Cardio Freak MMA News Report 10.12.09: The Wrong Guy Won
Posted by Jeremy Lambert on 10.12.2009
This week in Cardio Freak: A look at fights where one fighter was designed to win but his opponent had other ideas. Plus reviews of WEC 43 and DREAM 11 and thoughts on Griffin/Ortiz 2 and new fights added to the Strikeforce on CBS event. It's crazier than Damacio Page, it's Cardio Freak on 411.
Headline News
Earlier this year a wrote a column about the the right man winning. The gist of that column (for those of you too lazy to go back and read it) was pointing out fights where the right fighter won in order to set up a bigger and better fight. A reader suggested that I do the opposite and look at fights where the wrong fighter won. Well it's only taken me seven months but I'm a man of the people.
This was actually tougher than the other column because any good company can turn the wrong fighter winning into the right fighter winning. For example, I really wanted to use Rashad Evans beating Chuck Liddell at UFC 88 as the wrong guy winning but that fight made Evans a star and his next fight against Forrest Griffin, with the help of Nogueira vs. Mir and Jackson vs. Silva, did one million buys on PPV. So was Evans beating Liddell really a failure for UFC? I don't think so. Another example is Keith Jardine beating Chuck Liddell but the whole point of that fight was to give Liddell a win before fighting Wanderlei Silva. Instead Liddell lost that fight and he still fought Silva. So again, it didn't really hurt UFC because they made the same fight they were going to make.
So here's the list I came up with:
Gabriel Gonzaga defeating Mirko "Cro Cop" at UFC 70: This was supposed to be a "gimme" fight for the Croation striker. Gonzaga was a relative unknown while "Cro Cop" was coming off the PRIDE GP and his first UFC victory. Everyone figured that Mirko would KO Gonzaga and that would set up a dream fight with "Cro Cop" vs. Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight title. Gabriel Gonzaga had other plans. With one big right head kick he knocked only knocked UFC's plans out the window but he also knocked Mirko's career off track. Instead of a dream fight between "Cro Cop" vs. Couture, we got Couture vs. Gonzaga in a fight that did average PPV numbers and certainly did no favors for Gonzaga.
Fedor Emelianenko defeating Mirko "Cro Cop" at PRIDE Final Conflict 2005: Why is this on the list? Because the whole story of this fight was "Cro Cop's" run towards the title. Like or not, Fedor (before he was presented by M-1 Global) was never really a big draw for PRIDE. The fans never connected with him like they connected with Wanderlei Silva or Mirko "Cro Cop". This fight was supposed to be Mirko's grandest MMA achievement after winning seven straight fights and earning the right to face Fedor. PRIDE wanted Mirko to win so they could have a good story to tell and good Heavyweight fights lined up with Mirko as champion. Instead Fedor defeated him and went on to fight such fighters as Zulu, Mark Coleman, and Mark Hunt.
Paulo Thiago defeating Josh Koscheck at UFC 90: Josh Koscheck was being groomed for a rematch against Georges St. Pierre. He was supposed to face Paulo Thiago, knock him out, and move on to bigger and better things. Instead Thiago caught him with an uppercut and momentarily stopped the push of Koscheck. Instead of being one fight away from a title shot, Koscheck is now probably two fights away, even after his victory over Frank Trigg. This wouldn't be a big deal if Paulo Thiago was destined for stardom but I think after he loses to Thiago Alves, he'll be back in preliminary fights and one loss away from being back in Brazil fighting on smaller shows.
Joe Warren defeating "Kid" Yamamoto at DREAM 9: Joe Warren was a relative unknown before the DREAM Featherweight GP and "Kid" Yamamoto is one of the biggest stars in Japan. Yamamoto was given a first round bye in the tournament and everyone figured he would go on to win the whole thing because he was considered a top 3 Featherweight in the world. Instead Joe Warren took advantage of that fact that "Kid" was coming off a long layoff and multiple surgeries by repeatedly taking him down and doing just enough to win a split decision. It was a big blow for DREAM who were hurting for ratings and needed one of their stars to advance and win the tournament.
Seth Petruzelli defeating Kimbo Slice at EliteXC: Heat: This is the best example ever of the wrong guy winning. Really it's the best example ever of a company doing multiple things wrong but had Kimbo won this fight, it's possible that EliteXC could still be in business today. Instead Petruzelli knocked out Slice in 14 seconds, proceeded to do radio interviews while hungover, said some stupid things, and killed the company. Petruzelli has gone on to do nothing since beating Slice over a year ago and Slice took a break before reemerging on TUF 10 where he lost in the first round.
