MMA's 3R’s 07.30.10: UFC on Versus 2, Sarah Kaufman, Chael Sonnen Audio and More

Posted by Matt Welch on 07.30.2010

From Shane Carwin’s recent line of excuses and Chael Sonnen’s greatest quotes, 411’s Matt Welch breaks down the Right, wRong and Ridiculous in the latest edition of the 3R’s of MMA.




The Back Story

A staple of the 411 community for quite some time, the MMA rendition of the 3R's takes a look at the goings-on and items of intrigue in mixed martial arts, all broken down to three categories: the Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous (with a little middle-road puRgatory thrown in along the way). With the right, you get good news bits or compelling fight announcements. Things dip down a tick or two with the wRong, where things like bad booking decisions and news bullets that have the community up in arms take precedence. And if you want to scrape the absolute bottom barrel of MMA news, those would be filed under Ridiculous. In the case of an event review, I'll even go the extra mile and tag on a score of 1-10, based on the 411 ratings scale. So, with that all out of the way, let's move on to something of far greater significance, such as…

The 3R's of MMA!

The Right

UFC on Versus 2: The first chapter in what is nothing short of a loaded month of MMA takes form on Sunday with UFC's second offering of Versus. A well-rounded televised card from top to bottom, Jon Jones makes his second consecutive headlining bill on Versus opposite veteran wrestler Vladimir Matyushenko. The route to victory is pretty clear for Matyushenko as the Belarusian needs to dump that vaunted prospect on his back and make this fight as ugly as possible. Jones' athleticism should give fans pause, although there's really precedent on how Jones will fare off his back, especially with a glorified blanket like Matyushenko working from the top. It's not out of the question that Matyushenko could pull the upset and I think fans are really selling him short because he's been out of the public eye for so long, but I don't think his route to victory is enough to offset the variety of ways Jones can finish this fight.

As grizzled a veteran as Vlad is, Jones is an animal the likes of which he has never seen. He's rag-dolled the likes of Brandon Vera and Matt Hamill with one of the light heavyweight division's most versatile takedown repertoires and on the feet, is adept at using his length and chaining together awkward combinations that few fighters can emulate. I don't think it's a wash but I like Jones to keep rolling here, either by decision or a late stoppage.

For the night's co-main event, Yushin Okami attempts to further inch his way back into the contendership fold by dispatching of the rising Mark Munoz. I'll admit first off, I'm not as high on Mark Munoz as some. Munoz is a lot like fellow main card compatriots John Howard in that for as many instances as he's looked good in the UFC, he's looked horrendous at other times. The man arguably should have lost to Nick Catone and while his heart against Kendall Grove was admirable, the fact that before Grove's inability to handle getting hit kicked in, Munoz was getting handled decisively. Now don't get me wrong, his ground and pound is straight up vicious. The man swings with reckless abandon, is game at maintaining position and if he puts fist to face, the odds swing greatly in his favor.

I'm not sure that strategy can be so easily emulated against Okami. A lot of people point to the Chael Sonnen fight as proof that good wrestling can upend Okami, but I don't think the wrestling between Munoz and Sonnen are all that comparable in an MMA sense. Sonnen showcased great technique and a commitment to constant pressure and combo striking against Okami and upon luring him into close-quarter exchanges, set up his takedowns that way. Munoz isn‘t particularly great at setting up his takedowns as evidenced by the Grove fight, nor is he anywhere near capable of replicating Sonnen's gameplan with what is pretty porous technique on the feet. I actually like Okami big in this fight. Beating up Lucio Linhares isn't an eye-opening revelation, but neither in Munoz's standup defense. I like Okami to keep things upright for the most part and batter Munoz en route to a clear decision that reminds fans that Munoz is just in a little too deep with this one.

The aforementioned Howard looks to proclaim what would probably be his first decisive win in his four UFC fights opposite the rugged Jake Ellenberger. As mentioned prior, Howard has been one of the UFC's most definitive mixes of good and bad. He won fights over Chris Wilson and Tamdan McCrory via split decision, was on his way to losing to Dennis Hallman before a Hail Mary stoppage inside the final 10 seconds and basically had all those performances condensed into two minutes in his fight against Daniel Roberts. The man is consistent in the most inconsistent way possible, if that makes any sense.

