UFC Hall of Fame: Stephan Bonnar Deserves Inclusion from Dana White

It’s been a weird year for Stephan Bonnar. He’s been rolling in the cage in ways he hasn’t for a very long time, and yet away from it, he’s been unable to gain any traction whatsoever. Wants to fight Rampage Jackson? Not gonna h…

It’s been a weird year for Stephan Bonnar. He’s been rolling in the cage in ways he hasn’t for a very long time, and yet away from it, he’s been unable to gain any traction whatsoever.

Wants to fight Rampage Jackson? Not gonna happen.

Wants to coach The Ultimate Fighter against Forrest Griffin? No thanks, Stephan.

Wants to fight any name that will move him up the ranks? Sorry, pal, can’t help you.

After repeatedly having fires stomped out by the UFC before he can properly stoke them, the aging warrior seems to be in a place where retirement is his most viable option. When you’ve spilled as much blood as Bonnar has in the Octagon, you get to call those shots.

Make no mistake: the UFC doesn’t owe Bonnar anything.

Just as he did so much for the promotion in his first fight with Forrest Griffin, the promotion did plenty for him by keeping him around despite some slides and promising a career for life no matter what.

It’s been a two-way street.

But you know what? The UFC needs to put Stephan Bonnar in its Hall of Fame.

The fact of the matter is that the UFC Hall of Fame is, relatively speaking, a joke. Sure, the guys who are in it are deserving, but the joke comes from the guys who aren’t in there.

Guys like Frank Shamrock and Don Frye—legends in the sport who did incredible things to build the UFC—are openly unwelcome because of personal differences with Dana White.

There’s also the fact that there are no concrete guidelines to get in: No known voting protocols, no time on the calendar that inductions are known to happen, no known number of inductees that are to be brought on board at a given induction.

Plus the little issue of the Hall of Fame being run by a promoter rather than an independent panel—something no other pro sport does.

Qualms with the UFC Hall of Fame aside, though, it’s the best the sport has at the moment. And it’s where Bonnar belongs if it’s where his contemporaries are.

Ask anyone and they’ll say Forrest Griffin will be inducted upon his retirement. He was a TUF winner, a champion and one of the first marketable personalities of the promotion’s most significant boom. He also took part in what White calls the most important fight in UFC history, against Bonnar.

With that in mind, how can Bonnar not follow his friend and nemesis there?

Sure, he didn’t win titles or even any fights against a name bigger than Keith Jardine, but he was there when it mattered. He was a blood-and-guts warrior when the promotion needed one, and he always did it with a good quote, quick wit and an understanding of what he brought to the UFC.

That may not be enough to warrant Hall of Fame consideration—one massive fight and a willingness to bleed, admittedly, doesn’t sound that impressive on its own. However, one of the greatest pitfalls of the UFC Hall of Fame could become one of its greatest assets in the case of Bonnar—the unchallenged omnipotence of the UFC in deciding who gets in.

Other sports see plenty of guys who could warrant Hall of Fame consideration for things other than pure numbers, but because certain stats are seen as benchmarks, the individuals on voting committees tend to err on the side of caution with their selections.

Dana and company don’t have to do that. So why not put him in? Issues with the current UFC Hall of Fame system notwithstanding, it would be a great sendoff for a true warrior who deserves it.

He wasn’t an all-time great. He never held gold, and he never will.

But if what he did for the UFC was truly as important as White would have you believe, that glass plaque would be more meaningful in Bonnar’s hands than in the hands of any man who came before him—both for the UFC, and for the man holding it.

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UFC 149: Questions About Renan Barao

One of the more uninspiring title fights in UFC history will take place on Saturday night, when Urijah Faber and Renan Barao clash for the interim bantamweight title. It might be the lacklustre card, the recent flurry of UFC activity, the relative obsc…

One of the more uninspiring title fights in UFC history will take place on Saturday night, when Urijah Faber and Renan Barao clash for the interim bantamweight title.

It might be the lacklustre card, the recent flurry of UFC activity, the relative obscurity of the UFC’s 135-pound class or the reality that the interim champ is still not the champ, but this one doesn’t make many people’s Spider Sense tingle.

Even so, the fight is an important one and will shape the division for much of the next year as the world waits for the return of rightful bantamweight kingpin Dominick Cruz.

Many people have questions about the fight, and many of those questions center around the prodigious talents of Barao.

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UFC: Have We Ever Seen Anderson Silva Go 100%?

