2010: MMA Strikes Back

hope this doesn’t make you fail the bar.
;)

Cool article.

Liking these late night write ups

This has definitely been a wild year so far. You can add Chuck, Jens and others like Coleman etc., finally being done and done. Big Nog and Mir getting destroyed, though by no means finished in the sport. There really is a new generation of fighters taking over, and it seems like every couple months some ridiculous new talent hits the scene. A year ago Jose Aldo and Jon Jones were obscure names. Now UFC 116 will crown a world champion at HW, with JDS, Cain and others lining up for their shot. I really wish the UFC had booked Cain/JDS. Cain’s just sitting around, when they could have had an unofficial mini-tournament at HW to welcome Brock back. Jake Shields will be coming into the UFC soon, the UFC is cleaning up again, and the worldwide expansion will be coming on. Should be great.

Take a look at our meta-rankings and just start drawing lines between fighters in the UFC/WEC. All of those fights are possible. With co-promotion, you’re lighting candles for these match-ups. With this set-up, you’re lobbing one organization to offer them both fight deals. It’s a beautiful thing.

I am tired from what it felt like waging war all night on here so it is nice to read something interesting like this without any drama to develop from it. Great job!

but it’s great when you do post, Rome. Definitely quality over quantity.

As for Fedor, it is just impressive that he managed to go as long as he did without losing.Werdum was definitely the better fighter tonight. Fedor apologists can talk all they want, but that was definitely skill by Werdum. He didn’t just sub Fedor, he outsmarted him. It’ll be interesting what Fedor decides to do after this. Fulfill his SF contract and retire? Or come back with renewed vigor.

Also, what happened to Fedor just goes to show why a guy like GSP will attack a fighter’s weaknesses. It makes the most sense. Duh.

Just because you were surprised or shocked doesn’t mean the rest of us were. Lots of us were saying Fedor was not the same Fedor in his last few fights. Arlovski was exposing Fedor’s weaknesses somewhat before getting one-punched into a dirt nap. Rogers did some real damage too before getting tattooed. Fedor hadn’t looked that great recently, and that was against opponents who are mediocre at best. Many of us were expecting a loss to come in one of his next 2 or 3 fights.

And lots of people thought Rua was going to take Machida down. Machida was exposed in their first fight somewhat. And none of that matters because Jon Jones has come to town and the LHW belt is being passed around between place holders until he gets his title shot. So when he beats down whoever is champion at that point, I don’t want to hear about what a surprise it was.

You think because he has one loss..at the twilight of his career, that it drops Fedor from the best fighter of all time to behind GSP or Silva?

Fedor has one real loss his whole career. And some could say it was a fluke. He dropped Werdum with an overhand and was an idiot and followed him into his guard without caution. So although it could have probably been avioded, its still a loss. HIS ONLY ONE.

GSP on the other hand has lost twice. Once to Matt Hughes, who was the best WW of all time (until gsp developed), and one was a FLUKE to Matt Serra. GSP was able to come back and avenge both losses, but that is still one more loss on his record then Fedor.

Then there is Anderson Silva. Yes he’s so dominant right now, that when he fights guys in his own weight class its compareable to a tiger playing with its food before it kills it and eats it. But he too has lost to less then stellar competition before. He has losses to Yushin Okami, Ryo Chonen, Daiju Takase, and Luiz Azeredo. Now the Okami loss is a DQ so I wont count it against him. But take that away and you have a FLUKE loss to Chonen, then two losses to less then great competition.

The point is…Fedor lost his first fight towords what many suspect is the end of his career. The other two fighters, have both lost earlier in their career.

While it might be by a miniscule margin, I think Fedor still edges out those two as teh greatest fighter of all time

Did you forget that Jose Aldo exists?

Good stuff Rome.

1. A fighter is only as good as his/her last fight in the eyes of the media/sponsors/mainstream fans.

2. P4P titles should be given based on overall career performance, win or loose. If the fighter is leaving it all in the cage/ring EVERY time they fight it should count as a point towards p4p status. After all, rankings are more a popularity contest in my opinion.

Fedor was our anchor, now we have none.

Fedor is the greatest heavyweight the sport has ever seen, but with this loss, he probably relinquishes his spot as the greatest fighter the sport has ever seen to Georges St. Pierre or Anderson Silva.

So one loss against a challenger with a legitimate path to victory makes us ignore the 6 losses between Silva and GSP (who have both lost to guys without “much of a chance”)?

I’m as unconcerned about those “before” fights as I am about Carwin fighting Neil Wain two fights ago—a guy typically builds up from nowhere to somewhere.

After that, however, it’s a valid point. Staging consistently relevant fights is one of the most start differences between current MMA versus earlier MMA, and the UFC versus almost every other promotion.

I think it’s a bit premature to start saying fedor cannot be the (so-called and subjective) best fighter ever just because he got one loss after 32 wins over a whos who of heavyweight MMA not counting the latest incarnation of the UFC HW division. Anderson and GSP are great, but are they the unstoppable mythical wrecking machine that fedor was? Not in my mind just yet. Fedor ofcourse is on the very end of his carreer having a 32 fight unbeaten streak ended by perhaps one of the best if not THE best submission artists in the sport or at least at heavyweight.

Not fanboyism, but lets just wait and see what Anderson and GSP do before their carreers end.

for the next Fedor fight, wether its Werdum / Silva / Oveerem. I hope its earlier than 6 months. It will be interesting how Fedor performs after a loss.