As a fan of fights, I’m excited. As a booster of the sport, I’m excited.
This is going to be a big litmus test for MMA going forward as a mainstream sport. Bumpers and plugs have been airing throughout the MLB playoffs and NFL games on Fox.
That’s a potentially bigger audience than UFC’s ever had.
In spite of its early bare-knuckle days (if that reads as familiar see also: boxing), it has finally achieved some acceptance, including being legal in all but a small number of states, one of them being New York. But if the UFC is looking at November 12th as an accomplishment, they’re wrong. Even though it’s made some strides, MMA is still seen by the mainstream sports media as a fringe freak show, rather than a respected combat sport.
November 12th isn’t the night that the UFC can say they’ve finally made it. It’s actually their biggest test. How that number shapes up will influence everything going forward.
FRANKIE EDGAR: ANSWERED
I’ve been on the Edgar bandwagon since he debuted in the UFC in that great fight with Tyson Griffin, and I’m glad to see him evolve into the fighter I knew he’d become. His survival of Maynard’s first-round onslaught is now the stuff of legend, and his performance after was impressive and awe-inspiring for those who watch the sport for technique rather than sitting on their hands waiting for a knockout. And yet on Saturday night, he gave us just that. Hell, I was alone in my house and still jumped out of my seat. With this win and his back to back victories over quite possibly the best 155 pound fighter in history (BJ Penn), Edgar has proven that the bottleneck in the Lightweight rankings is a good mile or two behind him. There are no shortage of challengers, and all will provide entertaining fights, but are any of them in Edgar’s league?
WHAT’S NEXT FOR GRAY MAYNARD?
The easy answer is Nate Diaz. Diaz’s win over Takanori Gomi at UFC 135 had everyone ready to proclaim him the #1 contender, which confounds me considering his inconsistency and the fact that Gomi is nowhere near the fighter he was six years ago (and even then he was overrated). However, it does give matchmaker Joe Silva an excuse to make the fight with Maynard to settle their long-standing grudge. Surely Nate, who has been asking for this fight since January of 2010, would love to see it happen. Thing is, though, Maynard is not anything resembling the fighter he was when they first met in the fifth season of the Ultimate Fighter. While Diaz has been jumping up and down in weight and trying to find his place in the fight world, Maynard has matured into an elite 155er and improved his striking tremendously. Be careful what you wish for, Nate.
JOSE ALDO: THE FEATHERWEIGHT RODNEY DANGERFIELD
Aldo can’t get any respect. He was dismissed after he was unable to dispatch Mark Hominick and gassed in the championship rounds, and his win against Kenny Florian is being seen as another chink in the armor of a guy who was being called the Featherweight Anderson Silva in the WEC. The problem is that many fans and almost as many self-professed pundits are unwilling or unable to put both fights into their proper context. His fight against Hominick was coming off an injury to his cervical vertebrae. It’s the type of neck injury that could sideline an athlete for quite some time, yet Aldo was defending his title just four months after the initial diagnosis and rehab. It’s still not one hundred percent, and yet he was able to stave off his biggest figurative and literal biggest challenge yet in Kenny Florian. Was he cautions? Of course. He had to be against a guy who, despite his (slightly unfair) reputation as a guy who chokes, had a tremendous size and grappling advantage. Yet Florian wasn’t able to get him to the ground, and the best he could muster after the first round was to occasionally muscle Aldo around the cage without inflicting any damage or attaining anything resembling a dominant position. Even if Aldo himself was unhappy with the outcome, it sent a message to 155ers: don’t count on a weight cut to win the Featherweight Championship. With all due respect, if Kenny Florian couldn’t topple him, the other UFC Lightweights eyeing 145 don’t stand a chance.
KENNY FLORIAN: RETIREMENT?