Maybe the real "wrong guy winning" in this situation is Ken Shamrock's sparring partner. Had Shamrock not suffered a cut the day of the fight, he would have fought Slice, probably gotten KO'd, and EliteXC would have survived for the time being.
Major UFC/WEC News
On October 6 Tito Ortiz tweeted that Mark Coleman had "sissied out" of their UFC 106 fight. Later that day it was confirmed that Coleman had pulled out of the fight with a torn MCL. One October 8 Kevin Iole reported that Forrest Griffin would step in for Coleman and face Ortiz at UFC 106.
Mark Coleman is quickly becoming the Affliction of MMA fighters. He's had two UFC fights and he's pulled out of two UFC fights.
Ortiz vs. Griffin 2 is a very interesting fight, certainly far more interesting than Ortiz vs. Coleman. Although Tito Ortiz has been away from competition for over a year now, he's still 0-2-1 in his last three fights and hasn't beaten anyone under 40 since beating, well, Forrest Griffin at UFC 59 by split decision. This time last year Forrest Griffin was the UFC Light Heavyweight champion. Now he's coming off two straight losses and can ill afford a third. Point is, neither fighter can afford a loss at UFC 106 if they want to make a run at the Light Heavyweight title in 2010.
I like this fight as a return fight for Griffin after his UFC 101 performance against Anderson Silva. We all know Griffin turned in a horrible performance in that fight but lets not forget who he was facing and really how stupid his game plan was. Seriously, if you can't hit the guy and he knocks you down a couple of times, it's time to try and take the fight to the ground. He's a much better fighter than he showed at UFC 101 and I think he'll come out with something to prove against Ortiz given that performance and his feelings on his UFC 59 fight with Ortiz, which many thought he won.
This is a much tougher fight for Ortiz because against Coleman he was essentially fighting an older, slower, and less in shape version of himself. I don't care how bad Griffin looked at UFC 101, he's better than what he showed in that fight and he's better than Mark Coleman. You have to wonder just how good Ortiz will be in this fight coming off the long lay off and back surgery. If he has any type of ring rust against a guy like Griffin, his return may not go as he would hope.
UFC 106 was a major event before but now it's clearly the biggest event on the UFC 2009 calendar. Shane Carwin and Brock Lesnar are already going back and fourth through the media and I have a feeling that Griffin and Ortiz will deliver plenty of verbal jabs in the coming weeks.
WEC 43 results:
*Ben Henderson defeated Donald Cerrone by Unanimous Decision (48-47 across) to win the vacant WEC Interim Lightweight Title
*Dave Jansen defeated Rich Crunkilton by Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
*Raphael Assuncao defeated Yves Jabouin by Split Decision (30-27, 27-30, 29-28)
*Damacio Page defeated Will Campuzano by Submission at 1:02 in Round One
Ben Henderson defeating Donald Cerrone could be classified as the wrong guy winning considering this fight was supposed to set up Cerrone vs. Varner 2. Cerrone did everything he could to try and win but Henderson just refused to tap to what looked to be some deep submissions. Cerrone has no real takedown defense but his conditioning is outstanding. Like in the fight with Varner, Cerrone was taken down at will early but in the later rounds he was able to avoid most of the takedowns and either turn them into submissions or keep the fight on the feet. I'm not sure it's a gameplan in title fights where he tries to win the first round by going for multiple submissions on the ground, he's fine with giving away the second and third rounds in order to tire his opponent out, and then he tries to win the late rounds with a submission or just win the decision. If that's his gameplan it's not very smart but it almost worked for him in the Varner fight and it almost worked for him in this fight. Henderson vs. Varner should be a fun fight when it happens. Unless of course Varner gets injured again before now and December.
Speaking of no takedown defense. Rich Crunkilton had this fight won but gave up some weak takedowns and ended up losing the fight in the third round. Had he been able to keep the fight on the feet, it was only a matter of time before Jansen dropped due to punches and exhaustion. The ref was trying to give Crunkilton the victory by standing the fight up three seconds after the fight hit the ground but Crunkilton couldn't take advantage of it. Jansen obviously has great wrestling but his striking has a long way to go if he's going to be champion one day.
