You know, Potato Nation, Coleman just really likes potatoes. I mean, I know that’s not profound or nothin’. Heck! We all do…but for him, it goes much more beyond that.
So how many of you all came here last weekend only to be disappointed by the lack of answers to your seemingly endless questions? Maybe we’re getting too far ahead of ourselves, so let’s start over: How many of you noticed that we didn’t run a new edition of Ask the Potato last week? We just saw at least three hands go up, so we’re going to assume that the rest of you are just too shy to respond. We’re keeping it short and sweet and to the point this week, much unlike this sentence, so let’s get down to business.
KarmaAteMyCat asks: What’s the most vicious injury you have ever seen in MMA to date?
Injuries are pretty common in this sport, particularly if you’re a champion. From swollen heads to flayed feet, we’d like to think we’ve seen it all over the years. But of all the limbs to snap inside the cage, our nominee has a clear leg up on the competition. Just seconds into the second round of their UFC: Fight for the Troops bout, Dale Hartt checked a leg kick from Corey Hill, instantly transforming his tibia and fibula into giant sticks of Laffy Taffy. Unlike Joe Theismann’s famous injury, there was no sock or pant leg to shield viewers from the sight of his twisted, mangled leg. Another key difference: Hill returned to competition only one year later; in fact, he just racked up a win last week. Think there’s a more deserving injury? We’re all ear!
Giblets asks: TRT – Really a medical issue or a loop hole for gear monkeys?
We’re hack journalists, Giblets, not doctors. But that doesn’t stop us from performing breast exams or doling out pills behind the neighborhood 7-Eleven, and it sure as hell isn’t going to stop us from answering your question.
Testosterone is a hormone responsible for increasing bone and muscle mass as well as stimulating aggressive behavior. Now where is the last place you would expect to find a large number of men suffering from a serious testosterone deficiency? If you said “inside the Octagon”, you’re wrong. The answer is Lilith Fair–low testosterone or not, no man wants to listen to that garbage. But competing in an MMA fight is a close second, so don’t feel bad about your answer. We’re hardly authorities on the matter, so check out what the very knowledgeable Dr. Johnny Benjamin has to say on the issue. And when even Nate Marquardt’s coach thinks the therapy has no place in the sport, you’ve got to know that something’s up.
RwilsonR asks: If any athlete from any other sport, from any generation, could cross over succesfully to MMA, who would it be and why? Is it this man?
Bo Jackson was certainly one hell of an athlete in his prime. As was Herschel Walker who, in case you forgot, has had success in this sport. Really, there are plenty of exceptional athletes who may have been MMA fighters today if the sport had been around when they were first getting into sports (and even at least one college football coach).
But we’re going to take the easy route and pick someone who actually competed in combat sports before MMA was around. Given the trend of dominant wrestlers finding success in MMA, we imagine that any of your great wrestlers from yesteryear would have had successful MMA careers if the sport was around while they were in their prime. Specifically, we’ll go with Sports Illustrated’s pick for the greatest athlete to ever hail from Iowa, Dan Gable.
Dan Gable was an absolute wrecking ball in his prime, having lost only one match in his entire collegiate career (his last match, against Washington’s Larry Owings). Of course, that was just his opening act: He would go on to win a gold medal at the 1972 Olympic Games while not giving up a single point. So yeah, we imagine he would have wrestlefucked his way to a hell of a career in MMA, if it was an option for him.
One final thing worth mentioning: After retiring from competition in 1975, Dan Gable decided he wasn’t done dominating college wrestling, so he became the head coach at the University of Iowa. During his tenure from 1976–1997, Iowa won 15 NCAA team titles, including a record nine straight titles from 1978 to 1986 and 21 straight Big Ten titles. Had MMA been around, we imagine that he’d start a gym that would rival any of the top gyms today.
That’s all for now, folks. Tune in next week as we answer even more of your (hopefully at least kind of) MMA related questions. You know the drill: You can send us questions through our Facebook page. You can tweet them to our Twitter account, as well as hashtag questions with #AskThePotato. You can register for our forums and post your questions there. Or you can just post them in the comments section of this article. And we still check that Google+ page we set up. Not that we want questions from that thing, we just feel like bragging.