Cardio Freak MMA News Report 03.08.10: It's Time For War
Posted by Jeremy Lambert on 03.08.2010
There is a war brewing in MMA and the wrong company is starting it. Inside a look at the potential UFC vs. Strikeforce war and what mistakes UFC is making. Plus a review of WEC 47 featuring a great performance by Dominick Cruz, Brian Bowles quitting, Miguel Torres being scared, and Jens Pulver crying. All that and more inside. It uses elbows when its hand is broken, it's Cardio Freak on 411.
Headline News
Tonight, March 8, marks the return of the Monday Night Wars. For those that don't follow pro wrestling let me quickly explain. Tonight, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, the distant #2 wrestling compay, is moving to Monday nights to challenge World Wrestling Entertainment, the undisputed #1 wrestling company. They're doing this in order to try and re-create the pro wrestling magic that the sport enjoyed in the early to late 90's with the WCW vs. WWF Monday Night War. In this instance the #2 promotion is attacking the #1 promotion in order to prove they can compete and possible overtake them.
There's also a war brewing in the MMA world as well.
Ultimate Fighting Championship, the undisputed #1 MMA promotion, made one move and may make another in order to prevent Strikeforce, the distant #2 promotion, from potentially growing. In this instance the #1 promotion is trying to crush the #2 promotion before they're seen as a serious threat.
Dana White and Company has the wrong strategy.
The first move they made was signing 41-year-old professional boxer James Toney. I'll reserve judgment on this signing until I see what UFC does with him and how he performs in the Octagon but he certainly wasn't signed because UFC thinks he's a future champion or because they need the publicity. It appears that he was signed because they were afraid that Strikeforce would sign him and promote Toney vs. Herschel Walker on CBS.
The next move that UFC may possibly make is running a show on April 17, the same night as Strikeforce's second event on CBS. The reason for running this event is to go head to head against Strikeforce and cut into their viewership.
Both moves are baffling.
UFC signed James Toney to a non-exclusive contract, which means he's free to continue boxing if he so chooses. UFC never does that so why start now? It baffles me that UFC would seriously be afraid enough of Strikeforce promoting a Toney vs. Walker fight that they would sign Toney and bring along whatever attention he brings.
If Strikeforce promoted a Toney vs. Walker fight, what would it accomplish? It would pop one big rating, one of them would lose and not be taken serious anymore, and neither are likely to still be fighting a year from now. You can argue that the fight would bring attention and if the other fights on the card are good then people will tune in to the next show even if Walker and Toney aren't on the card but you'd be wrong. Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith 1 was an excellent fight until the disappointing ending, the show it was on had a lot of viewers thanks to Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano, and the rematch did very poor numbers. Fans want to see fighters that are perceived as stars over good fighters and fights. One big CBS rating wouldn't have meant anything because EliteXC did two big CBS ratings and look at what happened to them. UFC should have let Strikeforce sign Toney, let them promote Toney vs. Walker, let them deal with the negative attention that the fight would likely bring, and let them deal with the consequences. Short term it may have popped one big rating for Strikeforce but long term I don't think it would have had a big impact.
Even more baffling might be the idea of UFC running head to head against Strikeforce. This move honestly makes no sense to me. Alright, that's a lie. It makes some sense. UFC wants to cut into Strikeforce's CBS viewership, hurt their rating in hopes that CBS gives on any MMA not named UFC. It's a poor plan though. First off, running head to head only bring more attention to the other show and that's not a good thing when the other show is running on a bigger network. UFC is essentially giving Strikeforce free publicity. Secondly, the Strikeforce rating will likely be higher than the UFC rating so no matter how UFC spins it, they're going to have lesser viewers. Now nobody is going to say Strikeforce is the bigger company because they do 5 million viewers on CBS and UFC only does 3 million viewers on SpikeTV but it still doesn't look good for UFC. Finally, if Strikeforce decides to push their event back a week, they'll run head to head against WEC on PPV. Strikeforce free on CBS or WEC for $45 on PPV, which will you watch?
UFC helped Strikeforce last week. They took away the negative publicity of signing James Toney and brought it to themselves and they'll either give free publicity to Strikeforce on April 17 or bury the WEC PPV on April 24. If they wanted to crush Strikeforce before they became serious competition, they would have let Strikeforce sign Toney and run unopposed. Strikeforce is making a lot of mistakes and UFC should let them continue to make those mistakes.
Usually in war the smaller group tries to overthrow the reigning king. This time the reigning king is trying to make sure their throne is uncontested for a long time. We'll see how things play out.
