Wanderlei Silva is a living legend in both the annals of MMA, and also those of nice guy history. He loves his fans, has never been in a boring fight and has shown in his more recent bouts that he may have a few more miles left on his body than people …
Wanderlei Silva is a living legend in both the annals of MMA, and also those of nice guy history. He loves his fans, has never been in a boring fight and has shown in his more recent bouts that he may have a few more miles left on his body than people believed.
With that in mind, he’s likely to fight Patrick Cote when the UFC rolls into Macau for the first time in November. Cote is literally the perfect matchup for Silva; a guy who will produce fireworks and go until someone can’t anymore, so it’s hard to complain.
But in the event that the UFC loses Cote to injury or other circumstances, here are some names that might be nice to see across the cage from the PRIDE legend.
Across combat sports, a lot of people don’t care for the little guys. They just can’t get any love from fans, no matter how exciting they are, how much talent they display, or how many times they steal the show. In some cases, it could even…
Across combat sports, a lot of people don’t care for the little guys. They just can’t get any love from fans, no matter how exciting they are, how much talent they display, or how many times they steal the show.
In some cases, it could even be justified.
Look at the UFC’s lighter weight classes as an example: featherweight has been completely cleaned out by Jose Aldo, a pound-for-pound great who feasted on minnows in shark-like fashion on the way to killing off the best 145-pound competition out there before his 25th birthday.
Ten pounds below him, Dominick Cruz has juked and jived his way to an undefeated record as a bantamweight, holding UFC gold since it was made to exist at his class.
Still, few people want to watch him (just check the TUF ratings when he coached opposite “bitter rival” Urijah Faber if you don’t agree) and his long injury layoffs are becoming too frequent and too problematic for a generation that wants its entertainment and wants it now.
Thus, when the UFC decided it was going to open the floodgates to a 125-pound class, only the hardest of the hardcore were enthused at the thought.
“Not enough talent,” said most.
“Not interested in seeing little dudes fight anyway,” said others.
But you know what? In well less than a year, the flyweights have proven to have more substance in the cage and more potential stars out of it than any weight class within 30lbs. of them. With the UFC having faced more than a few difficulties in 2012, that’s got to have them grinning ear to ear.
Sure, they might have mistook the appetite for Joseph Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson as fan-favorites and potential stars, but you can’t blame them for trying to make a champion out of a guy they had already put money into marketing since the days of the WEC. Aside from that oversight, everything they’ve touched in the 125-pound class has turned to gold.
They have a legitimate megastar in waiting in Ian “Uncle Creepy” McCall, who’s combined accessibility, capacity to entertain, and the best moustache of the modern era into a persona that will only get bigger as he gets more exposure.
TUF alumni like John Dodson and Louis Gaudinot have the looks and personality to become stars as well, coupled with the in-cage excitement that fans crave.
Lesser-knowns like John Lineker and Tim Elliott are guaranteed fireworks the minute they sign on the dotted line for a fight, and will probably get far richer from their inevitable bonus cheques than they will from their fight purses.
And all that is to say nothing of the unseen flyweight scrappers that are still unsigned, yet to debut, or possibly haven’t even been discovered.
Dana White has offered up plenty of rhetoric as he tries to steer the UFC ship through a shaky year of transition over to the FOX family of networks. In the midst of all that rhetoric has been the repeated promise that people will love the flyweight division, because the guys fighting there basically don’t even know how to put on a boring fight.
White may not be right at this exact moment regarding fan interest, but it’s only a matter of time before he’s proven to be. In a month the division will have its first ever champion, and from there a host of potential stars will line up for their shots, garnering fans with every frenzied exchange.
When the UFC returned to Japan for the first time in a veritable lifetime back in February, they brought a solid card headlined by two of their elite lightweights. Then-champ Frankie Edgar, building a Rocky-calibre legacy with each surprise victory, ag…
When the UFC returned to Japan for the first time in a veritable lifetime back in February, they brought a solid card headlined by two of their elite lightweights. Then-champ Frankie Edgar, building a Rocky-calibre legacy with each surprise victory, against 155-pound man-mountain and top contender Benson Henderson.
The results didn’t disappoint.
The hulking Henderson stuck to his game plan of low kicks and trying to overpower the diminutive Edgar when it was practical, while Edgar worked on catching the kicks and returning fire. He occasionally broke things up with his (even now) underrated boxing from the outside, touching up the challenger whenever he could.
What ensued was a great five-round battle—one that pitted the raw power, athleticism and unpredictability of Henderson against the caginess, grit and gameness of an Edgar who many felt was just coming into his own.
At the end of the night it was Henderson who was declared the winner, though not without some controversy. Many felt Edgar had won (this writer included) and was mostly being victimized by the cuts and swelling that the sheer power of a man like Henderson often provides (this writer not included).
However Edgar’s championship legacy had been built on giving rematches, often to guys who didn’t deserve them.
