Sunday, August 8, 2010

UFC 117: A day of reckoning for lay and pray


I'm finally well rested after a long night at the bar, where me and a few hundred of my closest friends witnessed one of the most dramatic finishes in the history of MMA. The pay-per-view broadcast had six fights.

Roy Nelson vs. Junior Dos Santos

Roy Nelson is a former winner of The Ultimate Fighter who had ridden consecutive first round finishes to last night's bout for a title shot. Dos Santos is a devastating striker who has finished most everyone he's fought. Nelson's claim to fame is his huge belly, which he uses when he has top position to wear down whoever he's fighting. The belly makes him look like an oaf, which causes him to receive less respect than he deserves as a legit contender.

Dos Santos controlled this fight with superior striking from the start, and stayed aware of keeping the fight standing. Nelson seemed content to trade once he couldn't get a takedown, and paid a stiff price. He was pounded for 15 minutes in a lopsided decision. I wish Nelson would lose the 60 lbs. he would need to drop down to light heavyweight. It's bad for the sport that a guy who doesn't take fitness very seriously can rise this high in the rankings. If he cared enough to drop the weight, no one at 205 would want to face him. He's that skilled.

As for Dos Santos, he had a solid gameplan and worked it nicely. He gets the winner of Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez for the belt. Whoever he winds up facing will not want to trade with him.

Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida

As great as Matt Hughes has been for as long as he's been great, I must confess that I'm not much of a fan. He's a great fighter, but his performances on The Ultimate Fighter as coach left me feeling like he's a bit of a meathead. Suffice it to say that when he gets beat, I typically don't shed tears.

His match with Almeida, the BJJ black belt, looked like it may be interesting on paper, as Almeida was looking for revenge for Hughes victory over Renzo Gracie back in April. Hughes dropped Almeida with a left hook, then slapped on an anaconda choke from an unusual position until Almeida was out cold. Easy win for Hughes.

What's next for Hughes? At 36, you have to wonder where he goes from this fight. This win puts him back in the conversation at 170, but I'm not sure he can beat anyone in the top 5, which leaves him either as a gatekeeper for the division, or he can continue to beat on other old guys in MMA, whichever he prefers.

I'd like to see him fight Jon Fitch.

Clay Guida vs. Rafael dos Anjos

Speaking of gatekeepers, I've always felt that Clay Guida was the perfect gatekeeper at 155. If you can't beat him, you're not a legit contender. No one in MMA comes with the pace and energy of Guida, so if you're not prepared for him, he will overwhelm you. It's almost impossible to look like the aggressor against him.

Dos Anjos looked good for 2 rounds, scoring with some impressive feet, but the fight was still very close when Guida took him down in the third and dos Anjos tapped seconds later, claiming an injury to his jaw. Apparently, Guida had landed a punch in the first round that did the damage that led to the submission.

Guida legitimately believes that he is improving and will eventually rise to the level of contender and champion. But, while his recent record has been stellar, I need to see more victories against elite guys at 155 before I would give him a title shot. Guida is beloved by the UFC fan base, so his success is a good thing for Dana White and company.

He also has kept his long hair, which my wife says makes him look like Captain Caveman, which she repeats with the requisite call whenever he appears in the octagon, vibrato included.

Stefan Struve vs. Christian Morecraft

Since there were some early finishes early in the card, the UFC went to their normal practice of replaying a fight from earlier in the night, which is usually a highlight reel KO or a crazy finish. This one did not disappoint.

One of the great things about MMA is that a fighter can win every second of a fight in completely dominating fashion, make one mistake, and get beat. This happens so often that it's not necessarily surprising, but it never fails to disappoint. In the first round of this fight, Struve was dominated so completely that the doctors almost stepped in after the first round. Struve had several officials, referee Herb Dean, and several doctors analyzing his gigantic bottom lip, which looked like a cross between a swollen inner tube and Mush Mouth from Fat Albert.

