The Takedown MMA News Report 12.25.09: Appeal to Reason
Posted by Daniel Bonnizzio on 12.25.2009
Thoughts on how the Japanese view MMA, the Jon Jones/NSAC situation, the Takedown's predictions for 2010, fight announcements and more!
Welcome to another edition of
In My Opinion… Just a section to discuss my opinion on something
First off let me wish everyone here at 411mania a huge Merry Christmas!
So, I was reading through the Sherdog forums when I stumbled onto a topic about Kyra Gracie possibly competing in MMA, and someone made a mention of how if she did it in a Japanese place they would throw her right into the deep end of the waters (much like how Joe Warren had what some consider the toughest first two fights most people would find).
It brings me to this: Japanese MMA fans don't really care much for the W/L record on a fighter so much as they care how he comes into the contest. This is the basis for what most consider being one of the most effective scoring systems, the PRIDE scoring system. Focused on the effort to finish a fight, PRIDE was famous (or infamous) for its fights and how paced they were.
The love of the fight is what really separates Japanese MMA fans from the rest of the world, in my opinion, and it's something we need to try and learn here in the States. Too many times I'm watching an event and everyone is into the fight, then suddenly the fight hits the ground, even for just a bit and everyone boos the fight. Even worse when the fights go to a decision, everyone is crying about the lack of the "good stuff like knockouts and stuff" (real quote) instead of appreciating the effort, time and work these athletes put themselves through.
The NSAC Stands Behind Steve
The Nevada State Athletic Commission has given a verdict that they will not take Jon Jones's appeal under consideration for the questionable end to his December 5th fight with Matt Hamill. The fight was stopped in the first round due to a cut on Hamill's nose which was caused by an illegal elbow, and the referee on duty for that match (Steve Mazzagatti) initially deducted a point from Jones, but after Hamill was unable to continue, Mazzagatti stopped the fight and after using instant replay footage deemed the result a DQ victory for Hamill from illegal elbows by Jones.
Jones's camp filed an appeal to reverse the decision (or at least change it to a NC) but the NSAC has decided they will no hear his appeal.
Personally I find this to be a little bit of good and bad. On the bad side, Jones record will forever have the mark of a loss due to a possible referee error and getting caught in the heat of the moment, but hopefully like one of the biggest names Mazzagatti made a bad call on (Lesnar) Jon Jones will take the call in stride and move on to bigger and better names (which he seems to have done with a rumored bout with Brandon Vera on the VS debut of the UFC).
This is an example of the hardcore fans who claim the PRIDE system of a foul in the first (unless clearly intentional) resulting in a fighter being unable to continue would rule the match a NC instead of a DQ is perfect. On some days I agree, but this is the UFC, not PRIDE and while the 10-point must system has its flaws, it has worked for the company and this ruling, however egregious, will stand. Let's all just hope Hamill a good recovery and Jones a good bounce back as both are hungry men in the UFC's most stacked division.
ADRIANNNNN!!
Could totally pull off Rocky.
The Takedown 10 Prediction for 2010
So the writers here are doing their predictions for 2010 in MMA, so I'd toss my hand into the pot and give my ten predictions.
1. By the end of 2010, Alistair Overeem will no longer be the Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion.
Either being stripped by Coker or losing it to Fedor or what. He's not going to have that belt going into 2011.
2. Randy Couture will be involved in a title fight.
I mean, this will be his THIRD fight in a row not involved in a title of some kind for the UFC which is pretty amazing given his record.
3. 3/5 of the UFC champions will start and end the year still the champion.
And for bonus points, I'm thinking Penn, GSP, and Silva.
4. An upset bigger than Serra/GSP I will occur.
I dunno why but there is one HUGE upset every year and I think that it will happen bigger than Serra winning the belt off of RUSH.
5. Rampage will fight at least twice in 2010.
Despite claiming to only want to fight Rashad, I bet that Rampage's ‘acting' career will not be able to hold him over and he'll be in the Octagon at least twice.
6. Dan Henderson returns to the UFC.
Let's face it, outside of the UFC there's Jake Shields, Gegard Mousasi, Fedor, Babalu, and Jacare. That's it for Hendo.
7. BJ Penn will go to a decision.
BJ has some great finishing power for a lightweight as he stopped Joe Daddy in one round, made Sherk quit after three, submitted KenFlo in four, and while he almost went to a decision against Diego he cut him bad for the stoppage. However, I think there are a few who could stifle him well enough to last all 25 minutes.
8. 2/5 current UFC champions will move up in weight class before the end of the year.
While I know this is contradictive to 3 just a bit, I feel that before the end of the year we will see Penn at 170 full time, GSP at 185 full time, and Silva at 205 full time. Hopefully.
9. The DREAM and Strikeforce titles will remain separate.
Scott Coker said he would love to unify the Strikeforce and DREAM titles sometime in 2010, but the fact is that it's just not kosher for that to happen. Leave them apart, at least until the UFC slowly deathgrips them and forces them to out of sheer necessity, not vanity.
10. A TUF8, TUF9, or TUF10 winner will receive a title shot.
While TUF6 and TUF7 were known as rather shallow talents depths, the fact is that TUF8, 9 and 10 produced some rather skilled winners, and I could see Bader, Nelson, or even Pearson challenging for a title sometime in the near future.
