Jones and Bader in the Lightheavyweight Ladder
By Josh Stein on Sep 02, 2010
Jones reminds me, in many ways, of Shonie Carter in flash, and something more in substance.
With Jon Jones (11-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC, #8 IWMMAR) announcing that he was going to fight the winner of the UFC 119 co-main event fight between Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-3 MMA, 2-0 UFC, #7 IWMMAR) and Ryan Bader (11-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) on Inside MMA, there’s a clear intent to put Jones into position to become a serious contender. That’s not to discount either Bader or Nogueira, but it’s fair to say that neither have gotten the attention that Jones has, and there’s a reason for that.
After Jones beat Stephen Bonnar (12-7 MMA), I got a text message from Curtis Clontz, my co-host on the now MMAOpinion defunct podcast, telling me that this kid from New York was the next great UFC lightheavyweight. It’s not just Curtis who felt that way, but I didn’t know enough about Jones and, despite my interest in prospects, he hadn’t be on my radar.
The Wrestler’s Dilemma and the Athletic Component
By Josh Stein on Sep 01, 2010
After UFC 118, a number of people started talking about something that I’ve been talking about with a few other writers for some time: the role of wrestling in MMA. One of those writers published an interesting piece on the role that wrestling plays in undermining British fighters, as they can’t defend the takedown. I don’t have any solutions for the “British MMA scene” about how it ought to deal with that issue, only particular fighters; and that solution is usually to get out of the British MMA scene for a while, because there is no wrestling. So I’m not particularly helpful on that issue.
The issue that I did want to bring up is a line that appeared in the piece that corresponds to something I’ve been seeing a lot of on the message boards lately: “When you break down the numbers three of the five UFC champions; GSP, Lesnar and Edgar, all have some link to wrestling. This is a perfect illustration of how much success is being enjoyed by exponents of the discipline.”
I’ve actually commented on this issue before, but it’s worth restating my position at length to illustrate why trending in mixed martial arts is not relevant.
Edgar vs. Maynard II
By Josh Stein on Aug 30, 2010
Photo by Tracy Lee.
More and more, the UFC’s lightweight division starts to look like the welterweight division, with an upper echelon comprised largely of wrestlers. While there’s obviously a difference stylistically between the way that Frankie Edgar (13-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC, #1 IWMMAR) fights and the way that George St. Pierre (20-2 MMA, 16-2 UFC, #1 IWMMAR) does. There are two questions, though, that jump immediately to mind with the change of lightweight landscape at UFC 118. The first is a macro-question about trending and, honestly, I don’t feel like I’m in a good position to answer questions about the trending in MMA towards wrestler-centric with only two (maybe three, if you make a precarious argument about the heavyweight division) divisions showing that trending.
The second, though, is about the UFC lightweight title picture, and that’s somewhere worth talking about.
A friend mentioned to me during the fight that if Gray Maynard (10-0-0-1 MMA, 8-0-0-1 UFC, #6 IWMMAR) doesn’t get a title shot after his win over Kenny Florian (14-5 MMA, 11-4 UFC, #3 IWMMAR), it will be a shafting the likes of which we haven’t seen in a while. Of course, that’s true. Maynard just beat the organization’s top gatekeeper (the top ranked lightweight not involved in the card’s title fight) and did it convincingly. Not to mention Maynard is the only fighter to beat the current champion, a fact which allows for some level of potential hype by promoters.
UFC 118 Video
By Josh Stein on Aug 29, 2010
As always, here are the videos from last night. Located below the fold.
James Toney, Comedy and Metaphor
By Josh Stein on Aug 29, 2010
Photo credit to Tracy Lee. Published by Yahoo sports.
James Toney (0-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) looked, last night, like he took a page out of the Gabe Ruediger (17-6 MMA, 0-2 UFC) Big Book of Diet Tips. He looked out-of-shape, but worse than that, he displayed some of the worst grappling since… well… since the last time a professional boxer stepped into the UFC.
For those who are missing my point, James Toney is the Art Jimmerson (0-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) of this new school. Jimmerson appeared at UFC 1, taking on Royce Gracie in the first round of the tournament, was mounted and forced to tap with his lone, un-gloved hand. Toney, in the same form, did nothing to stop the takedown, to try and establish a guard or otherwise defend himself.