Rumors of a retirement have yet to materialize, but this one had to sting. Florian was convinced that he’d finally found his route to championship gold, only to be out-grappled by a deceptively strong and agile champion. Unfortunately it’s another argument that he’s a choker, which I don’t think is entirely fair given the way the MMA media has undersold his most recent opponent and the fact that his last championship loss was to BJ Penn who was at the height of his dominance at 155. Still, it does make it clear that Florian is simply the best of the rest. There are fighters who are championship material, but in this young sport most are seemingly a full generation ahead of all other fighters in their weight class. Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva are the most obvious examples, but guys like Frankie Edgar are establishing themselves as well. While being second-best in a crowded field at any weight is nothing to be ashamed of, it’s clearly not good enough for Florian. I think it’d be a shame since he obviously still has plenty of gas left in his tank, but I’d also understand if this was the last time we saw him inside of an Octagon. Well, except when he’s doing post-fight interviews in a beige three-piece suit, anyway.
CHAEL SONNEN: PROFESSIONAL CLOWN SHOES
I’m glad that everyone’s amused by Chael Sonnen’s interviews and challenge to Anderson Silva. As a former professional wrestling junkie, I appreciated him laying down the “loser leaves town” stipulation. That’s where my praise begins and ends, though, for the guy who continues to thumb his nose at the integrity of the sport. His continued defiance and insistence that he has a right to use performance enhancing drugs under the guise of a phony disease is no laughing matter, and it’s a shame that so many people whose job it is to cover this sport are instead giggling along with him and slapping him on the back as he boasts about his ability to circumvent Athletic Commissions and tarnish the reputation of MMA. I would say that it won’t be a laughing matter when a healthy Anderson Silva gets into the Octagon with him, but I don’t find much to laugh about now as it is.
MELVIN GUILLARD IS A WORK IN PROGRESS Guillard will be the first to tell you that he was a reckless personality when he first came into the UFC, and he’s matured by leaps and bounds as a fighter but especially as a human being since then. However, he clearly underestimated Joe Lauzon and paid for it. He’s no different than a multitude of other fighters, but a champion knows his victory is only as secure as his focus. Still, credit where it’s due to Lauzon, who kept his cool and fought smart.
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RESULTS – MAIN TELEVISED PORTION Frankie Edgar def. Gray Maynard via TKO (Punches in R4) to retain the UFC Lightweight Championship
Jose Aldo def. Kenny Florian via Unanimous Decision to retain the UFC Featherweight Championship
Chael Sonnen def. Brian Stann via Submission (Arm Triangle in R2)
Nam Phan def. Leonard Garcia via Unanimous Decision
Joe Lauzon def. Melvin Guillard via Submission (Rear Naked Choke in R1)
UNDERCARD
Demian Maia def. Jorge Santiago via Unanimous Decision
Anthony Pettis def. Jeremy Stephens via Split Decision – Good to see Pettis get back to his winning ways, but a split decision win over Jeremy Stephens isn’t going to send him shooting up the rankings.
Stipe Miocic def. Joey Beltran via Unanimous Decision – Someone in the UFC dropped Miocic’s name as a Heavyweight prospect and everyone thought he was going to come out like a monster and knock Beltran’s head off. What little video I’ve seen of him gave me the same impression this fight did: he’s got potential, but he’s not quite there yet.
Darren Elkins def. Tiequan Zhang via Unanimous Decision
Aaron Simpson def. Eric Schafer via Unanimous Decision
Mike Massenzio def. Steve Cantwell via Unanimous Decision – Sadly, this will probably be the last we’ll see of the former WEC Light Heavyweight contender.
Due to a prior obligation, I unfortunately missed last Saturday’s UFC Live on Versus during its initial airing.
Dominick Cruz is a generation ahead of pretty much every other fighter at 135, but he faces a bias against good fighters who win by decision.
Judging by the results, it was exactly what I expected it to be: a woefully underlooked card that provided some of the more entertaining bouts in recent months.
I was disappointed, however, in the reaction I read online.
Part of the problem with MMA is that its fanbase has more overlap with professional wrestling than with boxing or any other legitimate sport. That’s not meant to browbeat professional wrestling fans as a whole, since I was one of them until the uglier aspects of the industry chased me away.
There comes a time, though, when one has to decide if they like sports or entertainment. While the terms aren’t mutually exclusive, it doesn’t follow that an athlete is required to entertain you, the fan, first and foremost.
