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While the whole world will watch the main event of Saturday’s UFC on FOX headliner between heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez and challenger Junior Dos Santos, there’s plenty to be excited about on the less-publicized undercard. One such matc…
While the whole world will watch the main event of Saturday’s UFC on FOX headliner between heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez and challenger Junior Dos Santos, there’s plenty to be excited about on the less-publicized undercard.
One such matchup will see two featherweights with upward mobility lock horns, as Dustin Poirier will meet Pablo Garza. Here’s a look at how the two stack up.
While mixed martial arts gets ready for one of the biggest events in its history (UFC on FOX this Saturday night), the boxing world sits in mourning of one of its greatest legends.Smokin’ Joe Frazier, the first man to defeat the unsinkable Muhamm…
While mixed martial arts gets ready for one of the biggest events in its history (UFC on FOX this Saturday night), the boxing world sits in mourning of one of its greatest legends.
Smokin’ Joe Frazier, the first man to defeat the unsinkable Muhammad Ali, passed away Monday after a battle with liver cancer.
To the modern combat sports fan, the loss may seem less than what it is. Frazier, as a result of his victory over Ali and subsequent rematches—the second of which, the Thrilla in Manilla, was one of the most incredible displays of heart and athleticism the sport has ever seen—was inextricably linked to the man that most consider the greatest of all time.
However, he was much more than that.
He was an undersized heavyweight, an against-all-odds warrior who fought with such tenacity that he essentially forced himself into the conversation of best heavyweight boxers ever.
He never backed down, so much so that his trilogy with Ali took a permanent toll on both men that never allowed them to be the same in the ring again.
Those fights were cultural occurrences, personal battles as much as battles for sport, and Frazier fought them as such. It was the only way he knew how. Yes, he took on the likes of George Foreman and Buster Mathis, but it was the Ali trilogy that made him a legend.
And now he’s gone.
Sad, but how does that relate to MMA?
If one looks at mixed martial arts, the biggest heavyweight fight out there is happening on Saturday night. It’s happening on free television, the heavyweight championship of the world, just like it did when men like Ali and Frazier were stars.
Yet there is none of the transcendent feel of the glory days of heavyweight boxing. It’s not about culture, it’s not about beliefs, it’s not about a nation divided. It’s purely about competition.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It simply shows how far mixed martial arts has to go, how much room there is for it to grow.
In fact, go beyond the heavyweights. What fight in MMA could transcend the sport and become a genuine cultural phenomenon? GSP-Silva? Silva-Jones? Edgar-Aldo?
No. None of them.
They’re all nice to think of as MMA fans, but they’re not fights that could literally divide a nation or divide the globe.
Furthermore, is there a realistic possibility that any mixed martial artist will cause grown men to shed tears upon news of his death 30 years from now, the way I’m sure Frazier’s death did over the past 24 hours?
Probably not.
This isn’t meant to romanticize boxing and pine for the good old days. I love boxing, but truthfully my love has come from watching tapes of fights that happened decades before I was born. It’s been dying as long as I’ve been living, and that saddens me.
What this is meant to do, though, is remind fans of mixed martial arts of where the sport can go and what the ceiling is. When Dana White says MMA hasn’t scratched the surface of going mainstream, this is what he’s talking about.
Joe Frazier hasn’t fought in 30 years, and got more press in a day with his death than Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos have in a month—and they’re fighting this weekend.
That’s mainstream.
So today, and going into the weekend, remember two things—remember what men like Frazier did for combat sports, paving the way for men like Velasquez and Dos Santos to do their thing today.
And remember that regardless of where MMA can go, it sure isn’t there yet. Losing Smokin’ Joe has proved that.
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Mixed martial arts has been clawing its way towards acceptance for almost 20 years now. While other parts of the world have accepted the traditions of Vale Tudo and no-holds-barred combat for a while, it was the UFC that took those foundations and mode…
Mixed martial arts has been clawing its way towards acceptance for almost 20 years now. While other parts of the world have accepted the traditions of Vale Tudo and no-holds-barred combat for a while, it was the UFC that took those foundations and modernized them, turning them into a sport that rivals any out there in terms of excitement.
