Famed boxing trainer Freddie Roach recently appeared on MMAJunkie.com Radio, and he delivered the goods. Sure, he touched on Amir Kahn’s upcoming fight, Pacquiao, and certain MMA fighters, but none of that matters. Freddie Roach almost ate a man’s eye in a street fight. Not only did he do this, but he talks about it with the gleeful amusement more befitting a child recalling his favorite prank than a grown man describing how he used his teeth to transform another human being into an unwilling cyclops.
The conversation begins with Roach discussing Amir Khan’s fight against Danny Garcia, but quickly veers into MMA. At one point, Roach claims that one of the reasons that boxing has fallen behind MMA in terms of pay-per-view numbers is that “[boxing has] promoters that don’t like each other, and they bring their personal life into boxing.” Fortunately, MMA hasn’t had to suffer overly emotionalpromoterswho hold grudges, so it’s still in good shape. Then Roach hits on a number of topics, including…
Famed boxing trainer Freddie Roach recently appeared on MMAJunkie.com Radio, and he delivered the goods. Sure, he touched on Amir Kahn’s upcoming fight, Pacquiao, and certain MMA fighters, but none of that matters. Freddie Roach almost ate a man’s eye in a street fight. Not only did he do this, but he talks about it with the gleeful amusement more befitting a child recalling his favorite prank than a grown man describing how he used his teeth to transform another human being into an unwilling cyclops.
The conversation begins with Roach discussing Amir Khan’s fight against Danny Garcia, but quickly veers into MMA. At one point, Roach claims that one of the reasons that boxing has fallen behind MMA in terms of pay-per-view numbers is that “[boxing has] promoters that don’t like each other, and they bring their personal life into boxing.” Fortunately, MMA hasn’t had to suffer overly emotionalpromoterswho hold grudges, so it’s still in good shape. Then Roach hits on a number of topics, including…
Lingering MMA-Boxing enmity:“I have boxing people that don’t like that I like MMA. And it’s like ‘they’re against us.’ And I said there’s room for everybody. A good fight’s a good fight. I don’t care what you call it. You know, I like good fights.”
Anderson Silva:“My good friend Anderson Silva, of course, he had a great fight the other night. They’re saying there’s a little controversy about the knee, that it was a little bit high and went to the chin… I talked to the commissioner Keith Kizer about it, he says ‘we have tape, it’s clean and they’ll be no change in the outcome.’ And Anderson’s one of the best guys I’ve trained, just as far as knowing timing and distance, he’s really, really good.”
GSP:“Right now, I’ve been working with GSP quite a bit. And he’s just like, he’s a great guy and he wants to learn. He’s the type of guy, you show him a move and the next day he comes back and he’s got it down pretty good. And I asked him ‘how long did you spend in the mirror practicing that?’ And he’s that type of guy, he goes back to his hotel room, in front of that mirror working on it. He’s just a great guy to work with.”
BJ Penn:“Penn was one of the best strikers I’ve ever trained. I think at that time he was maybe the best striker. He could really punch. I really liked working with him, and one thing about working with the UFC fighters or the MMA fighters is they have a lot of respect. They come to my gym and they bow and they’re very respectful.”
Tito Ortiz:“I trained Tito for a while also. But the thing about training Tito, though, is that he wanted to go to the ground right away. ‘Cause that was his thing. He didn’t like the standup as much as the other guys I had trained. He wanted to get me on the floor as soon as possible… Even on the mitts, he’d throw a combination and shoot for the takedown.”
Finally, Roach mentioned a street fight in passing. Curious, host George Garcia pressed him for more details. Roach then proceeded to explain how he ended up biting a dude’s eyeball out of its socket.
“I was leaving a club, and I was going out with this girl. She was a Penthouse Playmate and she was real pretty. She was a pretty girl, but she had a drug problem and so forth. So I really don’t know why this fight happened, but two cars, one cuts in front of me, one gets behind me, three guys jump out. I should have probably stayed in the car, but it’s not like me to stay in the car. I get out, the guy’s yelling at me in a foreign language, getting really aggressive, so I dropped him, and then I jumped on him, and then the other two guys thought I was a football and they kicked the shit out of me with their boots on. So then, I gotta do something drastic here, so then I took the guy and I bit his eyeball out. I had eyelashes in between my teeth. It worked though, ‘cause they swung a knife at my back and cut my shirt right in half but didn’t scratch me. And then they went to hit me again with it, and Mike Andolini [approximate guess of this dude’s name] I was giving a ride home that night, he grabs the knife, twists it out of the guy’s hand and threw it in someone’s yard. I had to take him to the hospital to get stitched up. I had 25 major contusions on my head, broken head, broken shoulder, they messed me up pretty good.”