Weird scoring in the Jabouin vs. Assuncao fight. I thought the fight was close but it's rare you see one judge give the fight 30-27 for one fighter and another judge give the fight 30-27 for the other fighter. I scored the fight 29-28 Assuncao and in the end, I was right. Jabouin was really impressive in this fight though. His striking was really crisp and powerful, unfortunately Assuncao has a hell of a chin and he just took everything thrown at him. If I'm WEC, I'd do Faber vs. Assuncao next because an Assuncao win would earn him a title shot and a Faber win gets him a big win in his return fight. Also if Aldo is champion, they could easily do Faber vs. Aldo with a Faber win over Assuncao.
Damacio Page is awesome. I loved in his pre-fight video that he said, "my advantage is that I'm crazy." That should be listed as one of his strengths that they also list before a fight enters the cage. "KO power" "Explosive" "Crazy". Plus he has an awesome nickname. They should just give Damacio the title shot against Brian Bowles because that's how awesome he is.
It should also be noted that Mackens Semerzier defeated Wagney Fabiano by triangle choke in what has to be considered a big upset. Fabiano has certainly been a disappointed in WEC, turning in bad performances and now losing to a fighter he should have defeated.
Although this was probably the least watched show in WEC history, it was another damn good show by the company. If you missed it, finish reading this column, and watch it.
Major Strikeforce/Miscellaneous News
On October 9 Sherdog reported that Gegard Mousasi would face Sokoudjou at the November 7 Strikeforce on CBS event. The fight will be a non-title fight.
I'd like to apologize to M-1 Global for suggesting last week that they pulled Mousasi out of his DREAM 11 fight with Sokoudjou in fear that their second most valuable possession would be KO'd in 30 seconds a month before their most valuable possession would be KO'd in 30 seconds. Instead they decided to take that risk on the same night.
Part of me really wishes Mousasi and Fedor Presented by M-1Global would get KO'd by their opponents on November 7th but the odds of that happening are probably somewhere around +1500. Of course if I could actually find real odds on such a bet, I'd probably put some money on it.
Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou is essentially the Light Heavyweight version of Fedor Presented by M-1 Global vs. Brett Rogers. That's actually a disservice to Sokoudjou who has a black belt in Judo while Rogers has a gold star in box stacking. Sokoudjou is really dangerous in the first three minutes or so but after that he begins to fade and then he becomes easy pickings in the second round. As long as Mousasi survives the initial "African Assassin" onslaught then he should have no problem putting away Sokoudjou.
My biggest problem with this fight is the fact that it's a non-title for really no reason. The Strikeforce title situation in every division is pretty much a joke anyway but now I don't even think they're trying to fix things. They've done this before where the champion fights in a non-title fight and it just makes no sense to me. Unless the champion is fighting out of his weight class, anytime he fights should be a title fight. The only argument for non-title fights is that, "no one deserves a title shot" and if that's the case, well, then you've done a poor job building contenders and your champion shouldn't fight until he has a worthy contender. Hell, even if the contender isn't worthy, it should still be for the title because what if the challenger beats the champion in the non-title fight? Then you have to do the same fight again for the title only no one wants to see it again unless it was a controversial ending or a close decision.
I'm convinced Strikeforce doesn't care about their titles. Between creating Interim champions when they aren't needed, not creating Interim champions when they are needed, trying to put four title fights on one show, not stripping champions when they should be, not putting title fights on last, and having champions fight in non-title fights; no one can convince me otherwise.
On October 8 Sherdog reported that Fabricio Werdum will fight Antonio Silva at the November 7 Strikeforce on CBS show.
All of a sudden Strikeforce has a decent Heavyweight division with Fedor Presented by M-1 Global, Brett Rogers, Werdum, Silva, and Overeem. Of course Overeem will never defend his title so the division is sort of a mess until he actually decides to do so but it's by far Strikeforce's deepest division. Not that that's saying much.
If Strikeforce had any sense they would strip Overeem of the Heavyweight title and then match up the winners for FPM-1G vs. Rogers and Silva vs. Werdum in a mini tournament to crown a new Heavyweight champion. It's clear Overeem has no intention of defending the title so Strikeforce needs to take action and do it soon.