Major UFC/WEC News
WEC 47 took place this past Saturday, March 6. Here are the main card results:
*Dominick Cruz defeated Brian Bowles by TKO (Doctor Stoppage/Injury) at 5:00 in Round Two to win the WEC Bantamweight title.
*Joseph Benavidez defeated Miguel Torres by Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 2:57 in Round Two
*Javier Vazquez defeated Jens Pulver by Submission (Armbar) at 3:41 in Round One
*LC Davis defeated Deividas Taurosevicius by Majority Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-29)
*Bart Palaszewski defeated Karen Darabedyan by Submission (Armbar) at 4:40 in Round One
It wasn't a great show by WEC and it was certainly anticlimactic but there will some impressive performances at WEC 47.
Leading the list of impressive performance was Dominick Cruz and his effort to capture the WEC Bantamweight title.
I compared Brian Bowles to Mike Brown not too long ago as they're both rather generic guys who you wouldn't know were fighters outside of their tattoos yet they both defeated the long reigning popular champions in stunning fashion. Well if Brian Bowles is Mike Brown then Dominick Cruz is Jose Aldo.
Cruz' speed and movement had Brian Bowles confused from the start and he put on a striking clinic using a good jab, wicked leg kicks, and an excellent counter right hand. Bowles could do nothing with Cruz on the feet and I'm not buying his broken hand excuse as to why. I know his hand was broken and I know it's easy for me to criticize him sitting behind a computer but the guy is a fighter. Fighters have fought with broken hands before and some have fought with even worse injuries. The one broken hand incident that comes to my mind is Urijah Faber breaking his right hand in the first round and later hurting his left hand in the second fight against Mike Brown. Instead of quitting, Faber continued to fight, changed his style a bit, and lost a competitive decision. Faber was going to try and win his title back if it killed him. Bowles didn't have the same mindset when it came to defending his title.
Brian Bowles quit. But he didn't quit because of a broken hand. He quit because his nose was broken, his eye was starting to swell up, and his leg was battered thanks to the hands and feet on Cruz. The broken hand didn't throw off Bowles either. The speed and movement of Cruz threw him off from the start. Maybe it was better for Bowles and his career that he stopped the fight given his history of broken hands and I hope Bowles comes back strong from this but don't use it as an excuse as to why you lost. You got beat, you knew you couldn't win, and rather than taking a beating for another 15 minutes you quit.
I don't know if Cruz had a hurt ankle or if he's officially replaced Keith Jardine as the "Most Awkward Fighter" but the way he was moving makes me believe one or the other. I give him credit for fighting on a hurt ankle or I give him credit for finding a style that's tough to deal with. Either way his movement was outstanding.
Cruz' first opponent could be Joseph Benavidez after he turned in a great performance against former champion Miguel Torres.
I don't know what happened to Miguel Torres. I thought stylistically this would be a good fight for him given his size and reach advantage on the feet and his overall skills on the ground. Instead what we got was a scared Miguel Torres. Leading up to this fight there was a lot of talk about how Torres had improved his footwork and head movement and yet we saw none of that. It was the same Torres on the feet except he was much less aggressive. When Urijah Faber lost the Featherweight title, he didn't change the style that brought him to the dance. He was the same aggressive risk taking Urijah Faber that everyone loved and he figured he lost not because his style was broken but because he finally just got caught. Miguel Torres changed the style that brought him to the dance and this new style isn't even getting him invited. WEC is in a weird place with Torres now since he's lost two straight fights and wasn't all that competitive in this one. I think he should fight a grappler who doesn't hit hard just to get his confidence up on the feet and hope he returns to super aggressive and always active Miguel Torres.
Take nothing away from Joseph Benavidez though. He fought a great fight. He used leg kicks to close the long distance and he got inside a couple of times and landed some good punches. He also got a couple of takedowns, avoided some submissions, and ended up cutting Torres with a big elbow. In the ensuing scramble after the cut, he caught Torres in a guillotine and forced him to tap out. If he didn't finish Torres with the guillotine then the fight would have likely been stopped due to the cut that looked very deep.
Benavidez will likely have to wait until after WEC 48 to know if he's getting a title shot as Damacio Page vs. Antonio Banuelos is certainly a worthy #1 contenders fight especially considering neither fighter has fought and lost to Cruz within the past year. If either of those fighters turns in an impressive performance then they'll likely get the title shot but if they turn in a Gray Maynard like performance then even if they win, Benavidez should get the shot.