Just, wow. I mean, Freddie and I must have a different concept of efficacy – I’m not entirely sure having someone swing a knife at you is proof that biting a man’s eye out “worked,” but to each his own. At any rate, this has to rank in the top five street fight stories in MMA lore, alongside Bas Rutten fending off Swedish bouncers and Lee Murray landing a Tekken combo and then curb-stomping Tito’s cranium. Even if, you know, this one doesn’t concern an MMA fighter. Whatever, no one’s a fan of technicalities. And as for the question everyone is asking; did he spit the eyeball out? “Oh yeah, blood was gushing. It was great.”
Casual fans love few things more than heavyweight fights. If they cannot have a heavyweight fight, they will settle on a light heavyweight fight. There is no getting around this. Fans love to see big dudes punch each other in the same way they want to …
Casual fans love few things more than heavyweight fights. If they cannot have a heavyweight fight, they will settle on a light heavyweight fight.
There is no getting around this. Fans love to see big dudes punch each other in the same way they want to see Godzilla throw King Kong through the Sears Tower. In recent years many have extrapolated from this that, since fans love to see big guys fight, they must then not care as much about seeing smaller guys fight. This idea, however, is not entirely accurate.
It is important to point out that recent buyrates certainly seem to indicate that bigger is better. The two highest-selling cards of 2012 so far have been UFC 145, which featured a light heavyweight title bout with Jon Jones and Rashad Evans (which garnered 700,000 buys), and the all-heavyweight UFC 146 (which drew 560,000 buys).
Cards headlined by smaller fighters have not had nearly as much success. Just take a look at UFC 136.
The event featured two title bouts, with Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard III for the lightweight belt and Jose Aldo vs. Kenny Florian competing for the top spot in the featherweight division. On top of that, it had two likely-top-contender bouts in Chael Sonnen vs. Brian Stann and Joe Lauzon vs. Melvin Guillard. Also? Nam Phan vs. Leonard Garcia II.
Five exciting fights. One of the most stacked cards in UFC history. It drew 225,000 buys, not even one third of UFC 145.
That hurts.
UFC 136 was no anomaly, either. UFC 142, headlined by Jose Aldo vs. Chad Mendes, drew only 235,000 buys. UFC 125, headlined by Edgar vs. Maynard II, had just 270,000 buys. Because of this pattern, the UFC has had very little faith in the drawing power of anybody smaller than a welterweight.
They had a Dominick Cruz title bout relegated to cable TV.
They are yet to have part of their flyweight championship tournament on pay-per-view.
Twice, they had Jose Aldo defend his belt in a co-main event before making him a featured fighter. His first time headlining a card was the aforementioned UFC 142.
While all that sounds very, very bad this is likely only a temporary problem. Why?
Well, the main thing is that there have been highly successful lightweights in the past. BJ Penn headlined UFC 84 against Sean Sherk and drew 475,000 buys. A year and a half later, BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez had top billing at UFC 107 and attracted 620,000 buys.
It is frequently said that the UFC’s lightweight division is staggeringly deep. This is entirely true and, unfortunately for the UFC, that means that no lightweight fighter has strung together enough wins to be an especially great draw.
Frankie Edgar was on the right track. While he generated lukewarm interest in his first two times as a card’s main man, he had a solid turnout for UFC 144, which scored 375,000 buys. It is possible, however, that this number got a boost from the hype surrounding the UFC’s return to Japan. Regardless, the UFC may be back to square one, since Edgar lost his fight there to Ben Henderson.
While it is possible that fans just want to see dominant champions, what of Cruz and Aldo? The featherweight and bantamweight champs are two of the best fighters in MMA today, and have had very little difficulty keeping their belts.
That is difficult to peg, but there are a few possible explanations.
Cruz and Aldo have a combined five UFC fights. Even though few would deny that they are top-five pound-for-pound fighters, both of them rose to fame in the WEC promotion. Back footage of WEC events, unfortunately, is unavailable for any sort of UFC Unleashed-type show, meaning a strong majority of new or casual fans have never seen bouts like Jose Aldo vs. Urijah Faber or Dominick Cruz vs. Brian Bowles.
On top of that, the WEC was never a consistent draw on Versus TV. Ratings for events were occasionally amazing (especially surrounding Urijah Faber) but even high-profile events like WEC 50, headlined by Cruz vs. Benavidez II, drew just 316,000 viewers.
Furthermore, Cruz and Aldo also only have one finish between them in the UFC (Aldo beat Chad Mendes with a scary knee at UFC 142). While neither fighter is boring by any means, nothing turns a fighter’s status around like a highlight reel knockout. Even though Aldo ended his most recent fight with a fantastic KO, it did not generate the buzz that Barboza vs. Etim or Silva vs. Belfort did.
Similarly, neither fighter has really gotten much publicity with the UFC until very recently. Dominick Cruz had a great deal of spotlight on him, courtesy of his time coaching The Ultimate Fighter: Live, but the hype surrounding his rubber match with Urijah Faber died when he suffered a knee injury that will keep him from competing for a long while. Aldo, meanwhile, remains in relative obscurity in the states, and promotional opportunities will continue to elude him until he learns to speak English.
