Author: McKinley Noble

UFC Should Move On with Rousey vs. Tate Rematch, Cut Cheating Cris Cyborg Loose

No one should have any sympathy for Cris “Cyborg” Justino.From violently demolishing over-matched opponents to years of suspected drug use, the former Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion has dug her own grave.Quite frankly, it’s disgusting that …

No one should have any sympathy for Cris “Cyborg” Justino.

From violently demolishing over-matched opponents to years of suspected drug use, the former Strikeforce women’s featherweight champion has dug her own grave.

Quite frankly, it’s disgusting that the UFC is even entertaining the idea of signing Cyborg to a catchweight superfight with Ronda Rousey. Once again, Dana White is chasing the biggest payoff possible while not considering the long term.

Despite the fact that Rousey has only been in the MMA game for little more than two years, the Olympic bronze medalist has almost undone all the damage caused to the women’s division by Cyborg’s lengthy reign.

By that token alone, the burden should be on Cyborg to cut down to 135 pounds, not for Rousey to meet her in the middle.

Oh, but it gets better—Cyborg’s excuses for not wanting (or being able) to cut weight are as varied as they are convenient.

Rousey’s just scared she’ll get beaten up. Cyborg’s frame is naturally too big to safely trim down. Ronda’s been dominant at 145 pounds before. A paltry 10 pounds shouldn’t be such a big deal.

And most recently, Cyborg’s newest angle is that the weight cut could potentially damage her ability to give birth, according to the latest word from MMA Weekly. Justino still wants to have a child one day, so the UFC and athletic commissions should relent and let her fight at “Cyborgweight.”

Well, that’s too bad.

Like it or not, Cyborg’s case would be more understandable if she wasn’t a doppelganger for Lou Ferrigno’s thumb. But Justino dug her own grave the minute she tested positive for anabolic steroids and subsequently got herself suspended.

That throws her whole career into question, especially her build and figure. For years, Cyborg’s strength was much like the Alistair Overeem situation, where people suspected steroid use but couldn’t say anything for sure.

Given the utter savagery she’s displayed against the likes of Jan Finney and Hiroko Yamanaka, it’s reasonable to assume that Cyborg’s drug use extends beyond the training camp for her last fight, and as a result, she almost killed the featherweight division and ruined women’s MMA.

With that kind of history behind her, Cyborg’s worries about damaging her body should not be some kind of excuse to force Rousey to move up. If anything, Cyborg’s career should be over due to her inability to move between weight divisions.

After all, just what kind of precedent does it set for Cyborg to get her way?

Miesha Tate is right when she says that her rival isn’t single-handedly responsible for bringing women’s MMA to the UFC. It’s really a combination of Rousey’s star power, Invicta FC’s niche success and Strikeforce’s dedication to female fighters, even when there weren’t many matches to make.

If Cyborg wants to go home and be a family woman, she should be free to do so.

Let her leave.

She’ll be easily forgotten.

Besides, you have to admit that the irony here is staggeringly poignant. Cyborg actively smashed the 145-pound division until Gina Carano left and there were no viable stars.

As a direct result, the UFC might focus solely on bantamweight, leaving Justino in the cold.

Instead of cashing in on a superfight that pits a rising star against a known steroid abuser, the UFC can actually go the extra mile and build up a few challengers. Sign worldwide talent. You know, basic stuff. Do a little extra legwork, Joe Silva.

Rousey’s star will rise without Cyborg, especially if the UFC does something as bold as an all-women’s season of TUF with Tate as a coach. Cyborg isn’t worth the trouble, and the UFC shouldn’t pander to the Brazilian Bomber.

[McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and FightFans Radio writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld and PC World. Talk with him on Twitter.]

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What Happens If a Fighter on TRT Wins a UFC Title?

Recently, testosterone replacement therapy seems like a bit of a failure in MMA.Chael Sonnen and Frank Mir—two UFC fighters who have successfully gained therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) for testosterone replacement therapy (TRT)—have …

Recently, testosterone replacement therapy seems like a bit of a failure in MMA.

