MMA Quick Thoughts- BJ Penn, Mir/Lesnar, more

There’s a lot going on in MMA, as always, and with UFC 100 around the corner and big events coming up from Affliction and Strikeforce, there’s a lot to talk about.  Here are some quick thoughts as we head into the busiest part of 2009 for mixed martial arts, including thoughts on BJ Penn’s conditioning, the smack talk between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir, and two UFC heavyweight champs on bad losing streaks.

Penn Looks Ready to Fight

BJ Penn, who has always been the subject of chatter regarding his weight and conditioning, tried to lay rumors of his looking past lightweight title challenger Kenny Florian to rest recently.  He posted a quick clip of him weighing himself on a home scale, which read just under 167 pounds.  Not bad!  Apparently, the UFC Lightweight Champion is taking his bout with Kenny Florian seriously.  Or is he?

I’m not denying that Penn is working hard as we lead up to UFC 101, as I’m sure that he is.  However, what’s his motivation during his training sessions?  It seems as if he’s at least as motivated due to his loss to Georges St. Pierre (which he still disputes) as he is due to the fight with Florian.  It hasn’t really seemed like he is considering Florian to be a true threat, and perhaps he really just wants to beat Florian to make a statement to GSP and others who doubt him after the GSP fight.

Luckily, none of that matters.  I’m of the opinion that “looking past” your current opponent is really overrated in combat sports (or any sport, really), unless it causes you to not train like you should.  If Penn’s motivation to beat Florian is to one day get another fight with GSP, what’s the difference?  If he’s still training hard and studying Florian’s previous fights, he’ll still come in and perform well.

The Lesnar-Mir Smack Talk Heats Up

I have to admit, even as a person who has followed the sport for years now and who has seen tons of fights, good old-fashioned trash talking still gets me pumped up to see a bout.  The talk between Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar has heated up as the fight has gotten closer, with both fighters having some interesting things to say about one another recently.

Mir told Maxim magazine that “if Brock Lesnar was never in the WWE, he would never have gotten a title shot…it’s not always about who’s a better fighter.”  He claims that Lesnar was trying to get a quick victory by hitting him many times with little power, presumably to get a referee stoppage.  He called the perceived approach “not really an honorable way to try to win,” and says, “All I remember from last time is him whimpering and wincing as I was tapping him.”

Lesnar, for his part, says that Mir “knows deep down that he lost that fight,” and says that he knows he will beat Mir.  He has stayed pretty reserved in comparison to Mir, who went as far as to discredit Lesnar’s amateur wrestling background, saying that Lesnar “was not very technical…he used his size and his power…drew the pace down, got real boring.”

This is shaping up to be a great fight, as it’ll be interesting to see if Lesnar retains his balls-out approach from their first matchup or not.  Also, you have to wonder if Lesnar will be willing to stand with Mir for a bit, especially after experiencing success in the limited amount of time the two stood and traded in their first matchup, as well as knocking down both Heath Herring and Randy Couture with big punches.

Former UFC Champs Arlovski, Sylvia Fall on Hard Times

Meanwhile, two former UFC champions (and rivals) have really seen their stock fall as of late.  Andrei Arlovski was making over one million dollars to fight Fedor Emelianenko in Affliction not too long ago.  Now, he has since lost that fight due to a huge error in judgement that led to a KO loss, and also lost via a quick TKO to the undefeated but relatively unheralded Brett Rogers.

Meanwhile, Tim Sylvia also had a quick loss to Emelianenko, and followed that up with a sub-10 second loss via KO to 48-year old former boxer Ray Mercer.  The fight was supposed to be a boxing match but ended up being an MMA fight at the last minute, and Sylvia still chose to stand in front of Mercer.  Now, he’s had two quick KO losses in a row.

Arlovski has been dropped from Affliction, and Sylvia has been removed from Affliction’s upcoming show.  Meanwhile, both have seen their hopeful careers as professional boxers evaporate before their eyes, as each was hoping to enter the squared circle in the near future.  Arlovski was supposed to box in July, and will not be doing so now.

The lesson here is really that MMA fighters need to fight intelligently and to their own strengths, as well as their opponent’s weaknesses.  Arlovski made a mistake by moving straight back in response to a Rogers flurry and got caught, but why didn’t he move around more and look to take advantage of his ground skills or all-around striking?  For that matter, why attempt a flashy flying knee against Fedor Emelianenko when you’re already winning the fight early on?  Then there’s Sylvia, who admits he got caught up in Mercer’s trash talking and stood with the former boxing champ as a result.  If Sylvia takes that fight to the ground, there’s a zero percent chance Mercer wins.  Instead, Sylvia plummets down the rankings and may have to find a new employer.

Perhaps this will serve as a warning to MMA fighters who have pretty good boxing in the cage, and think that they can take that skill to professional boxing, or stand up with fighters instead of taking advantage of their ground ability.  Anyone can get knocked out in an MMA fight, and fighters need to take the fight to wherever they have the biggest advantage.  Of course, separating ego and machismo from professional fighting is a lost cause, isn’t it?

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Andrei Arlovski, Brett Rogers, Brock Lesnar, Fedor Emelianenko, Frank Mir, Georges St. Pierre, Kenny Florian, Randy Couture, Strikeforce, Tim Sylvia, UFC