Last but not least, neither has had anything out of the cage to be interested in. The featherweight champ has no serious threats to his throne, and nobody has called him out in any particularly interesting way. The same was true for Cruz until Urijah Faber became a full-blown rival (which, again, is now on indefinite hold).
BJ Penn was an absolutely dominant lightweight champion, but he had more than his fair share of rivals. Anderson Silva, obviously, has Chael Sonnen. GSP had his foils. Aldo and Cruz, though, have not had an opponent to get excited in years and that has been a serious problem for the UFC.
Whether it is one of these things, specifically, or a combination of all of the above, the problem is not a complete disinterest in fighters who weigh under 170 lbs. The top fighters in the lightweight, featherweight and bantamweight divisions are simply yet to grow roots in fans’ wallets. This will change one day. Maybe not this year. Maybe not even with these fighters.
The thing is, aficionados love to see great fights. If somebody puts together enough of them, they will take notice regardless of their weight class.
(Sonnen tries to remain calm while scanning for the nearest exit at the UFC 148 pre-fight press conference.)
How the high and mighty have fallen, Potato Nation.
Just a few days after coming up short (again) against Anderson Silva at UFC 148, the rumors and speculations of what lies in store for middleweight contender Chael Sonnen have already begun to take on a life of its own. And at the forefront of those rumors, is the possibility that we may never see perhaps the greatest fight-hyper in the biz in the octagon again. Now, we aren’t normally quick to buy into retirement rumors that come in the immediate aftermath of a fight, even when they are coming from the fighters themselves. Because, as was the case for B.J. Penn and Jamie Varner, these supposed “retirements” were more or less a way of coping with the frustration that comes with of a string of losses (or in Sonnen’s case, a particularly hard loss to swallow), and were over before most of us compile a “Best of” list for either man. The jury is still out on how long Nick Diaz will hold out, but we’re guessing it will likely coincide with his recent suspension.
But regardless of the semi-thesis statement we’ve just laid before you, the head grappling coach at Xtreme Couture, Neil Melanson, feels that we may have seen the last of Sonnen for now. Melanson took over Sonnen’s UFC 148 training camp after Scott McQuary, Sonnen’s longtime head coach, suffered a heart attack a couple months back, and recently sat down with the ironically-titled Verbal Submission Radio to discuss Sonnen’s future in the sport:
Any time you’re a part of training camp or you’re friends with somebody and they lose, you just worry about them like, how are they gonna handle it mentally? Are they gonna come back from this? You know, I don’t know what Chael’s plans are, but I got a feeling he’s done fighting. I don’t know. I’ve just got a feeling he’s done. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think he was serious when he said, ‘If you beat me, I will leave forever,’ and there’s a very good chance of that.
(Sonnen tries to remain calm while scanning for the nearest exit at the UFC 148 pre-fight press conference.)
How the high and mighty have fallen, Potato Nation.
Just a few days after coming up short (again) against Anderson Silva at UFC 148, the rumors and speculations of what lies in store for middleweight contender Chael Sonnen have already begun to take on a life of its own. And at the forefront of those rumors, is the possibility that we may never see perhaps the greatest fight-hyper in the biz in the octagon again. Now, we aren’t normally quick to buy into retirement rumors that come in the immediate aftermath of a fight, even when they are coming from the fighters themselves. Because, as was the case for B.J. Penn and Jamie Varner, these supposed “retirements” were more or less a way of coping with the frustration that comes with of a string of losses (or in Sonnen’s case, a particularly hard loss to swallow), and were over before most of us compile a “Best of” list for either man. The jury is still out on how long Nick Diaz will hold out, but we’re guessing it will likely coincide with his recent suspension.
But regardless of the semi-thesis statement we’ve just laid before you, the head grappling coach at Xtreme Couture, Neil Melanson, feels that we may have seen the last of Sonnen for now. Melanson took over Sonnen’s UFC 148 training camp after Scott McQuary, Sonnen’s longtime head coach, suffered a heart attack a couple months back, and recently sat down with the ironically-titled Verbal Submission Radio to discuss Sonnen’s future in the sport:
Any time you’re a part of training camp or you’re friends with somebody and they lose, you just worry about them like, how are they gonna handle it mentally? Are they gonna come back from this? You know, I don’t know what Chael’s plans are, but I got a feeling he’s done fighting. I don’t know. I’ve just got a feeling he’s done. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think he was serious when he said, ‘If you beat me, I will leave forever,’ and there’s a very good chance of that.
And as understandable as it is to imagine that Chael would be feeling rather hollow after failing to defeat Silva on two separate occasions, despite performing better than any other challenger has against the champ in the process, I would have to say that this would be a huge mistake on his part. Before any of you jump down my throat with claims that I am a “Sonnen nuthugger” or a “Silva hater” as you are apt to do, know this: I am a fan of both Sonnen and Silva, for entirely different reasons.
