UFC 128 Parting Shots

Fightmania will be busy this weekend, as I’ll be previewing the preliminary and main card bouts for tomorrow night’s UFC Fight Night event, as well as providing a live blog covering the fights. There’s also Bellator, of course, which any good MMA fan would be crazy to miss. Before all that comes, here are some of my last thoughts on what went down at UFC 128.

What’s the future look like for Shogun?

When I re-watched Saturday’s title fight between “Shogun” Rua and Jon Jones, I realized that Shogun hadn’t looked as terrible as I initially thought when I saw the fight live.

Don’t get me wrong; he looked terrible in that there are very few positives for him to take out of the two and a half rounds in which he fought Jones. However, he didn’t look horrible in terms of cardio or athleticism. He just seemed to lack any kind of coherent game plan.

While Jones was doing everything he could to maximize his reach and keep Shogun guessing, Shogun seemed all too comfortable to respond to what Jones was doing instead of imposing his own will. He couldn’t get past Jones’ reach, and his attempts all too often consisted of charging forward with looping punches.

On the mat, I’m 100% sure that Shogun had no idea just how annoying it would be to have Jones on top of him. I’m convinced right now that Jones has the most dynamic, lethal ground and pound in the division, and I don’t think it’s really even close (more on that later). Shogun seemed to want to attack Jones’ legs on the mat, but both times he tried, he failed to pull Jones to the mat to allow some leglock attempts. Otherwise, that may not have been such a bad idea.

However, Shogun still seems to lack the explosiveness that he had in his Pride days. The surgeries seem to have taken their toll, and while he’s still a good striker, he used to be as aggressive and unpredictable as Jones is now, and he’s a far cry from that status presently. It’s hard to imagine Shogun winning a rematch with Jones at any point, although he still does match up fairly well with many top light heavyweights on the UFC’s roster (with the possible exception being Rashad Evans, who would be too fast and could plant Shogun on his back all day).

Maybe it’s time for Shogun-Forrest 2? Forrest Griffin is coming off of a win and the fight makes sense in terms of the UFC’s rankings, the “unfinished business” storyline that writes itself, and the entertainment value of the fight itself. Shogun will be in the top ten for a long time, but his time as a champion may be over.

Jones unbeatable? Here we go again

The same trends rear their ugly heads from time to time, no matter what cautionary tales linger in the recent past. Right now, for instance, Jon Jones is seen as “unbeatable” by many; a champ that could bring stability to the light heavyweight division that we haven’t seen since Chuck Liddell’s day.

Jones is quite a fighter and a rare talent, but to look past Rashad Evans and start wondering aloud whether Phil Davis (who has been an overlooked prospect for quite some time now by many fans) is the one to unseat Jones is a bit presumptuous.

Lyoto Machida. Brock Lesnar. BJ Penn. Remember those guys? They were UFC champs not too long ago; part of a crop that included Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva that looked to be the most dominant group the sport had ever had. All had dominated opponents, even in title fights, and looked to be near indestructible. Well, we all saw what happened.

Again, the mantra of “styles make fights” comes to mind. Jones is a superb talent, but he has not yet faced anyone comparable to Rashad Evans (outside of practice, anyway), Phil Davis, or any of the other top contenders in the division. I know it’s easy to get carried away, as we all did when Penn or Machida looked unbeatable, but let’s be honest here. Jones will be facing nothing but top-level fighters from here on out, and to forecast him as some unbeatable champion before he’s so much as had a title defense is a little crazy.

I admit that I’m intrigued to see Jones fight other elite fighters and to see how he stacks up or handles adversity in the form of tough style matchups or being put in a bad position in a title fight. Jones is capable of being the champ for years to come, but so was Machida. Doing it is another matter entirely.

Cro Cop’s chin betrays him again

It’s hard to say whether or not Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic would have been able to absorb the shots that took him out against Brendan Schaub or Frank Mir back in the Pride days. The tendency is to say that, as with Chuck Liddell, the punishment has mounted and he can’t take the kind of punishment he used to. Do we really know that’s true, though?

How many really hard shots did he even take in the Pride days? Back then, the fear he instilled in his often-overwhelmed opponents protected him as much as his chin did, if not more. He rarely had to absorb hard strikes because he was always on the attack against a respectful, cautious opponent. When he did get tagged (Kevin Randleman, anyone?), he went down like anyone else would have.

Therefore, I’m not sure that Cro Cop needs to retire out of concern for his health. I think he should hang it up, but only because it’s clear that at this point in his career he will not reach his former level of excellence, or anything close to it. However, that’s his call and it’s not my place to tell someone not to continue making money doing something they enjoy, if they really want to. I don’t think he’s in the kind of danger Liddell is where every decent shot is laying him out cold. Of course, when you fight in the heavyweight division, not being able to keep opposing fighters from clocking you can quickly become a dangerous proposition.

Quick Shots

–It was business as usual for both Nate Marquardt and Urijah Faber, who fought effectively against solid opposition to further their respective quests for a title. Faber, of course, is much closer and could be next in line for a shot at Dominick Cruz for the featherweight strap. Faber’s marketability and the possibility of a fun feud between the two help his cause. Marquardt doesn’t have those elements in his favor, and will need to keep winning and look impressive doing so in order to get his chance. Marquardt did look good, though, and though the crowd on hand wasn’t exactly wowed by the fight, I could see that he was working hard to finish when the opportunity presented itself- it’s just that Dan Miller was up to the task.

–When will Kamal Shalorus figure it out? It’s gotten to the point where he is putting his career in jeopardy because he would rather wing looping punches at his opponents than fight an intelligent fight. That may sound extreme, but he just lost his UFC debut and two losses in a row in the UFC’s lightweight division is not a good recipe for career stability. This guy needs to realize that until he stops presenting himself as a one-dimensional brawler, he’ll simply be making his opponents’ jobs easier.

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Tags: Dan Miller, Jon Jones, Kamal Shalorus, Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua, Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic, Nate Marquardt, Phil Davis, Rashad Evans, UFC, UFC 128, Urijah Faber