The Week That Was in MMA
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July 5 - July 11
Forrest Griffin completed the impressive transition from a pupil of the
UFC’s top light heavyweight fighters on the first season of “The Ultimate
Fighter” to the top dog in that division at UFC 86 on July 5, dethroning
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson via unanimous decision after a classic
25-minute war in Las Vegas. Griffin weathered a
first-round knockdown at the end of a Jackson
uppercut and brought the fight from there, chopping Jackson
down with damaging leg kicks in the second and keeping a high-pressure pace,
which in was mostly matched by a scrappy Jackson. There
was, as there always is in such an even fight, vehement second-guessing of the
judges’ scorecards, particularly ones that gave the round one to Griffin even though he
was floored in in it. Both camps were immediately talking toward a rematch
of what could have been the fight of the year. Jackson, whose trainer Juanito Ibarra was
most vehement in protest of the decision, apparently came out of the fight with
a hobble-inducing knee injury, which could delay a rematch. Chuck Liddell,
provided he can get past Rashad Evans on Sept. 6, awaits whichever contender
emerges in what could be the biggest fight of 2008.
The main event, which earned Griffin and Jackson $60,000 “Fight of the Night”
bonuses m elevated a UFC card that had featured competitive, if not thrilling,
fights. The card at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las
Vegas drew a crowd of about 11,000, 9,630 of which were
paid, for a $3.35 million gate. Griffin took
home a total of $310,000; Jackson
banked $285,000. Second from the top, Patrick Cote defeated Ricardo Almeida via
split decision in a lackluster fight to lock in a middleweight title shot.
Yushin Okami is expected to get the next shot at Anderson Silva’s middleweight title,
with Cote next in line. Also notching wins at
UFC 86 were Joe Stevenson, who surprised jiu-jitsu specialist Gleison Tiabu
with a guillotine choke for the tap, Josh Koscheck, who bloodied Chris Lytle
something vicious in earning a unanimous decision, and lightweight force Tyson
Griffin, who outworked Marcus Aurelio en route to a decision victory. The knockout
of the night bonus went to Melvin Guillard for his swift 36-second KO of Dennis
Siver, and submission of the night went to Cole Miller, who absorbed three
rounds of punishment from Jorge Gurgel before locating a triangle choke that forced
the tap in the bout’s closing moments. The submission win, like Dustin Hazelett’s
on June 21 over Josh Burkman, was so impressive it was posted by the UFC on its
website for free viewing. Also in the prelims, former heavyweight title
contender Gabriel Gonzaga bounced back from two losses by submitting Justin
McCulley in the first round; Gonzaga earned a $100,000 payday, the third
highest of the night.
NEWSWORTHY
- With two weeks remaining until the second EliteXC effort on CBS,
“Unfinished Business” on July 26, the card has been finalized. Bouts
added this week include Shayna Baszler, a submission specialist riding a
four-fight win streak, versus Cristiane “Cyborg,” the wife of Evangelista
“Cyborg” Santos, in a fight that will likely determine who will face
Gina Carano to crown the first EXC women’s champion. Also finalized was Antonio
Silva v. Justin Eilers for the EXC heavyweight title and Wilson Reis v. Brian
Caraway at featherweight. Those fights, as well as Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante
v. Travis Galbraith, will air on the Showtime portion of the event. The
Showtime card will be recorded and air on tape delay at 8 p.m. EST to ensure it
doesn’t run longer than an hour. That same night, the UFC will air the UFC
84 “Ill Will” event, headlined by B.J. Penn v. Sean Sherk, for free
on Spike TV, according to MMARated.com.
- In other matchmaking notes this week, Roan Carneiro v. Ryo Chonan
has been set for UFC 88 on Sept. 6 in Atlanta,
a fight that was scratched from UFC 85. Canadian striker Sam Stout has been penciled
in to face Brit Paul Kelly on Oct. 18 at UFC 89 in Birmingham, England.
Frank Trigg announced he has signed with the World Victory Road organization in Japan, possibly
to compete in a middleweight tournament the group may hold next year. In other
news out of Japan,
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic announced he was pulling out of the July 21
“Dream 5″ event at Osaka Castle Hall to heal shoulder and knee
injuries. Filipovic did not have a confirmed opponent for the event, though his
absence will leave a huge hole on a network television special that needs to
draw a high rating in Japan.
