The Thursday Throwdown 10.19.06: Share the Wealth
Posted by Jon Hartley on 10.19.2006
With weight divisions thinning out in every major MMA organization, is it time for promoters to start swapping fighters more often? Also, UFC 64 thoughts, BJ Penn's injury, and Mike Swick wants a title shot!
Anderson Silva's shocking TKO win over Rich Franklin last Saturday has underscored an interesting problem that has reared its head in nearly every weight division (in every organization) in MMA. That being that now that Silva has dispatched Franklin (for now), who can really challenge him in the UFC? While it can't be argued that the UFC is better off having two elite middleweights than one (as they did before Silva joined the UFC), the lack of true depth in the division is troubling.
As I said, the UFC middleweight division is hardly the only one facing this problem. In the UFC, the light heavyweight division (Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz, Babalu Sobral) and heavyweight division (Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski and possibly Brandon Vera) are in similar problems. Only the welterweight division, with a sturdy champion and at least three worthy contenders, and the lightweight division (completely wide open) are exceptions. Elsewhere, look to Pride's heavyweight division. Sure, there are at least four championship-level fighters there, but all but one of them have already fought the reigning champion, Fedor Emelianenko. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has lost to him twice.
Smaller organizations feel the sting of exclusive contracts more than anyone else. After all, it's great for the WFA to sign Matt Lindland and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, but after they've fought each other, what matchups are left? Usually, a company like the WFA is looking to sign a big name or two to push ticket sales, but doesn't have the resources or intent to sign enough top level fighters to create a truly competitive set of divisions, at least not at first.
When I first became a fan of MMA, I preferred the way the sport was organized and run to boxing. A UFC pay-per-view would allow you to see between five and eight fights, and you'd have a good chance to see at least a few of your favorite fighters. Contrast that to the boxing world, where a more expensive pay-per-view price tag gets you a title fight and maybe a few other fights between relative no-names. Now, things have changed a bit. The UFC in particular runs so many events that the quality of the cards is necessarily diluted, as any given fighter is only going to appear in 3-4 events per year. When the organization is plagued with injuries (such as recently with Franklin and Liddell both missing substantial time), cards thin out even more.
Sure, boxing is far from perfect, and politics force (and prevent) many potential matchups from happening. But how many matchups in MMA will never happen because organizations can't come together and make deals happen? Liddell-Wanderlei Silva. Matt Hughes-Takanori Gomi. Tito Ortiz-Silva II. Franklin-Dan Henderson. Sylvia vs. anyone in Pride's heavyweight division. The list goes on and on. We've already seen Randy Couture's career come and go without ever witnessing a dream matchup with Silva...and with Liddell in seemingly the last few years of his career, will he face the same fate?
I'm not advocating title unification. Under the current promotional system in MMA, "unifying" titles makes absolutely no sense. So if Silva and Liddell fought, one organization would go on without a light heavyweight champion? If the organizations were merely sanctioning bodies (as in boxing), it would be a good idea. But with fighters having exclusive contracts to fight in one promotion or another, and no promotions wanting to share top fighters for more than perhaps one fight here or there, the MMA landscape isn't ready for it.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't see top fighters facing off, though. What's wrong with a matchup between Andrei Arlovski and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, or one between Rich Franklin and Denis Kang? It's somewhat understandable if neither company wants to risk their champions' reputations in a non-title bout (although less so for Pride, who regularly does so within their own shows). But neither promotion should be afraid to put their best fighters against one another. Professional fighters have always put it all on the line. Now it's time for the UFC and Pride to do the same.
Quick Thoughts
--The funny thing is that the same fans who want to see interpromotional matchups are the ones helping to keep them from happening. Look what happened after Silva's win over Franklin? "That proves Pride is better than the UFC!" No, it doesn't. It just means Silva was better than Franklin. The UFC and Pride need to learn that the sport is about the fighters, not about them. How will they realize it if the fans keep on making it all about the organizations instead of the fighters?
--Speaking of Franklin-Silva, I said above that the win was "shocking"...I should elaborate a bit here. It wasn't shocking that Silva won, as any MMA fan who can spell "Babalu" certainly knows who Silva is and what he's capable of. It is shocking that he dominated Franklin in the fashion he did, however. Seeing Franklin get absolutely brutalized was definitely unexpected, and it was hard not to feel sorry for him afterwards. Like him or not, Franklin is a class act who works as hard as anyone in the fight game today. With that said, he'll be back and I'm sure Silva will be waiting for him, with the belt still around his waist. I think this fight was clearly more about Franklin's admittedly poor strategy than a large difference in talent...similar to Sobral-Liddell.
