MMA has progressed beyond the style vs. style phase, when “my kung fu is better than your kung fu” was the main motivation for winning, aside from personal glory.Every MMA athlete today with average intelligence trains seriously in striking…
MMA has progressed beyond the style vs. style phase, when “my kung fu is better than your kung fu” was the main motivation for winning, aside from personal glory.
Every MMA athlete today with average intelligence trains seriously in striking, submission grappling and wrestling. (This can’t be mere assumption, right?)
Just the same, base style still matters.
Most fighters today are still defined and excel the most on the specific skill set of the martial art-cum-sport in which they have trained the longest.
Like faithful children, they still gratefully give the most credit to their original combat sport and its community for taking them to their current—hopefully exalted—level.
In the coming Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix finals, fans “may” be treated to a clash of styles which are essentially two branches of the same tree: Josh Barnett‘s catch wrestling and Daniel Cormier’s freestyle wrestling.
“May,” as this is MMA, and that championship battle could run and end solely by stand-up striking. This is considering that both finalists have proven KO power, with Cormier showing more of it.
But wouldn’t it be interesting to see if Barnett can catch Cormier with a submission hold after getting tossed around repeatedly by the Olympian? A la catch wrestler Kazushi Sakuraba finally sinking in the game-winning choke after getting battered by the power slams of former amateur wrestling standout Quinton Jackson in their memorable Pride FC match?
Conversely, we can’t discount that Cormier could be the one whose back will kiss the canvas, but end up submitting Barnett!
After all, this is MMA.
Now why does base style still matter? Without prejudice and all the while being genuinely appreciative of the other styles and skills that make one’s MMA game complete?
UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson “The Spider” Silva, has set a very high standard for all combat sports athletes—no, make that the highest standard ever.He’s finished opponents without ever appearing vulnerable to them in any secon…
UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson “The Spider” Silva, has set a very high standard for all combat sports athletes—no, make that the highest standard ever.
He’s finished opponents without ever appearing vulnerable to them in any second of a fight.
Sure he was triangle-choked by Daiju Takase, then grimaced in pain when Ryo Chonan submitted him by flying heel hook in two of his four losses, but those are now light-years ago.
Let’s also get out of the way that aberrant mock-dance decision win over Demian Maia, and that close call against Chael Sonnen.
Even during those two title defenses, was Silva ever close to getting “in trouble”?
Against Maia, he claimed that he felt his opponent’s punches, but hardly anyone believes him. When you earn such greatness, confessions of weaknesses are ignored by ardent admirers. We— and I mean we—dismiss such as false modesty.
Against Sonnen he was close to losing a unanimous decision, following Sonnen’s unremitting ground-and-pound.
But was he ever close to getting knocked out?
What was threatened, what did appear vulnerable, was the fight record and not the fighter himself.
He was knocked down, but it was more of a push-punch that got him off balance.
It’s true that his head was dribbled like a basketball by Sonnen-cum-Pete Maravich; but was he dazed, hurt or close to losing consciousness at any point of that fight?
No. And that face ‘neath the bald noggin remained expressionless all throughout like, well, a basketball. (I’d say he was actually voluntarily nodding his head every time he was touched by a paw.)
Not once did that blank mask appear close to peeling off.
And so, if Jon Jones is looking to surpass Silva’s reputation in the near or far future, he’s got to play the perfect game against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson—without getting in trouble even for just a fleeting instant.
If he gets staggered by even just one strike, or comes close to getting submitted by Jackson, then expect his stock to plummet while that of Silva soars unattainably higher.
Same consequence if he doesn’t finish Jackson.
And if he loses…
Finishing an opponent with impeccable invincibility—or even just a semblance of it—is the new MMA benchmark.
No thanks to “The Spider” from Brazil.
(By the way, anybody notice that Silva and Jones both crawl up the Octagon, on all fours, every time?)
It would be hard to tell Eduard Folayang’s nose, post-One Fighting Championship, from that of Brandon Vera’s, post-UFC 125. The telling difference, though, is that the former smells the sweet smell of success, while the other’s evokes that ambiguous s…
It would be hard to tell Eduard Folayang‘s nose, post-One Fighting Championship, from that of Brandon Vera’s, post-UFC 125. The telling difference, though, is that the former smells the sweet smell of success, while the other’s evokes that ambiguous scent of a no-contest (which he originally “lost”).