This mindset is the same one that says Georges St-Pierre is a lesser fighter because he wins fights by decision. That bias and vitriol against strategy and technique is now being directed towards Dominick Cruz, who many fans have taken to calling “The Decisionater” (playing off his nickname “The Domin8r”). It doesn’t help either when fighters like Quinton Jackson talk about the glory days of Pride Fighting Championships in Japan and yearn for a return to days when fighters were more concerned with putting on a good show than actually winning the fight. If you took that attitude to a boxing fan, you’d be rightfully chastised.
Which leads me back to the problem at hand: a fanbase mired in a pro wrestling mindset.
This was certainly the case in Japan. While older fight fans wax poetic about the apex of the Japanese MMA scene, they ignore the fixed fights and fighters being offered bonuses if they happened to lose to native fighters via submission or knockout. The best fighters at Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight fought in Pride, but they rarely fought each other on a fair and level playing field. If they did meet, it was in a tournament spanning one or two evenings, which is indicative of toughness but not necessarily skill.
This sport is still evolving, and as a fan you have to either accept that or face the reality that what you’re looking for might not be here. Nobody with any reasonable level of intelligence or appreciation for the game and the sacrifices fighters make should call for anyone to sacrifice their championship or their career for the sake of a quick moment of elation for the chubby guy sitting at the bar.
If you can’t watch someone like Dominick Cruz put on the performances he’s had while the WEC and UFC Bantamweight Champion and appreciate his talent, then you’re not a fan of MMA. You’re a fan of flash knockouts, blood, and freak shows. And for that, you could save yourself a lot of time and money and just surf YouTube.
—————-
Other notes/controversies from the event:
Lightweight TJ Grant was given a submission win in the third round when referee Fernando Yamasaki (Mario Yamasaki’s younger brother) mistook Shane Roller‘s aggressive yell for a verbal submission. In watching the replay, I could see how someone could misinterpret the situation. On the other hand, I worry it sets a bad precedent when you have fighters thinking that any sort of grunt of verbal expression can be taken as a submission.
Later in the evening, Mario Yamasaki was taken to task by some for what they perceived to be an early stoppage after Anthony Johnson nearly took Charlie Brenneman‘s head off with a head kick following a vicious offensive flurry that had Brenneman effectively out on his feet. In this case, Mario was right to stop the fight and he had no shortage of people defending it. I hate to dismiss so many by saying they’re ignorant, but the referee’s job isn’t to wait until a fighter is knocked unconscious. Mario Yamasaki determined – rightly – that Brenneman was in danger of being knocked unconscious. Which he was. Despite his reaction when knocked on his back, Brenneman was being beatne like a pinata and was clearly out on his feet before Johnson’s head kick. Anything after that would have been unnecessary damage, and like Dana White said in the post-fight presser, it’s always better to see a fight stopped early than a fight stopped well after it should have been.
Pat Barry‘s loss to Stefan Struve proves what I’ve been thinking for a while: Barry is a very nice guy who is not very good at the whole MMA thing. He needs to do nothing for the next few months except drill his submission and takedown defense. A fighter would be able to get away with only one or two tools in his box three years ago, but not in 2011 and certainly not in a field where there’s more parity seemingly by the week.
MATT WIMAN vs. MAC DANZIG
Their first encounter was at UFC 115 in June of last year. Wiman had Danzig in a guillotine choke and Yves Lavigne called off the fight when it appeared from his vantage point that Danzig had passed out. What Lavigne could not see, however, is that Danzig was fine and was actually executing some movement and defense. After over a year of injuries and postponements, the two will finally meet and settle it proper. When they first met, Danzig was on a comeback trail after a revelatory re-evaluation of himself as a fighter, giving him a more collected presence in the Octagon which allowed him to more fully utilize all the weapons in his arsenal. He would have still been outclassed by Wiman in June of 2010, but I honestly believe that despite his ten month layoff, Danzig’s going to come into this an even better fighter than he was when they first met.
