Planet Tapout 9.11.07: The Real Unification Bouts!
Posted by Lotfi Sariahmed on 09.11.2007
So UFC 75 is in the books and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is the best fighter in the world at light heavyweight. Right? Not really. In this week's edition of Planet Tapout, Lotfi Sariahmed looks at the fights that would determine the best fighter in each weight division. Who would Rampage really have to beat to be the best light heavyweight in the world? All that and more in this week's edition of Planet Tapout!
Welcome to the MMA column that consistently gets the job done! I am Lotfi Sariahmed and this is the often imitated, never duplicated Planet Tapout. No mailbag this week as everyone is still screaming over the Bisping decision but I'll get to that later. As always, feel free to email me any of your thoughts on anything in MMA. Send your dissertations, short or long, positive or negative to PlanetTapout@gmail.com . Now lets get things started.
The Light Heavyweight Belts have been Unified…right?
UFC 75: Champion v. Champion! Unification of the Light Heavyweight Belts! We found out who the best fighter is in the world at light heavyweight right? So now without a shadow of a doubt Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is the best light heavyweight in the world right? Well, not exactly. There are a couple of fighters that could take umbrage with "Rampage" being dubbed as the best fighter at 205 lbs. Now don't get me wrong, Saturday night's tussle between two light heavyweight stalwarts was a great battle. I went into the fight excited because Dan Henderson v. Quinton Jackson should be just the start of a myriad of PRIDE v. UFC mega-fights to come. It came under different pretenses than what we had once hoped but that's hardly a tertiary point because the fight still happened. And it was a great fight that any MMA fan could enjoy.
But it was dubbed as something it wasn't. That's what got me thinking for this week's Planet Tapout. What are the "real unification" bouts? Which fight would determine who the best fighter was in their respective division? With the purchase of PRIDE the UFC should be home to most if not all of these unification bouts. With so many MMA organizations out there a lot of good fighters don't fall under the Zuffa umbrella. However, outside of only a few fighters (named Barnett, Shaolin, possibly JZ and some guy named Fedor) there aren't many fighters that deserved to be mentioned in unification bouts that fall outside of Zuffa's banner. So, in this week's edition of Planet Tapout we'll take a look at what the unification bouts should be in the five more publicized weight classes. I'll go from heavyweight to lightweight and let Ryan Mancuso and Jordan Breen deal with the lighter weight Japanese fighters.
Heavyweight
Fedor Emelianenko v. Randy Couture
The easiest of the unification bouts to decide upon, the battle at heavyweight wouldn't just be a unification bout. It would be the biggest fight in MMA to date. Forget the fight itself for a second. This would be Russia v. USA. Fedor Emelianenko is an icon to his fellow Russian countrymen even having Vladimir Putin in attendance for his fight against Matt Lindland. You'd have to be crazy not to think Americans wouldn't come out of the woodwork supporting Randy Couture in this fight. How would the best American heavyweight do against not only the best Russian heavyweight but also the best pound for pound fighter in the world? Don't forget what makes this storyline even more compelling. Randy Couture is 44 years old. He was supposed to retire at least five times over by now. Yet he's coming off another win, this time over Gabriel Gonzaga in his first title defense since winning the belt at UFC 68.
With regard to negotiations with Fedor, the UFC looks like it's conceding to almost everything Fedor's management has asked for. But there is one big exception. One of the big holdups in this deal is this exclusivity clause basically forbidding Fedor to compete in Combat Sambo. I discussed these negotiations between Fedor and the UFC in Planet Tapout two weeks ago. So I won't belabor the point any further. Fedor's team needs to make this concession. It's absurd for them to think the UFC would allow Fedor to do whatever he wants. On a somewhat related note, this turn in negotiations seems like the UFC is getting desperate. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic has turned into a big bust since signing with the UFC so they can't throw him in against Couture. Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira looked mediocre against Heath Herring in his debut so they'd probably want to give him another fight. After those two fighters you have Brandon Vera, Tim Sylvia and Cheick Kongo who all definitely need at least one more fight. So the UFC's current heavyweight situation seems to be forcing its hand in these negotiations with Fedor.
Light Heavyweight
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson v. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
Let me reiterate, the main event in London on Saturday was great. Rampage and Henderson put on a show. But just because Rampage won doesn't mean he's the best fighter in the world at 205. He still has three losses to two fighters who could both stake a claim to best fighter at 205. But while Wanderlei Silva has the better track record overall, it's "Shogun" who is the hotter fighter and thus he gets the spot. "Shogun" will make his UFC debut against Forrest Griffin at UFC 76 and a strong showing could land him an immediate title shot against "Rampage" possibly by the end of the year or on the Super Bowl super card early next year.
The bout itself is very intriguing because the Chute Boxe camp seems to have the manual on how to beat "Rampage." In all three of Jackson's fights against Silva and Rua, he lost by (T)KO. Logic would state that a 2nd bout against "Shogun" Rua would be very similar to the first as Jackson would have almost no answer for Rua's onslaught. But in steps Jackson's trainer Juanito Ibarra and all of a sudden things change a bit. Ibarra has helped give the fans a different "Rampage." While Jackson's mindset was once a question going into a fight, Ibarra has seemingly changed that. What would he bring to the table for Jackson's second fight with "Shogun?" Maybe nothing. But maybe it's enough to definitively call Jackson the best fighter in the world at 205.
