Last night at UFC 128 we seen one of MMA's top prospects Jon Jones snatch the UFC Light Heavyweight title out of former Prider Middleweight Grand Prix winnter and UFC Light Heavyweight champion Maurico 'Shogun' Rua. Jones went into the fight as clear favourite which many doubted the bookmakers were going a little extreme however like usual the bookies don't get it wrong.
Going into the fight i honestly thought that 'Shogun' would prove too much for the new comer. Jones had really only faced double leg takedown wrestlers such as Ryan Bader, Matt Hammil and Jake O'Brien with his best striker he had fought being either Stephan Bonnar or Brandon Vera. Taking nothing away from all those guys they arn't really tough tough opponents. Shogun brought to the cards fantastic Mauy Thai striking, a very under-rated Jui-Jitsu game along with vast experience.
Lets skip to the fight, we all know what happened: Jones can out with his flashy moves which proved effective and the takedown signafied the end of the fight for Shogun. When he did manage to get back onto his feet he was seriously goosed throwing what us from the UK would call 'alehouse punches.' Jones looked like he could have ended the strike whenever he wanted. Vicious elbows in round two after a knee bar attempt from the veteran misfired with Jones gaining top position and making an easy transition into half guard were he dropped his vintage elbows. Eventually in the 3rd round after a good combination, a knee from the challenger hit Shogun which dropped him causing referee Herb Dean to interveen.
So lets get down to the arguement: Was it a poor Shogun? Firstly what i noticed which i believe was key to winning the fight was that Rua didn't throw a leg kick. With all of this hype at ESPN's sport science zone about Shogun's kicks surely this was the way to win the fight. Yet Shogun looked timid even in throwing his lethal hands he has. Secondly we have to talk about his cardio. After four minutes of the fight after some ground 'n' pound from Jones, Shogun looked like he had ran a marathon: he looked absolutley knackered! I believe this was down to his training camp: think about it, how hard did Shogun work as he may have been thinking about busting his knee again.
On the other hand however we cannot take anything away from Jones. As much as i hate the guy especially with his run up leading to the fight signing himself as 'Champ 2011' he backed up the hype. Jones' stand up looked better than Shogun's from the word go which none of us expected. Additionally the way he managed to control Shogun on the ground for long perioids of time aswell as the way he dropped those vinatge elbows. It was a great performance and great gameplan which Jon Jones executed perfectly.
In conclusion even though it was a phenominal performance from Jones i believe Shogun was nowhere near his pinnacle. His cardio was pathetic, his stand up sloppy and most of all it seemed like his heart wasn't in it. If i were to give Shogun a piece of advice, i'd tell him to move camps. Yes you are probably thinking want is this guy saying right now but think about it: Shogun along with his brother Murilio 'Ninja' Rua own their own training camp. This is always the death of fighters. They are never pushed when they are vertually top guy in the camp. Fighters such as Brock Lesnar have proved his however Randy Couture is the only acception due to his work ethic and experience. When Shogun was at Chute Box he was around the best of the best where he was pushed every day by guys like Wanderli Silva and Anderson Silva. Now who is Shogun pushed by?
Sunday, 20 March 2011
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Zuffa buying Strikeforce: could this be a good thing for MMA?
On the 12th March 2011 a huge event in MMA shocked all of us fans. Yes, to what many 'hardcore' fans seen as a nightmare event Zuffa, the owner of the UFC, confirmed the purchase of Strikeforce. This was about as out of the blue as the Pride deal and many analysists believe this is a more important deal.
Strikeforce had in my humble opinion been working on slowly growing on casual fans. The Strikeforce Heavyweight tournament got a lot of attraction from fans who hadn't really watched Strikeforce before along with the great Fedor Emeilenko signing with the promotion post Pride and Affliction. Talks of having events in Japan, a market Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker knows very well was very much talked about and looked likely it would happen late 2011/ early 2012. The UK also looked a very likely market to go into too if Paul Daley won his title fight against Nick Diaz on April 9th and now there is a chance the fight won't go underway.