Also, how many fighters are going to start using "Stranglehold" by Ted Nugent as their walk in music from now on? Randy Couture used it and got a second round submission victory via choke. Joseph Benavidez used it and got a second round submission victory via choke. If I'm a fighter I'm using "Stranglehold" or "Mama Said Knock You Out" by LL Cool J as my walk in. How could I possibly lose?
What is there to say about Jens Pulver? The game has just passed him by and it's rather sad to see. I thought Jens had a questionable gameplan, using leg kicks against a guy who he knew wanted to take the fight to the ground as soon as possible. On the ground Vazquez was just way too much for Jens and even though he was able to escape a couple of bad positions, Vazquez finally mounted him and locked in an armbar for the victory.
I really hope this is the end for Jens Pulver because it's getting beyond sad to watch him fight. The guy is a pioneer in the sport, one of the most influential Lightweight fighters of all time, and one of the nicest guys in MMA but he just doesn't have it as a fighter anymore. I'm sure Zuffa will find something to do with him, likely putting him on commentary for WEC shows in place of Frank Mir since there's a lot of heat on him for his comments towards Brock Lesnar. I'm a big fan of "The Champ" Frank Mir on commentary so I don't want to see him replaced even if it's by Pulver. If I had my choice, I'd put Pulver on main event commentary for UFC shows. I've been begging UFC to either bring back Randy Couture for this role or replace him ever since he stopped doing it after UFC 76 and they've yet to listen to me. Hopefully Pulver is the guy who finally fills this role, as he's certainly capable.
The LC Davis vs. Deividas Taurosevicius fight sucked. I refuse to talk about it other than saying that it sucked and the referee sucked. I'm just happy Scott Jorgensen was still able to make the broadcast because it was crime that he was the undercard in place of this fight and it would have been a bigger crime if his fight didn't make air because of this terribly boring fight.
Bart Palaszewski picked up a big win over a tough Karen Darabedyan in a fight he was getting dominated in until he ended up winning late with an armbar. I think Darabedyan got a little too comfortable on the ground when he should have kept the fight on the feet. He seemed to be teeing off on Palaszewski before getting a takedown and doing well on the ground when he postured to his feet but anytime his knees were on the mat Palaszewski was constantly looking for the arm. Darabedyan should have got back to his feet since he seemed to be the much better striker. He didn't though and he got caught in armbar and proved Stephan Bonnar wrong by showing that Armenian's do in fact tap out.
Speaking of Bonnar, I thought he was fine on commentary and seemed very happy to do it. Zuffa is obviously preparing him for his full time gig after he loses again and I think he'll do a good job in the role once he gets that experience. I wasn't sure how well he would given that he was replacing the greatest commentator of all time, "The Champ" Frank Mir, and Forrest Griffin wasn't fighting so I figured Bonnar would be lost without having someone to verbally blow but he was serviceable. Congratulations Stephan Bonnar on a job well done.
It was WEC, it wasn't as good as most WEC events but it was still a solid show.
Major Strikeforce/Miscellaneous News
On March 1, multiple outlets reported that M-1 Global was not happy with Strikeforce and their use of Fedor Emelianenko. M-1 Global said that Strikeforce breached their contract with Fedor by not putting him on the CBS show and possibly putting him on Showtime. Scott Coker denied all claims and has stated that his relationship with M-1 Global and Fedor is fine.
Is his name officially Fedor Presented by M-1 Global yet? I know it's a running joke in this column but it's not even a joke anymore. It's a fact. Fedor can't seem to do anything without the approval of M-1 Global and they're dictating his entire fighting career, which is doing nothing but hurting his reputation and in the end could hurt his legacy.
One has to wonder exactly what M-1 Global has on Fedor. His brother Aleks and his good friend Gegard Mousasi were able to split ways with M-1 without having a hit put on them and yet Fedor is still with them. Is he that blind to what they're doing? Does he not care about his reputation enough to leave? Is he in a lifetime of debt to them? We need someone to get to the bottom of this.
This whole move is a powerplay by M-1 Global. They want Fedor on CBS because their name is only attached to Fedor and obviously Strikeforce gets more viewers on CBS than on Showtime. If Strikeforce draws big ratings on CBS without Fedor then it will prove they don't need Fedor on every CBS show and can put him on Showtime if convenient to their schedule. If the rating on CBS dips without Fedor then it will give M-1 Global leverage in negotiating when asking for more money and promotion.
