The Greatest MMA News Column 09.29.09: Big Country vs. Kimbo
Posted by Dan Plunkett on 09.29.2009
411's Dan Plunkett takes a look at Roy Nelson vs. Kimbo Slice on this week's Ultimate Fighter, Rampage Jackson's "retirement," Silva vs. Belfort, UFC 108, Swick vs. Hardy, and much more!
Roy Nelson vs. Kimbo
Despite the fact that it took place months ago, the biggest fight this week in the world of mixed martial arts is Roy "Big Country" Nelson vs. Kimbo Slice. The fight will likely end up being the most viewed Ultimate Fighter episode in history.
On paper, this fight is a complete mismatch. This will be Nelson's eighteenth MMA fight, while it will only be Kimbo's fifth (if you count his exhibition bout against Ray Mercer). Not only has Nelson had nearly four times more fights, he's also much more accomplished in his career. He is the only man that can lay claim to being the IFL Heavyweight Champion, and he has fought big names such as Jeff Monson, Andrei Arlovski, and Ben Rothwell. Despite losing all three fights, "Big Country" held his own in all of them: his loss to Rothwell came by split decision, a controversial stand-up from side control may have cost him the Arlovski fight, and the loss to Monson was by a razor thin decision that many think should have went Nelson's way.
By contrast, Kimbo's record is full of fighters that many consider "cans." Former boxing champ Ray Mercer was 46-years-old when he lost to Kimbo by submission in little more than a minute. Silce's next opponent was Bo Cantrell, who boasted a four fight losing streak at the time of the fight, 7 losses by KO or TKO, and in his previous fight succumbed to a gogoplata against Brad Imes. A slugfest against Tank Abbott was next for Kimbo. Since returning to MMA in 2003, Abbott's record was a dismal 1-6. Kimbo made short work of Tank, who eventually did get back into the win column a year later. Then came the infamous bout against James Thompson, who is a "knock out or be knocked out" type of fighter. Going into the fight Thompson had been KO'd or TKO'd 7 times, though he had won 9 times by knockout as well. Thompson gave Kimbo the fight of his life, taking the first two rounds and controlling the sports new big star in a nationally televised bout. In the third round, Kimbo exploded Thompson's disgusting cauliflower ear, thus forcing the ref to halt the contest and earning Kimbo the victory. After that came Kimbo's only loss in a fight against light heavyweight and former Ultimate Fighter contestant Seth Petruzelli – which took all of 14 seconds.
You can file this fight under the classic "striker vs. grappler" category. Everybody knows that Kimbo has heavy hands, but everywhere else he is lacking. Roy Nelson has solid stand-up, but if I were him I wouldn't even risk standing up with Kimbo -- though judging by the picture on the right of him getting punched in the face, it seems as though he takes that risk. Nelson's grappling skills are on another planet compared to those of Kimbo. "Big Country," a black belt in BJJ under Renzo Gracie, should be able to do anything he pleases with Kimbo on the ground.
When this fight was announced last Wednesday my initial thoughts were that Roy was going to submit Kimbo in the first round. Now I'm having some second thoughts.
"I was impressed with my performance [against Roy Nelson]." –Kimbo Slice
"I think there are probably two top guys on Rampage's team and [Kimbo] was one of them." –Roy Nelson
Here's what those two quotes tell me: Their fight was a hard fought battle. Kimbo defended some takedowns, survived the ground game of Roy Nelson (at least for a little bit). I think Nelson expected to walk through Kimbo, and that didn't happen, so now he's talking up Kimbo as a tough fighter. Of course, this is all guesswork. I could be completely wrong about this so I won't dwell on it too much. My official prediction: Roy Nelson, submission, round 2. I think it will be fairly close in the first round, but "Big Country" takes over in the second.
Rampage Retires
I won't go into this too much since it's already been covered to death. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson has "retired" from MMA in order to pursue his acting career. I put quotations because Rampage will be back; there is no doubt in my mind about that. This just seems to be a case of Rampage getting his feelings hurt by Dana White.
Rampage feels like he's done a lot for the UFC, and he has. He wanted to gain some more experience inside the UFC before fighting Chuck Liddell, but per their request he took that fight. Then he fought a good friend of his in Dan Henderson. After that he went on The Ultimate Fighter as a coach, putting him on the sidelines for ten months. When UFC 96 needed a headliner, Rampage was there, despite the short notice. Finally, he coached The Ultimate Fighter again.
But while Quinton has done a lot for the company, he has also benefitted a lot from the UFC. He's made millions of dollars. The UFC is also the major reason he's landed so many movie roles, including the role of B.A. Baracus. On top of all that, the UFC stood by him when Rampage had his mental and legal issues back in the summer of 2008. Now he commits to a fight against Rashad Evans, though he didn't sign anything, only to push the fight back due to a movie role. Though since Dana White took any chance he got to let out his feelings on the matter, Rampage called it quits.
