Planet Tapout 3.25.08: A WEC Crash Course!
Posted by Lotfi Sariahmed on 03.25.2008
A BIG week in MMA gives us the opportunity to delve into a bunch of cards this weekend! In the latest edition of Planet Tapout, Lotfi Sariahmed takes that opportunity to introduce you to the WEC. All that and Miscellaneous Musings and This Week in Fight Picks in the latest edition!
Welcome to the MMA column that still has its Final Four teams after the first weekend (for whatever that's worth)! It's Planet Tapout here at 411Mania.com and this is the man who picked Villanova to make it to the Sweet 16, Lotfi Sariahmed. Everyone enjoys emails and comments as even last week's Column O'Emails lent itself to more responses.
Mailbag!
Like I've said in weeks past, I make mistakes and I want you to call me out on them. Daniel's back this week to do just that.
I think you misunderstood the ragging about Sylvia. Everyone who ripped him for fighting to not lose is RIGHT. I wasn't defending Sylvia in any way. Not ever. NEVER! I think Sylvia is just as bad as Fedor for not fighting to win (although they dispatched numerous cans with highlight finishes). And I'm not saying Fedor's not a top guy, just that I have no real way to set him apart from the rest of the top guys (whom he hasn't fought). He beat Nog in 2004. Take a look at Couture now and Couture from 2004 and tell me, which one is the better fighter. Has Nog improved as much? (I don't honestly know.) Fedor couldn't finish an eminently beatable CroCop. Everyone's saying Mirko's a different guy now, but give no credit to his opponents for making him look bad (except for Sanchez, he knew his role). All I know about Fedor is he's not fighting the best, and usually that makes people fall behind in terms of ability (this isn't even about rankings). If you fight the best, you're pushed to get better. If you fight a guy who can't get sanctioned in the US for health reasons (Hong Man Choi), I'm guessing you're not pushed to improve. So while the rest of the heavyweights improve, I don't think anyone can really know if Fedor's improved with them or fallen behind. And how many times have we heard that if you haven't lost, you haven't fought good enough guys? Besides, even CroCop's looking good now that he's fighting cans.
P.S. Beating Randleman, a guy who has 2 wins in his last 9 fights is impressive how?
Then DrBDan picked up on my misinterpretation as well:
In regards to Daniel's comments about Fedor and Tim Sylvia not stopping fights, I think his point was that a lot of people rag on Sylvia for not finishing but then ignore the fact that some of Fedor's biggest wins (against CroCop and Big Nog) were also decisions.
My apologies to Daniel and DrBDan for the misunderstanding last week. I'm with you. If you rip on Sylvia you should rip on Fedor as well. I'm all for it.
And Daniel as for what's so impressive about Fedor beating Randleman…he was suplexed on his head. To me Randleman could be 1-50 and if you beat a guy that just suplexed you that would be impressive.
Romano made a lot of appearances last week and he's back again to defend himself:
I think that I deserve a byline...and comparing boxing to MMA is fair, while none of us are looking for MMA to put on similar fight cards I would like to think that a business model that doesn't build a wall between the greatest fighters in the world would be nice...I really can't see where anyone could possibly be a fan of the sport and for exclusive contracts. Maybe I was rough on Hendo, but the cat is 39 and looked like he gassed against rampage and had a horrible game plan against Silva, so until he goes back to his dominant ways I'm going to be under the impression that perhaps his best days might be behind him.... as far as Fedor, the "what have you done for me lately" argument may be fair, I just don't subscribe to it in this situation, and it has nothing to do with favorites...I'm kind of xenophobic, I'll root for an American any day, but I have to respect the guy for cleaning out Pride's heavyweight division before the company went belly up...and I'm sure a fight between Barnett and Fedor would have happened had Barnett found a way to get by Mirko...There is a long history in Japan of sideshow novelty fights, anyone remember Big Nog vs. Bob Sapp? I do, Big Bob pulled off some of the scariest looking offense I've ever seen, but in the end Big Nog's heart and technical ability came through...Did taking a fight with Bob Sapp hurt Big Nog's credentials in my eyes? No. Look, Fedor's company went out of business, he signed with M-1, the best fight out there was against a giant...He wanted to fight Randy, but Dana wasn't having it...if he goes another year without fighting someone then I will say "what has he done for me lately" 'till then he's the top heavyweight on the planet...and the whole finishing fights thing doesn't make a lot of sense to me, a win is a win is a win...but whatever.