Yes, I wanted Silva to win on Saturday night, if only to end the smorgasbord of ridiculous claims that have constituted Sonnen’s career over the past two years, but there is no denying that the Gangster from Oregon is still a threat to everyone in the middleweight division. In both his fights with Silva, Sonnen dominated early and often, only to have a simple mental error lead to his undoing. Surely his spinning backfist attempt at UFC 148 was the more glaring of the two, but Sonnen’s presence in the middleweight division is almost a necessity. And besides, who else can cut a promo as awesome as this? No one, that’s who.
The fact remains that Silva has absolutely decimated all challengers to his throne, and, minus a couple of legit challenges he may face down the line (not you, Mr. Bisping), Sonnen was the only man to, as CrushCo so brilliantly stated, make us believe he could actually beat Silva. And to be fair, there’s a good chance that Sonnen could do so if he stuck to and never deviated from the takedown and GnP oriented offense that saw him dominate Silva in the first round of their fight last Saturday. I place a lot of emphasis on the if.
But according to Melanson, whether or not Sonnen will truly call it quits is a matter of his mental toughness when dealing with such a hard loss:
I never met anyone that had a scenario where it’s like, ‘If I don’t win this then I’m done,’ it never worked out positive for them because, just in my experience, you have to love the grind and if you love the grind, eventually you’ll get what you want because you give up what you need to give up. Apparently Chael had his limit like, ‘This is it, I’ve had enough. If I don’t win this then it’s all not worth it.’ Having lost that, yeah, there’s a very good chance he could pursue other things. He’s a very smart guy, very well spoken. I know, whether he’ll admit to it or not, he has a lot of passion to be a broadcaster of sorts. He seems to excel in any type of speaking arrangement. He loves doing interviews. He loves hyping fights and I’m sure he loves training. He’s a good fighter. He’s a great fighter and he’s an awesome athlete but he can’t fight forever and maybe he’s at a point he’d like to do something else. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong.
Well, if the comments made by the man himself are any indication, Melanson is most certainly wrong. When asked on this very subject by ESPN’s Franklin McNeil, Sonnen declared that:
It’s tough but, unfortunately, it’s not my first athletic defeat. You can’t get down. You can’t get depressed. Every single day you get up, you’ve got to make the most of it.You’ve got to man up sometimes.
Truer words have never been spoken. At least not by Chael P. Sonnen.
So what do you think, Potato Nation? Is Sonnen headed for retirement, destined to be the #2 man at middleweight forevermore, or simply biding his time for yet another run at the title?
(Hey, at least they’re actually doing something on this season of Whale Wars.)
A congratulations is in order to those of you who managed to submit an entry for our “Pull No Punches” caption contest; all 134 of you. If this contest showed us anything, it’s that when it comes to comedy, or at least an attempt at it, you Taters are some like-minded SOB’s. There were at least 95 horsemeat jokes (including one likely hipster who thought ironically pointing out this fact would somehow win him a shirt), 20 some odd Anthony Johnson or B.J. Penn jokes (which are always solid), and a handful of Over the Top references (which were actually pretty awesome). Since we enjoyed scanning through your entries as much as the UFC enjoys scanning through our articles to keep us in check, we must first recognize some of the captions that just fell short of T-shirt glory.
franco3445: The Nevada State Athletic Commission came to the conclusion that the only way Overeem could compete with the T/E ratio of 14 men was to go against someone the size of 14 men.
skeletor: There is no fucking way that Anthony Johnson is making weight this time.
P2: They smiled when they realized, if you use your left hand, it totally does feel like someone else is arm wrestling.
Deadpanda: Not to be outdone by the Japanese New Year’s Freak Show, US promoters put together a 4th of July event between Alistair Overeem & Joseph Son’s inflamed right testicle.
RwilsonR: We all know BJ lets himself go between fights, but I had no idea he stops shaving his back.
mcw89138: Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the new main event for UFC 149.
BossNasty: Reem…It’s not polite to play with your food.
And now, to the winners…
(Hey, at least they’re actually doing something on this season of Whale Wars.)
A congratulations is in order to those of you who managed to submit an entry for our “Pull No Punches” caption contest; all 134 of you. If this contest showed us anything, it’s that when it comes to comedy, or at least an attempt at it, you Taters are some like-minded SOB’s. There were at least 95 horsemeat jokes (including one likely hipster who thought ironically pointing out this fact would somehow win him a shirt), 20 some odd Anthony Johnson or B.J. Penn jokes (which are always solid), and a handful of Over the Top references (which were actually pretty awesome). Since we enjoyed scanning through your entries as much as the UFC enjoys scanning through our articles to keep us in check, we must first recognize some of the captions that just fell short of T-shirt glory.
franco3445: The Nevada State Athletic Commission came to the conclusion that the only way Overeem could compete with the T/E ratio of 14 men was to go against someone the size of 14 men.
skeletor: There is no fucking way that Anthony Johnson is making weight this time.
