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UFC: Has Rampage Jackson Tainted His Legacy?

Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Other times it just squeaks and squeaks, grating on anyone unlucky enough to be in earshot. Other times still, the whole wheel comes off after a prolonged state of squeaky disrepair. These days, coming off a…

Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Other times it just squeaks and squeaks, grating on anyone unlucky enough to be in earshot.

Other times still, the whole wheel comes off after a prolonged state of squeaky disrepair.

These days, coming off a loss and with one foot out the door of the UFC after a very bitter Twitter tirade, it’s hard to see Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as little more than a squeaky wheel in the form of a once-great champion.

For Rampage fans it’s been a tough transition to sit through, forced to watch a man who was once as dangerous as any in the game turn into a one-dimensional brawler passed by in a sport that gives little wiggle room for a man with a one-track mind.

He’s gone from slamming and slugging his way to violent KOs and unifying the PRIDE and UFC titles to bickering with Dana White because wrestlers want to wrestle him for a big win instead of letting him knock them senseless for the sake of excitement.

The game has changed, and Rampage isn’t down with it.

Unfortunately, that attitude has hurt—and will continue to hurt—his legacy as a great in mixed martial arts. There was a time when people loved him for his performances and capacity for carnage, but those people are dwindling. Only the staunchest supporters are still pumping ‘Page’s tires, while the vast majority are just tired of his complaining.

He doesn’t like his fights, he doesn’t like the pay, he doesn’t like the fans (unless they’re cheering for him) and he doesn’t like the UFC.

It’s hard to take for most. It’s hard to watch a man undo with his mouth what he built with his athletic ability.

There’s hope for a man who says some stupid things or makes some stupid decisions early on in his career. Look at Nick Diaz, who went from loathed misanthrope early on to wildly popular anti-hero the more people got to know about him. However, with the mileage Jackson has and the fact he’s admittedly closer to the end than the beginning, such actions are damaging.

The closer he is to the end, the more Rampage risks leaving a foul taste in the mouth of the MMA community. If this is how he’s going to go out, spouting garbled jabs at a company that has been nothing but supportive of him, it’s likely to overshadow some of his greatest accomplishments.

He won’t be remembered as a great champion, but rather as a great champion who ended up leaving the promotion after legal troubles, a fake retirement and some outrageous tweets. There will always be that baggage.

All this shows is that the road has been rocky from Jackson in the UFC. Perhaps that unsteady terrain is why this particular wheel is squeaking so much.

The thing about the squeaky wheel is that no one ever remembers its years of service carrying around cargo or passengers, they remember the incessant, annoying squeaking at the end. Nothing else.

That’s not great news for Jackson, or for his legacy.

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Is Tim Boetsch Ready for UFC Middleweight Division’s Elite?

At UFC 144 Tim Boetsch was catching a beating. He was badly outclassed by a tough customer in Yushin Okami, a guy who was coming off a loss to Anderson Silva in his last fight. Then he went all Jack Johnson, throwing huge uppercuts from in tight until …

At UFC 144 Tim Boetsch was catching a beating. He was badly outclassed by a tough customer in Yushin Okami, a guy who was coming off a loss to Anderson Silva in his last fight.

Then he went all Jack Johnson, throwing huge uppercuts from in tight until Okami buckled and he got the chance to celebrate the biggest win of his fighting life.

Crazy stuff for sure, but it probably left the MMA world with more questions than answers. The most notable being: Is Boetsch ready for the elite of the middleweight division?

Realistically, if his performance against Okami is any indication, it’s hard to say he is. He was getting handily drubbed before going postal and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Aside from the last minute or so of the fight, he did almost nothing to convey to fans and pundits he was ready to compete with a higher caliber of opposition.

Then again, results trump all else, and the result of that fight is listed as a win for the brutish Boetsch. They don’t ask how, they ask how many.

As a result of that willingness to look past the road traveled and only at the destination, Boetsch will now square off with Michael Bisping after he called out the Brit for a UFC 148 showdown. Bisping is seen as a guy on the brink of a title shot, a guy who showed some serious evolution in his loss to Chael Sonnen in January.

People don’t love him, but he’s at least a lateral step from Okami—possibly a step up when Okami’s recent slide and his own improved stock in a loss are considered.

