Between Saturday and Sunday, it was an absolutely insane weekend for the BBB realm. The NBA Playoffs began and for me the season ended by the end of the first game on Saturday. On Sunday night the WWE held their first pay per view event since WrestleMania, with a returning Brock Lesnar taking on John Cena in an epic main event.
First up the NBA Playoffs. The game that started off what was supposed to be an insane post-season was the 1 seed Chicago Bulls taking on the 8 seed Philadelphia 76ers. With just over a minute left and the Bulls holding a 12 point lead, Derrick Rose tore his ACL on a drive to the basket. This instantly crushes Chicago’s hopes for a championship this year and maybe for years to come as well. An ACL injury is no joke and it very likely may take a year for Rose to be in prime shape again. But what will prime shape be? Sure some people like Baron Davis have been able to regain all of their mobility following an ACL tear, but this is a major injury that once used to be a career-ender. Will Rose just be a solid, All-Star level player or can he regain his MVP form? Rose is a tremendous athlete and medicine is always improving, but it is still a long road to recovery and for somebody whose game is predicated on the ability to outrun everybody and dash to the hoop this is terrible.
The severity of the tear is still unknown and there is still no timetable for Rose’s recovery, but this takes the Bulls out of contention next season and if Rose doesn’t regain almost all of his mobility they may not be contenders again for a long time. This ruins the playoffs since the fun that would have come in a Heat-Bulls conference finals is thrown right out the window. For all the trash I talk about LeBron and the Heat, it is still just part of being a fan and the fact it is fun to rip on your team’s rivals. Now the fun is gone for me and I have little interest in the playoffs now. The Heat have just been handed the Eastern Conference Championship for the next few seasons and it is sad. It is sad for me since Rose is my favorite professional athlete in the history of life, and it should be sad for any basketball fan as well.
Regardless of if you are a Bulls fan or not, you can’t dislike Derrick Rose. He is the bravest player in the NBA and is what everybody should want out of a star. He will do whatever it takes for his team to win, gives all the credit to his team, and goes out and plays his heart out and wants the pressure of being the guy on him. It is rare for a star to demand so much from themselves, but Rose has an insane work ethic and extreme dedication. And he’s a nice guy and a terrific player. You never want to see somebody like that go down. I absolutely hate LeBron James but I would never, ever want to see him suffer an injury that could potentially ruin his career. Where is the fun in that? I would rather see him in top shape rivaling the Bulls than see him go down.
I don’t blame the condensed schedule for this, nor to I blame Tom Thibodeau for keeping Rose in the game. Thibs wanted to get Rose back in game shape and used to closing out games, and get him used to playoff minutes. It was a totally freak injury that could have happened at any time. Rose’s game is so hectic people have been saying for years that he was a major injury waiting to happen. The condensed schedule may have sped things along, but realistically it is not that surprising that Rose suffered a major leg injury. It is extremely sad, but if you think about it you can’t be shocked. I just hope Rose can make a full or close to full recovery since he has been on pace to have one of the greatest NBA careers.
As for the rest of the Eastern Conference, Miami is going to be handed their first round series with the New York Knicks. The Heat took over 20 free throws in the second quarter alone, that should say something right there. The refs even called a flagrant foul on Tyson Chandler since LeBron James started rolling around clutching his neck like he just got shot, obviously faking since he was fine within 15 seconds. The new rule in the NBA this year that if you lean into somebody then throw up a jumper the refs will not call a foul? Thrown away for that game since LBJ went to the line several times for that. In Boston’s first game against Atlanta, Rajon Rondo got eject and is facing a suspension for chest-bumping a ref while screaming at him. This very likely will cost Boston the series if he is out for more than a game, and this just means the Heat have become the luckiest team in the universe and will make it to the Finals unscathed.
Out West, San Antonio looked dominant in their first game against the Jazz. The Lakers embarrassed the Nuggets as well, and the Grizzlies squandered a massive lead, getting outscored 35-13 in the 4th and losing 99-98. I thought for sure the Grizzlies were a sleeper team and could easily clear house and make the finals, but after a collapse like that it takes some serious stones to get back in it. Dallas was able to against Portland last year since they had been through it before. Memphis has only won a playoff series once ever so they aren’t exactly the most experienced group. And how about Dallas? Nearly coming away with a win in OKC, but Kevin Durant buried a game winner with a second and a half left. Intense stuff, but Rose’s injury was like a black cloud hanging over my enjoyment of these games.
To take my mind off the sadness of Rose’s knee getting destroyed, I ordered WWE Extreme Rules. Pretty awesome show that certainly made me feel much better. The three main events totally delivered, and the undercard was entertaining as well. Randy Orton and Kane worked a falls count anywhere match that was worlds better than their WrestleMania match. They both worked really hard and while it wasn’t a technical masterpiece, it was still entertaining and they deserve some daps for that. I expected the worst match ever but it actually turned out to be a pretty good brawl. The Cody Rhodes-Big Show tables match had a great finish since the entire storyline for the match was ‘How can little Cody Rhodes throw the massive Big Show through a table?’ Well it was simple really; with a table set up next to the ring apron Big Show was standing on, Cody kicked Big Show’s leg and made him trip and step through the table. A clever, totally heel way to win. Then Big Show’s post-match freakout was awesome, spearing Rhodes and throwing him out of the ring through a table.
The first of the three main events was Daniel Bryan getting his rematch against Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship after losing at WrestleMania in 18 seconds. It was a 2-out-of-3 falls match and was brilliantly worked, and the crowd was totally into it. Bryan has been red hot since Mania as his “YES! YES! YES!” taunt has spread across the WWE Universe like wildfire and everybody is doing it. Bryan got disqualified in the first fall by repeatedly kicking Sheamus in the shoulder against the ropes after being told to stop. He worked the shoulder over for the last few minutes of the first fall, then once the second fall started he threw Sheamus in the YES! Lock and made him pass out, tying it at 1. Then they worked a nice little third fall which Sheamus won, retaining his belt. The match had great psychology and made me sad they didn’t get longer than 18 seconds to work at Mania since they have good chemistry.
