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At UFC 117 Chael Sonnen nearly did the unthinkable when he exposed the one glaring weakness UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has.Sonnen’s aggressive, hard nosed style took Silva to the limit before Silva reached down deep and secured a triangle…
At UFC 117 Chael Sonnen nearly did the unthinkable when he exposed the one glaring weakness UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has.
Sonnen’s aggressive, hard nosed style took Silva to the limit before Silva reached down deep and secured a triangle armbar late in the fifth round to retain his title.
While Sonnen is far from a perfect fighter he was able to frustrate and control Silva unlike any other fighter in the UFC to date and he can do it again if given the chance.
Today’s MMA fighters are better than they’ve ever been, which means competitors are continually looking to gain an edge over their opponents. For many, that edge is gained during the weight cut.The idea behind cutting weight is simple: A fighter loses …
Today’s MMA fighters are better than they’ve ever been, which means competitors are continually looking to gain an edge over their opponents. For many, that edge is gained during the weight cut.
The idea behind cutting weight is simple: A fighter loses anywhere from five to 30 pounds (mostly water weight) leading up to a fight in order to compete in a lower weight class. Once the fighter weighs-in for an event, he re-hydrates and gains back most, if not all, of the weight he has lost, thus gaining a size advantage during the fight.
As you would suspect, there are risks to this practice. Besides taking an incredible toll on an one’s body, studies have shown that weight cuts can effect a fighter’s mental state as well.
In a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, it was found that athletes who lost more than four percent of their body mass before a match showed “significantly higher levels of confusion on the day of the competition.”
There’s also the risk of “gassing” during the fight after a significantly tough weight cut. How many times have we seen a fighter enter the cage with a huge size advantage, only to be noticeably fatigued by the third round?
Still, despite these risks, some fighters continue to take on enormous weight cuts in order to gain a slight edge in their fights.
Here are six of the UFC’s biggest weight cutters.
Mention “free UFC world title fight on network TV” to your casual MMA fan and chances are they’ll start telling you all about Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos, coming live on FOX this fall! Hold on just a second.Before the heavywe…
Mention “free UFC world title fight on network TV” to your casual MMA fan and chances are they’ll start telling you all about Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos, coming live on FOX this fall!
Hold on just a second.
Before the heavyweights take MMA to the next level on network TV, a different set of UFC champions are set to throw down for free under the bright lights of network TV.
For the bantamweights, this is a moment to step out from under the shadows of their heavyweight comrades—and that’s important, since I don’t think Demetrious Johnson could step out from Cain Velasquez’s shadow in real life if he tried.
Backing up the title fight on the network card are some intriguing undercard matchups, featuring scrapy lightweights, just as scrappy welterweights, and your obligatory heavyweight slugfest.
What does it all mean? What exactly is at stake when the lights go down in Washington, D.C. Saturday night? Well, let’s find out shall we? Opening the show, a pair of lightweights with a lot to prove…
Filed under: UFC, NewsThe last time we saw Chael Sonnen before a fight, calling him outspoken would have been a massive understatement.
Ahead of his UFC middleweight title fight against champion Anderson Silva at UFC 117 in August 2010, Sonnen was a …
The last time we saw Chael Sonnen before a fight, calling him outspoken would have been a massive understatement.
Ahead of his UFC middleweight title fight against champion Anderson Silva at UFC 117 in August 2010, Sonnen was a whirlwind of controversial comments, outlandish outcries and, well, near lunacy.
Sonnen came closer than anyone before him in the UFC to stopping Silva, but his submission loss was followed by a suspension for elevated testosterone levels. And that was followed by a plea deal for money laundering in a mortgage fraud case. Is it possible that Sonnen has mellowed out?
Brian Stann, Sonnen’s opponent at UFC 136 next Saturday in Houston, thinks it’s a case of selective mellowing based on who Sonnen is fighting.
“I told everybody from the start I didn’t think (the trash talk) was going to happen,” Stann said Friday on a media call for the pay-per-view. “I said this a couple times. I believe Chael is very genuine when he says if he has a problem with somebody, he’ll speak it. If he doesn’t have a problem with somebody, he won’t. You saw his fights against Nate Marquardt, Dan Miller and Yushin Okami, he didn’t have anything to say about those guys. He spoke about the fight. So it wasn’t surprising to me at all that didn’t happen. And I wouldn’t have taken it personally, anyway. I really think that our skill sets and the way that we fight has generated all the hype it needs.”