P2: They smiled when they realized, if you use your left hand, it totally does feel like someone else is arm wrestling.
Deadpanda: Not to be outdone by the Japanese New Year’s Freak Show, US promoters put together a 4th of July event between Alistair Overeem & Joseph Son’s inflamed right testicle.
RwilsonR: We all know BJ lets himself go between fights, but I had no idea he stops shaving his back.
mcw89138: Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the new main event for UFC 149.
BossNasty: Reem…It’s not polite to play with your food.
And now, to the winners…
flyingtriarmbarplada, for his pair of zingers that we simply could not choose between: ”Its good to see that Alistair doesnt hold anything against Valentijn for eating their mother.” and “if this gets him a chance at a title shot im switching to WWE..”
Sho Nuff, for the funniest TRT-related joke of the bunch: “Alistair: Look, how many times do I have to tell you people, neither myself nor my 8 year old son has ever taken steroids.”
And LOKI, for his absolutely brutal, way-too-soon assessment of Japan: “It seems the meltdown at Fukushima has already had a dramatic effect on the populous.”
My God, Loki, that was simply too dark to not warrant our praise. For you lucky few, make sure to send us your real name, shirt size, and mailing address to [email protected]and we’ll be sure to ship out your shirts ASAP. For serious this time. As for the rest of you, thanks again for the effort. If you call THAT effort. BWAHAHAHA!!
After watching Clay Guida and Gray Maynard in their last fight, it became painfully clear that you don’t always find fire where you find smoke. Guida vs. Maynard looked like it had all the makings of a Fight of the Year candidate, but ended up b…
After watching Clay Guida and Gray Maynard in their last fight, it became painfully clear that you don’t always find fire where you find smoke.
Guida vs. Maynard looked like it had all the makings of a Fight of the Year candidate, but ended up being a dud, which was shocking considering both men.
Yet, the main fault seems to belong to Guida and the strategy employed by Team Jackson, which is all the more alarming, considering how many incredible fights we’ve seen from Guida.
Contrast that to Wanderlei Silva, who at UFC 147 once again put his money where his mouth was, thrilling the fans with another one of his take-no-prisoners performances.
Men like Silva are a rare species of fighter: they place a higher value on action than they do their own record and personal health. For them, it is better to lose in glory than win in mediocrity.
Then, there is another kind of equally electrifying fighter: a man who’s dominance is based around the ability to crush opponents in a style all his own. He has an aura of danger, brilliance and destruction (or a combination of the three) that makes fans want to see him fight, win or lose.
The sport needs such men and the excitement they bring, because as it grows, a winning record becomes more and more important. If a fighter hopes to rise in the sport, the question ceases to be “How did you fight?” and becomes more of a statement: “Win today, excite tomorrow.”
Here is a list of men who have never lost sight of the question for very long, and how they fight (or fought) became the statement by which they are known.
Honorable mentions: Jon Jones, Nate Diaz, Mirko Cro-Cop, Donald Cerrone and Martin Kampmann.
A few weeks ago, we ran down the crappiest fighters to ever be crowned “champion.” In this week’s installment of the CagePotato Roundtable, we’re sort of doing the opposite of that — discussing fighters who had all the talent in the world (and actually were champions in some cases), but screwed themselves out of glory thanks to their own poor decisions. So who was the biggest waste of potential in MMA history? Who made chicken shit out of chicken salad? Read on and we’ll tell you. As usual, if you have a topic suggestion for the Roundtable, please send it to [email protected].
“Personal Demons.” It’s arguably the most annoying phrase in sports journalism. The phrase is nothing more than a cop-out; what we use to show that an athlete’s performance has been sub-par due to his life outside the sport, while concurrently admitting that we have no business going there. Rather than just say that someone’s career is in a rut due to a crippling addiction or reckless antisocial behavior, we say that they have “personal demons.” Because it’s trashy to say it, but it’s somehow professional to imply it.
Yet “personal demons” is the perfect phrase to describe our sport’s biggest waste of potential — and the only WEC Middleweight Champion to defend the belt — Paulo Filho.
In his prime, “Ely” had all the tools that a future UFC champion would need. Even today, a fighter with Filho’s credentials would be heralded as one of the UFC’s elite middleweights before even throwing a punch in the Octagon. Filho had black belts in Judo and Jiu-jitsu, a major organization’s title, and a flawless 16-0 record with wins over guys like Murilo Rua, Ryo Chonan, Chael Sonnen, and Minowaman. This is a guy who beat Anderson Silva while training with him, who turned down an opportunity to train with Chuck Liddell (after the Iceman sought his help). He had it all.
A few weeks ago, we ran down the crappiest fighters to ever be crowned “champion.” In this week’s installment of the CagePotato Roundtable, we’re sort of doing the opposite of that — discussing fighters who had all the talent in the world (and actually were champions in some cases), but screwed themselves out of glory thanks to their own poor decisions. So who was the biggest waste of potential in MMA history? Who made chicken shit out of chicken salad? Read on and we’ll tell you. As usual, if you have a topic suggestion for the Roundtable, please send it to [email protected].