Rampage isn't the only person who has done a lot for the UFC. Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes, Randy Couture, and Tito Ortiz have all done just as much if not more for the UFC than Quinton. Out of those four, Couture and Ortiz have had very public problems with the UFC that lead to them leaving the company. How did those situations turn out? They came back. They always come back. It will be no different this time around.
Card so far:
* UFC Heavyweight Championship: Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin
*Mark Coleman vs. Tito Ortiz
* Luiz Cane vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
* Ricardo Almeida vs. Jon Fitch
* Dustin Hazelett vs. Karo Parisyan
* Marcus Davis vs. Ben Saunders
* Phil Baroni vs. Amir Sadollah
* Jason Dent vs. George Sotiropoulos
Silva vs. Belfort to Headline UFC 108
Just as expected, the Brazilian's will headline the UFC's year end extravaganza (ignore the fact it will take place after the New Year). Vitor Belfort looked good in his last fight, he still has very fast hands and it's possible he could catch Anderson Silva. But while Vitor looked good in his last fight, Anderson Silva looked invincible. His stand-up was beautiful, but to everyone in the middleweight and light heavyweight division, it was scary.
Vitor Belfort is a different animal than Forrest Griffin though. Anderson was able to put his hands down and dodge Forrest's punches at will because he could see them coming. Against Belfort, Anderson won't have that same luxury. Vitor is noted for his hand speed, so I don't think Anderson will attempt to drop his hands with him.
As a result of Belfort getting the title shot, it looks like Dan Henderson will take on Nate Marquardt at UFC 108. I still believe the title shot should have gone to Dan Henderson, mostly because it would be a bigger fight than Belfort/Silva. However, it looks like the UFC is going to promote the card as "stacked," seeing as the card features four big fights. So I don't think the difference in PPV buys would be significant had Henderson would have gotten the title shot instead.
Rashad Evans is likely to take on Thiago Silva at the event. Evans is a name fighter that will help draw on the card, especially coming off of The Ultimate Fighter. However, if Rampage Jackson decides to come back to the UFC, Evans could be moved off this card to take on Rampage in March or April.
According to Luke Thomas, Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama may also be on tap for the event. This will be Wanderlei's first fight at middleweight and his first fight since getting his new face. "Sexyama" won a controversial decision at UFC 100 over Alan Belcher, and a win over "The Axe Murderer" would be the biggest of his career. Should it take place, I think this will be the fight of the night. It will be a war.
Swick vs. Hardy to Determine #1 Contender
After pulling out of his UFC 103 fight against Martin Kampmann, Mike Swick will get another chance to become the #1 contender at welterweight against Dan Hardy at UFC 105. This match-up is a prime example of how barren the UFC welterweight division is of any legitimate contenders. I'll buy Mike Swick as a contender; he's 9-1 in the UFC and 4-0 at welterweight. Dan Hardy however, shouldn't be fighting to be the #1 contender this early. To date, Hardy has only had 3 fights in the UFC. In his first fight he won a close split-decision over Akihiro Gono. Then he knocked out Rory Markham at UFC 95. Most recently, he won another close split-decision over Marcus Davis at UFC 99 in an anticipated grudge match.
One thing Dan Hardy does well is talk up his fights. The way he was able to get under Marcus Davis' skin was Ortiz-like. But he's being thrown into the title picture way too quickly. At this point in his career, Hardy's ground game isn't good enough to compete with the likes of a Georges St. Pierre, though he is on the right track in training under Eddie Bravo.
Two recent title contenders, Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves, had much longer roads to title shots, and they benefitted from it. Fitch won eight consecutive fights in the UFC before he was given a chance to prove himself against the best. It took Thiago Alves seven wins to get the opportunity to take on Georges St. Pierre. Even after all that extra time they had to develop and train for GSP, they were both blown out of the water. Dan Hardy isn't nearly ready for the test that GSP presents for him, I don't think he, or Mike Swick for that matter, can go the distance against GSP.
The problem isn't that Hardy and Swick aren't very good fighters, because they are very good fighters. The problem is Georges St. Pierre is just so good. He is that much better than everybody else in the division. I've said many times before that there simply isn't enough of a challenge for GSP at welterweight and I would love to see him take on Anderson Silva. There is no reason to not give GSP a chance at becoming undoubtedly the best fighter in the world except the UFC just doesn't want to risk him losing to Anderson embarrassingly, which could hurt his drawing ability. I don't think there's a very big chance of that embarrassing loss happening should the fight happen, but at this point I don't think there's much of a chance of that fight taking place anyway.
That is it for this week. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave a comment, or email me here.
There is no reason to not give GSP a chance at becoming undoubtedly the best fighter in the world except the UFC just doesn't want to risk him losing to Anderson embarrassingly, which could hurt his drawing ability. I don't think there's a very big chance of that embarrassing loss happening should the fight happen
If Matt Serra can make GSP SUBMIT to strikes... What could Anderson Silva do?
Embarrass him thats what.
Posted By: E-Van (Guest) on September 29, 2009 at 10:56 AM
Silva's been submitted by a less than great fighter as well.
Posted By: Alex (Guest) on September 29, 2009 at 07:57 PM
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