PREDICTION: Danzig via Unanimous Decision
ANTHONY JOHNSON vs. CHARLIE BRENNEMAN
Everyone seems to have the young Brenneman inked in for a decision win, which surprises me. Johnson’s had his setbacks, but he’s still a big, dangerous Welterweight with the edge in experience and on his feet. Brenneman deserves props for his upset of Rick Story, but the fight was made literally hours before the event due to Nate Marquardt’s drug test failure and subsequent dismissal (publicly via a Dana White YouTube video) from the UFC. There was a lot of chaos and drama that night, and in that type of a situation it’s very hard to use it to gauge a fighter’s trajectory. Brenneman is giving up a lot of size and experience. His edge may be in grappling, but is he strong enough to take Johnson to the ground and keep him there? I sincerely doubt it. PREDICTION: Johnson via KO (Round 2)
PAT BARRY vs. STEFAN STRUVE
Pat Barry’s one of my favorite fighters due to his personality and the fact that he always puts on a great show for the fans. But I’m the first to note that he’s the furthest thing from a contender due to his misplaced priorities during fights, his reach disadvantage, and especially his questionable ground game. It’s that last part that will cost him against Stefan Struve, who himself has an incredible advantage in reach at nearly seven feet tall that, due to his style of fighting, he never utilizes. I pick Struve to win here, but he really needs to work out how to maintain a healthy distance with those long arms and legs. He’s a tough kid, but there are diminishing returns in a fighter taking hard shots. PREDICTION: Struve via Unanimous Decision
DOMINICK CRUZ vs. DEMETRIOUS JOHNSON
As I’ve stated before on this space and to anyone who will listen, I think Cruz is one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world. Demetrious Johnson is quick and tenacious, and he’ll make for an entertaining fight. But he, like everyone else right now at 135 pounds, is woefully outclassed by Cruz’s enigmatic footwork and astounding cardio. PREDICTION: Cruz via Unanimous Decision
UFC LIVE airs Saturday, October 1st at 9:00pm on Versus.
Those of you that follow the MMA news sites or blogs likely know by now that Dave Herman’s fight with Mike Russow is off the UFC 136 card later this month after he tested positive for marijuana.
His original story was a convoluted tale that involved the Texas State Athletic Commission bungling their testing and at one point losing his sample. He then acted baffled that it suddenly returned and came back positive, noting that he hadn’t so much as drunk a beer in two months.
“I do not smoke marijuana,” Herman told MMA Fighting. “I can’t say I’m not around it. I live in California. Pretty much everyone out here smokes weed. Maybe I need to pick my friends a little better. I don’t know.”
Okay, folks, some free advice. Let’s be cute and call this a “Marshall Law.”
IF YOU HAVE A DRUG TEST COMING UP AND ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL FIGHTER WHO COULD MAKE A LOT OF MONEY TO FIGHT ON LIVE TELEVISION FOR THE BIGGEST MMA PROMOTION IN THE WORLD AND SOMEONE SAYS “HEY WE’RE GOING TO SMOKE SOME POT,” LEAVE THE GODDAMN ROOM.
In fact, even if you’re applying for a job at Arby’s, it’s probably a good idea NOT to stick around for a contact high and a blown opportunity.
Due to the fact that the withdrawal happened so suddenly and in the midst of the UFC’s busiest time of the year, finding a replacement to fight Mike Russow has proven difficult. So instead, the rematch between Nam Phan and Leonard Garcia has been moved up to the main card.
…know what? I take back that previous Marshall Law. New Marshall Law:
IF YOU ARE DAVE HERMAN AND YOU ARE IN A FIGHT THAT IS KEEPING A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED REMATCH OF AN AWESOME, CONTROVERSIAL FIGHT OFF THE MAIN CARD, GO TOKE UP WITH NICK DIAZ WHILE HIDING FROM ROGER GRACIE.
The once (and future?) crown Prince of Lightweights: Roger Huerta is returning to the streets that nearly destroyed him
If you pitched Roger Huerta’s life story to a Hollywood producer, he’d likely be given a polite dismissal that would turn into condescension once he left the room.
