Finally, a chance to catch our breath
Just some random thoughts from a very wild month of mixed martial arts action:
Not sure what the Rua brothers were doing for the last month but, apparently, they weren’t working on their cardio. The brothers both looked gassed in their recent bouts — Mauricio in his loss to Forrest Griffin and Murilo in his loss to Robbie Lawler . . .
. . . Speaking of Forrest Griffin. The guy was prepared. His guard looked great. We haven’t seen a fighter with such a good game plan since, well, since Randy Couture came out and punished Gabe Gonzaga, way back at UFC 74. Hey, wasn’t that Couture in Griffin’s corner? And that’s all I’m going to say about that . . .
. . . Hear all that clicking? That’s the sound of everyone updating their best pound-for-pound fighter lists. Dan Henderson, Mauricio Rua, Chuck Liddell all dropped a couple notches in the last month. The biggest climber? I’m guessing it’s Quinton Jackson . . .
. . . Chuck Liddell looked pretty ordinary and one-dimensional in his loss to Keith Jardine in UFC 76. Makes you wonder if Jardine would have kept throwing those kicks if there was a chance that Liddell might shoot in for a take down. I still love the guy and hopes he can push himself to make another run at the title. But you’ve got to wonder if it’s more than coincidence that Liddell’s UFC career took a nosedive at about the same time he became a mainstream star with appearances on Entourage and write-ups in ESPN the magazine . . .
. . . The International Fight League championships at the Hollywood Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Florida was far from a sellout. Just as the main card started, fans were encouraged to move to the center sections of the arena to fill up empty seats. Two middle-aged women who moved into seats in front of me taunted Ricco Rodriguez throughout his heavyweight fight with Ben Rothwell by yelling “Go back to the UFC. Go back to the UFC.” I wonder if they thought this was supposed to be an insult? . . .
. . . By the way, Rodriguez deserves major props for taking this fight on less than five days notice. He also deserves some credit for taking his shirt off in public. He wants a rematch with Rothwell, only this time with some time to train. Hope the IFL can make it happen . . .
. . . Hey, I’m writing a column for 411mania.com’s MMA Zone. Check it out on Thursdays . . .
. . . Where have you gone Mirko CroCrop, an MMA nation turns its lonely eyes to you. What’s that you say, Mr. White? CroCop has left and gone away? . . .
. . . Robbie Lawler is a bad ass. Dana White, find a way to get him back in the fold so that Anderson Silva has someone to fight besides Rich Franklin . . .
. . . The best thing to ever happen to Matt Hamill is “losing” his fight to Michael Bisping. Hamill went from a somewhat unpopular and disregarded fighter to someone who is now hailed as an “American Hero.” But now that the dust has settled, I’m ready to give Bisping some slack for punking out Hamill in his post fight comments. He really isn’t to blame for the judges’ decisions and I accept the explanation he gave on his blog . . .
. . . Lastly, this was quite a month for White, the UFC president. And not all of it good. He had two controversial fights — Renato Sobral vs. David Heath and Hammill vs. Bisping. He saw two of of his big-money additions go down in flames — Mirko CroCop and Mauricio Rua — and he saw his dream matchup of Wanderlei Silva vs. Liddell blow up over the weekend. He and Silva are probably crying all the way to the bank. He also had to at least take some notice at the great card that competitor EliteXC put on in Hawaii, the exciting finish to the IFL season and the announcement that NBA owner Mark Cuban was entering the fight game. . .
Can it get any better?