“Personal Demons.” It’s arguably the most annoying phrase in sports journalism. The phrase is nothing more than a cop-out; what we use to show that an athlete’s performance has been sub-par due to his life outside the sport, while concurrently admitting that we have no business going there. Rather than just say that someone’s career is in a rut due to a crippling addiction or reckless antisocial behavior, we say that they have “personal demons.” Because it’s trashy to say it, but it’s somehow professional to imply it.
Yet “personal demons” is the perfect phrase to describe our sport’s biggest waste of potential — and the only WEC Middleweight Champion to defend the belt — Paulo Filho.
In his prime, “Ely” had all the tools that a future UFC champion would need. Even today, a fighter with Filho’s credentials would be heralded as one of the UFC’s elite middleweights before even throwing a punch in the Octagon. Filho had black belts in Judo and Jiu-jitsu, a major organization’s title, and a flawless 16-0 record with wins over guys like Murilo Rua, Ryo Chonan, Chael Sonnen, and Minowaman. This is a guy who beat Anderson Silva while training with him, who turned down an opportunity to train with Chuck Liddell (after the Iceman sought his help). He had it all.
When objectively looking at Paulo Filho’s career, it’s impossible not to see the potential. Yet it’s equally impossible to truly appreciate it considering how badly his career fizzled out. Paulo Filho truly had everything a mixed martial artist could want, and his demons took it all away from him.
Ben Goldstein
Through his entire career, Anthony Johnson has never once competed in the right weight class. Just because he could make 170 pounds most of the time in the UFC didn’t make him a welterweight — it just made him a poor misguided bastard who ruined his health in order to pursue an absurd size advantage over his opponents that he didn’t even need in the first place. When Johnson decided to move up to 185, it seemed like he had finally accepted the hulking figure that was looking back at him in the mirror. Instead, his body called an end to the 40-pound weight cuts that were part of Johnson’s routine. A man who used to put himself through hell to make 170 now couldn’t go any lower than 194. The chickens had come home to roost.
I don’t think Johnson could have ever held a UFC belt in any weight class, but what if he had started out as a middleweight and was conscious enough about his diet so that he didn’t balloon up in the off-season? Rumble was blessed with savageknockoutpower, and enough wrestling ability to lay on top of a striker he didn’t feel like banging with. Sure, he might have collected three rear-naked choke losses on his record, but he wasn’t utterly helpless on the ground, in a Melvin Guillard sort of way. A guy with those tools could be a perennial top-five contender at 185, talented enough on his best day to beat guys like Michael Bisping, Mark Munoz, Tim Boetsch, Alan Belcher, or Brian Stann. Honestly, Johnson could have been a star. Now he’s considering a light-heavyweight debut in Titan FC — way off-Broadway, so to speak — and the only way that fight is going to make headlines is if he misses weight again. Always a possibility, by the way.
As was likely the case for every one of his remedial English teachers in grade school, I find myself at a loss for words when trying to assess Nick Diaz. All the pieces to the puzzle are there, floating aimlessly in an abyss of bong resin and Gatorade, but they’ve been burned, scribbled on, torn, soaked, and folded so many times that they have reached the point of unrecognizability, leaving behind a mish-mashed, eroded, Jackson-Pollackian mess of what was once a beautiful mountainside landscape, happy trees and all.
To say that Nick Diaz has (or had) the potential to be something truly amazing is akin to saying that Legend of the Hidden Temple was a difficult game show: an understatement of massive proportions. His cardio is unmatchable, his chin is unbreakable, his Jiu-Jitsu is impregnable, and he has the ability unlike any other athlete in the game to instill this undying sense of fear in his opponents, to throw them off of their game. For Christ’s sake, he turned Carlos Condit, a slayer of men and beasts alike, into a Goddamn fox-trotting ninny for five rounds, using only the intimidation that his skill set and ego bring to the table.
Diaz knows that he can outmatch anyone damn near anywhere, yet somehow, he has become best known for sabotaging his career in between moronic, incoherent, cuss-filled rants on Youtube in which he continuously denies holding any responsibility in the issue at hand. The man is as unreliable and foundationally solid as a crackhead’s Jenga tower, more destined to implode than any spaceship with a self-destruct sequence in a 1990s science fiction film. And it pains me to see him disintegrate as a martial artist simply because he treated a few simple rules and inconveniences with the subtlety and grace ofSimple Jack on a four day bath salt binge.
Although my Internet is currently not working to confirm any of this, let’s see what I can list off the top of my head concerning Nick’s inability to control his emotions and make one correct decision when called upon to do so:
-He has been involved in at least two post-fight in ring brawls, neither of which occurred following a fight he was actually involved in.
-He was released from the UFC the first time for deciding to start the fourth round against Joe Riggs in a hospital hallway after their fight at UFC 57.