Appreciate the email as always Romano. We could go back and forth on this Fedor issue forever and both sides have solid arguments. I don't think your point with Big Nog works though. He's never spent more than six months between legitimate heavyweight battles. Fedor's battle against Mark Hunt was more than a year ago and his fight against Cro Cop was almost three years ago.
And we end this week's mailbag with Woody who just wants everyone to get along:
Great article (even though my comment got there, too :)
I don't understand the hate some people have for a guy who admits to being an UFC fan. Like it or not, Mr. White's company is the best around at making their fights universally available. UFC is a huge reason why MMA is what it is today; give them a break. The company may have a public relations disaster as a front man, but that's all I can fault them for.
Every MMA fan has a soft spot for some org. There are UFC fans, PRIDE fans, HDnet fans, Cage Rage fans, whatnot and mostly because what you saw first. Until there is a system in place where the best can fight the best, we have to live with the promotions such as they are today. Let's cut each other some slack, yeah?
As well we should Woody, as well we should.
Be one with the mailbag! Leave me your comments or send me your emails. Anything MMA related, NCAA tournament related, really whatever. I'm a fan. The email address is PlanetTapout@gmail.com. Now come hither to Planet Tapout!
World Extreme Cagefighting. You may have heard of it. May not. It's putting on an event this Wednesday (tomorrow depending on when you're reading this). But you may not know much about the now Zuffa owned company and just go on by without catching tomorrow night's event. What is the WEC anyway? It's on the Versus network I can't blame you. Versus used to be the Outdoor Life Network and if you actually go through the program guide for Versus you'd be shocked at how many outdoor programs there are. But folks that is why I am here because Planet Tapout takes care of you. I'll give you the (I promise) brief history of the WEC and get into WEC post-Zuffa and tell you what you should be paying attention to. From fighters to specific fights and what you should watch this Wednesday night. So I guess that means we should start with history huh?
Doug Marshall v. Lodune Sincaid
The WEC was founded by Scott Adams and Reed Harris in 2001. Back then all the events were in Lemoore California with a pentagon for a cage. Once Zuffa came in and bought out the organization, Zuffa changed up the cage into a more "Octagon" friendly version. They (Zuffa) kept Adams on as the Joe Silva of the WEC (that's matchmaker people) and both Harris and Adams are co-general managers of the WEC. A couple of the big name fighters who made the trek over to the new WEC with Harris and Adams are Doug Marshall and Urijah Faber. Marshall is the light heavyweight champ in the WEC who won the belt from Sincaid in that clip you saw (or should have seen) above. Urijah Faber serves as the WEC's version of Randy Couture (before the legal issues). He's very well spoken, a good ambassador to the sport and (probably most importantly) is the featherweight champion. What's a featherweight? Well it's that division, along with bantamweight division, that makes the WEC stand out among its competitors.
Leonard Garcia v. Hiroyuki Takaya
Don't get me wrong; there are some quality fighters in the WEC at 155 and up. But we'll get to them in a bit. We'll start at featherweight and the champ Urijah Faber. As I mentioned, he's the champ and at 20-1 he's been impressive throughout his MMA career. He's been a fighter that people knew was impressive but didn't know just how good he was. Then came his fight against Jeff Curran back in December. Curran was a top 10 featherweight at the time and expected to give Faber all he could handle. Then came the fight…Faber submitted Curran in the 2nd and went from question mark to dominant featherweight. Going into a potential money bout with Jens Pulver later this year, it's Pulver who has something to prove going up against the class of the division. The aforementioned Curran, Pulver, Hiroyuki Takaya (despite his loss you saw to Garcia) and Cub Swanson are all featherweights who could make some noise in the division and are worth watching.
Jeff Bedard v. Miguel Torres
As for the bantamweights, the mulleted one, Miguel Torres, is a beast. And really that's not doing him justice. He just won the title from former champ Chase Beebe and I have that fight directly below. So go check that out...I'll wait.
