With one title defense under his big, shiny belt, Junior dos Santos is having more accolades and prophecies thrown at him than the last guy who didn’t defend the title a single time.But he’s still got a long way to go.A win over Frank Mir i…
With one title defense under his big, shiny belt, Junior dos Santos is having more accolades and prophecies thrown at him than the last guy who didn’t defend the title a single time.
But he’s still got a long way to go.
A win over Frank Mir is an accomplishment, to be sure. But what would have been a bigger story was if Mir had managed to drag dos Santos to the floor. If he had, chances are Mir would be the man walking around Vegas with a smile on his face.
So far, we’ve learned dos Santos is an excellent stand-up fighter with knockout power and good takedown defense. His ground game is a mystery, as is his chin, because it really hasn’t been checked yet.
Yet still, many are predicting that he will be the man who breaks the curse and defends the title a record three times.
As good as dos Santos is, Mirko Cro-Cop was better in his prime. He was a much more accurate striker and possessed possibly greater KO power than dos Santos.
The point is, dos Santos is not an era yet, nor is he really poised to be the man to wear the crown as long as Randy Couture, Tim Sylvia or Brock Lesnar, let alone longer than any one of them.
I love watching dos Santos because I love his style of fighting; sprawl and brawl has long been the natural style for strikers who love to scrap. But the simple truth is that there are as many questions about dos Santos as there are answers.
He’s an unknown quantity with a high degree of quality, and while that makes for a compelling, likeable champion, it does not make a world beater.
Lurking outside the door is a rematch with Cain Velasquez, Daniel Cormier and Alistair Overeem. All three of these men could lift the title from dos Santos on any given night.
Still, he has undeniable promise, and if he is anything like his teacher, the great Antonio “Big Nog” Nogueira, he could set a high standard for the division.
Whenever fight fans have a moment to themselves and their minds begin to wander, usually they take a stroll down memory lane, thinking about their favorite bouts. As fans, we all do it: we all have our favorites. The great fights of yesterday make us w…
Whenever fight fans have a moment to themselves and their minds begin to wander, usually they take a stroll down memory lane, thinking about their favorite bouts.
As fans, we all do it: we all have our favorites. The great fights of yesterday make us watch the fights of today in anticipation, hoping for another barn burner; it’s the reason why we sit down to watch in the first place.
When the discussion turns to the land of the heavyweights, the debate is every bit as lively as with all other divisions south of the boarder.
Here is a list of the top 25 fights in the Heavyweight division.
Since their partnership with Fox, the UFC has opened the gates and let the fights pour forth, straight onto “free TV.” But at the same time, there seems to be something missing, and it is clear what it is: PPV-quality cards. For some, this …
Since their partnership with Fox, the UFC has opened the gates and let the fights pour forth, straight onto “free TV.”
But at the same time, there seems to be something missing, and it is clear what it is: PPV-quality cards.
For some, this is totally expected. They see Fox much the same way they saw Spike TV, and then the question becomes “why should the UFC give away a PPV-quality card?”
The answer is simple: because Fox is the key to a much bigger kingdom.
Imagine what the audience response would have been like if the UFC had put the Dan Henderson vs. Shogun card on Fox. They would have eaten it up; swallowing the hook so deep they’d never get it out.
When you get such a big audience, then you should be looking to make an equally big impression. While previous Fox cards have been good, they could be so much better.
Of course, there is no crystal ball available that allows the company to know for sure if a PPV card is going to be great; after all, UFC 33 looked good on paper, but ended up being a disaster.
Still, this whole new relationship with Fox is seeing both sides take risks in order to help the sport explode to the levels they clearly believe in. If you’re going to take risks, then putting a PPV-quality card on Fox is the smart risk to take.
And they need to be taking that risk once every three months.
If the company is really going to put themselves out there for mass consumption, then they really need to go all out, once per quarter. If the sport has proven anything, it’s that it makes an impression, one way or the other.
And if you’re going to make an impression, it might as well be a big one.
Consider for a moment UFC 150, this coming August. You have a rematch between Benson Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar for the lightweight title, which more probably than not is going to be a good fight.