--I have to stop my "MURDERDEATHKILL" predictions for the time being, since apparently I'm doomed to be horribly wrong with them. I also have to give it up to Kenny Florian, who has obviously improved immeasurably since his loss to Diego Sanchez at The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale. While Florian lost every round to Sean Sherk on many cards (not mine-I gave him round two for opening the cut on Sherk and doing a decent job of neutralizing his ground and pound), he clearly deserved to be in there with Sherk and has a brighter future than I gave him credit for. Hey, when I'm wrong, I'll admit it.
--The other recipient of the business end of one of my MDK predictions was BJ Penn, who looked very good early on in his fight with Matt Hughes. He looked like a different fighter in the third round, and now we may know why, as his rib fracture was confirmed by a UFC doctor recently. Penn claims that the injury occurred while taking Hughes's back in the second round. Hughes had proposed that maybe the injury was a result of one of his kicks rather than a freak incident. In reality though, who cares? Hughes won the fight and looked to have a good game plan. I seriously doubt that Penn would have had the ability to go all five rounds and continue beating Hughes; and that was obviously Hughes's game plan...to keep the fight going. Injury or no, Penn had already attempted to finish Hughes for two rounds, to no avail, and no one but the biggest Penn supporters would give Penn an advantage over Hughes in the late rounds.
What's really interesting about this news item is how it has been handled by the media and the fans. Injuries during losing efforts, or even injuries sustained in training that lead to bad performances, are quite commonplace and are hardly ever given much attention. Ken Shamrock's knee injury prior to his first fight with Tito Ortiz, and Tito's own knee problems leading into his fight with Forrest Griffin are two good examples. Now, even with doctor verification of the claims, there was no outpouring of sentiment in Shamrock's favor; and Ortiz was branded villified for his own claims after his poor performance against Griffin. Yet somehow, when Penn is injured during a fight and the injury is later confirmed, it's a major news item on every MMA site and fans are using it to take credit away from Hughes. What's up with that?
--In other news, Mike Swick is completely insane. Rare is the man who, after witnessing the reigning (and dominant) champion get crushed, says "Hey, I got next!" Apparently, Swick is that man. I don't really think it will go much better for him than it went for Franklin or Chris Leben, though he is a more well-rounded fighter than "The Crippler".
This news will probably will distress my girlfriend. Her favorite fighters are Wanderlei Silva, Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre, but when it comes to looks (and it always does), she favors St. Pierre, Franklin, and Swick. She was telling someone right before the Franklin fight at UFC 64 that she didn't know who was better looking, Franklin or St. Pierre. When we saw Franklin after the fight, before they announced the winner, I said, "Well I guess now it's definitely St. Pierre, huh?" It also bears mentioning that she used to like Nate Quarry, before Franklin performed plastic surgery via fisticuffs on him. Now Franklin's been Quarry'ed, and it appears that Swick is stepping up to get Quarry'ed as well.
--Seriously, what's the worst nose break you've seen during a fight? Mine is constantly changing, from Rampage's schnozz after the second fight with Silva, then to Quarry's after the Franklin fight. I don't think Franklin's can surpass Quarry's, although the effect is more shocking due to the fact that I never would have imagined Franklin getting hurt like that in a fight. I think Quarry's still takes the cake for me: not only was it bent around towards the side, but it had a nice dent in the bridge as well. Plus, it helped me coin the term "Quarry" as a verb to describe a nose-rearranging blow in an MMA fight. E-mail me your thoughts on the worst nose breaks and we'll discuss the matter next week.
--I think the Pick 'Em contest for Pride's "Real Deal" will be the first one to have all competitors finish 8-0. Seriously, is there an evenly-matched fight on the entire card? Maybe Robbie Lawler-Joey Villasenor or Dan Henderson-Vitor Belfort. Still, I think it'll come down to someone picking what round and method that Fedor brutalizes Mark Coleman with. Interesting that there are no title defenses on the card. I don't think Pride wanted to have one in the States as they can't use their normal rules here. However, I think Pride's U.S. marketing people need to put a little more work in. I don't think coming to the U.S. with a bunch of aged American fighters that U.S. fans may remember from UFC 15 was the right strategy to go with. Pride should have taken the opportunity to show what they are all about by accentuating the differences between themselves and the UFC. Pride can make their mark here, but not as "UFC Jr".
That's it for now. By the way, The Thursday Throwdown MMA Top 10 will return after the Pride show for its October installment. In the meantime, thanks for reading and keep those e-mails comin'!
