Bleacher Report - Articles by Jeff Wackerly

Help Save MMA, Buy the Jan. 24 Affliction Card

Jeff Wackerly — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:42:44 -0500

My fellow B/R patrons. I'm going to try to keep this short. I'm increasingly displeased with how the UFC is wielding their ever increasing power and how it's affecting MMA.

There's an old saying, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

I believe this is the case with Dana and the Fart brothers. The more they seem to control of the MMA landscape, the more I see it being bad for the fighters: Bad for the fans and bad for the future of my favorite sport.

The UFC is a business and like all businesses they aim to make a profit, the more the better, but that has a fine line.

I'm a home builder and contractor by trade. I own three companies now, and two of them are construction companies. The third is an Internet marketing company that focuses on marketing for contractors, Realtors, landlords and pretty much anyone involved with real estate. Because of my third company, my construction companies are doing OK right now while most contractors and builders are dying on the vine.

Since I have work, many subcontractors are calling me daily pleading for some of it. The natural thing for me to do is to go with the guys who are willing to do it for less and make more profit for myself. I'm not ashamed of that, in fact, I love getting good deals, but right now, I've got guys so desperate that they're willing to do it almost at a loss. While the capitalist in me sees that as just more profit, the man in me knows there's a limit and a point where I can't sink.

I won't let someone do the work for so low of a price to where I know it's self-destructive for them. These are good guys who do good work who just happen to be in a very tough spot. To take advantage of them is wrong.

That's what the UFC has sunk to doing now. Roger Huerta is a prime example. They won't let him fight his last contracted fight until he signs an extension with them. He can't go anywhere else until this current contract is completed either (ask Randy). So they have put him in the spot where he either has to take their poor offer with ever-increasing demands or he can't fight professionally anymore. That is what becoming the only real game in town does to an organization.

Do you really think he's been training and fighting for all these years to make it to the top, almost get a title shot, and then decide to throw it all on hold to pursue modeling and acting??? No way you have to strike while the iron is hot, and he knows that.

After he's done fighting for sure. After he's made a name for himself with serious marketability sure. After he's become a champ and cemented his fight legacy sure.

Not now, though. He doesn't want to stop fighting yet, but walking away from his fight career and the UFC appears to be the lesser of two evils for him.

This is only going to continue to get worse until athletes decide that they don't really want to fight in MMA because their options are slim, and they can't do well in the UFC.

Remember what Brock cited as the reason he went into the WWE? He couldn't make any real money in MMA then. I'm afraid that if Dana has his way, athletes will go back to viewing MMA this way. Then the sport will decline, as it declines we'll lose interest, as we lose interest then sponsors, even more athletes, casual fans, everyone will begin to leave and MMA could be in a downward spiral.

Some of you might think, "No way. No matter what happens MMA is here to stay the way it is now."

That's what several of my business associates thought about the housing market. One of them bought a brand new Ferrari F430 Spyder in '05. In '08, he lost his personal home and is homeless now. He used to have over a million dollars in cash in the bank. That's how fast tides CAN change in any industry, MMA included.

The best way to avoid this, in my opinion, is to support other fight promotions, give them the power to acquire good fighters, and make the UFC actually have to woo the fighters over with good pay, good terms, good benefits, and RESPECT. Randy had it right when he decided to take a stand against the UFC, but unfortunately no one else had the balls to stand beside him and he couldn't do it alone.

Buy the Jan 24th Affliction card, encourage your friends to watch it, especially one's who are new to MMA or only know the UFC. This is the fuel for our sport.

If we take this a little serious now it will never become serious later. We need to be the catalyst because just like Randy, a handful of fighters can't do it alone. Only our $$$ will make a difference to the Danas and the Shaws.

Thanks for reading the entire rant. I hope you enjoyed it, and take it to heart.

Alexander Karelin: The Meanest Man in the World

Jeff Wackerly — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 09:50:22 -0500

That's a picture of him up above.

I'm sure many of you already know him, but for those that don't, his name is Alexander Karelin and he is the most feared athlete ever. Others have called him the toughest man alive.

He's a Russian super heavy weight Greco-Roman wrestler and he's universally known as the greatest heavyweight wrestler to ever live.

He was so dominant that it led to his competition and the world's media nicknaming him "The Experiment," implying that someone like him couldn't have come about naturally, and that he was some sort of Russian science experiment.

