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Strikeforce’s Ronda Rousey: Loving the Hate and Hating to Love

It certainly feels weird to say this, but I now consider myself a fan of Ronda Rousey. This isn’t the first time I’ve gone from completely loathing a fighter to considering myself a fan, but it’s honestly a very rare occasion for me. The biggest example of this has been my stance on Nick Diaz throughout the years, and interestingly, Rousey reminds me a lot of Diaz in several different ways. But most importantly, the reason I’m switching stances on Rousey closely mirrors the reason I switched stances on Diaz: hate all you want, but you have to respect the skill.

A lot of this has to do with the “all hype” argument. You know what I’m talking about. There are a lot of great fighters who live up to their hype, but there are also a lot of fighters that come into the sport with a lot of hype and ultimately fail to live up to their potential, even if they begin their careers with a few good wins.

Think about that for a second: how many times in any other major sport do hot prospects come in with all eyes on them and then get smacked down? In MMA’s case they literally get smacked down. It’s one of the most interesting facets of the game, at least to me. We live in a world of “you’re only as good as your next fight” and “what have you done for me lately?”

In MMA, it’s not about proving your hype; it’s about living your hype. You don’t get to have one awesome performance and then all of a sudden you’ve realized your potential. It just doesn’t work that way.

And you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, am I saying that Ronda Rousey has proved her hype? No. The reason I’ve become a fan of Rousey is because she’s living her hype.

For Rousey, every fight is another opportunity to add something to her highlight reel. So far she’s been completely unstoppable in MMA, and a lot of people are starting to notice that. She’s also not afraid to say mean things or be a mean person, but she’s also not afraid to show off her beauty.

So at this point you have to consider Ronda Rousey the face of Women’s MMA.

Like Gina Carano, her looks are turning a lot of heads. But once you think about it, you begin to realize that Rousey is so much more of a complete package than Gina.

Without any disrespect intended towards Ms. Carano, looks were pretty much the only thing she had going for her. She did well against decent (some would just say bad) competition, and bad against good competition. Her interviews were simply painful to listen to, always giving half-answers in hushed tones.

But Rousey? If it’s not the looks, it’s the fact that she’s undoubtedly the best talker we’ve seen in Women’s MMA so far. And if it’s not those two factors, it’s the fact that no one has been able to stop her from taking that person’s arm home as a trophy.

But let’s stop the hype train for a second: Ronda Rousey still has a long way to go. She needs to continue to live the hype, day in and day out, in order to continue to be the Face of Women’s MMA. But me, personally? I never hated Rousey so much that it would’ve taken years of proving herself as a champion to have finally made me a fan.

In all honesty, it only took one fight.

Don’t judge me! I’ve always had a thing for “bad boy” fighters, so of course I’d have a thing for “bad girl” fighters. It’s a “hate to love” thing, which goes back to the title of this article. To a greater extent, I love the fact that Rousey is getting so much hate, because at this stage in the development of Women’s MMA, any publicity is better than no publicity.

On a more personal level, Ronda Rousey has proven herself to be a big enough badass that I can’t help but call myself a fan.

So while there’s still plenty to be proven and many fights to be fought, I am now a Ronda Rousey fan. That’s my little confession for the day.

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UFC 146: Why It’s Time to Rally for Mark Hunt

What a long, strange, and most importantly, beautiful trip it’s been, fans and friends. I’m sure by now you’ve heard of the movement to give Mark Hunt a shot at the UFC Heavyweight Championship if Alistair Overeem is pulled out of his…

It’s taken some convincing and some debate, but in the end I can now say that I’ve placed myself in Mark Hunt’s camp. So, here’s my attempt to throw my own hat (or hand, or however the hell that quote goes) into the debate: here’s why I think you should rally for Mark Hunt.

To badly paraphrase an epic movie, and to prove once again just how big of a nerd I am, allow me to say this. Of all the stories I have read and discussed in my time as an MMA fan, Mark Hunt’s has been one of the most human.