Chael Sonnen and Frank Mir—two UFC fighters who have successfully gained therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) for testosterone replacement therapy (TRT)—have famously come up short in three title fights between them.

But what would’ve happened if they had won?

Could we still respect Sonnen if he had beaten Anderson Silva into the mat during their UFC 148 rematch, fueled with extra testosterone that wasn’t his own?

If Frank Mir had battled back from getting picked apart by Junior dos Santos at UFC 146 and snatched a last-minute submission win from the jaws of defeat, what would we say with the knowledge that Mir needed a biological handicap to beat the champion?

Just how large would that asterisk have been?

Regardless of what you may think about TRT, the fact remains that some MMA fighters use it, and we may eventually have a “TRT champion” in the UFC.

In fact, it’s more possible than we may think.

We came extremely close with UFC 151: The infamous canceled fight card where Jon Jones was supposed to face former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson.

According to a previous interview with ESPN, “Hendo” has been on TRT since 2007—the same year that he transitioned from PRIDE to the UFC and promptly lost two title unification bouts to Quinton Jackson and Anderson Silva.

Henderson has since climbed back into the pound-for-pound rankings while retaining his “H-bomb” punch, defying years of wear and his own old age. It’s an amazing story for a fading legend.

But it’s still underlined by TRT use. So what’s the difference?

Fighters like Michael Bisping, Mark Munoz and Tito Ortiz (along with several others) are unambiguous about their stance. To them, it’s cheating, plain and simple, even if you have special permission to do so by an athletic commission. It’s a fair point, especially since TRT is thought to level a playing field that should rightfully skew to younger, healthier fighters with good genes.

However, it’s hard to label Henderson a cheater. He claims he regularly monitors his testosterone levels and naturally tests below the average. He also advocates stricter supervision by state commissions. By all counts, he plays by the book.

So if Henderson had beaten Jones by KO, would his TRT use have mattered that much?

Would that invalidate his title reign?

This author seriously doubts many MMA fans would have really begrudged the beloved American hero for using testosterone treatments to drag himself up to a competitive level against a champion 17 years younger and faster. Especially a champion as universally hated as Jones, for that matter.

Sonnen, Mir, Nate Marquardt and Forrest Griffin have all used TRT, but there’s a perception that they do it for an unfair edge, and not because they legitimately need it.

Henderson, on the other hand, is lumbering into cages with a giant ticking clock following him everywhere he goes, propping himself up with equal parts will, stubbornness and science.

At the moment, only a few MMA fans (and Jones) seem to have an issue with that last ingredient.

So maybe our concern isn’t the act of a TRT user winning a UFC championship.

Maybe what ultimately matters is which fighter eventually wins a UFC title on TRT, the legality of his (or her) TUE, and whether or not that champion’s current popularity is positive enough that it overshadows the stigma of the treatment in the first place.

[McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and FightFans Radio writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld and PC World. Talk with him on Twitter.]

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Bisping Wants Interim Title Fight vs. Belfort If Anderson Silva Goes on Break

Michael Bisping isn’t pleased that Anderson Silva expects a vacation from the Octagon for most of next year. However, “The Count” has a recommendation for the UFC.Directing a Twitter message at Dana White, Bisping has stated that his upcoming title eli…

Michael Bisping isn’t pleased that Anderson Silva expects a vacation from the Octagon for most of next year. However, “The Count” has a recommendation for the UFC.

Directing a Twitter message at Dana White, Bisping has stated that his upcoming title eliminator fight with Belfort should have far higher takes. Specifically, a UFC belt:

 

Silva made waves recently during an interview with TATAME,  where he suggested that he would be taking a sabbatical from defending his belt until the end of 2013. As the middleweight champion noted, his upcoming role in a new Steven Seagal film will keep him busy, along with opening a new gym.

