Back on Track in Janiero
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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.
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