Middleweight
Anderson Silva v. Paulo Filho/Dan Henderson/Matt Lindland/Denis Kang
Determining the top middleweight in the world would be messy at best. Dan Henderson holds the PRIDE Middleweight belt (yes, I know they call it welterweight but I'm going to say Middleweight to prevent confusion). But he lost to Kazuo Misaki in their Middleweight/Welterweight tournament. Then Kazuo Misaki lost to Paulo Filho but Misaki ended up winning the whole tournament because Filho had to pull out because of injury and Misaki beat an injured Denis Kang. All the while Henderson still has the PRIDE belt and while he may not necessarily be the most deserving, he might be the most likely candidate to face Anderson Silva.
Silva gets one spot in the bout because he's ripped through his competition in the UFC and outside of a DQ loss to Yushin Okami where he dominated the fight; he hasn't lost since the end of 2004. Silva destroyed Rich Franklin in their bout at UFC 64 and if he beats Franklin in the rematch at UFC 77, there's no one left in the division for him outside of Henderson moving down in weight.
As for his four potential opponents in a unification bout, they all have their own flaws and choosing one over the other would do an injustice to the other fighters. Dan Henderson isn't the PRIDE champ. Period. He has the belt but the non-title bouts PRIDE had ends up giving us situations like this. Like I said, Henderson will most likely be the guy in this unification bout and he's certainly talented. But it will hardly determine the best middleweight in the world.
Then there's Paulo Filho who's the WEC Middleweight champ. But he's not going to fight Anderson Silva barring an absurd payday because they train for the same team. Then there's a question of Filho's resume. He's been dominant in his fights but barring injury or otherwise, he really hasn't faced a very strong opponent. The WEC needs to bring in a couple of big names to challenge Filho otherwise Filho's resume won't get more impressive any time soon. You could make the same argument for Kang. He's a very talented middleweight but where's that BIG fight? That's why I'm hesitant to put him in the fight to determine the two best middleweights in the world. That brings us to Matt Lindland who seems to be fighting wherever there's a good enough payday. And that's fine. But I wouldn't put him in that fight before his teammate Dan Henderson.
Welterweight
Shinya Aoki v. Georges St. Pierre/Matt Hughes/Matt Serra
Both lightweight and welterweight are very hard to figure out because of the 167 and 160 lb. weight classes in Shooto and PRIDE. The big bout at welterweight is slightly easier to figure out because a lot of the top contenders have weeded themselves out in the UFC. So after Georges St. Pierre faces the winner of the Matt Hughes v. Matt Serra fight in December, we'll have our top welterweight from the Zuffa side of things. While the WEC's Carlos Condit has done well as titleholder, he's not ready for that step up in competition yet.
So the man that emerges with the UFC welterweight belt between GSP, Hughes and Serra will face Shinya Aoki. The "Tobikan Judan" is the champion at 167 pounds in Shooto so we'll put him at 170 as opposed to 155. His gogoplata submission over Joachim Hansen at the end of 2006 put him on the map with the majority of MMA fans. His two wins over Akira Kikuchi place him on the same level of a Jake Shields who's just outside of cracking those top seven UFC welterweights (Serra, Hughes, GSP, Koscheck, Sanchez, Fitch and Parisyan). I give Aoki the slight nod over Shields because I think his resume is just a little bit more impressive.
Lightweight
BJ Penn v. Takanori Gomi/Gilbert Melendez
The argument that's always made about BJ Penn is his potential against what he's actually done. So this will probably be the most tenuous argument I make of the five bouts. But with Sherk's future in limbo because of the steroids he did or did not take and no other top lightweight in the UFC, I'm giving Penn the nod over Stevenson among others. As for Gomi, there's no doubt he's right up there among the top lightweights in PRIDE. But before anyone can put him up there in a unification bout, he needs to fight Gilbert Melendez. "El Nino" is a fighter who solidified himself as the #2 lightweight with his win over Tatsuya Kawajiri. The undefeated lightweight could give Gomi fits and if he beats "The Fireball Kid" he'd more than deserve a spot in a unification bout against BJ Penn.
This Week in Fight Picks!
EliteXC: Uprising
Tyson Nam over Albert Manners
Justin Buchholz over Kolo Koka
Mark Kurano over Jose Diaz
Mark Oshiro over Nui Wheeler
Kala Kolohe Hose over Jeff Cox
Brandon Wolff over Chad Kilngensmith
Gina Carano over Tonya Evinger
Jake Shields over Renato "Charuto" Verissimo
Joey Villasenor over Riki Fukuda
Nick Diaz over Mike Aina
EliteXC Middleweight Championship
Robbie Lawler over Murilo "Ninja" Rua
Unfortunately this part of the column means I've come to the end for this week's Planet Tapout! As always send me your love and loathing to PlanetTapout@gmail.com .
Make sure you come back next Tuesday for another edition of the Planet! This week in MMA gives us EliteXC's Uprising with Robbie Lawler taking on Murilo "Ninja" Rua and fights featuring Jake Shields, Nick Diaz and Gina Carano. Enjoy the fights everybody.
Credit Shoutfan.com, Completemartialarts.com, Yahoo.com, Sherdog.com, UFCDaily.com and Fight.hu for pictures