What Boetsch likely sees in Bisping is a smaller, slicker middleweight that he can bully if he gets his hands on and who isn’t likely to threaten him with much aside from volume kickboxing and good cardio. That’s great in theory, but Boetsch doesn’t have the footwork to compete with Bisping, or the shot to bring him to the ground from outside of range.

He works from the clinch, and catching Bisping to clinch him isn’t that easy to do. He’s masterful at getting in and out, racking up points without getting into too much trouble and staying out of areas where he isn’t comfortable.

And that’s just his next fight.

Win or lose against Bisping—and make no mistake, as he proved against Okami, no fight is a foregone conclusion anymore in MMA—Boetsch is going to get some tougher challenges from here on out. He’s exciting and he brings raw power to the table in a way that few others are not able to match. He might not be the most technical guy out there, but anyone who wouldn’t pay to watch him finish a guy violently to maul him with clinch work and bullish throws is either an idiot or a person who hates MMA.

That said, he’s out of his depth when the fights get serious. The win against Okami was a fortunate twist of fate and Bisping is a bad matchup if he can’t mug the guy, and those are both guys on the fringe of the top five.

Fights with Mark Munoz or Chael Sonnen would be problematic to say the least, he’d have fits with a Vitor Belfort blitzkrieg, and putting him in against Anderson Silva would be as close to legalized homicide as an athletic commission would ever rubber-stamp.

So enjoy Tim Boetsch for what he is: a tough, gutsy warrior who does a few things pretty well and accents them with otherworldly strength.

Not, however, a guy who’s ready for the middleweight elite.

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Will the Strikeforce Heavyweights Make an Impact in the UFC?

On May 19 (hopefully) the everlasting Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix will finally come to a close when Josh Barnett meets Daniel Cormier. It all started in February 2011 at a time when Zuffa was competition instead of in control, Fedor Emelianenko …

On May 19 (hopefully) the everlasting Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix will finally come to a close when Josh Barnett meets Daniel Cormier.

It all started in February 2011 at a time when Zuffa was competition instead of in control, Fedor Emelianenko was a tournament favourite and Cormier wasn’t even in the bracket.

A lot has changed in a year, and the tournament’s conclusion will also mark the official shuttering of the heavyweight division in the promotion. It’s expected that there may be one more heavyweight fight, but for the most part the focus will be on the big men of the UFC.

Many Strikeforce heavies have already made the jump. Alistair Overeem retired Brock Lesnar and will meet Junior dos Santos in May, Fabricio Werdum has made his triumphant return to the UFC, Antonio Silva will make his debut soon enough and others have signed and fought or await the chance to.

Dana White has said the decision to close down the Strikeforce heavyweights had to do with a lack of depth in the promotion. Without much of a stretch, it might be easier to argue that shutting it down had more to do with the lack of depth among the UFC’s big men.

For that reason, it’s pretty clear that the influx of new faces is probably going to make a notable impact.

The guys that White has brought in are largely major players who are in or near the top 10 of the division. The only ones fitting that criteria and yet to be poached are the remaining Grand Prix participants, both of whom will probably sign UFC contracts by year’s end. There’s absolutely no way that much talent can come in and not impact the UFC.

The fact is that the UFC’s heavyweight division is thin, and it has a massive divide between the top and the bottom. Sure, it isn’t “Sylvia-Arlovski Trilogy” thin, but there’s a big difference between Cain Velasquez and Matt Mitrione. And Mitrione is one of the more promising up-and-comers.

At the bare minimum, the inclusion of Strikeforce heavyweights will help narrow that gap. While the likes of Overeem and Werdum have already proven they belong near the top, guys like Chad Griggs, Lavar Johnson and Shane Del Rosario are going to have the chance to muddy the waters between stars, prospects, also-rans, has-beens and never-weres.

Silva, Barnett and Cormier will muddy those waters further and provide an absolute plethora of guys who are legitimate and could earn title shots with a few wins.

Taking the strongest division in Strikeforce and absorbing it into the UFC simply cannot not impact the promotion. There was too much talent there, too many guys who only needed a chance to show how good they are or how good they might be.