-After returning to the UFC and scoring a win over Josh Neer (at either UFC 62 or 63, my memory is clogged with a considerable amount of bong resin as well), Diaz opted to sign with Gracie Fighting Championships for a fight that was eventually cancelled, even though the UFC had guaranteed him another fight
-He brought the legend of Takanori Gomi to a crashing halt, then tested positive for marijuana for the first time, and was subsequently suspended for six months. The victory was overturned to a No-Contest.
-He was supposed to fight Jay Hieron for the Strikeforce Welterweight championship back in 2009, but he was removed from the fight and replaced by Jesse Taylor when he refused to take a pre-fight drug test.
-After actually becoming Strikeforce champion, Diaz came back to the UFC once again, beat BJ Penn into temporary retirement, and proceeded to squander a title shot against GSP by failing to attend a press conference.
OK, enough of the list format, as I feel I am running out of literary breath.
After all of this, Diaz was still rewarded for his insolence with a shot for the interim title against Carlos Condit, which he lost by narrow UD. He thought that, even though he was/is still arguably in his prime, that now would be the best time to throw his hands in the air and retire from the sport, because surely there was no way he could ever get back into title contention before he was a withered old man. And, oh yeah, he tested positive for marijuana (metabolites this time), and was suspended for 12 months following a lengthy hearing with his buddies in the NSAC.
Let’s forgo the discussion of the whole Braulio Estima thing for the time being. The raining ashes from all the bridges Diaz has burned is already chest high.
As Marlon Brando once said, you coulda been a contender, Nick. You coulda been a somebody. But look at you now.
There have been plenty of fighters who have failed to live up to their hype, but very few have failed to live up to their actual potential like Todd Duffee. Duffee, also known as Duffman, the Duffstroyer, and Vanilla Gorilla-Lite, (sadly, he is not actually known as any of these) had it all. He was geneticallypharmaceutically blessed with exceptional athleticism and size. He wasn’t lacking for talent either; his first two opponents met their ends in 31 seconds combined. His next two opponents fared better, but still couldn’t make it through a round (combined, again) before falling victim to Duffee’s merciless onslaught. UFC and Pride veteran Assuerio Silva provided Duffee’s most competitive test to that point, astounding spectators by lasting a full minute into the second round before succumbing to his inevitable, violent fate.
Duffee was then scheduled to face Paul Buentello at UFC 107. But Duffee got injured and pulled out of the fight. He was then matched up with Mike Russow at UFC 114. On paper, it was an enormous mismatch. In person, it was even more of a mismatch; Duffee dominated Russow for two and a half rounds, even breaking Russow’s arm with a kick. But in the final round, Russow connected on a right cross that severed the connection between Duffee’s brain and his body, ending the fight. But before Josh Rosenthal could rush in to save the injured Duffee, Russow connected on the most gruesome, violent, bone-jarring hammerfist in the history of MMA. It made Wanderlei Silva’s stomps and soccer kicks in Pride look like sorority pillow fights. No man, not even Todd Duffee, could ever recover from it.
The UFC attempted to offer Duffee a rebound fight against Jon Madsen at UFC 121, but Duffee got high and just sort of wandered off got injured and pulled out of the fight. Frustrated with Duffee’s Towelie-esque reliability and “attitude” issues, Zuffa released him shortly thereafter. Understandably perturbed, Duffee tried to silence the critics who claimed he had suffered irreversible brain damage from Russow’s Hammerfist of Doom by making sound career choices in an attempt to get back in the UFC and resume his run for the title. And by “sound career choices,” I mean he chose to fight Alistair Overeem on two weeks’ notice. Which went about as well as you would expect.
Since his ignominious destruction at the hands of Ubereem, Duffee has fought only once — a bout this past April against Neil Grove, who he managed to knock out in the first round. He also appeared in Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown, in which he plays…well, I don’t know. I’ve never actually watched Never Back Down 2. Who has? When you go from the next big thing at heavyweight to starring in a straight-to-DVD sequel, you’re — without question — the biggest bust in MMA history.
For a guy who spent a grand total of 1:47 fighting within the UFC Octagon, Lee Murray sure did leave a mark on the sport. What could have been a UFC championship career was instead parlayed into a 25-year sentence in a Moroccan prison. The Brit was 6’3” 185 lbs. of lean muscle that was capable of knocking anybody out with his quick hands, earning him the handle “Lightning.” Though his preference was using his speed and power, he was also a skilled submission artist who was barely scratching the surface of his capabilities. When it was all said and done, the aforementioned “mark” he left on the sport, ended up being more of an unsightly Marvin Eastman-esque forehead gash. Not pretty.
