UFC 113 Parting Shots
Seven days is an eternity now that we have MMA events just about every weekend to look forward to. It is almost a shame that before we can even reflect on what happened in the last big event, we start looking towards the next one. Because of both procrastination and stubbornness, we will not be observing this trend here at Fightmania.com this week. Want proof? Here are my UFC 113 Parting Shots.
Shogun Could Reign for a While
If there is a “hot potato” division within the UFC, it is certainly the light heavyweight division. You have to go back to the days of Chuck Liddell’s title reign to find someone who was actually able to defend the belt more than once (or at all for that matter). However, I think that Mauricio “Shogun” Rua could be the one to change that trend for the time being.
Those who are only familiar with Shogun from his UFC fights may still be skeptical of the Brazilian fighter, but anyone who saw him in his heyday during the last years of Pride’s existence have seen the explosiveness that Shogun displayed in putting away Lyoto Machida before. It seems that Shogun has put his injury troubles behind him and has fully adapted to fighting within the UFC octagon.
His first title defense would be against the winner of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans, and either fighter would provide Shogun with a very winnable fight. Rampage would actually be a better outcome for Shogun, I think. Shogun has beaten him handily in the past, and his leg kicks will give Rampage fits. Meanwhile, Rampage’s style of wrestling is not going to be that well-matched against Shogun, as Evans would likely have much more success with taking the champion to the mat. Shogun’s underrated jiu-jitsu would still keep Rampage in constant danger if the fight did hit the mat, especially given that Rampage has always been a bit careless in that realm in the past (though to his credit, he has done a great job in his career of escaping very good submission attempts from his opponents).
Some of the other higher-ranked guys in the division, such as Forrest Griffin and Thiago Silva, would offer difficult challenges, but challenges that I would expect Shogun to be prepared for. Though Forrest beat him in his first UFC appearance, Shogun certainly has the tools to make a rematch very frustrating for Griffin. Rematches against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Lyoto Machida could beckon, as well. I don’t know that Machida has shown us that he can beat Shogun legimately, and I’m starting to believe that the only thing that saved him in their first fight was Shogun’s reluctance to be truly aggressive in the earlier rounds.
Koscheck Will Be Ready for GSP
The rematch between Josh Koscheck and reigning UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre will be a good one, even though it will be delayed until the end of the year because of the continued silliness of putting UFC champions on “The Ultimate Fighter” and making them sit out while the show tapes for a couple of months and airs for three more.
What surprises me is that almost nobody is giving Koscheck a chance against GSP. There is a funny bit of reasoning going around that insists that no welterweight (Koscheck included) will be able to out-wrestle GSP. This line of thinking persists somehow, even though GSP himself came into the UFC as someone who was far from an elite wrestler. So, St. Pierre turned himself into an elite wrestler with a few years of hard work (and freakish athleticism), but no one else in the division could do the same thing? I don’t buy it.
I’m not saying that Koscheck will beat St. Pierre, but I think that he has a chance. I believe that, for the rematch, he will work hard on his wrestling, armed with the knowledge of how he has seen St. Pierre fight in their first matchup and in all of his fights since. When St. Pierre fought Koscheck the first time, he took Koscheck by surprise, but in his almost-obsessive effort to avoid another loss like the one to Matt Serra, St. Pierre has allowed himself to become a one-trick pony. I’m not sure that he should want to have a pure grappling match with Koscheck after giving him six months to prepare.
So, Was That the Kimbo Slice “Era”?
And thus, another era ends. Only in sports can everything be its own “era”, even if said era only lasts about six months. At UFC 113, the Machida Era abruptly ended, and apparently, so did the Kimbo Slice Era. Still, don’t shed too many tears for the brawler from Florida. He made a lot- a lot of money for being a dude that beat up fat guys on YouTube, and if he was smart and saved it all he will lead a nice, cushy life from here on out. He still has plenty of lucrative paydays waiting for him in Japan or elsewhere. I’m sure Shine Fights would love to have him right about now, with fighters on their cards dropping off like flies and all.
Perhaps Dana White has learned his lesson now, and will not overpursue 30-something year old brawlers who decided to pick up the sport after they had already raked in as much as they could doing bareknuckle boxing in parking lots. No, wait…that definitely won’t happen. As much as White likes to point the finger at other promotions for pulling publicity stunts, the fact that Slice will now forever be a former UFC fighter shows that he’s definitely not above pandering to the lowest common denominator for some pay-per-view buys or television ratings. Anything to get the ratings up for “The Ultimate Fighter”, right? After all, the sport would shrivel and die without that show, which means that it must remain the top priority for the organization, no matter how stale, formulaic, or outdated it becomes.
Let’s hope that the ridiculous signing of James Toney works out better than the Slice signing did. The guy never even had a knockout in his three UFC fights, for crying out loud. I don’t doubt that Kimbo worked hard to improve his game, but the UFC is supposed to be the “Super Bowl of mixed martial arts”. It’s not a place for people to get on-the-job training, Toney included. You shouldn’t be able to come in with basically no mixed martial arts experience and fight on a UFC card. And please, don’t say to me, “what about Brock Lesnar?”, because that would be really inconvenient to the point I’m trying to make here.
Tags: Forrest Griffin, Georges St. Pierre, James Toney, Josh Koscheck, Kimbo Slice, Lyoto Machida, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Rashad Evans, UFC, UFC 113
