Author: Luke Thomas

Mike Tyson is a cautionary tale for athletes everywhere for many reasons, not least of which is the story of his accumulated wealth (an estimated career earnings around $300 million) that was badly mismanaged and nearly left him destitute. Still, if Tyson is sure of anything about today’s mixed martial arts fighters – a group of athletes he admires just as much as their sport – is that they’re underpaid and MMA won’t change until fighters earn more.

“Nothing personal to nobody, they gotta be f—ing millionaires,” Tyson angrily insisted to Ariel Helwani Tuesday on The MMA Hour. “They gotta get the f—ing money they deserve. How is [MMA] going to be bigger than boxing if they don’t have cash? These guys need to be multi-multimillionaires. They need to have their big f—ing mansions, their big cars and if not, they should be able to take care of their family. They should be able to live without fighting no more.”

In Tyson’s mind, an admittedly difficult place to navigate, the modern-day warrior in the form of a mixed martial artist still faces the same occupational hazards in terms of health and safety. And if those risks and realities are still part of a fighter’s life, why shouldn’t they be financially rewarded as a means to offset loss of quality of life?

“They’re still getting brain damage,” Tyson continued. “They’re still getting knocked out. They’re still going to the hospital every night, win, lose or draw,” he noted. “They know something bad’s going to happen eventually. Why can’t we live a good life until that happens?”

“I’m just saying ultimate fighting fighters are not getting paid what they deserve,” Tyson concluded. He even pointed at UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva as an example of his argument, although the boxing great is likely unaware Silva is one of the sport’s most highly-paid athletes to the tune of the figures he suggest Silva deserves. “A guy with his record and his performance with how easy he beats opponents, he should be a multi-multi-millionaire.”

It’s not that Tyson is arguing a Bentley or mansion is they key to happiness. Rather, it’s that access to those prizes as well as long-term financial stability should be available to fighters who sacrifice as much as they do. “That don’t mean nothing, but he should have the security,” said Tyson. “That’s the main thing. He should have the security if he wants to do that.”

Tyson sees fighters making blockbuster paydays as a benefit for them personally, but not just for reasons of compensating them for what’s owed or sacrified. The former boxing heavyweight champion of the world also maintains extravagant lifestyles, even when they’re headed in the wrong direction, are good press for the entire sport. “Even though they f— their money up with the cars and the strippers, that’s headlines,” Tyson agued. “That makes them superstars. That makes them legends.”

There’s a flip side to Tyson’s theory and one he readily acknowledges. It’s one he believes is a consequence of the paydays he says are absent among today’s MMA fighters, namely, the arrival of ‘scumbags’ with predatory interests.

On the one hand, Tyson wants fighters to earn more and for the world to know about their earnings. On the other, he also believes that will attract the unscrupulous to the sport where they’ll leech off fighters and negatively impact their finances or lives.

“They ain’t get the scumbags yet,” Tyson said. “Let their purses be in the paper like my purses were in the paper and Floyd [Mayweather]’s. Wait until the scumbags get in that sport.”

To be sure, Tyson never once personally suggested UFC President Dana White or UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta were those personally responsible for MMA fighters not earning enough. In fact, Tyson and Zuffa brass have a longstanding positive relationship. White later joined Helwani’s interview with Tyson on Tuesday and argued UFC keeps fighter pay private to avoid the very scumbags Tyson was alluding to. Tyson seemed to find White’s response acceptable.

Nevertheless, he sees a day where huge, publicly-announced paydays in the tens of millions of dollars for MMA are inevitable. And when that moment arrives, the boxing hall of famer believes we may all rue the day.

“Wait until they come out,” Tyson warned. “The devil will show up here.”

Arguably the biggest mixed martial arts fight of the year takes place next weekend as UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva defends his title against arch rival Chael Sonnen at UFC 148. To promote this historic bout that will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 7th, the UFC has created another ‘Primetime’ show. As is customary, the show will follow the live two fighters as their fight draws near.

Follow along in the video below as the story of the first fight is re-told, the viewer is treated to a taste of Silva’s popularity in his home country of Brazil, Sonnen discusses how he’s dealt with the 2010 loss and so much more.

I just can’t do it. I’ve looked over the statistics. I’ve analyzed the numbers. I’ve watched the tape. I simply cannot find a reasonable case – either by qualitative judgment or quantitative evidence – for concluding Tito Ortiz will defeat Forrest Griffin at UFC 148 next Saturday.

To be sure, I am not saying Ortiz won’t defeat Griffin. This is the MMA, a sport where part of the ability to win is a function of how well one controls chaos. I’m simply suggesting the belief or suggestion Ortiz will win is rooted in blind faith or the idea he’ll catch lightning in a bottle as he did against Ryan Bader in an improbable upset.

The qualitative case against Ortiz is fairly obvious. He’s only won one fight since defeating Ken Shamrock in October of 2006 (which, as I mentioned, was an upset that’d be hard to duplicate again). His style of offense is antiquated, his abilities are no longer superlative compared to his peers and at age 37 is no longer the athlete he once was. There’s also the neck and back surgeries among however many untold other ailments Ortiz currently suffers. Suffice it to say, Ortiz has had an illustrious career and deserves his Hall of Fame honors, but it’s the right time to retire.

