Delayed Reactions 08.16.08: UFC 87

Posted by Luken Weaver on 08.16.2008

It was a night when several fighters made their mark, either as dominant champion or new contender. But after UFC 87, there is one fight in particular that fans should be clamoring for.

I don't how to explain it, or why it is, but some events have their own pattern. Their own theme. UFC 84's theme was newcomers taking down veterans, while at 76 the sports gods spitefully denied any knockouts to an event excitedly named for the good possibility of some concussions (Which goes to warn of a larger point that you should never try to name things after your hopes for them. The universe has some bizarre karmic reaction to it. There aren't any physicians with the legal name "Doc", for example. If you name your kid Doc, you are basically giving him an 80% chance of winding up in his mid-40's, wearing a visor and trying to hustle guys at cards in a seedy casino. You can still go ahead and name him that if you really want to, I just want you to know what's at stake. Just don't name your daughter Chastity. Please trust me on this.)

Anyway, UFC 87 had a pattern of its own. If you were looking for competitive, back-and-forth bouts which left you biting your nails when the judges announced the scores, you probably wound up disappointed. Instead, we got several showcases of great talents that got dragged into the later rounds by some truly impressive displays of toughness from their overmatched foes. And I, for one, thought that that made for a very good night of fights. I love a good knockout or quick submission as much as the next guy, but you can only learn so much about a fighter in 12 seconds (all it took for Rob Emerson to run through Manvel Gamburyan). Three rounds, on the other hand, gives you a chance to get to know a fighter a bit, and a few really stood out as competitors to watch out for.

Jason MacDonald vs. Demian Maia

The first was grappling wunderkind Demian Maia, who in the first televised fight of the night dispatched Jason MacDonald. The first round was actually a very exciting ground war, and probably the most competitive of any of the fights shown. Maia pulled guard and threw up a slick triangle that looked like it would finish the fight early, but MacDonald gritted it out and somehow escaped, thanks in part to his clever decision to insulate his carotid arteries with quarter-inch rubber tubing before the fight (at least that's what I'm assuming). After that, the two kept trading dominant positions and submission attempts until the end of the round, to the wild cheers of the excellent Minnesota crowd. MacDonald impressed with his scrappiness and kept it a close round, but it was also pretty clear that Maia was the more skilled of the two.

This came to fruit in the second round, which started with a left hook from Maia and went on to be almost five full minutes of him controlling and raining down punishment from mount. Again, MacDonald kept fighting and putting in a superhuman effort to survive the round. But his luck ran out in the third. Mounted again, MacDonald was forced to turn his back and give Maia the chance to sink in the fight-ending choke. MacDonald may want to upgrade the tubing to half-inch.

So where does this put Maia? Jason MacDonald is a stiff test at middleweight, and Maia passed with flying colors. Could he possibly present a problem for division kingpin Anderson Silva, who most recently was vacationing at a higher weight class just to test himself? The short answer is yes. Possibly. Maybe. Well, kind of. He could dominate from the top position, and his submission grappling is several miles ahead of Silva's. But Silva is proving to be more difficult to take down then people once thought, and he has the disconcerting habit of hitting people in the face really, really hard, even when on the mat, and this has given him some disproportionate success on the ground despite the fact that his grappling/wrestling is the aspect of his game that isn't quite as lethal as the others (which, when you're talking about a guy like Silva, counts as a "weakness"). The hypothetical fight could hinge on whether Maia, if forced to jump to guard to bring the fight down, can tie Silva up enough to prevent his face from being re-arranged while he looks for a submission.

But that's a ways off, at least another fight or two for Maia, and Silva has to defend his title against Patrick Cote first, which has the potential to make the whole discussion moot (although it'd be an incredible upset). For now, Maia will have to content himself with the knowledge that he is, at the very least, in the upper echelon of UFC middleweights, and coming off a great performance. And props are due to MacDonald, as well, for sticking around long enough to get it out of him.

Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta

Huerta may need to change his nickname to "El Toro"; his current one is better suited to his opponent (and Florian desperately needs to upgrade from "Ken-flo", anyway; a good general rule is that a physical combatant's nom de guerre should remind me as little as possible of someone who ever had sexual relations with Ben Affleck, or took part in Gigli for that matter, even though I suppose the two are kind of related). Despite the obvious talents and toughness that made him a Sports Illustrated coverboy, Huerta was beaten and frustrated for fifteen minutes by the deft Florian, who is fast becoming one of the more dynamic and entertaining fighters in the UFC. The same scenario repeated itself over and over: Huerta would charge forward with a kick or superman punch only to be tagged or taken down by the deft Florian, who outscored Huerta for the whole fight by using footwork and superior skills to control the distance and refuse Huerta the brawl that would play to his strengths. All that was missing was a red cape and the crowd yelling "ole" every time Florian landed a counter.