After that, CM Punk defended his WWE Championship against Chris Jericho in a Chicago Street Fight. The show took place in the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Punk’s hometown. Last time they were there, Punk put on one of the greatest matches of all time with John Cena. I wouldn’t say this match was as good, but it was still great, told a pretty good story and had some cool spots. Punk’s diving elbow to Jericho through the announce table was pretty awesome, as was Jericho getting out of the Anaconda Vise by bashing Punk in the head with a Singapore cane. Punk and Jericho are two of my top five favorites of all time so I am basically guaranteed to enjoy whatever these guys do, but this match was an awesome brawl. Sheamus and Bryan worked a technical match, and Punk and Jericho worked a fight. Both were excellent championship matches, but the main event was the biggest selling point of the show and it delivered.
Brock Lesnar left the UFC since his battle with diverticulitis proved too difficult to come back from. His midsection was so weak he was totally unable to take a punch or kick to the gut without crumpling in pain. People will question his heart and effort, but he was really sick and it is admirable he was even able to return. His return to the WWE makes me laugh though because when he came out on Raw a few weeks ago Michael Cole used Brock’s UFC weight, and probably legit weight since he lost like 20-30 pounds from his illness, of 265. That was funny to me since in WWE they lie about weights and make dudes seem way bigger than usual. Then last night they said Sheamus weighs 267 and Lesnar weighs 283 so he can seem like this massive death machine. That’s what it is all about.
I loved Lesnar’s match with Cena. I hated everything about it within the first few minutes, but as it went on I loved it. I didn’t like how the show opened with a UFC style promo package where they show interview clips from both Cena and Lesnar talking very calm about how they are going to punish each other. When the match started Lesnar fought like it was an MMA fight, taking Cena down and resorting to ground and pound. Again, this isn’t the UFC so I didn’t like it. In wrestling, when people bleed they cut their foreheads open with a razor blade. A rule in WWE’s TV-PG era is that there is no blood. These guys broke blew that rule right away when Lesnar took Cena down and busted him open hard way (no blade) with elbows to the top of the skull. Obviously it was done on purpose since Lesnar stopped once he drew blood and they wanted Cena to bleed to make Lesnar look like an animal.
But it was lame since they had the ref put on rubber gloves because of the blood like this is MMA and they had doctors check on the cut and try to stop the bleeding like it is MMA. At Survivor Series ‘03 Vince McMahon bladed after the first punch thrown by Undertaker and lost like half the blood in his body and nobody checked on him! Having the ref stop the match over blood is not something that happens in WWE and I hated it. WWE is an elaborate performance, not the UFC, so I don’t like when they try to act like it is and mooch of the UFC’s heat. I didn’t like how Lesnar’s new ring gear is MMA trunks and gloves, I didn’t like any of this fake MMA stuff they tried doing with the takedowns and ground and pound. I’ve seen Lesnar break Heath Herring’s orbital and beat him into retirement. I’ve seen Lesnar pound Frank Mir’s face in so hard Mir looked like an alien after the first round was done. How am I supposed to believe Lesnar using his MMA techniques wouldn’t absolutely kill John Cena?
I was so mad because I thought Lesnar would get a few minutes of this in then Cena would just do a few moves and win. I was kind of right, but this match turned out to be a classic regardless. Lesnar beat the shit out of Cena for like 15 minutes. Cena was bleeding all over and at one point Lesnar wiped Cena’s blood across his chest and licked it off his gloves. It was savage. When I say Lesnar destroyed Cena, I mean he DESTROYED him. I’ve never seen anything like it. The WWE had their top boy get ransacked for at least 15 minutes. The match was just under 20 I think, and Cena totally had about one minute of offense total. It was wild. Cena wore his old school chain with a padlock to the ring, and Lesnar wrapped it around Cena’s legs, hung him from the ring post, and beat the shit out of him for a few minutes. Lesnar used some of his real wrestling, busting out the rolling German suplexes, but other than that he just used strikes and brutalized Cena and had him bleeding all over.
After a while I stopped bugging about the fake MMA stuff and just started digging the match since it was the most unexpected and insane main event you could see. How often do you see the top guy get bloodied and thrown around like a piece of garbage? The finish of the match pissed me off initially but I’ve come to accept it. Cena was on the apron outside of the ring and Lesnar leapt at him. Cena had his hand wrapped with his chain and punched Lesnar in the face, Lesnar bladed (!!!!!), and Cena gave him the Attitude Adjustment onto the ring steps Lesnar had brought in. That was it. Cena pinned him, match was over. Initially I flipped out since Lesnar had beaten the living shit out of Cena then got caught with two moves and lost, but it really isn’t that bad.
Lesnar looks like he got sloppy because he tried to hit Cena with some flying something or another and got caught with the chain. He messed up and Cena barely escaped with his life. After the match Cena was selling an arm injury, at least I’m assuming he was selling and it wasn’t actually hurt, and said he may be taking a vacation and thanked the fans. Pretty random as I don’t see why you would have Lesnar job to Cena if Cena is leaving, but this is why people watch Raw the night after a PPV. I kind of like that they made Lesnar look like this wrecking machine who got too sloppy and got caught, but if Cena is taking time off this finish makes no sense as there needs to be another match.
So that’s about it for now. Thanks for taking the time to read this long-winded recap of the weekend’s madness, assuming you actually read it all and didn’t just skip to the end. Stay tuned for more Playoff thoughts at some point!
Showing posts with label lesnar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lesnar. Show all posts
Monday, April 30, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The Rights and Wrongs in the Sporting World 1
In the three realms we cover here on BBB, a great deal has happened as of late. As the title of this post suggests, I will be covering what out of the past few weeks is right in the universe and what is wrong. All pretty straightforward, so let’s just get to it.