Scary thoughts. We all have them, and they differ for everyone. Heights. Monsters. Bankruptcy. A ban on coffee in the office. Whatever. Different things scare different people to different degrees. Everyone has something. Here’s a scary thought f…

Scary thoughts. We all have them, and they differ for everyone.

Heights. Monsters. Bankruptcy. A ban on coffee in the office. Whatever. Different things scare different people to different degrees. Everyone has something.

Here’s a scary thought for you though: Anderson Silva has never gone 100 percent in his entire UFC career. He’s 15-0, a 10-time defender of the middleweight title, and the only guy out there who can lay claim to being the baddest man on the planet when it comes to unarmed combat.

And he’s done it without really trying.

Don’t think so? Think of the last time you saw him actively looking like he cared about what was happening in the cage. You can’t remember it because it’s never happened.

Think your mind has it romanticized? Go and watch the fights again. They’re all at his pace, on his terms, and they end how he decides they’ll end.

Sure, there’s that one glaring exception, one  that proves the rule—the infamous Silva-Sonnen I—but it still ended with a Silva win and no noticeable ruffles from a guy who just spent 23 minutes catching the beating of his life.

That’s frightening.

Silva fights all look the same: he watches his opponent try to look menacing, he throws a few feints to get his range, then he strikes late in the opening stanza. If the opponent survives that late strike, within a couple of minutes of round two starting, the whole thing is over and the champion has retained with almost baffling ease.

And he’s not beating up Tapout tough guys at the local bar. He’s beating up elite martial artists, guys of all shapes and sizes that have full lifetimes practicing hand-to-hand combat at the highest levels. These men are literally professional badasses, and they’re hailed as heroes if they can withstand Silva’s wrath for six or seven minutes.

What MMA as a sport is fortunate enough to be watching as Silva plies his trade is the first truly great athlete at its disposal. There were good athletes who came before him, and guys like Georges St-Pierre and Jon Jones prove great athletes are coming behind him, but he’s the first.

There were great (perhaps greater) warriors before him, the Royce Gracies and Randy Coutures of the world, but they didn’t have his athleticism.

There were exciting fighters before him, with guys like Tito Ortiz selling fights and Chuck Liddell knocking people out left and right, but they didn’t do it with such domination and for so long.

What Silva does is incredible, shocking, and perhaps above all else, utterly terrifying. Not since Mike Tyson has a combat athlete smashed other trained professionals so convincingly. Not since men started punching each other for prize funds has it been done with such ease.

Anderson Silva is the best ever, and he’s not even trying to be.

Forget whatever other fears you might have. That’s a truly scary thought.

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UFC 148: Silva-Sonnen II and the 6 Most Anticipated Fights of the Summer

With UFC 148 now only a week away, hosting the most anticipated rematch in the history of MMA in Anderson Silva-Chael Sonnen II, there’s plenty to talk about in the world of caged combat.Fans are enthusiastically looking forward to this one, but …

With UFC 148 now only a week away, hosting the most anticipated rematch in the history of MMA in Anderson Silva-Chael Sonnen II, there’s plenty to talk about in the world of caged combat.

Fans are enthusiastically looking forward to this one, but they’re not overlooking several other big fights happening this summer.

Here are some of the biggest fights to look forward to.

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UFC on FX 4: Will Gray Maynard Ever Be Champion?

We know a lot and a little about Gray Maynard. We know he’s one of the best lightweights in the world—a gritty wrestler who has power in his hands and the sheer physicality that few men can match at 155 pounds. We know he’s a guy that…

We know a lot and a little about Gray Maynard.

We know he’s one of the best lightweights in the world—a gritty wrestler who has power in his hands and the sheer physicality that few men can match at 155 pounds.

We know he’s a guy that sometimes makes it hard to root for him—be it because of posturing outside of the cage or uninteresting performances inside of it.

We know he thinks he should be lightweight champion, or at least he thought he should have been until Frankie Edgar knocked him senseless in their third meeting.

Directly related to that, we know he just can’t find a way to beat Frankie Edgar.

That seems like a lot, but in actuality it really isn’t that much. At least it isn’t that much in a sport that is perhaps more results-driven than any in the world—a sport that can see you become pretty irrelevant pretty quickly if you can’t win a title after two chances in one calendar year.

Going into UFC on FX 4, where he’ll headline against the energetic Clay Guida, that seems to be the only question that matters anymore: will Gray Maynard ever be champion?

