Will The Real Anderson Silva, Please Stand Up???

****Since I first wrote this, it has been disclosed that Anderson Silva will replace Thiago Silva and fight Forrest Griffin at UFC 101 on August 8th****

As a massive MMA (mixed martial arts) fan, I am constantly defending the sport to people who are either uninformed or just looking to bust my balls.  Either way, I usually get pretty riled up and some how always end up just calling the person a name. Yes, my tactics haven’t changed since kindergarten.  One of my friends, Darkman, is a HUGE boxing fan and is only somewhat interested in MMA and more than anything just LOVES the fact he can rile me up whenever he wants.  One of his big complaints is the fact that anyone can beat anyone and usually 80% of the fights are just dudes laying on each other doing nothing.

 So coming into the fights a few weekends ago, I invited the DarkMan over to my mansion to take in  the fights on my 150″ HD TV. (See: one bedroom shoebox apartment and 32″ tube TV) and after checking with EVERYONE else and seeing there were just no other options, he obliged to join me.  After a few beers and some less than impressive fights, he started in about guys just laying on each other blah blah blah…That’s when I really stepped in it, “Wait till Anderson fights, then they be some excitement”.  He agreed and said that was the only fight he was looking forward too, were we EVER wrong.

In his first fight back since his weird, jitterbugging fight against Patrick Cote, I figured Anderson would have to just come in and decimate Thales Leites to shut everyone up and show them who’s boss.  Instead Anderson just sort of proved he seemed to like doing the jitterbug a hell of a lot more.  Sure, every time he tried to engage his opponent, Leites would just drop to his ass and lay there in the “GoatDiesel Defensive Position” but for me that is no excuse.  If you are the “pound for pound” best fighter in the world, shouldn’t you be able to hang with anyone, anywhere in the cage, including the ground?  I have NEVER seen another fighter stay away from another fighter the way Leites did but I have also never seen a fighter who was supposed to be the best stay away as well.  I truly think if that was GSP, he would have given up and engaged Thales on the ground, I would say the same for BJ Penn AND Fedor and those 3 have to be the other guys on tops of anyone’s list.

So what is the problem with Silva then?  I’m glad you asked.  I honestly think he is both bored and pissed off.  Bored with having to deal with completely inferior opposition just so fans can watch him fight every few months.  And pissed off for, having to deal with completely inferior opposition just so fans can watch him fight every few months.  Why the UFC doesn’t wait a few months and give ”Spider” some real competition at Middleweight is a mystery to me!  It’s not as if the division is empty, they gave Rich Franklin 2 shots at him, why not Nate Marquardt or Okami?  Sure he fought Nate the Great before but it was 2 years ago and Nate truly looks like a new and far better opponent now a days.  Okami is an very interesting fight as well because he was the last person to “beat” Anderson Silva.  I used quotations because it was actually a disqualification for an illegal kick that DQ’ed Silva and gave Okami the win.  Both of these guys are by far the best in the weight class in the UFC, besides Silva of course, so why keep throwing him guys that aren’t even in the Top 10 of the weight division?  Because, I believe the UFC does get greedy and figures as long as you throw a guy of Silva’s calibre you are going to get fireworks and you are going to get ratings.  Unfortunately for the fans, there was no gun powder on Montreal on the 18th.

Now it has been disclosed that Anderson Silva will face Forrest Griffin at 205lbs on August 8th.  WHY?  Sure, its probably going to be the 3rd most anticipated fight that has been official announced to take place this year, GSP vs, Thiago Alves and Brock vs. Frank Mir) but to me it doesn’t make sense.  If Anderson’s last two fights were at 185lbs and he either decimated top contenders or had a couple of wars, this fight makes sense.  But coming off of two of the weirdest fights I have ever witnessed?  Doesn’t make sense to me to put him up at 205lbs.

 For those of you that don’t know, the UFC, unable to find Silva formidable competition at his “natural” weight class of 185lbs, let the very talented fight move up to 205lbs, while they went searching for anyone who would give the champ a challenge.  In his only fight at the 205lb weight class, Anderson looked pretty impressive. In his debut he took on the very heavy handed James “the Sandman” Irvin that has unreal KO power.  That fight lasted a total of 61 seconds before Silva caught a kick from Irvin with one hand and then knocked him out with his other hand.  Yes, he is THAT GOOD.

Make NO mistake, Forrest Griffin is no Thales Leites or James Irvin, this man is a legit ex-champion at 205lbs and VERY GAME.  I will bet the farm you don’t seem Forrest dropping to his ass unless its either a joke or because Anderson puts him there.  Forrest is a serious striker with a concrete chin and with his debut in the UFC, a war with Stephan Bonnar, he helped put the UFC and MMA in the mainstream with his heart and determination.  The winner of season 1 of The Ultimate Fighter, Griffin is a VERY popular fighter and is no doubt very excited to be the guy who gets to make Silva actually HAVE to fight someone.

