Tag: Opinion

What Is Benson Henderson’s Legacy After Bellator 183?

The Bellator career of Benson Henderson has been turbulent. He’s enjoyed two title fights in two separate weight classes since jumping ship from the UFC in early 2016, but he lost them both.
After his loss in the Bellator 183 headliner he’s split again…

The Bellator career of Benson Henderson has been turbulent. He’s enjoyed two title fights in two separate weight classes since jumping ship from the UFC in early 2016, but he lost them both.

After his loss in the Bellator 183 headliner he’s split against the Pitbull brothers, first beating Patricio Freire and on Saturday losing an uninspiring scrap with Patricky Freire, he has seen his record in the promotion drop to 1-3. It seems, based on the broadcast and his name recognition, like his overseers were fixing to get him another title shot before too long, but you would have to think the whole thing will be met with some shoulder shrugs and confused looks.

Henderson’s legacy, in Bellator and beyond, is complex. There is quite a bit more to it than playing out the string in cage fighting before heading to serve his country in the military, whether that string is going poorly or not.

Bleacher Report Combat Sports Lead Writer Jonathan Snowden and MMA Featured Columnist Matthew Ryder considered that legacy coming out of Bellator 183, and this is what they came up with.

         

Ryder

I’ve struggled with Benson Henderson as an MMA commodity for years. In fact, I would say I’ve endured more gut-wrenching frustration and mind-bending bewilderment in relation to his career than any other in the sport.

That may seem odd to some considering his place as a respected, longtime UFC champion with a fairly old school, “anyone, anywhere, anytime” mentality, but it remains a fact.

I’ve felt for years that Henderson built whatever legacy he has on doing just enough to get by, often with the help of borderline blind cageside judges. I don’t think he beat Josh Thomson, I don’t think he beat Gilbert Melendez and I don’t think he beat Frankie Edgar—twice.

Bellator 183 was just another example of the narrow line he’s always walked, where he doesn’t do enough to win and relies on judges finding a way to give him the fight anyway.

In the alternate reality that exists in my head, Henderson is 20-12. He’s the owner of a decent enough career that has left me almost entirely uninspired. He falls a good distance short in practice of what he appears to be on paper, which is a WEC champion and a UFC champion of the toughest division in the sport who defended his belt in both promotions.

Am I going in a little too hard on one of Bellator’s marquee talents? Or does he even still qualify as a marquee talent after another loss Saturday?

         

Snowden

There is a certain feeling of kismet when a Benson Henderson fight goes to the judges’ cards. That’s not a hot take—just a statement of fact. Whether you agree with them or not, historically speaking a close scorecard is a Henderson card.

That was the case, at least, when he was in the UFC and the consistent beneficiary of either luck or largess. Bellator Benson, however, hasn’t been dealt the same strong hands. Three times he’s gone to the scorecards there. Three times he’s watched another man’s hand raised—twice by split decision.

His guardian angel has seemingly abandoned him, the only remnant the wings tattooed on his back.

None of this can erase the victories written in history’s permanent ink. He was UFC champion. He beat legends. We can’t take that away from him.

But perception is a trickier thing. And you’re absolutely right. Every time Henderson struggles, every time a close decision loss reminds us of a time he was granted an unjust victory, every five-minute round that feels like it lasts a calendar year diminishes him just a little bit more.

Five years ago, B/R named Henderson its Fighter of the Year. The author (a moron, I’ve been told) asked whether he could be the best ever. That, in retrospect, is a truly foolish question. 

No one is wondering whether Henderson is an all-time great anymore. We’re wondering whether he has what it takes to compete in Bellator, the UFC’s little brother. And I wonder, Matt, is that a question worth answering for a man who once had such grand ambitions?

         

Ryder

My gut, wrenched again with anxiety after watching another thin margin in a Henderson fight, tells me that it is, but for something of a counterintuitive reason, I believe it is his regression to the mean—the market correction for the years he spent “winning” fights without really “beating” his opponents.

The value in answering it comes in seeing that what has happened to him in Bellator is a good lesson for those coming behind him, an illustration that an athlete can only rely on dimwitted judges and guardian angels for so long before it all comes back around.