What I mean by that is simple: Mark Hunt is not a fairy tale or an idol. So many of today’s top athletes are so good that they’ve reached near-mythic proportions. And there’s nothing wrong with that! In fact it’s awesome that there are so many amazing fighters out there nowadays.

But—this is a point I’ve raised on more than one occasion—can you really relate to those fighters?

To get even nerdier, let’s make a comparison to comic books. We have Superman, who’s had such a long track record because he’s so powerful and represents everything that is good about humanity. Certainly in MMA today there are fighters so good that sometimes you have no choice but to stand in awe of them.

Then you have Spider-Man, or in MMA’s case, Mark Hunt.

You have someone you can actually relate to, someone who’s no stranger to defeat, someone who’s been ridiculed and mocked and most would say reduced to nothing more than a joke, a “has been” or even a “coulda been” since Hunt showed so much promise at the start of his career.

And look where we’re at now.

It is very, very, very simple to understand why so many people are making Twitter posts, Facebook posts, and just posts on the Internet in general in support of Mark Hunt.

It’s because we empathize with Mark Hunt, and I truly believe that there is no stronger motivating factor for sports fans than when we can actually empathize with the people we spend so much of our day looking up to and staring in wonder at.

So, yes, it’s been a long and strange trip we’ve been on in the case of Mark Hunt. I don’t know if Hunt himself wishes things could have turned out differently, but at least Hunt can take solace in the fact that his epic losing streak would one day be put into context as the first chapter in what has been perhaps the greatest comeback in MMA history.

So, yes, I do want Mark Hunt to replace Alistair Overeem. I know the arguments against it. The kindest say he’s at least one or two fights away from legitimately deserving a title shot. The harshest say “once a joke, always a joke” and claim that Hunt will diminish the value of the belt even if he loses.

To them I say: the heart wants what it wants. And Hunt’s fans are united in their desire to see if Hunt has it in him to complete this long journey and live happily ever after.

And can you really blame us for wanting that? I don’t think you should.

Now, I won’t pretend like this one little article amongst what must be hundreds of articles by now will end the debate. That’s not my intention. My intention has been to do what I always do: to give my opinion and see if anyone’s crazy enough to read it.

So that’s that, fans and friends. I’m joining the cause, and putting both of my feet firmly in the bandwagon. Let’s rally for Mark Hunt.

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UFC vs. Bellator: Bellator Champion Zach Makovsky Defends Bellator’s Best

Ever since I watched my first World Extreme Cagefighting event, I’ve been a fan of lighter-weight fighters. Now the UFC has the best Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions in the world, and I’m pretty sure they’ll soon have the best…

But there are still some fantastic lighter-weight fighters out there. Zach Makovsky, Bellator’s Bantamweight Champion, is one of them. And in a recent interview, he made his case for not only the non-UFC Bantamweights, but any and all non-UFC fighters.

Speaking to MMA Weekly, Makovsky had this to say: “I completely agree the UFC has the majority of the best fighters out there in the world, probably in every weight class, but that doesn’t mean there’s no one else out there. And until they have cross-promotions or the UFC owns everything you’ll never know.”

Currently, Makovsky is 14-2 and an undefeated 6-0 in Bellator. Makovsky won a qualifying bout and all his tournament bouts in order to win the Season Three Bantamweight Tournament and become the first-ever Bellator Bantamweight Champion.

He competed twice in 2011, both times in non-title “super fights” that saw him beat first Chad Robichaux and then Ryan Roberts.

Makovsky is set to make the first defense of his title against Eduardo Dantas, the winner of Bellator’s Season Five Bantamweight Tournament.

Of course, what Makovsky is saying is absolutely true. The UFC has been and more than likely will remain the greatest Mixed Martial Arts promotion in the world, but they’re not the only game in town.

They’ve taken down most of their competition, but the simple fact that competition keeps popping up (regardless of how long said competition ends up surviving when they deliberately try to take on the UFC) means that there’s enough good non-UFC stars out there to at least try to establish a different brand.