He beat BJ Penn at UFC 112 and had to fight him again at UFC 118—a fight he won in one of the more underrated beatdowns of 2010.
He didn’t lose his title to Gray Maynard despite suffering through one of the worst rounds in combat sports history, but he had to fight him again anyway. He KO’d the burly challenger in the fourth round.
So, needless to say, he hadn’t been off the plane from Japan for long before he started campaigning for a rematch on the grounds of “what’s fair is fair.” He wasn’t wrong, and no matter how much Dana White wanted to turn him into the only relevant featherweight challenger left for his buzzsaw 145-pound champion, Edgar was having none of it.
The only thing left to see now is how the two will clash in the cage during their rematch. They’re a great stylistic matchup, with Edgar’s slick style and reliance on speed coming up against the wild strength and aggression of Henderson. When one factors in the subtle changes rematches often see, it’s hard to envision it not being a barnburner.
It’s unfortunate that Edgar lost the title just as his star was rising. He was winning fans over with his gutsy displays and incredible ability to survive the fight. Since being in the title picture, he’s never once been in a boring fight, and those are the guys that sell tickets when they’re on the marquee.
Benson Henderson will have a chance to cement himself as the next guy to do it with a win Saturday. He’s got the look, style and skill to draw eyes.
The intangibles of both men, coupled with the abilities each has in the cage, guarantees another epic clash. It’s only a matter of Monday morning quarterbacking as to whether or not it’s this one or the first one that was more epic.
Change is coming to MMA. A sport long chastised for inept judging and questionable rulings, mixed martial arts is gearing up for a long overdue alteration to its core thanks to the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) that govern the sport in Americ…
A sport long chastised for inept judging and questionable rulings, mixed martial arts is gearing up for a long overdue alteration to its core thanks to the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) that govern the sport in America.
The Unified Rules of MMA are those which have allowed it to be regulated and prosper. When you see a fighter warned for grabbing the shorts, lose a point for a foul or celebrate a victory by knockout, all are borne of the Unified Rules. If it happens in the cage or ring at the professional level, chances are it’s happening under those guidelines.
Definitely so in the big leagues, such as the UFC or Strikeforce.
The rules, however, have long been a sore point for fans and pundits alike. In many ways, they’ve long been outdated, a product of an era when the sport was fighting just to exist and many commissioners and political minds were looking to run as far away from it as possible.
The result has been some bizarre dos and don’ts for athletes competing, plenty of judges who have become known for ineptitude rather than not known at all (the ideal state for a judge or referee), and more than one decision that got booed out of the building.
However, with the sport working ever closer to becoming mainstream and on the heels of one of the biggest growth spurts any sport has ever enjoyed over the past five years, the ABC finally sat down and took a look at how it was governing mixed martial arts.
They seem to now realize that MMA isn’t boxing, and as such perhaps striking isn’t the only way a fighter can be successful.
They seem to realize that controlling the cage or ring, while important, may not be as important as initially thought.
They seem to realize that, unlike the world of untrained streetfighting, professional mixed martial artists can, in fact, win a fight from his or her back. Some actually prefer to do it that way.
There are plenty of other notable changes, some of which can be seen here. The bottom line, though, is that this is a very good thing for the sport.
It seems at last as though there may be some traction in cleaning up a sport that desperately needed it. Fighters avoiding the fight, lay-and-pray artists, and other such individuals trying to game the system and eke out the occasional win and a few bucks for a night’s work are not going to find it so easy going forward.
Rules as they’re written, however, are only as powerful as they’re implemented. Judges and referees still need to be properly educated on the nuances of the sport, and a system of checks and balances needs to be in place to prevent those who aren’t doing their jobs well from doing them at all.
Still, that’s another discussion for another day. For now, let’s all be happy that changes many have begged for since the early 2000s may finally be seen in the near future.
UFC on FOX is a big event, hence increased coverage. In this case, one of the assignments was why Shogun Rua will crush Brandon Vera at Staples Center in Los Angeles tomorrow night. Usually, such assignments lend themselves to slideshows because there …
UFC on FOX is a big event, hence increased coverage.
In this case, one of the assignments was why Shogun Rua will crush Brandon Vera at Staples Center in Los Angeles tomorrow night. Usually, such assignments lend themselves to slideshows because there are a host of reasons to argue why one guy will beat another—or vice versa.
But you know what? Not this time.
The reason is pretty simple: Brandon Vera isn’t in Shogun’s league.
He’s barely in Elliott Marshall’s league actually.
He shouldn’t be in the UFC.
He surely doesn’t deserve this chance he’s getting; marketing efforts and the silver tongue of Dana White be damned.
And that’s why an elite mixed martial artist, a former champion in multiple organizations coming off a Fight of the Year against the current top contender (like Rua) is going to demolish him.
