Hit the Mat 02.23.09: Ten Things I Think

Posted by Matt McEwen on 02.23.2009

Fedor, Condit, trigger happy refs, Sanchez, misusing "Gate Keeper", upcoming fights and an exciting middleweight division all get some love in this week's Hit the Mat.

Given the week I had, you would expect that I would have spent my massive amount of free time scouring my brain for a good, original topic for the article this week.

I pulled my hamstring, which has left me unable to run at all for the past two weeks, and left me falling on my butt every time I tried to throw a good, high roundhouse (at least that is my excuse right now).

So, with all that time to think, you would think I could at least treat you to something original, eh? Well, you would be painfully wrong. My down time has coincided with a pretty lackluster week of MMA news, and as such, I am stealing a format from one of my favourite sports writers (five imaginary dollars to the first commenter who correctly guesses who that is).

So, without further babbling, I present to you....Ten Things I Think.

1. I think UFC 95 was a really good card, especially for the price we all had to pay for it, but how in the name of god did Stevenson/Sanchez win fight of the night? That was not even an exciting fight, let alone a good one. My wife and I are big Stevenson fans, but we were frustrated by the end of the first round and wondering just what his game plan was exactly. I was wondering if he came into the fight with an injury, or maybe just afraid to get blitzed again like he did against Florian, because the "stand, box, pray I land a good one" strategy was doomed to fail, was clearly leaving him behind on the score cards....but he never changed it. It resulted in a pretty boring kickboxing fight, and on a card that included Marquardt/Gouveia and Mandaloniz/Kelly, it is a travesty that it won "Fight of the Night" honors.

2. I think Sanchez is going to be a big factor in the 155lb title picture by the end of 2009. A debut against Stevenson is a hell of a way to debut in the division, and he came through it looking good. His cardio held up, which is always the big question when a fighter makes a weight cut for the first time. He also looked strong, which is another thing that sometimes deserts when a fighter shrinks. The top level of the 155lb class has been getting thinned out by attrition due to the large amount of talented fighters, and Sanchez could be a quality win or two away from a title shot. Maybe a fight against a Gray Maynard or Frankie Edgar in the nearer future, a contenders fight against the loser of the anticipated Penn/Florian title fight, and then a title shot for Sanchez if he gets through those tests. Big if's, but Sanchez is often one of the more underrated fighters in the sport due to his annoying weirdness.

3. I think the middleweight division is about to challenge the light heavyweights for being the most interesting division in the sport.

It starts at the top with Anderson Silva, the most compelling fighter to watch in the sport right now. Aside from his showing against Cote which was just odd at times, Silva has been head and shoulders above his opponents in the Octagon for the most part, and his fights have bordered on poetry at times. So much so, that it was thought no one could be a legit contender to him.

Put those thoughts aside. Saturday night, two fighters stepped up and laid claim to being legit threats to Silva's dominance. First, Demian Maia continued to demonstrate his insane jiu jitsu skills and pulled out another amazing submission over the tough and game Chael Sonnen. He called out Silva afterwards, and deservedly so. Maia is even more beyond everyone in the game on the ground than Silva is on the feet. Given the issues that Silva had with Travis Lutter on the ground before submitting him, I would think Silva and his long limbs may not last long with Maia on top of him. That being said, Maia's stand up game is certainly not a strength at this point, and Silva's striking prowess could end the fight before the ground even becomes a factor. Striker vs Grappler: The Next Generation. It's a fight I'd love to see.

Before we see that though, it looks like Nate Marquardt may have jumped ahead of Maia for a title shot. A dominant and impressive victory over Gouveia continued Marquardt's recent dominance of the upper end of the division. Since his loss to Silva, Marquardt has run through Jeremy Horn, put a pounding on Thales Leites before losing mostly due to two one point deductions, destroyed Martin Kampmann and sent him to welterweight and now a dominant pounding of Gouveia, who many "experts" were picking to win. Nate has staked his claim to another title shot and may be ready to take the title in his second attempt.

Add to those two a game Leites who has a title shot coming up, as well as Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping who will get popularity boosts through the upcoming Ultimate Fighter and you have a division that is on the verge of exploding.

Of course, Silva being Silva, he just might destroy them all by the end of the year.

