The Juggernaut MMA News Report 02.10.10: The Birth of Superstar Sonnen
Posted by Jonathan Solomon on 02.10.2010
The Juggernaut's UFC 109 review includes the birth of superstar Chael Sonnen and whether Randy Couture can win another championship. News includes an update on the Versus/DirecTV debacle, Strikeforce's April CBS show, a Gracie challenging B.J. Penn and Tito Ortiz pissing three different fighters off.
Randy Roars and Sonnen Soars
Randy Couture is still at it and did not look like an aging veteran at all. Instead, that was left for Mark Coleman who looked every bit of his 40+ years. Coleman appeared uncomfortable, slow and as stiff on his feet as MMA rookie Herschel Walker did in his MMA debut last month. Some have criticized Coleman for insisting to fight a stand-up fight and never going for a takedown, his famous bread and butter move. Frankly, I doubt the fight would have went any different had he done so. Couture is just the better fighter at this point and there is likely nothing Coleman can do right now to say anything different.
Couture's win keeps a lot of fighters happy. Guys like Brock Lesnar and Lyoto Machida want to fight him because of the potential money that could be made in headlining a big show with him. Dana White said Couture is back in the mix in the light heavyweight title hunt (while he said Coleman may have fought his last UFC fight). I've always assumed before Couture, the Rampage Jackson/Rashad Evans winner would get first crack at the champion (whether it's Machida or Shogun Rua). I could understand the UFC giving Couture the next title shot because he did look great in this fight and why risk him losing before you can make a ton of money off of him?
To be honest with you, I would be all kinds of excited to see Couture take on Machida or Shogun, especially Machida. Imagine the game plans being developed in either of those fights. Do you think Couture can beat Machida? I cannot count The Natural out of any fight but I would love to see him try to work his clinch game against a guy like Machida who has made a career out of taking as little damage as he can. For Couture's sake, I hope he doesn't unleash a thousand leg kicks if Cecil Peoples is one of the judges.
Perhaps the biggest story coming out of UFC 109 was Chael Sonnen to the surprise of many. He used his superior wrestling to control Nate Marquardt for the majority of the fifteen minutes the fight lasted. Imagine, Marquardt trains with the likes of Georges St. Pierre and Rashad Evans and was still clueless as to how to fight off Sonnen's grappling. If you would have told me that before the fight, I would have laughed it off. However, Sonnen was that good.
Sonnen may not have the most dangerous striking skills in the division but you have to like his chances (within reason, of course) if he ends up fighting Anderson Silva. Dana White has already said Sonnen will get the next title shot, whether it's Silva or Vitor Belfort as champion. Sonnen has that annoying ability to simply control his opponent on the ground and rarely let him up. Anderson Silva has made his UFC career not with his BJJ skills, but his Muay Thai abilities. Although Dan Henderson and Travis Lutter were eventually beaten into submission, both grapplers did better than any other UFC opponent against arguably the best fighter in the world.
Sonnen sure has learned a thing or two because he has been talking up a storm of late. For whatever reason, he dislikes Anderson Silva and has not been shy about it. Whether this is shtick or how Sonnen truly and genuinely feels, I do not know. Frankly, only Sonnen and those close to him know the answer to that question. Like Ed Soares (Anderson Silva's manager), I would be inclined to say this is Sonnen being a smart businessman.
Nothing against Belfort, but I'll be pulling for Silva because (can't believe I'm saying this about a Silva fight), I can't wait to listen to the trash talk that will certainly ensue.
Matt Serra did it again. He used his devastating right hand to put an opponent to sleep. Frank Trigg is no GSP, but a fighter is a fighter is a fighter. Serra's best days are obviously behind him but as long as he can still talk and fight up and comers (or better yet, if there are any fighters he dislikes), hopefully he will be around for a bit longer. One guy who may not be around much longer is Frank Trigg.
Since Trigg made his UFC return, he talked about how he would not overstay his welcome and if he was not competitive, he would call it a career. It now appears that time has come. If nothing else, we'll always have UFC 52 to remember Trigg by.
Paul Thiago 2, American Kickboxing Academy 1. My how things have flipped for Mike Swick or what. Not six months ago, he was considered one of the top 170-pound fighters in the world and on the cusp of earning a title shot. Two fights later and he may be lucky to get a preliminary fight on a future UFC show. It sucks but that is the business.
Thiago finally put his BJJ skills on display when previously he had difficulties against Jacob Volkman and Jon Fitch and knocked out Josh Koscheck. It's safe to say Thiago is as dangerous an opponent as any other in the division because he has great submission skills and he has the power in his hands to knock someone out with one punch.
After the Jon Fitch/Thiago Alves fight coming up, I would venture to say that Paulo Thiago will be the #3 welterweight in the UFC behind whomever the champion may be after UFC 111 (no guarantee is that one).
Quick UFC 109 Thoughts
- Demian Maia may have improved his striking, but he still has a ways to go before he can be a danger in that area.
- How about that Phil Davis kid. He's young in the sport but he has the physical gifts to be a dominant fighter in the future. He's considered the Cain Velasquez of the light heavyweight division.
- Sucks for the Gracies in the modern UFC. Hopefully Renzo will fare better than brother Royce and nephew Rolles. Rolles was simply not prepared as he looked like any poor guy you'd find on a local independent MMA card.