The Right:
1. Stephon Marbury Gets a Statue - When Stephon Marbury left the NBA to go play for the Chinese Basketball Association, his life was a mess. He had left the Knicks in shame after threatening to blackmail Isiah Thomas and then feuding with Mike D’Antoni. He turned down a contract with the Boston Celtics so he could focus on “business” and then started broadcasting his life via webcam and did weird things like eat Vaseline and cry listening to music. Then he went to the CBA and has become a new man. He has matured and has become a superstar over there and lead the Beijing Ducks to their first CBA Championship. He averaged 33 and 6 in the Finals, and scored 41 points in the deciding Game 5, but CBA rules ban a foreign-born player from winning the MVP award. Luckily, a million CBA fans signed a petition calling for a massive bronze statue of Starbury to be made in honor of his contributions. It is great to see Marbury finally act like an adult and finally become a winner. It is even better that he is going to be immortalized with a sick statue.
2. Memphis Grizzlies - The team I said would rival the OKC Thunder for the top seed in the Western Conference has not been the truth this year. Granted Zach Randolph being hurt cost them, but he is now back and the Grizzlies have a very solid team. Marc Gasol is one of the best centers in the league, then you’ve got guys like OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay who can pile on the points and play good defense. Even Gilbert Arenas has proven to be a solid addition thus far, and it seemed like his career was at an end. Over the course of their last 10 games, the Grizzlies are 8-2 and have beaten the likes of the defending champion Dallas Mavericks, the Miami Heat, the Lakers, the Clippers, and the West-leading Thunder. They have put together a nice late-season stretch that could give them a ton of confidence come the playoffs.
3. Anderson Silva’s Revenge - It has been announced that Chael Sonnen will get another shot at Anderson Silva’s Middleweight Championship on June 23 in Silva’s native Brazil. The Brazilian fans are always rabid at the UFC shows and after all the trash talk Sonnen has dished out for two years about Silva, the Nogueira brothers, and the country of Brazil, somebody is going to want to see Sonnen get smacked up. An article on BJPenn.com asked if Sonnen’s trash talk is getting old. It was old after he got submitted by Silva in their first fight yet still talked the noise about how he was the true champion. Silva’s victory was maybe the most heroic in UFC history as he went into the fight mentally unprepared due to the loss of his grandmother and he was physically unprepared as he had busted ribs. Also, Sonnen was juiced up, but that will be touched on later in this post. It didn’t matter as Silva still made Sonnen eat his words about how a Nogueira black belt is like a Happy Meal toy. Now Silva is healthy and will be out to prove that Sonnen’s dominance over him in the first fight was just a fluke.
4. Tom Thibodeau - Thibs may be on pace to become the first back-to-back winner of the NBA Coach of the Year Award. He totally deserves it, and not just because I’m a Bulls fan. With Derrick Rose having a historic season in terms of games missed by a reigning MVP, the Bulls are still poised to win the East and maybe finish with the best record in the league. Best in the league despite being depleted by injuries all year and Carlos Boozer having to be the best player on the team. Chicago is staring down 50 wins in this brutal, lockout-shortened year even though Luol Deng has a serious wrist problem and isn’t playing as well as he could, Rip Hamilton plays a game or two then leaves because he’s hurt, and Derrick Rose has only played 35 of the 58 games this year. That’s three of the five starters down, and Chicago is just chugging along thanks to Thibodeau’s defense-first teachings.
5. The WWE and John Cena - Ten days ago was a terrific show at WrestleMania XXVIII. In a shocking turn of events in the main event, the WWE put The Rock over John Cena. Usually when they do these clashes of an icon from the past with the icon from the present, the classic guy always loses. WWE has forced Cena down everybody’s throats for years so everybody expected him to go over The Rock. In terms of storylines, it was a brilliant move to have Rock go over since this makes Cena’s character far more interesting. Had Cena won, he would have beaten literally every big star except for Undertaker. Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, everybody has had to job for Cena. If Cena had won he would be unstoppable forever. But now that he loses a match he said he had to win or he would lose “everything,” he is far more interesting. Compound that with Brock Lesnar returning the next night on Raw and delivering the F5 to Cena, and Cena instantly becomes interesting for the first time in years. Even the other night on Raw Lesnar got the better of Cena. WWE never has their top guy get jobbed out repeatedly, but now that they are doing it Cena is actually entertaining. The days of Super Cena who cannot be touched by mortal men are long gone and now Cena is just another superstar. However, this leads me to the first thing I want to discuss with what is wrong in the realms these days.
The Wrong:
1. WWE - Vince McMahon is going to be stepping down soon and relinquishing control of the company to his daughter Stephanie and her husband Triple H (not his real name). Vince has been pissed as of late since aside from the rise of CM Punk as a main event star in the last year, nobody other than Cena has gotten over with the fans. Normally if you want to get people over, you put them in high profile feuds and have them win. Hell, give them a secondary title like the Intercontinental or US title and have them work matches. Dolph Ziggler should be US Champion right now after being made to look like absolute crap against CM Punk but now is getting jobbed out to the “Funkasaurus” Brodus Clay. Cody Rhodes was making the Intercontinental title mean something again by cutting good promos and working good matches, but then they jobbed him out to Big Show at Mania so his push has declined. Zack Ryder gets jobbed out and made to look like an idiot every week. Ron Killings is portraying R-Truth, a gimmick I feel is offensive since it requires him to just be the token wild black guy who says crazy stuff and break dances. Daniel Bryan, who has won Wrestling Observer’s Best Technical Wrestler award seven straight years, was jobbed out in 18 SECONDS at WrestleMania. Rather than put some of these guys in feuds with Cena and make them stars they are being made to look like clowns. Vince is pissed there are no new stars, so what did they do? Bring back The Rock, who can only work for like maybe a month then disappears to make another movie, and put him over the biggest star in the company. The next night they bring back Brock Lesnar and put him over the top star in the company. How does this solve the issue of there being no new talent? The new blood isn’t even being given a shot and stars of the past like Brock and Rock aren’t putting anybody over, they are just being pushed like they are the future.