It’s easy to argue that he could be. He’s undeniably in the top three at his weight, has very nearly taken the title on two separate occasions and his nemesis from New Jersey no longer has the title that he so hungrily covets (though that could change next month).

Then again, it’s easy to argue that his window has closed, too.

He’s on the wrong side of 30 and has had his chances. He’s only going to see big names and tough guys for the rest of his career, increasing the chances he could fall out of contention. He’s gone through personal and team-based upheaval since his last fight with Edgar, and that may plague him.

There are arguments both ways, and it isn’t hard to make one side particularly convincing. Friday night will go a long way toward uncovering what Maynard’s chances are of becoming champion.

Guida is a tireless, frustrating foe in the same vein of Edgar.

Maynard is coming off his first pro loss and first ever knockout, which are two things that often change the way a fighter approaches the game. He also has to know that with names like Nate Diaz, Anthony Pettis, Donald Cerrone and Gilbert Melendez all floating around out there, it won’t take much for him to be a forgotten former challenger instead of a still-important contender.

To answer the question of “will” he be a champion may be too hard to do before seeing him in action on FX. “Can” he is probably more appropriate.

Given the tools he has at his disposal, the answer there is a resounding yes if things can break his way a little.

Will he? Ask again after he goes a few rounds with Clay Guida. The answer might reveal itself quicker than you’d realize.

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UFC 148: What’s Better for the UFC, a Silva Win or a Sonnen Win?

In but a few short weeks the biggest rematch in the history of MMA will take place in Las Vegas (not that you’d necessarily know based on advertising or hype), when Anderson Silva defends his UFC middleweight title against Chael Sonnen. The best …

In but a few short weeks the biggest rematch in the history of MMA will take place in Las Vegas (not that you’d necessarily know based on advertising or hype), when Anderson Silva defends his UFC middleweight title against Chael Sonnen.

The best ever.

His defining nemesis.

All the marbles.

Some people love Silva, some hate him. Some people love Sonnen, some hate him. In that mix, it’s likely to be a noticeably split crowd when the two enter the cage.

But, with the most bankable fight they could possibly sell going down at UFC 148, what’s best for the UFC?

Looking at a Silva win, there’s plenty to like for the promotion.

Their most invincible champion confirms he’s the best ever, beating his greatest foil and proving the first time was no accident. When they write the book on the sport and talk about the greatest warriors of this generation, the Silva legacy will be officially unquestioned with two wins over Sonnen.

A Sonnen win, on the other hand, is much more of a here and now proposition.

The ultimate black hat, the only man to ever walk up to the most dangerous man on earth and stick a finger in his chest, to actively pick a fight with Silva and mean it with every fibre of his being, proves that he truly is the better man. From there, the inevitable immediate rematch and completion of the trilogy would likely secure the greatest rivalry ever as the most profitable as well.

Realistically, it’s win-win for them.

However, as dorks worldwide have reminded us since Highlander first made the point, “there can only be one.”

At a time when UFC cards are happening more often than a bachelor changes his underwear and injuries are leaving many of them in shambles, the capacity to have not only Silva-Sonnen II but also a trilogy bout has to be appealing. Sure, the legacy of Anderson Silva, The Undefeated Champion, is a nice idea, but it’s not as valuable to the UFC as the ability to finally get on a strong run of pay-per-view action and get some cash in coffers.

As it stands, after this weekend’s dreadful UFC 147 offering numbered events from 148 to 152 look promising. Names like Silva, Sonnen, Urijah Faber, Hector Lombard, Frankie Edgar, Jon Jones, Junior dos Santos, Cain Velasquez, Georges St-Pierre, and Carlos Condit are all slated to enter the cage during that time.

How good would it be for them to cap it off with another year-end battle between Sonnen and Silva, a final time and for the title that Oregon’s favorite son (or greatest shame, depending on who you ask) defends for the first time?

Pretty good, regardless of which man one would be rooting for. One would surely pay to see it a final time, particularly if the second incarnation is even half the fight the first one was.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see that a Sonnen win is more beneficial to the UFC at the moment. Anderson Silva’s legacy, while incredible and even more impressive should he continue his streak with another win over Sonnen, isn’t something the promotion can monetize right now. A third fight between the two, however, is.

At the end of the day, for the UFC, it’s all about making that bread (though not so much so that they kept Kimbo Slice, one of history’s all-time great bread makers, around). A Sonnen win assures they can do that one more time.

Even if he doesn’t know it yet, somewhere in the back of his head, Dana White will be rooting for Chael Sonnen at UFC 148.

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