To be sure, Huerta didn't go down without a fight. He landed several nice strikes and controlled the octagon by pressing forward. He also showed his famed survivability by walking through several crisp strikes and slithering out of some bad situations on the ground (even though all this really means is that Florian was hitting him and out-grappling him in the first place). He's young, and he'll be back. If anything, his pre-fight statements that he would never lose and that Florian would be a "cakewalk" indicate that a loss to a superior opponent may be exactly what he needed to continue his development.

As for Florian, I mean, I know it's been said before, but he just keeps getting better, doesn't he? His submissions were always good, and he's always had his controversial elbow strikes, but ever since his five-round loss to Sherk, he's added a fierce and precise striking game. And against Huerta, he flashed some good takedown prowess. Ordinarily a fast-paced and aggressive fighter, Florian also showed versatility by adopting a more patient and evasive style. Which isn't to say he just circled and scored points or didn't try to finish Huerta, he just knew that he had to pick his spots to attack and avoid being drawn into a war of attrition. And he did. Piece by piece, Florian is building himself into a worthy title contender.

So now what? Six straight wins against solid competition make it hard to argue that Florian isn't deserving of a title shot right now, but BJ Penn being the champion makes it almost as hard to argue for his chances of winning, so the UFC will probably pit Penn against Georges St. Pierre next in a superfight rematch. Now, obviously that would be a fight I'd be interested in seeing, but I can't help but disagree with having that fight next. Florian is ready right now, and Penn ought to solidify his hold over the lightweight division before challenging other champions. If you let Penn fight GSP next, then Florian will either have to wait around or fight a holding pattern bout, and if Tyson Griffin beats Sean Sherk in their upcoming match, you face the choice of having a traffic jam of sorts to fight Penn for the title, or have Griffin and Florian duke it out and keep the belt out of contention for even longer. It doesn't really matter how big of an underdog Florian would be, once you think about it. Not only does the old adage of "anything can happen in MMA" always apply, but four out of the five UFC belts (excluding light heavyweight) are held by men who are seen as head and shoulders above their peers. If the rule of thumb was that a challenger had to be seen as close to 50-50 with the champion, most of the belts would be effectively retired right now. The point, clumsily stated, is that Florian has earned a crack at Penn, so he should get it. As for St. Pierre, there's a better option available (more on that later, although you can probably guess what I'm talking about).

Manvel Gamburyan vs. Robert Emerson

It was a short, efficient night for Emerson, who quickly dropped Gamburyan with a right hand and stiffened him out with a left to get the win in just 12 seconds over a tough competitor. I don't really have anything to add to that. That's the problem with short fights. Although I guess that makes my job easier.

Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring

So… how ‘bout that Brock Lesnar, eh?

Like it or not, Lesnar was destined to be a center of attention as soon as he declared that he was retiring from the at once laughable and physically impressive world of WWE and trying his hand at cage fighting. At worst, he would be a fascinating curiosity. At best, his freakish athleticism and impressive wrestling (the real kind) credentials could form the foundation of something pretty special. When he was knee-barred by Frank Mir in under two minutes, Lesnar's detractors eagerly declared him a sideshow and called for his ouster from UFC competition. But those paying attention saw glimpses of something in that fight. Lesnar was no mere brute trying to pancake his opponent, he was aggressive, powerful, skilled, and fast. You know how everyone (including me), is constantly amazed by how strong Georges St. Pierre is at 170 lbs? I'm just as impressed (well, it's at least close) that Brock Lesnar is as fast as he is at 265. Of course, he still got quickly submitted, so he must not understand the submission aspect of MMA, right? Not quite. There were at least three things to keep in mind about his fight with Mir that made it impossible to write him off so soon.

1) There are others with better jiu-jitsu credentials, but when it comes to MMA, a healthy Frank Mir is about as extreme a submission threat as you can get in the heavyweight division.

2) Many collegiate wrestlers trying to make the jump to MMA or submission grappling face a hurdle in learning to protect their legs. It's nothing that can't be fixed with more experience.

3) In just his second MMA fight, Brock Lesnar was absolutely kicking the tar out of a former UFC champion before a penalty halted his momentum. He knocked Mir down with a punch, defended multiple armbar attempts perfectly, executed excellent takedowns and ground n' pound, and pretty much flashed every skill he'd need to be a successful fighter. He just needed to put them all together and avoid making careless mistakes. To be fair, that's much easier said than done, and there's no guarantee that it will happen. But, despite the loss, Lesnar was so far ahead on the learning curve that many fans, including myself, were excited to see what he could do with another six months of training, plus that fight, under his belt. The result revealed itself Saturday night.

Holy crap.

