Bleacher Report - Articles by Tim Mann

UFC 97 Redemption: The Picks

Tim Mann — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:59:46 -0400

UFC 97 is fast approaching, so it's time for the quick and dirty breakdown of the card.

Well, if you've read my articles before, we both know this might be dirty, but it will probably not be so quick by the time it's over. I'll try to keep my pontificating to a minimum though, for the people just looking to hedge their bets.

Anderson Silva d. Thales Leites

I just can't see it any other way. I'm not entirely on the "Silva is invincible" bandwagon, but at the same time, Leites doesn't have much of a chance here.

His wins are all over middling or one-dimensional competition, save for Nate Marquardt, and anyone who saw that fight knows that he won on a technicality despite getting beat from pillar to post.

In addition to that, Leites has a tendency to stand and bang when he shouldn't, which has led to him getting knocked around by the likes of Ryan Jensen, and losing a decision to Martin Kampmann, whom he failed to take down time and again.

Silva has heard his detractors after the Cote fight, and will make a statement in this fight.

Chuck Liddell d. Shogun Rua

I might eat a lot of crow on this one, but I've always thought that even a Shogun with cardio is begging to be counter-punched. Shogun has a reputation as a vicious striker, and rightly so, but a lot of his finishing techniques are illegal in the UFC, and at the least require his opponent to be on the mat.

Even in his twilight years, Liddell is not an easy man to take down. Both men have shown glaring weaknesses in their last fights, but cardio is going to be the killer in this matchup. Liddell has never been one to get blitzed early in the fight, and he won't be underestimating the dangerousness of his opponent. Liddell by eventual TKO.

Krzysztof Soszynski d. Brian Stann

This matchup is hard to call, but I'd have to say that based on what I've seen before, even working at Xtreme Couture, Stann's ground game is suspect. He seems to rely on the gameplan of "punch the other guy until he falls down," and thus far it's worked pretty well for him.

I don't think he can catch Kryzstof fast enough, though. The Team Quest fighter is willing to stand and bang, but he also knows when to go to the ground, and has won there many times.

The only person of note to definitively stop Krzysztof is Ben Rothwell, and while I don't think trading blow for blow with Stann is a good idea, I also don't think he packs quite the punch that Rothwell does.

Cheick Kongo d. Antoni Hardonk

This an interestingly close fight. Both men excel at the striking, and both have proven to have incredibly dangerous kicks. In Hardonk, Kongo will finally be facing someone his own size, but Hardonk has shown that he can be overwhelmed by strikers like the brawling Eddie Sanchez, who was rag-dolling Hardonk before gassing out.

This fight could go either way on the feet, but Kongo has finally seen fit to improve his takedowns, and working with Rampage has made his ground and pound downright vicious.

I do think his ground abilities have progressed faster than Hardonk's submissions, which have always looked subpar for their supposed Gracie pedigree.

I just don't forsee this fight being the striker's war that many are predicting, and I think Kongo has the better tools to finish the fight.

Luis Cane d. Steve Cantwell

Cane has very seasoned striking that took out Sokoudjou, and the durability that it took to withstand that same onslaught. The fact that he is undefeated—aside from a mental lapse that caused a DQ against James Irvin—says a lot as well.

Cantwell would seem to have the edge on the ground, but for some reason I don't see the fight going there; Cane has the footwork to avoid it if he wants, I believe. Cantwell has only been under the big lights of the UFC one time, and was given a fairly low-level opponent.

I'm picking Cane based just on experience and quality of opponents.

Vinnie Magalhaes d. Eliot Marshall

Vinnie has shown to have a great submission game, and doesn't care whether he is on the top or bottom. Marshall is also a submission fighter, and while not as skilled as Vinnie, he is the more well-rounded fight in my opinion.

The issue is that Marshall doesn't have the power and wrestling to avoid the ground like Ryan Bader did en route to putting out the lights on the black belt. Sooner or later Marshall gets tangled on the ground, and he gets caught.

Xavier Foupa-Pokam d. Denis Kang

Kang will come out with something to prove after his disastrous debut, but Xavier is well rounded as well. I admit I don't know as much about "Professor X," but he has a number of wins by submission as well as (T)KO.

Kang has faced better competition, I believe, but has lost to most of them. Kang can't seem to settle down for a decision win, switching back and forth between tactics and needlessly exposing himself to danger. I'm picking Foupa-Pokam just based on Kang's tendency to throw away fights, but I wouldn't be surprised if it went the other way.

Jason MacDonald d. Nate Quarry

Quarry wants a stand-up fight, MacDonald likely wants nothing to do with it. MacDonald has done better against both of their common opponents, Rich Franklin and Demian Maia, even though both fighters have lost to both of them.

Also, MacDonald has been logging a crazy amount of cage time lately,fighting every few months, and Quarry can't seem to stop getting injured outside the ring. He also can't seem to get a fight that goes past the first—not counting the Starnes debacle. His ring rust will be his undoing.

David Loiseau d. Ed Herman

I think Loiseau has finally gotten his head right, and is coming off three wins, including a gutsy fifth round TKO of Solomon Hutcherson. Herman is an unpredictable fighter, and not in the good way. He has been winning and losing upsets his entire time in the UFC.

The telling factor is that Herman is not a very explosive fighter and will probably have difficulty controlling Loiseau. His striking is also very rudimentary, and I think Loiseau will give him fits on the feet. That is if he can open up, which shouldn't be an issue with Herman; I think the UFC is giving Loiseau a good style matchup in this one.

Mark Bocek d. David Bielkheden

Bocek has a strong grappling pedigree, as does Bielkheden. I don't see either man submitting the other, and both have proven to be very difficult to finish. I see the difference being the fact that Bielkheden has had trouble in the past with strong grapplers who can control him for a decision win.

Also, the Swede is cutting to lightweight for the first time in the UFC, which may affect his endurance. Bocek is a big 155'er, and I think he can manage to take the win away from a fading Bielkheden.

Matt Wiman d. Sam Stout

A very difficult fight to pick. Stout is coming off of two very close decision losses, while Wiman is coming off a three round mauling at the hands of a short-notice Jim Miller. Wiman has shown flashes of brilliance on the feet, such as when he smashed Thiago Tavares, but the ground is arguably his strong point, and should be in this fight.

Stout has shown improvements in his grappling; his takedown defense looked airtight against Per Eklund, but when Rich Clementi showed him a well-rounded attack, he was able to drag him to the ground time after time. This is the sort of threat that Wiman can pose when on his game, and I think he will be after being outclassed in his last fight.

Stout is nearly impervious on the feet, but can be outpointed by more versatile strikers, as Terry Etim and Spencer Fisher showed. Wiman best not try to knock him out, but Stout's kickboxing, while technically accurate and sound, can be predictable against more unorthodox MMA strikers.

All in all, Stout seems content to try and play the sprawl and brawl game, which has shown him the losing end more than once, and he doesn't possess the imposing physical style that wore out Wiman against Miller. Stout could catch Wiman and put him away, but he has never finished a UFC-level opponent, and Wiman's chin has proved sturdy.

Wiman by decision.

TJ Grant d. Ryo Chonan

Grant comes in with an impressive 13-2 record, a Jorge Gurgel purple belt who put away UFC vets Forrest Petz and Chad Reiner last year. I haven't seen any tape on him, but he's billed as a solid wrestler and has 12 of his 13 wins by submission.

