The Thursday Throwdown 9.21.06: The Invincibility Myth
Posted by Jon Hartley on 09.21.2006
Fighters have been deemed "invincible" by fans and media for decades, but can any fighter truly be unbeatable? In light of Wanderlei Silva's recent loss and Matt Hughes' upcoming bout with BJ Penn, 411's Jon Hartley answers that very question! Plus, an IFL preview, UFC 63 preview, and Kurt Angle coming to MMA?!?!
Call it human nature or whatever you will, but as long as combat sports have existed, from the earliest days of boxing and pankration to the evolution of mixed martial arts as we see it today, fight fans have waited for an invincible fighter.
Many have worn the label; few held it for good. Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Matt Hughes, Wanderlei Silva and others have all been thought of as unbeatable for stretches of time. All eventually tasted defeat. Sports such as boxing or mixed martial arts lend themselves to the hype more so than other sports, because of the nature of the competition. A team can go 16-0 and tank the Super Bowl based on a few fumbles or a costly interception. To be the man in MMA or boxing, you truly have to beat the man.
It's tough to say if any fighter can truly be unbeatable. Sure, if you had fighter x and fighter y fight 1,000 times, it's almost assured that neither will win every single fight. But in the context of a 10-15 year career, can a fighter maintain a level of perfection? Some already have, such as Rocky Marciano, who retired from professional boxing with a record of 49-0. So far, no one in MMA has been able to boast such a resume'. To date, the undefeated fighter with the most wins in the sport is 135 lb. fighter Jason Reinhardt, who has a 17-0 record. Other notables include Diego Sanchez (16-0), Paulo Filho (13-0), Michael Bisping (11-0), Ryoto Machida (8-0), Rashad Evans (8-0) and Brandon Vera (7-0). However, these fighters are not at the top of their respective weight divisions, and a few of them aren't even represented on most top ten lists.
No, MMA is a more forgiving sport than boxing, where potential pros perfect their craft for years in amateur fights before finally turning professional. By contrast, there is little difference between amateur and professional MMA, and as such most fighters quickly turn pro, and usually pick up a few blemishes on their records in the early going. Consider Forrest Griffin, who was welcomed into the world of professional MMA by facing Dan Severn in his very first bout. Instead, fighters are allowed to rebound from losses and still reach the level where most don't think they can be stopped. Examples would be Matt Hughes (multiple times), Wanderlei Silva (between the Tito Ortiz loss and his recent losses), Takanori Gomi, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
Of all the fighters in MMA today, no one is more widely known as unbeatable than Fedor Emelianenko. The imposing Russian fighter has tasted defeat just once in 24 fights, and it was a fight stopped due to a cut opened by Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (Fedor's 4th career fight). Since then, Emelianenko has beaten anyone who has stepped in the ring with him, usually in very dominating fashion. He has been hit with hard punches, fended off submission attempts and even been suplexed on his head, but he prevails every time.
Is Fedor unbeatable, or more yet, invincible? Well, of course not. Humans can never be invincible, and the idea is just as laughable as the existence of Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. But it's not important that he be literally impervious to pain, physical damage, or the like. What's vital is that he has faced the best and simply does not come up short. He may be the favorite in each of his fights, but he has still defied the odds by fighting the competition he has and coming out on top. In that respect, he reinforces the very best possibilities of human capability.
More important than whether any fighter can be invincible is the question, "Why do we care?" In a sense, it's self-explanatory. After all, the whole point of competition is to see who the better competitor truly is. After a series of competitions, it's only natural to wonder if someone who has continually overcome the others can be beaten. There is a mystique to someone or something that can be described as "perfect", even if only for a brief time. Again, this mystique is only enhanced in a sport where competitors cannot rely on teammates, expensive equipment or other aids to win. In a fight, you only have yourself.
