Author: Luke Thomas

The International Fight League (IFL) never made it as a competitor to the UFC for a variety of reasons, but it did openly advocate a novel premise: mixed martial arts was not a competition between two individuals, but rather, a team sport. Among other errors, the IFL took this premise too far, believing fans wanted to think of and see fighters compete as teammates based on semi-geographic location and mutual interest. Naturally, MMA fans only have interest in fighter outcomes and could never be concerned with the teams’ well-being. All they care about is the eventual fighter product. The IFL eventually went under.

If the new MMA documentary ‘Such Great Heights’, a film about the run up in Jon Fitch’s life to his title fight with Georges St. Pierre at UFC 87, proves anything, it’s that the IFL may have been onto something.

Consumers of MMA don’t care about the welfare of American Top Team (ATT) or American Kickboxing Academy (AKA). They only care that said teams produce the kind of world-class talent they’re accustomed to enjoying watch compete on Saturday evenings. Fighters, on the other hand, are deeply invested in their team, needing each member to buoy their own career and self-esteem. From fulfilling prosaic training responsibilities to assuaging personal insecurity, fighters live and die as a function of their team’s health.

‘Such Great Heights’, therefore, is not about Jon Fitch (the welterweight offers almost no testimonial insight). His 2008 fight with GSP serves as the central focus of the team’s time and resources, but the real takeaways of the movie are two-fold. First, as fighters live it (particularly in the early stages of their career), the team’s importance in MMA is utterly paramount. Second, a fighter’s life is often an irrational sacrifice, a pursuit in trying to convert imagined greatness into real life.

The movie is set in San Jose, California. The chapters of the film are demarcated timestamps – 8 weeks to go, one month to go – on the road to Fitch’s title fight. Fitch – the described unimpressive talent who never stopped showing up – is held as the great hope of AKA, the up from the bootstraps talent who would be the first fighter who started with the team and struggled his way to a UFC title. But the team doesn’t start and stop with him. On concurrent journeys with Fitch are the myriad other fighters around him. Most of them are mired in extreme poverty, borderline delusion and professional as well as personal struggles too significant in number to enumerate. Keeping them going is the support system of the team and tantalizing prospect of athletic glory.

‘Such Great Heights’ is a success when it juxtaposes the ascetic misery of a fighter’s life with their desperate search for a trace of validation. At every stage of the professional game, viewers get to see fighters rely on one another, their coaches, what family they have and their own grit to push them the unimaginably grueling gauntlet of training and competition. Through personal doubt, moments of candid self-reflection and scary uncertainty – not to mention the tax on mental stability caused by their life choices – this documentary gives you a window into the lives of life’s true gamblers.

Those outside of the sport often cover it and its inner workings far better than indigenous MMA media. This documentary is no exception, telling Fitch’s and AKA’s story without hagiography. ‘Such Great Heights is not a recitation of a fighter’s selfish perspective in their pre-fight lives. When fighters are ready to quit, you see it. When they’re living in converted RV’s in a strip mall parking lot, you can almost smell the stale air circling the sleeping compartment. When an elite UFC welterweight devotes his early adult life to a cause and falls badly short, the viewer is there for his back stage tears trying to squeeze their way through swollen eye sockets and bruised egos.

The movie also does an excellent job of letting the unique personalities of the team tell their story and others’ stories as they see it. Nowhere is this truer than in the mouth of Dave Camarillo, whose Yoda-ish thoughtfulness and articulation of fighter’s apprehensions and desires adds an air of gravitas to the entire enterprise.

There are, however, a few shortcomings to the film.

In short, we’ve seen this story before. By ‘we’ I mean the dedicated MMA fan and by ‘this story’ I mean the rags to riches archetype so common in professional MMA. It’s hard to imagine hardcore fans are the intended audience, but they’re also likely the first ones to consume this movie. The film is new insofar as we haven’t seen this particular story. Not like this, anyway. Yet, the filmmakers intended to portray the shared struggles of fighters across all points of the professional gamut as representative of their universal struggle. AKA has its own cross to bear, but it’s not so dissimilar to weight carried by fighters of similar size and stature. The portrayal in this movie is important, but it’s by no means groundbreaking.

