Category: mma

mma

How old is too old to fight?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Jordan Breen raises a question along those lines on Twitter today, linking to video of a dreadful performance by MMA/kickboxing veteran Gary Goodridge and wondering how promoters can keep trotting him out into the ring.

The fight’s horrible — opponent Catalin Morosanu seems to enjoy landing shots at will through the first round but later seems reticent to hurt the poor guy any more than he already has. You can almost hear Howard Cosell vowing to quit covering the sport.

In other recent Senior League fighting, Ken Shamrock keeps competing on ever-smaller stages, and Jake Rossen asks at ESPN how long he can go before commissions step in and say no.

In boxing, the current WBF world champion is 48-year-old Evander Holyfield, who defeated fellow 40something Frans Botha for the belt. He’ll defend it against Sherman Williams, who is apparently not a paint.

A few fighters can be productive after 40. Randy Couture has been a viable MMA fighter, most recently proving that James Toney is not. George Foreman cleanly knocked out Michael Moorer in his mid-40s to become a champion again. Yet both benefited from periods of inactivity — Couture still has fewer than 30 fights on his record, and Foreman was out of the sport for roughly 10 years before returning. (In the Hollywood universe, Rocky Balboa had quite a few years to recover from all those Clubber and Drago neck-twisting power shots.)

Hard and fast rules clearly won’t cut it. The real danger is head trauma, and MMA fans are less likely to worry over 47-year-old Couture than they would over 40-year-old Chuck Liddell, who has been knocked out cold in two of his last three fights. Goodridge has been knocked out too many times in his career, but Shamrock’s issues are different — he’s simply being outclassed in most of his fights.

And that’s the problem. We can’t simply tell fighters to stay out of the cage or ring simply because we’re tired of watching them tap out against unknowns. All we can do is skip those fights as paying customers or journalists. It’s clear that the audience for Ken Shamrock’s fights — substantial four or five years ago — has dried up, and that may force him to quit fighting at last.

For Goodridge and others who might circle the globe looking for a country willing to rubber-stamp their pass into a ring, it’s up to their friends, family and fellow fighters. And ultimately, the man himself.

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mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ Season 12, Episode 10: Kos keeps talking

Posted on by Beau Dure

Should we really root for Michael Johnson over Alex Caceres? No doubt Caceres has had his annoying moments, but after seeing Johnson flip out over a pretty harmless kitchen-sink prank and falsely blame Caceres, the sympathy meter might flip toward Bruce Leeroy a bit.

Kyle Watson, probably the most polished of the four quarterfinalists we’ll see in action tonight, trains with GSP, who must have spent most of the morning squeezing into an Under Armour top. Or maybe it’s just paint.

Watson will be up against Team Koscheck’s Aaron “English” Wilkinson, who has shown a lot of heart and surprising skill in getting this far. The American vet attempts some trash talk having to do with fish and chips. What are you saying about ordering fish and chips, Kyle? You come say that to my face. I outweigh you by quite a bit. Probably because … I eat a lot of fish and chips.

Fight starts early in the episode, with Steve Mazzagatti reffing. Watson quickly gets Wilkinson down, where Watson should have a decided advantage. Wilkinson does well to tie him up and work for the escape. Watson isn’t doing much, and Koscheck justifiably yells for Mazzagatti to stand them up. Wilkinson gets to his feet on his own, but only for a moment. Watson takes his back and sinks in a secure body triangle with two minutes left to work for the rear naked choke. It only takes a minute.

“How many rear naked chokes have my team …,” says a disgruntled Koscheck, who now has just one fighter, Nam Phan, left in the competition.

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mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter,” Season 12, Episode 9: 1-1

Posted on by Beau Dure

After a brief glimpse at the house in which Sevak asks fellow Armenian Sako (“Psycho”) to avenge his loss to Jonathan Brookins, we go to the gym, where Georges St. Pierre tells his team they’re scaling back training. No hard-core sparring. No exhaustion. He wants to work on their tactics and keep them fresh and hungry for their fights. Like most of GSP’s training ideas, it makes perfect sense, especially when the typical Ultimate Fighter contestant gasses in the first round in the midst of such an intense schedule.

Koscheck trains Psycho to avoid giving up his back and getting caught in a rear naked choke. Easier said than done — the choke is usually the end result of being beaten up.