Chonan has not looked the same since Pride, and also seems to be small as far as UFC welterweights go. He can be excellent on the feet, but has not shown a strong takedown defense, which is difficult to get away with in the mutant shark tank that is the UFC's wrestler-heavy lineup.

Gurgel's students seem to have incredible submission games, and unlike their teacher, choose to apply them.

If Grant pushes the pace, I think he can take the fight, but I doubt he will finish Chonan, who has shown to be very difficult to put away for all except the most elite submission fighters or hard hitters like Phil Baroni or Dan Henderson.

MMA Stars and Game Shows

Tim Mann — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:20:16 -0400

MMA is one of, if not the fastest-growing sport in the world. As a result of this, the fighters, particularly those with an abundance of personality, are getting the chance to shine outside of the ring or the cage. Movies, TV appearances, book deals, the possibilities are endless. But another problem that some fans are noticing is that the fighters who bludgeon and crank each other for our entertainment seem criminally underpaid in some cases. My solution? Let them use their newfound fame to go on game shows and win a little something extra. I know celebrities usually play for charity on these shows, but these guys are our working-class heroes, can't we let them pocket the cash for their troubles? Here's my list of ideas for the Top 12 MMA Fighters, and the game shows I'd like to see them on.

Begin Slideshow

Keith Jardine: The Hardest Working Man in MMA, Part Three

Tim Mann — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:42:45 -0400

As we come to the conclusion of this series of articles on Keith Jardine, we continue on from Keith's brutal loss to Wanderlei Silva.

As reluctant as UFC brass was to promote Jardine, many fans seemed equally unwilling to back him has a fighter. They all had their reasons, whether it was his awkward style, his inconsistency, or his "weak chin."

As a result of this, it made it harder for the UFC to effectively "guide" his matchmaking, as—let’s not lie to ourselves—they do from time to time with fighters they think have "star potential."

He had losses against a few fighters he was supposed to beat on paper, yet he had also made a habit of upsetting people he was supposed to lose to. When promoting a fighter with that sort of volatility, there isn't much to do besides put him in his fights and admit that no one has any idea what's going to happen.

Coupled with this is the fact that Jardine never really did anything to make himself stand out from the crowd; he doesn't sport a wacky haircut, he doesn't cover himself with tattoos, and talk endless smack about his opponents.

As a person, Jardine comes across as humble, down to earth, and a genuinely likable, if bland, guy. The most exciting thing about him is his goatee.

But inside that cage, Jardine is a beast of a man, fearless in exchanges, unpredictable, unorthodox, and willing to do anything he can do win. He also has a habit of being involved in the fight of the night, whether he wants to or not.

Coming off the loss to Silva, Jardine was matched up against newly-minted light heavyweight Brandon Vera. Once a heavyweight prospect, Vera had run up against some enormous stumbling blocks in Tim Sylvia and Fabricio Werdum, and had decided to make the drop to his more natural weight class of 205 pounds.

However, his first fight in LHW was an uninspired decision victory over Reese Andy, a fight that was apparently boring enough to have people sounding the death knell of Vera's career, despite it being a win.

The solution? Put him in the cage with Jardine.

The UFC had finally found a niche for the “Dean of Mean” as a measuring stick, a credible opponent, and as a bonus, someone that it was nearly impossible to have a boring fight with.

The result? In a back and forth battle, Vera looked to improve much over his form in his last fight, and Jardine was his usual tenacious self, edging out Vera on two of the judges' scorecards to win the nod in a split decision.

Jardine's post fight interview was key in defining his newly-emerging role as the working-class fighter. He admitted that the fight was close, gave respect, and credit to his opponent, and simply said, "I'm getting to fight the best fighters in the world. What more could a guy ask for?"

Jardine's latest fight was the result of the ever-chaotic LHW title picture. The title had already changed hands twice since his victory over Liddell, and earning a shot at the belt had become a crapshoot; almost as much a product of availability as it was of merit.

The timing of the division is another thing that never really seemed to favor Jardine, as his former KO victim Forrest Griffin had won the title from Quinton Jackson at a time when he had just lost to Silva, knocking him out of contention.

A month before his comeback fight against Vera, Keith's teammate Rashad Evans had scored a spectacular knockout over Chuck Liddell—due in no small part to help in preparation from Jardine himself—and scored himself a title shot.

Evans managed to repeat Keith's feat from years earlier, notching a technical knockout over Griffin, winning the strap, and effectively shutting Jardine out of the title picture yet again.

In a bizarre twist, Jardine then took on former champion Rampage Jackson, in a strange situation where Rampage would earn a title shot with a victory, but if Jardine pulled out a win, he would not, because he would not fight his teammate.

If you've been paying attention, you could probably describe the fight yourself by now. Jardine was resolute, and Rampage was shocked with his durability.

The former champ claimed he was overtrained for the fight, but for whatever reason, Jardine was wearing him down and even had the normally unflappable Jackson in trouble against the fence at one point.

As fate would have it, Rampage executed a beautiful parry and counter with 10 seconds left in the fight, knocking Jardine to the canvas. He scrambled back to his feet, but the look on his face told the story. In a fight as close as this one was, he had lost the round, and likely the decision.

And he would be correct, as the judges gave Jackson the unanimous decision win after three hard-fought rounds. According to Jardine, one judge told him after the fight that he had "lost the fight in the last ten seconds," which was gut-wrenching to the fighter.

The fact remains, however, that while Jardine may never be a champion—although he very well could be one—he has stood in the octagon with an incredibly high level of competition, and never once has he delivered any less than advertised: a hard-fought battle, with everything on the line.

He embodies the unpredictable nature of the sport we love. The man is practically a walking upset victory or loss waiting to happen. He's a decent person, a hard worker, and doesn't expect anything more than to be given what he's earned, and to fight the best competition available to him.

I'm sure Jardine is due to fight again in a month or two, and I'm sure of two things. He will probably not bring himself any closer to a title shot, and it will probably be a contender for the fight of the night.

Keith Jardine: The Hardest Working Man in MMA, Part Two

Tim Mann — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:34:30 -0400

In Part One of this article, I detailed the first half of Keith Jardine's UFC career, including his gritty battles with Stephan Bonnar and Wlson Gouveia, and his shocking win over future champion Forrest Griffin.

Coming off that huge win, the UFC made a surprising move, and put Jardine up against newcomer Houston Alexander, who was making his debut with the promotion.

In retrospect, this was somewhat telling of the UFC management's feelings toward Jardine, as anyone else in his situation may have been groomed for title contention, but Keith's supposed lack of marketability simply put him right back into the fray.

Admittedly, there is always another side to the story; scheduling conflicts with champions, the chaotic nature of the light heavyweight division in general, and the fact that Jardine had made a habit of fighting as often as possible, may have caused this matchup.

However, it was made clear by the commentators that Jardine felt somewhat slighted by this "demotion."

Nearly anyone who watches the UFC knows what happened next.

Whether it was nerves, the surprise of fighting an unknown commodity, or that Jardine truly did take Houston lightly, we may never know.

What we do know is that after being dropped in the opening seconds of the fight, Houston exploded, bull rushing Jardine into the fence, and, taking advantage of Keith's over-eagerness to finish the fight quickly, launched one of the most brutal clinch assaults ever seen.

