Locked in the Guillotine News Report 01.13.12: A Look at the Worst

Posted by Robert Winfree on 01.13.2012

Thoughts on Luke Rockhold's win over Keith Jardine and the rest of the Strikeforce results, a preview of UFC 142, thoughts on Cristiane Santos' positive steroid test, and was the Mark Hunt vs. Ben Rothwell fight really that awful? 411's Robert Winfree takes a look!

Welcome readers to another insightful column dealing with the world of MMA. I watched the Strikeforce card last week, mostly so you guys don't have too. There's also the UFC's return trip to Rio coming up on Saturday to look at, which should be a fun card. I also have a little something to discuss about the annual year end awards, specifically the "Worst Fight of the Year." Scroll down to see what's been on my mind and get yourself Locked in the Guillotine once again.

Feedback

A few comments last week, seems discussing Jon Jones or Chael Sonnen is sure to get people talking. Let's take a look at what was said.
Wylun was up first, mentioning that Brock was the biggest draw the UFC had. Dana has mentioned he thought GSP was bigger, but given the PPV numbers saying it was Brock isn't outlandish at all.
Guest#3962 mentioned he thinks Jon Jones is a douche bag. Well to each their own.
Guest#1578 questioned whether or not people really do sink to their knees when they get good news like that. Frankie Edgar did the same thing when he won the title from BJ Penn, and numerous Olympians have also dropped to their knees in happiness, so I've got no reason to doubt the sincerity of the reaction.
TimE stopped by again. He's right that the first season of TUF aired right after WWE's Monday Night RAW and that lead in provided a big growth base for MMA. Brock Lesnar retiring sucks pretty hard, but at the same time I understand why he did it. As for my passion, I love MMA, but really becoming a fan of specific fighters has burned me emotionally a lot of 2011 so I'm seeing how it goes without being hugely invested in a specific fighter.
Guest#5684 questioned Jon Jones knowing he'd get a title shot if he beat Ryan Bader. Rashad Evans mentioned that they might offer him the shot, but it was far from a sure thing. The fight was initially offered to "Rampage" Jackson and he might well have taken it. So while he knew he might get a title shot it wasn't at all a done deal.

News

Sheborg juices?: News broke not long after I submitted last week's column that Strikeforce 145lbs champion Chris "Cyborg" Santos tested positive for steroids following her demolition of Hiroko Yamanaka. She has subsequently been stripped of her title, and the whole 145lbs woman's division could be scrapped. Bas Rutten had something interesting to say about the situation:

"If Cyborg wants to clear her name, simple, send the drink to the athletic commission and let them test it. I don't believe they put it in drinks to LOSE weight, if they DO put roids in show them the drink and her name is clear. It's what I would do. Like I said b4, they all say 'I took something over the counter'. What? Tell us what you took? Help your fellow fighters not make the same mistake by accident, just saying."
Courtesy of Bas' twitter, @BasRuttenMMA

Still waiting to see how the whole thing shakes out, but this is a huge blow to WMMA and Strikeforce.

Gustafsson and Lil' NNog set: A fight between rising star Alexander Gustafsson and Rogerio Nogueira will main event the UFC's first show in Sweden later this year. The little Nog fight was originally offered to Dan Henderson, who turned it down. This is a big step up in competition for Gustafsson, but should be a good fight.



Well there was a Strikeforce card on Saturday, one of the most underwhelming shows Strikeforce has ever put on. This was a very weak card to begin the new year for Strikeforce, but let's have a look at what went down.

Payan delivers a beating: The opening prelim fight saw Estaban Payan out strike Alonzo Martinez for fifteen minutes. This was a very one sided affair and Martinez's face was an absolute mess by the end of this one. Payan looked sharp with his striking, given how shallow the various divisions are in Strikeforce Payan could be moving up the ranks quickly with performances like this.

Well that was there: Ricky Legere out wrestled Chris Spang in fairly pedestrian fashion to win the second prelim fight. Spang needs some polishing but he's tall for the division, and Legere needs to work on his striking. The prelims for Strikeforce cards are essentially going to replace the Challengers stuff.

Hooray for finishes: Gian Villante showed good striking and positional awareness in his first round stoppage of Trevor Smith. There wasn't really a whole lot of action here, but finishes are always welcome.

Split Decision #1: Nah-Shon Burrell got a split decision victory over James Terry. I disagree with the decision as Terry's wrestling controlled the first two rounds while Burrell definitely came on strong in the third. Oh well, I'm not a judge. This was actually a pretty fun fight.

Split Decision #2: Tarec Saffiedine got a split decision victory over Tyler Stinson in a pretty entertaining welterweight bout. I didn't think the fight was split decision worth and Saffiedine controlled rounds two and three but got rocked and cut in the first. Decent fight to open up the night.

Split Decision #3: Tyron Woodley put on a smother-hump clinic against Jordan Mein. Woodley has impressive wrestling, but on top he seems content to simply ride instead of actually doing real damage. He never tried to pass the guard of Mein, and didn't throw many damaging shots, which are probably the factors that led to the split decision. Woodley needs to fight a better quality of fighter, because he isn't evolving or really being pushed in his fights.

King Mo opens up 2012 with a W: Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal stopped Lorenz Larkin in the second round with strikes on the ground. Lawal is a sharp contrast to other wrestlers in that he actually knows how to deliver ground and pound and actually looks to finish fights. Good way for Mo to rebound after his knee surgery. For Larkin, this was just too much too soon, but he's definitely got talent and I hope to see more of him.