He was in the Olympics four separate times and won gold medals three of those times and silver once. He is the only three-time gold medal winner in his sport. He was undefeated for 13 years straight and went 10 years in a row without allowing even a single point to be scored against him.

He's 6'4 and wrestled at 289 lbs. It's been noted that he could clean AND PRESS over 420 lbs. He had a move he would do called the "Karelin slam". In this move he'd pick up his 300 lb squirming opponent while they were laying face down on the mat, trying to be dead weight so he wouldn't pick them up.

He'd do it anyway, throwing them completely over his shoulder slamming them on their own heads.

Now you see crap like that in the WWE all the time, but in real life it's an incredible feat of strength that only the rarest of men can accomplish.

Do you remember the 6'4" 300 lb Olympic wrestler turned UFC commentator named Jeff Blatnik? Karelin threw him around like a rag doll.

Growing up I thought of Karelin as the real life Ivan Drago. I hear Randy Couture and him are friends. Fedor looks up to him; I read a quote by Fedor saying if Alexander had decided to get into MMA he'd have ruled above all others. I've seen videos of him running through thigh deep snow carrying logs on his shoulders.

He fought in one and only one MMA/Pro wrestling match against Akira Maeda, the founder of the fighting network "Rings". Maeda was a huge star in Japan and a very accomplished athlete, even defeating Andre the Giant once.

Karelin threw him around for the duration of the match until the Ref stopped it. This was just as a wrestler, no MMA skills. Imagine the potential.

Someone asked him once who his toughest opponent was and he responded "my refrigerator." Apparently, the story goes, he was moving and decided to carry his huge, extra large fridge up six flights of stairs BY HIMSELF.

The History Channel did a documentary on him titled "The Meanest Man in the World." Here's a short highlight clip of him. It's the clip at the top of the page.

Now I'm interested in who else you think would have made an awesome MMA fighter, had they gone that route. Mike Tyson? Holyfield? Shaq? Hulk Hogan? George Washington? Kind of like the question from "Fight Club". Who would you have liked to see train and fight as an MMA fighter?

MMA: The Most Dominant Style Has Emerged

Jeff Wackerly — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 10:18:09 -0500

Back when the UFC was first created we all learned how powerful BJJ was from a lanky little underdog named Royce Gracie. When I first saw him enter the octagon I thought the little Brazilian was going to get destroyed. What happened stunned me. It became clear to me then that my ideas about fighting were vastly wrong.

I grew up in a rough area (same exact neighborhood as Chris Leben) and street fought a fair amount. I lifted weights, took some Kenpo, dabbled in a few other martial arts, and also did some boxing and some wrestling. I never stuck with any of them long enough to become really any good at any of them, but compared to the average street thug I was an animal.

At the time I though being big and strong was the most important part and maybe it was, from a psychological stand point, as it got into my opponents heads, but against a pro it meant nothing, that's what I learned watching Royce.

So I started taking BBJ and JKD for about six months till I got injured rolling with a famous wrestler who is now an even more famous MMA legend, a blessing I'll never forget. It derailed my training for a long time as I was out for about a year with rotator cuff injuries and got really involved in my career.

Fast-forward 10 years and I've started training again and something has become clearer and clearer to me. The dominant style of MMA has changed. I see it with my own training, with the others I train with and in the pro fighters as well.

We like to say that MMA fighters are well rounded now and for a few of them that's true. For the vast majority however they are great in one style and desperately trying to catch up in most other styles.

The reason why they can get away with that and still be competitive is because everyone else is in the same boat. The only true mixed martial artists, where they started their training with all relevant styles at the same time are 10 years old and under. Once these kids make it to pro fighters we'll really see a changing of the guard.

For now the fighters are still based in one discipline or another. Where Jitz used to be the dominant style I now feel that it has been replaced by Wrestling. I'll tell you why I feel it's more dominant and then I'll back up my reasoning.

1. BJJ is great because it's not about physical power; it's about technique and leverage. It gives the advantage to the more knowledgeable fighter. It's one of the few true equalizers I've found in combat sports where a smaller weaker person can actually defeat and even hospitalize a bigger, stronger, meaner person.