Jardine hung in as best he could, but it was clear he was on the losing end of the barrage. Houston appeared to land an illegal knee in the flurry, but the outcome was very likely academic at that point: Jardine had been felled by a fighter few had ever heard of, and much of his hard work up to that point had been dashed away.

Down but not out, Jardine did what he always does after a loss. He went back to the drawing board, and on to the next opponent.

Ironically, he got what he had wanted a few months back; a shot at longtime light heavyweight champion and UFC legend Chuck Liddell. Unfortunately, the shot came at a time when Liddell had just lost the championship to Quinton Jackson, and the fight was seen by many as a way to get Liddell back on the fast track to a title rematch.

The loss to Alexander had severely damaged his credibility, even though Houston had notched another brutal knockout over Alessio Sakara only weeks before the Liddell fight. Houston would later show to have holes in his ground game, but his ability to deal damage on the feet was becoming solidified.

Once again, the buzz was against Jardine.

And once again, “The Dean of Mean” showed why he is not only the UFC's resident "spoiler," but one of the toughest competitors in the division. He did something that very few people had been willing to do in years; he stood with Chuck Liddell for three rounds, and took the decision win.

It was a bloody, brutal fight, in which Jardine absorbed huge amounts of punishment, but through fantastic evasive movement, an array of punishing leg and body kicks, and pure guts, Keith outworked, out-landed, and even managed to knock down the supposedly superior striker in Liddell.

Some critics like to look at this victory in hindsight, to devalue it on the basis that Liddell was beginning his decline. I would argue this fight did not take advantage of that decline, so much as help to cause it. Greg Jackson and Jardine had solved the riddle of Liddell.

For years, Liddell had made a career out of knocking people out as they tried to take him down. In doing this, he developed habits and strategies, as well as a confidence in his standup ability, so much so that he truly seemed to believe no one would stand up with him.

Even coming off a KO loss to Rampage Jackson, Liddell appeared to stick by these habits. As a result, Jardine was able to commit heavily to his strikes, particularly his kicks, without fear of a takedown.

He was also able to take advantage of holes in Liddell's standing defense that had developed over years of relying on his chin to counterstrike against largely grappling-based opponents.

Uncharacteristically, Jardine sat out nearly eight months after that fight, perhaps wanting to wait until a bigger challenge was available to fight him. In a bit of odd matchmaking, the challenge came, all right—Wanderlei Silva.

The former Pride Fighting Championship champion had finally made his way to the UFC, and was being put in front of Jardine. Oddly, Wanderlei was coming off a loss to Liddell, who had just prior lost to Jardine, but never one to turn down a fight, Keith stepped up to the plate.

Unfortunately, the fight was a disaster for Jardine. A known slow-starter, he was blitzed in 36 seconds by the “Axe Murderer,” and sent to the back of the line once more.

Silva caught a leg kick by Jardine in the opening seconds of the fight, and unleashed his trademark flurry of hooks, eventually pounding Keith on the canvas and forcing a referee stoppage.

Bloody and beaten, but not broken, Jardine picked himself back up from the loss and did what he does best; he got back in the gym and went to work.

Read Part Three of this article to see how Jardine rebounded from this loss!

Keith Jardine: The Hardest Working Man in MMA, Part One

Tim Mann — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:15:29 -0400

The "Dean of Mean."

The "Techno-Viking."

The "Gatekeeper."

He might not be the next champion, the most marketable, and certainly not the prettiest fighter in the UFC's light-heavyweight division, but Keith Jardine has made himself a reputation like few others.

Originally coming off the Ultimate Fighter Season Two show, Jardine was coach Rich Franklin's first pick, and a heavy favorite to win the heavyweight class. Instead, he lost a gritty unanimous decision to the eventual winner, and the man who would soon become his teammate, Rashad Evans.

On the strength of that performance, Jardine found himself a spot on the show's Finale fight card, going against the hulking Kerry Schall, a true bruiser of a heavyweight with more than twice the experience of Jardine.

Despite this, it took Keith only until the halfway point of the second round to reduce Schall's legs to jelly with an arsenal of powerful leg kicks that would become his trademark, notching a TKO victory when Schall could no longer stand upright.

Three months after that, making the drop to his true weight class of 205 pounds, Jardine took on another highly-touted prospect from the TUF show, Mike Whitehead. Continuing what would become a trend, the Miletich-trained Whitehead underperformed and was easily outworked by Jardine en route to a unanimous decision.

Next up, two months after that, Keith went up against a proven LHW contender in Stephan Bonnar. After a prolonged war of attrition (yet another pattern emerging in Jardine's fights,) Bonnar walked away with the decision victory.

Many thought he won the fight, including commentator Joe Rogan, who lamented that the judges gave scoring preference to Bonnar's punches over Jardine's damaging strikes to the legs.

Time for a rest? Of course not. Coming off the heels of his first UFC loss, Jardine took his third fight in four months, taking on the dangerous newcomer Wilson Gouveia.

After a first round that saw Keith wobbled by a taste of his own medicine, as Gouveia dished out a barrage of leg kicks, he came back and aggressively took the second and third rounds cleanly from a fading Gouveia to win the decision.

People weren't talking about Jardine as a contender just yet, but he was raising some eyebrows and fast becoming a known commodity for both his frequency of competition and the brutality of his fights.

After a six month rest, he took what was considered to be a big step up in competition, taking on the original TUF winner and future LHW champion, Forrest Griffin.

On paper the fight looked like bad news for Jardine. Forrest was coming off a razor-thin split decision loss to Tito Ortiz, which to many signalled his arrival into the upper echelon of the division.

In addition, since that fight, Forrest had cleanly dominated Stephan Bonnar, the last man to beat Jardine. The "MMAth" said that Jardine was in over his head...but apparently no one had told him.

After nearly an entire round of exchanges, most of which Griffin appeared to be winning, Jardine stepped in and tagged the future champ on the chin with an uppercut, stunning him, and followed up with a vicious barrage of ground and pound that gave him a first round TKO over the man who was supposed to defeat him.

This was not billed as a No. 1 contender's match, but surely it had to have had some ramifications on the title picture.

However, in another theme that plagues Jardine's career, there was little mention of his advancing in the ranks. In fact, following the biggest win of his career, he was put up against a newcomer making his UFC debut.

Unfortunately for Jardine, fate had a cruel surprise in store for him. Read part two of this article to find out all about it, as the series continues!

UFC 84: Wilson Gouveia vs. Goran Reljic in Undercard Match

Tim Mann — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:54:22 -0400

What's that, you say? Two guys without nicknames, quietly fighting their way up the ranks of MMA's biggest organizations? They've done it so quietly that no one chose to give them any press, so I'll be the one to answer the call.

Goran Reljic is a member of the Gracie Barra UK team, originally fighting out of his native Croatia. His record is 7-0, with five submissions and one TKO to his credit. He has never fought in the USA, and this will be his UFC debut.

Gouveia will be competing in his sixth fight in the UFC, with a record of 10-4 (4-1 UFC). His early wins consisted mostly of (T)KOs, but he has pulled off submission wins in three of his last four fights.

Reljic has what I hesitate to call a "padded" record, but upon examining the competition he has fought, the best record I could find among them is 8-5 (Petr Kelner). In fact, the majority of his opponents have losing records. This is certainly not a reason to discount him, but weighs into the thought process heavily.