Inasmuch as I ever feel Henderson looks good in his fights, I thought he looked good in this most recent outing. I scored the fight in his favor, and I thought he won pretty convincingly—again, inasmuch as he ever wins convincingly.

Shows what I know.

Saturday, those dimwitted judges and spiritual entities saw fit to hand the win to Patricky Pitbull, from whom I don’t remember a single piece of offense mere moments after the event has ended.

 

Is it worth answering for a man we thought might be the best to ever do this thing as recently as 2013? Maybe not in relation to him solely. But for others, it could be instructive of how dangerous a career based on riding out rounds and scoring points can be and how quickly it can go bad on you once it starts to turn.

               

Snowden

The MMA gods punish fighters who try to make a living sucking up to the judges. After all, the sport just wasn’t designed with such a fighter in mind.

The original UFC had no judges. A cross between pro wrestling and Brazilian street fighting, it simply didn’t need them.

A fight between two warriors couldn’t, in those days, be decided by anyone outside the cage. It was over when it was over—and someone either conceded or was incapacitated.

Eventually, the world’s final wild-west spectacle was tamed. It became sport. Judges were incorporated. Fighters were developed who never even seemed to think about ending a bout on their own terms.

Henderson is one of them. For years, that sufficed. But those darting dancers can’t guarantee long-term success. You win by the judge, and you die by the judge. And Henderson, of late, hasn’t been doing much winning.

On Saturday night, none of his strikes were thrown with the intention of knocking another man insensate. His was a game of movement, incessant, unyielding and a little bit annoying. Occasionally he darted in for a quick punch, body kick, or half-hearted takedown attempt, only to continue his endless trek around the cage when he was done.

Patricky Pitbull threw and landed the harder punches. It would have been hard for him not to. It wasn’t much—but it didn’t have to be.

At 33, and more than 30 fights into his career, it may be too late to change. Henderson is who he is. And in many cases, that’s just not enough.

              

Ryder

I’m inclined to agree Henderson can’t change. Truthfully, I wouldn’t imagine he would if he could. I would expect he’s delighted with what his approach has garnered for him over the years, what with the cold, hard record of success and championships we’ve outlined above.

Pro wrestling meets Brazilian street fighting, it ain’t.

Arguably no one has understood that better than Henderson. And as you said, he’s won by it, and he’s died by it. He died by it at Bellator 183, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit here and say he won’t win by it the next time we see him.

That’s his legacy. It would border on irresponsible to ignore it.

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CM Punk’s Perfect Next Opponent? Why, It’s Edmond Tarverdyan, Of Course!

Here’s something you probably hadn’t contemplated: People are hot to see CM Punk return to the UFC, and they seem keen to have that return come against Ronda Rousey’s oft-ridiculed coach, Edmond Tarverdyan.
Pretty good to roll into your weekend with th…

Here’s something you probably hadn’t contemplated: People are hot to see CM Punk return to the UFC, and they seem keen to have that return come against Ronda Rousey’s oft-ridiculed coach, Edmond Tarverdyan.

Pretty good to roll into your weekend with that concept, huh?     

To be clear, the fight isn’t close to being made. There is no logical reason to make it. It is objectively absurd on every measurable level.

Luckily though, this is MMA.

Pipe-dream fights happen with some regularity. Logic is increasingly on the back burner in a world where WME-IMG wants money fights above all else. The objectively absurd is often the mundane in this sport.

That’s why this bout makes all the sense in the world.

Tarverdyan was back in the news this week, boldly claiming on The MMA Hour (via Bloody Elbow) he’d like to see Rousey come back for a fight against longtime nemesis Cris Cyborg. If that suggestion wasn’t enough to warrant the type of tongue-clucking his nuggets of wisdom usually do, he followed it up by essentially telling the entire sport to “shut up” because he “know[s his] s–t.”

And the tongues clucked.

Say what you will about Tarverdyan—for better or worse, he is absolutely magnetic. He is brash, he is confident and he carries himself with an amount of bravado that many—Rousey’s own mother, included—might suggest to be unwarranted.

