The Takedown MMA News Report 2.05.10: Old Man Strength

Posted by Daniel Bonnizzio on 02.05.2010

The Takedown looks at the oldest fight in the history of the UFC as Coleman battles Couture, discusses the WEC going to PPV for the first time, Bellator news, Sengoku news, new fight announcements and more!

Welcome to another edition of


In My Opinion…
Just a section to discuss my opinion on something
This weekend we will see the oldest fight in the UFC's history. At a combined age of 91 years old, Randy Couture (aged 46) and Mark Coleman (aged 45) will meet in the main event of UFC 109. Many people have wondered why these guys are still able to compete at this age, especially when many consider people like Chuck Liddell – who only turned 40 in December – are regarded as too old and aged to compete.

I think that the deciding factor is not really in the age itself but more on the training and lifestyle. Randy Couture and Mark Coleman are wrestlers by nature. Wrestling is one of the more difficult combat sports to master, but it is easily one of the easiest sports on the body when considering wear and tear. For instance in boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and K-1, you have more than ample opportunity to be knocked out or absorb heavy damage during your fights. In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, your joints are worn away from constant submissions.

Wrestling only truly damages few parts on the body. The knees, for instance, are often one of the first to go after a lifetime of wrestling. The constant movement along with the often explosive shots put tremendous strain on your knees, especially at the upper weight classes. It also tends to strain the neck from the ‘head-grappling' that goes on during a match.

However, in BJJ, the knees, ankles, elbows, shoulders, neck, back, wrists and even groin are stretched and pulled in all sorts of submissions. This is one of the reasons why Rodrigo Nogueira, although still ranked highly among Heavyweights, has slowed down considerably (from his already zombie-like movement during battle).

However, I would still recommend a good grappling base for combat sports as opposed to a contact striking sport just from the long-term effects that it could have on you in the coming years. Many people who could take a good punch just can't anymore. Many say this exact thing happened to Chuck after Rampage clocked him with the hard left at UFC 71: he just took one shot too many and it cracked his jaw. He even said himself that the hook Shogun hit him with at UFC 97 was one he "should have been able to take."

Fact is that wrestling is a much less damaging sport on the body and is one reason why guys like Randy and Mark are still able to compete, despite being twice as old as some of the fighters under Zuffa contract.

---

UFC 109: The Geezers at Caesar's


Headlined by – literally – the oldest MMA fight ever, UFC 109 looks to make an impact as it holds a surprisingly nice line up for a card missing a title fight. The original ground and pound artist – Mark Coleman – will meet fellow UFC Hall of Famer in the headline of the night as Randy Couture looks to continue his trek to a shot at the company's 205 pound strap.


Light Heavyweight (205) - Randy Couture vs Mark Coleman: Mark Coleman has made a career out of being able to outwrestle people and control them en route to delivering some serious ground and pound, but recently his age has started to catch up with him. Not everyone can be Randy Couture, and it shows. Coleman should still be able to outwrestle 90% of the UFC Light Heavyweights currently on the roster, but Randy Couture is not one of them (at least not anymore). Coleman has the better pure wrestling by far, but Randy has definitely been better at adapting his Greco skills to his MMA career and, much like Coleman, he has made his career off of outwrestling people, but in the clinch and not on the ground. I think that Coleman will be able to take all of Randy's punches and avoid being taken down (for a round, at least) but the Natural's grinding style of control is going to net him the 9th decision win of his career.

Winner: Randy Couture, Decision


Middleweight (185) - Nate Marquardt vs Chael Sonnen: Chael is a surprisingly skilled Middleweight for someone who seems to choke when it comes to top matches. Recently he dispatched Yushin Okami in a decisive decision and, while some may feel that is no true indicator of anything, the fact is that he managed to get a decisive and controlling win over a well respected man with but one loss (at the time) for his UFC run. He will have a harder time bullying around Nate like that but it is his only real chance at winning. Nate, however, is much more well-rounded. He can use his superb grappling skills to take Sonnen down and submit him (something Sonnen is somewhat known for having a weakness against), he can use his much-improved and flashy striking to net the stoppage win, or he can just control Chael en route to a decision win, but I'm betting the middle option happens.

Winner: Nate Marquardt, TKO, RD 3


Welterweight (170) - Mike Swick vs Paulo Thiago: Mike Swick made his name for having some lightning quick hands that put people away early along with having an infamous guillotine that comes from nowhere. Neither of those tools will help much against Paul Thiago. Thiago is by far the batter grappler, and should he want to take the fight to the ground it will go to the ground. Thiago also has better technical boxing as opposed to Swick's preference to let his hands fly freely and fifty times in every direction in a flurry of fists. Swick is known to have to go through a huge weight cut to make it to 170, so he never comes in as well-conditioned as some of the other, smaller guys in the division, and Thiago is one of those guys. Thiago is going to play defensively for the first round, then he is going to turn up the heat and control his way into winning rounds two and three decisively over a visibly tired and slower Swick.