Back at the house — specifically in the yard — Brookins chats with Nam Phan, crossing team lines to talk about how humble they are compared to all the cocky dudes in the house at the pool table.

We go quickly to the fight after the first commercial break. Herb Dean is our ref. They touch gloves, and we’re off.

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mma

Defending Koscheck: The “standing up for his guys” theory

Posted on by Beau Dure

Steve Cofield at Yahoo shows one of The Ultimate Fighter‘s extended clips to defend Josh Koscheck’s spat with medic/”male nurse” Brad Tate, saying Tate mocked one of Koscheck’s fighters over his accent. Full post with video is here.

That defense would be a little tighter if Koscheck hadn’t been spending so much of the season mocking Georges St. Pierre’s accent and yelling that he’s never going to lose “to a French guy.” At the end of the video, Koscheck offers a sincere apology.

The rest of the video, though, casts Koscheck in a better light. He wants to be the lightning rod for his team. He shoves his guys away from Tate, urging them to focus elsewhere. “I’ll be the bad guy,” he says.

Those scenes lend more credence to the idea that Koscheck has a method to his meanness. He wants to get in other fighters’ heads, though he’s failing miserably so far with GSP, and he wants to sell fights, an area in which he might be more successful.

Perhaps he also learned his lesson from earlier in the season, when he was more willing to help his fighters run their mouths after a rare Team Koscheck victory. If he was trying to help his team swing the momentum, he failed.

Some of Koscheck’s “bad boy” act is indeed an act, and the TUF editing can make him seem worse (or better) than he is. He doesn’t deserve the vandalism on his Wikipedia page — and Wikipedia’s editors surely deserve a break. But that act is a tough one to carry out, day after day. Does he put too much effort into it, and at one point does the role consume the actor?

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mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ Season 12, Episode 8: It’s a trap!

Posted on by Beau Dure

We open with a training session for Georges St. Pierre’s team, which seems a little deflated by the fact that Dane Sayers won’t be in the wild-card fight.

Dana White defends the decision, saying Marc Stevens is the better fighter and the obvious pick. This despite his lightning-fast loss to Cody McKenzie through a colossal tactical mistake and technical failure.

Maybe losing quickly is a good strategy, though. His win in the prelims and his loss by guillotine were brief, so he’s had all the benefits of training with little of the damage from fighting.

As threatened, we get another chapter in the feud between Josh Koscheck and Brad Tate, a paramedic with GSP’s team.

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mma

Lightweightpalooza: The 60-something UFC/WEC fighters now joined by merger

Posted on by Beau Dure

In terms of sheer numbers, the lightweight class is certainly UFC’s deepest after the merger with WEC.

The UFC Web site lists 46 lightweights (for comparison: 53 welterweights, 41 middleweights, 35 light heavies and 29 heavyweights). That’s an inexact measure — the site doesn’t always keep up with every roster change — but it gives us a ballpark idea of who’s in the Zuffa umbrella.

The WEC site lists 21 lightweights. (Aside on lower weights: They have 22 featherweights and only 18 bantamweights. Will the UFC bucks and brand name lure more fighters from overseas? The rankings suggest they have plenty of room to grow at featherweight, with only five of the top 11 currently with WEC, but the bantamweight pool isn’t as deep.)

So if no one is dropped, the UFC will have 67 lightweights. Make it 68, with Marcus Davis dropping down from 170.

With the help of Sherdog’s trusty Fight Finder, I’ve tried to compile everyone’s resumes. Please do speak up if I’ve made a mistake in transcribing or otherwise made a mess of things. I’ve only taken fighters listed on the UFC and WEC sites, though there may be a couple of fighters who are in contract limbo and could bounce back in at any moment.

Rankings, of course, are from the USA TODAY/SB Nation consensus calculation.

CHAMPION

Frankie Edgar: 13-1 overall, 8-1 UFC. Wins over Penn (2), Sherk, Griffin. Loss to Maynard, his next opponent.

RANKED

2. BJ Penn: 15-7-1, 11-6-1 UFC. Had won five straight (incl. Stevenson, Sherk, Florian, Sanchez) at LW before losing twice to Edgar. Last four losses before Edgar had been at 170 or higher. Next fight at 170 vs. Matt Hughes.