The fact that it's based on knowledge however and not athleticism or strength makes it something that anyone can become pretty good at. While this is its strength this can also be a weakness of BJJ as well. This is because someone who is very athletic can learn BJJ just as easily as anyone else, but anyone else can't just become as athletic as a naturally athletic person.

2. Wrestling is also a very skillful discipline but it also requires a lot of physical ability. Of all the different sports I've participated in it was by far the physically hardest. To be a good wrestler you learned to handle a lot of extremes. I feel it requires a lot more innate ability and natural talent. The kind you just can't teach or learn.

Wrestlers have the ability to decide where a fight takes place. If their opponent is a great Jitz guy then they just don't let it go to the ground. If their opponent is a great striker then they just take them down. Either way this is crucial.

3. Strikers have shown to be the most entertaining to watch but without having a decent knowledge of wrestling AND BJJ they never advance very far without being defeated by someone better at either.

The reason I feel that wrestling is the most dominant style is because a wrestler can learn the basics of BJJ and have a good enough guard to not get submitted by anyone but the best grapplers.

In contrast, the good Jitz guys seem to have a hard time even getting the wrestler down let alone getting the submission. It's much harder for someone with no real wrestling background to become decent at wrestling.

A perfect example of this was the TUF finale. I think Nover and Vinny were the favorites to win. Both are BJJ black belts with Vinny is a very good black belt and their opponents are basically just wrestlers. This is very true in the case of Bader and Vinny.

Escudero has won a lot of fights by RNC but all accounts say he's not really a submission expert just a wrestler who knows some subs decently and uses his wrestling to set it up. But look at the outcome. Both wrestlers prevailed and both BJJ black belts lost.

Other notable recent champions, popular fighters and high ranked fighters that have a strong wrestling background are:

Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar, Matt Lindland, Quinton Jackson, Dan Henderson, Uriah Faber, Rashad Evans, Matt Hughes, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Kevin Randlman, Renatu Soberal, Sean Sherk, Frankie Edgar, Tyson Griffin, Mike Brown, and Chris Leben.

I don't think just being a wrestler will get you far on its own but I think It's the hardest aspect to add to your arsenal of weapons. I also think it's the best cornerstone style a fighter can have and then build around that. A wrestler can add decent Jitz and standup easier than a Jitz guy or striker can learn wrestling and that is where the fight control comes in.

I will concede that to be a champ you must be well rounded and this is evidenced by the champs in the UFC. Of the five, only one is what I'd call a wrestling-based fighter (Lesnar) where as two I'd say are primarily jitz guys (Penn, Griffen) then lastly the other two are probably best described as strikers (Silva, GSP).

All of these fighters are very well rounded though and have become decent wrestlers along the way; with some saying that GSP's raw athleticism has allowed him to become one of the most dominant (for MMA purposes) wrestlers.

This is, of course, still just my opinion so feel free to disagree with me. I love to hear the other side of the opinions and enjoy a good debate/discussion.

Thanks for reading my article and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed dreaming it up and writing it.

Info Leaked From Xtreme Couture Says Randy Will Come Into Fight at 260 Lbs!!

Jeff Wackerly — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:30:20 -0500

News has been leaked from Extreme Couture that Randy has been on an intensive strength and weight gain program and plans on coming into the fight this Saturday at 260-265 lbs of solid muscle.

"This is a Randy that no one has seen before, a monster version of Randy. Imagine Randy as a bigger stronger version of Kevin Randleman".

Couple this with the fact that he won't need to cut any weight and Brock's strength and size advantage might almost be a non factor.

OK, so for those that haven't noticed, this is in the fantasy category because that's what it is, a fantasy, a hoax, a prank, a dream...

I friend of mine who is just learning about MMA was asking me about the fight coming up this weekend. I was explaining to her who the players are, why this fight is so interesting and why it's hard to pick a winner.

She said, "what if Randy has been really working out and gets extra big and strong, to where he's almost as strong as Brock?" I was intrigued by the idea and told her "it'd make it a lot easier to pick a winner wouldn't it".

How bad ass would it be if this was the case!

The thought of that, if it were true, would have gotten me so excited that I decided I had to write about it.

I still think Randy is going to win this fight without getting bigger and it's not out of the realm of possibility for him to have gained a bit more size and strength, although nothing like this.

My hope is that he pulls off the win and cements his legacy with another win over Minotaro before he retires for good.

I hope you guys had some fun reading this, I had fun writing it.