He’s also 2-0 as a lightweight who’s been inactive for five years and will turn 36 in December.

So naturally, in a world where former WWE star CM Punk is still on the UFC roster and appears hellbent on coming back to the cage to try his hand, Tarverdyan should be the guy to meet him.

Punk will turn 39 next month and has just notched another year of inactivity. He’s 0-1 since signing with the UFC in 2014, with his lone loss coming in a highly memorable beatdown at the hands of the entirely legitimate Mickey Gall last September.

The clock is ticking for both guys, and there are motivations and merits on both sides of the ledger.

For Tarverdyan, he’s long been ridiculed as having ridden Rousey’s coattails to recognition. Many would suggest he can’t distinguish between a right hook and a fishing hook. What better way to prove people wrong than to step in the cage himself and put on a good show against one of the more famous faces on the roster?

Further to that, Tarverdyan has had some financial troubles recently. While you’d never want to force a person into something as dangerous as an MMA fight purely for financial reasons, Tarverdyan might see a quick UFC payday as his best chance to get back on the level.

Realistically, if Punk got $500,000 to show up in the Gall fight, Tarverdyan should be able to get close to that for a night’s work given his own name recognition. It probably wouldn’t hurt to have Rousey, Travis Browne or other UFC fighters he’s coached to be kicking around either, as they could potentially call in a favor to help get him paid.

For Punk, he’d be getting the biggest name opponent imaginable for a man in his position. While the fight that seemingly makes sense is fellow 0-1 slugger Mike Jackson, Punk would be met with the type of obnoxious swagger that would surely bring out the best in him as a self-promoter.

Also, given Punk’s lack of experience and Tarverdyan’s long layoff, there is a legitimate chance Punk could surprise and land a win. Few truly know what Tarverdyan’s skill level is in combat, and though there is an idea of what Punk is at this point, there’s no telling how much he may have improved since his last fight.

He could have closed the gap between him and someone of Tarverdyan’s level, provided one ever existed, and plenty of people would pay to see how that would play out. Factor in that Tarverdyan would be coming up in weight to make the fight something of a size-versus-speed battle (albeit an almost comically inexperienced one), and it becomes that much more interesting.

Again, let’s be clear: This fight is not close to being made. There is no logical reason to make it. It is objectively absurd on every measurable level.

But this is MMA.

This is a sport where a pro wrestler shows up on a whim to headline the biggest event in UFC history.

This is a sport where people accidentally defecating in the middle of the action is met with a collective shrug and some smarmy tweets.

This is a sport where the biggest stars throw cans of energy drink at one another for minutes on end and are largely lauded for their salesmanship.

So you’re going to say CM Punk vs. Edmond Tarverdyan couldn’t happen? That it doesn’t make sense? That it’s too absurd? 

That’s exactly why it should happen.

       

Follow me on Twitter @matthewjryder!

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The Top 5 Female Fighters in MMA Right Now

Mixed martial arts has never been an exclusive boy’s club, but the representation of women used to be relegated to a few promotions around the world.
Slowly but surely, the numbers have increased—and so has the star power. Gina Carano’s succ…

Mixed martial arts has never been an exclusive boy’s club, but the representation of women used to be relegated to a few promotions around the world.

Slowly but surely, the numbers have increased—and so has the star power. Gina Carano’s success led to Ronda Rousey, and now we are entering a new phase with the UFC having four separate divisions for women to compete in. In this new age, we are left wondering one question: Who is the best female fighter on the planet?

The criteria are not scientific, but they are technique, performance and dominance/competition.

Technical proficiency is the biggest factor in determining who is the best fighter, with in-cage performance coming in second. A fighter’s dominance weighed by her level of competition is a virtual tiebreaker. Why? A one-dimensional fighter can appear dominant against lesser competition. Complete martial artists get better positioning, but one cannot outright discount a fighter’s dominance.

Thus, let us get down to it and look at the five best women competing today.

 

Honorable Mention

In the honorable mention category, we are going to look at three young prospects to watch in the coming months and years.

