Five Quick Rounds 02.07.12: UFC 143 A Runaway Success, Overeem in Trouble, Zuffa Gives Back, and More!

Posted by Wyatt Beougher on 02.07.2012

From the fall of Nick Diaz at UFC 143 and Alistair Overeem’s assault case to Dan Herderson’s decision to wait for Jon Jones and more, 411’s Wyatt Beougher discusses these topics and more in the latest edition of Five Quick Rounds!



Welcome to another edition of Five Quick Rounds, 411's fastest-finishing weekly opinion column. As always, I'm your host, Wyatt Beougher, and I have to say I'm pretty disgusted by a majority of the people complaining about the decision in the Diaz/Condit fight. There was an interesting debate on Twitter on Sunday between 411 alumni Samer Kadi (easily the best fight analyst I've ever had the privilege of reading) and current 411 writer Jon Butterfield about the result of the fight, with Butterfield arguing (like so many of you) that Condit should not have won because he was "running away" from Diaz the entire fight. Like Samer, I feel that Diaz walking forward and landing less strikes than Condit shouldn't have earned him rounds, and that what Diaz was doing was NOT Octagon control. To quote Samer: "Diaz was controlling in which part of the Octagon Condit was kicking him". If simply moving forward was enough to win fights, then counterstrikers wouldn't enjoy the success that they enjoy in mixed martial arts. To succinctly sum up the internet's outrage over this matter, I'm going to use an old adage – "those who know the least know it the loudest". In this case, "those who know the least" are the blind Nick Diaz supporters who think he won that fight, in spite of being handily outstruck and looking clearly frustrated from the second round on. The simple fact of the matter is that Condit had a better gameplan, came out from the second round on and made the necessary adjustments to implement it, and he outworked Nick Diaz without being drawn into Diaz's strengths.



Round 1: UFC 143 – One Bad Decision

**TOUCH OF THE GLOVES**

Before we get to all the controversy, let me just say that UFC 143 was a pretty solid card, especially coming on the heels of the slower-paced UFC on FOX 2 show last weekend. The night started off in a way that made 411's Dustin James beam with pride, as his favorite fighter, Ed Herman, picked up the submission win over Clifford Starks with a rear naked choke early in the second round. Herman lost a relatively close first round and then came out in the second and finished his third straight fight, and he appears to have put it all together during his injury layoff…it'll be interesting to see how he fares as he starts facing more talented middleweights. In the second fight of the PPV, Renan Barao picked up the unanimous decision win over Scott Jorgensen, which was Barao's 28th win in a row. That, combined with Jorgensen's status as a top-five bantamweight in the UFC, should put Barao in the discussion to face Dominick Cruz after he beats Urijah Faber again.

The next fight was the only fight that had a poor decision from the judges, as Mike Pierce should've picked up the decision win over Josh Koscheck, but Kos instead was awarded a split decision. That's probably the biggest travesty in this entire show that – not only was Pierce robbed, but two fights later, everyone forgot about it, no matter who they thought won the main event. With the win, Koscheck will likely face Carlos Condit over the summer, since the two had already been booked to fight prior to GSP's injury. In the co-main event of the evening, Fabricio Werdum returned to the Octagon with a win, outlasting Roy Nelson to win a unanimous decision victory in a fight that was surprising both for how well Nelson was able to defend Werdum's BJJ and also for how good Werdum's striking looked after his disastrous outing against Alistair Overeem last year.

I talked about the main event already in my intro, but it bears repeating – walking forward for 4 ½ rounds and punching air does not constitute a winning fight. Condit fought a very smart fight and didn't get sucked into Diaz's typical strategy, which is to corner opponents and force them to brawl with him. Condit landed body punches and leg kicks to slow Diaz down, took advantage of the fact that Diaz's footwork isn't very good and he has no sense of using angles, and simply did what he had to do to win the fight. If you're a fan of MMA, you should be able to appreciate that. One of the biggest components to mixed martial arts is intelligence, both as it relates to creating a gameplan and also to making adjustments necessary during the fight to continue utilizing that gameplan. Condit did both last night, and he was rewarded with the victory for being the smarter fighter.


**HORN SOUNDS**



Round 2: Overeem Cited for Assault

***TOUCH OF THE GLOVES***

After my deadline last week, it was revealed that current UFC heavyweight number one contender Alistair Overeem had been cited for battery after an incident at the Las Vegas Wynn hotel in the early hours of Monday, January 2nd. At around 3 am, Overeem left to use the restroom, declining the security that was offered to him; on his way there, he was allegedly involved in a verbal altercation with a woman, whom he pushed in the face, causing her to stagger backwards. Two things worth noting here – if Overeem pushed this woman with any malicious intent, she would've done more than stagger backwards (unless she was a female bodybuilder), and also, Overeem was merely cited and not arrested, which seems unusual for a physical charge like battery. His citation was issued at 6:10 in the morning, and it was noted that Overeem had been drinking, so I think that if this story had any real merit, Las Vegas police would've at least taken him into custody until he sobered up.

At any rate, his court date is this Saturday morning at 7:30 am, so by this time next week, we should have some substantial information about what Overeem's future holds. UFC president Dana White is confident that Overeem will not miss his title fight with Junior dos Santos, which is tentatively scheduled for this summer. The maximum penalty for battery in Nevada is six months in county jail and a $1000 fine, so even if Overeem is found guilty and receives the maximum sentence, there's a strong possibility he'll be released early and it won't impact his training schedule for the JDS fight.