This isn’t to say that it’s a guarantee the next few UFC heavyweight champions are all going to be guys with a Strikeforce pedigree, but there are enough tough customers making the jump to suggest that crazier ideas have been put forth.

The first one to take a crack will be Overeem, but from there it could be any number of guys who are following his lead to the UFC. Nothing is for sure, but there’s little arguing that these guys are coming to make a name for themselves and they have the skills to do just that.

It’s a foregone conclusion they’re going to change the face of the division and make it far more competitive. All that’s left now is to see which guys seize the day, and just how big an impact they manage to make.

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Strikeforce: Is Ronda Rousey a Hero, or a Villain?

Not everyone likes a person who speaks their mind. It isn’t for everyone when a person stands up and make sure their voice is heard, or that their opinions stand out in those of a crowd. Someone willing to walk up to another, stick a finger in th…

At this stage in the game, if anyone has developed that persona in MMA, it’s Ronda Rousey.

She started to gain attention for her combination of looks and remarkable skill, and for her ability to finish fights in seconds. You give her an arm, she’s going to break it and celebrate a win. It’s almost science.

However she also took the time to construct a persona that sells fights. People are fascinated by this living beauty and beast, a woman who is more dangerous than most men who enter the cage at her weight and has an Olympic medal to her credit. Plus a near unmatched propensity to sell fights.

Look no further than her most recent triumph over Miesha Tate. She picked a fight with the champion of another weight class, made the weight as a better physical specimen than she ever was prior, and then beat that champion senseless and snapped her arm.

Along the way, after picking the fight with some vigour, she ramped up the trash talk and pressure on the champion to the point that Tate spent most of the buildup on the defensive. Everything was about statements Rousey made, how Tate was dealing with her brashness, and what she’d do to offset the challenger’s formidable submission game.

It’s a wonder she found time to train for the fight for all the questions she had to answer. Furthermore, once she began her walk to the cage, it felt like she was just keeping the belt warm for Rousey. Turned out that was basically the case.

But in all of this, one question stands out: is Ronda Rousey a hero or a villain?

That probably depends on how one defines such a role.

For the average woman who needs a strong role model, needs to see a young woman able to succeed in a world largely dominated by men, Rousey is nothing short of a hero. Whether it’s inspiring the confidence to go in and finally ask the boss for a raise, or to go put on a gi and learn to defend herself on the street, to the female audience there’s little to dislike about Rousey.

For the MMA fan who likes a finish at all costs and cares about nothing else, it’s hard to deny Rousey status as a hero as well. She comes into the cage, unleashes her unique brand of arm intensive fury, and usually provides a highlight that fans talk about for a month—all within five minutes.

Others may see her as a villain, particularly those who don’t love the outspoken approach to marketing. Others still, who don’t like the idea that most girls who enter the cage with Rousey end up leaving severely injured, might cling to that in an effort to villainize her.

Basically, if people want to paint her as a villain, they’re going to find something to use to do it. As so many internet memes have eloquently stated, “haters gonna hate.”

For her part though, Rousey has always said that women’s MMA has too many nice girls trying to be nice and get paid for it. In a combat sport, particularly one with a talent pool as shallow as women’s MMA, that doesn’t sell.

Rousey understands this, and has made an effort to step in and fill the void of bad girl that her sport so desperately needs. A void that, left unfilled, might in fact be the downfall of the entire sport. In the eyes of many, that capacity alone makes her more hero than villain.

As long as it keeps selling fights that people otherwise just wouldn’t be buying, it’s hard to argue with the logic.

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UFC: How Much Does Joe Rogan’s Commentary Influence Fans?

When Oasis was on top of the music scene in the mid-’90s, lead guitarist and gifted mouthpiece Noel Gallagher said that if you told enough people you were the best band in the world, 50 percent of them would believe you. He then proceeded to tell basic…

He then proceeded to tell basically everyone with ears exactly that.

“Best” is subjective, and while even the most ardent supporters of the band would be hard pressed to justify their placement among the musical elite of history, there’s something to be said for his bravado. His band has sold upwards of 50 million albums as a result of it.

In a similar sense, if you stand on a table screaming at the top of your lungs enough, someone is going to look in your direction.

Don’t think so? Take in veteran UFC commentator Joe Rogan’s next performance. You’ll see the proof pretty quickly.