When it comes to Stann, Sonnen (25-11-1, 4-4 UFC) has steered clear of any kind of trash talk. In fact, he’d actually prefer to not have to fight the war hero, who is on a three-fight winning streak. And he believes the same goes for the rest of the middleweight division.
“Nobody wants to fight Brian, but somebody’s got to,” Sonnen said. “Our paths have to cross. We’re just in the same weight class, it’s not that big of a pool and he keeps whipping everybody. If he quit beating everybody, I wouldn’t have to fight him. But he decided to go out and become one of the top guys. I’ve done my part and put my time in and I’m up there too, so our paths have to cross.”
With so much time off between fights, Sonnen said he’s happy to be back on the job, but admitted there’s no excitement that comes along with a task the likes of Stann (11-3, 5-2 UFC). It’s possible the winner will get the next crack at Silva – a rematch for Sonnen, and the biggest fight of his career for Stann, the former WEC light heavyweight champion.
With Stann on a three-fight streak, all stoppages with a submission win over Mike Massenzio and convincing TKOs of Chris Leben and Jorge Santiago earlier this year, it’s no wonder Sonnen won’t use the word “excited” about his first fight in more than a year.
“I don’t know that I ever look forward to (fighting),” Sonnen said. “I hear some guys say they’re excited (to fight), and I always get jealous of those guys. I’ve never been excited to have to go fight another man. I’m not excited now. I’m happy to be part of it – I got put in timeout for a while, and I’m glad that’s all over and behind me. But I go with a matter-of-fact approach – I’m not excited for the match. It’s a bunch of emotions that get combined into one, and excitement isn’t one of them.”
A brasher Sonnen, circa Summer 2010, might have approached such a question differently. And it just might be possible that Sonnen’s out-of-the-cage problems have him taking a different approach to how he portrays himself to the public. Possible.
“The happy part is, this is what I want to do and I got held out of it for a while,” Sonnen said. “I’ve always been grateful for these opportunities, but I think I’m a little more grateful now. Appreciative would be a much stronger feeling that I’m having – to make up for the excitement.”
Sonnen has even relaxed his stance on Silva – though make no mistake, a win over Stann and a possible rematch with his old nemesis would likely see him return to the Sonnen of old.
Sonnen said Silva has to be respected – but he still believes he’s better than the champion, who beat Yushin Okami last month, whom Sonnen helped train for the title fight.
“It’s getting harder and harder to deny he should be shown that appreciation,” Sonnen said. “He ducked Okami for years, but he did finally get in there and he made it look easy. So I think you’ve got to look at that. If you’re asking if I’d ever concede that Anderson’s better than me, no. I would refer you to the tape (of our fight). I think he and I are vastly different and that I could come down a lot and still be ahead of him. I also think he ducks and dodges opponents constantly, but his wins and losses speak for themselves. The fact of the matter, whether I like to admit this or not, is he’s done a better job than anybody, done a better job than me, and he is the champion.
“It doesn’t mean I’m going to quit poking my finger in his chest, but at some point I think fairness needs to kick in, too, and you need to look at what he’s done and tip your hat to him a little bit.”
What Sonnen hopes for more than anything is a win over Stann, and a chance to let that finger poking start up once again.
Sonnen and Stann fight on the main card of UFC 136 on Oct. 8 at the Toyota Center in Houston. The main card is headlined by a pair of title fights – the lightweight title rematch between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, and a featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Kenny Florian.
With a dominant submission victory over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 135, many have been quick to anoint Jon Jones as the best fighter in the world, ready for a superfight with Anderson Silva, and a jump to heavyweight.Not so fast.Talented though J…
With a dominant submission victory over Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 135, many have been quick to anoint Jon Jones as the best fighter in the world, ready for a superfight with Anderson Silva, and a jump to heavyweight.
Not so fast.
Talented though Jones is—and there’s no “bones” about it, Jones is an incredibly gifted fighter—it’s important to maintain perspective and, perhaps, even exercise some self-control when discussing the young champion.
Jones still has a long way to go before deserving the title of MMA King.
Let me be very clear: I believe Jones has what it takes to be considered the very best fighter in the world. He is blessed with the gift of an 84.5″ reach, has fantastic athleticism, is a quick learner, and a hard worker. He walks into the cage calm, cool, and collected, has a game plan and ruthlessly executes.
Jones has entered the UFC Octagon nine times without ever truly losing. He defeated the legendary Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for the light heavyweight championship, and defended his belt against a motivated, in-shape, legend in “Rampage” Jackson.
Still, it’s too early to deem this the “era” of Jones.
What then, you ask, does he need to do to before we can discuss superfights, a move to heavyweight, or crown him the “Greatest of All Time?”
