Back on Track in Janiero
Pensando nas lutas em Janiero.
From a personal stand point, following the events of UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008, I was disappointed in the performances of my fellow compatriots, I'm talking about Wanderlei Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Watching this one as a fan, I was disillusioned after seeing some of my favorites getting smashed. However I give credit where credit is due and on that night, Quinton Jackson and Frank Mir were the better men as they emphatically proved their case. I was not shocked or surprised by the outcome of those match ups because in a MMA you can never be sure who will win, that's the great thing about this sport. At the end of the day if you get beaten, you shake that man's hand and aim to do better the next time around. Although there is another crop of young Brazilian fighters in the wings, seeing these two legends dominated on the SAME night was a major shock for Brazilian supporters (it was like the first time Royce Gracie lost a fight). With that being said we entered 2009, and the month of January provided different results for Brazilian fighters.
In January we saw Sengoku 7: No Ran (Antonio Silva / Jorge Santiago), UFC 93 Henderson vs Franklin (Alexandre Barros / Antonio Mendes /Rousimar Palhares / Mauricio Rua), Affliction2: Day of Reckoning (Antonio Rogerio Nogueira / Renato Sobral / Vitor Belfort), WEC 38: Varner vs Cerrone (Jose Aldo / Danillo Villefort) and finally UFC 94 St. Pierre vs Penn II (Thiago Tavares / Lyoto Machida vs Thiago Silva). Brazil was going to be well represented this month and a few key wins would pull the spirits out of the slums.
Just four days into the New Year, the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, was home to World Victory Road's Sengoku 7: No Ran. Prior to this event, "Big Foot" Antonio Silva had been facing steroid allegations following his Elite XC title fight against the late Justin Eilers. After being suspended for one year and handed a fine, according to Sherdog, Silva disregarded the California State Athletic Commission and decided to fight at the Sengoku event for financial reasons. At Sengoku 7, Silva took on Yoshihiro Nakao, yes, that's the same guy who got knocked out by Heath Herring after kissing him on the lips (K-1 Premium 2005 Dynamite). After an unavailing bout, Silva won via TKO due to injury. Despite the super heavyweight's efforts to impress, this night belonged to Jorge Santiago.
Santiago had earned his spot on the card with victories over Siyar Bahadurzada and Kazuhiro Nakamura at Sengoku 6. He came into Sengoku 7 and was victorious over Kazuo Misaki by way of Rear-Naked Choke in the fifth round. This was Santiago's ninth consecutive win and to add to that prestige, he also captured the Sengoku middleweight title. Santiago could be a huge draw for the promotion and a difficult champion to topple. Since leaving the UFC, he has certainly made a name for himself and revitalized his career. He has been consistent in defeating solid fighters and as far as rankings go, he has got to be in the top ten of the middleweight category. There are still match ups for Santiago in Sengoku with names like Frank Trigg, Pancrase veteran Yuki Kondo, Phil Baroni and flashy newcomer King Mo; however I don't feel as though any of these fighters pose a threat to the future of Sengoku's middleweight division. At 29 years of age, Santiago is in his prime and if at some point he decides to return to the UFC, I doubt he would have difficulty in avenging losses against Chris Leben and Alan Belcher (I'd love to see him fight Marquardt though). So there it was, Santiago became middleweight champion and Brazilian supporters could see another dominate title holder on the rise.
Nearly two weeks after Sengoku 7, the Brazilian's kept swinging at UFC 93, but this time it felt like we were watching them in slow motion. In the preliminary matches Alexandre Barros and Antonio Mendes both lost their bouts via TKO due to strikes. Things were not looking for the Brazilians that night, but with Palhares and Rua still to come, hopefully they would turn it around.
We saw Rousimar Palhares take on veteran Jeremy Horn in a bout that went the distance. "Toquinho" (this word means midget, not tree stump) demonstrated his tremendous strength in that fight, as he was able to control Horn's movement and even land a suplex (this guy is such a thick middleweight). After the first round however, Palhares was gassed and relied on his wrestling to win the fight by points, thus not doing much damage to Horn. We learned that after the fight, Palhares had broken his hand and this was why he chose to play it safe. As a result, we did not see the explosive performance he is capable of (i.e. Fabio Nascimento, Dan Henderson). It was not a very impressive performance, but it was still a win.
