Vera & St Pierre: New Wave Coming
Posted by RB, 23 Nov 2006
Matt Hughes has been stomping Welterweights of all styles, shapes, and sizes since he took over the reigns from Patt five years ago. Last Saturday, however, he was dominated and defeated in the cage for only the second time in his career, and the belt changed hands for the first time in a long time, to Georges St Pierre.
In its short history the sport has passed through certain distinct periods, where a new breed of athlete quickly emerges and bumps the level of skill required for success up a notch or two. These fighters come out of the blue with skills that can make last year's contenders look amateurish, and force the current crop of fighters to develop new skills or be left behind by the break-neck pace of the sport's evolution.
This has been something of a pattern in the sport's early history, from Vitor Belfort stopping Tank Abbot with a technical and explosive flurry of punches (back when the hay-maker was the primary striking technique deployed), to Pete Williams knocking out Mark Coleman with a high kick ("That is the only time we've seen a high kick work in the UFC!" remarked the commentator at the time), to Frank Shamrock tearing through competition with previously unseen athleticism & conditioning.
After UFC 65 last weekend, Georges St Pierre and Brandon Vera look to be prototypes of the next wave of fighter to repeat the pattern -- they are among the first fighters to develop versatility to the point where they can be dangerous in five or six different ways at any moment of the fight and from any position. Combine this with the skill, athleticism, and in-ring intelligence that has come to mark the best of the sport, and both of them look unbeatable when they are firing on all cylinders (and apparently they always are).
Both these fighters have top notch, all round striking ability -- punch, kick, knee, or elbow --, a great sprawl, great wrestling skills, and a very formidable submission game on top of that. The code word, indeed, is 'versatility'.
Just over one minute into Brandon Vera's fight at last weekend's UFC 65, Steve Mazzagatti was raising his hand in victory. He dismantled Frank Mir this time round, who has admittedly looked flat-out terrible since his return earlier this year. Now Vera is on a 4-0 run in the UFC heavyweight division (8-0 for his career), and a title shot with Sylvia looms on the horizon.
It will be an extremely difficult fight for Vera to win as he is under-sized for a heavyweight as it is, without facing a man who has to cut to make the 260 pound limit. But if Vera can avoid the big man's right hand, he is always in with a chance of walking away with the belt Big Tim has been wearing to sleep for the last seven months.
The path for St Pierre through his weight division has been tougher and longer than Vera's -- partly because he was derailed by his loss two years ago against Hughes the first time they fought, but largely because he is competing in perhaps the most stacked weight division in the history of the UFC, while Vera's heavyweight division could well be the weakest division in the history of the UFC.
Nevertheless, both men's recent careers have run parallel to one another in many ways: they fight a similar, high paced, well-conditioned, action-packed fight; they have decisively outclassed almost all of their opponents in the ring; they have finished frequently and finished well, by knockout and by submission; they have extremely similar hairstyles.
But while 'The Truth' is next up for a heavyweight title shot, he is more likely to discover he has been fighting in the wrong division than he is to follow hot on St Pierre's heels and take Sylvia's cherished waistband.
St Pierre's only loss to Hughes two years ago is likely to be mirrored in Vera's record when he goes up against Sylvia and is frustrated by the man's size. In that case, not only will both fighters sport a perfect record except for a lone notch in the L column, but both will have been given this blemish by the Miletich camp. At this point, we could safely consider them clones.
And if Vera does lose his heavyweight title shot, an immediate drop down to light heavyweight is almost guaranteed -- where Griffin and Ortiz will be waiting for him. Vera will be ready for either of them, and then a possible second title shot that could be the greatest challenge Liddell has seen in years (if he is still holding the belt by then).
Some time in 2007, as I would predict it, Pierre will be holding the Welterweight belt after taking it from a man who previously looked unbeatable (Matt Hughes), and Vera will be holding the Light Heavyweight title after taking it from a man who previously looked unbeatable (Chuck Liddell). The new wave of fighter will have been ushered in.
The sport of Mixed Martial Arts does indeed move at breakneck speed, and these two fighters may have helped to change its face before we can say "today's country boy is tomorrow's country breakfast."