Is it any wonder why Dana White won't co-promote with M-1 Global? I'm not saying that Fedor has it built into his contract to where he has to fight on CBS but the fact that a report came out saying so and everyone said, "You know what, I bet M-1 Global would put something like that in the contract" proves my point. M-1 Global seems like nothing but a massive headache to anyone involved with them and Dana has enough headaches to deal with.
On March 1, Sherdog reported that Andrei Arlovski signed with Strikeforce and that he will fight Antonio Silva on May 15. On that same day Alistair Overeem tweeted that he would be fighting Brett Rogers on May 15.
No word yet if Arlovski's chin was part of the deal.
May 15 could be a big night of Heavyweight fights with these two and possible Fedor Presented by M-1 Global vs. Fabricio Werdum. Granted only one fight looks competitive on paper but it could at least set up some big future fights.
Silva vs. Arlovski is the competitive fight and even that may end quickly. Arlovski is a great striker and far better than Silva but anyone with power will give him trouble thanks to his chin. Antonio Silva has power. I think it's a birth trait that if your last name is Silva then you have power. Arlovski has power in his hands but Silva just has a head that looks like can take a punch. I enjoy watching Arlovski fight but anytime he faces another Heavyweight striker with power I can't help but favor the other guy.
People are now sold on Brett Rogers after he enjoy a minute or so of ground and pound on Fedor but Overeem is a bad match up for him. Rogers likes to strike and Overeem is arguably the best technical striker in the Heavyweight division. If Rogers wants to prove he's a good striker by standing with Overeem then he'll get his lights turned out because Overeem is a much better technical striker, he hits hard, and he doesn't have an Arlovski-like chin.
No More News
That does it for me folks. I'll be back next week with something new.
The reason Cruz looked "awkward" is because he did something most guys in MMA have shown no ability to do, and thats strike while using proper angles. Bowles looked lost when he found out Cruz wasn't going to stand in front of him and doesn't know how to hit anything that isn't standing still.
Miguel Torres is baffling. The guy said he learned that sometimes you have to fight smart rather than exciting, and he was neither Saturday night. He refused to open up with punch combinations, he never took the role of aggressor and make the wrestler Benavidez back up, and he just doesn't seem to know how to fight unless he's going balls out.
Stephan Bonnar is my favorite color man in MMA. Never once did he throw out any verbal blowjobs to a fighter and clearly favor them over the opponent, he was very articulated when it came to the action going on in the cage, and he never got cartoony with over the top exclamations. He reminded me very much of boxing's Bobby Czyz when Czyz handled color duties for Showtime boxing telecasts.
One thing I would like to point out, and maybe next time you could touch on it Jeremy, is the clear bias against boxers who venture into MMA. James Toney is being treated as a freak show and having UFC fans groan, but the fact is he's a three time champion holding titles at middleweight, super middleweight, and cruiserweight and his accolades as a boxer are just as impressive as a wrestler who's won an NCAA title or a grappler who's won at ADCC.
Now Toney is very old by combat sports standards at 41, but the thing is you'll never see a great boxer compete in their prime in MMA due to the MASSIVE paycut they'd have to take. The top guys in the UFC make around half a million a fight at most. World class boxers however clear millions per fight. It doesn't make sense for world class boxers in their prime to try MMA.
Posted By: Patrick Mullin (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 12:59 AM
Good comments Patrick Mullin! I also disagree with Lambert on Toney, as I think he's a good signing for the UFC. Firstly, I think he's gonna bring in lot of boxing fans, who wanna see how he does in MMA. For example a boxing fan friend of mine, who has previously had no interest in MMA, has already asked me to DVR Toney's match, when it happens.
Secondly toney is the first elite level boxer to compete in UFC, which for MMA fans should be great news. There has always been speculation how well an elite level boxer would do in MMA and now we're gonna see it. Granted Toney is 41 years old, but he has been fighting regularly and is not coming off a extensively long lay off.
So in sum, I do not understand the hate the UFC is getting for signing Toney. I'm actually pretty stoked for it. Hopefully they can match Toney with an interesting opponent!
Posted By: Mig (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 02:17 AM
lol @ armchair executive.
