The Ultimate Writer 11.02.08: Round 5 - Takanori Gomi Loses, Cote's Injury, Top 10 Lightweights, And More
Posted by Dustin James on 11.02.2008
In the latest edition of "The Ultimate Writer" I discuss the ramifications of Takanori Gomi's loss at Sengoku 6, Patrick Cote's injury at UFC 90, my own personal top 10 lightweights, and much much more.
Welcome back to your weekly dose of intelligent, sophisticated, knowledgeable reading not known as "The Ultimate Writer". As always I'm your host Dustin James and I had one weird ass Halloween. I found out my girlfriend's dad had a heart attack (he's like 45) early in the morning and from then on I knew it was going to be a fudged up day. However, since I was having a Halloween party that night I had to leave work early, go see the guy in the hospital (he's doing better), and then come home and decorate the house. Needless to say I got really drunk and went to bed at 3 AM and had to wake up at 7 AM to go to work. GO ME! All in all, if you take the heart attack and lack of sleep out of it, Halloween wasn't bad.....
Biggest News Items Of The Week:
This feature is self-explanatory. The biggest news item of the week goes here, duh!
Takanori Gomi loses at Sengoku 6!
And a top 10 lightweight fighter (in 411's lightweight rankings he was ranked #2) goes down. Yesterday, Takanori Gomi lost his first fight since April of 2006 when he lost to Marcus Aurelio at PRIDE's Bushido 10. Of course, everybody remembers Nick Diaz beating Gomi back in February of 2007 with a gogoplata, but the fight was ruled a No Contest by the NSAC due to Diaz failing a drug test. Can Gomi even be considered a top 10 fighter anymore? I mean, let's look at things in perspective here. If you look at 411mania.com's lightweight MMA rankings, Gomi hasn't defeated anyone on that list. As a matter of fact, the only two people he has fought on that list (BJ Penn and Joachim Hansen) both defeated Gomi years ago. When is the last time Gomi beat anybody even considered close to a "top 10 fighter"? Well, that would be back in December of 2006 when he defeated Mitsuhiro Ishida. The big question now is, how far will Gomi fall in the rankings? It wouldn't surprise me to see people drop him off the list completely due to how stacked the lightweight division is.
What kind of odds would you give Gomi if he faced Eddie Alvarez? Penn? Sean Sherk? JZ? Aoki? Would you favor him or pick against him? Right now, there isn't a whole lot of top 10 fighters that I would favor Gomi over. It's just the truth ladies and gentlemen. When you lose to Sergey Golyaev (11-6, hasn't fought since 2006) you need a big win to keep your momentum up, and let's face it....Gomi needs a huge win now.
Patrick Cote likely to miss up to 8 months
Did Cote do the smart thing here? Apparently he was told three weeks prior to his fight with Anderson Silva at UFC 90 that he needed surgery on his knee and that he should cancel the fight. So what does Cote do? He goes out and competes anyway, the injury causes him to lose the fight, and now he needs total reconstructive surgery and will miss up to eight months of action. Now I ask you again....did Cote do the smart thing here? If he was told three weeks prior that he should cancel the fight, one would think you may want to consider that especially knowing you will be fighting an animal named "Anderson Silva". The last thing you need is any kind of injury that will bring down your chances of winning even more.
Cote does earn some "man points" due to "manning up" and trying to fight anyway. Was Cote afraid that if he canceled the fight that he wouldn't get another UFC title shot down the line? That could very well be true, but you have to remember the lack of depth in UFC's middleweight division. I'm sure if Cote would have taken the fight off, missed 8 weeks of action, then came back without an injury asking for Silva again, the UFC would have obliged. Hell, look at Karo Parisyan. The guy pulls out of a fight the day before the fight and gets rewarded with a new 8-fight contract. Way to keep it real UFC!
It's all in a name!
In this section I'm going to discuss fighter's with crazy names in MMA. You know you guys have searched Sherdog.com's "Fight Finder" and seen some wacky name that has just jumped off the page at you. Well, in this little section I'm going to grab a name each week and take an in-depth look at that fighter! Trust me, it will be fun.......