The film also misrepresents Fitch’s performance against St. Pierre. That’s a fairly egregious error given how central the fight is to both the narrative and architecture of the film. Partly the filmmakers were hamstrung by not being able to obtain footage rights, something the UFC is notoriously stingy about sharing. But their solution to problem is no solution at all.

In absence of fight footage, the movie displays quotes and headlines from media members that make it seem as if Fitch’s struggle with GSP was something approximating ‘close but not cigar’. In reality, it stil stands as one of the greatest beatings in UFC title history. Fitch lost every round (several of them arguably 10-8) and while GSP couldn’t put him away, he beat the AKA-product handily in every dimension of the game. Viewers do get to see Fitch’s mauled face and post-fight weeping, but without properly explaining the context of his sadness the movie ends up changing it.

Still, Fitch returned to AKA soon after his loss to lick his wounds among the safe judgement-free companionship of his teammates. After walking into the gym, each one takes the time to congratulate him on all the work he put in. They all do their best to console him without allowing Fitch to feel sorry for himself. The movie states Fitch even returned to training a week after the loss. No one talks about what wasn’t achieved either for Fitch or the team itself, although it hardly needs articulation.

That is the life of the professional MMA team laid naked before the world: endless work, sacrifice and loss given in the pursuit of something that likely will never come. But there’s no time for worry and it’s not anything one’s teammates can’t talk a fighter out of. For now, the only focus that matters and the only they’ll allow themselves to have is their lofty goals. The achievement, the recognition this has all been worth it. That they are who they think they are and how right they were to covet something so dearly.

Such great heights, indeed.

Gray Maynard and Clay Guida hold places in the UFC record books for technical prowess as it relates to takedowns. According to Fight Metric, Maynard has the sixth best takedown defense percentage of all UFC fighters at 85%. Clay Guida is ranked sixth best among all UFC fighters in terms of takedowns successfully landed at 48. In their main event at UFC on FX 4, the winner of the bout will be the fighter who meaningfully upholds or adds to these telling takedown accolades.

Here’s what I mean.

It’s difficult to envision a scenario where Guida meaningfully strikes with Maynard for any real portion of their fight. He might be able to land a shot here or there as a set-up for something else, but it would require Guida to do something he’s never done at this level of the game to win standing via strikes. His best bet is to secure the takedown and work ‘riding time’ or find a way to be the first fighter to submit Maynard. That’s no foregone conclusion, but three of Guida’s last four UFC wins have come by way of submission. The other was a win over Anthony Pettis that was a function of top, positional control.

Maynard has more options. He can strike with Guida standing. Maynard has only one TKO/KO win in all of his UFC victories, but has rattled opposition like Jim Miller and Frankie Edgar with heavy shots. All of this requires keeping the fight upright, but his success at defending takedowns against elite lightweights means he’s up to the task. Maynard could also elect to take Guida to the ground. That’s no simple task, though. While Maynard has a respectable takedown accuracy of 55%, Guida has stopped an impressive 68% of takedowns from fighters he’s faced.

In a bout like this, however, we can more easily point to how they can lose more than how they can win. There are two noteworthy components to said effect that could have a significant impact on the outcome. First, the bout is five rounds, a fact that favors the effervescent Guida. Second, while Guida’s accumulated takedown number is impressive and he’s secured more takedowns than all but five UFC fighters, his percentage of success per attempt is relatively low. ‘The Carpenter’ is successful on less than half of his attempts with a 40% accuracy rate.

Maynard has never fought a wrestler with the frenetic style of Guida. Helpful comparisons from previous experiences are going to be limited. That said, the Miller fight from UFC 96 is probably as close as we’re going to get (Edgar is much too quick and mixes up strikes with takedowns much more successfully than Guida). The real tale of that fight was how much Miller was out struck, but he was also wrestled. Miller attempted eight takedowns over three rounds and was unsuccessful every single time.

Miller was insistent on several attempts. He’d push for a head outside single on lead and rear legs, changing motion and angles on the turn to get Maynard off balance. None of them worked and he absorbed fairly significant damage in the process.