Miguel Torres v. Chase Beebe
Torres is the right combination of striker and absurdly sick jiu-jitsu artist. His game is on the ground but, as you saw in the Beebe fight (at least early on), he's not afraid to strike either. Torres really symbolizes not just what the bantamweight division is but also the WEC as a whole with exciting fighters that are always pushing the pace. And the depth in the division does not stop at just the champ. Chase Beebe is still a quality bantamweight. You should watch fights from Antonio Banuelos, Brian Bowles, Marcos Galvao, Yoshiro Maeda, Manny Tapia and Charlie Valencia. Eight high quality bantamweights in the WEC. Lets forget about the other weight classes for a second, the bantamweights alone are enough to get me to watch.
But lets get into the other weight classes before we rap up here. Lightweight champ Jamie Varner just won his belt beating Rob McCullough and like I've said before in this column, jump on this man's bandwagon. Marcus Hicks and Ed Ratcliff are fighting each other this Wednesday night in what should be a #1 contender's bout for Varner's lightweight belt.
The welterweight division in the WEC is simple. There's the champ Carlos Condit and then there's everyone else. Condit is arguably the best welterweight in the world not in the UFC.
The middleweight division in the WEC is very similar to that in the UFC. There's one dominant champ in Paulo Filho but he's been less than spectacular since his arrival from PRIDE. The rest of the division doesn't offer much right now but at least you could chalk it up to the organization still developing.
Finally there are the light heavyweights and its champ Doug Marshall. He's crazy, but he's a LOT of fun to watch. You should pay attention to the event on Wednesday if for no other reason than Marshall is defending his belt. He'll throw hands like his life depends on it and in his opponent, Brian Stann, the fans will have one great bout on their hands.
So go off and watch the WEC and thank me in the morning…
Miscellaneous Musings!
●I've never seen someone get a bigger boost from a loss or not doing anything than Chael Sonnen. He's still tapping from his first fight with Filho but now he's getting this rematch (rumored to be in June) and he's receiving 2nd billing in this bout against Bryan Baker. All the while John Alessio v. Brock Larson might not be broadcast.
●I can't pull the trigger and pick Brian Stann in his bout for the belt against Doug Marshall. Don't get me wrong. I really want to. But Stann is too green and I just think the big stage will get the better of him.
●Looking toward the STRIKEFORCE event this Saturday, so many questions come up. First, can we get Nick Diaz a bigger name opponent? Then again it doesn't help he's looked less than impressive.
●Jake Shields will officially become the Carlos Condit of EliteXC when he beats Drew Fickett for the title.
●As for the main event, I just don't know how I could pick Cung Le. Mike Altman, Brian Warren, Jason Von Flue, Tony Fryklund and Sam Morgan are not Frank Shamrock. He (Frank Shamrock) is just too talented for Cung Le at this point in Cung's career.
This Week in Fight Picks!
WEC 33!
Logan Clark over Scott Harper
Hiromitsu Miura over Blas Avena
Steve Cantwell over Tim McKenzie
Alex Serdyukov over Ryan Stonich
Chris Manuel over Kenji Osawa
Sergio Gomez over Rich Crunkilton
Marcus Hicks over Ed Ratcliff
John Alessio over Brock Larson
Chael Sonnen over Bryan Baker
WEC Light Heavyweight Title Bout:
Doug Marshall over Brian Stann
STRIKEFORCE: Shamrock v. Le!
Tiki Ghosn over Luke Stewart
Nick Diaz over Jae Suk Lim
Joey Villasenor over the last second replacement they find for him
STRIKEFORCE Lightweight Title Bout
Gilbert Melendez over Gabe Lemley
EliteXC Welterweight Title Bout
Jake Shields over Drew Fickett
STRIKEFORCE Middleweight Title Bout
Frank Shamrock over Cung Le
That's it for this week on Planet Tapout! Don't forget about the mailbag and comments. Send me your thoughts, loving, hateful and otherwise. The email address is PlanetTapout@gmail.com .
We like Meehan. He made the banner. So in return go read his column. He's helping countdown to Wrestlemania.
Make sure you come back next Tuesday for another edition of Planet Tapout! This week in MMA gives us WEC 33 on Wednesday along with a Pancrase card the same day. King of the Cage has a card the next day and Shooto has one on the 28th. There's an HCF card on the 29th featuring David Loiseau, Rob MacDonald, Hector Ramirez, Gideon Ray, Brent Beauparlant and Rodrigo Ruas among others. Of course don't forget the big STRIKEFORCE card on the 29th featuring Frank Shamrock v. Cung Le, Gilbert Melendez, Nick Diaz and Jake Shields taking on Drew Fickett. Enjoy the fights everyone.