Herica Tiburcio leads this charge. The 24-year-old is already a former Invicta FC atomweight champion, but her loss to Ayaka Hamasaki will only make her a better fighter in the long-term. The Brazilian has a solid ground attack with growing stand-up acumen. If the UFC adds an atomweight division, look for Tiburcio to be one of the faces of it.

The UFC has added a flyweight division, and there are two names to familiarize yourself with as it gets underway: Agnieszka Niedzwiedz and MacKenzie Dern.

Dern is a noted jiu-jitsu ace who is growing her game on the regional circuit, but don’t be surprised if you see her ink a UFC deal before year’s end. She’s exceptionally talented with a high ceiling. Likewise, Invicta FC’s Niedzwiedz is flying under the radar.

Niedzwiedz is undefeated at 10-0, and at just 22 years of age, she is already ranked No. 2 in the world, per MMARising.com.

Keep an eye on these names as they could be atop the MMA world sooner rather than later.

 

     

5. Valentina Shevchenko

Shevchenko narrowly lost to Amanda Nunes at UFC 196. Had she won, she would have likely gone for gold against Miesha Tate at UFC 200. Instead, she had to pick up wins over Holly Holm and Julianna Pena before getting a rematch with the now-champion Nunes. And she came up just short again.

Shevchenko is known for her world-class striking, but her ground game is very efficient. She showed that side of her game with a submission win over Pena.

What is perhaps even more remarkable about Shevchenko is that while she is almost at the top of 135, she is doing it as a flyweight. Shevchenko is actually a little undersized as a bantamweight, and with the new inclusion of flyweight in the UFC, perhaps we’ll see her there soon.

Regardless, Shevchenko has shown all the tools in her arsenal that make her one of the elite fighters in the game. A few more punches here, a defended takedown there, and she may be wearing bantamweight gold and sitting a couple of spots higher. And if she moves to 125, she could turn into a dominant champion.

      

4. Claudia Gadelha

Gadelha could have the best strawweight technique in the world. But styles make fights, and she’s come up short against Joanna Jedrzejczyk twice.

The Brazilian strawweight contender made the move to Alburqueque to train under Chris Luttrell in the summer of 2016. The move appears to be paying off as she blew through No. 2-ranked contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz with ease in her last outing. In an interview with UFC.com’s Thomas Gerbasi, Luttrell said her most recent loss to the champion may have been a result of overtraining.

Time will tell if that move pays off in gold, but if her performance against Kowalkiewicz is any indication, it is difficult to see how she won’t ascend to the top of the division.

Gadelha has all of the tools at her disposal. Putting them all together would likely show the world that as an all-around fighter, she is the best.

 

     

3. Cris Cyborg

There is a good case for Cyborg to be at the top of the list. So, why isn’t she?

Cyborg’s lack of competition drastically hurts her cause. Because of a lack of featherweights, Cyborg routinely fought undersized women that helped bolster her record. From the likes of Vanessa Porto (currently an Invicta FC flyweight) to the woefully undersized Hitomi Akano to, most recently, Tonya Evinger.

One of the most impressive feats of Cyborg is her willingness to learn and improve in the face of dominating her opposition. She likely could have rested on her size and strength to overwhelm her opponents, but she actively worked on improving her technique.

That is how she dominated her Strikeforce opposition. It was a barrage of high pressure and strikes. She didn’t put on technical masterpieces. However, you can see her evolution as a fighter since that time. Her grappling has improved tremendously, she is more patient with her stand-up, and Cyborg has turned her strength into power.

If featherweight had more credible opposition, then perhaps Cyborg would be at the top of this list, but it’s difficult to thrust her onto the top of the mountain when she has never had anyone close to her equal standing opposite her in a cage.

      

2. Joanna Jedrzejczyk

Pound for pound, Joanna Champion may be the most entertaining fighter in MMA today.

The high output of highly technical strikes is something to behold. She works at the highest of levels in her stand-up, and no one at 115 pounds has been able to stop her. She has another level to her striking that others simply cannot withstand.

Jedrzejczyk also has excellent takedown defense. And she can hurt her opponents while defending takedowns with brilliant elbows from inside the clinch.