The only fight of Reljic's that I was able to view was against Bojan Mihajlovic, whom he defeated by Kimura in less than two minutes. Bearing in mind that Mihajlovic was 0-2 at the time of the fight, he still managed to drop Reljic with a punch in the opening seconds of the match, but was unable to pass Reljic's guard—despite it being wide open. Goran kicked his opponent off, scored his own takedown, and in short order passed to side mount for the submission.

Gouveia, on the other hand, has plenty of fights available to study. He received an interesting welcome gift to the UFC in the form of a three round war with Keith Jardine—who, in my opinion, is overdue for a title shot. Gouveia came out strong and had Jardine limping heavily with leg kicks in the first round, but faded as the rounds wore on, and received enough of Jardine's return fire to have him limping his way to a close decision loss.

Since then, Gouveia has reeled off four impressive wins in a row, including back-to-back guillotine submissions over Seth Petruzelli and Carmelo Marerro (who owns a UFC win over heavyweight prospect Cheick Kongo).

In his last fight, he had a bit of a slow start against Jason Lambert. Gouveia was muscled around by the stockier “Punisher” before throwing a perfect punch less than a minute into the second round and knocking Lambert cold.

The future of the 205-pound class is muddy at best. If champ Quinton Jackson wins his next title defense, he still has a few contenders lined up before he runs out of work to do (provided that all the contenders stop injuring themselves), and if challenger Forrest Griffin manages to take the belt, the division will be wide open.

I feel that even if Reljic wins, he will still have to distinguish himself with more wins before he even enters the upper echelon, whereas Gouveia is possibly one or two fights away from a title shot—depending very heavily on how the rest of the division plays out.

Gouveia claims he is in even better shape than he was for his win over Lambert, which could spell a lot of trouble if Reljic is expecting him to fade like he did against Jardine. While neither fighter is known for going to decision often—only three total between the two of them—I would have to give the edge to Gouveia, as Reljic apparently has only gone the distance once in his career.

Given that Wilson appears to be solid in all aspects of the game, I don’t see a fighter as (apparently) one-dimensional as Reljic beating him. Particularly when fresh, Gouveia has shown that he is difficult to get to the ground. And after a few punches, even a submission expert like Reljic could be caught in a wicked guillotine.

Gouveia knows how to survive against wrestlers as well, as he showed when he defeated the powerful Marerro, and knocked out welterweight contender Jon Fitch with a knee.

Reljic is listed as having previously fought at 222 pounds, which means he could be bringing a lot of size and strength down from heavyweight. But after seeing how Wilson handled himself against the monstrous Lambert, he doesn’t seem like the type of fighter to be put off by a size disadvantage.

As I said, it is difficult to judge a lot about Reljic from a handful of inexperienced opponents and a two-minute fight video. But everything I can see points to Gouveia tiring him out on the feet for a bit—probably aided by the infamous “UFC Jitters”— defending the takedown and/or working back to his feet, and notching a TKO win midway through the second round.

After that, hopefully Wilson can get a match in the upper echelon of the division—against Rashad Evans, Chuck Liddell, or Shogun Rua and company—or hopefully, a rematch against Jardine, which in a fair world would be a contenders' matchup if all the “big names” continue to be out with injuries or are continually fighting against one another.

The Top 10 (or 11) "Got Your Number" Feuds In MMA

Tim Mann — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:05:40 -0400

It's a fairly common phrase thrown around on the message board and in articles, to say that one fighter "has his number" of another. Obviously this can be the case, but it's overused.

I decided to do a little digging to see who people think has someone's number, and who actually does. Along the way, we'll try to play a little MMA "Six Degrees of Separation."

1) Wanderlei Silva > Quinton Jackson

Obviously the Muay Thai clinch was a big weakness of Jackson's, as evidenced by his two losses to Silva (and Chuteboxe teammate Shogun Rua), but Jackson seems to have improved his game.

Time will tell if The Axe Murderer will get another shot at Rampage, but two losses to the same man, to the same technique says that Wandy most likely does indeed have Quinton's number.

2) Quinton Jackson > Chuck Liddell

Two losses in a row might indicate this, but in my opinion one more fight is needed to be definite. The second meeting was too short and too inconclusive to say for sure.

I'm not saying that it doesn't count as a win, but it doesn't prove much. This is one of the most-used examples of someone having someone's number, but I think a third fight would tell the tale conclusively.

For a more in-depth breakdown on why I think this fight should and will happen, check out my "Champions" article here at Bleacher Report.

3) Chuck Liddell > Tito Ortiz

This is definitely a case of what we are looking for. Ortiz trained with Liddell before they were ever matched up and was definitely trying to put off being matched up with the Iceman as long as possible.

When the two finally did meet, Ortiz talked at length about choosing to stand with Liddell, but in the end we found out why. He simply could not come close to taking Liddell down. It appeared that Ortiz was well aware of the power and became gun-shy, shooting for takedowns from too far outside and never fully committing.

In their second fight he fared better on the feet, but once again his shot was stuffed badly and he eventually fell to the power shots of Liddell, who is a nightmare for a fighter who is primarily a wrestler.

4) Tito Ortiz > Ken Shamrock

Going 3-0 in the series, it is difficult to argue with the results. Whether or not Shamrock is deteriorated, Ortiz originally bested him in 2002 when he was not in the shape he is today.

All three times he has been finished, and though he protested the stoppage in the second fight (when does Shamrock not protest a stoppage?), Ortiz willingly climbed back in the cage with him and produced the same result, taking only a minute longer.

I think it's safe to say that Shamrock would continue fighting Ortiz as many times as any promotion would let him, but his lack of skills from his back would seem to keep him from winning any of them.

5) Anderson Silva > Rich Franklin

It's rare that a champion who has looked so dominant was handled so thoroughly by a challenger, but Franklin had close to zero effective offense both times he's faced the Spider.

I'm not going to bash Franklin's game planning, but in the first fight he apparently decided that the clinch would be his "sweet spot" against one of the founding members of the Muay Thai Dream Team, with disastrous results. In the second fight, he seemingly did his pre-fight homework, but was unable to get Silva to the ground long enough to do anything effectively and looked scared to death anytime Silva came close to locking the clinch (who wouldn't?).

Franklin's questionable chin + Silva's pinpoint accuracy = a positive result for our survey.

6) Matt Hughes > Frank Trigg

Both times Matt Hughes faced the outspoken wrestler he finished him by a rear naked choke. After the first fight, Trigg still managed to find a way to talk smack about Hughes' performance, so Matt simply gave him another shot.

Despite landing a low blow that went unnoticed by the referee and actually (according to both Hughes and Trigg) knocking Hughes unconscious, Hughes somehow was awakened by continued punches and proceeded to rise from the ashes, scoop up Trigg, and run him halfway across the cage for the slam and the submission.

I'm not a huge fan of internet terminology, but it's hard to call that anything but pure ownage.

7) Dennis Hallman > Matt Hughes

Everyone has their kryptonite. Ironically for Hughes, it came in the form of Dennis "Superman" Hallman, who submitted Hughes in both 1998 and 2000, a combined total of 37 seconds.

Hallman was actually brought into the UFC to face Hughes as a contender, but his path to the title was cut short by none other than Frank Trigg who actually has two wins over Hallman...oh the irony.