I like this fight as the return fight for Silva. His striking is better than Werdum's and while his ground game isn't on the same level, it should be good enough to hang in there without getting tapped out. I think Werdum is going to have a tough time getting the fight to the ground in the first place because of Silva's size and wrestling. As long as Silva can keep it standing he should win this fight because when your last name is Silva, you automatically have good powerful striking. It's a birth rule.
Major Japan News
DREAM 11 Results:
*Bibiano Fernandes defeated Hiroyuki Takaya by Split Decision to win the vacant DREAM Featherweight title
*Shinya Aoki defeated Joachim Hansen by Submission (Armbar) at 4:56 in Round Two to win the DREAM Lightweight Title
*Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Rubin Williams by Submission (Kimura) at 2:53 in Round One
*Tatsua Kawajiri defeated Melchor Manibusan by TKO at 3:48 in Round One
*Sokoudjou defeated Bob Sapp by TKO at 1:31 in Round One
*Ikuhisa Minowa defeated Hong Man Choi by Submission (Heel Hook) at 1:27 in Round Two
*Bibiano Fernandes defeated Joe Warren by Submission (Armbar) at 0:42 in Round One
*Hiroyuki Takaya defeated Hideo Tokoro by TKO at 0:32 in Round Two
*Kazuyuki Miyata defeated DJ Taiki by Unanimous Decision
Fernandes vs. Takaya was a hell of a fight that could have gone either way. Takaya was getting the better of him on the feet for the most part but Fernandes scored a quick knockdown and had the positions on the ground, even though you never thought Takaya was in trouble on the ground. I wouldn't mind if DREAM did an immediate rematch between these two because I think Takaya deserves a fair shot at Fernandes and not in a fight where Fernandes was clearly the fresher fighter heading in thanks to quick victory over Warren while Takaya had a war with Tokoro earlier in the evening.
I really felt bad for Joachim Hansen because it seemed like he was on his way to possible winning the decision until he made one mistake and allowed Aoki to finish an armbar with just seconds remaining in the fight. I don't know if Hansen didn't realize how much time was left but I have to think that if he knew there was only four seconds remaining, he would have tried to hold on. Really the biggest story out of this fight was Aoki once again needing a fight stopped for a short period due to an illegal blow. Aoki is turning off a lot of fans by always complaining about illegal blows in fights. They never really showed a good angle of Hansen catching Aoki with a low blow but from the angle we saw, it did look as if Hansen kicked Aoki squarely in the nuts causing Aoki to drop and eat a couple of up kicks. Either way, you still have to give Aoki for either fighting through the groin shot or being a hell of an actor.
Sakuraba defeated some boxer as he should have. He says he wants to continue to fight, which I don't think is a good idea but who am I to tell Kazushi Sakuraba what to do? I just hope he chooses his fights wisely from here on out.
Like Sakuraba, Kawajiri defeated a lesser opponent and did so with ease. It seems like Kawajiri vs. Aoki is being set up for New Years Eve and I have no problem with that fight. Kawajiri usually has exciting fights and I don't think DREAM has any other Lightweights who could be considered for a title shot right now unless Strikeforce is willing to loan out Gilbert Melendez for New Years Eve.
Sokoudjou and Minowa won their respective Super Hulk fights as many expected. I was really pulling for Hong Man Choi but everyone knew that if Minowa could somehow get him to the ground then it would be all she wrote considering Choi really offers nothing but strength on the ground. The best part of the Sokoudjou vs. Sapp fight was Sapp's wild swing and grunt. Other than that the fight went exactly how one would expect. I figure Sokoudjou will probably beat Minowa in the finals but I always root for the upset in the Super Hulk tournament so I'll be pulling for Minowa in that fight.
Joe Warren clearly has some things to learn. He was the favorite to win the DREAM Featherweight GP but he got caught in an armbar and had to tap out. Well, they say he tapped out but I never saw him tap and then they never bothered to show a good replay of him tapping out or not tapping out. He still has the potential to be a great fighter but he can't be over aggressive against a good jiu-jitsu artist because you saw the end result.
I don't think Takaya vs. Tokoro should have gone to the second round as Tokoro was clearly out at the end of the first round but what can you do? At least Takaya made quick work of him in the second.
Miyata vs. Taiki was a fun fight but Miyata did just enough in the first round to win the decision.
Overall it was a good show for DREAM and nothing went horribly wrong for them like usual although Shinya Aoki tried his hardest to keep the curse going.
No More News
That does it for me folks. I'll be back next week with a preview of UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun. Take care everyone.