Jedrzejczyk only fails to top the list because she does lack a top-end ground game. Her jiu-jitsu, by itself, won’t blow anyone away. Fortunately, this is MMA. Her defense and striking more than make up for her deficiencies as a pure grappler.

She is set to defend the title next against Rose Namajunas in November. Another title defense will tie Rousey’s UFC record, and, if successful, we would be hard-pressed not to debate whether Jedrzejczyk is the greatest female mixed martial artist we have ever seen.

      

1. Amanda Nunes

The reigning UFC bantamweight champion tops the list. She is technically proficient on the feet and on the ground, and she has faced the stiffest competition.

Her current six-fight win streak includes Shayna Baszler, Sara McMann, Valentina Shevchenko (twice), Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey. That’s a sensational run.

Nunes’ biggest shortcoming in the cage is her cardio. She has always tended to fade after fast starts, but the in those fast starts she is hurting her opponents and going for the finish. Ask Cat Zingano about how Nunes can fade. In her most recent title defense against Shevchenko, Nunes showcased improved stamina by pacing herself better throughout five rounds.

Nunes’ all-around game puts her at the top of the list, but that doesn’t mean she is not vulnerable. She has a tough road in defending her belt.

The scary part? She’s just 29 and reaching her athletic peak. At American Top Team, with teammates like Jedrzejczyk, expect her growth to continue. We’ve only begun to see the best of The Lioness.

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Decorated Kickboxer Gohkan Saki Has the Feel of a Future UFC Champ

You have to admire the pure audacity of Gohkan Saki.
As the former K-1 and Glory kickboxing champion prepares to make his UFC debut against Henrique da Silva on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 117, Saki is setting his own expectations sky-high.
“I’m glad I…

You have to admire the pure audacity of Gohkan Saki.

As the former K-1 and Glory kickboxing champion prepares to make his UFC debut against Henrique da Silva on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 117, Saki is setting his own expectations sky-high.

“I’m glad I finally can announce that I have signed an exclusive long-term contract with the UFC,” Saki wrote on his Facebook page in May. “[I am] the best investment the UFC has made since Conor McGregor.”

Then there’s his social media presence, which is, in a word, brash:

All told, it’s clear Saki’s not exactly taking the cliched one-step-at-at-time approach to his fledgling MMA career—and perhaps with good reason. If he can channel his experience, athleticism and fearsome punching power into success in his newfound sport, his ceiling might be as a future title contender in the puddle-shallow UFC light heavyweight division.

Considering it’s at least possible that the 205-pound weight class will now be moving forward without Jon Jones—in the wake of the longtime titlist’s latest drug test failure—perhaps Saki can even one day wear the gold.


Despite the fact he comes to the Octagon sporting an 0-1 professional MMA record, there’s ample reason to believe the Turkish Tyson can be successful in the Octagon. He spent 15 years earning his keep at the highest levels of kickboxing, facing off with the likes of Alistair Overeem, Tyrone Spong, Ray Sefo and Melvin Manhoef.

Saki compiled an 83-12 record—including 59 knockouts—with one no-contest and earned a reputation as one of the toughest outs in combat sports. He even famously fought Overeem in the final of the 2010 K-1 Grand Prix tournament with a broken arm (and lost).

Another thing to admire about Saki? The knockout artist has impeccable timing.

After two years away from the ring, the Netherlands native, who turns 33 on October 19, is poised to enter a light heavyweight division that is both starved for new stars and as competitively wide-open as it has ever been. Depending on which way the appeals process goes from here, Jones could be facing up to a four-year ban. If that came to pass, it would mean everything we thought we knew about the 205-pound pecking order would be null and void.

After losing to Jones via highlight-reel knockout at UFC 214 in July, Daniel Cormier has been reinstated as champion. At age 38, however, and with his drawing power assumedly at an all-time low, Cormier’s future remains unknown.

If ever there was a time for a new and popular force to take the division by storm, this is it.

Perhaps that opportunity was too much for Saki to pass up after sitting idle for so long.

“I stopped for two years, and I felt an emptiness,” Saki said this week, via MMAjunkie’s Steven Marrocco. “I came back on a bigger stage, the biggest martial arts organization in the world, the UFC, with a lot of challenge for me. I am hungry again, and it’s time to open a new book and finish my career in the right way.”