4. I think referees are jumping in and stopping fights too soon a lot recently.

The most glaring example of this was Josh Koscheck Saturday night. Yes, he got caught by a big shot and was probably legitimately out for a split second or so....but you could also see the lights turn back on just as quick. When the ref jumped in, he was ready to try and defend himself. Was he in trouble? Yes. Would Thiago have finished him if had pounced? Possibly, but we will never know. It also looked like Thiago was not about to pounce. If he had, and landed a good shot or two, I would have been fine with the stoppage, but for the ref to jump in between a fighter on his back who is putting his guard up and a fighter who is standing over him and not threatening to come down.....premature.

Contrast that stoppage with the Nogueira/ Herring fight. When Herring landed the high kick that dropped Nog, the ref waited to see what would happen. When Herring did not follow up, Nog was able to recover and win.

I understand the need to protect fighters, but a good ref should be able to get the fight stopped within a punch or two. The job done Saturday in the Dos Santos/Struve fight was a good example of that. The ref there gave a hurt Struve a chance to survive, but when he continued to take shots, he stopped it. Good call.

I'm betting Koscheck would have loved to have been at least given the chance.

5. I think that the more I think about it, the upcoming Jackson/Jardine fight is going to be really fun. When guys at this level fight, it really could go either way, and that is what makes a fight fun. Both Jackson and Jardine possess really well rounded games, but both have relied on counter punching in their recent fights. Two counter punchers often end up canceling each other out, but with these two facing off I do not think that we have to worry about a dancing stare down for three rounds.

And, when Jardine is in the cage, I always wonder if his opponent will try the Alexander/Wanderlei approach and blitz him....


6. I think that Frank Shamrock and Nick Diaz are going to put on a great fight. The closer we get to that one as well, the more intrigued I am by it. The trash talk should be classic, both guys like to bang and put on a show, but the undersized Diaz is almost certainly going to want to take the fight to the ground at some point. This is a nice example of a fight that does not involve top ten talent, has no title implications and is really meaningless in a "sport" sense to either guy's career, but should still be a great fight. A good foot put forward by Strikeforce in their Showtime debut.

7. I think people love to talk about Lyoto Machida. Last week, I wrote an entire article about the importance of Strikeforce, and followed that up by responding to some comments from my previous week's article about Machida.

The result?

More comments about Machida.....and zilch about Strikeforce.

8. I think Carlos Condit is going to make a name for himself in his first UFC fight, gain a lot of fans and surprise a lot of people at the top end of the welterweight division.

Condit versus Fitch for the year end show sounds good to me....

9. I think there is still a chance we will see Fedor in the UFC, but it is slim.

Fedor is one of the very few fighters in the world who can exist outside the UFC, and as long as Japan is not destroyed by an earthquake, he will continue to be that. However, if the "sportsmen" inside Fedor gets his way, he will be inside the Octagon by the end of the year.

That being said, I just can not see the UFC agreeing to the co-promotion deals that Fedor and his camp seem pretty hell bent on getting.

10. I think the term "gate keeper" has become the most misused term in MMA.

I have read and heard - here at 411 and other places - the term used to describe some of the top fighters in divisions, such as Sean Sherk, Rich Franklin and Keith Jardine.

For the record, NONE of those three are gatekeepers, in any way, shape or form.

A "gate keeper" is, by definition, a fighter who marks the transition between quality of opposition. If a fighter is able to move past a "gate keeper", he then is deemed ready to step up a level. If not, he's not ready yet. And for the record, it is NOT an insult.

A perfect example of a gate keeper would be someone like Jason MacDonald. An extremely talented and well rounded fighter, MacDonald is good enough to hang with anyone in the middleweight division, but is not good enough to beat the top guys. As a result, he has lost when he faced the big dogs in the division - Okami, Maia, Franklin - and is now seen as a bench mark. When they wanted to know how Gouveia would do at 185lbs, they put him in with MacDonald. When they wanted to see if Maia was ready for the best in the division, they called MacDonald.

There is no shame in losing to a fighter the quality of MacDonald, but if you do, you are nowhere near a contender. A win, though, is quality, and marks you as an easy top 6 or 7 fighter in the division.

Contrast that to Sherk, who many have referred to erroneously as the lightweight gate keeper. In fact, Sherk is probably the #2 man in the division. He would be favoured to beat anyone at 155lbs not named BJ Penn. Sherk is not the guy you fight to see if you are ready for the elite...he is the elite. The same could be said for Franklin.

So yes, before you call a fighter a "gate keeper", please think before speaking.