2. Alistair Overeem Fails a Random Drug Test - The Nevada State Athletic Commission granted Alistair Overeem a conditional license to face Brock Lesnar back in December. Part of this conditional license was the provision that he would be randomly piss tested since he has put on so much muscle the last few years it is obvious he must be on steroids. His temporary license expired on December 31st, 2011 and he passed his drug test both pre and post-fight. Reem’s victory over Lesnar has put him at the front of the line for a heavyweight title fight with champion Junior dos Santos. Overeem isn’t currently licensed but at the UFC 146 press conference, the NSAC administered a random drug test on Overeem and he failed, putting what would have been a great fight in jeopardy. The legal testosterone ratio for competition in Nevada is 6:1, while Overeem’s ratio was 14:1. Now the title fight seems to be in jeopardy since Nevada can refuse to issue a license on these grounds when Reem has his hearing. UFC President Dana White is furious since Reem looked him dead in the eye and swore he was not on steroids, but this test says otherwise. Overeem could claim testosterone replacement therapy as so many fighters do (more on that in a moment), or his defense could be that he isn’t licensed so this test means nothing. He has never failed a pre or post-fight drug test, and if he tests clean right before the fight and right after why should he be punished? The fight isn’t until the end of May so who is to say he won’t have a normal ratio on fight night? While a cheap defense, it still raises a valid point. But the fact remains, Overeem swore he wasn’t juiced up and here he is with the second highest ratio for a major fighter. Who was first? Well that’s what is so interesting...
3. Chael Sonnen Gets a Second Title Shot - The highest testosterone level belongs to Chael Sonnen with 16.9 when he had his title fight against Anderson Silva back in August of 2010. Not only did Sonnen get choked out, he cheated also since he failed to ever document he underwent testosterone replacement therapy for a condition called hypergonadism. It is worth noting one of the causes of hypergonadism is steroid use. He nearly pulled off the biggest upset in MMA history and it would have been tarnished because he had testosterone levels 17 times higher than that of a normal man, which is ridiculous even if he underwent TRT since a proper procedure would not cause that as the article I just linked to explains. He is being rewarded for nearly shaming the company by getting another title shot, while Alistair Overeem’s future with the UFC is in jeopardy. The Overeem test was just a random test on an un-licensed fighter, while Sonnen was in the biggest fight of the year and failed right before and right after the fight. Everybody is calling for Overeem to be punished, but people love Sonnen’s professional wrestling-style promos that embarrass the sport and they ignore the fact he cheated badly. Reem has never failed a drug test pre or post-fight and is going to be punished, but Sonnen fails pre and post-fight and is being rewarded despite the fact that if he had won that fight with Silva the UFC would have been shamed and all the good will the sport had built up would have been done.
4. Derrick Rose - Rose has missed numerous clutch free throws this year, most notably the other night against the Knicks. People could say it is a mental thing, and I agree to an extent, but we can’t forget Rose has been in horrible shape all year. Last year he was an absolute killer and carried Chicago to unexpected heights. This year he has barely played half of the games and gets injured all the time. Turf toe, bad back, bad groin, and now a sprained ankle. Maybe he wasn’t his usual clutch self against New York because he sprained that ankle again during the game and has been injured all year. Either way, his struggles to get healthy are going to cost the Chicago Bulls come playoff time. Granted it isn’t entirely his fault since he keeps getting hurt since he hasn’t had the chance to get in game shape, but still he is doing more harm than good right now. And the fact he has missed so many fourth quarter free throws this year is even worse. While the regular season hardly matters, it is still a dire situation when Derrick Rose has been more injured and hasn’t even had as good of a season as Carlos Boozer.
5. LeBron MVP Talk Despite a Great Canadian Having a Great Year - Yeah I hate LeBron but just hear me out. He is clearly the MVP this year and all, but depending on how these last few games go we may have to consider somebody else for a three-time MVP winner. If the Phoenix Suns make the playoffs, Steve Nash totally deserves to be MVP. He is battling it out with Rajon Rondo to be league leader in assists, and is sixth in the league in field goal percentage, with a ridiculous 54.1%. He’s the only non-post player up that high, with LeBron James sitting at 10. Did I mention he is a 38-year-old 6’3” point guard averaging 13 and 11? Not the most electrifying numbers in terms of scoring, but getting the Suns into the playoffs with Marcin Gortat as your second best player and Grant Hill out for the season is unreal. Michael Redd and Channing Frye are relied on as major options. LeBron is having an amazing year and all, but the Western Conference is the still the Bestern Conference, and if Nash can lead the Suns to the playoffs being several games over .500 hopefully somebody throws him a bone here.
That’s all for now. God speed and party on.
The Right:
1. Stephon Marbury Gets a Statue - When Stephon Marbury left the NBA to go play for the Chinese Basketball Association, his life was a mess. He had left the Knicks in shame after threatening to blackmail Isiah Thomas and then feuding with Mike D’Antoni. He turned down a contract with the Boston Celtics so he could focus on “business” and then started broadcasting his life via webcam and did weird things like eat Vaseline and cry listening to music. Then he went to the CBA and has become a new man. He has matured and has become a superstar over there and lead the Beijing Ducks to their first CBA Championship. He averaged 33 and 6 in the Finals, and scored 41 points in the deciding Game 5, but CBA rules ban a foreign-born player from winning the MVP award. Luckily, a million CBA fans signed a petition calling for a massive bronze statue of Starbury to be made in honor of his contributions. It is great to see Marbury finally act like an adult and finally become a winner. It is even better that he is going to be immortalized with a sick statue.