Domination is a strong word that is perhaps thrown around too carelessly in the MMA world. Well, that was domination. Wire-to-wire, gorilla-on-a-tightrope, smothering, pugilistic domination.

No matter how Lesnar's career ends up, it will always be one about which people ask "what if?" What if Lesnar had gone straight into mixed martial arts after college, rather than letting his skills stagnate and his body accumulate wear and tear on the pro wrestling circuit? If he flamed out, could he at least have competed? If he becomes solid, could he have been a champion? If he becomes a champion, could he have been one of The Greats?

Already, Lesnar is using leg kicks effectively. Already, he's throwing knees in the clinch, on the ground, and through the air. Every time he lands a punch it seems a 200+ lb man is sent hurtling backward to the mat. And his grappling skills don't seem to have suffered one jot from his lengthy hiatus from real competition.

What if?

This isn't to say that Lesnar should be taking on Fedor Emelianenko anytime soon. Heath Herring is not himself a grappling dynamo, so no one should be throwing Lesnar at Nogueira and expecting a similar result. And Lesnar's mount definitely needs some work, as he couldn't stop Herring from turning over to protect himself despite getting the dominant position on a couple different occasions.

On the plus side, and I know I'm in the minority in this, I think it was very smart of Lesnar not to take the bait and try to sink the hooks in and go for a choke. Herring is the sort of guy who can make a living off of showing his back to over-eager choke enthusiasts, patiently defending, and then scrambling to his feet. Taking the back is a wonderful idea most of the time, and it is for sure a dominant position and one that can end the fight quickly. But it's also escapable. Florian lost the same position on Huerta in his own fight, for example, and Florian is presumably a much better jiu-jitsu practitioner than Lesnar. Lesnar was completely out-grappling Herring, he just did it in his own way rather than doing what everyone (including Herring) expected. If Herring wanted to turtle, Lesnar could flip him onto his back. If Herring wanted to roll into guard, Lesnar would roll him right back into the turtle position, hitting him all the time with fists and knees. So yeah, despite the glaring lack of any submission offense (although it's an open question as to whether Lesnar's arm can fit under anyone's chin), I'd say Lesnar's grappling counts as pretty damned impressive. And we still don't know whether he can take a punch because no one's been able to hit the guy yet.

On the down side, Lesnar showed a regrettable lack of sportsmanship as the fight came to a close, showing his WWE chops by pretending to ride Herring like a rodeo cowboy during the last ten seconds, then pointing and laughing as the final bell rang (which was really the worst part), and then taking the microphone from Joe Rogan to ask the crowd, "Can you see me now?! Can you see me now!?" But then Frank Mir's music started playing, and everyone turned to see Mir as he ran down the entrance ramp, stood and glared for a second, and then jumped into the cage to hit Lesnar repeatedly with a chair while Goldberg despaired, "This is just disgraceful!"

I'll let you figure out where I started making things up. To be honest, had the whole thing actually happened I'm not sure if I would have complained.

So, yeah, it was classless. And if it continues, then I think you'd be pretty well justified to root against Lesnar for it. I might join you. For now, seeing as how Lesnar has been humble and respectful in all of his pre and post-fight interviews to this point (other than the obligatory hype pieces), I'm chalking it up to him just needing to learn how to win. It was his first fight in the big show, against a top 15-20 opponent, in front of his home crowd, and he put on a clinic to shut up his doubters. So he got over-excited and went back to what he knows: over-the-top showmanship. I hope that he calms down in the future. As much as I like to watch him fight, so far he's more likable when he loses.

Of course, often overlooked in the hullabaloo over Lesnar (which I am shamelessly playing into) is the gutsiness of Herring, who could have mentally folded at any point of the fight like so many others would have. Instead, he kept looking for an opening, struggling, and surviving for fifteen minutes, while getting hammered the whole time like someone fighting the tide. If you need proof that Herring never gave up (since it can be difficult to tell when a guy is being held down and pounded in the turtle position), look at the last ten seconds, when Lesnar starts whooping it up and making fun of Herring's "Texas Crazy Horse" moniker. The instant Lesnar relaxed, Herring bucked him off and turned to launch a haymaker, hoping to steal the fight in the last moments. Whipped fighters don't do that, they just wait for the bell. Same as with Jason MacDonald or Roger Huerta, Herring deserves respect. Lesnar's performance is only impressive in light of Herring's grit in fighting against it.

Finally, for the hell of it and because it needs to be said, I want Lesnar to come out to his next fight in green body-paint and wearing ripped purple shorts. I can't think of a single reason why this shouldn't happen. Are you listening, Dana? People should really ask me about these things.

