UFC 114 Parting Shots

After three months of “The Ultimate Fighter 10″, another several months of trash talking, three “Primetime” specials, and a few public staredowns, the fight between Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is in the books.  Oh, and a number of other fights happened on Saturday night, too, in case you hadn’t heard.  Read on for my completely unsolicited opinions on UFC 114.

OMG RAMPAGE-RASHAD BLACK-ON-BLACK CRIME BY GAWD WHAT A WAR OMG!!!

Sorry, I got carried away.  But didn’t we all during the lead up to this fight?  I tackled much of it already in my last column earlier today, but here are a few random notes on the fight before we all move on to the next Super Serious Grudge Match Between Two Guys That Don’t Like Each Other:

–I have seen damn near every UFC since UFC 40 live, and have watched all of them at one point or another, along with many other events from around the world, yet I don’t immediately recall ever hearing anyone come out to fight with Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones Pt. II” playing before Rashad Evans did on Saturday night.  How is this possible?  This song is definitely on my short list of best walk-out songs before a fight.  One day I’ll sit and write 1,500 words on what makes a great entrance song and what my picks are for the best ones I’ve heard, but alas…today is not that day.

–I’m starting to learn that a great staredown no longer has any bearing on the actual fight itself.  This wasn’t always the case.  Rampage and Wanderlei Silva always had great staredowns, then proceeded to go to war, for example.  However, look at not only Rampage-Rashad, but also the fight between Michael Bisping and Dan Miller from UFC 114.  Bisping basically head-butted Miller after a staredown reminiscent of Frye-Takayama, then the two went about jabbing one another, touching gloves whenever possible and hugging it out.  Another great recent example is the Kimbo Slice-Houston Alexander crapfest, which followed an epic staredown where both looked like they were ready to literally eat the other.

–I think that sometimes, confidence can be a fighter’s worst enemy.  Rampage said after the fight that he hadn’t expected Rashad to be as quick as he was, or to have the wrestling ability that he displayed in their fight.  Really?  Did Rampage watch any of Rashad’s previous fights?  How would he not know that Rashad was fast or that he has wrestling skills?  The only thing that I can think of is overconfidence- the same overconfidence that keeps him from worrying about learning to check leg kicks, perhaps.  It has worked for him in the past, such as when he would sloppily get himself caught in submissions, because he knew that his pure strength and determination would help him find a way out.  Now, though, it has clearly become detrimental to his career.  Oh, sorry…”detrimental” means “bad”, Rampage.

Fat Guy Power Wins Again!

It’s surprising that, this far into the life span of mixed martial arts, we are all still amazed when the guy without a bodybuilder’s physique knocks out the guy who looks like a comic book character come to life.  How many times have we seen this play out?  From Tank Abbott in the early days of the UFC to a fair number of the best heavyweights in the world since then (including Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Fedor Emelianenko, and others), there have been plenty of successful fighters who would never make the cover of Muscle & Fitness.

Still, when the portly Mike Russow knocked the chiseled Todd Duffee out cold on Saturday night, I can’t help but think that many were stunned because of the differences in physiques as much as the differences in ability that had been shown to that point.  Even when Joe Rogan interviewed Russow afterwards, he said it was one of the more amazing things he had seen in MMA, to which I thought, “Really, Joe?” He explained that Russow had barely landed any shots previous to the knockout punch, which is true, but I can’t help thinking that the image of a rather heavy dude putting it to a guy who looks like a bodybuilder had more to do with how shocking the result was in Rogan’s eyes.

Look at it this way.  One of the most astonishing turns of momentum I have ever seen in MMA was when Robbie Lawler recently faced Melvin Manhoef in Strikeforce.  Lawler really didn’t land any shots at all while taking so much abuse from Manhoef’s powerful leg kicks that the fight literally looked like it would be over any second, and then Lawler landed a knockout punch out of nowhere.  He ended up landing just a couple of punches in the entire fight- the punch that put Manhoef down, and the follow-up efforts to seal the deal.  In that fight, Lawler looked to be in more trouble than Russow ever did against Duffee, and did less than Russow did before the knockout occurred, yet the reactions to the result were much more subdued.

We’ve seen it with Roy Nelson, too.  People who have watched MMA for years are still somehow shocked when a guy with a belly instead of a six-pack knocks the crap out of a guy who looks like he lives in the gym.  How can we be surprised by this anymore?  In fact, I’ve long thought it surprising that none of the better fighters with less impressive physiques has really been able to really woo MMA fans.  After all, more fans in the stands look like Josh Barnett, Roy Nelson or Mike Russow than Todd Duffee, Cheick Kongo or Brock Lesnar.

Also, I’ve heard some suggest that the UFC put Russow against Nelson.  Bad idea.  If the UFC wants these guys to be taken seriously, putting them against one another so that the majority of the fans watching can chuckle at the idea of a “fat guy fight” is not going to help.  Finally, many in a sport that continually asks, “What have you done for me lately?” want to say Duffee is a sham or has a limited chance at big success in the division.  This is a mistake.  Duffee is a good fighter who just needs to work on his cardio, and learned an important lesson after being knocked out by an opponent that had not posed a threat to him at all during the fight prior to the last moments.  He’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

Quick Shots

–Why were my picks so awful?  How could I take Dan Miller over Michael Bisping?  These are good questions.  Another good question is, “Why was Miller content to stand and kickbox with Bisping for so long in their fight?”

–Did we learn anything about Bisping from the fight?  I don’t know about that.  I think he’s still about where I thought he was before: a fairly well-rounded fighter with good technical standup skills, but very little power.  Always knocking on the door of the top ten, but unlikely to ever be a champion in the division.

–In my original viewing (which I admit was diluted by the presence of alcohol and friends), I thought Jason Brilz was robbed against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.  He wasn’t.  It was a close fight that could have gone either way, and in the eyes of the judges, did.  We need to reserve terms like “robbed” for when they actually apply, rather than as a catch-all for “any decision that we don’t personally agree with.”

–The same goes with “lay and pray”.  I’m amazed at how many people are saying Rashad used this “tactic” against Rampage…despite the fact that the majority of the fight took place standing or in the clinch.  I’ve accepted the fact that fans who missed the early days of the UFC and Pride do not know what lay and pray really is, but should we not expect these fine folks to understand the difference between two fighters laying on the mat and standing up on their feet?

–Diego Sanchez is better off at lightweight.  He has always been at his best while roughing up fighters due to his strength advantage, and that just isn’t happening at welterweight anymore.  I’ve said before that I don’t agree with changing divisions based off of one bad matchup, and I still feel that way.  Too many fighters want to avoid looking at the skills that they need to improve, a need for a different strategy, or problems with their training camps or teams, and instead tell themselves that a change in weight class will turn everything around.  This is almost never the case.

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Tags: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Dan Miller, Jason Brilz, Melvin Manhoef, Michael Bisping, Mike Russow, Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson, Rashad Evans, Robbie Lawler, Roy Nelson, Todd Duffee, UFC, UFC 114