If that’s the case, Silva would be out of competition for over a year. Coupled with the fact that his last title defense happened at UFC 148 against Chael Sonnen on July 7th, the middleweight title picture would be on hold for quite a while.

However, the UFC is unlikely to grant Bisping’s request.

Silva has only competed twice a year since 2009, and the UFC will likely be lobbying hard to get Silva back into the Octagon to help fuel a superfight with Jon Jones or Georges St. Pierre.

Moreover, an interim middleweight champion has never been crowned in the promotion’s history. It’s hard to fathom that an interim belt would be awarded to either Bisping or Belfort at UFC on FX in Brazil in January, effectively disrupting the current lineage of Silva’s UFC middleweight championship reign.

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UFC 154: Anderson Silva Not Challenging GSP Is Actually a Great Thing for UFC

Is Georges St. Pierre dodging a bullet at UFC 154, or is Anderson Silva simply not willing to play a part in the elaborate conspiracy circulating around their superfight?Either way, Silva won’t be stepping into the cage to challenge GSP after St. Pierr…

Is Georges St. Pierre dodging a bullet at UFC 154, or is Anderson Silva simply not willing to play a part in the elaborate conspiracy circulating around their superfight?

Either way, Silva won’t be stepping into the cage to challenge GSP after St. Pierre’s title unification bout with current interim champion Carlos Condit.

That’s actually a good thing for the UFC and the entire welterweight division.

Plenty of people on the more practical side of the matchmaking fence agree that there’s only a short-term gain to be made from pitting GSP and Silva against each other. Both men are completely different sizes in different weight classes, and unlike Silva, St. Pierre has never made a habit of moving up in weight.

GSP has spent years honing his frame into a perfection-seeking 170-pound machine, and that’s exactly where he should stay.

In short, this author is relieved that Anderson Silva has told TATAME that he’ll be “on vacation” after GSP and Condit meet at the Bell Centre in Montreal this Saturday.

But if you’re disappointed at the news, think about it this way: Silva vs. GSP’s failure to meet actually benefits far more pay-per-views and events in the long run than the superfight ever would.

Hopefully, all the new welterweight challengers and potential prospects will be able to get a chance at dethroning one of the sport’s greatest champions without the asterisk of a (very probable) loss to Silva hanging over the aura and legacy of St. Pierre’s pound-for-pound reign.

And with Silva out of the picture, there are so many new questions for the welterweight division, which has changed rapidly in St. Pierre’s absence.

“Does a GSP vs. Nick Diaz fight still happen?”

“Do Martin Kampmann or Johny Hendricks have the grit to pull off a miracle upset?”

“Could UFC exile Nate Marquardt actually find his way into a title fight against GSP?”

If Silva and GSP never meet, those are the kinds of headlines you might see in the next year or two, and each one of them is an exciting subject.

Moreover, both men should be free to chase the UFC record books in order to establish the longest title reign, most consecutive title defenses and most consecutive wins in the promotion’s history. Since Silva is supposedly on the verge of retirement and St. Pierre is still relatively young, there’s actually a lot of intrigue in whether or not GSP or Jon Jones will catch Silva’s streaks.

In essence, the Silva vs. GSP dream match should stay a dream.

In a perfect world, Silva and St. Pierre will never step into the Octagon to fight each other directly, but instead continue to battle for the top spot in the UFC record books, leaving us to forever debate which one was really the better pound-for-pound fighter.

That is, unless Condit actually beats St. Pierre and turns the welterweight division upside down.

[McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and FightFans Radio writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld and PC World. Talk with him on Twitter.]

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Cung Le Says Tiequan Zhang vs. Jon Tuck Was Fight of the Night

It was a pretty tight race for “Fight of the Night” during UFC on Fuel 6, with three all-out brawls drawing huge applause from the Macau crowd.However, Takanori Gomi’s reckless decision win against Mac Danzig was the eventual winner, granting both figh…

It was a pretty tight race for “Fight of the Night” during UFC on Fuel 6, with three all-out brawls drawing huge applause from the Macau crowd.

