My Take On MMA 4.27.08: Random Musings on UFC 83, UFC 84 and Kimbo Slice

Posted by Larry Csonka on 04.27.2008

With their being a break in the shows, I decide to share some thoughts on the current happenings in the world of MMA…



With there being a break in the amount of shows that we have had, I thought I would find some time and drop in a little unannounced edition of My Take On MMA. There are a few things I felt I wanted to talk about, and since the people in the wrestling zone tend to piss themselves with anger when MMA is discussed I decided that this was best. I hope you all enjoy!

Away and disconnected: I got to take off the other weekend, got out of Warsaw and drove off to South Carolina for a Church related conference. It was the weekend of UFC 83, so I got to have someone else hit up the live coverage and when I was done with my "churchly" duties I sought out a sports bar and they were airing the show; this was good news for me. This is the first time in forever I was able to go to a place like this and take in an MMA event. I was looking forward to not working, as well as seeing the reactions of these odd South Carolinians.

Mark Bocek vs. Mac Danzig was a fun fight. Bocek looked great in the first round and the place was live for him. But then as Danzig began to dominate the bout, the place became silent, as they had lost their favorite. It was very cool to witness a room deflate in that manner.

We moved onto Charles McCarthy vs. Michael Bisping, and people seemed to like the shit talking of McCarthy and were cheering him on. They were soon to be disappointed as Bisping broke his arm and we were done after one round. I heard people yell shit like, "Go back to France!" Yes, because the British and French accents are SO similar. But I was in a bar, so there you go. The drop in weight looks good for Bisping thus far.

Witnessing Kalib Starnes vs. Nate Quarry in a bar was an amazing thing to behold. I got to hear such quotes as "Dude's chasing him like he is owed money" "Brother looks like he's running away from a prison rape" "He runnin like his daddy's gonna whoop him" "Is he training for the US cross country team" and others. Watching three rounds of Starnes running away was epic in how bad it was. I had a guy ask, "Is it possible to score a fight 30-0? Because that's what that shit should have been." True enough my friend; true enough. And I don't care what Starnes excuse was, in my opinion he's an unprofessional douche bag and now he is an unemployed douche bag.

Rich Franklin vs. Travis Lutter is about what I expected, Lutter gassing out and Franklin dominating. The funny thing is that Lutter did well in round one, and then came out for two and had nothing. The guy beside me asked, "Um…what happened to that dude, he was doing so well?" When I told him he was out of gas, he was amazed that the guy got tired so quick. Apparently not everyone gets the concept of cardio. Most were indifferent to this fight in the end.

Finally we got to Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre, and as you can imagine or maybe not, I would say everyone was behind Serra, minus a few hardcore MMA fans I met at the bar when getting a refill. There were a lot of "Go home Frenchy" remarks, and a "USA" chant even broke out. Now I will admit that I wanted to see Serra do it again. The guy won TUF and then took full advantage of his title shot and won, and then he got shit on. While I wanted to see Serra do it again, I knew that it was about as close to a certainty as it can be that GSP would win. Well, no only did he win but he dominated Serra and climbed back on top of the mountain. The people hated this, but the better fighter won and did so impressively. I haven't been to a sporting event at a sports bar in forever. It was fun to see the reactions of the people around me, but in all honesty I would rather keep watching at home. I can hear everything there and the food and drinks are much cheaper. But it was cool nonetheless.

Selfishness: While I always understand the need to make fights to sell tickets and make money, deep down inside I also want fights that cater to my wants. UFC 84 has some things that peak my interest, and as long as the card doesn't get changed around as UFC 85 has been, then I think I will come away a happy camper when this event is finished.

Lyoto Machida vs. Tito Ortiz is a fight that gains my interest right away. Tito Ortiz looks to be on his way out of the UFC, which has the sides split. There is a group that says he is way past his usefulness in the world of the UFC and that he needs to go. Others think that Tito can still be an elite fighter and that UFC should do everything in their power to keep him. Part of me agrees with both camps in a way. I feel that Tito's days as a main guy may be ending, but I also recognize his ability to help build a fight through his charisma and theatrics. The other thing is this, do you let the guy go at a time when EliteXC just got the CBS deal? They have been losing money but are not afraid to throw it around. What about Strikeforce? They could work to sign him in hopes of running a big match with Frank Shamrock, who holds a win over Tito. It may be more expensive to the UFC to let Tito go at this time.