8) Georges St. Pierre > Matt Hughes

When a guy has a record of 42-6, and two of those losses come from the same man, you'd think that there's a good chance he has his number (ala Hallman). But after two decimations at the hands of GSP, people seem to forget that Hughes actually won by submission in their first bout.

I think this is more of a case of GSP having everyone's number in the WW division. I also saw some people trying to claim that Matt Serra had St. Pierre's number, but after the rematch, doesn't that sound a little silly?

9) Jeremy Horn > Chael Sonnen

If at first you don't succeed, try try again. Unless you're Chael Sonnen going against Jeremy Horn apparently.

Horn stopped Sonnen twice in 2004 by TKO (cut) and again by submission in two different small promotions. The two met again in 2006, this time in the UFC, but the result was no different: Horn won by submission again.

None of the fights made it past the second round. In watching Sonnen's recent bout against WEC middleweight champ Paulo Filho, one wonders if Sonnen just doesn't know how to keep that arm tucked in...

10) Mirko Cro Cop > Josh Barnett

These two top-10 fighters actually managed to square off against one another every year for three years running in Pride. When they first met in 2004 in Barnett's Pride Debut, the result was anticlimactic as the "Babyfaced Assassin" injured his shoulder early on in the bout and tapped in less than a minute as soon as the two hit the ground.

They rematched in 2005 once Barnett was healthy, and the two went to an entertaining, if surprising decision finish, where Cro Cop got the judges nod.

The trilogy was completed in 2006 when they met in the finals of the Open Weight Grand Prix. Both looked unstoppable, but Barnett finished a 15-minute war with Minotauro Nogueira while Mirko decimated Wanderlei Silva in less than six minutes—clearly the fresher of the two.

In the midst of some ground and pound, Barnett took a punch to the eye and, unable to see his opponent, tapped out rather than (in his own words)" sit there and get pounded while the ref stands there like a douche and records it on his ref cam."

There were a few flukey happenings in this series, but I'd have to say that Mirko just knows what it takes to beat Barnett.

11) Fedor Emelianenko > Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria

It was suggested that I add this rivalry, and I figured it would be a good idea since it's a great example of what I'm talking about in this article.

Coming into their initial meeting, Fedor defeated Semmy Schilt and Heath Herring, surprising quite a few people at the time. However, Nogueira also defeated both of them, along with generally dominating the heavyweight scene in Pride. He was seen as nearly unstoppable, and Fedor was a clear underdog.

Very quickly it became apparent that Minotauro could not take Fedor down and began to take punishment on the feet. Fedor, however, took him down at will and landed heavy shots from the guard.

As the minutes ticked away, Nog didn't seem to have any answers for Fedor, who was slipping out of his submissions faster than he could apply them and throwing murderous ground and pound shots from the guard. As the fight went on he began to look more and more desperate until the time expired and the title went to Emelianenko.

A year later, their second meeting looked to be more of the same, but was difficult to judge at the time because it was declared a No Contest after only a few minutes as Fedor accidentally received a deep cut on his head when trying to pass Noguiera's guard.

In a rare display of poor sportsmanship (or as close as Nog has ever come), Nogueira and his corner argued that it should be a TKO because Fedor caused the cut himself. Had he known what was coming in the third fight he might have argued harder for that win.

After a few months, the match was rescheduled and once again the two heavyweight titans met in the ring. Nogueira was sporting improved boxing and conditioning, he said.

Fedor said little, but it was obvious that he had done his homework as he became even more efficient in his strategy. His hands were low, yet his superior head movement kept him out of danger while his unorthodox striking peppered Nog with power shots at every turn.

It was in this fight that Fedor pioneered the "sling and run" style recently used by Cung Le against Frank Shamrock.

Every time the two would clinch, Fedor would execute a takedown, and Nog appeared to move along, hoping to get a shot at executing his ground game. Fedor rarely bothered to go to the ground with him, simply throwing him to the mat and forcing him to stand again.

When they were on the ground, more preemptive submission defense and hard punches were the order of the day. Sure enough, Nog survived the fight, but came out on the losing end of another decision.

Honorable Mention: Travis Fulton > Dan Wheatley

In the record of a fighter like Travis "Ironman" Fulton who has nearly 250 professional bouts, you're bound to find some repeated names. But poor Dan Wheatley has gone up against Fulton five times and has been KO'd four times.

Apparently Fulton was getting bored because one of the five wins was by submission as well. Given that Wheatley's record is 2-23, it's probably not worth speculating if Fulton actually has his number, but five losses to the same man just had to make the list.

UFC's Fallen Champions and the New Kingpins

Tim Mann — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:36:29 -0400

For now the title picture in the UFC looks to have stabilized a little more after the tumultuous year that passed. Every title holder has a solid claim to the belt (if you pretend that Randy Couture no longer exists like the UFC), and at least a few contenders lined up.

However, three divisions in particular—Welterweight, Middleweight, and Light Heavyweight—have lost what were previously their figureheads. In fact, all of these champions have been violently and decisively removed from their spots.

This article examines the former champions against their new rivals, analyzing who among them has the best chance to regain their championship title.

Welterweight—Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre

Despite the year long hiccup that was Matt Serra's title reign (successful defenses: zero), GSP has been dominating the division in a way similar to Hughes in his yesteryear.

While there are a few solid challengers coming up (Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves), none really pose a threat to the young Canadian, who seems to have regained his aura of invincibility with three straight dominating wins since getting finished by Matt Serra, including stopping Serra in the second round with knees to the body just this month.

The fact of the matter is, when GSP is focused he looks unstoppable.

He trains with extremely high-level proponents in every area of his game, his striking is crisp and solid, his submissions are great, and his wrestling is near Olympic level (he was actually planning on trying out for the Olympic team in his time off).

Add that to the solid training partners and game-planning of Greg Jackson's camp, coupled with his natural strength and beastly athleticism, and you have a champion who looks extremely hard to beat.

The series between Hughes and St. Pierre is 2-1 GSP and will likely remain that way. With the two beatings that GSP has given Hughes—one win by KO and one by submission—a lot of people are forgetting that Hughes actually won their first go round, also by submission.

However, most chalk this up as a rookie mistake on the part of St. Pierre and something that is very unlikely to be repeated (it is one of his only two losses).

Hughes will always be competitive in the division, but he has given multiple hints that he is nearing the end of his career and only wants a few more fights. With Thiago Alves coming up this summer and most likely a bout with rival Matt Serra after that, Hughes has more or less conceded that GSP is the better fighter and doesn't show a marked interest in the belt, at least as long as the man from Quebec holds it.

Seeing as he will likely do so for quite some time, Hughes, the only man on this list to hold a win over his nemesis, appears least likely to regain his titleholder status.

Middleweight—Rich Franklin vs. Anderson Silva

Ever since Rich Franklin burst onto the UFC scene, he's been earmarked for success. He had it all: an exciting striker with a well-rounded game, a marketable look, and intelligent speaking ability.

With a high-profile, dominating win over Ken Shamrock at the first Ultimate Fighter Finale, he finally stood where he wanted to be: facing Evan Tanner for the Middleweight title. After nearly four rounds of punishment, Tanner's face looked like ground beef and the referee had no choice but to halt the fight, naming Franklin the new champion.