It’s a story about a kid from the streets, abandoned by addict parents who leave him homeless and alone before he even htis puberty. Then he’s discovered and brought along as an amateur wrestler, leading to an ascent that culminates in him becoming the first MMA fighter to ever grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. All the attention and fame thrust upon him at such a young age creates distractions and overconfidence. While being considered for title opportunities, he openly talks about leaving fighting to pursue an acting career. Then he becomes the first fighter to ever voluntarily jump from the UFC to the upstart Bellator fighting promotion.
Once there, the man once considered the #2 Lightweight in the world has his mind and body obliterated by the promotion’s champion, a relative unknown named Eddie Alvarez. While recovering from his injuries in the hospital, he has an epiphany and takes a spiritual journey to Thailand that leads to him rediscovering himself and finding his new purpose in life. Cue the comeback fight, taking place in the town whose streets he once slept on; the place that nearly killed him serving as the birthing ground for the resurging fighter.
It’s too much, and you’d probably get called a hack.
And yet there he is, and here we are.
MMAFighting.com’s Mike Chiapetta has the story of Huerta’s comeback and where the former UFC Lightweight that once adorned the cover of Sports Illustrated has been:
As he explored Thailand and a different way of life, he began to think about the route his life had taken. He had a famously difficult childhood, abandoned by his parents, homeless by the sixth grade. He made it through high school, moved on to college, and was quickly thrust into the MMA spotlight in the UFC. He became a Sports Illustrated cover boy at the age of 24. It was all quite dizzying, and by the time he left the UFC for Bellator, he was struggling with burnout and self-doubt.
“You could say that i was going crazy, but I was trying to understand things,” he said.
Dominick Cruz deserves your attention this Saturday.
I’ve been signing the praises of Cruz to friends and fans going back to his days in the WEC. Boy, do I miss those cards, particularly the laters ones that featured almost exclusively Bantamweight and Featherweight fights. Since MMA is still a young sport, there are still divisions that are lacking for depth (in particular Heavyweight and Middleweight) and still experience growing pains while the sport continues to attract the attention of higher caliber of athletes from around the globe. Yet in the WEC, there were two lower weight classes that at the time were not even in the UFC where the talent pool was not only exceptional, but nearly every fight was a barn-burner.
Cruz was the star of the WEC in its final days, becoming champion right at the precipice of the announcement of the UFC’s eventual aborption of the promotion. His year and a half long reign has seen him dominate the likes of Scott Jorgensen and former Featherweight champion Urijah Faber in performances that have shown him to be something far beyond the measuring stick for his weight class. Like Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva, Cruz seems to be a generation ahead of every other fighter in his division, yet with a style that is unique and all his own. Anyone that appreciates footwork can only sit in awe as he darts and dances around his opponents. As MMAFighting.com’s Ben Fowlkes once said (in praise of Cruz’s unique style and baffling cardio), “how do you prepare for this weirdo?”
It’s my belief (as you’ll see when I release my rankings later this week) that Dominick Cruz is one of the top five pound-for-pound fighters in the world. It’s a shame that he’s not being showcased on pay-per-view and does not yet have the recognition and respect from casual fans to be a major draw, but the positive of course is that we get to see one of the greatest MMA fighters in the game hone his craft on free television. Lucky us.
In addition to the main event, the rest of the card has the potential to be one of the more entertaining events of 2011. Pat Barry vs. Stefan Struve, Matt Wiman vs. Mac Danzig, and Anthony Johnson vs. Charlie Brenneman rounds out the live televised portion of the event.
You owe it to yourself as a fan to watch this Saturday. Mark my words: you won’t see a better fighter step in the cage the rest of this year.
Larry Merchant has rightfully taken a lot of heat for his comments and behavior during his interview with Floyd Mayweather after the Mayweather/Ortiz debacle from two weeks ago.
For those who need a refresher:
Say what you want about Floyd being overly emotional or overreacting, but as a member of the media, it’s on Merchant to retain and maintain the higher ground. His actions and comments were not only uncalled for, they were unprofessional and unbecoming of a broadcast journalist. There’s no excuse for them and there’s been nothing I’ve seen that indicates he regrets or even understands the breach that occurred that evening.