But let's move on and discuss the fight at the PPV. Tito right now is in a slump, whether people want to believe it or not. He had a controversial split decision win over an inexperienced Forrest Griffin, two destructions of Ken Shamrock, the loss to Liddell and then the draw to Evans. Sure the Shamrock wins were impressive, but aside from that Tito has not looked like the Tito of old. I won't say that he is done, but is he in under-conditioned he could be in trouble. A big part of me feels that Tito will treat this fight like a man in the last year of a contract, an audition. Unfortunately there is no Ken Shamrock on the other side of the cage. There is a man named Machida that is 12-0 in MMA, and he wants Tito to be 13. Some say that Machida is boring, mainly due to three straight decision victories in the UFC. But number 4 was a good submission victory, showing that he had a bit more than some thought. The fight is likely bigger for Machida for a few reasons. If he wins not only does he defeat Tito Ortiz, a legend in the world of the UFC, but one would have to think that the win, added into the fact that he would be 13-0 would make him the de-facto #1 contender for the winner of Forrest vs. Rampage. I personally have a ton of interest in this fight and cannot wait for it.


The next fight that definitely has my interest is Keith Jardine vs. Wanderlei Silva. After his win against Forrest Griffin, Jardine looked like he was about to begin his rise in the Light Heavyweight Division. Unfortunately for him he met Houston Alexander, who played spoiler for the evening, and many began to wonder about Jardine's future and if the win over Forrest was a fluke. That seemed to be put to rest in September as Jardine won a decision victory over Chuck Liddell. But what would be next for Jardine? The answer to that would be the man who Liddell just recently defeated, Wanderlei Silva. This is where things get VERY interesting. If Jardine gets the big win here, one would have to think that he is close to a title shot. And who could argue if he in fact does get back to back wins over Liddell and Silva. But the more interesting thing to me is not so much Jardine's possible victory, but more Silva's possible loss. If Wanderlei Silva were to lose this fight it would mark his fourth loss in a row, and one would have to question his usefulness to the UFC. Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those guys that throw a guy under a bus for a loss, and the three losses Silva has (Liddell, Cro Cop and Henderson) were all to great opponents. But if he hits four, I think we can safely say that he is entering the downward side of his career.


Finally there is the Lightweight Title bout, which will feature BJ Penn vs. Sean Sherk. This one will be pretty short. I dislike Sean Sherk. I think he cheated, that he got off easy from the CSAC and in no way should he have gotten an immediate title fight. I hope BJ Penn rips one of his arms off and beats him with it.

KIMBO~!: I will fully admit to being a big Kimbo Slice fan. I am really intrigued by a man that was a thug; a street fighter turned legit MMA star. He helped draw one of if not the biggest live Elite XC gate and his fight with Tank Abbot was the highest rated MMA event on Showtime, over Shamrock vs. Le and Shamrock vs. Gracie. A reason I supported him main eventing the CBS special. I dig that he is training with BAS and is trying to become a legit fighter. I thought it was cool that he killed Tank Abbot, sure it didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it was fun. He has a lot of people against him, but was behaving himself and doing well. Until he decided to cut a promo on Chuck Liddell via YOUTUBE and saying things like…

"We can always take it back to old-school; that'll work for me, but I still got love for all the MMA fighters, but if you keep on rapping man, I'm going to have to zip it close, baby, because I'm getting tired of the talk.

The next one that has something to say, just see me [directly]. I'll come to your camp, and that's real talk."

…yeah, dude, you're killing me here. The fact is that Chuck Liddell made some very legitimate comments, discussing that Kimbo was not a complete fighter, lacked a ground game and things of that nature. Unfortunately Kimbo's response was to go back to the streets and threaten to show up at the man's gym for a fight. That's the kind of thing that will keep the negative opinions about him alive. Leave it in the street dude, get back in your gym and see if you can prove these "experts" wrong.


That's all for me kids, take care and I'll be around.

-End Scene…