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mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ Season 12, Episode 7: Kos gets a break, or three

Posted on by Beau Dure

[poll id=”4″]Dane Sayers, the last draft pick, reminds us that he’s part Native American. GSP and his fellow coaches have embraced his desire to show some Native American pride. GSP often calls him “Red Horse,” which Sayers says is his Indian name. Jean Charles Skarbowsky says Sayers is the real American, not Koscheck. “Koscheck didn’t ask his permission to come here.”

But Red Horse is clearly the underdog against Sako “Psycho” Chivitchian, and Dana White knows it.

“He knows Dane isn’t at the same level as most of these guys,” Dana says. GSP says they wanted Sayers to go last so they’d have more time to work with him.

But first, we see the jockeying for the “wild card” slot that demonstrates a couple of the problems with the format. Spencer Paige is the only GSP fighter to lose so far, and he’ll be in a cast for three months. Jeff Lentz says Aaron “English” Wilkinson, the only Koscheck fighter to suffer a controversial loss, is also injured.

The producers don’t follow up on that, but we see a tiff between Lentz and Wilkinson. The Englishman scoffs at Lentz’s drinking and tobacco-chewing: “I don’t think he fits the criteria,” Wilkinson says.

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mma

The actual cause for concern beneath the Brock Lesnar panic

Posted on by Beau Dure

In a whirlwind of a heavyweight title fight Saturday night, Cain Velasquez wrested the UFC heavyweight belt away from Brock Lesnar. No controversies in this one — Lesnar was gracious in defeat, and referee Herb Dean stopped it at exactly the right time.

The reaction: Lesnar’s wrestling isn’t enough for him to succeed, the era of the colossal heavyweight might be over, Lesnar might not have a “fighter’s heart” and Dana White has to be fretting about business with his big-time draw defeated. And that’s just at Bloody Elbow, a reasonable MMA blog (and a great partner for USA TODAY). Somewhere in that mix, we even saw an argument that Lesnar might turn around and go back to pro wrestling.

The question about Lesnar’s heart comes from designated provocateur Jonathan Snowden and seems a little harsh after Lesnar’s twin comebacks from diverticulitis and the first-round battering he took from Shane Carwin. The questions about how his skills can and will match up with other talented heavyweights will be intriguing for a couple of years to come — if he isn’t slowed by age and whatever toll pro wrestling and illness took on his body.

The question about Lesnar going back to pro wrestling is a by-product of The Undertaker showing up and saying something to Lesnar, which seems the work of a desperate entertainment company or a desperate man. From my conversation with Lesnar in the weeks leading up to the fight, I think he’s very happy with his lifestyle and has no interest in going back to anything else. He wants to train in his private gym in Minnesota. He’s tired of talking and won’t want a scriptwriter putting words in his mouth.

So that leaves the question of the impact of Lesnar’s loss on the UFC, which Bloody Elbow’s Kid Nate rounds up as a short-term loss and long-term potential gain.

This much we can say with confidence: The UFC was building up pretty well before Brock Lesnar’s emergence. And only in his last two fights has Lesnar been asked to carry a card with little help. He first fought for the title against Randy Couture, a huge figure in UFC history making his return to the Octagon. He defended/unified the title on a star-studded UFC 100 card. Only in his comeback bout against Carwin and Saturday’s bout against Velasquez was he THE guy — and in the Spanish-speaking media, Velasquez was the guy.

So UFC naysayers can put the gloating to rest. This isn’t EliteXC screaming in terror as Kimbo Slice tumbles or Strikeforce trying to salvage the Fedor relationship and aura.

But there’s an underlying issue. Technically two, and one possible solution covers both of them.

Issue 1: The fighters who ruled the UFC as it went through explosive growth are starting to fade. That includes older stalwarts such as Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Matt Hughes and Tito Ortiz. It includes BJ Penn, shockingly dethroned as lightweight champion by lower-profile Frankie Edgar, and Anderson Silva, who is still middleweight champion but saves his explosiveness for brief forays at light heavyweight. Stretch a few years into this growth period, and it includes Lesnar, who hasn’t faded but isn’t quite as invincible as he once seemed. The exception is Georges St. Pierre, who has his critics after failing to finish a couple of opponents.