If Silva beats Griffin, the UFC almost HAS to give him a title shot or at least a fight with Rampage Jackson or the loser of Lyoto Machida and “Sugar” Rashad Evans.  If Silva loses, keep him at 185lbs, throw him a good challenge and if he handles them easily then throw him and GSP together and let’s truly find out who the best pound for pound fighter in the world is.

Peace!

Oscar De La Hoya – Fool’s Gold

What was that?  Seriously?  What did I just watch?  I thought they were billing this as a “Super Fight”? It was really more like a “Super Ass Kicking” or a “How To Box Video” starring Manny Pacquiao and some guy who looked like Oscar De La Hoya’s older brother.  Now I am not a boxing aficionado by any means but I am a sports fan I know one thing, that was EMBARRASSING!!!  For those of you who may have missed it. On Saturday night there was supposed to be a fight to declare the unofficial “pound for pound champion in boxing”. (Yes! Boxing is still around) The problem was, only one fighter showed up and here’s a hint, it WASN’T Oscar De La Hoya.

Foreshadowed by a undercard full of lopsided fights that ended quickly and watching Jim Lampley and the HBO crew scramble for 45 minutes, you knew this fight wasn’t going to be pretty and you were right.  As soon as I saw the tale of the tape, I saw the writing on the wall.  A MUCH shorter Pacquiao (5′6″,’stache not included) gained 6.5lbs overnight and De La Hoya gained only 1lb.  By fight time there was only a pound advantage for Pacquiao but there is something to be said when the bigger (5′10″) who normally fights at a higher weight class can’t even match the 6lbs the much smaller and naturally lighter Filipino was able to gain.  Was he too tired to eat?  Did he even care? Was this all getting boring for him? All of those questions scare me and are my biggest problems with boxing as a sport.

When you look at De La Hoya’s career you can by no means say he has ever taken the easy road.  He has defeated 18 current or former champions and I am not insinuating he is a ducker like Fedor Emelianenko in MMA but when you look at the payouts he is receiving at this point in his career, you might agree with me when I ask how hard he is willing to train when he is guaranteed to make $20M+ win or lose.  Granted he is a boxer, probably the most competitive breed of athlete in this day and age, to get punched in the face for a living you have to be either competitive or crazy. And with his interviews and massively successful promotional company (Golden Boy Promotions) he is certainly not the latter.  When I saw he was rumoured to be paid $50M win or LOSE for his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May of 2007, I definitely questioned what was really bringing these fights about.

At least the Mayweather fight was for a title, so you could almost believe it wasn’t just for the ridiculous pay out.  You can almost believe the Golden Boy was motivated by the talk he may have lost it and wanted to prove he was still the pound for pound the best fighter in the world when he fought the Pac-Man.  But when you actually watched what transpired Saturday night, that all went out the window like one of Larry Merchant’s crazy-ass, long-winded questions.

How can we fix this?  I am not sure boxing can be saved but I have a thought to make it more interesting and it is borrowed from the sport some say is taking over for boxing, MMA.  In MMA, a majority of the fighters are paid PEANUTS compared even to the guy who rings the bell at main events in boxing.  That isn’t because the promoters are ripping these guys off (well maybe a little) but because the sport is still in its embryonic stage.  They do have a great way of making these guys fight a lot harder than most boxers, win bonuses. UFC for example, gives out a win bonus (usually it doubles the fighters base pay), a Fight of the Night bonus, Knock Out of the Night bonus and even a Submission of the Night bonus for usually $10,000. When you’re getting paid only $6,000 to step up and fight, that’s a pretty nice chunk of change and it not only gives these underpaid fighters more of a reason to make the fight exciting but to genuinely care how hard they train and what happens in the ring (or Octagon).

Now I am sure some boxers get cuts of pay per views, gates and all that but I mean bonuses off each other, almost like a bet.  I read a rumour that De La Hoya and Pacquiao agreed to put up 10% of their respected purses for the fight and I thought that was great but as far as I know it was only that, a rumour.  Take this exact fight, from what I heard, De La Hoya was promised 60% of the cut and Manny of course 40% but the side bet would even it out at 50%.  Of course 50% of say $100M isn’t too shabby no matter how you cut it but when you are putting up 10% of the money you can earn it also becomes a pride thing.  I know when I make my weekly $5 bet at work regarding anything from who goes the bathroom first to who talks first, I try my hardest to beat those other bastards.  Not only because the $5 will get me one more beer that Friday but because I don’t wanna have these guys to wave that money in my face like I always do to them.

Maybe my money scheme won’t save boxing or even make it more interesting but they have to do something.  Because showing up, getting out-punched 229 to 39 and having to throw in the effing towel in 8th round of a fight you were never in and still getting paid millions, is about as interesting as watching as my co-workers faces go blue after their morning coffees after a “First to pee bet”.  Ok, maybe not even that interesting.  So do us a favour Golden Boy, either train harder, fight competition that fits your style or join Blanche, Rose, Sofia and Dorothy in retirement.  (Golden Girl’s reference…YES!!!)

Peace!