For the longest time, the clearest example of this was Strikeforce. During the best parts of its run, some of Strikeforce’s shows were amazing enough that the idea of Strikeforce one day becoming a credible alternative to the UFC didn’t seem like just a far-fetched dream. Of course, the UFC now owns Strikeforce and has taken almost all of its top fighters and put them under the UFC banner.

So what’s left? Bellator. And you know what? Even before Strikeforce was bought out by the UFC, Bellator was showing signs of closing the gap between third place and second place.

The proof is obvious: Every Bellator season, we get amazing highlight-reel moments from multiple Bellator tournaments.

The actual championship fights have also been stellar lately, with two obvious examples being Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez and Pat Curran vs. Joe Warren, both fights producing new champions that have gotten a lot of people talking, including non-Bellator fans.

As Bellator continues to improve, so does the quality of its fights and the quality of its fighters. It’s fine if you don’t believe that Bellator has great fighters, because those fighters keep trying to prove you wrong every chance they get. And that leads to spectacular moments that Bellator fans like me love to talk about.

If you’re a Twitter user and want to get in on the discussion and/or offer up your own insight, feel free to use #gowatchbellator in your tweets to help spread the word.

Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan, and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews, and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.

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Bellator 62: 4 Fighters to Watch in Season 6’s Lightweight Tournament

This Friday Bellator FC will put on another live MMA event, and another opening round of a season-six tournament. For this week’s Bellator 62 event, it’ll be the lightweights who step into the cage. Bellator’s lightweight division is well-known amongst Bellator fans as one of the most exciting divisions in the entire promotion, and I personally am more excited for the lightweight tournament than I am for any other tournament in season six.

To explain why, here’s a quick history lesson on the four big names set to compete in Bellator’s Season Six Lightweight Tournament.

First up we have Patricky Freire, who together with his brother Patricio Freire continually stole the show last season. Patricky burst onto the Bellator lightweight scene when he KO’d former WEC champion Rob McCullough, and then he gave fans an amazing “Bellator moment” when he KO’d Toby Imada with a beautiful flying knee that was followed up by some vicious punches. The 2011 loss was the first (T)KO loss for Imada since 2006, and only the fourth (T)KO loss in a career that has seen him fight almost fifty times.

Like his brother, Patricky would end up fighting to the finals of the Bellator season-five tournament he competed in. Unlike Patricio, Patricky would end up falling to Michael Chandler. In one of the bigger scandals of season five, Chandler kicked Patricky in the groin three times, only earning a single point deduction on the third and last groin kick.

Another notable star of Bellator’s Season Six Lightweight Tournament is Rick Hawn, one of two finalists from Bellator’s Season Four Welterweight Tournament. Hawn entered Bellator a perfect 8-0 with six (T)KO wins, and would KO his first opponent in Bellator in order to qualify for Bellator’s Season Four Welterweight Tournament. Hawn would end up winning by both unanimous and split decision before losing a controversial split decision to Jay Hieron.

Bellator’s Season Six Lightweight Tournament also features Brent Weedman, a well-traveled veteran who started competing in 2005 but has already amassed almost thirty professional fights. Weedman is another welterweight dropping down to lightweight, and lost to Jay Hieron in Season Four Welterweight Tournament’s semifinal round. Weedman also competed in Bellator’s Season Five Welterweight Tournament, losing in the quarterfinal round. Weedman’s overall record is 18-7 with only two stoppage losses and with seventeen stoppage wins.

And finally, Bellator’s Season Six Lightweight Tournament also features Rene Nazare. A master at Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Nazare is 11-1 with an even split of four wins by (T)KO and four wins by submission. Nazare has certainly looked impressive in Bellator so far, finishing his first two opponents in the first round and his third opponent in the second round. Despite having competed in Bellator four times, this is the first Bellator tournament Nazare has ever competed in.

Of course, Bellator 62 also features four other lightweight fighters, although all four aren’t as well-known as the four fighters I’ve highlighted here. And if the opening round of the lightweight tournament wasn’t enough, we have the much-anticipated rematch between Eric Prindle and Thiago Santos to finally declare a winner for Season Five’s Heavyweight Tournament.

