UFC 110 Parting Shots
Depending on your feelings towards Cain Velasquez and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, you may have spent the last half of your weekend excited for the future of a great young heavyweight, or mourning the apparent decline of one of the best of all-time. You may have even done a bit of both! Besides that fight, there is a lot to talk about in regards to UFC 110 before we all move on to what happens next. Here are my thoughts on the UFC’s first trip down under.
How Far Can Velasquez Go?
I’ll discuss the future of Nogueira later on in a separate column, but the more pressing subject since Saturday night has been how far Velasquez can take himself in a very tough division. Whereas before the Nogueira fight, there were reservations about his standup, his fast hands and crisp, powerful punches during the fight last weekend have made many wonder aloud whether Velasquez is championship material in the near future, rather than in the long-term.
I like his chances. The thing with the heavyweight division is that there are very few fighters who are extremely skilled across many disciplines (Frank Mir may be an exception). Velasquez, even as a relative newbie, is one of the more well-rounded fighters in the division already. Velasquez is a tough matchup for anyone in the division- yes, even Brock Lesnar- because he is a better wrestler than the top-notch strikers, and is a better striker than the other great wrestlers.
If anything, the biggest weakness Velasquez may have in a fight with Shane Carwin or Lesnar could be his size. Velasquez is no small fighter at about 245 pounds, but he could give up 30-40 pounds easily to fighters like Carwin or Lesnar, who cut weight to get to 265. In a fight with other very talented wrestlers, this could make a difference. After all, as a superior striker to both fighters (though both have power to spare), the result may hinge upon Velasquez’s ability to keep the fight standing until he decides otherwise. Even Mir has been packing quality weight on his frame lately to compete with the bigger fighters in the division. All told, Saturday’s fight may be the last time in awhile that Velasquez enters the cage as the bigger fighter. How he deals with that issue, and how he continues to develop, will determine how well he meets his considerable potential.
One Last Note on Silva-Bisping
It turns out that I was wrong about one thing- Bisping has publicly disagreed with the decision. Of course, he did so in a way far-removed from the extremely over-the-top method used by his personal website’s administrator. Let me point out, lest someone think me a Bisping “hater”, that I tend not to hate people whom I have never met, which sadly puts me very much in the minority of MMA fans. I do think Bisping is a touch overrated, as he is a well-rounded fighter but poses no particular threat in any one area. I think his skill-set will keep him in the mix throughout his career, but probably won’t allow him to wear a title belt.
I do want to point out as sort of an epilogue to my last column that I don’t begrudge someone for getting emotionally involved in their favorite fighter’s bouts. However, to feign objectivity when you effectively saw the entire fight through the eyes of an extremely biased individual is pretty disingenuous. Hey, at least pick your battles well. Bisping is sure to be in a fight one day that has a legitimately controversial conclusion.
Oh, wait- he already was…in his 2007 “win” over Matt Hamill. Perhaps he should just suck it up and call this one even.
What’s Next for Bader?
With all the justified excitement over Velasquez, it’s unfortunate that another promising young wrestler has been overlooked- Ryan Bader. It’s also unfortunate that people have underrated Bader’s opponent, Keith Jardine, which naturally leads to looking past Bader as a credible light heavyweight contender in the making.
Don’t let anyone tell you different- Jardine is a tough, tough fighter. Sure, he’s lost a few fights lately, but with the exception of Houston Alexander, those losses are to absolute top-flight competition. He’s beaten some quality fighters, too, like former light heavyweight champs Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell.
Most of all, though, never forget to take into account the method of victory when appraising a win. No one doubted that Bader could take Jardine down and probably hold him down for a decision or ground-and-pound win. However, Bader stood up with a guy with an awkward style that some good strikers have failed to finish in the past and put him away. It’s proof that Bader is working hard to round out his game, unlike so many other gifted wrestlers who have come into the sport and failed to do so. I’m not predicting a title for the guy in the future yet, but he’s definitely going to be a contender at some point…maybe sometime soon.
Quick Shots
–Congrats to Chris Lytle for getting yet another performance bonus, this time for Submission of the Night. Lytle’s impressive (and cringe-inducing) kneebar on the talented Brian Foster made him an extra 50 grand. Even though Lytle won by default, as no other fighter won by submission, his kneebar was slick enough to win the bonus on just about any event we’ve seen recently. Incredibly, it’s Lytle’s seventh performance bonus in his last nine fights.
What’s next for Lytle? I don’t get a vote, but if I did I would cast my ballot for another fight with Marcus Davis. It’s been over a year since their first bout, Davis is coming off of a loss, and the first fight was both entertaining and extremely close.
–I’m not going to project George Sotiropoulos into the title mix as quickly as some are. I was impressed with how he used his reach effectively and the ground exchanges were awesome between him and Stevenson, but I need to see Sotiropoulos against another quality lightweight before I jump to conclusions. He looked very good, though: extremely savvy on the mat.
–It’s a shame that Bonnar-Soszynski ended with a cut from an unintentional headbutt, and a bigger shame that Soszynski was granted a TKO victory. The problem as far as I can tell is that although the Nevada State Athletic Commission has OK’ed instant replay in such a case, that doesn’t mean it will be used in Australia, as we saw Saturday night.
If the referee had correctly assessed the cause of the cut, we would have gone to the cards for a decision. A lot of people think the fighters split the first two rounds, and we might have had a draw. Unfortunately, there’s no satisfactory result in such a situation, although it’s good that Bonnar won’t be cut due to a referee’s error, the way that Tim Hague was shown the door after a dubious decision loss at UFC 109.
Tags: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Cain Velasquez, Chris Lytle, Keith Jardine, Krzysztof Soszynski, Michael Bisping, Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic, Ryan Bader, Stephan Bonnar, UFC 110, Wanderlei Silva