Five more successful title defenses would be a good start, though eight defenses, all of them finishes, would be ideal.
You guessed it. That would put Jones on the same level as Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva, the only two current UFC champions to have earned their own “eras.” Few people doubt that Jones can achieve such levels of greatness, but the fact remains that he has not yet done it.
Let’s also not ignore the challenges that remain in the light heavyweight division. Rashad Evans, Rua, Dan Henderson, Lyoto Machida, Phil Davis, and Alexander Gustafsson are all currently deserving (or on the cusp of deserving) of a title shot. Until Jones defeats these challengers, superfights and heavyweights have to wait.
My point is this—it’s not enough in sports to simply have the ability to perform. You have to go out and perform up to, and beyond, the highest bar. You have to prove that there are no legitimate challengers left for you in your weight class. Pundits and fans can’t decide that, it has to be seen in action.
As far as ability and skill go, Jones very well may already be the best fighter in MMA today. Now he just needs the achievements to go along with them.
I happily sing the praises of Jon Jones, and will continue to do so. But until he successfully sits upon the light heavyweight throne long enough to clear out the division, I’m not ready to call him King.
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There is an elevation that has taken place across the sport of mixed martial arts. That elevation has come with the understanding of what it not only once took to attain the highest peaks—not simply what it now takes to aspire to such heights&mda…
There is an elevation that has taken place across the sport of mixed martial arts. That elevation has come with the understanding of what it not only once took to attain the highest peaks—not simply what it now takes to aspire to such heights—but also what it will take tomorrow to hold one’s ground once the pinnacle is reached.
The sexy names include unrivaled champions like Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva and Jon Jones. They exemplify the type of greatness that has now and forever will raise the bar for expectations when it comes to chasing the glory of domination in this sport.
What is overlooked when we bask in the light of their greatness is what it took to push them to the heights they roam. Being the king places one in the unenviable position of carrying that backpack with the large red target at all times. Everyone wants what they have, few will ever get the chance and fewer still may ever take what they wish for from these pound-for-pound kings.
When a Jon Jones dominates in such decisive fashion, it is easy to credit he and he alone with that greatness. But more so than his own actions, it is the light heavyweight division and how competitive it actually is that makes Jon Jones so great.
When names like Ryan Bader, Shogun Rua and Rampage Jackson echo across Jones’s resume, that is what truly defines his greatness. It is not just because he is a natural phenom. It is not just because he is a Greg Jackson prospect. It is not just because he wins them all with ridiculous ease.
It is the fact that when the bar was raised by Chuck Liddell, then Rampage, then Suga, then The Dragon, Jones somehow found a way to raise it even higher.
If these challenges had not been met and exceeded before he arrived, the entire division would still be at the mercy of one of the most devastating strikers the sport has ever seen and Chuck Liddell would still be cracking skulls once every three months.
The evolution of the sport has demanded that these athletes rise to the occasion—and they are rising at an alarming pace.
Before we know it, Rory MacDonald will be breathing down the neck of Georges St-Pierre and we will be watching another glaring example of what exactly greatness is or what it can become.
Either GSP will stand his ground and educate a young, rising star and maintain his dominance, or a torch will be passed (such as it was when Rua lost his momentum to that of Jones). Who in their right mind would have picked Frankie Edgar over the greatest lightweight in the history of the sport, The Prodigy B.J. Penn?
Hindsight is indeed 20/20.
That hindsight gives us the foresight to look forward with great anticipation to where this thing is headed. Where it is headed is an indescribable greatness that none of us can honestly fathom. As the UFC leads the charge into uncharted waters—with deals on FOX, with the deepest stable in the sport—it will become the platform for the true stars, the athletes, to steal the show.
There was a time when the heavyweight championship of the sweet science would shut the world down. When Ali or Tyson fought, the sidewalks were rolled up and everyone lost their mind for one night as they tuned in to see their champions do the work.
In November, the UFC heavyweight division will see the most competitive fight in the history of the division take place live on FOX—free for anyone willing to take a look.
That is unheard of in MMA.
It could very well signify the start of a new era in this sport. When the world gets a good look at Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos and the war they carry into the Octagon with them, they may not be able to look away again.
MMA is on a roll and shows zero signs of slowing down. In a time where the two greatest boxers on the planet can’t seem to find a way into the ring with one another, it would seem MMA can’t miss.
The sport may not be batting 1,000, but it damn sure is in the MVP hunt and the sky truly is the limit.
This article originally featured at Hurtsbad MMA.
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