Putting it simply: Bellator 62 is loaded with top stars and entertaining fighters from one of Bellator’s best and deepest weight divisions, so go watch Bellator 62 and #gowatchbellator!

If you’re a Twitter user and want to get in on the discussion and/or offer up your own insight, feel free to use #gowatchbellator in your tweets to help spread the word.

Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Defending Bellator by Not Defending Non-Title Super-Fights

In order to truly consider yourself a sports fan, you have to take the bad with the good. My rallying cry of “go watch Bellator” has not been without some detractors, but thankfully, most of them have been fellow hardcore MMA fans like myself. While they aren’t so quick to jump onto the Bellator bandwagon, they definitely have put some serious thought into their criticisms.

In order to give this “go watch Bellator” experiment a little diversity, I’m going to begin responding and discussing some of the concerns MMA fans have towards Bellator.

First up, the “super-fights” that have Bellator champions not defending their titles.

Before I even begin, I’d like to state one thing: It’s very easy to get off topic when it comes to these non-title “super fights.” Inevitably, it’ll all come back to the reason behind these fights: The tournament format keeps the champions inactive. I intend to make Bellator’s tournament format the finale of my tangent of articles that address Bellator’s flaws. So just keep that in mind.

That said, the main problem with non-title “super-fights” is simple: It’s not a super-fight unless you make it special.

The UFC has provided some good examples for this in their time. In the one fight that saw BJ Penn not defending his UFC Lightweight Championship in his most recent run as champion, he was fighting Georges St. Pierre for the UFC Welterweight Championship in a fight that was marketed as one of the biggest fights in UFC history. Anderson Silva stepped out of the UFC Middleweight division to take on Forrest Griffin, a former UFC Light Heavyweight champion. That wasn’t as big of a “super-fight” as Penn-GSP, but it certainly was memorable since many consider it the most embarrassing beatdown in UFC history.

Bellator’s “super-fights” are more along the lines of Anderson Silva’s fight against James Irvin. At least in that fight, the purpose was to take viewers away from the first Affliction pay-per-view. In Bellator…these fights just kinda happen. It’s better than letting the champion sit on the shelf…but not much better.

And if you want my honest opinion? By now ya’ll know I loves me some Bellator…but only in Bellator is it considered a “super-fight” when a reigning champion takes on a sacrificial lamb.

Before Christian M’Pumbu lost to Travis Wiuff, it was always mentioned in the buildup to these fights that a Bellator champion had always won these non-title fights. But look at most of the competition those champions faced. There have been a few decent threats to the Bellator champions, but for the most part it’s been a series of easy, one-sided beatdowns. These fights only make sense if you consider that something is better than nothing, meaning that any opponent is better than just letting the champions sit on the shelf and possibly develop ring rust while they’re waiting for the next tournament to conclude.

There’s a reason I chose to talk about this topic first in my series of articles discussing Bellator’s flaws: I have no real counter to this one, folks. I’m being open and honest: I don’t like this and I want it to stop. I like a lot of things about Bellator, that’s the reason I started #gowatchbellator. But I don’t like this.

It’s not all “doom and gloom,” though. There are actually several ways for Bellator to fix this problem. First and foremost, they could simply run more tournaments to the point where there’s always a contender waiting in the wings. Most champions in major promotions fight three times a year, so Bellator could conceivably fill that gap quite easily in the coming years thanks to the exposure and boost that the move to Spike TV will give them.

We’ve actually already seen this in the form of Bellator’s “Summer Series.” Taking place after Season Five, the winner of that tournament (Pat Curran) was moved ahead of the winner of Season Five’s Featherweight tournament (Patricio Freire) when an injury forced Freire out of his championship opportunity. Curran went on to win the belt in an absolutely brilliant performance, and now we’ll get Freire-Curran once Freire heals up.

In the case of the “Summer Series,” all it took was one more tournament to keep Joe Warren active instead of sitting on the shelf waiting for Freire to heal. Not only that, but we also got an amazing “Bellator moment” when Pat Curran defeated Joe Warren. And finally, we’ve got a huge Freire-Curran showdown to look forward to.