When someone does emerge as a dominating presence in the fight game, fans inevitably watch them with great interest to either see them continue to escape defeat, or to witness them finally tasting it. I'm not going to do any armchair psychological analysis and tell you that if you root against "unbeatable" fighters that you are hoping to have your own cynical view of human potential reinforced, but there are definitely those that are more likely to hope for someone to fall from grace, just as some will hope to see others ascend to greatness. Somehow, this pursuit captures our imaginations like nothing else in sports. This is why championships are so vital and why athletes in all sports strive so hard to achieve them.
In the end, it's not all that important whether or not Fedor or anyone else is invincible. What matters is that more so than other myths, there is a human quality to this one. Santa Claus is really rather boring. Fedor Emelianenko? He is a myth worth believing in.
Quick Thoughts
--Sorry to all that noticed that the Throwdown was missing last week. Similarly, Caleb Newby of "The Tap-Out" fame, has asked me to inform all of you that his column is not dead, just paralyzed from the neck down. No, I kid. He'll be back in the near future. In the meantime, check out 411's first ever official MMA Top Ten Rankings. I do need to mention that I am not responsible for any nonsense spouted in the divisional write-ups (other than Light Heavyweights, that's my nonsense), spelling or grammatical errors, or Shinya Aoki's inclusion into the Welterweight Top Ten. That's the problem with democracies: you don't get to control everything. So don't send me an angry letter if you disagree. Well, you can send me 1/6 of an angry letter, I suppose.
Interviewer: "What's your prediction for the fight?"
Matt: "PAIN."
--So, I know what you all are thinking right now. "Jon, who's going to win at UFC 63?" Well, dear reader, if you'd been paying attention you'd know by now that Matt Hughes is going to beat BJ Penn via MURDERDEATHKILL. BJ is a very emotional fighter and tends to perform erratically depending on whatever frame of mind he's in at the time. I think for this fight he's going to be too confident. That and I saw a ten minute video interview recently where he spent half of the time speaking affectionately of burritos. Suffice to say that sometimes I'm skeptical that BJ is putting on "good weight" to move up in weight class. For God's sake, his face is as round as Kimo's. OK, maybe not, but you get my point. No one can deny BJ's talent, and it's fun to watch him jump weight classes and take on new challenges, but it would also be great to see what he could do if he dedicated himself to being the best 155 lb. fighter in the world.
--Elsewhere on the UFC card, there's a fantastic fight between David Loiseau and Mike Swick. Loiseau is a big step up for Swick, and it will be interesting to see if Swick retains his trademark explosiveness should the fight see rounds two and three. Both are exciting fighters and whoever wins will take a big step up in the division. Jason Lambert and Rashad Evans may put on a snoozefest, but you never know...maybe Lambert will push the pace and force Evans out of his comfort zone. Evans is a frustrating fighter to watch, often having opponents on the cusp of defeat and seemingly being oblivious to it (especially in his TUF fight with Mike Whitehead), instead settling for decisions. We will see the extent of Lambert's wrestling skills in this one, which is key for him as he will need those skills to beat good ground fighters in the division like Tito Ortiz and Renato Sobral. And of course, we have the return of Jens Pulver and the UFC debut of 7-0 lightweight Tyson Griffin. Which brings me to this...
--I'm equal parts pleased and confused by the UFC's sudden decision to not only bring back the lightweight division, but promote it like crazy...but why in the world is Griffin's fight a prelim? Couldn't Melvin Guillard's fight have been? Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed him knocking Rick Davis's head off his shoulders as much as the next guy, but Griffin has beaten some top guys and deserves the spotlight more. Plus, if Guillard decapitates another foe, they can always work it into the show. I suppose it's all a moot point since only Lambert-Evans looks like a good candidate to go the distance on the main card, but still...what were they thinking?
