MMA Roundup: Shields, Sonnen, Toney, Dream vs. UFC

Unquestionably the biggest (and simultaneously the least-surprising) news of the last week or so has been that Jake Shields will sign with the UFC. Of course, that doesn’t mean there’s not plenty else to talk about, with trash talk from Chael Sonnen, James Toney, and Dream itself to discuss, as well as the upcoming UFC debut of one Mark Hunt. Let’s kick things off right away with the Shields story as we round up the biggest MMA stories.

Shields Will Fight in the UFC at 170

It’s funny- out of all of the ways I could have found out that the much-anticipated signing of Jake Shields to the UFC had taken place, I saw it on ESPN. That’s right, an otherwise dull day of channel surfing resulted in a raised eyebrow as I saw the news on the ticker on the bottom of my screen. Good for you, ESPN. Of course, Sports Illustrated’s Josh Gross has since reported that the deal is not done, so maybe ESPN doesn’t deserve props on this, after all. Gross says the terms have been agreed to, but the contract hasn’t been officially signed yet.

Regardless, Shields will be fighting in the UFC, and at welterweight, to boot. He will be likely to face a top welterweight not named “Georges St. Pierre” in his first fight, which many are assuming will be the winner of the Thiago Alves-Jon Fitch bout on August 7th. That sounds good enough to me, and whether he fought at welterweight or middleweight, he would be providing a much-needed shake-up to either division.

Sonnen Continues Crazy Behavior

We’re all aware that Chael Sonnen basically talked his way out of relative obscurity and into a high-profile title fight with Anderson Silva. Sure, he had a few quality wins along the way, but nothing that would exactly blow anyone away. However, Sonnen has long since kept talking until he ended up on the wrong side of the crazy border, comparing a black belt in jiu-jitsu from the Nogueira brothers to a Happy Meal toy, reducing Rich Franklin to being just “a math teacher from Ohio” and taking every possible opportunity to slam the mercurial Silva.

His latest digs include a funny-for-all-the-wrong-reasons comment about Silva’s “fifteen minutes of fame are up”, which would seem to be a much more apt description of what is to come for Sonnen himself. It’s not as if anyone was talking about Sonnen before he beat Nate Marquardt and started putting Silva on blast. Meanwhile, Silva has been number one in his weight class for years. He’s debatably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport and sure-fire future Hall of Famer…well, unless he keeps pissing Dana White off. Oh, and Sonnen has said that every other 185 and 205 pound fighter in the UFC is a coward, too.

Amusingly enough, when Silva tracked Sonnen down at a recent UFC Fan Expo (after Sonnen walked by and said Silva wouldn’t have to worry about signing autographs in a couple of months, because no one would want them), he apparently didn’t have much to say to Silva’s face. Silva told Sonnen to “relax”, and Sonnen told an interviewer afterward that he couldn’t remember what else had taken place. Riiiiiight.

James Toney Joins Apparent Competition with Sonnen

You may wonder who can challenge Sonnen in the realm of ridiculous, over the top trash talking. I would counter that by saying that Sonnen may not even be the champ anymore. Why not? Because of James Toney.

“After I knock out Randy Couture, I’m coming for Brock’s bitch ass next,” Toney said, calling out a man that would take him down in .2 seconds and proceed to grind him into burger with very little effort at all. He did earn some points by aptly pointing out that his new rival Dana White is “too scared to get in the cage.” Still, it wouldn’t appear that looking past a multiple-time UFC champion and trying to start an Austin vs. McMahon rivalry with the UFC president is a great way for Toney to get started. Perhaps Toney should, I don’t know, win an MMA fight before crowning himself as UFC heavyweight champ?

Dream “Declares War” on UFC…No, Really

Hey, you know Dream? The lovable but mostly-underwhelming Japanese MMA organization that does a pretty good Pride impression, other than having about a third of the talent that Pride had in its heyday? Well, they just scored a nice sum of money, raising an investment of over 200 million US dollars. So now, FEG (parent company of Dream and K-1) got a nice little bit of cash flow and is acting like a high school kid who just got his first paycheck from McDonald’s and has gone to the mall to spend it all.

K-1 prez Sadaharu Tanikawa not only issued a “declaration of war” against the UFC, but puzzlingly enough, against the pro-wrestling organization WWE, as well. This was said despite an admission that Dream “won’t stand a chance in the American market”, so they plan on taking on the rest of the world instead. A noble goal, right?

Unfortunately, so much of Dream’s production is focused on traditional Japanese MMA presentation (right down to the roster of fighters) that the organization will have a hard time gaining ground on the UFC in many other countries, too. I doubt that fans in England, Germany, Brazil or many other locations will be following Dream more avidly than the UFC in the future.

Quick Shots

–Mark Hunt has confirmed that he will be fighting at UFC 119 against fellow UFC newcomer Sean McCorkle. Hunt comes in without a win in the last few years, but UFC president Dana White insists that he is being brought in because of a stipulation with Hunt’s contract that was triggered during the Pride acquisition. Hmmm. For his part, Hunt has been (wisely) mum on any contract details or why he finds himself in the UFC at this point in his career. He also openly regrets not having trained harder earlier in his career, but maintains that he is taking fighting seriously for the first time now.

I’m excited to see Hunt in the Octagon, as I was always a fan. He’s 36 years old and will be unlikely to threaten the elite wrestlers that make the top of the UFC heavyweight division, but if he can beat the 6’7″ McCorkle, he could take part in some fun fights against the UFC’s better strikers. A Cro Cop rematch would be great, for instance.

–Strikeforce’s Scott Coker won’t say that he has signed former WWE wrestler Dave Batista, but he will openly speculate on how entertaining a Batista fight against fellow WWE alum Bobby Lashley could be. He even says that such a bout “absolutely” be a pay-per-view level fight.

I generally like how Coker does things, but I strongly disagree on this one. Any “fun” regarding such a matchup ends the moment the bell rings and Lashley double-legs Batista through the cage and onto the arena floor. Batista is a 41-year old rookie with no amateur wrestling or traditional martial arts background. If he fights, it should be on a Showtime undercard against a fellow newbie, such as with Herschel Walker. In fact, Batista-Walker could be a fun fight eventually. See, a “fun fight” would ideally have some element of doubt as to the outcome. Pairing two former WWE wrestlers just because they were “sports entertainers” is just clown shoes.

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Tags: Anderson Silva, Bobby Lashley, Brock Lesnar, Chael Sonnen, Dana White, Dave Batista, DREAM, Herschel Walker, Jake Shields, James Toney, Mark Hunt, Randy Couture, Scott Coker, Strikeforce, UFC