In doing that, along the way there have been some milestone events. The UFC has been responsible for most, though other promotions got in on the MMA craze and impacted the landscape as well.
Let’s take a look at the five most significant events that have taken place to this point.
It’s time for a reality check: Thiago Alves has a ground game, a good one. And while people love watching him chop down opponents like trees with his leg kicks, or knock them senseless with well-time punches and elbows, it’s time for him to…
It’s time for a reality check: Thiago Alves has a ground game, a good one.
And while people love watching him chop down opponents like trees with his leg kicks, or knock them senseless with well-time punches and elbows, it’s time for him to start using that ground game to get himself some wins.
Coming into his UFC 138 matchup with Papy Abedi, there was talk that the American Top Team product could be cut with a loss. That’s a remarkable fall from grace for a man who isn’t yet thirty and fought Georges St-Pierre for the welterweight title on the biggest card in UFC history in 2009.
Fortunately, he came out and buzz-sawed Abedi, looking incredibly tight on his feet and far more cerebral than he has in recent losses or uninspiring wins. For Alves to fight anywhere other than the top promotion in the world would be ludicrous, as when he’s on he’s as good as anyone in the game.
However part of that talent is utilizing his slick ground game. It’s not something that’s new, he holds a jiu-jitsu brown belt under the legendary Ricardo Liborio and has for a while. but it’s something that’s new to his MMA game.
Too often in the past, Alves has been pulled into fighting out of his comfort area. He’ll have trouble with opponents who keep him off balance with in-between distance, too far to strike powerfully but close enough to get tied up with and held against the cage. Opponents with good wrestling have posed issues, and while his ability to scramble and get up is as good as anyone at 170, the points are already scored against him when the takedown happens, so his efforts to get up seem less impressive.
Thankfully, in a division heavy on guys who will use wrestling to grind away and win in uninteresting fashion, Thiago Alves is there to make things exciting. It’s a very rare thing that he’ll come to the octagon and not put on an enjoyable performance. However, he needs to temper that excitement with success, which he can do by implementing his grappling game more prominently.
When done properly, jiu-jitsu can be exciting. As MMA grows, people become better educated on the nuances of grappling, and appreciate a guy like Demian Maia as much as they do Anderson Silva. Alves has the unique ability to combine a little bit of both, the vaunted striker with the excellent grappler, and do so excitingly while racking up some wins.
For that reason, it becomes clear that he should be using his ground game a little more.
And if that reason isn’t enough for you? Ask Papy Abedi. He can probably be more convincing than I can.
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Everybody loves Chris Leben. He’s been around forever, puts on good fights, has a personality and has been fought against some legitimate competition in his day. But, he isn’t a contender. He’ll go on the warpath against mid-level tal…
Everybody loves Chris Leben. He’s been around forever, puts on good fights, has a personality and has been fought against some legitimate competition in his day.
But, he isn’t a contender.
He’ll go on the warpath against mid-level talent or aging veterans—he’s a guy with an iron chin and stone hands who actually looks to have tightened up his game a little as he’s entered his thirties. When it comes time to lock down the Top 10 in the middleweight division though, he’s not in the picture.
On the other hand, Mark Munoz is.
Like it or not, wrestling wins in MMA and Munoz has wrestling in spades. The two-time All-American has been showing it since college, and has made the transition into the MMA quite smoothly as a result. He’s also found a home at 185, where he holds wins over Demian Maia, CB Dollaway and Kendall Grove.
He lost to Yushin Okami via split decision and Okami went on to survive the wrath of Anderson Silva for seven minutes or so. That may seem a comically low measuring stick, but it’s Anderson Silva. Seven minutes is a long time.
Those wins—and that loss—have entrenched Munoz in the Top 10 middleweights out there. So, going into UFC 138, he’s definitely a guy with a lot to lose.
