The Tuesday Takedown 10.23.07
Posted by Adam Morgan on 10.23.2007
In this week's edition of The Tuesday Takedown, we'll break down the happenings at UFC 77, where Rich Franklin goes from here, who's left for Anderson Silva to fight, what Brock Lesnar's signing means to the UFC, and much more. As always, we'll also take a look at the latest news from the world of mixed martial arts!
UFC Quips and Quotes
UFC 77 Thoughts
Anderson Silva is a monster. There is a clear divide in talent between the world's #1 middleweight fighter and the rest of the pack. Rich Franklin, seen by many as the one guy who could give Silva trouble in the UFC's middleweight division, was once again dominated by Silva in the rematch. Silva peppered Rich with incredibly accurate strikes, working all portions of his body: the head, the midsection, and the legs. Outside of the first minutes of the first round, it was a carbon copy of their last fight. Silva is the most dominant champion in the UFC right now and possibly, pound for pound, the best fighter in the world.
Where does he go from here? Yushin Okami beat Jason McDonald earlier in the night for some sort of clarification in the middleweight picture. After the event, we learned Okami is no longer under contract with the UFC and that this was the last fight on his contract. I doubt the UFC will bring him back, so who does Silva fight now? Dana White mentioned Thales Leites, Ricardo Almeida, and David Terrell as possible opponents. Are you joking? Do you want to see these fights? I'd like to see Almeida fight Silva once he's had a couple return fights in the UFC, but not right now. And Thales Leites and David Terrell? Silva would eat these guys alive. To Dan Henderson: Please drop back down to 185.
Rich Franklin fought well. Until the flurry that ended the round and had Franklin seeing stars against the cage, I had him winning the first round. You could tell that he trained his ass off, he was defending the clinch pretty well, landing solid shots and even got a takedown in the middle of the round. Silva punches with such power and such accuracy, however, that it seemed only a matter of time until the inevitable. Franklin put up a good fight and he will be back in the UFC after a nice bit of time off.
Anderson Silva can be beaten. All of the above being said, the guy has weaknesses, particularly when it comes to his wrestling game. He was taken down easily by Franklin in the first round and was taken down almost at will against Travis Lutter. He has yet to face an Olympic caliber wrestler like Dan Henderson or Matt Lindlad, who both have dominant top control and tremendous takedown ability. If Henderson moved down to 185, we'd have a hell of a fight on our hands.
I'll believe the Brock Lesnar hype when I see it. Until then, we don't know anything about this guy. Sure, he has an extensive amateur wrestling background. Sure, he's a physical specimen. However, he's only fought in MMA once and that was against a complete tomato can at K-1 Dynamite!! USA, the year's worst pay per view show I might add. Until I see Brock Lesnar in a real deal fight, dealing with the big time stage of the UFC, I'll let the hype fly right by me. The real question is: How long will he stay in the UFC? He's notorious for doing something for a short period of time and then moving on to something else (i.e. pro wrestling). Either way, the UFC will feed him a couple of cans and then a mid-level guy. Let's see how he fares in those fights and make our conclusions from there.
Brandon Vera got beat. Period. There's no excuses at all. Tim Sylvia looked to have the better striking along with the obvious size and weight advantage. While I would have liked to see Sylvia let his hands go a little more instead of man hugging on the cage, he got the better of the exchanges when they did trade punches. That, along with Brandon's inability to follow his corner's instructions, put him on the losing end of things for the first time in his career. Vera will bounce back, he is a good young prospect and he fought the most under appreciated fighter in the entire UFC in Tim Sylvia.
Tim Sylvia is boring as fuck. I'm almost positive I would rather do anything else than watch this guy fight. He's got good skills and a highlight reel of KO victories to his name, but he's just not that same fighter anymore. He's cautious, he fights not to lose and doesn't fight to win. I truly believe he could have KO'd Vera or at least done a ton more damage if he had let his hands fly. When he did let them go, he was eating Vera up. That being said, Tim Sylvia is going to be your three time heavyweight champion should Randy not rescind his resignation. You can take that to the bank.
Is Stephan Bonnar back? Bonnar is another underrated fighter who dominated Eric Schafer on Saturday. Schafer is no slouch and Bonnar schooled him. Could Bonnar be on track to make a run at contendership in the light heavyweight division? I think he can. Wouldn't you want to see Griffin/Bonnar 3? I know I would.
Kalib Starnes' cut was gross. That's an understatement. It looked like a coin slot on a vending machine. The doctor claimed he could see Starnes' skull. That's pretty nasty. Belcher's knees and elbows did the trick for sure. I know Starnes wanted to continue to fight, but it's probably a good thing the fight got stopped before it got any worse.
Jorge Gurgel shit the bed. What was he doing? For someone with great BJJ, he tried the same sloppy armbar attempt for two rounds after dominating the first. He did nothing to control Alvin Robinson's posture and took a massive amount of punishment because of his loyalty to trying the armbar. I like Jorge and I think he's a good trainer, but he may just not be suited to MMA. He's admitted that he gets nervous and loses focus before fights and I think Saturday was a clear case of this. With his skill set, he should have been able to sweep Robinson into a dominant position and work submissions or ground and pound from the top. Obviously he didn't do that and his face looked like roast beef afterward.
