UFC 61 is in the books, and that’s a good thing. What a lackluster event that was. I’m not complaining too heavily, because regardless of how a fight card looks, nothing is ever a sure thing. Even with a heavyweight title decided, I think the biggest story (looking at the long term big picture) to come out of the event was the announcement that Wanderlei Silva will fight Chuck Liddell in November. This is absolutely huge. Apparently there were rumors before the event, but I never heard them. I was completely blown away when Dana White introduced Silva. The implications of this deal are almost unimaginable. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a process that makes inter-promotional matches a regular occurrence.
For the uninitiated (hardcore MMA fans skip this paragraph), Wanderlei Silva is the middleweight (205 lbs) champion in the Japanese mixed martial arts organization, Pride Fighting Championship. Chuck Liddell is the light heavyweight (also 205 lb.) champion for the UFC. Both fighters are currently under contract with their respective organizations.
So why is this such a big deal? Well, if the UFC and Pride can agree on something like this, it means that we could see more of the same. Before this announcement, MMA fans everywhere would bemoan the fact that we would never see “dream matches” between top stars in rival organizations. Is it possible now that we could see Andrei Arlovski and Tim Silvia take on the likes of Mirko Filipovic and Fedor Emelianenko? Who knows? And why would it have to stop with Pride? Personally, I hope that some time down the road there will be events once or twice a year that pit the big time fighters from different organizations against each other. I think it’s a good thing to have different promotions on the whole. You get the same sport with different looks and maybe even slightly different rules. That’s great. But the possible inter-promotional dream matches would be huge for the sport of mixed martial arts in general. Imagine the buildup for these events. You want to see Rich Franklin fight Dan Henderson? How about a rematch between Quinton Jackson and Chuck Liddell? Spencer Fisher vs. Gomi? Jason Miller vs. Diego Sanchez? The possibilities that could be staring us in the face within a few years are almost endless. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.
All that having been said, let’s go through some notes from UFC 61:
-That main event was just not good. And you know what? I blame Arlovski’s corner. The Pit Bull was killing Silvia with the inside leg kicks in the first couple of rounds, and he never went back to that tactic? His corner never said anything about that? What about takedowns? Or even faking a takedown to set something up? Nope. Instead, all we saw was that same looping right hand again and again, and Silvia had the answer for it this time. (By the way, Andre answered any questions about his chin last night. Silvia tagged him with some big shots and he never went down.) Andre Arlovski’s ground game would have ended the fight, guaranteed. If he’d stayed with the leg kicks and made Big Tim uneasy on his legs, he could have gone for a takedown and finished the fight. (If Arlovski’s corner advised him correctly, I take all that back.) It will be interesting to see what Arlovski does next. In hindsight, I wish he’d taken a few tune-up fights between UFC 59 and last night in order to get his confidence back. Hopefully we’ll see him go on another tear. The guy’s only 27. I’d like to see him switch camps and come back better than ever.
-Tough break for Yves Edwards. That was probably the worst looking cut I’ve ever seen. Actually the cut itself wasn’t the worst, but man did that sucker bleed. I had Stevenson and Edwards even on points going into the third round, and had Yves been able to keep it on the feet, he very likely would have won the fight. On the other hand, that was by far the best that Joe Stevenson has ever looked. He could definitely be a contender at 155 pounds. (And as a side note, this is the most exciting division in the UFC to me right now. There are a ton of good fighters at this weight, making for lots of exciting potential matches.)
-Frank Mir is an embarrassment right now. This former heavyweight champion had to work extremely hard to come back from a severe motorcycle accident, and he gasses in the first round? The fact that he was still able to pull out the decision says something about him and Dan Christison both. Mir could get back on track again, but seriously…could he train just a little bit of cardio? You can’t end all your matches by submission inside the first minute of the fight, Frank.
-The Burkman-Neer fight was good, and would have made a solid addition to a stronger card, but it was overshadowed by the mediocrity of the rest of the night. I think both guys are good fighters with a lot of potential, and especially Burkman.
-Ortiz vs. Shamrock. Listen—Herb Dean did the right thing. He may have done it a little early (I would have liked to see the fight go longer too), but Shamrock was in no way getting away from Ortiz’s elbows. He took four straight elbows to the head without so much as lifting a hand. Just because you couldn’t see it very clearly doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The elbows were raining down very accurately, and Shamrock didn’t do anything to get away from them. Even if Dean didn’t end the fight at that point, it wouldn’t have made it out of the first round.
Next up is the inaugural WFA event on July 22. This is a stacked card from top to bottom, and hopefully it will deliver. It’s just another sign of the emergence of mixed martial arts that a startup organization can put together a show like this for its first event. This sport will explode into network TV and ESPN soon, and that’s a good thing. I personally can’t wait.
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