--I'm completely underwhelmed by Pride's U.S. card. Go ahead, send me nasty e-mails. But come on. Another Fedor Emelianenko-Mark Coleman fight? Just who exactly was demanding that one? Kevin Randleman vs. Shogun? Eh, it could be a good fight, even if it has little if any implications on the light heavyweight title picture. I guess what I'm saying is that if Pride thinks that U.S. fans have been dying to see Coleman and Randleman fight in the states, they are sorely out of touch with the U.S. fan base. The Mark Hunt-Butterbean fight is somewhat of a freak show, albeit an entertaining one. And the Barnett fight does nothing for me. It's funny though, fans always poke fun at the UFC and say Pride's cards are so much better...but look what happens when Pride has to try to run shows in consecutive months. It's not easy to try to stack cards just a month apart from one another when half your marquee stars either a)just fought, b)are injured or c)both.
The interesting thing is that Pride has had the competitive edge on the UFC because of the fact that they put on so few shows in comparison to the UFC. Even at the current number of shows they run, Pride runs their fighters ragged. Consider that CroCop has already fought four times this year. I suppose that is down from five in 2005 and eight in 2004. Hell, Pride is hoping that CroCop will be healthy to fight in the October show! Keep in mind he just beat not one, but two top fighters in the same night this month. Barnett was in the same tournament, fought twice, and will compete in the U.S. next month as well. But what would happen if Pride attempted to run as many shows as the UFC does? It becomes hard to put out nonstop dream cards when you're running a show a month, sometimes more. It's funny that people who allegedly can't get enough of MMA are now complaining that the UFC shows are diluted with "poor talent" due to the number of events they run. The fact is that there just isn't enough high quality talent to go around, especially with more organizations springing up and running more and more shows. The only way to get around that is to build new talent, and to do that you're going to have to put up with a few fights at every event where you look at the names and go "who?!?!".
--Let's not forget that the International Fight League will be running a huge event right near me in Moline, Illinois this weekend. It will be pretty exciting because Pat Miletich will be coming out of retirement and fighting in front of his own community. Also, besides the Miletich-Renzo Gracie superfight, you have the defending champion Silverbacks in action, along with the Razorclaws, Pitbulls and Dragons. By the way, my money's on the Silverbacks to repeat this year, as they have a strong lineup including Rory Markham, Bart Palaszewski and Ben Rothwell. Being trained by Miletich himself doesn't hurt, of course.
I will actually be covering the IFL World Team Championships, also. So make sure to check out 411mania's Sports section this weekend for full coverage of the event.
--So, on to the reason why 3/4 of you clicked on this column: Kurt Angle wants to give MMA a try. My thoughts? Great idea, 5-10 years too late. Look, Angle has a great wrestling background (which has proven to be a valuable thing in MMA) and great physical tools: he's explosive, quick, and strong. But he's also getting up there in age. Even if he wants to learn the barest essentials of ground fighting to help him stay out of submissions, he needs a couple years training, minimum. Not to mention that his standup skills won't be great right out of the box. The statement he released said he is a fan of MMA, so perhaps he has learned a few things along the way, but judging by how fast he got kimura'ed by Daniel Puder a couple of years ago, he'll have a lot of work to do. I'm not saying Kurt won't be a decent fighter. He's going to be decent and possibly even pretty good. But great? No. He just doesn't have the time left to learn the skills he'll need to compete at the highest level. Hey, I'm a huge Kurt Angle fan, and I'm excited to hear he wants to become a fighter. However, he's just waited too long to really make an impact in the MMA world. The best thing for Kurt to do would be to coach an IFL team and occasionally take a hand-picked superfight against an opponent he can reasonably compete with. There's just no way he could go into Pride or even the UFC and beat the best fighters at heavyweight. Kurt Angle at 20, 25, even 30 years old could have, possibly. But nowadays, the game is just too evolved and Angle simply doesn't have enough time to learn the things he needs to while his physical abilities are still near their apex. Should be fun to follow, though, and Angle fighting in MMA would bring a lot of attention to the sport.
Anyway, that's it for now. Random MMA YouTube Moment will return next week; maybe I'll even give you two to make up for this week. In the meantime, be sure to check out the next part of the official 411 MMA Top Ten Rankings, and my coverage of the IFL World Team Championships this weekend!