If that doesn’t work (and it really should), Bellator could simply try to get better competition for their champions to face—champions from other promotions (non-Zuffa, of course), former Bellator champions, even Bellator stars that don’t have much else to do and wouldn’t mind jumping up or down in weight.

But the disinterest in these non-title “super-fights” is a valid point for those that don’t like Bellator. My defense is simple: I don’t really like it, either, but there’s a lot of other things to like about Bellator. No promotion is perfect, and sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. So I can still say confidently and loudly: go watch Bellator.

If you’re a Twitter user and want to get in on the discussion and/or offer up your own insight, feel free to use #gowatchbellator in your tweets to help spread the word.

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Bellator FC: The Top 5 Reasons You Need to Go Watch Bellator

Tonight, Bellator will be presenting its 61st event live on MTV2. The sixth season is already off to a good start, as seen by Pat Curran’s dramatic KTFO of Joe Warren last week. As we head deeper and deeper into season six, the list of reasons to go wa…

5. It’s one of the only other options available.

Zuffa dominates the industry. That’s been a true fact since the fall or PRIDE FC. It’s been a true fact as the UFC has battled it out with, and ultimately defeated, the likes of Elite XC, Affliction and yes, even Strikeforce.

Now that Strikeforce solely exists as a subsidiary of Zuffa, Bellator is the only other major MMA promotion currently on television. Aside from a handful of smaller promotions with smaller TV deals, Bellator is the only option left if you want something different. Good thing it’s an excellent option.

4. It’s going to Spike TV in a year, but Bellator isn’t in a holding pattern.

Next year will probably be the biggest year in Bellator’s history, and it will also be Bellator’s best chance to truly get into the mainstream MMA consciousness. But Bellator isn’t playing it safe this season.

Every tournament is loaded with stars, the champions are all set to defend their titles and Bellator even has a video game on the way. In a year that could be booked solely around saving all the best fights for Spike TV, Bellator is putting its best foot forward and ending its run on MTV2 with a bang.

3. The champions continue to prove that they’re top fighters.

I can admit that some of Bellator’s divisions are weaker than others (a lot weaker in some cases), but several of Bellator’s champions have entered into “best in the world” discussion.

There’s a lot of hype around Pat Curran right now, and deservedly so. Eddie Alvarez, now the former champion, was known for years as one of the best lightweights not in the UFC. Hector Lombard is so well respected that it’s recently been rumored that the UFC is interested in signing him.

Simply put: A promotion is built on the shoulder of its champions, and Bellator continues to prove that most of their champions could hang with anyone else in the world, including UFC and Strikeforce fighters.

2. An unknown can go from “who?” to “one of the best in Bellator” in only a few fights.

Maybe you consider this a negative? Me, I love a Cinderella story. I love the idea that I could go into a Bellator tournament not having a clue who one of the participants is, and then by the end of the tournament I’m giving some serious thought to that guy becoming a Bellator champion.

Bellator’s tournament format keeps creating stars, and that’s an invaluable tool for the promotion. And it also results in some stellar fights, which brings me to my next point.

1. The fight quality continues to improve.

Could anything else be No. 1? Ever since Bellator came to MTV2, I have been able to count on one hand the number of events I actually considered bad. It’s true that not every fight is a five-star classic. Some fights are a bit mundane, even boring. There have been entire Bellator events where I haven’t seen an interesting fight.

But the vast majority of the time, Bellator is an amazing promotion to watch. The number of highlight-reel moments they continue to produce is astounding. Bellator is not without its flaws, and I’ll be examining and debating those flaws soon, but the fight quality of Bellator has only continued to get better as the years have gone by.

And I hate to pull the “true fan” card, but this is something I really believe in: if you’re a true MMA fan, the quality of the fights should be the No. 1 deciding factor for whether or not you want to follow a promotion. You want exciting fights and amazing moments, more often than not? Go watch Bellator.

If you’re a Twitter user and want to get in on the discussion and/or offer up your own insight, feel free to use #gowatchbellator in your tweets to help spread the word.

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