Back to the bigger question anyway. Is the purchase of Strikeforce a good thing for MMA? Lets firstly look at the pros in the situation. The purchase of Strikeforce could mean seeing some big superfights go ahead. The biggest superfight which could take place has to be Allistair Overeem vs Cain Velasquez/ Junior Dos Santos. Personally JDS runs through Brock Lesnar due to Brock not being able to take a punch. If 'The Reem' fights either Velasquez or JDS this has the potential to be a war and will definatley be one of the biggest Heavyweight clashes of all time! Both Velasquez and Dos Santos are great strikers, with JDS being the better, and Cain Velasquez having a great all round game yet JDS has too. Another Heavyweight title fight which would be awesome to see would be between two legend who in my point of view are in the top five of the best of all time: Randy Couture vs Fedor Emelienko. Two MMA legends without any doubt from anyone, this was a fight which broke down a few years back. Maybe these two are both past their prime however this could be a huge PPV seller. Other superfights such as Gilbert Melendez vs Frankie Edgar or Gray Maynard, GSP vs Nick Diaz and dare i say Dan Henderson fighting whoever the UFC Lightheavyweight champion looks really realistic with Hendo having one fight left on his contract.
Additionally, Zuffa owning Strikeforce also means that Strikeforce now has the ability to grow. Dana White has stated that Strikeforce will be 'business as usual.' With Strikeforce being contracted to the American T.V channel 'Showtime' for to my knowledge at least a year and a half, Dana White has said and in practise he honours contracts. Dana has said that Scott Coker will carry on running Strikeforce and with the promotion through PPV's to advertise Strikeforce along with the Fertitta's money behind the project this could make the brand huge. Take Strikeforce's April 9th card, Nick Diaz vs Paul Daley. Diaz vs Daley is a very anticipated fight in the MMA world due to Nick Diaz's fantastic boxing, aggressiveness and not taking most fights down were he could win with ease vs Daley's power and precission in his striking could make fireworks. Gilbert Melendez fairly unknown to casual fans (or Zuffa Zombies as the great Bloodstain Lane would say) is fighting Japenese sensation Tatsuya Kawajiri a very well rounded fighter who is overlooked upon by Shinya Aoki. Aoki himself will be making his second apperance on the card. His debut against Melendez wasn't the best however should pick up the W via submission.
However Zuffa buying Strikeforce has cons too. With Strikeforce eliminated, Bellator only just getting a T.V deal and Japenese MMA in a very unstable situation (finances along with the tragic earthquake) Zuffa vertually owns MMA. This means that fighters in the UFC will be fighting even more cautiously in my opinion. Fighters such as Jon Fitch who have been criticized for not being offensive enough could find themselves fighting for a very low some of money. Fitch himself won't be released as he is too talented to have a three fight losing streak. Yet say a regular 170lber who earns $8000 plus $8000 win bonus gets cut there is vertually nowhere to go for them. Bellator is the best option with it being now the second biggest brand in MMA. We could see wrestlers who chose to have stand up wars go back to their bread and butter and become boring so they don't become unemployed. Don't get me wrong the most important thing to a fighter is getting the win however it's the fans who make sport at the end of the day. This is where Dana White and the UFC go wrong. Vertually now if you lose three fights on the bounce, which could turn into two could lead to being cut from the roster.
All in all this deal could be good for MMA. However the deal from Zuffa will be pointless if they don't make thhe superfights: you still have two separate companys still competing. The monopoly idea from Zuffa I believe could kill MMA, hyperthetically speaking but if we do see the big superfights such as Allistair Overeem vs Cain Velaquez would be amazing but think about it, is it really worth having that one big fight to watch most fights being a wrestling match instead of a MMA fight- I think no.