Moving on to the main event of the night, it was a Pride grudge match and there were high expectations for Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in this bout against Mark Coleman. Most people including myself, expected Rua to return in dominate fashion (much like his days in Pride) and quickly dispose the 45 year old Hall of Famer. Coming off a loss to Forrest Griffin and with all that time off, this should have lit a fire under Rua's ass; he should have his batteries recharged, get in the octagon and smash his way through Coleman right? Well, although Rua defeated Coleman via TKO due to strikes, this bout nearly went the distance and by the end of it, Rua did not look impressive at all. If you recall, both fighters appeared very sluggish throughout and in the end, despite the loss Coleman had proved that at his age, he was still able to hang in there, he even challenged Rua to a rubber match. Although Rua had won, I don't think I've seen him look so unimpressive.
The Chute Boxe style is aggressive and entertaining, but at the same time it can also be reckless. Rua took a lot of abuse in this bout and it's clear that his cardio and conditioning need to be improved, if he is to stand a chance in the light heavyweight division. With his next match against Chuck Liddell, Rua will undoubtedly have to make the necessary adjustments, if he wishes to recapture the success he once had in Pride (oh and this time without the juice). Well there is was, UFC 93, the Brazilians managed to squeeze into the win column but unfortunately looking unimpressive while doing so.
Only a week later, we were treated to Affliction 2: Day of Reckoning (nearly six months in the making). There was no fooling around for this event, these Brazilians were ready. Featured as the main event on the undercard, Antônio Rogério Nogueira had the chance to avenge a loss against "The Janitor" Vladimir Matyushenko. Matyushenko came into the bout with an eight fight win streak, while Nogueira entered with three straight wins. The first round was a long feeling out process with Nogueira landing little jabs and a good knee at the end of stanza. However this changed as Matyushenko turned it on in the second and managed to cut Nogueira open with a combination of strikes. Matyushenko refused to use his superb wrestling skills and eventually paid for it, as Nogueira would land a number of knees in the clinch that would lead to a TKO over The Janitor. Having avenged one of the three losses in his career, (Matyushenko / Shogun Rua / Sokoudjou) in the future we could see him retaliate from yet another loss, as the next logical fight for him in Affliction would be against Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou.
Speaking of Sokoudjou, we move on to his bout against MMA veteran Renato "Babalu" Sobral. Prior to this one, Sokoudjou left the UFC after compiling only one win and two losses, ironically both losses at the hands of Brazilian fighters. Sobral on the other hand entered this bout with four straight wins, and in his most recent, capturing the Strikeforce light heavyweight title. Babalu used his wrestling to press the action throughout the fight, while Sokoudjou looked for better positions. Eventually the fight went to the ground and it was the beginning of the end for Sokoudiou. After some ground and pound, Babalu managed to get into the three quarter stack and submit the African Assassin with a D'arce choke. You could see from the get go, that Babalu looked to be in better shape for this fight, than he did in his last performance against Bobby Southworth.
After his latest victory, what do you do with a name like Babalu? There was talk about a possible match up against the UFC's original bad boy Tito Ortiz. This would certainly be an intriguing main event and one could imagine that the build up would be extraordinary, since both guys know how to sell themselves. That being said, Babalu increased his win streak to five straight at Affliction 2. The night wasn't over yet for the Brazilians but so far it was going pretty good, like Meatloaf once said "Two out of Three ain't bad."
I was a little nervous for this next one; it was one of the best middleweights in the world, Matt Lindland, taking on Vitor Belfort. At 38 years of age, Lindland looked as tough as ever, he's beaten guys like Travis Lutter, Jeremy Horn, Mike Van Arsdale and the list goes on. In 2007 at BoDog's Clash of the Nations, he moved up in weight to face Fedor Emelianenko. In that fight, Lindland badly bloodied up Emelianenko in the early going and would have taken him to the ground had Emelianenko not been holding on to the ropes! Even with the loss Lindland came out of that fight with more confidence in his wrestling game, that being said, he certainly posed a threat to Belfort.