2. Memphis Grizzlies - The team I said would rival the OKC Thunder for the top seed in the Western Conference has not been the truth this year. Granted Zach Randolph being hurt cost them, but he is now back and the Grizzlies have a very solid team. Marc Gasol is one of the best centers in the league, then you’ve got guys like OJ Mayo and Rudy Gay who can pile on the points and play good defense. Even Gilbert Arenas has proven to be a solid addition thus far, and it seemed like his career was at an end. Over the course of their last 10 games, the Grizzlies are 8-2 and have beaten the likes of the defending champion Dallas Mavericks, the Miami Heat, the Lakers, the Clippers, and the West-leading Thunder. They have put together a nice late-season stretch that could give them a ton of confidence come the playoffs.
3. Anderson Silva’s Revenge - It has been announced that Chael Sonnen will get another shot at Anderson Silva’s Middleweight Championship on June 23 in Silva’s native Brazil. The Brazilian fans are always rabid at the UFC shows and after all the trash talk Sonnen has dished out for two years about Silva, the Nogueira brothers, and the country of Brazil, somebody is going to want to see Sonnen get smacked up. An article on BJPenn.com asked if Sonnen’s trash talk is getting old. It was old after he got submitted by Silva in their first fight yet still talked the noise about how he was the true champion. Silva’s victory was maybe the most heroic in UFC history as he went into the fight mentally unprepared due to the loss of his grandmother and he was physically unprepared as he had busted ribs. Also, Sonnen was juiced up, but that will be touched on later in this post. It didn’t matter as Silva still made Sonnen eat his words about how a Nogueira black belt is like a Happy Meal toy. Now Silva is healthy and will be out to prove that Sonnen’s dominance over him in the first fight was just a fluke.
4. Tom Thibodeau - Thibs may be on pace to become the first back-to-back winner of the NBA Coach of the Year Award. He totally deserves it, and not just because I’m a Bulls fan. With Derrick Rose having a historic season in terms of games missed by a reigning MVP, the Bulls are still poised to win the East and maybe finish with the best record in the league. Best in the league despite being depleted by injuries all year and Carlos Boozer having to be the best player on the team. Chicago is staring down 50 wins in this brutal, lockout-shortened year even though Luol Deng has a serious wrist problem and isn’t playing as well as he could, Rip Hamilton plays a game or two then leaves because he’s hurt, and Derrick Rose has only played 35 of the 58 games this year. That’s three of the five starters down, and Chicago is just chugging along thanks to Thibodeau’s defense-first teachings.
5. The WWE and John Cena - Ten days ago was a terrific show at WrestleMania XXVIII. In a shocking turn of events in the main event, the WWE put The Rock over John Cena. Usually when they do these clashes of an icon from the past with the icon from the present, the classic guy always loses. WWE has forced Cena down everybody’s throats for years so everybody expected him to go over The Rock. In terms of storylines, it was a brilliant move to have Rock go over since this makes Cena’s character far more interesting. Had Cena won, he would have beaten literally every big star except for Undertaker. Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, everybody has had to job for Cena. If Cena had won he would be unstoppable forever. But now that he loses a match he said he had to win or he would lose “everything,” he is far more interesting. Compound that with Brock Lesnar returning the next night on Raw and delivering the F5 to Cena, and Cena instantly becomes interesting for the first time in years. Even the other night on Raw Lesnar got the better of Cena. WWE never has their top guy get jobbed out repeatedly, but now that they are doing it Cena is actually entertaining. The days of Super Cena who cannot be touched by mortal men are long gone and now Cena is just another superstar. However, this leads me to the first thing I want to discuss with what is wrong in the realms these days.
The Wrong:
1. WWE - Vince McMahon is going to be stepping down soon and relinquishing control of the company to his daughter Stephanie and her husband Triple H (not his real name). Vince has been pissed as of late since aside from the rise of CM Punk as a main event star in the last year, nobody other than Cena has gotten over with the fans. Normally if you want to get people over, you put them in high profile feuds and have them win. Hell, give them a secondary title like the Intercontinental or US title and have them work matches. Dolph Ziggler should be US Champion right now after being made to look like absolute crap against CM Punk but now is getting jobbed out to the “Funkasaurus” Brodus Clay. Cody Rhodes was making the Intercontinental title mean something again by cutting good promos and working good matches, but then they jobbed him out to Big Show at Mania so his push has declined. Zack Ryder gets jobbed out and made to look like an idiot every week. Ron Killings is portraying R-Truth, a gimmick I feel is offensive since it requires him to just be the token wild black guy who says crazy stuff and break dances. Daniel Bryan, who has won Wrestling Observer’s Best Technical Wrestler award seven straight years, was jobbed out in 18 SECONDS at WrestleMania. Rather than put some of these guys in feuds with Cena and make them stars they are being made to look like clowns. Vince is pissed there are no new stars, so what did they do? Bring back The Rock, who can only work for like maybe a month then disappears to make another movie, and put him over the biggest star in the company. The next night they bring back Brock Lesnar and put him over the top star in the company. How does this solve the issue of there being no new talent? The new blood isn’t even being given a shot and stars of the past like Brock and Rock aren’t putting anybody over, they are just being pushed like they are the future.
2. Alistair Overeem Fails a Random Drug Test - The Nevada State Athletic Commission granted Alistair Overeem a conditional license to face Brock Lesnar back in December. Part of this conditional license was the provision that he would be randomly piss tested since he has put on so much muscle the last few years it is obvious he must be on steroids. His temporary license expired on December 31st, 2011 and he passed his drug test both pre and post-fight. Reem’s victory over Lesnar has put him at the front of the line for a heavyweight title fight with champion Junior dos Santos. Overeem isn’t currently licensed but at the UFC 146 press conference, the NSAC administered a random drug test on Overeem and he failed, putting what would have been a great fight in jeopardy. The legal testosterone ratio for competition in Nevada is 6:1, while Overeem’s ratio was 14:1. Now the title fight seems to be in jeopardy since Nevada can refuse to issue a license on these grounds when Reem has his hearing. UFC President Dana White is furious since Reem looked him dead in the eye and swore he was not on steroids, but this test says otherwise. Overeem could claim testosterone replacement therapy as so many fighters do (more on that in a moment), or his defense could be that he isn’t licensed so this test means nothing. He has never failed a pre or post-fight drug test, and if he tests clean right before the fight and right after why should he be punished? The fight isn’t until the end of May so who is to say he won’t have a normal ratio on fight night? While a cheap defense, it still raises a valid point. But the fact remains, Overeem swore he wasn’t juiced up and here he is with the second highest ratio for a major fighter. Who was first? Well that’s what is so interesting...