Then there’s the quantitative evidence against Ortiz.

Ortiz and Griffin have fought twice and the data related to Ortiz evidences the former champion’s decline. Here are those numbers from UFC 59 in April of 2006:

As you’ll recall, Ortiz won by split decision. He had a monster first round where he did what Ortiz once did best: take fighters down and smash them as he stood inside their guards. However, Ortiz’s offense declined precipitously from there (yet, judge Abe Belardo gave Ortiz a 30-27 decision). He stayed busy with takedown attempts in the second, but could get none and was outstruck. In the third, he was able to secure one takedown, a guard pass and accrue the MMA equivalent of ‘riding time’ to take the third on some of the judges’ score cards, but was outstruck again by the then-upstart in Griffin.

Then came their second meeting in November of 2009 at UFC 106. The numbers for that bout are as follows:

You’ll notice a couple of changes from the first to the second fight, which Griffin took by split decision. Despite being able to land two of three takedowns in the second round of their second bout, Ortiz was barely able to execute any offense from Griffin’s guard. Ortiz, once lauded for his incredible base, was also reversed and even had his guard passed. In addition, while the trend of Ortiz fading throughout the fight continued in their second bout, the decline was much more pronounced the second time. Ortiz failed on a mere two takedown attempts and managed to land an anemic five of nineteen punches.

This decline is revelatory because it suggests even when Ortiz is able to put himself in his historically best position to execute offense, he isn’t really able to do so to any meaningful degree.

So, after two fights together and distinguished but tough careers in the Octagon, how do Ortiz and Griffin match-up today? Here’s the FightMetric tale of the tape:

There are a number of ways to analyze these career numbers, but what stands out to me is Ortiz’s fairly ho-hum career percentages on takedowns and the troubling evenness with which he absorbed punishment relative to dishing it out. For a fighter who basically needs the takedown to do much of anything offensively, he’s only been historically successful in getting to that position for 35% of the time. It’s true his numbers were better before the losing skid began with the second Chuck Liddell fight, but it also highlights Ortiz’s precipitous decline.

Perhaps most troubling for Ortiz’s chances are two unfortunate ‘firsts’ in his career that these numbers don’t show: he’s been stopped by strikes in back-to-back losses in his last two fights; and during his most recent bout against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC 140, he was stopped with strikes in the first round. Neither had ever happened before (although Ortiz was submitted in the first round to Guy Mezger at UFC 13 in his second career fight). Stated plainly: Ortiz’s ability to absorb punishment – particularly to the body – has been severely compromised.

If my luck with these columns in terms of their predictive success in getting fight complexion correct continues (see here and here), Ortiz will smash Griffin in a scintillating beating from pillar to post. I see that as unlikely, but let it be known forecasting the ‘look’ of fights can be tricky.

There is one stat, though, that should be underscored because it sheds a very positive and informative light on Ortiz’s career: total fight time. Ortiz ranks second all-time with 4:45:53 spent in fights in the UFC Octagon. If Saturday’s fight goes longer than 3 minutes, he’ll pass B.J. Penn for top honors in that spot (at least until Penn fights Rory MacDonald at UFC 152).

That, among all other statistics, is arguably the most telling. Ortiz is no longer the fighter he once was, but that’s the story of any fighter who is lucky to have fought at this level as long as he has. The real truth of it all is that Ortiz has done enough in the Octagon. He’s notched enough wins, made enough money and earned enough fame all while promoting MMA to the masses along the way. He’s not meaningfully adding to his career by staying any longer.

It’s time to do something else. It’s what Ortiz needs, the fans are asking and what the numbers say.

All quantitative data provided by FightMetric except where otherwise noted.

In this four-part interview with MMA Fighting, former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Randy ‘the Natural’ Couture discusses everything from Chael Sonnen’s chances against Anderson Silva at UFC 148 to how he’s dealt with the challenges of retirement. Couture also talks the state of amateur wrestling and gives an update on his relationship with UFC lightweight Gray Maynard.

Multiple-time UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion and now retired fighter Randy Couture sat down with me yesterday at his Xtreme Couture facility in Las Vegas, Nevada to discuss a wide variety of topics.

In the video below, Couture speaks to MMAFighting.com about his relationship with UFC on FX 4 headliner Gray Maynard. Couture suggests his relationship with ‘The Bully’ is as strong and positive as ever and predicts Maynard will win tonight against Clay Guida.

Couture also discusses briefly his experience shooting the soon to be released ‘The Expendables 2’ major motion picture.

We’ll have more with Couture from this interview soon, including his experience in retirement, the state of amateur wrestling and MMA as well as Chael Sonnen’s chances against Anderson Silva at UFC 148.

More and more of the stars from the peak days of the UFC are retiring or have already departed the sport. Randy Couture is part of that group. As more of them depart, each has wrestled with the challenge of that transition in different ways.

In this final portion of our discussion, Couture discusses those challenges he personally faced when retiring from professional mixed martial arts competition. He notes he hasn’t looked back since leaving MMA, but has been able to successfully transition in part because of post-fighting opportunities.

Perhaps more importantly, Couture also talks about self-identification, if he still thinks of himself in athletic terms, whether there’s anything he didn’t accomplish in his athletic career, how not making the Olympic team fueled him as an athlete to pursue MMA and more.