In the matches leading up to the last Affliction event, Belfort looked to have revitalized his career. After changing camps, he looked more focused and even KO'd Terry Martin at Affliction: Banned, but the lingering question was, is the Phenom back for good and how would he fair against a top caliber wrestler like Lindland? Thirty-seven seconds, that's how long it took for Belfort to dispose Lindland. Since dropping down to middleweight and with two consecutive knockout victories, Belfort has proven to his critics that The Phenom is back. Having gotten past the tragedies in his personal life and with his focus in tact, Belfort could become the monster he was in the early part of his career. If Affliction can make the right match ups, Belfort could emulate the success he had in the UFC and have a second chance at becoming a mega star in the sport.
Affliction 2 was a pleasing event for Brazilian supporters, as the boys from Rio were three for three that night. As a fan, I could breathe a little easier that night after seeing that Nogueira, Sobral and Belfort still had it in them; as each of them prevailed in impressive fashion. Pass around the bottle of Cachaça because tonight, there was reason to celebrate.
Well the party kept going because the next day was WEC 38 and on that night both Danillo Villefort and Jose Aldo defeated their opponents in the first round with a TKO, due to strikes. Aldo holds a record of 13 wins with only 1 loss and is an up and comer in his division. It's time the match makers' step up Aldo's level of competition because after a few more fights, he could easily catapult himself into title contention.
The fifth and final event of the month was billed as the biggest fight in MMA, St. Pierre vs Penn 2. It was a great card from top to bottom, with a colossal main event in which the winner would reach another plateau in his career, and yes, the Brazilians were there too. Thiago Tavares faced off against Manny Gamburyan in the preliminaries and in this case both fighters needed a win. It wasn't a fancy finish, but Tavares managed to get the win via unanimous decision.
I switched my focus to Lyoto Machida versus Thiago Silva; earlier in the week Mauro Ranallo billed it as the Battle of Brazil. Here we had two potential stars that were both undefeated; whoever won this fight would have to be propelled into title contention. Most people were expecting a sleeper because the casual viewer doesn't appreciate or understand Machida's deceptive style. He rarely gets scratched when he leaves a fight and he's beaten top contenders by doing this, if I was a fighter, I'd be smart and do the same thing. Why go out there, eat shots to the head and shorten your career if you don't have to. Like I said before, people think Machida is boring, well, they also thought Royce Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was boring and now everyone is doing it. With that aside, this was a very intriguing fight because Silva's aggressiveness would force Machida to engage and that's exactly what we saw. Machida knocked Silva down twice in the fight and I believe Machida silenced his critics after knocking Silva out with just seconds to go in the first round. I'm sure all kinds of naysayers will jump on the bandwagon after that knockout (support him, its what he deserves). As for Thiago Silva, he's still young, I believe this fight will strengthen him and force him to take his time with his fights. It's inevitable though, Machida was bound to make the right move and establish himself as a contender for the light heavyweight title. The UFC had not given him the opportunity because he wasn't very marketable, but after putting together so many victories they have no choice. Although I may be stating the obvious here, I'm sure that Machida will capture the light heavyweight title -this year.
In closing, Janeiro ended on a better note than December for Brazilian MMA fans. With both Wanderlei Silva and Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira coming off losses, some believe they are approaching the end of their careers. Although Brazil produces numerous fighters; who would step up to represent Brazil in the same form Silva and Nogueira had done when they were at their prime? It looks like there are several fighters, (veterans and newcomers) who can fill in, as they continue to astonish crowds with their victories. Some legends will leave the sport, but others will be there to take their place. I and the rest of the Brazilian supporters can take comfort in the fact that after what we saw in January; Brazil will continue to be well represented in the present and the future.
