(The Wallaceberries taste like Wallaceberries!)
With all the freak show greatness that comprised this past weekend, we all but forgot to report on some of the matchups that actually, you know, mattered. It’s kind of like when you went to Disney World with the intent of riding Space Mountain until you puked, but ended up stuck at the ring toss game all day because some ginger and his group of middle school friends called your form “faggy” and you HAD TO WIN THAT STUFFED DRAGON TO PROVE THEM WRONG. And we hate to say it, but Bob Sapp and Kimbo Slice will forever be the crappy carnival games that we simply cannot avoid.
In fact, while we were all watching “The Beast’s” record dip below the .500 mark at Saturday’s KSW-19 card (because somehow that just happened), there was a fight that took place earlier on the card that didn’t make us laugh and then immediately hang our heads in shame, believe it or not. We’re talking, of course, about Mamed Khalidov vs. Rodney Wallace. As we’ve stated before, Mamed Khalidov may be the best fighter out there not signed to a major promotion, and it kind of baffles us as to why. The Polish powerhouse’s record currently stands at 25-4, and over the past few years, he has quietly decimated every UFC washout that has crossed his path without batting an eye. Khalidov started out his 2011 season by adding to the legend of Irvin’s Curse, then rounded it out by scoring lightning quick submission victories over Matt Lindland and Jesse Taylor in successive bouts. But like a psychopathic Japanese girl after a mock casting audition, Khalidov is still waiting for that phone call.
Last weekend, he looked to make it four Zuffa vets in a row when he faced off against Rodney “Sho Nuff the Master” Wallace in a middleweight contest. As has become the standard for Khalidov, the bout featured a multitude of spinning based attacks and ended in less than two minutes.
(Fight starts at the 7:00 mark.)
Now that Hector Lombard has signed with the UFC, Khalidov truly stands alone as a 185er that deserves a shot at the big time. Say what you want about the quality of the opponents he’s faced, but the man has not lost since 2010 (via decision to Jorge Santiago) and has only lost twice in the past seven years. If that doesn’t earn you at least an appearance on a Strikeforce card, then everything we’ve claimed to know about this sport is a lie. Wallace may not have been a star in the UFC by any means, but he managed to take Brian Stann, Jared Hamman, and Phil Davis to the judges scorecards, which is a feat in it’s own right. Khalidov, however, might not even be aware that judges exist in the MMA spectrum — he’s gone the distance just twice in nearly 30 fights and has only been out of the first round a handful of times. We owe it to ourselves to get this guy in the UFC, so let’s follow the words of famed author, comedian, and occasional fighter Forrest Griffin, who once said, “Do you wanna know how fights get done now? If enough people get on Twitter, it’ll happen.”
The proof is in the pudding, Potato Nation. Let the Twitter-bombing begin.
-J. Jones