Ellenberger is a bit more even-keeled with a bullish wrestling game and heavy hands. Most fans saw him edged by Carlos Condit in a split decision that was as nip and tuck as the scorecards would indicate. I think Ellenberger's ceiling is much higher than Howard's at this stage and I just wonder how much longer Howard can get by dealing out performances like he has. I think Ellenberger puts the kibosh on it.

Rounding out the main card, Tyson Griffin and Takanori Gomi meet in a battle of relevance among the lightweight division. This fight simply boils down to what mindset Griffin is in come Sunday night. While Gomi is actually a decent wrestler and more or less made his bed in MMA via wrestling before his regime over the 155-pound ranks as The Fireball Kid, Griffin's better in that aspect and more committal to it as well when he wants to be. That's key as well because like a lot of wrestlers, Griffin has shown a propensity to fall in love with his striking and that's not a chance worth taking against Gomi. If that's the route Griffin takes, this fight is a toss-up, but if Griffin plays it smart and wrestles Gomi to the mat, it's church for the former PRIDE kingpin.

I'll bank on the latter, especially with Griffin coming off a loss and being perhaps a bit more hungry for the win. With Gomi, his disinterest in a fight has been touched upon for quite some time and until I see that man fight motivated, I can't pick him.

Shark Fights 13 coming together: If you haven't been paying attention, Shark Fights has been cooking up some gold with its Sept. 11 offering. Holding forth from Amarillo, Texas, the bouts of note have been made known for quite some time in Keith Jardine vs. Trevor Prangley and Houston Alexander vs. Rameau Theirry Sokoudjou. But complementing that 1-2 headline punch is a bill that has to be one of the better non-Zuffa cards in recent memory in terms of well-roundedness.

Behind the two main events, top-10 welterweight Paul Daley will fight an opponent to be named, while UFC vet Drew McFedries jostles Strikeforce vet Joey Villasenor. Not bad at all, but tack on the likes of preliminary card matchups Ronnie Mann vs. Doug Evans, Marcus Hicks vs. Karen Darabedyan, Dave Herman vs. Aaron Rosa and Brock vs. an opponent to be named and you're probably not going to find that much star power on a non-Zuffa card anywhere else.

Word will be announced in the coming days on the broadcast plans for this card but the event likely won't cost more than $30 and has more than enough compelling fights with relevant names to hold fans over. A very nice rebound for the Shark Fights after dropping the ball with the Ricardo Mayorga debacle.

Chael Sonnen's work during the UFC 117 conference call: In what has to be one of the more anticipated conference calls in recent memory, Anderson Silva (with Ed Soares) and Chael Sonnen obliged in the latest dose of pre-fight hype for their upcoming headline bout at UFC 117. Silva picked up right where he left off at UFC 112, offering disinterested, one-word answers with the media getting more out of Soares speaking on behalf of the middleweight champion. But at least we can got some unintentional comedy out of Soares translating Silva's "no" responses.

Sonnen, on the other hand, played off Silva's disinterest to a T. Fans who have had the pleasure of just reading Sonnen's trash talk via text were given a chance to see the No. 1 contender's chops in prime form and he didn‘t disappoint. But meshed within the trash talk were a number of salient points, namely ones concerning the legwork Sonnen has done in promoting this fight and how the marketing principles of the fight business tend to fly over Silva's head. For all of the ill-conceived parallels some fans may draw between prizefighting and pro wrestling, he two share the commonality in the importance of giving fans a reason to care about a certain fight. I mean let's be entirely honest, Sonnen alone has made this fight so much more compelling than it really is. I mean at the surface, there is a very, very slim chance Sonnen pulls off this upset but through nothing but a throng of clever barbs, the challenger has instilled the notion in the minds of some fans that he could very well pull this thing off.

It shows in the public eye as well, as a lot of betting lines have Silva at -450. Compare that to the -700 vs. Demian Maia, -550 vs. Thales Leites and -650 vs. Patrick Cote. It's especially odd in that theoretically, I'd probably wager the odds being much more likely for someone like Leites and Maia, but nonetheless, Sonnen has made this fight a far more intriguing commodity than it has any right to be as he has piggybacked arguably the UFC‘s weakest-drawing champion. And because the Internet's a wonderful thing, somebody meshed seven minutes worth of Sonnen audio from the conference call into one tidy, compact package of audio gold. The quotes are endless for this thing, so enjoy:

The wRong

Shane Carwin wants your help: In the wake of his first career loss, Shane Carwin has been on a full-boar damage control campaign on any questions surrounding his heavily-criticized cardio. The post-fight reasons have run the gamut, from Carwin's legs seizing up to his body refusing to work and even the work of referee Josh Rosenthal. Ball it all up and earlier this week, Carwin sought out advice on an online fight form for information regarding lactic acidosis.