3. Chael Sonnen Gets a Second Title Shot - The highest testosterone level belongs to Chael Sonnen with 16.9 when he had his title fight against Anderson Silva back in August of 2010. Not only did Sonnen get choked out, he cheated also since he failed to ever document he underwent testosterone replacement therapy for a condition called hypergonadism. It is worth noting one of the causes of hypergonadism is steroid use. He nearly pulled off the biggest upset in MMA history and it would have been tarnished because he had testosterone levels 17 times higher than that of a normal man, which is ridiculous even if he underwent TRT since a proper procedure would not cause that as the article I just linked to explains. He is being rewarded for nearly shaming the company by getting another title shot, while Alistair Overeem’s future with the UFC is in jeopardy. The Overeem test was just a random test on an un-licensed fighter, while Sonnen was in the biggest fight of the year and failed right before and right after the fight. Everybody is calling for Overeem to be punished, but people love Sonnen’s professional wrestling-style promos that embarrass the sport and they ignore the fact he cheated badly. Reem has never failed a drug test pre or post-fight and is going to be punished, but Sonnen fails pre and post-fight and is being rewarded despite the fact that if he had won that fight with Silva the UFC would have been shamed and all the good will the sport had built up would have been done.
4. Derrick Rose - Rose has missed numerous clutch free throws this year, most notably the other night against the Knicks. People could say it is a mental thing, and I agree to an extent, but we can’t forget Rose has been in horrible shape all year. Last year he was an absolute killer and carried Chicago to unexpected heights. This year he has barely played half of the games and gets injured all the time. Turf toe, bad back, bad groin, and now a sprained ankle. Maybe he wasn’t his usual clutch self against New York because he sprained that ankle again during the game and has been injured all year. Either way, his struggles to get healthy are going to cost the Chicago Bulls come playoff time. Granted it isn’t entirely his fault since he keeps getting hurt since he hasn’t had the chance to get in game shape, but still he is doing more harm than good right now. And the fact he has missed so many fourth quarter free throws this year is even worse. While the regular season hardly matters, it is still a dire situation when Derrick Rose has been more injured and hasn’t even had as good of a season as Carlos Boozer.
5. LeBron MVP Talk Despite a Great Canadian Having a Great Year - Yeah I hate LeBron but just hear me out. He is clearly the MVP this year and all, but depending on how these last few games go we may have to consider somebody else for a three-time MVP winner. If the Phoenix Suns make the playoffs, Steve Nash totally deserves to be MVP. He is battling it out with Rajon Rondo to be league leader in assists, and is sixth in the league in field goal percentage, with a ridiculous 54.1%. He’s the only non-post player up that high, with LeBron James sitting at 10. Did I mention he is a 38-year-old 6’3” point guard averaging 13 and 11? Not the most electrifying numbers in terms of scoring, but getting the Suns into the playoffs with Marcin Gortat as your second best player and Grant Hill out for the season is unreal. Michael Redd and Channing Frye are relied on as major options. LeBron is having an amazing year and all, but the Western Conference is the still the Bestern Conference, and if Nash can lead the Suns to the playoffs being several games over .500 hopefully somebody throws him a bone here.
That’s all for now. God speed and party on.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
2011: The Year of the Retirement
While 2011 saw the rise of new champions like Jon Jones and the potential development of new stars at lightweight and welterweight, it also saw the (alleged) retirement of several big names in the sport. Let’s take the time to look back at them (or at least the ones I can remember), their careers, and if it was the right decision.
Randy Couture: The Natural announced his retirement prior to his April 2011 fight against Lyoto Machida, one where he was absolutely pasted with a jumping crane kick to the jaw that popped out a few teeth. For Couture, retirement has always been a matter of when. He’s pushing 50 and has found a lucrative job in movies, plus he has accomplished so much in his legendary career, that there was really nothing left for him to prove. He took on what turned out to be an insurmountable challenge against Machida, but he had always been about risk and testing himself against the best fighters, so he couldn’t go out any other way. Despite the loss, Couture can retire with his head held high and that’s something most people in his line of work don’t do.
Matt Hughes: The former longtime UFC Welterweight Champion hasn’t officially retired, but he effectively closed the door on his career after getting knocked out by Josh Koscheck this past fall. For Hughes, I feel like he stuck around for one or two more fights than he needed to. His desire to fight had seemed to noticeably wane over the past several years, and the strength and wrestling advantage he held over everyone during his heyday no longer existed. He probably should have retired after beating Ricardo Almeida in August 2010 and definitely after BJ Penn levelled him in November 2010, but he seemed to waffle on the idea of it throughout the bulk of 2011. I’ve always been of the opinion that if you are unsure of whether or not you want to continue, you should stop. So much of fighting is mental and if you aren’t 100% committed to the idea of fighting, you shouldn’t be doing it. I would think that losing to Koscheck is enough to put Hughes out to retirement, as he lost to a guy who had just fought for the title in his previous fight. It’s not like he was beaten by Dan Hardy or someone who he would have tooled seven years ago and needs to regain some modicum of self respect.
