UFC 104: Something to Prove

Every fight is about proving something. Most often, it’s just about proving who is the better fighter. The UFC calls the Octagon “the ultimate proving grounds for fighters.” I spent last week arguing that they are right. This week though, a few fighters have a little something extra to prove.

The UFC title at 205 lbs has been a hot potato lately, bouncing from one set of hands to another. It has only been successfully defended once since Quinton Jackson took it away from Chuck Liddell. The current champion, Lyoto Machida has shown few weaknesses in his last few fights, but he’s also never had to defend the title before.

Next week, you’ll be hearing once again, that a champion is not a champion until he defends the belt. By this standard, there hasn’t been a real champ at 205 since Quinton Jackson. Lyoto Machida needs to prove that he’s more than just a “one and done” champion, as Quinton Jackson described Rashad Evans last week in his blog.

If Machida wins, he will prove that he is the real champion. He’ll also go one step further in validating Karate as an effective martial art. Needless to say, there’s a lot on the line for Lyoto Machida in this fight.

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua carries his own set of burdens into this fight as well. He looked good against Chuck Liddell, but a win over Chuck Liddell isn’t as valuable anymore as it used to be. Liddell may have been a top-level fighter, but if he was, he was still past his prime when he fought Shogun.

Shogun’s previous win was over another aging legend, Mark Coleman. Shogun has not defeated a young fighter since his days in Pride FC. In fact, the entire reason the UFC is able to sell this fight for the title is because of Shogun’s impressive run in Pride.

Unfortunately, in MMA fighters always say that you’re only as good as your last fight. People aren’t going to keep giving credit to Shogun for his wins in Pride forever. Eventually Shogun is going to need to get some new big wins, otherwise people are going to say that he’s as past his prime as his last two opponents.

Shogun is at least lucky that he does have history to fall back upon. The two fighters in the UFC 104 co-main event are still looking to prove themselves as legitimate contenders.

Velasquez received a lot of criticism despite a dominant win over Cheick Kongo. Velasquez was dropped by strikes on multiple occasions, and was unable to stop Kongo within the three round distance. Because of this, questions have arisen about Velasquez’s abilities. That Velasquez was dropped has raised questions about Velasquez’s ability to succeed in prolonged striking exchanges should he not be able to get his opponent to the ground.

The fact that Velasquez was unable to finish Kongo despite landing over one hundred punches to the face has raised questions about Velasquez’s striking power and finishing abilities. Rashad Evans commented recently that because of his lack of finishing ability, he’s going to have a hard time against other heavyweights because they can drop him, while he hasn’t shown the ability to drop them. Velasquez will get his chance to prove his critics wrong.

Rothwell, on the other hand, gets his chance to prove that he’s more than just a foil for the real contenders. Rothwell has a 30-6 record that includes a lot of credible wins. However, he doesn’t have that big win that really separates him from the pack. He had a chance to get that big win when he fought Andrei Arlovski last year, but was knocked out in the third round. A win over Velasquez would be the biggest in in his career.

Among the other fighters on UFC104, a there are a few that face fairly unique challenges as well.

Anthony Johnson’s fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida is one of the more interesting fights. This is an unusual case where both fighters have a good chance to win, but the fight is more likely to be a blowout for either fighter.

Yoshida’s fights just seem to go that way. He finished quickly in submission wins over Jon Koppenhaver and Brandon Wolff, but was starched brutally by Josh Koscheck.

Anthony Johnson has the ability to do a lot of brutal starching, but his submission loss to Rich Clementi also shows that he can be beaten by a submission specialist like Yoshida. Yoshida gets his chance to prove that he can overcome the knockout power that he couldn’t overcome in his bout with Koscheck, while Johnson gets to show that he’s able to avoid a dangerous submission game.

Perhaps the fight that almost nobody is looking forward to is the fight between Chael Sonnen and Yushin Okami. Both of these fighters have been frequently labeled as boring by fans and media, leading to the expectation that whatever happens in their fight, it’s not going to be exciting.

The UFC has held on to both fighters though, showing respect for fighting ability over marketability. UFC management doesn’t want to keep two boring fighters though. Okami and Sonnen are very similar fighters. The UFC only needs one of them, and so the best way to eliminate the other is to have them fight each other.

Okami and Sonnen may just be fighting to save their places in the UFC. The only way I can see both staying in the UFC is if somehow by placing the two fighters against each other, they manage to bring out an exciting fight.

By Darren Wong for FightMania.com

Tags: Andrei Arlovski, Chael Sonnen, Chuck Liddell, Josh Koscheck, Lyoto Machida, Mark Coleman, Quinton Jackson, Rashad Evans, UFC