In the world of heavy leather and slick submissions, not everyone can have the best of it all. For every strength a fighter has, in most cases, he has a weakness to counter. One may have great submission skills but lack standup, while another might be …
In the world of heavy leather and slick submissions, not everyone can have the best of it all.
For every strength a fighter has, in most cases, he has a weakness to counter. One may have great submission skills but lack standup, while another might be a great striker but lack KO power.
But one attribute almost all fighters fear lacking is a solid chin.
In MMA, odds are that if you fight long enough, you’re going to have your chin checked. And a prosperous career can get derailed if a solid chin is lacking.
Here is a list of five fighters who have found themselves getting dropped frequently or knocked out cold because they had a weak chin.
Sometimes an individual emerges within the confines of the expected. In the combat sports, it happens suddenly, oftentimes wildly, and violently exceeds all those expectations with such ease that it’s almost vulgar. Terms are quickly attached to …
Sometimes an individual emerges within the confines of the expected. In the combat sports, it happens suddenly, oftentimes wildly, and violently exceeds all those expectations with such ease that it’s almost vulgar.
Terms are quickly attached to such individuals: prodigy, virtuoso, wunderkind and so on.
When Jon Jones came into the spotlight against Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94, observers were left scrambling to find which of those terms best applied to this fluent, violent, almost acrobatic slam-machine that tossed Bonnar around the cage like a practice dummy.
But the truth is, we’ve seen this before.
Mark Coleman and Mark Kerr were thought to be unbeatable in their heyday, only to find out that the sport of MMA is one of constant motion. They thought their dominance was the status quo, but they learned that to stay the same in MMA is to seem immobile. In the jungle, it’s always the animals stuck in quicksand that are devoured.
Undefeated fighters have long basked in the glory of those calling them unbeatable. It is a fan virtue in the fight game to be the first to “see” greatness in its earliest stages and openly proclaim it before the fighter becomes popular.
But it rarely lasts; just ask fighters like Royce Gracie, Vitor Belfort, Lyoto Machida and, of course, Rashad Evans.
Soon, he will bring his excellent record into the Octagon to challenge a man he knows well: the undefeated (disregarding the DQ loss to Matt Hamill) superstar of the moment, Jon “Bones” Jones.
So, who has the advantage? And where? Read on and find out.
It looks like things are winding down to a close for Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the UFC. After his last two losses, it seems that once fruitful relationships have withered on the vine for Rampage and now, with the end drawing near, fight …
It looks like things are winding down to a close for Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the UFC.
After his last two losses, it seems that once fruitful relationships have withered on the vine for Rampage and now, with the end drawing near, fight fans are left to wonder what would have happened if “Rampage had fought … ?”
Quinton Jackson has had a fantastic career, not only based on his style of fighting and his abilities, but those he fought in both ring and cage.
He had memorable fights with Wanderlei Silva, Chuck Liddell and others, but when a fighter looks to be moving on, suddenly we begin to feel a pang of regret. After all, isn’t the next great fight always just around the corner?
Maybe so, maybe no. Perspective in the fight game, as in life, is always relative. Nonetheless, here are five fights I would have liked to have seen for Rampage before his final curtain call with the UFC.
Once upon a time in 1993, an event was staged, pitting practitioners of various martial arts against each other in a no rules event.Dubbed as The Ultimate Fighting Championship, it was the only event of its kind on American soil.As more attention was f…
Once upon a time in 1993, an event was staged, pitting practitioners of various martial arts against each other in a no rules event.
Dubbed as The Ultimate Fighting Championship, it was the only event of its kind on American soil.
As more attention was focused on the sport, it began to grow to meet the rising demand. Organizations like King of the Cage were born, and as more fighters and fans came to the sport, the pie began to split into smaller portions.
The sport grew not only on our shores, but worldwide.
Still, the UFC fought to remain in the lead, and after some tough battles with rival companies, it remains firmly atop the heap.
So much so that now, most people know the sport not as MMA, but the UFC.
Who were some of these rival companies that the UFC either devoured or knocked out of competition?
The time of Tito Ortiz is drawing to an end. For a fan of the sport like myself, it is honestly hard to believe. I remember when he started making waves, many years ago. He was young, mean and totally disrespectful to his opponents, treating them all w…
The time of Tito Ortiz is drawing to an end.
For a fan of the sport like myself, it is honestly hard to believe. I remember when he started making waves, many years ago. He was young, mean and totally disrespectful to his opponents, treating them all with equal disdain.
And he attracted a rabid fan base because of this. They loved him and lived vicariously through him.
When he finally claimed what was then the UFC middleweight title, the legions of Tito-maniacs crawled out of the woodwork, crowing loud and proud.
They had their champion, and nothing would ever be the same.
His career since those early days has had ups and downs, as any career in the combative sports will. He has been seen as both a fighter who could not be beaten and as a fighter who will be beaten all the time.
In the early days, when he was winning far more than he was losing, he did not seem to care one bit about his detractors. He wore his inflammatory t-shirts after each victory, accompanied with his grave-digger finale and too damn bad if you didn’t like it.
