Mixed Martial Arts is 'All Shook Up'
Posted by RB, 09 Jun 2007
Just months ago weight divisions had a semblance of 'established order' in mixed martial arts. Now this seems much less true, after the upsets in several weight classes of late.
Randy Couture started the trend with his dominating performance over Sylvia in March to become the new UFC Heavyweight Champion; the latest to jump aboard the upset train is 'Rampage' Jackson, knocking out Liddell in the first round and ending the reign of the last long-standing UFC champion.
MMA has never felt so unstable -- with the acquisition of Pride only adding instability on top of the recent upsets -- , and while the cocksure bettor might be licking his lips in the midst of an apparent underdog paradise, many among us are left shrugging our shoulders and hedging our bets after taking a hammering to the bookmakers these past months.
In terms of the sport, the idea of widely agreed upon rankings (already shaky ground) has probably never been so far off. But only temporarily -- for the unification of UFC & Pride rules and fighters promises exactly that in the long term.
Let's have a look at the most 'shook up' divisions out there.
Heavyweight
The heavyweight division is undergoing a dramatic shift of talent away from Pride where the best heavyweights have previously been found to the new-found depths of the UFC at that weight. This is probably one of the most positive developments to come from the UFC/Pride merger, with the promise of establishing a definitive, one-promotion roster at the weight in the short to mid-term future.
Yet a handful of key heavyweights are not yet part of the new UFC picture -- the most notable being the widely regarded numero uno in the division, Fedor Emelianenko. In addition, little has been announced regarding the future of elite heavyweights such as Josh Barnett, Roman Zentzov, Mark Hunt or Sergei Kharitonov.
What does seem obvious is that the UFC's number one priority recently has been to boost its heavyweight ranks at all costs, bringing Pride's flagship division to its knees in order to transform what was an extremely weak division not long ago.
Compare Pride and UFC at this very moment, and you can just about split them down the middle. At the very top, Pride has Emelianenko, Barnett, Zentzov and Hunt; UFC has Nogueira, Cro Cop, Couture and Sylvia.
Give it six months and there will be no comparison -- just one, incredibly deep UFC heavyweight division.
Light Heavyweight
Right now things seem to have a little more stability at Light Heavyweight. There has been no great shift of Pride talent just yet -- though it will happen in the near future.
Pride 205 lb champion Dan Henderson has, after all, been announced as the next challenger for the UFC belt -- which can be taken as the symbolic decapitation of Pride's current 205 lb division. Shogun has also been heavily rumoured as an imminent UFC arrival, and White recently spoke of the likelihood of a Liddell/Silva matchup.
Looking at the division's recent upsets, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou kicked (or punched) things off by taking out Ricardo Arona and Rogerio Nogueira both by vicious knockout in the first round. After putting on back-to-back devastating performances against two of the world's best at the weight, it is extremely difficult to argue Sokoudjou has been enjoying 'lucky punches'.
Yet his talent level cannot be fully determined from just a few minutes worth of fighting (no matter how sensational those few minutes have been), and a shaky performance which saw him TKOd by Glover Teixeira (4-2-0) last year is enough to hold back the cries of 'TNBT!' (The Next Big Thing) just yet...
The other two major upsets at this weight were Dan Henderson's KO of Wanderlei Silva, and 'Rampage' Jackson's TKO of Chuck Liddell. These upsets bear more immediate fruit, setting up a couple of mouth watering, momentous fights -- Rampage vs. Henderson, and Liddell vs. Silva.
Both of these fights are Big Time -- pitting the new champions of each promotion against each other for the first UFC vs. Pride mega fight, while also setting the scene for one of the most long awaited moments in MMA: the most dominant 205 lb. champions of Pride history and UFC history squaring off against one another: 'The Axe Murderer' vs. 'The Ice Man', to use their comic book-like handles.
For me these two match-ups are by far the most enticing of what's currently scheduled in all of MMA... Though it is worth noting only the Jackson/Henderson fight is officially 'official' at the moment.
Welterweight
The scene at 170 lb. should be calm on all fronts, seeing as Pride has no equivalent weight class and so the merger has no effect on this division.
As fact would have it, however, it is among the most confused out there -- with the title changing hands twice in two title fights, and contendership currently over-saturated.
Matt Serra's incredible win over Georges St. Pierre is by far the biggest upset of the recent wave -- taking the belt of what has been considered the deepest division in MMA from the most impressive fighter in that division, at what seemed to be the peak of his powers.
The fact that the fighter who done this would never have been given a title shot if it wasn't given away as the prize for winning the latest Ultimate Fighter reality series hammers home the fact that in MMA there are no certainties. On some nights rankings and any other analysis you can bring to the table are thrown out the window, and a fight is reduced to moment-by-moment swings of fortune and fateful openings that seem to come from beyond.
Now is the time for Serra to be appreciated as a great fighter who, much like Nick Diaz, lost matches but never looked bad in doing so, and could beat anyone on the right night. Aside from being caught by Shonie Carter's spinning backfist, he has only lost three times by decision, all to great fighters -- Karo Parisyan, BJ Penn, and Din Thomas.
UFC contendorship at this weight is likely to pass from Hughes (who is scheduled to take the first shot at Serra) to St Pierre again, which makes sense. With BJ Penn dropped to lightweight, Diego Sanchez and Karo Parisyan should be the front-runners past that, and there's little to choose between them. Sanchez has the close fought win over Karo, but he is coming off an unimpressive loss while Karo is coming off an impressive victory.
On the horizon is the possibility of large Pride lightweights like Takanori Gomi debuting at the weight.
Just now, MMA is crazy: I embrace this craziness. There is nothing remotely 'stale' about the sport in this transition period, and likewise there appears at times to be nothing remotely predictable about it.
In six months time, most divisions will have a new established order. The road to there should fun.