Dana White, the head of the UFC and a former boxing manager himself, expressed his outrage over not only the hypothetical threat Merchant made towards Mayweather, but the line of questioning:
(starting at the 7:00 mark)
“And then Larry Merchant…this guy always jumps in there and always saying bad stuff about people. And he’s attacking Floyd about the punch! Well how about the headbutt? If you want to ask Floyd a question right off the bat, ask him about the headbutt. This guy always—it’s my big beef with, uh–with Merchant for years. These guys get done fighting and he jumps in the ring and just starts saying off the wall, weird, rude shit to these guys. Who the Hell would want to do an interview with him? Probably the thing they dread worse than training, cutting weight, and everything, is their interview with Larry Merchant. It’s ridiculous.”
…
“I actually thought that that was very embarrassing for HBO. That guy is senile, he’s out of his mind, you know—he’s up there berating Floyd, you know. Floyd can’t say anything back to you? You’ve been disrespecting guys your whole career, and guess what? You can go back sixty years. You’re not kicking Floyd’s ass, okay? And what’s Floyd gonna do? A 102-year-old guy just said that to him, you know? And I’m the first one to go out and smash Floyd. Because I think Floyd should take this fight [against Manny Pacquaio]. Manny Pacquaio’s never tested positive for anything, okay? You’re not the Athletic Commission, Floyd. Who are you to be demanding all this other stuff, right? But I gotta be honest, I think Floyd handled himself very well that night, you know? It’s just so easy to hate him that everybody wants to blame Floyd.”
Larry Merchant, naturally, fired back in an interview with Boxing Scene’s Chris Robinson with statements dripping with sarcasm that insulted not only White, the sport of MMA as a whole, and, in turn, its fans:
“Let’s see, anyone who can make a multi-million dollar business out of street fighting has to be respected. My opinion is that anyone is allowed to put up a tent, put on a show and invite people to come. And obviously he’s had a lot of success. Good for him.”
“I don’t watch it. I don’t get a so-called sport in which you can have a 6-2 record and be called a world champion. I just don’t appreciate the finer points of MMA.”
Shockingly, Robinson says that he’s “surprised” that Merchant appears “unfazed” by the criticism. To which I can only say that if Robinson thinks getting overly defensive and insulting in response to a statement is “unfazed,” I’d hate to see what he thinks Merchant would have done if he were actually fazed by the remarks. Maybe threaten to kick White’s ass if he were thirty or forty years younger?
Look, I’m gonna take the Dana approach here and note that I’m the first to criticize him when it’s due, and I will in this instance as well: I actually don’t think that Floyd was totally in the right with how he conducted himself after the fight, but more importantly White’s comments about Merchants age are unnecessary and wholly uncalled for.
That said, Merchant was still wrong to do what he did and if it were anybody else, he would have been fired for it. Merchant does have a bad rep in circles for his post-fight line of questioning, which is a touchy subject because it asks broadcasters and reporters to traverse that precarious high-wire that separates being respectful and doing your job. Still, though, the line is there, and as a professional Merchant didn’t just wobble, he jumped off it with a smile on his face.
As for his comments about MMA? Firstly, I’ve always respected boxing and through personal exposure and training, I’m growing to love it for its finer points and especially the integrity of so many I know in the business. You won’t mean nicer guys than the Miller Brothers, for instance, who run NY Boxing in nearby Cohoes, NY. That said, nobody in the boxing industry is in any position to favorably compare all the ridiculously padded records in boxing with those of any other sport, whether it be team or combat. Brock Lesnar, to whom Merchant is referring, became champion by beating the undeniably best heavyweights in the world, until he ran into another guy who got his shot and proved he was better. Of course there are fighters who have padded records in MMA, but they’re constantly scrutinized and quickly exposed once they reach a higher level. The quality of a fighter’s record, whether it be MMA or boxing, does not lie simply in quantity.
I’m sure Merchant knows this already. He’s just “unfazed” by it.
This past Saturday was UFC 135, headlined by Light Heavyweight phenom Jon Jones defending his newly won Championship against perennial contender and dangerous puncher Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
Jones won in dominant fashion. More on that later, but first I need to vent about my frustration over the fact that I missed this whole card.