Let's see how good I am, huh?
In the Lands of the Rising Sun
Here I'll cover the happenings in Japanese MMA
The Power of Courage
More info on next week's Dynamite!! Card has appeared over the week as more and more fights were confirmed for both the MMA and the K-1 bouts of the night. Right now the event looks to be massive, possibly spanning over 6 hours of programming.
In a stunning piece of news (that I cannot confirm or deny) it appears the headlining fight (or what SHOULD be the headlining fight, we all know how the Japanese look at important fights) between the two judoka gold medalists Satoshi Ishii and Hidehiko Yoshida will be for the vacant Sengoku Heavyweight Championship. Wouldn't it be something if Ishii would become a champion in his pro MMA debut? Fascinating.
The event is currently scheduled to broadcast LIVE all over the HDnet airwaves on Thursday, December 31 2009 starting at 3 AM ET. I know I'll be staying up to watch it, how about you all?
The MMA bouts are as follows:
· Openweight bout, Super Hulk Tournament Finals: Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
· Heavyweight (205+) bout: Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida
· Heavyweight (205+) bout: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hiroshi Izumi
· Heavyweight (205+) bout: Alistair Overeem vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
· Middleweight (185) bout: Melvin Manhoef vs. Kazuo Misaki
· Welterweight (168) bout: Hayato Sakurai vs. Akihiro Gono
· Lightweight (154) bout: Shinya Aoki vs Mizuto Hiroka
· Lightweight (154) bout: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs Kazunori Yokota
· Featherweight (139) bout: Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Michihiro Omigawa
· Featherweight (139) bout: Hideo Tokoro vs. Marlon Sandro
· Featherweight (139) bout: Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Masanori Kanehara
And the K-1 contests are as follows:
· Masato vs Andy Souwer
· Ray Sefo vs Yosuke Nishijima
· Hiroya vs Masaaki Noiri
· Shota Shimada vs Katsuki Ishida
· Tsukasa Fuji vs Tatuya Kusakabe
· Winner of Hiroya vs Masaaki Noiri vs Winner of Shota Shimada vs Katsuki Ishida
Still no word on whether or not Gegard Mousasi, Bob Sapp, Hong Man Choi, Badr Hari, Jerome le Banner, Kazushi Sakuraba, or Tim Sylvia will be fighting on the card.
Future Fights
A small recap of potential fights in the future announced over the week.
· Mark Hominick vs Brian Caraway, WEC 46
· George Roop vs Eddie Wineland, WEC 46 (Rafael Rebello and Jesse Moreng, the original opponents, pulled out from injury; WEC matched Roop/Wineland instead of new opponents)
· Frank Mir vs Shane Carwin for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Championship, UFC 111
· Brian Foster vs Chris Lytle, UFC 110
· Marcus Davis vs Phil Baroni, UFC 111
· Dave Jansen vs Kamal Shalorus, WEC 46
· Mike Brown vs Anthony Morrison, WEC 46
Quick Jabs
· The UFC's debut on the Versus network is currently set to be Ultimate Fight Night 21, headlined by a light heavyweight bout between Brandon Vera and Jon Jones after Vera's original next opponent (Rogerio Nogueria) suffered an ankle injury. All I can say is the more free MMA on my TV, the better. The event looks to be March 21, 2010 in Denver, CO.
· Don Frye has retired from MMA to focus on his budding acting career. Godspeed to the man who gave us one of the scariest and most intense moments in MMA.
· WEC ratings continue to drop as WEC 45, headlined by Donald Cerrone and Ed Ratcliff, drew merely 330,000 average viewers. In contrast, Strikeforce: Evolution did a reasonable 341,000 viewers. However, comparing the fact that VS is available in nearly 75 million homes against the 12 million or so that Strikeforce is watched and the numbers look even worse.
Bozo's Corner Just stuff about me for the week.
Next week will be the LAST column of the year WOO. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good fight!
Quick preview of next week so you all know: Year-end awards!
Categories including Best Striker, Best Grappler, Most Awesome End to a Fight, Dumbest Risk, Most Impressive Run, Most Hated, and more!
And that finishes the shot for today people. If you wanna say something, feel free to leave a comment below and let me know what you have to say, or you can drop me a line at my email at 411takedown@gmail.com, or bonnizzio02@gmail.com.
Posted By: S Dot (Guest) on December 25, 2009 at 11:28 PM
Mazzagatti made the right call on the Jones fight - if Hamill had been able to go on, it would have been a point deduction, but since he was not, the rules clearly state that it's a DQ.
And that one loss isn't going to make anyone look at him any differently - he was dominant, and made a rookie error. He's still got a bright future ahead.
Posted By: Joseph Mama (Guest) on December 26, 2009 at 09:45 AM
Mazzagati was right about the Jones DQ. He was right about deducting the point off Lesnar too.
Posted By: KSti (Guest) on December 27, 2009 at 09:34 PM
To Joseph Mama (Guest)and KSti (Guest),
The reason Hamill could not continue was because of his dislocated shoulder, which did not result from an illegal maneuver, and therefore the fight should have been ruled a NC... At least that's what Jon Jones' team has argued.
Posted By: Randle McHelio (Guest) on December 28, 2009 at 02:46 PM
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