The War Blog: The Little Muay Thai Fighter that Could
- October 28th, 2009
- Posted in Sports
- By Slayer
- Write comment
Author: Slayer (9 Articles)
I can no longer speak about myself. Be like water.
Superman Punch biatch!!!(courtesy of Cagepotato.com)
This past Saturday presented us with one of the most epic matchups of all time between two of my favorite fighters. Unfortunately, the actual match didn’t live up to the ideal version in my mind.
Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida(16-0) and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua(18-4-1NC) battled from bell to bell for 5 rounds in one of the most technical fights I’ve ever seen for “the cursed belt”. For the newbs, this particular belt is the property of the boss of the light-heavyweight division (187lbs-206lbs). The reason its cursed is because since Chuck Lidell, this title has exchanged hands 4 times with a total of 2 title defenses. Machida, the current boss, is the least hit fighter in MMA history (as Joe Rogan says: “Not by small margin, but by a giant stretch). I’m pretty sure after watching this fight that Shogun hit Machida more times than his whole career combined, badly bruising his body and cutting him 3 times on the face. I scored the fight 3 rounds to 2 for Shogun, but much to everyone’s chagrin Machida got the nod at the end and retained the championship.
The internet was swarmed with people screaming shenanigans. I almost didn’t want to write about it and pretend it didn’t happen, as it doesn’t help my case for promoting MMA on this illustrious site. However, the show must go on. The unwashed masses seem to believe that it was a clear victory for Shogun, and that the whole sport is rigged. Of course humans are sometimes overcome with emotion and don’t think before they write. The fight was actually very close in my humble opinion. Shogun did more damage and pushed the pace, but Machida seemed immune to pain, had impenetrable takedown defence, and won all clinch exchanges. What’s weird is that Machida made his career on doing what shogun did to him, with his opponent unable to do anything at all. Thus Machida remains undefeated, even though his illusion spells were dispelled. The UFC has already announced an impending rematch asap in response to all the hubub, although I doubt people will pay for it as a main event the second time around. Best to make it free or co promote it with an already established headline, like Lesnar vs Carwin in what is now January.
The rest of the card rose just above mediocrity. Slugfest of the night goes to Pat Barry(25-6-1) vs Antoni Hardonk(14-6), with Barry winning via tko in round 2. Both guys are champion level kickboxers, so they hit each other until no more hitting could be taken.
Beatdown of the night, by a longshot, goes to Cain Velasquez over Ben Rothwell. Its scary to think that a heavyweight fighter can move as fast as Cain. He improved to 7-0 over Rothwell, who is now 36-7. Cain moved in instantly at a relentless pace and completely overwhelmed the larger, more experienced fight, running a wrestling and ground and pound clinic. Early in the second round, the ref got queasy and couldn’t bear to watch it anymore. Rothwell complained about the stoppage, but he clearly knocked unconscious by a punch, then woken up 2 punches later. Too later.
The 6’10″ and gangly Stephan Struve(21-3) earned Submission of the night (officially) by wrapping his leg tentacles around the neck of Chase Gormly(6-1) at the end of the first round, making Gormley’s blood take a detour from the brain long enough for him to catch a nap. He woke up complaining that he didn’t want to go to school today because he wasn’t feeling well. This was the only submission of the card, thus giving Struve an easy bonus to his paycheck.
Finally, KO of the night goes to Anthony Johnson(8-2) over Yoshiyuki Yoshida(11-4). Within the first minute of the first round, Johnson pushed an onslaught of death and seperated Yoshida from consciousness after landing a pile of hard punches. Johnson would have got the official KO of the night bonus (something along the lines of 60 grand), but was ineligible because he came in a whopping 6 pounds over weight. For the newbs, that’s like wrapping up cat shit for halloween and giving it to kids…disgusting, twisted, and disgraceful. All said and done, I believe Johnson made about 20% of what he could of, thus justice is served. And it was still a sweet knockout.
All the other results can be found on the internet, as I have no interest of talking about them. Bunch of boring fights and overweight fighters. If anyone is interested in seeing top level MMA, UFC 102 is the card of the year, headlined by Couture and Nogueira. Its would be a great world if all cards could be like that.
And please, feel free at anytime to ask questions about any terminology, fighters, or anything martial arts related if you’re unclear about anything. I could talk about this for days, and am always willing to share what I know to you guys. Now piss off.
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@Slayer 3 questions
1) how does GSP look these days, and can he dominate the middle weight belt for a while?
2) Is there anyone in the UFC that can give Lesner a match right now?
and 3)odds on Fedor getting in the UFC while he still matters??
1) George St. Pierre is very much a dominant champion. He’s pretty much cleaned out the top welterweights(I assume you meant welterweights) with dominating performances. Nobody is going to be able to deal with him anytime soon. He actually smashed Thiago Alves after pulling his groin in round 3. He continually took him down for rounds 4 and 5 and only after the bell did he show that he was injured.
2) Lesnar is not a dominant mixed martial artist as far as I’m concerned. His genetics give him exceptional size and speed, and he’s an excellent wrestler. The fact that his fists are 4xl also means that even though he doesn’t know how to punch, he can still splat your face with a glancing blow. His next fight is Shane Carwin. Carwin is 11-0 and has never been further than 2:37 in the first round. The scary thing is that his trainers say he gets tougher in training the longer he’s in, that his cardio is like GSPs, and that he skips like a middleweight. Not to mention that he is also 265 and actually has 5xl hands. And he knows how to use em. Oh yeah, he’s also a division 2 national wrestling champion. Lesnar is as good as dead.
3) Fedor (the greatest fighter of all time) is under contract with M-1 for 3 more fights, and is currently signed up for a Strikeforce bout with Bret Rogers. The UFC will not co-promote with M-1. And I don”t blame them. The UFC doesn’t need to co-promote with greasy russian syndicate to make money. So M-1 won’t sign a deal. You’ll hear the unwashed masses talk shit about Fedor, but what it comes down to is that he’s under contract with a company and legally can’t ditch them for 3 more fights. So whatever they want, they get. Fedor would likely make short work of everyone in the UFC except maybe Shane Carwin. There’s a fight I’d love to see.
Words?
Yeah i understand the UFC not wanting to co-pomote, with anyone let alone greesy Russians. But the question really is will Fedor stay with M1, or will M1 just come around to the fact that the UFC brand defines the sport.
So odds on Fedor getting in the UFC, 40%? 20%?
Well they say 3rd time’s a charm. Thing is, Fedor is human (barely) and will eventually lose and be flamed all over the world for being hype, regardless of the fact that he went 6 years and 31 fights without losing. At that point the UFC won’t want him. So if he makes it through Rogers, Werdum and Overeem, I’ll give you the nod. If he loses…not a chance.