411 MMA Fact or Fiction 05.31.07
Posted by Michael Huckaby on 05.31.2007
Will Chuck Liddell win his belt back, was the fight stopped too early, and could BJ Penn defeat Sean Sherk?
Welcome back to another edition of MMA Fact or Fiction. Be sure to join us on Saturday night when (barring some type of server crash) 411mania will be doing the quickest, most detailed play-by-play of Brock Lesnar's MMA debut at the K-1 Dynamite! PPV.
1. The Chuck Liddell/Rampage Jackson fight was stopped too early.
Sariahmed: FICTION. If you're one of the hardcore Liddell fans looking to justify this loss I understand. You're heartbroken and you're trying to find a way to cope. But blaming it on an "early stoppage" isn't the way to do it. Just say Liddell got caught or Jackson hit a lucky punch, but this fight was not stopped too early. McCarthy did the right thing stepping in there and stopping the fight. What is Liddell doing going to the body in the first place? Jackson clipped him with that straight right to the chin and Liddell went down. Jackson followed him and hit him with 2 or 3 rights to the face and McCarthy stepped in. Go back and watch the fight and you'll see that Liddell is out going down from the straight right and then he went out again after Rampage's first few punches on the ground. It's goes back to the not so old adage, the ref is supposed to stop a fight when the fighter can't intelligently defend himself. Liddell wasn't doing that. So this was a justified stoppage.
Kobel: FICTION. We start this thing off with a no-brainer. Jackson's caught Chuck flush in the jaw and dropped him. Then after a barrage of punches on the ground Liddell went limp. You can actually pinpoint the moment when ‘the Iceman' was done for and it happens to be the exact moment that Big John stepped in and ended the fight – which is why he is regarded as the best referee in the business. I think the initial outcry over an early stoppage was due to the fact that Chuck got up and looked like he wanted to keep going. Liddell could not understand why the fight was stopped and that is because he did not remember anything happening. You can actually see this in the post-fight activities when he is in his corner with a bewildered look on his face and asks his trainer ‘what happened?' Chuck is a poster boy and therefore a hero to a lot of fans -- but anybody who thinks this fight was stopped early is in denial.
Score: 1 for 1, but that was an easy one. Just testing ya, getting you warmed up.
2. Should BJ Penn earn a title shot at the end of the year he could defeat Sean Sherk.
Sariahmed: FICTION. Let me preface this by saying I love BJ Penn. It's hard not to. He's a charismatic guy who can take credit for being part of the reason the UFC is what it is today. But he's a headcase. Who's to say after his fight with Pulver he won't jump back up to welterweight? There's been talk in the past of him fighting at middleweight. Who knows with BJ Penn? I honestly think he's at lightweight to get his revenge against Pulver then he'll move back up to welterweight. There's more top talent in the UFC's welterweight division than at lightweight. But lets play this out and say Penn does stay at lightweight and get a shot against Sherk. I think Sherk is a bad match-up for 85-90% of the division including BJ Penn. His strength is absurd and I think Penn would struggle. The answer is fiction no matter what way you look at that question.
Kobel: FACT. If there is one man that you can never confidently bet against in MMA it is B.J. Penn. If Penn chooses to come into a fight prepared and in shape, there are very few fighters in the world who can handle him. His natural ability is that good. As for Sean Sherk, he is a genetic freak. He has muscles on his body that I did not even know existed. He is a great wrestler to boot and holds an outstanding 31-2-1 record, with his only loses coming to GSP and Matt Hughes. However, if B.J. decided that he wanted Sherk's belt – he would take it from him. On the feet Penn has a huge advantage and on the ground B.J. would catch him in a submission. This is of course if Sean was able to get the fight to the ground which is not guaranteed. After all, Matt Hughes could not take ‘the Prodigy' down very easily so it is certainly not a given that Sherk would be able to do so. It would be a great fight that I would love to see. Sherk has got a chance – but a motivated Penn wins this one.
Score: 1 for 2
3. Due to the harsh insults by Keith Jardine, Houston Alexander was justified in his post-fight reaction.
Sariahmed: FACT. Fact, fact and fact again. Keith Jardine beat Forrest Griffin...that's it. Griffin is not Chuck Liddell. This is his ONLY noteworthy win. When did one noteworthy win mean you could dictate who you could face? When did one noteworthy win mean you could run your mouth and think you're better than you are? Jardine lost to Stephan Bonnar and nearly lost to Wilson Gouveia. I don't care if his loss to Bonnar was a controversial decision...it was still a loss. So for Jardine to go and run his mouth basically saying it wasn't worth his time to fight Houston Alexander is absurd. And clearly no one told Jardine that this was the only guy who would step up and take this fight. David Heath (Jardine's original opponent) moved from the UFC 71 card to the UFC 70 card to fight Lyoto Machida. So if I'm Houston Alexander and Jardine is running his mouth, that's enough motivation for me to knock this guy's head off. On top of that MMA is obviously a very emotional sport. So when Alexander knocked Jardine out his reaction was COMPLETELY justified.
Kobel: FACT. I had to think about this one for a long time before coming to the conclusion that Alexander was justified in his actions. At the very least, he should not be crucified for what he did. I am normally a huge proponent of being the bigger man in such situations, but in the case of Alexander you need to look at the entire situation. He had just knocked his opponent cold, he was an overwhelming underdog, and Jardine was not giving him the credit he deserved before the fight. I think when you take those factors into consideration, put yourself in Houston's shoes when he was standing over his vanquished opponent, and realize just how much adrenaline was pumping through his body -- you are able to see how such actions are bound to happen. I would be singing a different tune if Houston continued his taunting, but after the knockout he had calmed down and composed himself for the post-fight interview in which he was very respectful and gave Keith his due.