To do that, Saki will have to prove he’s much more than just a stand-up fighter. At the very least, he’ll have to have widened his skill set to include enough defensive wrestling to keep people from taking him down.

Can he manage it? At the time of his UFC signing, Bleacher Report’s Scott Harris was only willing to give his chances a soft “maybe.”

“Clearly, he’ll be the best striker in the UFC light heavyweight division immediately upon arrival,” Harris wrote. “Just as clearly, his ground game will be an area his opponents will work to exploit. But there’s a pretty good chance UFC matchmakers won’t throw him into the cage with Cormier right off the bat, either.”

With just a few days to go before UFC Fight Night 117, the Da Silva matchup makes Harris looks downright prophetic. From the outside looking in, this fight shapes up as a nice, hanging curveball that Saki can knock out of the park in his UFC debut.

After starting his career on 10-0 tear fighting exclusively in Brazil, Da Silva won his first two UFC fights but has since dropped off a cliff. He comes into this bout amid a three-fight losing streak that most recently saw him get knockout out by Ion Cutelaba in just 22 seconds in June.

Da Silva is primarily a muay thai fighter and is listed as a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He’ll have a slight reach advantage over Saki but otherwise matches up as just the sort of competition the decorated kickboxer should want to face in his first UFC bout.

Saki’s decision to leave the Glory organization and fully dedicate himself to MMA has MMA Fighting’s Mike Chiappetta sounding fairly complementary about his approach so far:

“After sporadically training in the sport’s various disciplines in the past, this recent stretch has been immersive, and Saki has shown his willingness to put himself in uncomfortable positions in order to achieve growth, regularly traveling to learn with different camps. Among his most notable trips was a five-week sojourn to Sweden’s AllStars Training Center to work out alongside intra-divisional contenders Alexander Gustafsson and Ilir Latifi. Saki has also trained extensively with the Turkish national wrestling and boxing teams, along with Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt Ertan Balaban.”

A lot, of course, remains to be seen.

We don’t yet know if Saki will be able to shore up his ground skills enough to compete at the UFC level. We don’t know if his somewhat diminutive size—6’0″ and 220 pounds—will allow him to hang with the true giants of the division. We don’t know if his speed and technical kickboxing will be enough to outweigh those potential drawbacks.

But his mere presence here is enough to spark some excitement.

It has been a long time since the 205-pound division had a dominant pure striker in its midst. For viciousness, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort and Rampage Jackson spring to mind as champions. For technique, Lyoto Machida does, too. Alexander Gustafsson has always been long on potential but has fallen short in big spots.

Saki might have an uphill climb ahead of him if he truly wants to be champion. He might end up being surprised how hard it is to become the next McGregor.

For now, however, the buzz about his impending debut feels appropriate.

And the light heavyweight division has no choice but to take buzz wherever it can get it.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC Middleweight Luke Rockhold Is the Heel Nobody Asked for

Luke Rockhold won a fight this past weekend. It was the first time he’d done that since late 2015, when he won the UFC middleweight title, and his first appearance since mid-2016, when he lost that same UFC middleweight title during his first defense a…

Luke Rockhold won a fight this past weekend. It was the first time he’d done that since late 2015, when he won the UFC middleweight title, and his first appearance since mid-2016, when he lost that same UFC middleweight title during his first defense against Michael Bisping.

In the interim, Rockhold became something of a curiosity in the MMA space. He’d show up from time to time to support a teammate, sometimes with a new celebrity lady friend, but he was largely absent from the UFC.

Well, absent physically.

He was very much a fixture in the sport verbally.

While on hiatus he was often in the media, complaining about the UFC, his pay, his lack of potential opponents and the potential opponents of others.

He took shots in an ESPN interview (h/t MMA Mania) at Michael Bisping, who bodied him on a few days’ notice to take his belt. Yoel Romero was next in line during an appearance on the MMA Hour, because everyone takes shots at Yoel Romero, and then Georges St-Pierre, who is the type of legend Rockhold is desperate to become in his own right.

