UFC 102 Parting Shots
UFC 102 had a great combination of legends building onto already impressive legacies, great fighters reestablishing their places in their divisions, and up-and-coming fighters giving us all a reason to look forward to their future fights. With all that happened, including at least three fighters starting a path that could likely lead to a title shot within the next year, there’s a lot to discuss.
Nogueira Far from Finished, What About Couture?
It was a welcome surprise on Saturday night to see a version of Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira that is much improved from what we had previously seen against Frank Mir. Nogueira, who has confirmed that he battled a staph infection along with knee problems directly leading up to his loss against Mir, looked very fresh and more than ready to go five rounds on Saturday, even against such stiff competition as multiple-time UFC champion and Hall of Famer Randy Couture.
While Nogueira’s future in a heavyweight division that increasingly features men who actually ***cut*** weight to meet the 265 pound limit is still a bit of a question mark, his win over Couture cements a legacy that will see him remembered as one of the greatest MMA fighters of all-time. As far as what will happen from here goes, Nogueira still needs to work on taking less big shots during exchanges. He may have been able to do that against Couture, who is not known for standup KO power, but against someone as large and strong as Brock Lesnar or even Shane Carwin, it’s a recipe for disaster.
Meanwhile, Couture showed a ton of heart and some great submission defense during the bout, but still looked overwhelmed for much of the fight, especially as things moved on. Several times, Nogueira was able to drop Couture, which again causes questions about whether Couture should be giving up 20 or more pounds to opponents this late in his career. It would seem that a return to 205 pounds is the best route for Couture to go, aside from the odd matchup here and there with lighter heavyweights that compete at about 220 or 230 pounds.
Silva Is a Killer Once Again
For those whose memory did not allow them to look beyond Thiago Silva’s destruction at the hands of Lyoto Machida, Silva’s absolute thrashing of Keith Jardine again reminded us all that this man is a true force in the light heavyweight division. Unfortunately, a fighter like Machida (just like his friend, Anderson Silva) is able to make very good fighters look very, very bad, but we’ve now seen that we shouldn’t be too quick to judge fighters solely by how they do against the light heavyweight champ.
Silva now has a number of high-profile matchups that could await him, and is likely a win or two from a title shot, depending on who he does get matched up with. With Machida’s next two defenses seemingly booked up, Silva will have to keep winning impressively until next summer in order to get a shot at revenge- in the very likely event that Machida is still the champion at that point. Meanwhile, Jardine is now once again in the unenviable position of really needing to put together some wins, although, as always, he only loses to the very best in the division.
Did Marquardt Smash the Maia Myth?
From the pre-fight hype (including some coming from yours truly), you would have halfway expected Demian Maia to snatch up a flying armbar victory over Nate Marquardt within the first fifteen seconds of their fight on Saturday night. Such is the tendency with fighters who are admittedly one-dimensional, but have succeeded to the level that Maia has in that particularly dimension.
However, Marquardt’s devastating knockout victory is a good reminder that we shouldn’t get too carried away with fighters who have a less than well-rounded game in today’s MMA landscape. Still, I don’t think that Maia is a myth, and I believe he has what it takes to be a future champion down the line. There’s really no shame to being KO’ed by a fighter of Marquardt’s caliber, and Maia will undoubtedly continue to improve his striking as time goes by.
Many Maia apologists, who were ready to crown him as Anderson Silva’s successor, have not wanted to give credit to Marquardt, instead favoring the idea that “anyone can get knocked out”, or even calling the finish a fluke altogether. This is unfortunate, because anyone with even a little experience with sparring or learning the striking arts knows that the kind of timing and power Marquardt displayed is a very impressive thing. Marquardt may not be the man to beat Anderson Silva (is there such a man, anyway?), but he definitely deserves a chance to try again. You also have to give him props for doing what so many other fighters decide not to do: ending his attack when he realized that his opponent was knocked out.
Rosholt, Simpson, and Duffee Come Up Big
It was not a good night for Oregon-based fighters: counting Randy Couture, who formerly trained out of Oregon for years, Oregon’s sons were 1-4, with Evan Dunham’s split decision win over Marcus Aurelio being the only thing the Oregonians in the crowd had to cheer about. However, it was a very good night to be an impressive prospect, as Jake Rosholt, Aaron Simpson and Todd Duffee showed.
I was very surprised with the way that Rosholt overwhelmed Chris Leben. Leben gets a lot of flack on the internet in forums and other places where MMA know-it-alls irresponsibly assign “tomato can” status to those who don’t deserve it, but he is a very experienced, very good fighter. For Rosholt, with his limited time training in the sport, to dominate Leben not only in the wrestling part of the matchup, but also with surprisingly good striking and a great submission to get the win, is worthy of some raised eyebrows.
I wasn’t as taken with Simpson as everyone else seemed to be- I thought Herman did very well standing with him and it was a pretty competitive fight up until the knee injury in the last part of the first round- but he’s still someone to watch out for in the near future. It will be interesting to see if Simpson’s age leads the UFC to toss him into the deep end of the pool a little faster than they may otherwise have done so.
Finally, what can be said about Duffee’s ridiculous knockout of Tim Hague? We have to see a lot more of Todd Duffee before we put him up there alongside Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez, but so far, he’s off to a great start.
by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com
Tags: Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez, Chris Leben, Demian Maia, Frank Mir, Keith Jardine, Lyoto Machida, Randy Couture, Shane Carwin, Thiago Silva, UFC