Posted By: A4P (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 07:08 AM
i just attended ufc 110 in sydney and went the QnA with dana white and heard him talk openly about strikeforce and fedor. I dont like how this column is potraying that the ufc is trying to kill strikeforce when lets be honest strikeforce doesnt even match up.strikeforce dont even have enough of a solid american fanbase to be trying to branch out and be global how they are.trying to compare them to wcw or even tna is and insult to both those companies as wcw had a huge amount of money behinf them in ted turner and im sure you would be aware of the fact they won the ratings war 84 weeks straight! and now with tna a company that has been around for years and years and has legit superstars and great upcoming talent yet does not portray there image as a global brand like strikeforce does. The ufc and wwe is where they are from smart business models something that wcw failed with and something that strikeforce is currently failing with. You only have to look at having fedor fight literally once a year atm and him being controlled by an entity that isnt strikeforce and him M1 wanting to renegotiate his contract after a honestly lack luster fight with brett rogers. Ufc is killing strikeforce it is just merely letting them know where they belong as the 2nd mma company in america,do you really think dana doesnt want people watching mma?look at the monday night wars when raw and nitro were getting massive ratings,vince killed wcw and wat happend?everyone lost interest.
As for fedor the ufc are still trying to get him and this may be a potential reason as to why strikeforce are having problems,dana said in australia that the ufc are still trying very hard to lure him to the ufc but the thing is he will fight on there terms and not M1's so it will be interesting to see where fedor is in a year.
Posted By: michael bond (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 08:17 AM
Great point Mullin. And this is the reason why someone like Fedor co-promotes his own fight. No way does he get as much money. He only gets 10% of the supposed revenue if he is a contracted talent. But by copromoting with M1 he gets 35%. This is what you idiots can never understand. The rest 25% gets taken by your biggest MMA company UFC. That's why it is important for some people to not loose to the system.
Posted By: Arnab (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 08:25 AM
One thing I would like to point out, and maybe next time you could touch on it Jeremy, is the clear bias against boxers who venture into MMA. James Toney is being treated as a freak show and having UFC fans groan, but the fact is he's a three time champion holding titles at middleweight, super middleweight, and cruiserweight and his accolades as a boxer are just as impressive as a wrestler who's won an NCAA title or a grappler who's won at ADCC.
Now Toney is very old by combat sports standards at 41...
Posted By: Patrick Mullin (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 12:59 AM
______________________________________________________
Toney is a freakshow fighter because of his age, not because he's a boxer.
Top wrestlers and grapplers coming to the sport usually train heavily in boxing/ kickboxing when they decide to enter into MMA. They understand that their specialty is but one of aspect of the sport and that they'll need to round themselves out if they want to succeed.
Boxers have shown a different mentality. More then one have gone on record saying that they'd be able to beat the best MMA has to offer without any additional training.
It doesn't help in that the two sports are constantly compared to one another- even though they're vastly different.
Not to mention, wrestlers know they'd be lost standing, but thankfully, they have the ability to take the fight to the ground. Submission experts have been known to simply rush in an pull guard-knowing that once the fight hits the ground it's in their world.
Boxers don't have that luxury. They have no experience avoiding takedowns or watching for kicks, their old standby of locking up would be asking for trouble, and that's not even getting into the differences in ring/ cage, having 10 3-minute rounds to 3 5-minute rounds, and the different gloves.
This isn't a knock at boxing, it's just that the two sports are vastly different. Most MMA fighters would get killed in a boxing ring and likewise, most boxers would get killed in the cage.
Posted By: cyks (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 08:41 AM
James Toney is a ridiculous signing. YES, he's a fighter, NO, he's not a mixed martial artist. Nobody cares about his boxing record, people only care about his MMA record now, and that stands at 0-0. That barely cuts it at TUF level.
Put him against Kimbo Slice? Wait, isn't it Dana White who wanted to make MMA a legit sport? A street fighter against a 41 year old guy who can't make a living from boxing anymore? Fine, if they're both 8-1 or something, and we know that they can actually beat a can or two. Last time I watched Kimbo, he LOST to a Light Heavyweight ca in 30 seconds. Who's betting Toney lasts longer than that if some average Schmo takes it to the ground?
Posted By: Jon (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 08:45 AM
When are we going to see Overeem vs. Fedor Presented by M-1 Global????
His first fight back in the states and he chooses Rogers? poopy
Posted By: Tyler V (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 10:38 AM
In reality a lot of people have DVRs.... I would watch both shows (one live and one later). Now that UFC is putting shows on VS and I don't have VS... looks like I will be watching only Strikeforce. Not sure why they couldn't just leave it on Spike... seems foolish. And yes, seems foolish to go up against a major network with one arm tied behind your back (playing the even on VS where many cannot watch).
Posted By: Brian (Guest) on March 08, 2010 at 11:57 AM
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