At this stage, it's becoming harder and harder to put much stock in Carwin's string of rationalizations for why he nearly got slept by Brock Lesnar, but let's not forget who we're talking about here. As a rebuttal to the dozens of media outlets that publish top-10 fighter rankings, Carwin opted to create a top-10 list of his own, ranking everything from journalists to bloggers and even photographers. Add on the man's growing annoyance with the questions surrounding his cardio (which were obviously very salient points for reporters) and then we get a fight where he loses solely because of fatigue and it doesn't appear as if Carwin is ready to indulge in that slice of humble pie just yet.

Because mind you, he didn't gas. His body just slowed down while showcasing all of the symptoms we associate with a gassed fighter. It's hardly breaking a story but Carwin tips the scales at 265 pounds and on fight night, is likely competing at roughly 280-85. The man is built like a skyscraper and when you exert that kind of energy for a consistent period of time, a man that big is going to wear out pretty quickly. There really was no question that Carwin was going to gas himself out going the route that he did against Lesnar because that's the kind of physical specimen that he is. Believe it or not, this new caste of super heavyweights does have its physical shortcomings. The build up of lactic acid is the same thing that happens to anyone who does something as rudimentary as working out. I'm not against a fighter having sour grapes over losing a fight, as I'm sure it's something a lot of fighters do. But fans don't want to hear that crap, especially several weeks after the fight ended. If I'm Carwin, I'd be more concerned with appropriating those bursts of energy a bit more sensibly next time.

The Ridiculous

Strikeforce and the Sarah Kaufman situation: I feel like I'm be repeating myself from the Top 5 Ways to Fix Strikeforce piece, but the frequency in an issue like this is all too obvious. With the latest installment in the Strikeforce Challengers Series last Friday, there really is only one major talking point coming out of the show. It's not the near future for Shane del Rosario, who appeared open to a bout with Andrei Arlovski, nor is it Mike Lyle asserting himself possibly being next in line for a shot at the light heavyweight title. Nope, it's Strikeforce 135-pound champion Sarah Kaufman and the merit in her remarks on her placement on the card.

I think before people think about throwing their arms up in disgust over this matter, understand that this is far from an isolated incident. I mean, where to begin? Probably in the similar vein of Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson's long-awaited rematch co-headlining behind Cung Le vs. Scott Smith. Or the obvious prospect of Strikeforce giving fighters coming off losses title shots or putting together No. 1 contender bouts that don't actually crown No. 1 contenders. Either way you slice it, Strikeforce has rarely succeeded in making their titles mean something.

The Kaufman incident is just more of the same. For a promotion that set out to establish an alternative outlet as one of the chief stomping grounds for women's MMA, having your 135-pound champion and the best fighter in her particular division not headline a card where she is the only champion booked devalues the title and the division. First off, isn't the Challengers Series supposed to be about establishing up-and-coming fighters to eventually funnel over to the bigger shows? So why exactly is the world's top 135-pound female fighter on that card to begin?

Would it be because Strikeforce is hesitant on her ability as a draw after his title fight with Takayo Hashi did poorly? Sorry, but that's the hand you're dealt. A title fight is supposed to be that crowned jewel that every fighter strives for and devaluing the importance of that lifeline makes everyone from fan to fighter wonder just what the big deal is about being the champion of a weight class. Not every champion is going to set the world on fire with excitement; that's just how it is and if that's the concern, supplant your headlining act with other compelling fights to ease the blow. But making Kaufman play second fiddle to someone like del Rosario, who has done nothing of consequence in his career thus far, is a slap in the face.

But at least the promotion got some good out of Kaufman's fight with Roxanne Modaferri as the fight-ending slam graced the top-10 of SportsCenter and any exposure for your product in that kind of renowned capacity is good stuff.


That'll do it. Check back on Tuesday for a recap of UFC on Versus 2 in the next installment of the 3R's of MMA.