Obviously, I love MMA. I do what I can to watch every UFC, but I have a few hurdles in front of me. My roommate and I got rid of cable several months ago when we realized, hey, we literally never watch it. That’s no exaggeration, either, as at one point I went a full three weeks without so much as turning the television on. It’d be silly to pay for something I don’t utilize, then on top of that fork over the $45 or $55 for the occasional pay-per-view. I also don’t have a car. If I was in New York City (hopefully my eventual destination) it wouldn’t be a problem, but in the greater Capital Region (the area in and around Albany, NY) it’s a killer.
Which is why I was excited when I learned that Broadway Brew, a downtown bar in my hometown of Troy, NY, was showing and advertising UFC pay-per-views. I was even able to convince friends of mine to come down to Troy for the last few fight cards. For someone like me who’s a local booster, it’s a win-win: I get a convenient place to watch the fights and help out a new business in Troy. It’s also been a great atmosphere every time out, with the crowd a mix of mostly enthusiastic fans and some amateur fighters and local BJJ guys. It’s definitely a more educated and attentive crowd than you’ll find at, say, Wolf’s 1-11 or Buffalo Wild Wings, both of which are situated in areas of monstrous commercial sprawl and chain restaurants.
We got there on Saturday and got a table. At 9:00pm, I had to ask the waitress there to have them turn on the fight. Several others, I had heard, had to make the same request. When they put it on, we only saw the pay-per-view channel screen with ordering information. Ten minutes passed and we were told that two people were on the phone with Time Warner trying to figure out what the problem was. We were served out food and finished it. Forty minutes later, I asked again and was told they were still on hold. I asked her to come back in ten minutes, at which point we’d decide whether or not we wanted to stick around or just pay the check. Ten minutes later, she said nothing, put the check on our table and said “have a good night.”
…alright then!
With that and the lack of explanation on their Facebook page, I assume their days of showing pay-per-view are done, which is a damn shame. The only other two places I mentioned are always packed. You have to get there at just the right time after the dinner rush and before the event begins to get a table. Wolf’s 1-11, for example, had upwards of 400 to 450 people there for last Saturday’s fight card.
Unfortunately, looks like I’ll be a part of that crowd from now on. It’s a trip to a crowded chain restaurants or nothing for me. C’est la vie.
As far as the fight card itself goes, I can only go on what I read, which seems unreal. My thoughts on the results:
Jon Jones is unreal, but that fight is still more or less exactly how I expected it to go. Jackson is a powerful counter-puncher without much reach to speak of who throws more hooks than anything else. How on Earth was he going to overcome Jones’s freakish reach, never mind the fact that Jones has already proven himself to have an amazing skillset?
After a quick knockout at the hands of Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes still won’t commit to the word “retirement.” There’s a lot of speculation as to why that’s the case, among them that he wants someone else (ie Dana White) to make the decision for him vis a vis an office position or that it’s a negotiation ploy. Personally, I just think that Hughes is smart enough to know that he can take a year off and then come back for one big payday, and he’s seen the folly of so many fighters who have cried retirement only to come back months later.
Nate Diaz beat Takanori Gomi and everyone’s touting him as a contender now. Let’s back that bus up, though. His previous wins at 155 need to be put into context. Nate beat Melvin Guillard before his rebirth and resurgence and there’s no way he’d be able to hang with the Clay Guida of 2011. Also, the story isn’t Nate’s ascent so much as Gomi’s decline over the last several years, which is due in equal parts to an overinflated value put on him by fanboys who bought the hype behind him in Pride and the fact that in six years he hasn’t evolved one iota as a fighter. In such a young sport that’s changing at the rate that it is, the inability to change and adapt is a death sentence for a fighter’s career.
Mark Hunt is not only in the midst of a storybook comeback, he also apparently knows how to wrestle and executed takedowns against Ben Rothwell. Color me intrigued, and I’m curious to see where we’ll see Hunt end up in 2012.
So there you have it, my thoughts on UFC 135, as best as I can gather from the coverage I’ve read. It was always a great time watching fights at Broadway Brew, so long as it lasted.
Dominick Cruz deserves your attention this Saturday.