- Melvin Guillard as a danger to B.J. Penn? Some think so. I wouldn't go that far but obviously he has improved and if he continues working with Greg Jackson, he should only continue to improve.
JUGGERNAUT NEWS BRIEFS
- Wisconsin became the 43rd State to regulate MMA last week and are on tap to host a UFC show in the near future. According to UFC VP of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner, the top promotion is looking into doing a show in 2011 in Milwaukee, Madison or Green Bay.
- UFC 109 fight bonuses were awarded to Chael Sonnen and Nate Marquardt (for fight of the night), Matt Serra (for knockout of the night) and Paulo Thiago (for submission of the night). Each fighter received a $60,000 bonus.
- During Mark Coleman's post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Tito Ortiz shouted "Payback's a bitch, motherfucker." Mark Coleman responded and Ortiz talked about the incident after the show.
- In the post show press conference, Chael Sonnen told reporters he would rather fight Anderson Silva than Vitor Belfort because of Silva's longer limbs. For whatever reasons, Sonnen does not like Silva on a personal level. About a week or two ago, Sonnen said "If Anderson ever signed to fight me, which is highly unlikely, he'll be getting a verbal beating like you've never seen." I'll wait until you stop laughing before I continue.
- Done yet? I hope so. On his twitter page, Josh Koscheck said after Chuck Liddell beats Tito Ortiz, he wants a shot at Ortiz, too.
- Speaking of Chuck and Tito, Mr. Ortiz appears to be pissing EVERYBODY off in Vegas. Ortiz had made comments earlier in the year calling Liddell an alcoholic. That did not make Liddell very happy, as you can see in this interview with Ariel Helwani at UFC 109. Just watch Liddell's expression when Helwani asks him what he has to do to beat Ortiz. Liddell is pumped.
- Hidehiko Yoshida will fight for the last time on April 25th at Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan. The fight will happen on an "ASTRA" show although no opponent has been named yet.
- King of the Cage will make their live HDNet debut this Friday night with a big card. Three title fights include Tyler East vs. Tony Lopez (heavyweight gold), Victor Valenzeula vs. Donald Sanchez (bantamweight gold) and Joe Coca vs. Abel Cullum (flyweight gold) that will headline the show. Also on the card, Travis Wiuff is in action and Rich Clementi will fight Anthony Lapsley and Tony Bonello is also fighting.
- Former WEC & UFC fighter Jake Rosholt will make his first post-Zuffa fight appearance on March 6th for the Xtreme Fighting League in his native Oklahoma. He will fight Rudy Lindsay.
- Yahoo! hockey blog Puck Daddy received a statement from Versus TV saying they are not optimistic a deal with DirecTV will be reached before April. That would mean millions of people may be unable to watch the UFC (Bones vs. Vera) show and WEC (Bowles vs. Cruz, Torres vs. Benavidez) show on Versus in March. If you have DirecTV, I would continue e-mailing and/or calling your provider to inform them that you want the station back.
- The UFC 109 Prelims broadcast on SpikeTV pulled in the most viewers of any 'UFC Prelims' special. There have been five specials and UFC 109 clocked in with 1.7 million viewers. Last month's UFC 108 special had 1.5 million viewers. The debut of the specials with UFC 103 had 1.4 million viewers.
- Aleksander Emelianenko may return to MMA later this year in France in a fight with Tengiz Tedoradze. Neither rumor has been confirmed yet.
- MMAFighting reports Antwain Britt is expected to fight on the televised portion of the April Strikeforce on CBS show. His opponent may be Aaron Rosa or Feijao Cavalcante. Other rumored fights for the show include Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum, Jake Shields vs. Dan Henderson and Gegard Mousasi vs. King Mo Lawal.
- Bellator has signed 26-year old Matt Major (6-1) to compete in their season two middleweight tournament. Major hit the national scene when he appeared on the TapouT reality show and was able to showcase his boastful personality. He has been training at the American Kickboxing Academy.
- According to Ricardl Almeida, depending on what happens with the Edgar/Penn fight, Renzo Gracie may drop to the lightweight division after his UFC 112 fight with Matt Hughes. According to Almeida, Gracie wants a second shot at Penn. They fought in 2005 in Hawaii and Penn won a unanimous decision.
- Junie Browning fought last week at Wild Bill's Fight Night 25 in Duluth, Georgia and lost after he could not come out of his corner after the first round. He suffered a groin injury in the fight with Aaron Hall. Browning now has a 4-2 MMA record. Speaking of former TUF fighters, Jesse Taylor was victorious at Aggression MMA 2 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada after submitting Jason Day by rear naked choke. Taylor ended a two-fight losing streak (during his Strikeforce run) and now has a 14-5 MMA record.
- Former UFC fighter Josh Neer is now 2-0 since being cut from the company at the end of 2009. He submitted Anselmo Martinez by rear naked choke last week. In January he defeated Matt Delanoit by TKO.
- Joe Lauzon has said that he and his brother Dan are no longer willing to fight each other or even on the same show. Previously, they said they would have no issue if the UFC ever asked them to square off against each other. That changed after both men fought at UFC 108 according to MMAJunkie.
- Tom Lawlor will fight Tim Credeur at UFC 113 in May.
JUGGERNAUT VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Here's a highlight from the Bellator Middleweight Championship fight between Hector Lombard and Jared Hess from last summer. Bellator's second season begins this April.