On last Saturday night’s One FC “Champion vs. Champion” main event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC) Lightweight Champion Folayang (9-1-0) was his usual relentless self. Undeterred by a bleeding eyebrow and broken nose, he was unceasingly on attack mode against Heat Fighting Championship (HFC) Welterweight Champion, A Sol Kwon, (19-6-0) to eke out a unanimous decision victory.
Their fight also goes down One FC history as its first Fight of the Night awardee.
At the start of the bell, Folayang struck and hit Kwon with a left inside leg kick, which served him well. He repeatedly hit with that move throughout their three-round fight.
The first round saw Folayang landing more strikes with kicks and left-right punching combinations against Kwon, who gamely engaged in boxing exchanges. However, it was Kwon’s punches that caused the most damage, breaking and bleeding the Filipino’s nose.
Entering the last two minutes, Folayang took Kwon down to the canvas. But it was only for a moment, as the HFC champion immediately sprang back to his feet.
With less than 30 seconds remaining, Folayang threw Kwon down with a head throw at the fence for his second take-down. The Sanshou specialist pounded on the Korean with short punches, before he got back on his feet as the round expired.
Round two was a continuation of Folayang dictating the pace of the fight, with inside leg kicks finding their mark and jabs and left-right combos flying at Kwon with mixed success. Launching and hitting combinations of his own, Kwon landed a solid one that cut Folayang’s right eyebrow early in the round, causing it to bleed.
Into the second half of the round, Folayang landed a right straight and then a couple of knees from the clinch, which stunned and took the aggression from Kwon.
Despite Folayang’s broken nose and bleeding eyebrow, it became apparent that the still clear-faced Kwon was the one who was broken in spirit. He was cautioned by the referee for passivity, for continuously shuffling away from Folayang. The crowd booed in disapproval.
Near the end of the round, Folayang scored his third take-down. But again, Kwon got back to his feet immediately, avoiding Folayang’s much vaunted ground-and-pound game.
In the third round, Folayang sustained the energy and power behind his strikes against a withering Kwon, who still managed to unleash blows, albeit with less frequency. Kwon twice attempted to take down Folayang from the clinch, but he was the one who ended up getting thrown down instead.
By the second half of the final round, it was all Folayang, landing telling blows on his opponent, who by then was reduced to putting up a semblance of a fight.
At the sound of the bell, the vanquished Kwon slumped on the floor in his corner. Folayang, on the other hand, jogged and hopped around the ring as if just warming up.
In a pre-fight interview with Sherdog.com, Kwon boasted that “I’m so much better overall, and he will know that he has just been a big fish in a small pond when he fights me on September 3. I already see him returning back to the same small pond after he experiences the reality in the huge ocean of One FC. It’s too bad.”
Things turned out differently for Kwon, as he was denied of his seventh consecutive win. Just the same, credit is due to him for bravely filling in as a last-minute replacement for the injured Ole Laursen (Folayang’s original opponent).
Folayang, for his part, had this to say post-fight: “Well, I’m always blessed to win. I need to fight even though I’m hurt. I know I could win every round.”
Looks like the “big fish” is big enough for the “huge ocean of One FC,” and soon for the biggest of them all.
What’s Chael-speak without too much coffee? Believe it or not, Chael Sonnen is “uncharacteristically” deferential in this interview.Anyway, his upcoming opponent Brian Stann himself digresses regarding what many think to be the true Sonnen:…
What’s Chael-speak without too much coffee? Believe it or not, Chael Sonnen is “uncharacteristically” deferential in this interview.
Anyway, his upcoming opponent Brian Stann himself digresses regarding what many think to be the true Sonnen: the quintessential trash-talker who’ll grab every opportunity to diss another fighter and promote himself.
According to Stann,“In typical fashion, most people only remember the fights for which Chael was outspoken. They don’t remember the fights like against Dan Miller, Nate Marquardt and Yushin Okami, for which he was very respectful. Everyone tends to remember your last fight, and obviously prior to his title fight against Anderson Silva, Chael was outspoken, so perhaps people expected him to continue in this vein against me. I never expected him to talk smack on me, unless I had done something to upset him of which I wasn’t aware.”