Winner: Paulo Thiago, Decision


Welterweight (170) - Frank Trigg vs Matt Serra: This is a do-or-die fight for both men. Trigg is currently 0-1 in his most recent UFC run after an unusually quick KO loss to Josh Koscheck at UFC 103 but that doesn't mean he is a total washout. Serra, on the other hand, is forever tainted (until he gets another decisive win) with the preconception that he is a one-hit wonder after his ‘fluke' win over GSP and the rather slow-paced and stifling loss from Matt Hughes. All that said though I think Serra is the better fighter. Sure he may not be as explosive as Twinkletoes, but he has enough things going his way that I think he can pull the win out. First, he has that KO power that made him famous. Second, he has world-class BJJ that he can use rather effectively in a defensive manner should he need it. Finally, his style plays into Trigg's. Trigg is obviously the more technical striker of the two and is going to look to counterpunch his way to the win. Should that fail and if he gets hit with enough of the haymakers that Serra seems fond of, we could see him try (and probably succeed at) taking Matt down, in which case, unless his ground game has gotten better since the last time I saw him, Serra shouldn't be too hard pressed to sweep or submit. Frankly, unless he uses his striking and wrestling to just outpoint Serra, I think that he is going to be submitted before too long.

Winner: Matt Serra, Submission, RD 2


Middleweight (185) - Demian Maia vs. Dan Miller: The big news on campus is that Dan Miller was recently awarded his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt. Hooray for him. Not trying to undermine his accomplishments but frankly, unless you are Helio Gracie himself I don't really see you submitting Maia. Now, that's not to say you wouldn't possibly last a few rounds or even the whole fight, but Demian has put forth a rather ridiculous ability to finish opponents, and frankly (had he not been totally dumb) we would have most likely seen him also submit Nate. This time around I'm sure Maia will stick to his bread and butter and end up submitting Miller.

Winner: Demian Maia, Submission, RD 3

Prelim Quick Picks
· Lightweight (155) – Mac Danzig vs Justin Buccholz: Danzig, Decision
· Lightweight (155) – Melvin Guillard vs Ronnys Torres: Torres, Submission, RD 2
· Heavyweight (265) – Rolles Gracie vs Joey Beltran: Gracie, Submission, RD 1
· Heavyweight (265) – Tim Hague vs Chris Tuchserer: Hague, TKO, RD 2
· Light Heavyweight (205) – Brian Stann vs Phil Davis: Davis, Decision
· Lightweight (155) – Phillipe Nover vs Rob Emerson: Nover, Submission, RD 2

There are quite a few fights on here that could be make it or break it, whether it's a stay in the top five for the division or just a battle to stay employed in the company.

---

WEC: Pay to See


Well, it's official. The WEC is going to PPV for the first time in its nine-year run. Initially expected to be making their PPV debut sometime in May, WEC GM Reed Harris has recently confirmed the date for WEC 48 – the event to be featured – will in fact be held on April 24. In addition, the company's first PPV event will be available for $44.95.

There are several opinions floating around about this, and I'll share mine. I don't like it.

Sure the company eventually has to go to PPV in order to really be able to pay their fighters what they need (the average WEC salary is only around 5,000 per fight for the midlevel guys). That's almost what the guys in the UFC make in their debut fights.

However, before they go to PPV, they need to properly have the time to promote it and heavily. The WEC is often criticized for its lack of advertising. In fact, as I recall saying myself, if I hadn't been crawling around on countless MMA sites, I may have never known about WEC 43 despite it featuring one of the company's top stars (Donald Cerrone). In addition, they seem to never really advertise cards unless they feature Urijah Faber. That's essentially the same as building your company around one star and while they haven't been accused of it yet, if they keep focusing too much on Faber the calls will come.

That said, they also need to really stack this card. Right now, three bouts are confirmed (and they are big ones).

For the Lightweight Championship we have a rematch between one of the FOTY candidates with champion Ben Henderson defending his newly unified title against two-time challenger Donald Cerrone. Also defending his title on the card is Jose Aldo who will take on the aforementioned California Kid. The only non-title fight scheduled thus far is a Featherweight bout between Mike Brown and Manny Gamburyan. Needless to say that fight has title implications in it.