You also have Jake Shields, Yushin Okami, Luiz Cane and Ed Herman, and there are sure to be other big-name fighters rounding out the main card as well.
This would be a great card to put on Fox; it has a title bout in a division known for action, and everyone loves anniversaries.
Of course, there are also arguments against this, mainly coming from the crowd that believes you shouldn’t give something away for free when people are willing to pay big money for it.
That is all well and good, except I don’t think putting forth PPV-quality cards on Fox is “giving away” anything.
I look at it as making an investment; showing the people that should they spend their time on a Fox channel, this is what they will receive.
And should that PPV-quality card be as good as UFC 100, or UFC 139: Henderson vs. Shogun, or UFC 116, then many more people are going to get very comfortable with the notion of spending more time with the sport.
As we near the middle of 2012, it never ceases to amaze me at just how far the sport has come since the early ’90s, when the UFC first came to be. The sport has expanded greatly since then, enjoying high periods of prosperity and suffering low periods …
As we near the middle of 2012, it never ceases to amaze me at just how far the sport has come since the early ’90s, when the UFC first came to be.
The sport has expanded greatly since then, enjoying high periods of prosperity and suffering low periods of interest, and all that comes in between.
Through it all, it’s the fights that have sustained the fans, to be sure, but there has been so much more to it than that.
Here is a look at what I think have been the 50 most important events in the history of the sport.
You will notice that I have focused almost solely upon the happenings of the sport since its inception in America, as that is the time frame that I know best.
There are no doubt many important events—and for the sake of this piece, events are not just fight cards, but moments in time pertaining to many aspects of the sport—that occurred before the UFC came into being, especially in Brazil and Japan; but they have not been included here because I am not a native of either Brazil or Japan, and thus cannot accurately gauge their importance.
So read and hopefully enjoy, and of course please do share your opinions, for this is not my sport, but our sport, and yours is just as good as mine, if not more so.
After UFC 145, most of the fans of the sport are familiar with the hot-button topic that is the catalyst for what is sure to be more bad-blood drama in the future: teammate vs. teammate. It’s nothing new, to be sure. After Tito Ortiz held the UFC…
After UFC 145, most of the fans of the sport are familiar with the hot-button topic that is the catalyst for what is sure to be more bad-blood drama in the future: teammate vs. teammate.
It’s nothing new, to be sure.
After Tito Ortiz held the UFC light heavyweight belt hostage after defeating Ken Shamrock at UFC 40, Dana White and Zuffa have been working hard to make sure fighters know and accept the fact that business comes before pleasure or friendship.
During the very first season of The Ultimate Fighter, teammate was forced to fight teammate, all to illustrate what is a hard truth in the fight game: competition comes first and all else can be reassembled once the dust settles.
But no matter what White tries to do, he is still forced to listen to fighters who say they’d never fight this teammate or that teammate, and that is not good news.
In a world where one fight team can assemble so much talent, often is the time when top contenders in the same weight class train side-by-side, and inevitably, friendships are made as they make each other better fighters.
Take for instance the case of Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch. Both are good friends who spent many years training together and have often said they would never fight each other.
Now, as both men reel from recent losses, they are basically at the same level; skirting the outer limits of the top five or seven in their weight class. Should they both work their way up the ladder, they could once again be near the very top of the division with a title bout within their grasp.
Normally, two contenders in a situation like this would fight in order to decide who gets the title shot. But according to both Koscheck and Fitch, they wouldn’t fight. One would bow out and let the other proceed.
It’s a heart warming, noble and loyal thing to do.
It also doesn’t serve the best interests of the sport in any way, shape or form.
It’s a hard line to draw, but the truth is, it has to be drawn. And it needs to be drawn in bad blood if necessary.
Many fans who are outraged over the topic think the fighters should be allowed to choose if they fight a teammate or not, mainly based on the belief that there are plenty of other fighters and weight classes out there.
The truth is anything but.
The teammate vs. teammate situation usually comes up when fighters keep winning and rising toward what should be their ultimate goal: a championship.