This week we will be looking at:
Dummy Dummy
I don't know why, and I don't even know how I found it, but for some reason....Sherdog has a profile of a fighter with the name "Dummy Dummy". If I'm lying, I'm dying. Unfortunately the guy has never fought. I for one would love to see what this guy looks like and how good of a fighter he is.
You can check out Dummy Dummy's Sherdog profile here.
Where are they now?
This feature looks at fighters who have been inactive for some time. Where exactly have they gone? I don't know and I'm reaching out to you guys to help us find these missing MMA stars......
MISSING
Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett
Has it really been over a year since we last saw Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett fight? Wow, are we REALLY that lucky? The last time we saw Krazy Horse he had defeated Donnie Martinez at a King of the Cage show in October of 2007. What exactly has Krazy Horse been up to? For those of you unfamiliar with Bennett (consider yourself lucky), he is a very arrogant fighter who constantly bashed his opponents, gets arrested from time to time, and just constantly annoys people like myself. Perhaps we are better off not knowing where Bennett is.....
If you know the whereabouts of Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett, please DON'T contact Dustin James at sickboyv1@aol.com, or go to his myspace located here.
Random Top 10 List Time!
Here you will see a random top 10 list put together by yours truly. It may be Top 10 submission fighters, Top 10 stand-up fighters, or hell, even Top 10 ways that Anderson Silva could kill you. Seriously, don't mess with that man. He's dangerous.
Top 10 lightweight fighters (since Gomi lost, let's see if he makes my list!)
ARE YOU READY?
1. BJ Penn - Duh?!
2. Shinya Aoki - You gotta give credit where it's due to Aoki. He has fought over 5 times this year and has faced some top competition.
3. JZ Cavalcante - I'm still a huge JZ fan.
4. Eddie Alvarez - It's a shame his fight with Nick Diaz won't be happening.
5. Sean Sherk - Got a nice win over Tyson Griffin at UFC 90.
6. Joachim Hansen - The guy won the DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix for crying out loud!
7. Takanori Gomi - Hey look, Gomi DOES make my list after all!
8. Kenny Florian - Can Florian defeat Stevenson in a few weeks and become the UFC's #1 contender? I think it's a battle between him and Sherk.
9. Josh Thomson - Dude has been on a roll lately.
10. Joe Stevenson - Shouldn't be punished for losing to BJ Penn. It's BJ FREAKING PENN!
Current Champions:
This feature is pretty self explanatory. I list the current champions in each relevant promotion, and you guys sit and read. Easy enough for ya?
Randy Couture - UFC Heavyweight Champion
Won the title from Tim Sylvia back on March 3, 2007 at UFC 68.
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria - Interim UFC Heavyweight Championship
Won the title from Tim Sylvia back on February 2, 2008 at UFC 81
Forrest Griffin - UFC Light Heavyweight Champion
Won the title from Quinton "Rampage" Jackson back on July 5, 2008 at UFC 86
Anderson Silva - UFC Middleweight Champion
Won the title from Rich Franklin back on October 14, 2006 at UFC 64
Georges St. Pierre - UFC Welterweight Champion
Won the title from Matt Serra back on April 14, 2008 at UFC 83
BJ Penn - UFC Lightweight Champion
Won the title from Sean Sherk back on May 24, 2008 at UFC 84
Won the title from Paul Buentello back on November 16, 2007 at Strikeforce: Four Men Enter, One Man Survives
Bobby Southworth - Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion
Won the title from Vernon White back on December 8, 2006 at Strikeforce: Triple Threat
Cung Le - Strikeforce Middleweight World Champion
Won the title from Frank Shamrock back on March 29, 2008 at Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Le
Josh Thomson - Strikeforce Lightweight Champion
Won the title from Gilbert Melendez back on June 27, 2008 at Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Thomson
Gegard Mousasi - DREAM Middleweight Champion
Won the title from Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza back on September 23, 2008 at DREAM 6
Joachim Hansen - DREAM Lightweight Champion
Won the title from Shinya Aoki back on July 21, 2008 at DREAM 5
Carlos Condit - WEC Welterweight Champion
Won the title from Mike Pyle back on March 24, 2007 at WEC 26
Jamie Varner - WEC Lightweight Champion
Won the title from Rob McCullough back on February 13, 2008 at WEC 32
Urijah Faber - WEC Featherweight Champion
Won the title from Cole Escovedo back on March 17, 2006 at WEC 19
Miguel Torres - WEC Bantamweight Champion
Won the title from Chase Beebe back on February 13, 2008 at WEC 32
Watch Out For This Guy:
In this feature I will showcase a fighter who I believe is on his way up in the MMA world......