Jon Fitch vs. Georges St. Pierre

At last, we get to the championship bout. I'm still at a bit of a loss about it. You know that dominant performance by Lesnar? St. Pierre was even more dominant. You know the heart shown by Huerta, MacDonald, and Herring in lost causes? Fitch displayed more toughness than all of them put together. It went beyond toughness. It was drama. For twenty-five minutes, Georges St. Pierre fought one of the best fights of his career. For twenty-five minutes, Jon Fitch took it. Two or three out of the five rounds fought between these two, Fitch was in so much trouble that I doubted he'd make it to the bell under St. Pierre's onslaught. So did the people I was with. We thought the ref was going to stop it, we wanted him to stop it, and each time we let up a small cheer when he didn't and Fitch somehow survived.

Honestly, what a performance from GSP. He may have had victories against better opponents than Jon Fitch, and he may have knocked them out, but this is easily the most impressive I've ever seen St. Pierre in the stand-up. He's always been dangerous, but in general he's had a lot of flash (superman punch-leg kick combo, spinning back kick, etc.) that was effective enough, especially since his opponents had to worry about his wrestling all the time, but little in the ways of substantive, meat-and-potatoes, kick-ass striking. Simply put, I've never seen St. Pierre do so much damage with his hands. He repeatedly snapped Fitch's head back or wobbled his legs, and he utilized his ever-improving jab more efficiently and aggressively than I have witnessed before. For sure, Fitch put up a fight, and was able to briefly take control of the pacing of the fight by advancing with combinations and strikes to the body, but it was impossible for him to keep it up for long and GSP would take back control in short order and continue the punishment. The ease with which St. Pierre took down the former Purdue wrestler barely even warrants note. It's what we expect from the welterweight champion at this point.

The problem now is that there is no obvious next fight for St. Pierre. While insanely deep and rich with talent, the welterweight division has no one currently worthy of challenging St. Pierre for his belt, and it will take some time to sort one out. Sound familiar? It should, because it's the same situation the middleweight division is in with Anderson Silva.

I have no idea why, but people aren't as excited about the possibility of GSP vs. Silva as they once were (the best I can come up with is a short attention span). But they should be. Really, they should be. If it weren't for his slip-up against Serra, St. Pierre would be right in the jumbled mess of who the top fighter on the planet is alongside Fedor Emelianenko and, you guessed it, Anderson Silva. He might even have been the clear-cut #1. I'm not saying that the Serra fight shouldn't affect things, I'm just saying… well, you know what I'm saying.

Silva and St. Pierre are both practically untouchable when they perform to the best of their ability (and, with a title defense finally under his belt, it seems that St. Pierre may be beyond his past propensity to get the jitters). Neither has a worthy challenger waiting in the wings right now (beyond Silva's upcoming bout against Cote). Silva has fought at 170 lbs before, and St. Pierre is a gigantic welterweight, so the size issue can be worked out. The two have never fought before. And, finally, they each possess what it takes to beat the other, and might be the only ones who can say that with any rightful confidence.

Anderson Silva has never fought anyone with the wrestling and top game of Georges St. Pierre (the closest, Dan Henderson, had two critical flaws: he could be lured into a slugfest and his takedowns were most effective from the clinch, where Silva is at his best; both traits came back to haunt him, painfully). And, really, Silva's only "weakness" comes off his back (with the exception of kicking Travis Lutter in the face), unless you want to count a lack of takedowns (which wouldn't make sense, because why the hell would Anderson Silva ever want to take anybody down?). If Silva is going to be beaten soon, St. Pierre is exactly the sort of fighter to do it (I don't even have anything to add here, I just wanted to break the record for "number of parenthetical asides per sentence" in the 1 Paragraph division. Send me to Beijing!).

On the flip side, Georges St. Pierre has never fought anyone even close to as strong as he is. And, his most recent performance notwithstanding, he's still most vulnerable in the striking game against somebody who can pressure him (can't really count off his back since no one can reliably put him there). Someone like Anderson Silva.

So who wins this one? Will St. Pierre rip Silva to the floor and beat him into submission like he does to everyone else, or will Silva light St. Pierre up and put him to sleep in short order? Something in between? I have no clue. That's the point. The fight could last anywhere from 8 seconds to the full three or five rounds, with either man winning, and I wouldn't be the least surprised. You have perhaps the two best fighters on Earth right now (at least two of the top three), who are of similar enough size, in the same organization, with nothing to do, and anything and everything would be possible were you to put the two of them in a cage together and say, "Go."

Put another way, if someone asks you, "What's your dream match-up right now, within the realm of possibility?" and you say something other than "Anderson Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre", you either a) didn't think about the question, b) are a rabid fan of BJ Penn or whoever else you picked to fight, or c) should be beaten with your own shoe. Those are really the only three options.

Dana White, Joe Silva, make this fight happen.