BJ Penn: While on the topic of guys who aren’t 100% into fighting, let’s get right to BJ Penn. BJ claimed he was retiring after an exciting, but decisive loss to Nick Diaz this past October. Since destroying Diego Sanchez in December 2009, his interest in fighting and intensity level has waned. Frankie Edgar’s a tough guy, but there is no way a fully committed BJ Penn doesn’t beat the tar out of him. At his best, BJ is a fighter who can do it all - wrestle, box, and use top notch jiu jitsu - and do it better than anyone else. His weakness has always been in training. A notoriously lazy trainer, it has become obvious that even though he wants to fight he doesn’t want to put in the work to keep himself in peak condition for fights. Before the Diaz fight, he spoke openly about fighting at welterweight so he wouldn’t have to cut to lightweight (even though he is much better at lightweight and wouldn’t face the massive size disadvantages at welterweight) and generally didn’t seem too thrilled about fighting anymore. I think that if his retirement sticks, it’s a good move. His legacy has taken a huge hit over the past few years due to that lack of desire to work hard and dominate like he did during the early part of his career and his 2007-2009 run as UFC Lightweight Champion. Lately, there have been rumblings that he is interested in fighting again. I hope that he only does this if he truly wants to be the best again. Anything less than that and he goes from being a legend to a “Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda Been” that had a couple of good but unsustainable runs at the top.
Mirko Cro Cop: The Croatian heavyweight finally called it quits after losing to Roy Nelson in October 2011. This was expected, and came three or four years too late. He has openly debated retirement since shortly after his stunning knockout loss to Gabriel Gonzaga in 2007 and has noticeably declined over the years. The combination of several injuries to his knees that ruined his ability to throw his patented head kicks with the devastating fury he had in his PRIDE days and an increasing lack of motivation to fight made his drop off from 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix Champion to cannon fodder for up and comers especially depressing to see. It’s a shame that UFC fans never got to see Cro Cop at his best during his killing machine days in PRIDE, where he laid scores to waste. Instead, they got to hear about a guy who was a lethal striker but really seemed afraid to pull the trigger in most of his fights after the Gonzaga loss. During his last two losses (Schaub and Nelson), he appeared to regain some of that fire and came close to finishing both men before getting knocked out himself. In some ways, this was better than just watching him get pummeled by Junior Dos Santos with no response. It showed that he still had some of the desire he had in his younger day. On the flip side, it was heartbreaking because five or six years ago Schaub and Nelson would have been two more notches on his record. Regardless of the disappointment of his UFC stints, I’ll still remember Cro Cop fondly for his time in Japan and excellent use of Duran Duran as his entrance music.
Brock Lesnar: Following his first round finish at the knees of Alistair Overeem, Brock Lesnar became the latest MMA star to call it quits. I have no doubts about his sincerity in the matter. He has shown a propensity to bail on things when the going gets tough, but in this case I don’t blame him. His bout with diverticulitis really crippled his career as a fighter. It did this in multiple ways. First, it weakened him and when combined with aging, robbed him of his greatest attributes - freak strength and speed. Once he lost those gifts, it exposed the significant holes in his game, namely being that he had poor stand-up, an adversity to getting punched, and a one dimensional gameplan based solely on securing a takedown and going from there. He had shown improvement in his striking and transitions going from Herring to Couture to Mir, but the illness severely limited his ability to grow and learn new skills. If anything, he severely regressed against Carwin, Velasquez, and Overeem. While the first two names on that list have solid wrestling skills to limit Lesnar, Overeem does not and he was able to stop Lesnar’s lone takedown attempt. Once Lesnar lost that option, he became a punching bag (or kicking bag in Reem’s case) to those men. If he was younger or MMA was a viable option when he left college instead of WWE or hadn’t missed nearly two years of training due to illness, who knows what Lesnar would have been able to achieve. While his fight career is not impressive, the amount of new eyes he was able to bring to the sport is and should be considered his greatest achievement. Without Lesnar, there’s no UFC on Fox or a lot of the big pay per view buys Zuffa pulled in during his time.
While I doubt 2012 will have nearly as many notable retirements as 2011, there are quite a few that wouldn’t surprise me: Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira are three that spring to mind.
Randy Couture: The Natural announced his retirement prior to his April 2011 fight against Lyoto Machida, one where he was absolutely pasted with a jumping crane kick to the jaw that popped out a few teeth. For Couture, retirement has always been a matter of when. He’s pushing 50 and has found a lucrative job in movies, plus he has accomplished so much in his legendary career, that there was really nothing left for him to prove. He took on what turned out to be an insurmountable challenge against Machida, but he had always been about risk and testing himself against the best fighters, so he couldn’t go out any other way. Despite the loss, Couture can retire with his head held high and that’s something most people in his line of work don’t do.
Matt Hughes: The former longtime UFC Welterweight Champion hasn’t officially retired, but he effectively closed the door on his career after getting knocked out by Josh Koscheck this past fall. For Hughes, I feel like he stuck around for one or two more fights than he needed to. His desire to fight had seemed to noticeably wane over the past several years, and the strength and wrestling advantage he held over everyone during his heyday no longer existed. He probably should have retired after beating Ricardo Almeida in August 2010 and definitely after BJ Penn levelled him in November 2010, but he seemed to waffle on the idea of it throughout the bulk of 2011. I’ve always been of the opinion that if you are unsure of whether or not you want to continue, you should stop. So much of fighting is mental and if you aren’t 100% committed to the idea of fighting, you shouldn’t be doing it. I would think that losing to Koscheck is enough to put Hughes out to retirement, as he lost to a guy who had just fought for the title in his previous fight. It’s not like he was beaten by Dan Hardy or someone who he would have tooled seven years ago and needs to regain some modicum of self respect.