Both fighters began the second round throwing bombs, but a right-left-right from Struve dropped Morecraft, and Struve ponced on him with further punishment until the fight was stopped. Spectacular stuff. The bar erupted. Maybe the most fun moment of the night for the whole place.

Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves

This fight was a rematch of a June 2006 fight that Fitch won easily, and this fight was almost exactly the same. Alves didn't make weight, failing to lose an additional half pound, which speaks volumes about what a difficult cut this must have been for him. This was easily the most boring fight of the night, as Fitch would take Alves down, then try everything he could to keep him there, which is like watching paint dry.

This style of fighting is commonly known as "lay and pray". Lay and pray is most often used by fighters with a wrestling background who recognize that their best chance of success is to take their opponent down, then control their posture with superior wrestling skills.

I enjoy every aspect of MMA, and watching two great ground guys mix it up can be as exciting as any highlight reel knockout. But, if you lay on your opponent and don't improve your position, you should be stood back up. When a fighter is attempting a lay and pray strategy, he will try to demonstrate to the ref that he is still working effectively with all kinds of pitty-pat striking that does nothing to hurt the opponent or finish the fight (foreshadowing!). Anyone who has followed the UFC knows that Dana White can not stand that shit. He wants to see fights finished.

Fitch won the battle, but may be losing the war. White was non-committal about giving Fitch another title shot with GSP after last night. How can you blame him? The crowd booed their way through all 15 minutes, and there's no reason to believe that Fitch would have a better chance at beating St. Pierre than the last time, when he was hammered for 25 minutes.

Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva

By now, if you've been near a television in the last 24 hours, you've seen what will go down as one of the great fights and finishes in the history of MMA. Sonnen has spent the better part of the last 3 months ripping Anderson Silva to anyone who would listen to him, boldly stating that he would take Silva down and pound on him for 25 minutes.

To anyone who has watched Anderson Silva destroy everything in his path for the last four years, all of this babbling from Sonnen sounded ridiculous. Silva hasn't just been winning, he's severely hurt almost everyone he's fought to the extent that they're not the same fighter afterwards.

Chael Sonnen was not kidding. He caught Silva with a straight right hand early in the first round, then proceeded to win the next 23 minutes of the fight, mostly with a combination of dominant positioning and submission avoidance. Sonnen landed a tremendous amount of strikes, an MMA-record amount, if you are to believe Yahoo sports. While any contact from hands can be considered a strike, the majority of this fight consisted of Sonnen laying on Silva, trying to convince the referee that he was being effective enough to avoid being stood back up, where Silva is dominant. There were so many pitty-pat strikes that much of Sonnen's offense elicited laughter from the assorted throng at the bar where we were watching the fight.

Towards the end of the fourth round, a flurry of elbows from Silva opened up a nasty cut on Sonnen's eyebrow, and, even though Sonnen was far ahead, he looked far worse than Silva when they went to the final round. Sonnen was so far ahead at the start of the fifth round than Silva needed a finish to keep the belt. Silva finally was able to land a significant enough elbow from the bottom to slide his legs into a triangle choke. When Sonnen adjusted for the triangle, he gave his arm up, which Silva gladly locked onto, forcing a tap and keeping his belt.

Unfortunately for Sonnen, his MMA experience has been like Groundhog Day. He has been submitted so often from a dominant position that it's almost expected at this point. An MMA promotion can go a long time and not get a fight like last night, so one would expect Silva-Sonnen 2 within six months. For Anderson Silva, he earned a respect and admiration in victory that wouldn't have come without the public seeing him as less than invincible. At age 35, we may have already seen the best he has to offer.

I would imagine we will see the Sonnen rematch, a fight with Vitor Belfort, and possibly one with Jake Shields before Silva hangs it up. The longest win streak in the history of the UFC survived for a while longer. And the UFC continues to deliver in ways that most other sports, even combat sports, can not.

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