The question is whether that portends trouble for Guida. I’d offer that it does and doesn’t. On the one hand, it’s clear Maynard is an expert at defending the takedown from a wide variety of attacks. He has superb technique and is athletically able to lord his size and strength over his lightweight contemporaries to keep the fight upright.

On the other hand, Guida is no Miller. While Miller may have valiantly tried to yank Maynard to the floor, he doesn’t latch onto opposition in the hunt for a takedown like Guida. If Guida is unsuccessful on the head outside single, he quickly switches to a double. If the double doesn’t work, he’ll return immediately to the single. If that doesn’t find him success, he attempts an ankle pick or even will look to take the back standing. And even if none of this lands, he’s worn out his opposition in the process while not allowing his competitors to fight the way they prefer.

Let’s revisit the two crucial facts of this bout that could affect the outcome: fight length and Guida’s takedown success rate. Guida doesn’t have an impressive percentage of takedown success from single attempts, but how often does Guida attempt a double leg, get stuffed and surrender the attempt altogether? Almost never. And unlike Miller, Guida isn’t going to give Maynard time to breathe during breaks from isolated takedown attempts.

That’s important to consider in a five-round fight. Maynard uses as much technique as he does brute physicality and there’s some evidence to suggest he fades as the fight goes longer. Guida, by contrast, almost never fades, at least not to the degree of his competitors as the bout length increases.

Maynard has some of the most impressive takedown defense in the UFC, but can fade in championship rounds after competing at a high pace. Guida’s takedown success rate is low, but he’s so dogged in his pursuit of the takedown he eventually gets it anyway. Over the course of five rounds, Guida’s energy never seems to fade. For a fighter like Maynard who almost always goes to a decision, staying competitive throughout the course of the bout under what is sure to be Guida’s intense pressure is going to be the key to victory. In real terms, that means staying on his feet or being on top after a takedown and punishing the durable fighter every chance he gets.

This is what I mean when I say whoever upholds or adds to their respective takedown accolades will be the one who wins. Success on those terms means the fight kept a complexion that favored their strengths. Like coaches and trainers always say, ‘fight your fight’. Nowhere is that more necessary for victory than Gray Maynard vs. Clay Guida.

All quantitative data provided by FightMetric except where otherwise noted.

An early and pivotal figure in the sport of mixed martial arts, Jeff Blatnick knows MMA regulation better than most. He wasn’t just a commentator from UFC 4 to UFC 32 or an Olympic gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling, he also played a key role in the development of a codified MMA rule set athletic commissions could use to facilitate regulation of the sport in its earlier years.

I caught up with Blatnick at the Grapple in the Big Apple wrestling event in Times Square. We talked about the U.S. men’s performance against the Russians in their exhibition matches, chances for gold in the London games and even discussed the state of college wrestling.

But we also turned our conversation to MMA and the abhorrent state of judging. Blatnick has a better perspective than most as a judge in New Jersey (and other places) and is regarded by many as a model of how a judge properly performs their duties. We discussed his scoring in the Johny Hendricks vs. Josh Koscheck bout at UFC on Fox 3, the state of judging in mixed martial arts generally, predictions for Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen II and much more.

If there were ever an iconic American figure in the sport of wrestling, Dan Gable would be it. Few wrestlers can boast they won at every level and dimension of the sport as Gable did: multiple-time high school champion, multiple-time NCAA Division I national champion, 1971 gold medalist at the World Championships, 1972 gold medalist at the Olympics, 21 Big Ten titles as a coach for the University of Iowa as well as 17 national team titles. There’s even a grip named after him.

I caught up Gable recently at the ‘Grapple in the Big Apple’ wrestling exhibition in Times Square to talk about the Olympics, but also wrestling’s ever-changing relationship with mixed martial arts. Despite the slowly interweaving,there is still a sense of tension, unfamiliarity and distance between the wrestling and MMA communities. MMA has popularized wrestling at a grass roots level, but has incentivized world-class talents to move into fight sport. And while collegiate wrestling seems to be on the verge of a mild resurgence in popularity, most MMA fans do not enjoy wrestling as a spectator sport.

I talked to Gable about whether MMA gives back to wrestling as much as it takes, his thoughts on Olympian Steve Mocco entering MMA, the prospects for gold at the 2012 Olympics for the U.S. men’s freestyle team and much more.