Matt Grice almost got screwed. Grice beat the daylights out of Jason Black for both rounds one and three and was the winner in most of the crowd's eyes. When they announced the fight as a draw, Grice was pissed, Black was confused, and Cincinnati was not happy and they let the judges know it. Halfway through the post fight interview, the OSAC Commissioner jumps into the cage and lets Rogan know that they counted the cards wrong and that Grice won the fight. How the hell does this happen? I understand there's mathematical error possibly involved in this process, but don't you think you'd double and triple check your addition considering there are fight purses on the line? Thankfully they got it corrected, but these types of judging and scoring errors should never happen.
Enough about UFC 77, let's get to the news happenings this week...
Wanderlei Silva v. Chuck Liddell not signed yet
Even though DirecTV leaked a graphic for UFC 79 that showed this fight as a possible matchup, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that the fight has not been signed yet. On again, off again, on again with this damn fight. I wish they would make up their minds and either get the deal done or call it off completely. Please stop stringing us along. I am confident they will make it happen, I'm just tired of the BS.
Randy Couture is holding a press conference Thursday
Randy's press conference should be pretty interesting, especially considering what's been claimed in the past week or two about what Couture makes on a per fight basis. Do you believe Couture was making $3.25-$3.75 million a fight? I believe it's possible, but I won't actually believe it until I have some proof. If that kind of money was on the table, why would Couture walk away? Sure, the loss of Fedor has something to do with it, but there's a bigger issue here. Hopefully this press conference sheds some light.
Tito Ortiz to be on celebrity version of "Apprentice"
Personally I can't stand Tito Ortiz and this is the perfect thing for him. He's a drama queen, so he fits right in with the reality television crowd. Maybe Tito will win and start his own MMA league as a result. Look out Kelly Perdew, here comes Tito Ortiz. Hopefully we never have to see Jenna Jameson during this whole thing. Actually, what am I talking about? I'm not going to watch this garbage.
Let's take a brief look at other happenings in the world of mixed martial arts...
Monte Cox announced as the president and CEO of M-1 Global
Smart move by M-1 if you ask me. Monte's been to war with Dana White and lived. He also basically just told the IFL to kiss his ass about two weeks ago. Now he's got a big promotion, big time financial backing, and the world's best fighter in the world in Fedor Emelianenko. The only problem is having an agent who is also a CEO of the company. There is a terrible conflict of interest there, so I don't know if Monte will manage fighters and be CEO at the same time. I'm assuming he will, as he's done with promotions like XFO and fighters like Houston Alexander, putting them in his own shows while managing them as well. I just think if you're in the big leagues of MMA, there should be no conflicts of interest between running the organization and managing your fighters.
Jason "Mayhem" Miller has been released from his contract with WEC/Zuffa
What the hell is the WEC/UFC/Zuffa doing? I don't think they want anything to do with Miller because they can't control his popularity. He's already wildly popular among hardcore MMA fans and he's fought one time in the big show of the UFC. His personality and antics are far reaching. Gary Shaw of EliteXC has shown interest in Miller and HDNet Fights has been rumored to be close to signing Miller as well. Wherever Miller ends up, the promotion who brings him in is the real winner. He's an absolute gamer in the ring, has personality for days, and trains with world class training partners at Team Quest.
Paul Buentello will fight Allistair Overeem for the Strikeforce heavyweight title
As was reported first here on the 411 Mania MMA Zone, these two heavyweights will clash at the next Strikeforce event which will also feature a one night middleweight tournament. I expect this to be a pretty good fight. Both guys are strikers and I expect the fight to take place mainly on the feet. Overeem is a big signing for Strikeforce and this is a solid matchup to crown their heavyweight champion. The card will be broadcast live on Yahoo! Sports again, so that's always a plus. Free MMA? I'm in.
The IFL has worked out a deal with Stats, LLC to provide stats for their fights
The UFC has brought in CompuBox to start recording striking stats and now the IFL has one-upped them. This stat tracking system will track, strikes, kicks, takedowns, takedown attempts, submission attempts, etc. I like the idea, I think it will help us establish more standardized scoring criteria for MMA fights. I truly believe that one day, MMA will no longer be judged by the ten point must system. This thing is a step in the right direction to provide us with more data.
And, as always, I leave you with...
Off The Beaten Path
Some of you may have heard, some of you may have not, but Don Frye apparently got into a fight over the weekend with Leland Chapman's (Dog The Bounty Hunter's son) bodyguard. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer gives us this glorious account:
The fight with Don Frye and "Sonny," who was Leland Chapman's bodyguard, started when promoter Chris Salsbury told Scott Steiner that MMA promoter Phil Flathres would be in charge of paying the wrestlers. The wrestlers came to Flathers for their money. Somehow the MMA people and wrestling people were played against each other and tension developed. "Sonny" started making remarks about pro wrestling, which saw an MMA fighter/pro wrestler, Frye, telling him to shut up. Frye had been drinking and was loaded. It wound up with them going outside. "Sonny" allegedly sucker punched Frye, bloodying him up. Frye then allegedly single legged Sonny and was punching him hard from the mount when it was pulled apart. The second confrontation in the parking lot saw Sonny knock down Frye and Sonny and Leland Chapman ran off as Scott Norton came and Frye got up. It should be noted that we've gotten many different versions and all are slightly different but this seems to be the best detailed version.
This is just too funny to me. He's hammered, he's doing single leg takedowns, he's mounting a guy, and ground and pounding him. Why would this guy even make a remark like that to Don Frye? Did he not know Frye's prior history as a fighter? Come on, now. Even Dog the Bounty Hunter himself would have known better.