Before Murray ever set foot in the UFC Octagon, there was already an aura surrounding him. Much like the Gene Lebell vs. Steven Seagal story that is filled with contradictory claims, Murray was involved in a similar encounter. An alleged street fight pitted the Huntington Beach Bad Boy (yeah, this was prior to that dipshit “Peoples Champ” nonsense) and “Lightning” going mano y mano outside a London nightclub back in 2002. You have to remember; Tito was the light-heavyweight champ and the “face” of the UFC back then. As the legend goes, Ortiz and Murray squared off and after Tito missed with a punch, Murray unloaded a five-punch combo that would have made Ryu proud. All the strikes landed flush and Tito crumbled to the ground. Being a true British gentleman, Murray stomped on Tito’s giant noggin twice before leaving the scene.
AWESOME!!! RIGHT? Well according to Ortiz, it never happened. But according to Pat Miletich during an ESPN interview, it definitely did. Also, Matt Hughes corroborated the story in his book Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History (WTF?) on page 168. Regardless, much like the Lebell/Seagal saga — we are left to draw our own conclusions. (For the record, I believe Tito got his ass beat and I believe that Lebell literally choked the shit out of Seagal.)
Murray was brash and charismatic, and had the budding talent to back it all up. In his lone Octagon appearance, Murray donned an orange prison jumpsuit as well as a full Hannibal Lecter mask during his entrance to the cage. He dispatched of Jorge Rivera in less than two minutes and then immediately went to the microphone to call out Tito. It was a classic. Nobody in the crowd knew who the Brit was, yet he launched into this great diatribe of insults calling out the “man” of the UFC.
If Murray continued to be dedicated to his training he could have been the face of the UFC. If he was able to handle a bigger Tito on the streets, who is to say that he couldn’t pack on a few more pounds of muscle and take the LHW strap? If “Lightning” didn’t get mixed up in things like alleged road-rage incidents, getting stabbed at a British glamour model’s birthday party and (Oh ya, I almost forgot) masterminding the largest single monetary heist in history — he could have had it all.
Lee Murray is not the first and he most certainly will not be the last athlete to see their limitless potential squandered on an excessive amount of “ifs.” So, he will sit in a small Moroccan prison cell for 23 more years — pondering all the could-haves or should-haves, while dreaming about what might have been.
Lady and gentlemen of the Potato Nation, I submit to you that the man who has wasted the most potential in his MMA career is one Mr. Jay Dee Penn, a man who could have won all the things, actually won most of the things, and cared about winning almost no things.
Perhaps the intervening years have made us forget, but there was a time when we called BJ Penn “The Prodigy” because it was infuriating (and just a teensy bit scary) how quickly he excelled in competition. Penn had only been training in BJJ for a couple of years when he took 3rd place in the brown belt division of the Mundials in 1999 (an achievement that established him as the definition of a world class grappler). The following year, at the tender age of 21, he took first place in the black belt division, inspiring normal dudes everywhere to just say “fuck it” and take up yoga.
But he wouldn’t be satisfied with merely being a BJJ whiz with nutso flexibility: Penn would go on to display the kind of striking skills that gives Freddie Roach an uncomfortable erection. (A shaky, uncomfortable erection. Freddie Roach is The Human Vibrator, in theaters Summer 2014! [I’m sorry.]) With hand speed that was scientifically evaluated as somewhere between “blazing” and “young Vitor Belfort,” Penn was smoking dudes so fast that people were missing his matches while they went for a bathroom break. When Penn actually fought for his first title, there was a sizable contingent of fans who were confused about who this asshole was fighting Jens Pulver, because they’d never seen him in a cage before. If you fast-forwarded a VHS tape (ask your parents) from UFC 31, 32, or 34, you likely skipped his fights altogether and you never knew until just now. You’re welcome.
Penn’s UFC run will absolutely earn him a Hall of Fame nod one day, and it’s perhaps that knowledge that makes his inconsistency so frustrating. Eventually, BJ always decides that surfing and Doritos are way cooler than being a champ, and he blows up like a pufferfish and gives exactly zero fucks about MMA. While a bad loss can occasionally light a fire in his belly to train like a warrior madman…sometimes it won’t. While it is generally accepted that a Motivated Penn is a thoroughly dangerous opponent, it’s anyone’s guess what actually motivates Penn.
With his next bout scheduled for September against a young prodigy named Rory MacDonald, I can tell you with no confidence whatsoever that Penn will be fully engaged and ready to do violence this fall. But I also cannot tell you, with any certainty, that BJ Penn is washed up and done. The man has the raw talent and skills to be competitive at any level, but no inclination to stay competitive at any level.
Had he been born in the Brazilian favela, BJ Penn would still be wrecking shop in the UFC, probably in two weight classes, and people wouldn’t even be interested in arguing his place atop the pound-for-pound listings. As it is, though, he’s rich as hell, he kicks it on the reg on sunny Hawaiian beaches, and this is his wife. I guess when you’re winning this hard at life, it’s hard to stay mad at Frankie Edgar.
Casual fans love few things more than heavyweight fights. If they cannot have a heavyweight fight, they will settle on a light heavyweight fight.