It was a process where he crafted a persona for himself, that of a somewhat smug jerk who would tell people what’s on his mind and make no apologies for it. He’d become a perfect heel.

The thing is, he’s a heel nobody asked for.

The issue with this persona is that Rockhold has almost done it unwittingly. The trash talk, while plentiful, has almost had an inverse impact as to what would be expected: It hasn’t sold him or sold his fights, and it may well have made people care less about him.

Most immediately it got him a fight against a tough but relatively unknown opponent in David Branch on a card that was opposing the biggest boxing match in recent memory that didn’t involve Conor McGregor. Winning it got him no closer to a title fight, and his continued griping about Bisping and St-Pierre was largely met with a collective eye roll from onlookers.

It’s confounding in its way, because Rockhold should be a star in the UFC almost without trying.

He’s among the most purely talented mixed martial artists alive and probably the most well-rounded mat technician in the game. There’s an eerie calmness to his combat approach, the type of comfort in chaos that only the very best possess.

He’s handsome to the point that he legitimately almost quit MMA to become a model. That’s the type of tool that isn’t in the toolbox of every fighter, the type that should get a person noticed beyond the dregs of a UFC: Pittsburgh card on FOX Sports 1.

He’s willing to throw out unlikely fight suggestions and jump divisions to find big fights and big paydays, but no one has ever endeavored to take him up on it. As much as McGregor or Jon Jones (before his most recent USADA bust) were lauded for creative fight ideas, Rockhold was largely ignored.

Here he is, one of the best 185-pounders alive, a man more or less forgotten. It’s entirely frustrating and uniquely bizarre.

In the modern UFC economy, speaking one’s mind, being physically marketable, pursuing interests outside of MMA and generally getting a little wild is a recipe for cashing in. In the case of Rockhold, though, lame salesmanship and his subsequent commitment to it, plus his lengthy run on inactivity coming off a memorable knockout loss, have managed to undo his career and his drawing power.

It all comes back to the persona he’s developed.

Perhaps it’s real, perhaps it’s manufactured. Perhaps it’s somewhere in between. Whatever it is, though, it isn’t resonating with fans. He’s doing all the things one should theoretically do to become famous and has all the tools to see it through, but he’s not getting the results.

At this point, the only thing he can rely on is his immense skill in the cage—keep winning fights and his persona will take a back seat to his performance. 

That may be the only path to true stardom that he has left.

            

Follow me on Twitter @matthewjryder!

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So, UFC Bad Guy Mike Perry Wants to Fight Robbie Lawler? That’ll Work

Moments after dispatching late replacement opponent Alex Reyes via first-round knockout in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 116, Mike Perry started strutting around the cage like a rooster.
Literally.
Perry put his hands on his hips, flapped his ar…

Moments after dispatching late replacement opponent Alex Reyes via first-round knockout in the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 116, Mike Perry started strutting around the cage like a rooster.

Literally.

Perry put his hands on his hips, flapped his arms like wings and worked his neck back and forth in an exaggerated chicken dance. His feet scratched at the canvas—like a proud yardbird throwing seed—and then he let loose a maniacal laugh.

The message—that the 26-year-old is rapidly becoming the cock of the walk at welterweight—was obvious. For its sheer weirdness, the gesture was also pure Platinum Perry. UFC fans have become accustomed to his non sequiturs since he arrived in the Octagon in August 2016.

In just a bit more than a year, the hard-swinging Perry has established himself as the sort of 170-pound knockout out artist people either love or love to hate. The rooster strut was a new wrinkle, but Perry has been putting on bizarre shows and ruffling feathers—no pun intended—each step of the way to his 4-1 promotional record.

After blowing through Reyes in just one minute, 19 seconds, he let it be known he’s ready for a step-up in competition.

“I’ll give you a name right now because I know you’re gonna ask,” Perry told UFC play-by-play announcer Jon Anik in the cage. “Everybody wants to see me beat up Robbie Lawler.”

This suggestion drew cheers from the announced crowd of 7,005 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. Maybe there were a few groans mixed in there too. For audacity, the callout was also classic Perry since on its face a matchup between him and Lawler makes no sense.