Despite the fact that Franklin had a great record (only one loss, no decisions), people doubted his ability. He proved time and time again that he belonged at the top of the heap, brutally crushing TUF 1 standout Nate Quarry, and defeating David Loiseau in a five-round beating that to this day seems to have affected Loiseau's confidence as a fighter.

He was the king of the division, unquestioned, and the promotion began having difficulty finding a challenger.

Then came Anderson Silva. A Pride and Cage Rage fighter with a wealth of experience, but not exactly a flawless record, Silva stepped into the cage and absolutely demolished hard-hitting journeyman Chris Leben in a shocking display.

Silva not only knocked out the hard-headed Leben, but didn't allow him to land a single blow the entire fight, earning himself a shot at the title in only his second UFC fight. The pundits were fairly split on the potential outcome of this fight, but minutes after the bell rang, Franklin ended up locked in Silva's muay thai clinch, where The Spider delivered a barrage of knees that stopped Franklin in just less than three minutes, requiring him to have surgery on his shattered nose.

Franklin came back strong by battering up-and-coming submission specialist Jason MacDonald to a corner stoppage and defeating Yushin Okami in a decisive, if uneventful decision.

Ready to do battle with Silva again, Franklin once more stepped into the octagon, only to encounter the same problems, looking visibly frustrated at the inability to land blows on Silva. At the end of the first round, Silva caught him with a punch that caused Franklin to collapse like a puppet with his strings cut, but he was saved by the bell.

Unfortunately the second round proved no different as Silva once again latched on his clinch and effectively reenacted the first fight, complete with his amateur plastic surgery on Franklin's nose.

Whether it was a weakness in Franklin's wrestling or an unwillingness to change his game plan, he must have realized the futility of standing with Silva in the second fight, and yet he did.

In this sport it is difficult to completely count out any fighter, but unfortunately Franklin truly appears to have nothing to offer against Silva in a third bout. The game plan was clear to take him to the ground, but he appeared to be unable to do it.

In fairness to Franklin, Silva has dispatched everyone the UFC has thrown at him in less than two rounds, and those who have gotten him to the ground have not fared better there.

The two have developed a huge mutual respect and have even become friends. In fact, if you look carefully in the second fight, Silva actually appears to apologize to Franklin before landing the final blows. Franklin himself has said that he does not think the fans are interested in seeing him fight Silva a third time, and he appears to feel the same way about the matchup.

Franklin's best chances to regain the title appear to be either waiting until Silva leaves the promotion (unlikely but possible due to Silva's apparent yearning to prove himself in pro boxing), or to wait for someone to take the belt from the Spider.

This second option seems a risky prospect, and one of the main obstacles to this is Franklin himself. By proving to be one of the most dangerous competitors in the division, and as the former champion, he is likely to be the measuring stick for any potential challenger to Silva.

The issue is twofold.

1) Franklin can still probably beat 95 percent of the fighters in the division, so how does anyone get to Silva without bypassing him?

2) If someone does get past Franklin and beats the Spider, how does he make his case for a title shot?

Just this month Franklin proved my point as he dispatched of a strong potential challenger in Travis Lutter, a man who arguably almost beat Silva in their last encounter, and sent him back to the drawing board.

Dan Henderson finds himself in the same position in the division, and it is likely that the two could find themselves facing off this summer. This would undoubtedly have to be a number one contender's matchup, and then what? Rich Franklin is in an unenviable position. He has the possibility of taking the belt once again, but not from Silva.

Light Heavyweight—Chuck Liddell vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson

In my mind this is the matchup that has the most uncertainty, although the majority of fans don't seem to see it that way. The assertion that Jackson has Chuck's "number" is widespread, but not as well-founded as one would think.

The Iceman and Rampage first met in 2003 in the Pride Grand Prix where Dana White himself had accompanied Liddell to Japan and had a bet riding with Pride owners that Liddell would take the whole tournament.

Chuck was focused on beating Wanderlei Silva in (assumedly) the finals, but he had to get through Jackson first.

What happened was a performance similar to the one that Liddell recently had against underdog challenger Randy Couture. Whether it was the different environment (although Liddell had two fights in Pride already), a purported leg injury, or the fact that Rampage simply wasn't afraid of Chuck's power, Jackson waded into him nonstop and in the second round took him down and pounded him until his corner threw in the towel.

No wonder the UFC didn't want to cross-promote after that...

After losing to Jackson, Liddell returned to the Octagon and proceeded to go on an unprecedented streak of knockouts, along the way picking up the Light Heavyweight title and avenging two of the three losses in his career, to Couture and Jeremy Horn.

Eventually, after a brief stopover in the WFA, Rampage made his way to the UFC, and was clearly gunning for Liddell. After stopping Marvin Eastman in his debut fight, he came into title contention. What happened was something that very few predicted.

There was no slugfest, no slams, no looping overhand right. Less than two minutes into the first round, Liddell went for a left hook to the body, and Rampage caught him with a beastly right hook on the way out, dropping him and giving Jackson his first major championship title.

Since then, Jackson successfully defended against Dan Henderson in a fairly close decision, then took some time off to nurse a broken hand, as well as film a season of The Ultimate Fighter with his next challenger, Forrest Griffin.

Liddell continued to spiral downward, losing a huge upset decision to Keith Jardine. It was during this time that people began to question Liddell's lifestyle, as he was often seen partying and accused of not training hard. It was also during this time that he gave the infamous "NyQuil interview" where he appeared severely out of sorts on a talk show and even seemed to doze off at one point.

Even UFC president and close friend Dana White said that Liddell may need to consider retiring.

Whether it was the naysayers or a renewed hunger for the belt, Liddell dragged himself out of his funk and looked like the Iceman of old when he dispatched rival Wanderlei Silva in a long-awaited dream fight. Liddell showed tightened reflexes, renewed energy, and even a willingness to expand his game plan, as he went for (and got) a few takedowns for the first time in more than four years.

Liddell's scheduled bout against Shogun Rua was cancelled when Rua injured his knee, and the replacement bout against Rashad Evans was cancelled when Liddell himself fell to injury, with a nasty hamstring tear.

I feel that Liddell has the best chance to regain his title, simply because he has shown the most hunger to regain the belt, and especially because of his willingness to fight the man who took it from him. The injury is definitely a monkey wrench in the plans, but I believe that Liddell will come back and make his way into contention again.

Be it the supposed "UFC favoritism" or simply his marketability with a win over Silva (who twice beat Jackson), and the fact that little can be learned from their abbreviated second meeting, Liddell is probably one fight away from a title shot again.

If Griffin happens to take the belt from Jackson, he will have no problem taking that fight either. Liddell's power can be a problem for anyone, and with his age (37) being more of an impetus to move faster than a hindrance, it's only a matter of time before the Iceman challenges for the belt again.

Will he get it? Only time will tell.

Sham-Rocked: The King of Controversy - Part 2 of 2

Tim Mann — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:10:54 -0400

In part one of this article, Frank Shamrock had just destroyed the first of modern MMA’s threats to his legacy in Phil Baroni, and a move to a larger organization to face higher-ranked opponents seemed all but impossible due to political reasons.

So the next challenge came from within the ranks of Strikeforce: rising superstar Cung Le. Coming in undefeated in MMA (5-0), as well as with a staggering amount of success in his former discipline of San Shou (roughly equated to kickboxing with throws and takedowns, although that may be an oversimplification), Le and Shamrock were also former training partners, which added a built-in dimension of pre-fight hype.