Or maybe it’s because Stann ain’t Silva.
Anyway, again, let the man himself do the talking, and here are Sonnen’s “relatively” kind words on his colleagues. (Yes, Silva included.)
Fighting in the inaugural show of One Fighting Championship couldn’t get better than this: winning your match, taking home bonus money and receiving the honor for Submission of the Night.These are exactly what reigning Universal Reality Combat Champion…
Fighting in the inaugural show of One Fighting Championship couldn’t get better than this: winning your match, taking home bonus money and receiving the honor for Submission of the Night.
These are exactly what reigning Universal Reality Combat Championship (URCC) featherweight champion Erik “The Natural” Kelly took home last night from Singapore.
The fighter from Team Yaw-yan Ardigma proved that a fight record of all-submission wins can be deceiving. He beat up Muay Thai champion Mitch “The Dragon” Chilson even on his feet.
A much-feared wushu striker from the Philippines, Kelly started the fight by landing an array of kicks on Chilson. Thirty seconds into the fight, Chilson caught Kelly’s leg after a kick and took him down.
The Team Evolve fighter tried to ground-and-pound inside Kelly’s guard, but the Filipino fighter defended well. Then, Kelly tried to reverse and ended up prone with Chilson sprawled on top of him.
Chilson tried to get behind, but Kelly caught his leg and put him down on the mat, effectively reversing their position. The American managed to get back on his feet and there was an exchange of knees to the head.
Chilson emerged from the exchange bloodied, and the fight was momentarily stopped to have his gashed eyebrow checked.
The fight continued, and Chilson clinched Kelly and pushed him against the cage. Chilson attempted to shoot for the “far” left leg, which partially exposed his back to Kelly in the stand-up.
Kelly quickly took advantage and squeezed his arms tightly around his opponent’s neck, before riding his back and getting his hooks in to complete the backmount. Bearing down on his opponent to the ground, he sunk in the rear-naked choke submission victory, at 3:10 of the first round.
In his post-fight interview with MMA legend Bas “El Guapo” Rutten, Kelly stated that his goal is “to represent my country, Philippines, in the UFC.”
Well, it was indeed an auspicious start up that road.
Tito Ortiz was never one to cherry-pick opponents, but if ever a high-probability win will be handed to him on a silver platter, he won’t complain.After all, the Huntington Beach Bad Boy torched gloves with Chuck Liddell, Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida, F…
Tito Ortiz was never one to cherry-pick opponents, but if ever a high-probability win will be handed to him on a silver platter, he won’t complain.
After all, the Huntington Beach Bad Boy torched gloves with Chuck Liddell, Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida, Forrest Griffin, Matt Hamill, Ryan Bader and Evans again—one formidable foe after the other.
Going 1-5-1 in his last seven trips into the Octagon, the aging veteran needs a break and another win before he retires. Another senior fighter will serve that purpose in Rich “Ace” Franklin.
Ortiz fans who have been missing his signature ground-and-pound of old must not miss this fight, if it happens.
The former UFC light-heavyweight champion will do to the former middleweight king what the Thunder couldn’t do to The Spider. That is, exploit the hefty advantage and drag and bang the other all over the Octagon.
With 15 KO wins compared to the Bad Boy’s eight, Griffin certainly has a puncher’s chance against the bigger Ortiz. However, even Walel Watson got that against Cain Velasquez, albeit with far lesser chances.
The Master’s degree-holder is “faster” and will run rings around the college drop-out to avoid the takedowns? Well, he can run, but he can’t…
It’s true that The Mask won over Chuck Liddell and Matt Hamill, who in turn both beat The People’s Champ. Ho-hum, Franklin the former math teacher must know that this so-called “MMA math” is a misnomer and it doesn’t count.
This fight is still pure speculation, regardless of Dana White‘s apparent interest in it.
MMA has progressed beyond the style vs. style phase, when “my kung fu is better than your kung fu” was the main motivation for winning, aside from personal glory.