However, Takanori Gomi’s reckless decision win against Mac Danzig was the eventual winner, granting both fighters a $40,000 bonus for their efforts.

But if you ask headliner Cung Le about it, he gives his personal nod to Tiequan Zhang and Jon Tuck.

As Le described to MMA Junkie, the back-and-forth battle between Zhang and Tuck was so exciting, he could barely pay attention to his own pre-fight routine:

“That fight was pretty awesome,” Le said. “That could have been ‘Fight of the Night,’ also. I was actually backstage watching it, and I was like, ‘Wow. These guys are going back and forth.’ It’s hard for me because I’m a fan, too, and at the same time, (Don) House is grabbing my hands and saying, ‘Turn your hands.’ I was watching the screen because I was enjoying their fight.”

Le would eventually walk away from the cage with his own post-fight bonus, knocking out former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin with a pinpoint-accurate right hook to the jaw.

Although Le netted the “Knockout of the Night” award as result, he didn’t really need the help—his fight was one of the only two to end in a stoppage.

Zhang, the only Chinese fighter in the UFC, fell to 1-3 in the promotion despite a last-minute rally against Tuck, uncharacteristically landing several unanswered punches on the feet. For his part, Tuck remains undefeated as a pro, improving to 7-0 in his overall career and 1-0 in UFC.

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Miesha Tate: Ronda Rousey Shouldn’t Get So Much Credit for Women in the UFC

Miesha Tate is grateful that women have finally been accepted into the UFC, but she doesn’t think that Ronda Rousey deserves all the credit she’s getting.Although Rousey is definitely the catalyst, Tate wants people to remember the early pioneers of wo…

Miesha Tate is grateful that women have finally been accepted into the UFC, but she doesn’t think that Ronda Rousey deserves all the credit she’s getting.

Although Rousey is definitely the catalyst, Tate wants people to remember the early pioneers of women’s mixed martial arts, and not just its current most popular star. As far as Tate’s concerned, people are forgetting that Rousey didn’t have much to do with the sport in its infancy.

Tate spoke to MMAWeekly Radio about her stance on Rousey’s spotlight, while also highlighting some of the long-time female fighters who’ve been part of MMA for much longer than the current Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion:

“It’s not just Ronda, it’s not just myself, that’s for sure. If Ronda’s coming over to the UFC obviously there’s going to be a division around that, it’s not just Ronda. I know Ronda’s getting a lot of the credit and what not, but she didn’t have a lot to do with from the ground up.”

“We’re at the top of the mountain now. That’s kind of how I feel, anyways. With this accomplishment coming into the UFC, we’ve kind of reached that final goal. But we had to start at the bottom and a lot of the pioneers Tara (LaRosa), Marloes (Coenen), Molly Helsel, the girls that were really fighting back in the day before we were making any kind of money, or there was any kind of publicity, or much acceptance of it.”

Although Tate and many other female MMA fighters have long histories in the sport, Ronda Rousey has arguably accomplished more than her counterparts in just over two years. Since her first amateur bout in August 2010, Rousey has defeated nine women by submission in just one round each, all with her signature armbar.

Despite the fact that Tate eventually fell to Rousey’s patented armbar, she insists that the Olympic silver medalist is far from unbeatable:

“Our rivalry is very real. I know a lot of people don’t believe that Ronda can’t be beaten, that she’s just untouchable, but I beg to differ…If I do get that rematch in the UFC, it’s going to be one hell of a fight.”

Along with winning the Strikeforce bantamweight title, Rousey has gone on to grace the cover of ESPN’s 2012 Body Issue, UFC Magazine and various other publications—as well as guest-starring on The Ultimate Fighter. Tate considered a year-long break prior to the news that the UFC would be signing Rousey, along with the announcement of Strikeforce closing after their January fight card.

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