But Toney demonstrates a larger failing, not just on the part of his camp, but on the part of the sport that he was supposed to represent. And I’m not even talking about the failure of grappling. It’s a failure of attitude the existed both in Toney’s training (as made apparent by a performance more closely resembling Deep Water Horizon than a fight) and exists in boxing, generally.
The Brazilian Tap and the Need for a Rematch
By Josh Stein on Aug 10, 2010
For those who don't remember the decided tap in the Filho fight.
After he spent four rounds dominating the consensus pound-for-pound king, Chael Sonnen (24-11-1 MMA, 4-4 UFC, #2 IWMMAR) made a mistake. He let an arm slip out of the guard and got caught in a triangle. It happens to plenty of great fighters, and doesn’t diminish the dominance he had earlier in the fight, which certainly seems a substantial justification (on its own) for a rematch with Anderson Silva (27-4 MMA, 12-0 UFC, #1 IWMMAR). But the post fight fallout, which resulted from Sonnen’s attempt at a pseudo-tap, was thoroughly unnecessary.
I had some correspondence online with some folks who thought that Sonnen’s tap was going to be a big controversy, that Josh Rosenthal’s stoppage was suspect. Upon review, most of the community seems to agree that Sonnen’s tap resulted in a legitimate submission and a win for (statistically) the greatest champion in the history of the UFC. There’s an important conversation to be had about whether Silva is on the decline, as he does seem decidedly less impressive than he was at the start of his unbelievable run as UFC champion.
I like Chael Sonnen more than most. He’s incredibly charismatic, he’s funny, he’s friendly with fans and with writers, and even when he says stupid stuff, it does seem like he understands that it’s for the purpose of hyping the fight. But the one thing I don’t like is “the boy who cried ‘I didn’t tap.’”
Alves, Floyd and the Scale
By Josh Stein on Aug 09, 2010
There is going to be a lot of discussion behind the scenes at the UFC about the importance of Thiago Alves (16-7 MMA, 9-3 UFC, #3 IWMMAR) missing weight. I care less about that than many of the other writers. It’s hard to see Alves being considered a serious force in the welterweight division long term. He’s missed weight twice in the last four fights and just had his second loss in a row. Both of those losses came to great fighters, and Alves should remain the number three guy in that division for now, but if he’s struggling with weight at 26 (and we know the cut only gets harder as fighters get older) he’s not going to be able to stay at welterweight for long.
And no one should expect Alves to be a force at middleweight. The division is radically different, there are fewer wrestlers to pin him down for fifteen minutes at a time, but a striker who’s 5’9 with a 70 inch reach is going to have a hard time being relevant when he’s giving up six inches of reach and three to five inches of height every time he steps in the cage, not to mention the difference in physical size between himself and the guys close to his own height, like Rousimar Palhares (11-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC).
All cynicism about Alves’ future aside, the thing that I find some combination of irritating and curious is the way in which Alves missing weight was handled by the UFC. Flying back from my vacation with my family, I got talking to a family member about a piece in the New Yorker on the Mayweather vs. Mosely fight. She was shocked that Floyd was fined six hundred thousand dollars for missing two pounds at the weigh in, totally 2% of his purse of the night. Not to trivialize a $600,000 penalty (much, much more than I make in a year) but it’s worth keeping in mind how small time that is to a guy who’s getting paid $30 million for the bout. After all, Alves was fined 20% of his purse for coming in half a pound over.
MMAOpinion is Under New Management
By Josh Stein on Aug 09, 2010
I’m not going to say alot about it, except to say that it seems as though I’ll still be here driving the content. Brandt DeLorenzo, our previous owner, has sold the site to some folks. They’ve asked that I not get into the names yet, but they have said that they want to keep me on. I guess I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing here, and try and increase the amount of content for all of you guys to pick up the slack of no longer having Brandt.
I worked with Brandt for a number of years, and I wish him the best with his new stuff. I’m also excited to work with the new owners, and I think that you guys will appreciate the direction this site is going.
UFC 117 Video
By Josh Stein on Aug 08, 2010
There’s a lot of stuff going on back stage this week at MMAOpinion, I’ll talk about it more when the dust settles. But in the meantime, I figured it was worth posting what is, statistically, the most popular part of the site. Enjoy the video.
Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen (Part 1 and Part 2)
Junior Dos Santos vs. Roy Nelson
MMA Live (August 5)
By Yael Grauer on Aug 07, 2010
