Lashley, Yvel, Atencio Win at Affliction-Heavy FFI Event

Another step has been taken by Bobby Lashley, and Gilbert Yvel put away Pedro Rizzo early in the first round at the inaugural Fight Force International event.  Meanwhile, Affliction promoter Tom Atencio also won his second professional mixed martial arts fight, and long-time hardcore fan favorite Javier Vazquez returned after a two-year layoff to defeat last-minute substitute Mark Kergosien.  Here are some thoughts on the action this past weekend, and the implications the results will have in the MMA world as we move forward.

Lashley Continues to Impress

As I wrote last week, I’m really impressed with the approach Bobby Lashley has taken with trying to work himself up the ladder to an eventual UFC run.  The Bob Sapp fight from the other night is a great example.  If Lashley had fought Sapp in his first or second fight, who knows what happens?  While there’s no doubt that Lashley’s athleticism, power and wrestling ability make him a better talent than Sapp, it’s important for inexperienced fighters to get in the cage a few times before fighting a guy who has fought all around the world like Sapp has.

In my column the other day, I neglected to mention one more reason why Lashley has just as good a chance of success in the future as fellow former WWE wrestler Brock Lesnar does: he’s a part of one of the best camps in MMA, American Top Team.  One thing that may hurt Lesnar in the long run is his choice to bring people in to train specifically with him rather than being willing to join a team or travel to train with other good fighters.  Lashley will not have to worry about that, as he’s shown a willingness to do things the way an inexperienced fighter should.

Yvel Will Face Buentello in August

It’s a good thing that Gilbert Yvel made quick work of Pedro Rizzo on Saturday night.  After all, it was announced beforehand that the winner would be facing Paul Buentello at the upcoming Affliction event in August.  While it’s hard to take a lot from a two-minute fight against a fighter as maddeningly inconsistent (and prone to underachieving) as Pedro Rizzo, Yvel did look good in his fight against Josh Barnett, which actually ended up taking some of the luster off of the impending Barnett-Fedor Emelianenko fight.

Yvel-Buentello will probably be a more entertaining fight, anyway.  While Buentello could one day creep back towards the top ten if he could string some quality wins together, it’s unlikely that Yvel or Rizzo will ever reach that level again in the future, so entertainment value is what that one should be all about, anyway.  Affliction is going to have a hard time finding quality fights for Fedor pretty soon here, but at least they have some entertaining and unpredictable fighters like Yvel to spice things up.

Vasquez Makes a Successful Comeback; Atencio Wins Again

Javier Vazquez was on the cusp of MMA stardom once upon a time, as he was 10-2 with only a couple of decision losses to his name by November of 2003.  However, his career had already been plagued by multiple serious knee injuries, which caused him to call it quits altogether.  He came back for two fights in 2007 before deciding to retire again- this time not due to injuries, but just because he wanted to focus on coaching and spending time with his family.

I’m not sure what his intentions are after his win this past weekend against Mark Kergosien (who had the unenviable task of taking on Vazquez on short notice for his first pro fight), but hopefully the fighter known for his slick ground game and pink shorts will stick around for awhile.  It’s a shame that Din Thomas had to pull out of the fight at the last minute; Thomas would have been a much better fight for Vazquez and would have told us a lot more about what Vazquez has left in the tank.

Meanwhile, Affliction’s promoter, Tom Atencio, won again.  You have to give Atencio credit for getting out there and competing.  He’s too inexperienced in his early 40’s to make any real waves in MMA as a competitor, but it’s good to see that he’s doing it not for the money or to be the best, but just because he wants to give it a shot.  Let’s hope that his promotion has as much fight left in it as he seems to, so that fighters continue to have other destinations than the UFC to ply their trade.

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Brock Lesnar, Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, UFC