Strikeforce had in my humble opinion been working on slowly growing on casual fans. The Strikeforce Heavyweight tournament got a lot of attraction from fans who hadn't really watched Strikeforce before along with the great Fedor Emeilenko signing with the promotion post Pride and Affliction. Talks of having events in Japan, a market Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker knows very well was very much talked about and looked likely it would happen late 2011/ early 2012. The UK also looked a very likely market to go into too if Paul Daley won his title fight against Nick Diaz on April 9th and now there is a chance the fight won't go underway.
Back to the bigger question anyway. Is the purchase of Strikeforce a good thing for MMA? Lets firstly look at the pros in the situation. The purchase of Strikeforce could mean seeing some big superfights go ahead. The biggest superfight which could take place has to be Allistair Overeem vs Cain Velasquez/ Junior Dos Santos. Personally JDS runs through Brock Lesnar due to Brock not being able to take a punch. If 'The Reem' fights either Velasquez or JDS this has the potential to be a war and will definatley be one of the biggest Heavyweight clashes of all time! Both Velasquez and Dos Santos are great strikers, with JDS being the better, and Cain Velasquez having a great all round game yet JDS has too. Another Heavyweight title fight which would be awesome to see would be between two legend who in my point of view are in the top five of the best of all time: Randy Couture vs Fedor Emelienko. Two MMA legends without any doubt from anyone, this was a fight which broke down a few years back. Maybe these two are both past their prime however this could be a huge PPV seller. Other superfights such as Gilbert Melendez vs Frankie Edgar or Gray Maynard, GSP vs Nick Diaz and dare i say Dan Henderson fighting whoever the UFC Lightheavyweight champion looks really realistic with Hendo having one fight left on his contract.
Additionally, Zuffa owning Strikeforce also means that Strikeforce now has the ability to grow. Dana White has stated that Strikeforce will be 'business as usual.' With Strikeforce being contracted to the American T.V channel 'Showtime' for to my knowledge at least a year and a half, Dana White has said and in practise he honours contracts. Dana has said that Scott Coker will carry on running Strikeforce and with the promotion through PPV's to advertise Strikeforce along with the Fertitta's money behind the project this could make the brand huge. Take Strikeforce's April 9th card, Nick Diaz vs Paul Daley. Diaz vs Daley is a very anticipated fight in the MMA world due to Nick Diaz's fantastic boxing, aggressiveness and not taking most fights down were he could win with ease vs Daley's power and precission in his striking could make fireworks. Gilbert Melendez fairly unknown to casual fans (or Zuffa Zombies as the great Bloodstain Lane would say) is fighting Japenese sensation Tatsuya Kawajiri a very well rounded fighter who is overlooked upon by Shinya Aoki. Aoki himself will be making his second apperance on the card. His debut against Melendez wasn't the best however should pick up the W via submission.
However Zuffa buying Strikeforce has cons too. With Strikeforce eliminated, Bellator only just getting a T.V deal and Japenese MMA in a very unstable situation (finances along with the tragic earthquake) Zuffa vertually owns MMA. This means that fighters in the UFC will be fighting even more cautiously in my opinion. Fighters such as Jon Fitch who have been criticized for not being offensive enough could find themselves fighting for a very low some of money. Fitch himself won't be released as he is too talented to have a three fight losing streak. Yet say a regular 170lber who earns $8000 plus $8000 win bonus gets cut there is vertually nowhere to go for them. Bellator is the best option with it being now the second biggest brand in MMA. We could see wrestlers who chose to have stand up wars go back to their bread and butter and become boring so they don't become unemployed. Don't get me wrong the most important thing to a fighter is getting the win however it's the fans who make sport at the end of the day. This is where Dana White and the UFC go wrong. Vertually now if you lose three fights on the bounce, which could turn into two could lead to being cut from the roster.
All in all this deal could be good for MMA. However the deal from Zuffa will be pointless if they don't make thhe superfights: you still have two separate companys still competing. The monopoly idea from Zuffa I believe could kill MMA, hyperthetically speaking but if we do see the big superfights such as Allistair Overeem vs Cain Velaquez would be amazing but think about it, is it really worth having that one big fight to watch most fights being a wrestling match instead of a MMA fight- I think no.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)