Junior dos Santos
Another UFC card gone, another hot prospect to look out for. Seriously, who saw this one coming? Everybody and their dog had picked Fabricio Werdum to squeak by Junior dos Santos at UFC 90 en route to a UFC Heavyweight Title shot. However, all that changed with just ONE UPPERCUT. It only took dos Santos a little over a minute to dispose of Werdum and send his title shot chances out the window. dos Santos is currently 7-1 as a pro and has 5 TKO victories on his record. I think it's safe to say that this guy's fists are lethal. dos Santos is one UFC heavyweight prospect that I may not pick against for some time.
Upcoming Events:
Here are a few of the upcoming events in the wonderful world of MMA:
WEC 36: Faber vs. Brown - November 5 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida
-Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown
-Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen
-Jens Pulver vs. Leonard Garcia
-Rob McCullough vs. Donald Cerrone
-Nissen Osterneck vs. Jake Rosholt
-Carmelo Marrero vs. Steve Steinbeiss
-Yoshiro Maeda vs. Rani Yayha
-Ed Ratcliff vs. Danny Castillo
-Jose Aldo vs. Jonathan Brookins
-Alex Serdyukov vs. Johnny Hendricks
UFC 91: Couture vs. Lesnar - November 15 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
-Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar
-Kenny Florian vs. Joe Stevenson
-Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Josh Hendricks
-Demian Maia vs. Nate Quarry
-Amir Sadollah vs. Nick Catone
-Dustin Hazelett vs. Tamdan McCrory
-Jorge Gurgel vs. Aaron Riley
-Matthew Riddle vs. Ryan Thomas
-Jeremy Stephens vs. Rafael dos Anjos
-Alvin Robinson vs. Mark Bocek
Strikeforce: Destruction - November 21 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California
-Josh Thomson vs. Yves Edwards
-Bobby Southworth vs. Renato "Babalu" Sobral
-Joe Riggs vs. Luke Stewart
-Lemont Davis vs. Brian Schwartz
-Darren Uyenoyama vs. Brad Royster
-Cyrillo Padilha vs. Bobby Stack
-Eric Lawson vs. Tony Johnson
-Jose Palacios vs. Alvin Cacdac
-Nik Theotikos vs. Luke Rockhold
-Jaime Rodriguez vs. Zakary Bucia
-Kurt Osiander vs. Raul Castillo
WEC 37 - December 3 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada
-Miguel Torres vs. Manny Tapia
MMA Motivational Poster Of The Week:
Video Of The Week:
There are rumors of a return by Genki Sudo, so I present to you......his best entrances!
Thank you for joining me again for this wonderful column. I hope you continue to read every week and don't forget to check out the other wonderful columns here on 411mania.com, which is updated daily. Unlike Takanori Gomi, I never fall from grace!
I can't really complain about your lightweight list, but Hansen did beat Aoki, albeit a tournament in which Aoki was spent from the prior fight. I hate Sherk, but I can't come up with a good arguement to drop him lower. Crazy Horse was last seen as a coach on the horrible show "Iron Ring". He's probably back in jail, selling crack or creating more retarted offspring.
Posted By: Bruno (Guest) on November 02, 2008 at 01:03 AM
Where's that cheesy "Ultimate Writer... By Dustin James" logo, that looks like some title on the cover of a novel?
Posted By: Samer (Guest) on November 02, 2008 at 08:20 AM
"Did Cote do the smart thing here?"
Hard to say, but he may have:
1. He may have never gotten a title shot if he pulled out - now he will likely get a rematch, due to how well he did, and how it ended.
2. I haven't seen the payouts - but its likely the main event/title shot figures for this one fight could be higher than the other fights he might have gotten in the time frame he will now be out for.
Posted By: Jamie (Guest) on November 02, 2008 at 10:11 AM
haha, you think Cote could have SURGERY on his knee and be back in 8 weeks? Get real.
Posted By: Guest#2655 (Guest) on November 02, 2008 at 01:07 PM