If they really want to be able to sell this for $45, they need to get their Bantamweight title on the card as well, or crown the first Flyweight champ (something they may have difficulty doing). If Bowles and Torres are successful at WEC 47 and come out of them relatively unharmed they need to try and book the rematch while it's hot.

All in all, they have the potential to succeed but unless everything right happens it just isn't going to end well for the company's first foray into the big boy leagues of broadcast.

---

Bellator News


Bellator, the little promotion that could [give us TONS of highlights on YouTube] has rolled out more information for their future endeavors.

Their format for how they will treat the tournament winners has been let loose. They plan on using the tournament winners from Season 2 to challenge the winners of the Season 1 tournaments for their titles following the conclusion of Season 2. Going on that, I assume that the Season 3 winners will challenge the winners of the Season 1/Season 2 winners' bout, and so on and so forth. It makes for a compelling way to earn a title shot, and certainly means you can't really debate who the #1 contender is. I kind of like it but the timeframe is still truly unknown so I can't give any more news or opinions on it.

Very recently they have confirmed that ‘rookie' Joe Warren (2-1) will be joining the promotion's second Featherweight tournament. He will fight for Bellator while maintaining a presence in DREAM, so according to the schedule we should see him fight 4-5 times in 2010 in both DREAM and for Bellator.

Ladies and gents, the Season 2 Bellator Featherweight Champion.

Bellator has also let loose that they are already starting work on locations for Season 3. Hoorah.

Hopefully we get some nice highlights from Bellator in its upcoming seasons to match the ones from Season 1.

---

In the Lands of the Rising Sun


Sengoku 12: Initialized!!
For Sengoku's first event of the New Year they have decided to rectify a wrong that happened at their latest Sengoku event.

Headlining the event was current Middleweight Champion Jorge Santiago in a non-title bout against top middleweight Mamed Khalidov. In a shocking upset, Khalidov put Santigao down in the opening frame, but due to the non-title nature of the fight no belt changed hands. This time around, they have scheduled the bout between Khalidov and Santiago for the Championship, meaning if history repeats itself, Mamed will walk out the (official) champion. Of course if he loses many will cry foul saying he should be the champion anyway (those same pundits cried foul after WEC 36) but facts are facts and only World Victory Road is to blame.

So far the fights made official for the event are:

· Jorge Santiago vs Mamed Khalidov (for the SRC Middleweight Championship)
· Wilson Reis vs Yuji Hoshino
· Shigeki Osawa vs Kyung Ho Kang

While nothing impressive yet it has room to grow, and hopefully they can sneak Satoshi Ishii onto the card with a slightly easier opponent than Yoshida. Someone with no grappling skills maybe.

---

Just a little video put together for a local promotion. They are Elite Fighting Challenge, and quite possibly best known worldwide for giving us the Submission Upset of the Year with Mackens Semerzier over Wagnney Fabiano.

---

Future Fights
A small recap of potential fights in the future announced over the week.
· Matt Mitrione vs Kimbo Slice, UFC 113
· Diego Sanchez vs John Hathaway, UFC 114
· Paul Kelly vs Matt Veach, UFC 112
· Paul Taylor vs John Gunderson, UFC 112
· Forrest Griffin vs Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, UFC 114
· Rick Story vs Nick Osipczak, UFC 112
· Evan Dunham vs Tyson Griffin, UFC 115
· Todd Duffee vs Mike Russow, UFC 114
· Jorge Santiago vs Mamed Khalidov, SRC 12 (for the Sengoku Middleweight Championship)

---

Quick Jabs
· Frank Trigg has been added to the EA Sports MMA game. That makes three guys under the UFC banner to be in the EA game. Way to keep your word Dana.
· The winner of Marquardt vs Sonnen will get a title shot. In other news, Mrs Marquardt and Mrs Sonnen are expecting to run into some big medical bills soon.
· Bellator has confirmed they will be in Kansas City for two events for Season 2, and two events for Season 3. Cool. Now, about that trip out to Virginia…
· Strikeforce, looking to make good with Jay Hieron and Joe Riggs – who many feel got shafted their placement on the prelims – has put their fight up on their website for viewing until February 7.
· A few days ago a rumor surfaced that Strikeforce was putting together a fight between Pat Miletich and Frank Shamrock. Now, that may not happen because of Shamrock "being difficult in negotiations." Surprise surprise. Frank just remembers the last time he fought a welterweight.

---

Thanks for reading again, hope to see you all sometime in the future!!

~ ! ~ TWITTER ~ ! ~
411Mania
411 MMA
411 Wrestling
411 Music
411 Movies/TV
411 Games