Score: 2 for 3 and right again.
----SWITCH IT UP----
4. You will be paying for the K1/EliteXC PPV on Saturday.
Kobel: FICTION. I am all for supporting organizations not owned by the Fertitta's. I try to watch any event streamed on Proelite.com and I catch the IFL whenever I can. However, this card just does not do it for me. I am somewhat intrigued to see Brock Lesnar in MMA but his fight will most likely be a snoozer, pioneer or not I have never been a fan of Royce Gracie, and other than those fights the card is filled with a whole lot of nothing. On top of this I just shelled out money for UFC 71 and will have to do the same for UFC 72. All of these PPV's start to add up financially, especially for an unemployed recent college graduate like me -- so I will be skipping Saturday's event. I suggest you all do the same and save your money for Strikeforce/Elite XC on June 22.
Sariahmed: FICTION. Like Kobel, I'm all for supporting the little guy. But when the little guy is giving me Brock Lesnar v. Min Soo Kim as one of its main bouts, I'm not interested. Yes, I know Gracie v. Sakuraba is on the card and I respect MMA's history, but this one bout alone is not going to get me to pay the money for this fight. Not only is the card weak at best, they're trying to put on a show in the middle of a MMA firestorm. For the MMA fan who doesn't cover the sport for some media outlet, this K-1 show ranks 4th out of the 3 PPV's in June. This card doesn't have one good fight on it. I think Sakuraba will handle Gracie easily. After that the rest of the card just has big names going up against no-names. I'm saving my money and skipping over this card too.
Score: 3 for 4. But I'm sure you'll both be here clicking refresh for our live coverage, right? Maybe I should be happy you're not here to answer that.
5. The winner of GSP/Koscheck should have to face a Parisyan/Fitch winner before getting their title shot.
Kobel: FACT. This is more a ‘fact' by default than anything else. Under normal circumstances I would fully be in favor of the winner of Kos/GSP getting the next shot at the Welterweight crown. The problem is that the next title fight at 170 will not be happening until either November or December because of Serra and Hughes coaching TUF 6. This means that in the UFC's most stacked division we fans will have to wait 7-8 months between title defenses – which is so idiotic I would not even know where to begin to voice my disgust. Anyway, since we won't be seeing Serra defend his title until late 2007 they might as well have the winner of Kos/GSP fight the winner of Parisyan/Fitch to determine who deserves the next crack at the gold after Hughes. It will not be as good as seeing these men get the title shots they deserve, but it should make for some very exciting fights. By early 2008 this will all be mute as GSP will defeat anyone thrown in front of him, win back his title, and all will be right with the world again.
Sariahmed: FICTION. I don't like the layoff between title fights any more than the next fan. But fighters average about four months between fights anyway. So try and keep up with my math here. Parisyan just beat Josh Burkman and Fitch is set to fight Roan Carneiro on June 12th. So if Parisyan and Fitch do end up fighting, logic would state it would be in October or November. GSP and Koscheck are set for UFC 74 tentatively scheduled for August 25th. The Serra v. Hughes title fight is set for November or December like Kobel said. So after the title fight, the next fight for Serra or Hughes could come as early as March. That's about four months after the Parisyan v. Fitch fight and seven months after the GSP v. Koscheck fight. It's too long between fights for GSP or Koscheck but someone is going to suffer here no matter what. If you squeeze in the GSP/Koscheck v. Parisyan/Fitch fight, you're moving the next title fight back even further. Then what are you supposed to do if you're the man holding the belt. Does he get another fight? Lets forget the extra fight and get the 2nd title fight in as soon as we can.
Score: 3 for 5.
6. Chuck Liddell will one day hold the UFC Light-Heavyweight Title again.
Kobel: FICTION. If Chuck Liddell were granted an immediate rematch with Quinton Jackson I would be confident that he would come out the winner and regain his title. This does not appear to be happening though as Dan Henderson will be next in line for Rampage. This leaves Chuck with a longer route to travel before getting his next title shot. It looks like his next opponent will be Wanderlei Silva – in a fight that would have meant a lot more this time last year. If Liddell gets past The Axe Murderer – a huge ‘if' – he will probably get another shot at the 205 strap. It may be too little too late though as Liddell will be turning 38 at the year's end; not to mention the fact that there has been talk of Chuck moving to heavyweight to finish his career. It may be foolish to count out a man who after winning 7 straight over top names lost because of a flash KO – but I just think too much has to happen for The Iceman to get his belt back.
Sariahmed: FICTION. It's debatable whether or not he's getting another shot at the belt, let alone hold it. He's not getting an immediate rematch so he'll need one or two more fights before getting that shot. Take a look at who he might be fighting. The easiest choice for his first fight back is Wanderlei Silva. Sure Silva has struggled recently but this is far from an easy fight for Liddell. Then there's Mauricio "Shogun" Rua now in the mix. He might have to go through Dan Henderson too. These are all very tough fights no matter who's facing them. You also can't forget about "Rampage." Liddell might get a third fight for him either for the belt or on his way to a title shot. I'm not saying Liddell CAN'T do it, he's the Iceman, if anyone can do it he can. But these are four of the top five light heavyweights in the world that stand in his path to getting that belt back. A lot of things have to break right. Maybe too many.
Score: 4 for 6.
Join us next week when two more mental giants will answer six more questions. And don't forget to join 411mania's play-by-play coverage of Brock Lesnar's MMA debut on Saturday night.