After all, he was Tito Ortiz, reigning light heavyweight champion, and as he was quick to say: “no one is fading me.”
But then things changed.
He lost his title to Randy Couture, a man he and others figured would fold under the heat. Randy was an “old man” and, as we now know, Tito likes to fight legendary fighters who are long in the tooth. He made a name off Ken Shamrock, goading the Hall of Fame fighter into the cage with him on three separate occasions and they never should have fought at all, truth be told.
Randy Couture was not the same kind of man as Ken Shamrock.
Couture was in good shape and his body had not experienced the wear and tear that Shamrock’s had.
He was also an excellent wrestler who had no fear of being punched or kicked, thanks in no small part to his five-round war with Pedro Rizzo in the heavyweight division.
But you couldn’t tell that to Tito before that night. Ortiz had his fans (of which he is perhaps the biggest one) behind him. To them, the idea that he would lose to an old man was silly.
But then he lost. Scratch that; he didn’t just lose, he got embarrassed.
Couture was the new champion, and the era of “Tito the Unbeatable” was suddenly over.
These things happen in the fight game. Fighters take turns playing the roles of both the hammer and the nail. It’s the life they choose, riding the highs of victory one moment and enduring the lows of defeat the next.
I personally don’t think Tito had any problems with the losses, because when you look back at his career, he’s lost to some of the very best in the division. There is no shame in that, for sure.
The pathos of Ortiz’s story lies in the fact that he doesn’t seem to understand why so many people love to see him lose.
Sometimes a fighter and his persona are two totally different things. A fighter, in order to get noticed, decides to play the role of “black hat,” which attracts viewers who want to see him lose.
Ali did this, but with such a sense of humor and style that we all knew it was an act. Aside from Joe Frazier, his opponents knew it as well.
Ortiz never seemed to get this and, if he did, he didn’t make a clear enough distinction with the fans. I am not calling him slow or stupid, not at all. The fact remains that he still seems sadly shocked when he is the recipient of the boos and harsh talk.
He shouldn’t be surprised at all.
Recently, Ortiz decided to cast aside his old bad boy moniker in exchange for something new.
“The People’s Champion: Tito Ortiz.”
For all of his attempts at personal growth, this move not only smacks of desperation, but arrogance as well. If a fighter has a nickname like that, he better not only be beloved, but also a man who stands for something far greater than mocking defeated opponents.
His next and final opponent, Forrest Griffin, could claim to be “The People’s Champion” and would have a much greater chance of it being true than Ortiz could ever dream of.
Once again, no one should be surprised.
The sadness of it all is found in the fact that Tito honestly seems mystified as to why he has any detractors at all.
Tito chose to ride the black horse early on in his career and it was a dandy animal, a war horse that loved to charge fast and heavy. But he ran that horse into the ground long ago, now he’s walking it to the finish line.
There is no sense in acting like he didn’t enjoy his time trampling his opponents under those hooves, because we all know he loved it and his fans loved it, too.
But fans in this sport are fickle and he has much less of them than he did when he was champion. When he began to lose, people cheered for anyone who seemed anti-Ortiz, paying and praying they would see Tito be humbled yet again.
Perhaps, after his final fight is done, he should simply tip his black hat to the crowd and walk away, knowing he made the kind of money he hoped for when he stepped away the first time after UFC 40.
If not, then he can take comfort in the fact that while, in the end, he may have been disliked more than he was loved, he was indeed a polarizing figure and, for many, being hated is better than being forgotten.
In a recent piece by Sam Lee of BuddhaSport.com, the issue on the table is the “health” of the current state of boxing, and all of this based on a trip to the bookstore? Well, it’s not as simple as all that. Lee does make some interes…
In a recent piece by Sam Lee of BuddhaSport.com, the issue on the table is the “health” of the current state of boxing, and all of this based on a trip to the bookstore?
Well, it’s not as simple as all that.
Lee does make some interesting points, among them being no clear heirs to the throne that will be left behind by Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather when they retire and a weak heavyweight division.
One of the more striking (pardon the pun, please) references he makes is the abundant presence of MMA media at local booksellers and the lack thereof for the sweet science.
But at the end of the day, the real question seems to be a simple one: are MMA fans the same as boxing fans?
Yes and no, so it seems.
You can talk to a wide range of fight fans and get a variety of answers. In many ways, it may be just a simple question of what you were raised on: what got you interested in the fight game in the first place.
I think both sports are so drastically different that one will not replace another. Boxing has such a long history that it is entrenched in the minds of fight fans, and always will be.
Years from now, fight fans (be they boxing or MMA followers, or both) will be talking about Barrera/Morales I, Gatti/Ward I and so on. That’s the great thing about great fights; they are timeless.
The same thing could be said for Henderson/Rua, and Griffin/Bonnar I.
Boxing does need a shot in the arm, and it wouldn’t hurt to try and reinvent itself. It would be nice to see the sport put the interests of the fans first, instead of trying to sell us what they think we want to see, which just so happens to be what they want to sell.
So yes, boxing is indeed suffering many woes, but being replaced is not one of them.
The time of Tito Ortiz is drawing to an end.