It doesn’t take much for Rogan to get excited and lose himself in the happenings of a good scrap, and people usually take notice. Furthermore, one way or another, most people who take notice are greatly influenced by Eddie Bravo’s famed pupil.

Rogan operates without a filter, which can be good and bad. You can count on him to call guys out for uninspired game plans or lacklustre performances, which is nice, but you can also count on at least a dozen full-blown fanatical overstatements over the course of a calendar year.

The result is that Rogan, a trusted face in UFC lore for his years cageside and commitment to the sport when it was contested in the tents of backwoods Georgia, inspires legions of fans to follow his lead when he begins his figurative table dance of excitement.

Rogan says, “That’s the biggest comeback in UFC history!” and you can bet that half the fans out there would assault a dissenter in his defense.

Rogan says, “This is the most interesting matchup out there for the title!” and those same fans are whipped into a frenzy of support for his decree.

Rogan says, “I’ve never seen a more boring fight than this is my life!” and he’s instantly got half of the MMA community demanding that the participants be cut in an effort to support his analysis.

To put it mildly, Rogan is a pretty significant influence on the average UFC fan.

Of course, there are those who don’t buy into his work so enthusiastically. They’ll say he’s stale, that he favours certain fighters or that his excited yelling can be too much to sit through on some nights. All fair points, even if the Cult of Rogan won’t have anything to do with them.

That said, Rogan is an experienced martial artist and a longtime TV personality. He might not be the single most qualified guy out there, but he’s earned the right to sit by that cage and make those statements. His fans can argue that he deserves it for a host of other reasons, but at the bare minimum, that’s why he’s doing what he does.

So, how much does Rogan’s commentary influence fans? A lot.

Is it something that those who don’t like it are going to have to get used to? Most definitely.

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Should the UFC Adopt Knees and Kicks to the Head of a Downed Opponent?

When it comes to ridding mixed martial arts of lay-and-pray artists and excessive wrestling, proponents of Japanese MMA have been vocal for a while. North American MMA needs to adopt knees and kicks to the head of a grounded opponent—that’l…

Unfortunately, in the North American sports market, that’s not something you’re going to see.

MMA has fought too hard and too long for legitimacy, and while most fans don’t like to see a lethargic positional battle on the mats, for the guys in charge it looks a lot better than the alternative.

That alternative? A downed opponent eating stomps to the face, soccer kicks or knees to the head.

As Dana White so famously stated, MMA fans live in a bubble. They get the sport, understand where the true risks lie, and appreciate it for what it is. What they don’t understand, is how the average person sitting down to watch an MMA event on a whim computes what they’re seeing.

A bloody gash from an elbow is par for the course to the advanced fan. The layman may be horrified.

An elbow dislocated from a technically perfect armbar is cause for celebration for fans who’ve spent years watching. An MMA virgin sees something just a probable in video of a car wreck.

A lack of leg strikes on the ground is an out for boring fighters to be more boring in the eyes of many veteran fans. Having to watch those strikes is cringe-worthy for a fan who knows no better.

It isn’t a matter of what’s right and what’s wrong when it comes to such a rule change. Either side of such an argument is based on opinion.

It’s about what sells.

After a decade of beating the safety drum, claiming the sport has never had a death and most guys come out on the other side of their careers in better health than boxers, it would take no more than a single event of downed opponents eating kicks and knees to undo all that.

Sure, it’s no more unsafe than any other aspect of MMA. But it looks more unsafe, and that’s the kicker.

The average fan, and by extension the average loudmouth with an axe to grind over the sport, would see such strikes and either be completely turned off or, worse, get on the “human cockfighting” bandwagon again.

It’s a headache that White, Lorenzo Fertitta and anywhere commissioning the sport simply doesn’t need.

There’s no denying that the capacity to land knees and kicks on the ground would spice things up a little. Guys trying to grind away at a decision would have more tools to go for the finish, and would have more to worry about if they were simply laying there and waiting for their 30-27s.

But the risk isn’t worth the reward. As it stands, there’s plenty of excitement in MMA and those fights that are boring have done little to quell the expansion of the sport. Until that happens, there’s no reason to adopt knees and kicks to a grounded opponent because the sports world just isn’t ready for it.

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