A sidebar about Cung Le, as he himself can be something of a controversy magnet. His first two MMA wins were over fighters with, let us say, less than stellar records.

His third fight against Ultimate Fighter star Jason “Livewire” Von Flue looked to be his first real test (despite being a natural welterweight), but Von Flue was stopped by a cut in less than a minute.

Next came Team Punishment fighter Tony “The Freak” Fryklund, who was something of a journeyman, but was also coming off two losses in a row, and had a history of choosing to stand with fighters who were vastly superior to him in terms of striking (most notably the UFC’s Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, who knocked Fryklund halfway into a seizure with an elbow strike in their bout). In fact, Fryklund stood yet again, and paid the price by TKO in the third round. Or did he? It was at this point that the questions began to swirl around Cung Le:

“Those flashy kicks look great but they don’t do much damage; it took him three rounds to finish Fryklund.”

“It looked to me like he didn’t even try to take him down.”

“That fight looked pretty fishy to me.”

Despite Le’s San Shou proficiency and a state championship in amateur wrestling, it was becoming difficult for people to decide if he couldn’t be taken down, or if people simply weren’t trying. By my own estimation, Fryklund tried for perhaps three takedowns in the fight, none of which came even close to succeeding. Shamrock’s fight had a similar ratio, but more on that later.

Cung Le’s last stop on the road to the title came in the form of Sammy “The Squeeze” Morgan, who although also a natural welterweight, had his own bag of questions. In short, Morgan had been brutally knocked out twice in back to back fights, both of which were very visible to the public, but he had also knocked out an extremely dangerous striker in Bas Rutten protégé Duane “Bang” Ludwig, so up to the plate he went.

By all accounts Morgan was taken down more or less at will, but Le seemed unsure as to what he should do with him afterwards. In any event, Morgan was TKO’d in the third round by a body kick. Fresh off this win, it was time for the two San Jose prodigies to square off.

Cung Le, not exactly known as a trash talker, but still not one to stand for nonsense, made it known that he used to regularly get the better of Shamrock in both the standup and takedown portions of their sparring sessions back in the day. Shamrock, not to be outdone, made a music video of "highlights" of him landing shots on Cung Le in sparring, and uploaded it on the internet.

Shortly after, it was made clear that the video was edited to a fairly ridiculous extent to appear favorable to Shamrock, and once again, Frank laughed it off, acting as though he never truly intended to deceive anyone. However, he told anyone who would listen that his skills were much improved now, and that he absolutely planned to stand with the kickboxing standout.

During this time Frank also took time out of his busy schedule to work on scheduling a fight with his own adopted brother, MMA pioneer and current hard-luck story Ken Shamrock. Frank got the fireworks kicked off early by intimating that Ken had used steroids his whole career, which Ken immediately leapt to defend. At press time it sounded like Frank had gotten underneath the skin of Ken sufficiently to grab another headline fight, either next in line, or after his business with Cung Le was finished.

Back on topic, the fight with Le was an absolute slugfest, lasting three full rounds. Cung Le got the better of the striking by far, catching Shamrock in his chin (which proved to be rock solid on Saturday, if anyone had any doubts) with unorthodox techniques one after another, and working his body and legs with kicks anytime Shamrock tried to close the distance.

Frank had his moments in the fight as well, as his new boxing skills found their mark often enough to have Le on rubbery legs toward the end of the third round. Unfortunately, it was revealed that Shamrock’s forearm had snapped in two from stopping one kick to many, and he was unable to come out for the fourth round. True to form, as soon as the fight had ended (well, after the fan-gloating had subsided somewhat) the controversy welled back up like an oil rig:

“Shamrock had the takedown and he let it go!”

“He did that same stupid ‘nighty-night’ thing he did against Baroni, too bad he couldn’t back it up this time.”

“He could have won easily if he had just taken him down.” (For the record, Shamrock did attempt to get Le to the ground at least twice, and halfhearted as they may have been, neither attempt succeeded.)

So the question remains, what happened?

Did Shamrock have a bad gameplan, or simply too much confidence in his standup skills?

Did his oft-reported bad knee prevent him from going for takedowns? Possibly, but some would argue that Frank’s takedowns have always been the weak link in his game.

Could he have won if not for the injury? In my opinion Cung Le looked tired at the end of the third round, and Frank is known for his conditioning.

Was he simply more interested in putting on a show than winning? Very possible. In fact, Frank himself would probably say that he’s more of a businessman than a fighter at this point, and putting on a show is simply good business.

The dreaded F-word…Was the fight fixed? Even though the rumors of a fixed pair of fights leading to a legitimate rubber match between the two surfaced long before the fight actually happened, Shamrock has a legitimately broken arm and nearly knocked out Le seconds before it happened, so I find this highly unlikely.

Whatever did happen, people are talking, and undoubtedly Frank Shamrock has a huge smile on his face, broken arm or not. What’s next for The Legend? A fight with his brother, a shot at “his” title, a rematch with Gracie, or something different entirely? Who knows? But I bet you’ll watch it, and so will I.

Sham-Rocked: The King of Controversy, Pt. 1

Tim Mann — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:58:43 -0400

Former UFC Champion and Strikeforce kingpin Frank "The Legend" Shamrock fought up-and-coming star Cung Le this past Saturday night.

While Shamrock lost the fight on a TKO from a broken arm and lost his Strikeforce Middleweight Title, one thing he didn't lose is his crown as MMA's reigning King of Controversy.

In an interview before the fight, Shamrock claimed never to have been knocked out or given up in an MMA match. A quick glance at his record clearly shows that Masakatsu Funaki and Manabu Yamada both have submission wins over him in the Pancrase organization, as well as a knockout loss to Yuki Kondo, which I have personally seen on video; Frank took a kick to the head that knocked him clean out of the ring.

Although all three fights were in the mid-90's and under the ponderous rules on Pancrase at the time (which included a lack of closed-fist striking to the face and pro wrestling style rope-escapes), the losses exist.

Shamrock undoubtedly does not have selective amnesia. It's more likely he made this outrageous claim in order to do what he does best; create a stir and draw attention to himself.

His verbal skills are as sharpened as his submission arsenal and newly-developed boxing game. If questioned, Frank would undoubtedly have a rationalization (he was technically conscious after the Kondo KO) for everything he says, and is a master at twisting his words just enough so that he's still not quite lying. He's a genius at what he does, and love him or hate him for it, it makes people watch him.

His "comeback" fight in 2006, after nearly three years out of the professional ranks, set an attendance record in his native city of San Jose. Considering that the fight was against Jiu-Jitsu expert Cesar Gracie, who had the requisite name value but not a single MMA fight to that name, it was clearly Shamrock who did the selling, not the matchup itself. A good thing he did, because the fight ended in 21 seconds when Shamrock knocked Gracie out cold with a punch.

Happy with the win and the resultant glory, Shamrock remained cryptic about his future.

Obviously there were plenty of people who wanted a crack at "The Legend," but Frank seemed to choose his matchups carefully, while also allowing the correct build-up (read: money) to take place.

As it went, Frank's next matchup was against another Gracie, Renzo.

Packing the requisite Gracie Jiu-Jitsu credentials, but also an underrated standup game and 19 fights to his name (including the only fight result I have ever seen listed as "No Contest—Fans Rioted"), Renzo was a different animal. Having seen it all and done most of it, he seemed to be in good spirits and immune to Frank's smack-talk.

