

Granted, comparing the respective abilities of Cain and Fedor adds a layer of subjectivity to the discussion that complicates the issue, but G.O.A.T debates are by nature an intellectual exercise in futility.

Should I call Fedor the greatest heavyweight of all time even if I believe that, assuming they were matched up in their primes, Velasquez would have his way with the Russian?

Like my B/R MMA colleague, I think the issue has to be examined from more than one perspective.

We cannot just look at a fighter’s record in isolation from its surrounding context, nor can we match up fighters from different eras in the imagination and simply declare a winner.

Where Hunter and I seem to part ways is in how we weigh the significance of each perspective.

While my colleague gives greater weight to the record and longevity of Fedor, I tend to emphasise the improved level of competition with which Cain is faced as a result of the sport’s evolution.

In the end, it boils down to our own personal biases. There is no right or wrong answer here—unless you’re the mercilessly inflexible type who refuses to consider competing views.

All the same, you folks can add your voice to the debate by voting in the poll and offering your own take in the comments section.

 

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Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos 3: What Went Wrong for the Challenger?

The third chapter in the Cain Velasquez-Junior dos Santos saga came to a close last night at UFC 166 in Houston, Texas.
Have you recovered yet? Those of you in America can count yourselves lucky that the card concluded at a somewhat reasonable hour.
Th…

The third chapter in the Cain Velasquez-Junior dos Santos saga came to a close last night at UFC 166 in Houston, Texas.

Have you recovered yet? Those of you in America can count yourselves lucky that the card concluded at a somewhat reasonable hour.

Those of us in the United Kingdom were still bouncing off the walls from sheer adrenaline at 6 a.m. But I digress.

Both champion and challenger combined to put on an exhibition of mixed martial arts at its most compelling.

Technique? Check. Endurance? Check? Athleticism? Check. Heart? Check ad infinitum.

All that being said, even the most charitable observer would be hard-pressed to argue that the bout was anything besides a one-sided shellacking.

Velasquez dominated in the kind of fashion ordinarily reserved for pro wrestling squash-matches.

So what went wrong for the challenger?

In the build-up to UFC 166, dos Santos and his team made every effort to chalk up the result of the second fight to overtraining, but last night’s thrashing left no doubt in anyone’s mind that Velasquez is simply the better fighter.

Dos Santos’ problems appear to be more fundamental than he is, perhaps, willing to admit.

While the second and third fights differed in some important ways, they were strikingly similar for the most part.

Going into last night’s event, most observers surmised that the Brazilian could significantly close the gap on the champion if he was able to improve his cardio.

To his credit, dos Santos’ gas tank did look like it had undergone an overhaul. This not only allowed him to carry his power into the later rounds, but it also allowed him to keep the fight standing—for all the good it did.

Surprisingly, the biggest problem for “Cigano” was actually his footwork.

Unlike many MMA fighters who have been hailed as great boxers, such as Nick Diaz, dos Santos’ footwork is normally one of his biggest assets.

As a natural counter-puncher, he is adept at creating angles and employs lateral movement in order to maintain his distance.

Velasquez certainly deserves much of the credit, but the Brazilian seemed to forget how to move his feet for most of the fight.

Rather than circling away from the cage, dos Santos continually retreated in straight lines and allowed the champion to trap him up against the fence, where most of the damage was done.

As soon as the fight turned into a clinch-battle up against the cage, it was like ice skating uphill for “Cigano.”

The champion was able to control dos Santos’ upper body with superior grappling and, crucially, head positioning.

The former champion wasn’t permitted enough space to bring his power to bear. Velasquez was content to beat him up with short strikes, occasionally separating just long enough to land three or four power shots.

As the sport has continued to evolve, the cage has become more of a weapon than a simple barrier between fighter and spectator.

In particular, the clinch battle against the cage is now one of the most important aspects of mixed martial arts. Indeed, it is so counterintuitively complex that it almost seems like a martial art in and of itself.

Unfortunately, many fighters struggle with this aspect of the sport. We need only look at Frank Mir’s most recent outings to understand how crucial it is to excel in this area.

While his issues are not as acute as Mir’s in the clinch, dos Santos looked similarly lost when pushed up against the cage last night.

It’s hard to imagine how dos Santos can possibly compete with Velasquez in the future unless he is able to address this hole in his game.

The good news is that he has time on his side. Dos Santos and Velasquez may yet meet for a fourth time, but based on what we witnessed last night, it won’t be any time soon.

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