With a standup game that has evolved significantly, and a mentality that has him utterly fearless of using it, Munoz is likely to spend significant time on his feet with Leben. Sure, he could take the fight down at his leisure, but that’s not his approach. There will be stretches where he’ll fight fire with fire.
That’s exactly what Leben wants. He’s proven nearly impossible to knock out in his career, actually going full zombie on guys when the lights start to flicker. Instead of crashing to the canvas, he’s far more apt to trudge forward and throw haymakers in response to getting tagged, and Munoz should be very mindful of that when the two are on their feet.
If he’s not, he’s going to get knocked out.
If Munoz loses? Well, that’s a big loss for him. Leben is below him in the division, which stings enough on its own, but Munoz is at most two wins away from a shot at gold.
Middleweight is incredibly thin, and it doesn’t take much to climb the ladder. He’s 6-1 as a middleweight—every win coming in the UFC—and his loss was narrow to the last guy to fight for the title. If you don’t think he’s close, you can’t think there are many who are closer.
And so it goes, for Mark Munoz in England this weekend. A win is a win over a guy he probably should beat. It looks good on the resume and it puts him in a fight with Brian Stann or a rematch with Okami, with an eye on Silva.
But a loss? A loss will cause Leben to replace him in the Top 10 and it badly hurts what he’s worked to build, and it knocks him down a few pegs with no rightful claim to a title shot for several fights.
Nobody’s disrespecting Chris Leben, but it’s Munoz who has little to gain and everything to lose going into Saturday night’s main event.
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Shane Carwin comes across as a great guy when you see him in interviews or read his interactions with fans online. Any man who can lay claim to being an engineer and a former UFC interim heavyweight champion at the same time deserves respect, but the w…
Shane Carwin comes across as a great guy when you see him in interviews or read his interactions with fans online. Any man who can lay claim to being an engineer and a former UFC interim heavyweight champion at the same time deserves respect, but the way Carwin carries himself makes it even easier to appreciate.
He’s also put on some exceptional heavyweight fights in recent years, providing fans with violent stoppages, vicious beatdowns and gutsy showings.
That’s why it’s hard to say this: He’s done as a title contender in the heavyweight division.
Unfortunately, Carwin is in the process of a surgery that will keep him out of action until mid-2012, scrapping a rumoured Dec. 30 tilt with top-five big man Fabricio Werdum. It’s the second time this year the hulking Coloradoan will go under the knife and the second time he’s been knocked down a rung on the heavyweight ladder as a result.
The reality is that at 36 years old, Carwin didn’t have a lot of mileage left in the first place. He’ll be 37 by the time he returns to the cage, and he won’t be particularly close to gold given that he’ll have had three fights in three years—two of them losses.
It’s tough to have to say that about someone who could win fights on bulk and wrestling ability but has elected to go out and entertain people with carnage instead. He battered Brock Lesnar to within an inch of his life, put on an epic display of heart in a loss to Junior Dos Santos and has thunderous wins over Frank Mir, Gabriel Gonzaga and Christian Wellisch in the UFC. His highlight reel is impressive, and he’s gained fans as a result.
However, the sport is not designed for men of Carwin’s age and medical history to succeed. For every Anderson Silva or Randy Couture, there are a hundred guys who held on a little too long and kept coming back only to worsen injuries or lessen their quality of life down the line. And that’s not only talking about repeated knockout losses, of which Carwin has never suffered even one. That’s talking about wear-and-tear injuries like the neck, back, knees and hips.
Realistically, Carwin has nothing left to prove in the sport. He started late—almost 31 years old when he won his first pro fight—and tore to the top of the UFC in only a few short years. He could get out now and go back to helping teammates train for fights while spending his days in the office using his head as something other than a target for giant men to swing at.
Don’t expect him to pack it in yet, though, as he’s long said he fights for the love of competition. He’ll be back next summer, perhaps against Werdum or another highly ranked heavyweight that will guarantee an interesting matchup. However, with the clock ticking and his history of health problems, don’t expect a win or even a few wins to come easy or to get him back into the title picture.
Those days are behind him.
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