But you know what? It’s so outrageous it just might work.

The UFC needs all the sizzle it can get as it prepares to close out its relatively underwhelming 2017 slate with 13 events in 15 weeks. Lawler is a borderline legend among hardcore fans and Perry—whatever he is—has done all he can in a short period to make himself stand out amid the company’s endless parade of cookie-cutter fighters.

Everything about Perry is in some way performative—from his gaudy collection of tattoos to Saturday’s over-gelled mohawk to his deliberate and theatrical way of speaking. Even his fighting style is like something drawn up at UFC central casting.

Not all of the press he’s earned has been the good kind. Some of it has been ugly even by the low, low standards of professional cage fighting. Prior to his UFC debut against Hyun Gyu Lim at UFC 202, Perry’s cornermen were caught on tape making racial comments about Lim. Later, a picture emerged online of Perry in blackface.

As Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden wrote in April, UFC fans have wrestled with Perry’s presence in the company. His victories inside the Octagon have been electrifying. Outside of it, he seems like major league trash. As Snowden wrote:

“It goes without saying that none of the above passes for acceptable behavior. Frankly, it’s more than a little disgusting. Perry is gross, unstable and probably not fit for polite company. If you wanted to picket UFC for employing a man like this, no matter how good he is at his job, I wouldn’t be opposed. As a human being, Perry is an anathema, rightly shunned by decent folks. As the purveyor of violence inside a steel cage, however, he’s exactly what I want to see. That’s a thought that troubles me.“

Put more simply: People would tune in to see Perry fight Lawler, either to watch Perry get some comeuppance from one of the organization’s most popular fighters or just because the bout itself would be stylistically bonkers.

Lawler has been having slugfests in the UFC since a few months before Perry’s 11th birthday back in 2002. His unlikely rise to the welterweight championship in 2014—after pit stops in organizations like Strikeforce and EliteXC—earned him MMA immortality. Even before that, his hard-nosed style had lodged him squarely in the hearts of fans.

As a fighter, Perry exhibits the same mindset. He has only one speed, he moves only forward, taking as many punches as he must in order to uncork his jaw-jacking right hand.

Putting him in the cage with Lawler would be like lighting a stick of dynamite and tossing it over the Octagon fence. Plus, Perry’s peculiar antics juxtaposed with Lawler’s stone-cold, monotone media presence would be just the kind of weird MMA fans tend to gravitate toward.

If Perry won, it would make him as a legitimate contender at 170 pounds. If he lost, it would most likely be because Lawler had done something terrible to him. From a promotional standpoint, that’s a win-win—and may well be enough to outweigh the drawbacks.

Chief among those detractions is that, while Perry has been an outlandish presence, he hasn’t done anything to earn a bout with a fighter the caliber of Lawler.

Perry came into the Reyes fight unranked in the welterweight division and just one fight removed from a unanimous-decision loss to Alan Jouban in December 2016. He was supposed to fight Thiago Alves on Saturday before Alves pulled out for undisclosed reasons.

Reyes, a natural lightweight, made his UFC debut on just a few days’ notice and against one of the hardest punchers at welterweight. It wasn’t the sort of fight he was going to win or the kind of matchup that was going to elevate Perry’s standing at 170 pounds.

But it was fun while it lasted.

Reyes moved well and landed a leg kick or two before Perry tracked him down near the fence, roughnecked him in the clinch and landed a knee to the face that ended the night for his smaller opponent.

It went just as Perry might have drawn it up—and the KO earned him one of the UFC’s $50,000 performance-based bonuses—but it didn’t mean much.

Lawler, meanwhile, is a former champion and a perennial top-of-the-food-chain performer. He’s ranked as the No. 1 contender at 170 pounds and, in July, defeated Donald Cerrone via unanimous decision on the stacked UFC 214 pay-per-view card.

Perry’s biggest win to date in the UFC was his second-round KO of Jake Ellenberger in April, but he’s never fought someone with the profile or the skill set of Lawler.

Perhaps it’s time that changed?

If anybody can stop the chicken dance, it’s going to be somebody like Robbie Lawler.

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