Issue 2: The UFC has been stretching its marquee fighters through an increasingly busy schedule of “numbered” events — 13 in 2009, 15 in 2009, 17 in 2010. That has led to a few pay-per-view cards with main events or co-main events featuring fighters who might be well-known to the devoted fan but not so much to the recent converts that UFC needs to keep those buy rates and ticket sales up. The UFC is getting by with good numbers, but the unrest among fans who don’t want to pay for all these cards is palpable. (Particularly if you’ve ever hosted a live chat.)

How can you make the fans happier while building more marquee names? One possibility: more fights on free TV. More “Fight Nights” and cards on Versus, which is nice for those of us who are a little too old and married for the Spike demographic.

The UFC Primetime shows, featuring up-close-and-personal looks at the fighters, can only do so much to build them up. When you have someone unpredictable like BJ Penn, it works. For Lesnar and Velasquez, it didn’t. TV producers can only do so much to push the “hard-working private Midwestern guy vs. hard-working Mexican-American guy” angle. Through three episodes, we saw more farmland than we’d see in a six-hour John Mellencamp video retrospective.

Free TV may not always be big business — for some reason, casual MMA fans have yet to realize how entertaining WEC cards can be, even without Urijah Faber — but they can help build these guys up. We can meet someone on The Ultimate Fighter and watch him progress to pay-per-view.

The problem isn’t that the UFC is doing too many pay-per-views. But as they build worldwide, they’ll need to do so with a mix of pay and free TV. Without The Ultimate Fighter and the exposure to casual fans, would the UFC be anywhere near the status it enjoys today?

Lesnar isn’t the problem. His next fight should draw some interest, and a possible championship comeback would be huge. Yet he shows why the UFC has been wise never to put all its eggs in a couple of baskets. And the emergence of relatively unknown champions such as Edgar and Velasquez shows why we need more time to meet these guys.

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mma

‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ Season 12, Episode 6: Choke! Choke!

Posted on by Beau Dure

Tonight, we’ll learn the rest of the opening-round matchups. We have two fights, which will leave just two guys remaining to face off next week.

But before we get to that, we have to watch Team Koscheck acting like a bunch of NFL wide receivers dancing after that fourth-quarter TD pass with their team down 31-7.

First, Koscheck tries to tell Michael Johnson he shouldn’t have won his fight. Johnson says the MMA equivalent of “scoreboard.”

The much-ballyhooed “Team Koscheck goes too far” shenanigans don’t start until Koscheck shows up at the house and wanders out to the balcony to continue feuding with Johnson. For some reason — and maybe USA TODAY will be able to ask about this — mature veteran Nam Phan is out on the balcony by Koscheck’s side.

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mma

MMA judging: A modest proposal

Posted on by Beau Dure

What should be valued most in MMA judging? Supposedly, it’s some mix of striking, grappling and Octagon control, but the definitions seem elusive to fans and losing fighters. (Winning fighters, of course, always find some way to interpret the scorecards.)

MMA fans and writers have many pet solutions for tweaking the judging process. This one attempts to give some idea of what should be valued the most.

1. Working toward finishing the fight – 60%

This includes both grappling and striking. A good solid submission attempt would count roughly the same as a punch or kick that stuns an opponent.

One key difference from what we usually consider in judging: This criterion is not “damage.” That was an old criterion in Pride, and there are two reasons it shouldn’t be considered. First, it’s political self-sabotage — NY lawmaker Bob Reilly brings it up every time anyone asks him why he opposes MMA regulation in his state. Second, it puts undue emphasis on drawing blood, the primary way judges can measure “damage.” If Fighter A lands a stiff body blow and comes close to a guillotine choke, he could still appear to be more “damaged” than Fighter B if Fighter B lands a glancing elbow in the right place.

2. Other effective strikes – 15%

This is where you’d count all the jabs and leg kicks that a fighter would need to accumulate in bunches to finish the fight.

3. Other effective grappling – 15%

If you’re one of the fans complaining that MMA puts too much stock in takedowns, good news — this category is only 15%.

4. Initiating action – 10%

Replaces “Octagon control.” This rewards the fighter who presses the action. Essentially, it serves as a good tiebreaker if two fighters neutralize each other throughout a round.

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