In bouts finalized this week for Dream 5, Yoshihiro Akiyama will face Katsuyori
Shibata, Mark Hurt will be in action, Joachim Hansen will take on Kultar “Black
Mamba” Gil in an alternate bout in the lightweight grand prix tournament, which
will conclude that night. Finally the next installment of “ShoXC: Elite
Challenger Series” on Showtime is set for Aug. 15 and will be headlined by
Poai Suganuma v. Jared Hamman in a light heavyweight fight from the Table
Mountain Resort Casino in Friant, Calif.
- The Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, the boilerplate for
athletic commissions overseeing the sport across the country, underwent some
tweaking at the Association of Boxing Commissions meeting in Montreal. The most controversial change: increasing
from seven to 14 the number of delineated weight classes. UFC President Dana
White and several state athletic commission directors said they would not
follow the new guidelines, which include new 215 and 225 pound divisions. The
association also voted to define the “back of the head” area that is
illegal to strike as one inch to either side of a line drawn directly down the
center of the head, starting at the crown. The distinction is controversial, as
some veteran referees have disagreed over this definition. The associations
also voted to allow downward elbow strikes, in which a fighter drives down the
point of his elbow directly downward from a 12 to 6 o’clock position. Those
blows would be legal provided they don’t strike an off-limits area. Smothering
an opponent’s mouth to restrict breathing was also prohibited. Each state
athletic commission has to adopt the new rules for them to take effect. The
rules will be in effect for the July 19 Affliction “Banned” pay-per-view,
meaning elbows on the ground will be allowed.
- Former Shooto lightweight champion Alexandre Nogueira, who debuted for
World Extreme Cagefighting on June 1, is out of the game for a year after he
tested positive for the anabolic steroid Boldenone. Nogueira lost to Jose
Aldo via second-round TKO on the June 1 WEC card from Arco Arena in Sacramento. Nogueira,
whom Jens Pulver was targeting as an opponent to rebound in the featherweight
ranks after losing to Urijah Faber, is suspended until May 31, 2009 unless
he can successfully appeal the penalty.
QUOTEWORTHY
“You look at the champions. Anderson
Silva: terrifying. B.J. Penn: terrifying. Every other champion but me is pretty
terrifying. I’m just a dude trying to put it together. But the one thing I’ve
got is I’m going to fight you to the end, like a dog” — Forrest Griffin
in press conference following his win of the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC
86.
“How can Quinton not win that fight? You had to give him the first,
third and fourth. If you give (Griffin)
the third, man, I don’t know how you can do that . . . Rampage brought it to
him and you have to take the fight away from the champion. He did not take that
fight from Rampage” — Jackson
trainer Juanito Ibarra to Yahoo! Sports about judges’ decision in favor of
Forrest Griffin.
“We (in the MMA community) say
that we go by the unified rules. Well, there are too many places that change
them. Every commission starts to change those rules the way they want. It
should be that [the state athletic commissions] all follow one set of rules.
Wherever you go, it’s the same. That’s what you need to have — consistency for
not only the fighters, (but also) the officials and the fans of the sport”
– John McCarthy to MMAJunkie.com about unified rules changes recently adopted.
“This
wasn’t a unification. This was to create a whole new set of rules on short
notice that no one had any input in drafting other than (Canadian commissioner
Dale Kliparchuk) and John McCarthy” — Keith Kizer, Nevada’s athletic
commission director, to MMAJunkie.com on the new rules.
“There’s going to be a fight. And you know I don’t roll over
easily” — Dana White to Yahoo! Sports about his resistance to new weight
classes proposed by the newly-tweaked rules.
“What kind of a game plan can I have against the
guy? He’s better than me on the ground. He’s better than me standing up. What
am I going to do?’ I don’t have to go in there and beat him at jiu-jitsu or
beat him at Muay Thai.
I can go in and fight the guy. I’ll go in and mix it all together and see if my
style works with his or not” – James Irvin to Yahoo! Sports about his July 19
fight against Anderson Silva.
“I
don’t have intention to fight on this category and I’m only doing this because
they (UFC) asked me and I think I can do it. I don’t intend to fight for this
belt, this belt belongs to Lyoto (Machida)
and he already proved that. I’m going to fight because I like to fight and
because I like challenges” — Anderson Silva to Tatame about his move to
light heavyweight on July 19.
“My
career is far from being over. I’ll be fighting some strong competitors soon
again, and hopefully, I’ll meet Fedor in the ring once more in
2009″ – Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic on his personal blog
about his future in the sport.
———————
NEXT WEEK
- Expect loads of hype from all directions as the UFC, Affliction,
Dream and EliteXC make final pushes toward one of the more eventful
two-week periods in the sport’s history, with UFC Fight Night and Affliction taking
place on July 19, Dream 5 on July 21 and EXC “Unfinished Business” on CBS on
July 26.
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