A tale of two knees: Robbie Lawler scored a first round TKO victory over Adlan Amagov. Amagov secured and early takedown, but after illegally kneeing Lawler in the head he was deducted a point and the bout was restarted on the feet. Lawler then threw a flying knee that spelled the end of the fight and swarmed for the finish. Lawler isn't going to be champion again, and his overall MMA game hasn't evolved in quite a while, but he's a fairly exciting fighter so I see no harm in airing his fights.

Rockhold makes a statement: Luke Rockhold came out and stopped Keith Jardine in the first round with a barrage of strikes. This was a good fight for Rockhold against a veteran, though the poor kid is gonna be doomed to fighting second rate guys unless the UFC moves people to SF to fight him. Good win for Rockhold, and at this point you've got to imagine Keith Jardine is looking at calling it a career as far as MMA goes.

Commentary Hell: Seriously, these three guys seem more focused on talking amongst themselves than calling the action. But Strikeforce having a bad commentary team is nothing new, you'd just hope they'd have done something by now to improve it.


UFC 142

The UFC heads back to Brazil this week with a pretty decent card headlined by a featherweight championship fight between Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes. Let's take a look at the card and see what's coming up and what I think will happen.

Edson Barboza vs. Terry Etim:Barboza got something of a gift decision when he fought Ross Pearson in Brazil last time, but he's shown himself to be an extremely talented striker. Of course so has Etim, who has also shown some good submission skills. Etim's only losses have been to superior grappler's who could control him on the ground, and Barboza doesn't fall into that category. This will be a fun standup battle until one of them gets rocked and finished, and my money is on Etim taking this one.

Erick Silva vs. Carlo Prater:Well, I suppose something had to be the other fight on the main card. Silva was last seen winning via KO at the last show in Brazil. Carlo Prater is a veteran, but he's here to give the former Jungle Fight champion an opponent. Silva should take this as long as he doesn't do anything too boneheaded during the fight.

Rousimar Palhares vs. Mike Massenzio:Speaking of guys being fed, Massenzio is in for a world of hurt here people. I don't give him a single advantage over Palhares, save maybe in a wild brawl. Palhares has some of the best submissions in the middleweight division, and if he grabs a hold of a limb he commits to it and plans on taking it home with him. His standup hasn't really been tested in the UFC thus far, but he was able to do some damage to Dan Miller in their fight and could have been the first guy to stop Miller if he hadn't decided he'd rather jump on the cage and celebrate. Palhares was reported to be seeing a sports psychologist to help with the mental issues, but I'd favor him over Massenzio either way. The most Massenzio can hope for is to avoid serious joint or limb damage here.

Vitor Belfort vs. Anthony Johnson:This should be a very interesting fight. This will be the first fight for Johnson at middleweight, but it's a good move considering the weight he was having to cut to make 170 before. Vitor Belfort wants another crack at Anderson Silva and absolutely ran through Yoshihiro Akiyama in his last fight. Johnson definitely has the power to take Vitor out, but his best chance to win lies in wrestling. While a Johnson win isn't out of the question, Vitor's experience and power should give him the win.

Chad Mendes vs. Jose Aldo:Jose Aldo attempts to make another successful defense of his featherweight title against the undefeated wrestler Chad Mendes. A lot of people are going with Mendes here, and it's difficult to fault them for that. Mendes might have the best wrestling in the division, seems to have endless cardio and hasn't really showed weakness yet. Aldo hasn't looked like the killer of old in his last two fights, and people seem to be discounting him because of it. Aldo made his name by beating wrestlers, and that's something I keep thinking about. If Aldo doesn't have a tough weight cut I think he takes this. That said it wouldn't be a huge upset if Mendes won via decision and Aldo decided to fight at 155 and avoid cutting that much weight.



In the annual 411 year end awards here in the MMA section we give out an "award" for the worst fight of the year. This year that dubious distinction went to the Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum fight from Strikeforce. By and large I agree with this decision, and if you want my reasoning feel free to look at the list and see it. I'm discussing here what came in second, the fight between Mark Hunt and Ben Rothwell from UFC 135. Personally I was surprised at the amount of hate the fight generated. Dustin James went so far as to say he wouldn't take one hundred dollars to watch the fight again. We all know that's crap Dustin, the number of things you'd do for a hundred dollars includes things much more painful and embarrassing than watching that fight again.

Now before I continue I wish to make something perfectly clear, this was not a good fight. I'm not going to lie and say that it was, it wasn't a good fight. What it wasn't was the worst fight of 2011. Of course the fact that I, and a couple of other writers, came up with five worse fights is pretty darn sad in and of itself, but that isn't the point I wish to make. For my money there were two fights on that same card that were worse than Hunt and Rothwell, a featherweight fight between Junior Assuncao and Eddie Yagin from the under card, and the fight that immediately preceded it between Travis Browne and Rob Broughton. Both of those fights featured minimal action, in the case of Browne and Broughton it was downright embarrassing to see them circle and throw a punch and circle some more for fifteen minutes. As I said, the fight between Hunt and Rothwell wasn't good, but at least there was some semblance of action. Browne and Broughton pretty much did nothing for fifteen minutes and looked tired. At least Mark Hunt and Ben Rothwell tried to fight, granted not very well but the effort should count for something. For some writers to include this, where the fighters actually made an admittedly feeble effort, over what Browne and Broughton, or Torres and Banuelos did makes no sense to me. Fighters who actually show up to fight, win lose or draw, deserve a little more credit from us. Mark Hunt is not a great fighter, and there's a legitimate argument he isn't even a very good fighter, but he at least shows up to fight. That's a lot more than you can say of Miguel Torres in his last three fights, or Junior Assuncao, or Tyron Woodley, or a lot of other fighters out there right now.

That does it for this week, feel free to leave hate or disagreements in the comments section. You've survived and escaped the Guillotine once again, I'll see you all next week.