The fact is that Vera can strike a little bit. But this isn’t a Thai boxing, and even if it was, he’s probably not on Shogun’s level. Plus, if Dan Henderson isn’t putting Rua away, Vera sure isn’t. They could give him a bat and it wouldn’t make any difference.
And that’s his best chance at victory.
He’s a serviceable grappler, but Rua has tight jiu-jitsu that people rarely see because he loves to slug it out so much. It’s, at best, a wash. At worst, it’s a place Vera absolutely doesn’t want to contest the fight.
Then again, is there any surprise that a guy not in the Top 30 of any sensible ranking in the universe has nothing on paper for a consensus Top 5 guy and likely one of the best pure martial artists in the division?
No.
Look, call this fight what you want. The chance of a lifetime. A real-life Rocky moment. An effort by the UFC to put an exciting main event on FOX. Whatever.
Realistically, it’s a joke as much as anything.
Brandon Vera hasn’t won a name fight since 2006 against a Frank Mir that had recently almost died in a motorcycle accident. He did nothing to earn this, he was basically just a warm body that could weigh 205 lbs when the UFC needed him to. That’s likely to be reflected in the outcome on Saturday night.
So why is Shogun Rua going to demolish Brandon Vera? Because he’s one of the best in the world, and he’s going into the cage to fight a guy who once needed the judges to confirm he’d bested Reese Andy.
People don’t like Michael Bisping. He’s arrogant, abrasive, delusional, and has never beaten an opponent who mattered. Don’t tell him that though. He honestly believes he should be next in line to fight Anderson Silva. This, despite f…
People don’t like Michael Bisping. He’s arrogant, abrasive, delusional, and has never beaten an opponent who mattered.
Don’t tell him that though. He honestly believes he should be next in line to fight Anderson Silva. This, despite facing a tough test in Brian Stann in September and fresh off a loss to Chael Sonnen in January.
He’s also lost to a zombified Wanderlei Silva, suffered the most memorable knockout in history at the hands of Dan Henderson, and looked to be in more trouble than he thought likely before illegally kneeing his way to victory over Jorge Rivera. Jorge Rivera.
Make no mistake however, Michael Bisping is actually pretty capable in the cage. He can’t be faulted for the guys the UFC puts in front of him, all he can do is fight them and try to win. Losing is part of the game, and more often than not Bisping acquits himself pretty well.
So why don’t people respect him? Why are his claims of title glory almost always dismissed before he finishes the idiotic tweet peddling his abilities?
Aside from all listed above—awful personality, ignorance to the reality that he’s been beaten up by a few guys, lack of a signature win—there’s one big thing: he doesn’t know how to call the champion out properly.
Look at the front-runner to get a title shot. Chris Weidman, with less fights in his career than Bisping has wins in the Octagon, has already secured two signature wins this year and then took to calling out Silva.
He’s not sitting around saying how great he is, or making excuses for poor performances, or telling everyone how it should be him because no one else matters and he’s been around the longest. Weidman is saying, “Let me fight that guy. Let me fight Anderson Silva.”
He’s doing it respectfully, but he’s mentioning the champion by name. He’s mentioning Silva every chance he gets and is telling the world that he’ll go out and beat him.
Another dude who did that? Maybe you’ve heard of him actually. Chael Sonnen? He talked so much (admittedly over the top) vitriol about the champion that he earned the right to fight the guy twice, making himself a millionaire and a household name in the process.
All Bisping does is tell everyone how great he is and make pretty soft excuses for the times his greatness has been proven as a pipe dream. He then says he should get a title shot, but makes no mention of Silva or what he’d do to beat him. For a guy seen by many as nasty and quick tongued, he does a dreadful job of promoting himself.
The UFC has repeatedly proven that getting big fights is equal parts ability and selling power. They don’t want you to say, “I’m awesome, I should be champion.” They want you to say, “I’m better than the champion, and I’m going to beat him up to prove it.”
Astoundingly, Bisping can’t do that. It looks as though he’s seen how it works, because he’s upped his game in terms of vocalizing his wish for a shot at gold, but he sure doesn’t seem to see why those who’ve jumped him in line have done so.
Realistically, Michael Bisping isn’t a bad middleweight. He’s probably in the lower half of the top 10, despite never winning a big fight. Volume has to count for something, and he’s beaten the majority of guys he’s faced.
But a test for Anderson Silva? He most definitely isn’t. And he won’t be any closer to being one with a win over Brian Stann, regardless of how much half-hearted talk he does about going on a march for gold.
Until he gets that, until he gets the mix of results and salesmanship required to challenge for a title, he’ll never be more than a self-indulgent jerk who gets booed everywhere other than England. That can get some respect as a draw if it’s part of a bigger package, but it isn’t enough to do so on its own.
Across combat sports, a lot of people don’t care for the little guys. They just can’t get any love from fans, no matter how exciting they are, how much talent they display, or how many times they steal the show.