***HORN SOUNDS***



Round 3: Hendo Decides to Wait

**TOUCH OF THE GLOVES**

From the current plight of the UFC's number one heavyweight contender to the much more favorable situation of current UFC number two light heavyweight contender Dan Henderson. Apparently, Henderson was offered a fight with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira at UFC on FX 2, and he turned it down. Henderson stated that, at the time he was offered the fight, it still had not been decided whether he or Rashad Evans would be next in line to fight Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight championship and also that he didn't think there would be a lot of fan interest in the fight, but that he would've taken it had it been a three-rounder instead of the five-round main event fight on FX.

With UFC president Dana White stating that Henderson was "in a position…to wait for Jon Jones", I can't say I blame Hendo for sitting this one out. With as critical as I've been to Rashad Evans for not taking fights in the past while waiting for title opportunities, this may come as a surprise to some of my more loyal readers, but there are a couple of factors here that make me treat Henderson more favorably. Henderson is 41 years old and coming off of one of the most physically draining fights of his career, an all-time classic fight against former champion and perpetual contender Shogun Rua, whereas Evans was 30 at the time and coming off of a pair of less-than-impressive decision victories over middle-of-the-pack Thiago Silva and former champion Rampage Jackson. The fact that Shogun was willing to take the fight if it was only three rounds speaks volumes to how time is starting to catch up with the former Olympic great, and also, if the contendership situation truly hadn't been sorted out at the time Henderson was offered the fight, it would've been crazy for him to agree to the fight against Little Nog, have it announced as the main event of an FX card, and then expect the UFC to pull him out of the fight to fight Jon Jones if Rashad had turned in a less-than-impressive performance at UFC on FOX 2 (or, if he had, in fact, lost to Phil Davis). Rashad, on the other hand, simply flat-out refused to fight anyone while Shogun was injured, and it's my opinion that the run of injuries that have delayed his title shot almost two years were simply karma catching up with him. Now that Bones has had two years to further mature his fighting prowess, I look for that karma to smack (and elbow) Rashad squarely in the face.

***HORN SOUNDS***



Round 4: UFC on FX 3 Already Shaken Up

***TOUCH OF THE GLOVES***

For the UFC's third show on FX, which is going to be held at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia on May 15, only one fight has been officially announced, but a second rumored fight has already been scratched due to injury. And while a Tom Lawlor/Jason MacDonald tilt looks to be good to go, a second clash between Brandon Vera and Thiago Silva has been scratched, due to Vera suffering an undisclosed injury during training. And while Lawlor/MacDonald will surely deliver both an entertaining weigh-in thanks to Lawlor's impressionist tendencies and also an action-packed fight between two entertaining mid-tier middleweights, I think most fans would've preferred to see Silva/Vera 2.

Their first fight, which took place at UFC 125 on January 1st of last year, was a one-sided affair that saw Silva break Vera's nose and his spirit en route to a unanimous decision victory that got Vera dumped from the UFC. While a fight with a lopsided result like that wouldn't normally justify a rematch, Silva's post-fight drug tests came back containing a "substance not consistent with human urine", and Silva eventually admitted to receiving two prescription steroid injections in his back prior to the fight due to a re-aggravated back injury that had previously kept him sidelined for over a year. The result of the fight was changed to a no-contest, Silva was fined and suspended for a year, and Vera got his job with the UFC back. I've seen on Twitter where some people thought this fight was pointless, but in my mind, if Silva could've beaten Vera back into the unemployment line, it would've certainly been a worthwhile fight in my mind. With that said, depending on the severity of the injury, look for UFC to either postpone the fight (it's not like either guy has a lot of tantalizing match-ups on the horizon) or find a replacement for Vera.

***HORN SOUNDS***



Round 5: The UFC Does Something Great

***TOUCH OF THE GLOVES***

So last week, I finished with a story about Dana White calling out hackers and basically asking for UFC.com to be attacked, so I thought it was only appropriate that I point out that the UFC teamed with Century Martial Arts, a supplier of martial arts equipment, clothing, and accessories, to donate thousands of dollars of equipment to the Richard Steele Boxing Club in Las Vegas. RSBC is a non-profit gym and was established five years ago and is "dedicated to the improved image of boxing and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) as sports and as a magnet program for youth, ages 8 to 18 of the community, regardless of race, creed, religion, color, sex or physical challenge". The club's membership has quintupled since adding a mixed martial arts program, and not only did the kids who participate there get a whole bunch of new gear, they also got to meet Chuck Liddell, Roy Nelson, and Mike Pyle.

In a sport that is so often dominated by bad news or bad publicity (see the Overeem story from Round 2), it's nice to be able to write about something positive, and kudos to Zuffa for giving back to the community where their executives both live and where they headquarter their business. Having spent the better part of January in Vegas (and preparing for another 10 days there right now), I can attest to how many opportunities there are for kids to get into trouble, so it's nice to see a business give back and help to give the kids an alternative and keep them out of trouble. Unfortunately, a story like this doesn't get as high of ratings or as many page clicks as stories like the Overeem one, so don't look for this story to get too much traction on ESPN or any of the mainstream sports media sites. As an MMA fan, keep this story in the back of your mind so that the next time someone you know (friend, family member, co-worker, whomever) starts spouting off negatively about MMA or the UFC, you can correct them. I don't expect this to change a lot of people's perception of the sport, but it is a start.

***HORN SOUNDS***

And that's it for this week. Let me know what you thought about this column in the comments, on Twitter, or on Google+. Have a great week, and remember 411Mania for all your MMA needs!