When you consider what the title stands for, it becomes clear: the man who holds the belt is the best that division has to offer.
What the title doesn’t stand for is the notion that the man who holds it is the best in the division—except for his friend who didn’t want to fight him so he moved either up or down a weight class.
If that happens, then the belt for that division is rendered hollow, and when that situation happens, the belt is looked at with as much question as the man who holds it, because everyone is wondering if his bosom buddy is really better.
And if there is one thing that must never be questioned, it is the validity of the title.
Everyone who gets into the sport of MMA should honestly know, by now, that if they are as good as they dream, there may very well come a day when they have to fight a training partner and teammate. This isn’t some secret in the fine print of their contracts that sends Dana White into a storm of hand-rubbing glee because he gets to spring it on them.
In fact, about the only time when training partners shouldn’t ever be asked to fight is when they are actually family members, like the Diaz brothers and the Millers.
Titles need to be worn by the best in the division, and if the two best fighters in the division are from the same camp, then they must fight.
But to make it clear, the UFC should put it into their contracts, large and unavoidable. It needs to be more than just a stipulation; it needs to be a code.
The fight game is all about conflict. This is not a Jane Austen garden party, it’s a fight sport. The men and women who freely enter into this as their chosen profession are supposedly doing so because they love it more than anything else.
No one is holding a gun to their head, making them choose the sport. There are much easier ways to earn a living, after all, then getting your clock cleaned in front of millions.
But like any other job, there are unpleasant obligations that come along with it. Keeping the title on a pedestal is one of those obligations, because it is ultimately what is best for the sport.
And if you are a fighter, your sole ambition should be to win that belt. If you win that belt, you should defend its interests jealously, because that is in the best traditions and interests of that position as the best in the division.
If the friendships formed during training cause you to doubt if you would fight your friend, then you shouldn’t be fighting any more.
Of course, one needn’t look very far to see just how rocky a road it would be if fighters got to pick and choose who they did and did not fight. Boxing is rife with examples of this, and from that came a slew of fabricated title belts from this alphabet organization.
In fact, there are so many belts in boxing that they are essentially equal in their worthlessness. Tomorrow may see a boxer with a record of 17 wins and 14 losses crowned the new Heavyweight Champion of the World by the World Gardening Commission.
Thankfully, the sport of MMA doesn’t have that problem. There are title belts for different organizations, but UFC gold is the only real gold.
That could change, however, if fighters from the UFC begin defecting to lesser organizations in order to avoid fighting their friends; should the better fighter leave, then the problems start.
Being a champion isn’t a privilege, it’s a responsibility. If you are true to it, defending it against all comers will be very difficult, to be sure, but it should also be a labor of love.
And when you finally acknowledge that simple fact, then a code of competition is the most honest admission of the true responsibility of being a fighter and a champion.
Such a Code, fully read and signed and witnessed (by the coach ideally) along with the main contract would also help to ease the tension in the camps when and if those situations arise. They can all blame it on “Uncle Dana” and then go about their business, even if it is temporarily unpleasant.
When you look at the fight game, it is about many wonderful things (including friendships), but above all else, it’s about the fight.
If there’s one thing fans of MMA can count on, it’s the fact that things happen fast.One day you’re witnessing the birth of “The Machida Era,” and the next day you’re seeing it end before it really began.With so many fighters out there, sometimes it’s …
If there’s one thing fans of MMA can count on, it’s the fact that things happen fast.
One day you’re witnessing the birth of “The Machida Era,” and the next day you’re seeing it end before it really began.
With so many fighters out there, sometimes it’s easy to forget a name or a face, even if it’s just for a little while.
Then, when you go back through your fight library and pop in a classic, a face comes on the screen and then you remember why you liked them.
And if they’ve seemingly disappeared from the sport, you wonder where they are now, and what they’re doing.
Here are five fighters you may or may not know who seemed to go MIA from MMA.
With one title defense under his big, shiny belt, Junior dos Santos is having more accolades and prophecies thrown at him than the last guy who didn’t defend the title a single time.