Whether or not this had bearing on the fight is unclear, but what is clear is that Renzo was ready for war.

He took Frank down seemingly at will and dominated position throughout the first round. The second round looked to be more of the same until Frank landed two illegal knees to the back of Renzo's head from the bottom, stopping the fight and getting him the first disqualification loss of his career.

In true Frank Shamrock style, he shrugged off the loss, blithely saying "I thought we were fighting. I guess I need to take another look at the rulebook."

He offered Renzo a rematch that has yet to happen, and the fans once again exploded with speculation:

"Did he do it on purpose?"

"Was he scared of a real loss?"

"Was it just a mistake?"

"Was Renzo faking?"

It was this last one the raised the ire of many in the MMA community, especially since Frank himself worked not-so-subtly to lend credence to the theory. Being that Renzo Gracie once asked a referee for a moment to reposition his broken arm so that he could finish the round in a fight against Sakuraba, I personally find it unlikely that this is the case.

In any event, Shamrock moved on to his first "new-school" challenge: Phil "The New York Badass" Baroni.

Possessing a bodybuilder's physique, crushing punching power, and questionable variety in his skills, he seemed like an interesting matchup for Shamrock. As an added bonus, he also possesses a mouth and ego equal to, if not greater than, Frank's own.

Despite his tendency to fade early in fights, many picked Baroni as the one to shut Shamrock up.

Shockingly, Frank controlled Baroni both standing and on the ground, even taking time to pantomime "you're going to sleep" to Baroni just moments before dropping him with a pair of perfect punches and ultimately choking him unconscious, becoming the first Strikeforce Middleweight Champion.

Once again, the rumor mill swirled.

Shamrock had proven that he could step up against the younger guard of MMA, if perhaps not the elite.

Many clamored for him to move to a larger pond and face bigger names, but a long-standing mutual dislike between Shamrock and UFC president Dana White made this seem all but impossible, and still does to this day.

So where would Shamrock find his next hurdle? Read part 2 to find out!

Yanking out the Rug: When Fighters Pull Out

Tim Mann — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:12:00 -0400

I was contacted by Zander Freund a few days ago to write an article on the upcoming Strikeforce Event this Saturday. He said that the main two fights that he thought could use some analysis were the Joey Villasenor v. Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos and Jake Shields v. Drew Fickett fights. Unfortunately, by the time I had read the request, both fights were already off the card. Shields had been injured in training and Santos was having visa issues that prevented him from coming to the show.

Now Nick Diaz is off the show as well, for "late medicals." More or less the situation breaks down like this; the California State Athletic Commission saw that Diaz had a medical license for marijuana and immediately suspended him from the card, apparently without testing him, although Diaz did make this known only three days from the event. This is not the first time the Cesar Gracie black belt and former UFC welterweight has crossed paths with the CSAC; he had the biggest win of his career (submitting then-Pride Lightweight Champion Takanori Gomi at Pride 33) taken away, also for failing his drug test.

Now Diaz's opponent, Jae Suk Lim, is currently left without an opponent, as is Drew Fickett. Villasenor would be in the same boat had former UFC fighter Ryan Jensen not stepped up. While I respect the guts of any fighter willing to step up and fight top competition at the last minute, it rarely does wonders for one's win-loss record. Just yesterday, Chael Sonnen was dropped from the main event slot of World Extreme Cagefighting's show and relegated to the undercard, when his opponent, WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho dropped out of the card, citing depression and entrance to a substance abuse rehab program.

There are many angles from which to consider these situations; for all the parties involved. For a promoter, this can be a nightmare. Advertising for a fight card goes out sometimes months in advance, and a "card subject to change" clause buried in the small print does little to appease fans who sometimes (particularly those not online) don't even realize that anything has happened until the card begins. Free television (or relatively free, if you consider Showtime) is one thing, but what about Pay Per View, or even live attendance? Fans can be sorely disappointed and feel burned by even their favorite fighters. MMA fans in particular can be a cruel and fickle bunch if they don't buy into a fighter's "excuses" for pulling out.

For someone following a particular fighter's career closely, it can be especially maddening. I myself, for example, am a fan of Nick Diaz, but his last string of fights and circumstances has been increasingly frustrating. Diaz is no stranger to controversy; we're talking about a guy who once was upset enough over a loss in a three-rounder against Joe Riggs that he literally started round four at the hospital in a post-fight brawl. But the roller coaster that he has been on lately is nothing short of dumbfounding: he won the aforementioned Gomi fight, then had it overturned to a No Contest.

After this, he fought journeyman Mike Aina in EliteXC, winning a decision but looking terrible in the process. It later came out that he was fighting with a severe staph infection that he either didn't know about or didn't bother to tell anyone (more on that later).

Following that, he fought KJ Noons for the Elite XC title, and even though many people saw it as an easy win for the submission and boxing specialist, Diaz lost via cut TKO. Back to the drawing board, Diaz had plastic surgery to remove the scar tissue on his oft-sliced forehead, potentially removing a major weakness from his game. And now the CSAC debacle...one wonders if there will ever again be a fight without extenuating circumstances that actually allows one to gauge his current abilities.

Too often this is the case when MMA athletes have a potentially hazardous condition or injury; do they pull out of the fight and risk the ire of fans and promoters, or do they go ahead with it and risk a loss and potential further injury? Joe Riggs found out the hard way last month when a throw from EliteXC opponent Cory Devela aggravated an injury in his back so badly that he tapped out at just 1:22 of the first round from the pain. Riggs has now had corrective surgery, and said he feels like a new man. Very similar words were spoken by former UFC HW Champ Tim Sylvia when he had his back repaired after his five-round drubbing by Randy Couture. The "Maine-iac" did mention the injury in passing after the fight, and was showered with boos for it, but since the fans seem to hate Sylvia no matter what he does, he probably would have been better served by simply postponing the fight. Post-surgery he certainly had some renewed spring in his step when he ground out a 3-round decision over HW hot prospect Brandon Vera and ouboxed former Pride HW Champ Minotauro Nogueira for two rounds before falling prey to a nasty submission.

Therein lies the problem; many fighters, particularly those fighting so hard for acceptance, as Sylvia seems to be perpetually doing, are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Also coming into play is the issue of money; some pro fighters are not paid nearly as well as the big names, and putting off the payday for three months is not always an option.

Personally, I think fighter safety trumps everything else, as well as actually being able to find out who the best man truly is, and going into a fight with an injury is not the way to determine that. In a prime example of this, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua fought Forrest Griffin last September on a bad knee that reportedly affected his ability to train cardio very seriously and restricted his movement so much that Rua, widely considered the #1 light heavyweight in the world at that point, lost every round to the relatively unheralded Ultimate Fighter star, losing by a rear naked choke in the closing seconds of the third stanza.

So while others may boo, I applaud Shields, who said he considered trying to tough out the injury and fight, until his manager (and father) Jack Shields talked him out of it. A problem as serious as depression and substance abuse cannot go ignored, even in the macho world of combat sports, and so I salute Paulo Fihlo as well. Cyborg Santos' circumstances seem well beyond his control, so there is no reason to be angry at the fighter or the promoter for that particular disappointment. And as for Nick Diaz, well...who knows?