MMA's 3'Rs 6.29.09: Ultimate Chaos, Bob Sapp, Diego Sanchez and MMATH, Maynard vs. Huerta, More

Posted by Matt McEwen on 06.29.2009

Diego Sanchez tries to use MMATH, the Ultimate Chaos of Sapp vs. Lashley, Gray Maynard vs. Roger Huerta gets signed, the saga of Din Thomas cutting weight and more! Check out the latest edition of MMA’s 3R’s for all the details!



Welcome...
It was an interesting week in the world of MMA. The fall out from the Ultimate Fighter Finale continued, some big new fights were announced, the build up to UFC 100 has hit a fever pitch and, this past Saturday, Bobby Lashley faced his biggest challenge in MMA yet, in the form of the beastly Bob Sapp.


The Column Concept:
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of the column, here it is. The column will look at events and or happenings in the world of MMA. They will be broken down into the three categories, the Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right will be the good and great fights or positive news items of the week. Perhaps even big fight announcements. The wRong will be bad fights, bad booking decisions and the like. Finally, the Ridiculous are the things that were just the worst of the world of MMA. They get grouped in their categories, and for a show, they will get a score from 1-10, based on the 411 ratings scale.

THE RIGHT:

ULTIMATE CHAOS: I fully expected to witness one of those cringe worthy, so bad you tell stories about actually watching it events, so it might just be that it surpassed some very low expectations, but Ultimate Combat wasn't that bad. I'm not saying it was great, but it really wasn't that bad. They got 9 fights aired in less than 3 hours, which is impressive, and while they weren't all good fights - Abaddi and Orso, I'm looking at you - it was overall, a decent show. There were a couple of good action fights (kudos to T Shirt Man Atencio), the announcing was better than Affliction shows, and this might be the main reason I enjoyed it - it felt like an old school UFC event from the old, non-PPV dark days. There were talented fighters destroying guys who had no business being in the cage with them, rednecks screaming to stand them up when one fighter had back control with his hooks in and the main event was over in about 2 minutes.

Ah....nostalgia.

BOBBY LASHLEY: No, he's not ready for the UFC, and I'm in no way prepared to say that he will be anytime soon. But he did beat a man with some credible performances behind him that outweighed him by 70 pounds. There's something to be said for that. There's also something to be said for the patience that Lashley showed with his ground and pound. He seems to enjoy working out of half guard, was selective in his punches, and didn't try to do too much too soon. For a guy with as few fights as he has, that kind of control could bode well for his future. Now, he needs to take the next step. No more cans, blown up lightweights or fighters past their prime (if Sapp ever had a prime)...For his next opponent Lashley needs to face someone who is an actual threat. This isn't wrestling, and losing to someone who is a legitimate fighter in a good fight will mean more than padding his record against more cans.

GRAY MAYNARD VS ROGER HUERTA Say what you want about Huerta, I for one am glad that his swan song in the UFC will be 1) televised, 2) free on Spike and 3) probably a damned good fight.

I was afraid Huerta would be buried by the UFC on his way out the door, but putting him into a UFN main event against Maynard is probably the best way to go. The chances of him actually beating "The Bully" are pretty slim, but that's the real point here. If they go out and have a competitive, exciting fight and Maynard wins, then he just upped his profile in a big way as he's on the verge of a title shot. If Maynard dominates Huerta (and personally, that would be my guess), he gets a big win over a big name on a big stage, again leading into his title shot. This is a big chance for Maynard to really stake a claim to being at the top of the division to more than just us hardcore's. The big question now will be does he make the most of it?

GSP AND ALVES KEEP IT FRIENDLY: Not every fight is a grudge match, and, in light of all the fake trash talking we've seen in fights the last few years, it's refreshing to see the quotes that both GSP and Alves have made about each other heading into their July 11th showdown. Instead of creating some sort of artificial beef, both men have been complimentary towards each other and the fight is being presented as an athletic competition between two marital artists. I love it.

ONE MORE ROUND FOR CHUCK: Looks like Dana White might have to swallow his words and let Liddell have one more fight, and all rumors seem to be pointing to Rich Franklin as the likely ender of the Iceman's career. I'm not saying Franklin is a shoe in or anything, but I do think the bold title for this bit also works as a prediction of how long this fight goes. That being said, I'd actually be interested to see this fight as I'm a fan of both guys and win here would likely put Franklin just a win away from a title shot.

THE wRong:

DIEGO SANCHEZ AND MMATH: "The only other person is Gray Maynard and Gray Maynard has a win over Frankie Edgar, who has a win over Sean Sherk, but also, people don't forget, Nate Diaz has a win over Gray Maynard on The Ultimate Fighter and Guida has a win over Nate Diaz." - Sanchez. Who needs a FightLines graph when you have Diego "YUS!" Sanchez to regurgitate it for you?

"So, if you really do the math, it puts me as number one contender."

I'm not even entirely sure that Sanchez is wrong in saying that, but that might be because it confuses me as much as anything.

THE DIN THOMAS SAGA: The man weighs in a half pound over, is told it's ok, starts to rehydrate, is told to cut again, and ends up in the hospital. It's partially on Thomas for not making his contracted weight, but it's also on whoever told him it was ok before changing his mind. The Ultimate Combat show seemed to be fairly well organized but this was a mess. I don't know if his opponent Javier Vazquez was even given the option to go ahead with the fight even without Thomas making weight, but I got the feeling from his post fight interview that they wasn't. Thomas/Vazquez very well could have been the fight of the night and made that show an even more pleasant surprise, but now we'll never know.

THE RIDICULOUS:

REDNECK OFFICIATING: For all the surprisingly good things offered up at Ultimate Combat, there was one awful moment I'd rather forget. After dropping Pedro Rizzo with a nice left high kick followed by a big right hand, Gilbert Yvel crouched over his opponent and teed off with 3 or 4 brutal, pinpoint shots to the face of the defenseless Rizzo. WHILE THE REF STOOD 6 INCHES AWAY STARING. It was bad, and some of the photos that catch the moment make it look even worse. I'm glad Rizzo was able to get up and walk away, but he took some really bad, unnecessary punishment there, and had he been seriously hurt, I'd hold that ref liable for not doing his job and protecting the fighter.

BOB SAPP: Enough said.

PENN GETS THE DIRT ON FLORIAN: Or the grease, as it may be.

In stark contrast to GSP/Alves, BJ Penn seems to want to build interest in his first lightweight title defense in nearly 18 months by calling Kenny Florian a hypocrite and a liar.

It seems BJ is saying that Florian sent out a text message saying GSP was greasing in their fight. Florian denied it, and BJ is now busting out the witnesses.

It sounds even more retarded when I type that out.

DRINKY POO, DREW?: Drew Fickett was supposed to take on Shannon Ritch in the main event of a Rage in the Cage event in Arizona Saturday night, but the event had to be called off when Fickett showed up to the venue.

Because he was apparently drunk off his ass.

Now, that's professionalism. Spell it with me Drew - P....O...R....S...no, that's not right....P.....R....F...dammit...hand me another beer.....

The 411

I'm in a generous mood today, so even though this article isn't exclusively about Ultimate Chaos, I'll provide a rating for those who didn't check it out. It wasn't the greatest show ever, and yes, if the UFC put on a show like this, I think we'd all be wondering WTF was going on, but like I said, I had some low, low expectations coming in. It might not have been the UFC, but it sure wasn't YAMMA either.

SHOW RATING: 6.5