BJ Penn: While on the topic of guys who aren’t 100% into fighting, let’s get right to BJ Penn. BJ claimed he was retiring after an exciting, but decisive loss to Nick Diaz this past October. Since destroying Diego Sanchez in December 2009, his interest in fighting and intensity level has waned. Frankie Edgar’s a tough guy, but there is no way a fully committed BJ Penn doesn’t beat the tar out of him. At his best, BJ is a fighter who can do it all - wrestle, box, and use top notch jiu jitsu - and do it better than anyone else. His weakness has always been in training. A notoriously lazy trainer, it has become obvious that even though he wants to fight he doesn’t want to put in the work to keep himself in peak condition for fights. Before the Diaz fight, he spoke openly about fighting at welterweight so he wouldn’t have to cut to lightweight (even though he is much better at lightweight and wouldn’t face the massive size disadvantages at welterweight) and generally didn’t seem too thrilled about fighting anymore. I think that if his retirement sticks, it’s a good move. His legacy has taken a huge hit over the past few years due to that lack of desire to work hard and dominate like he did during the early part of his career and his 2007-2009 run as UFC Lightweight Champion. Lately, there have been rumblings that he is interested in fighting again. I hope that he only does this if he truly wants to be the best again. Anything less than that and he goes from being a legend to a “Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda Been” that had a couple of good but unsustainable runs at the top.
Mirko Cro Cop: The Croatian heavyweight finally called it quits after losing to Roy Nelson in October 2011. This was expected, and came three or four years too late. He has openly debated retirement since shortly after his stunning knockout loss to Gabriel Gonzaga in 2007 and has noticeably declined over the years. The combination of several injuries to his knees that ruined his ability to throw his patented head kicks with the devastating fury he had in his PRIDE days and an increasing lack of motivation to fight made his drop off from 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix Champion to cannon fodder for up and comers especially depressing to see. It’s a shame that UFC fans never got to see Cro Cop at his best during his killing machine days in PRIDE, where he laid scores to waste. Instead, they got to hear about a guy who was a lethal striker but really seemed afraid to pull the trigger in most of his fights after the Gonzaga loss. During his last two losses (Schaub and Nelson), he appeared to regain some of that fire and came close to finishing both men before getting knocked out himself. In some ways, this was better than just watching him get pummeled by Junior Dos Santos with no response. It showed that he still had some of the desire he had in his younger day. On the flip side, it was heartbreaking because five or six years ago Schaub and Nelson would have been two more notches on his record. Regardless of the disappointment of his UFC stints, I’ll still remember Cro Cop fondly for his time in Japan and excellent use of Duran Duran as his entrance music.
Brock Lesnar: Following his first round finish at the knees of Alistair Overeem, Brock Lesnar became the latest MMA star to call it quits. I have no doubts about his sincerity in the matter. He has shown a propensity to bail on things when the going gets tough, but in this case I don’t blame him. His bout with diverticulitis really crippled his career as a fighter. It did this in multiple ways. First, it weakened him and when combined with aging, robbed him of his greatest attributes - freak strength and speed. Once he lost those gifts, it exposed the significant holes in his game, namely being that he had poor stand-up, an adversity to getting punched, and a one dimensional gameplan based solely on securing a takedown and going from there. He had shown improvement in his striking and transitions going from Herring to Couture to Mir, but the illness severely limited his ability to grow and learn new skills. If anything, he severely regressed against Carwin, Velasquez, and Overeem. While the first two names on that list have solid wrestling skills to limit Lesnar, Overeem does not and he was able to stop Lesnar’s lone takedown attempt. Once Lesnar lost that option, he became a punching bag (or kicking bag in Reem’s case) to those men. If he was younger or MMA was a viable option when he left college instead of WWE or hadn’t missed nearly two years of training due to illness, who knows what Lesnar would have been able to achieve. While his fight career is not impressive, the amount of new eyes he was able to bring to the sport is and should be considered his greatest achievement. Without Lesnar, there’s no UFC on Fox or a lot of the big pay per view buys Zuffa pulled in during his time.
While I doubt 2012 will have nearly as many notable retirements as 2011, there are quite a few that wouldn’t surprise me: Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira are three that spring to mind.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
UFC 141 Predictions
Zuffacaps off another year of big fights on Friday, December 30 with UFC 141. It features a massive main event, both literally and figuratively, as Brock Lesnar returns to the Octagon after a lengthy battle with diverticulitis and takes on fellow behemoth Alistair “the Demoltion Man” Overeem for the right to take on Junior Dos Santos in a title fight next year. The co-main event features what should be a very exciting lightweight scrap between Nate Diaz and Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. The rest of the card is a little “meh,” but with Brock Lesnar’s return the UFC doesn’t need to stack the card to increase interest. To be fair, it is still a better undercard than Penn/Diaz and Rampage/Hamill. Let’s get into it.
Nam Phan vs. Jim Hettes: This is a featherweight bout featuring one dude I’ve never heard of (Hettes) against someone I don’t care for (Phan). Hettes looks like he is a prospect with sick submission skills and Phan is a striker who has fought Leonard Garcia twice in the past year, losing one questionably and almost getting knocked out while dominating the second. I wasn’t impressed with Phan in his win against Garcia and he lost to Mike Thomas Brown, who has seen better days. Hettes beat some dude from the same season of the Ultimate Fighter Phan was on, so I assume this fight is to build him up some more. I’m going to go with Hettes by second round submission.
Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Alexander Gustafsson: Matyushenko has been fighting MMA since the USSR collapsed and Gustafsson is supposed to be part of the future of the light heavyweight division. This should be a real test of where he stands, as “The Janitor” should be a game opponent for Gustafsson. Vlad really only loses to the top level guys, or people on their way to that point. His only defeats are to Jon Jones (2010), Little Nog (2009), Andrei Arlovski (2003), Tito Ortiz (2001), and Vernon White (1999). Gustafsson recently beat Matt Hamill to a pulp (and into retirement) and has looked much improved since his loss to fellow up and comer Phil Davis last year. If this fight stays standing, I expect Gustafsson to dominate. Matyushenko needs to grapple and grind away to win. Gustafsson thwarted Hamill’s wrestling based game; I expect him to do the same to Matyushenko. I don’t know that he’ll finish him, so let’s say Gustafsson by decision.
Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks: No one took the news of GSP’s injury better than Fitch, I presume. The perennial number 2 welterweight in the world could potentially get himself in a title fight next year if he continues his winning ways here. His opponent, Hendricks, is no pushover though. Hendricks is also a wrestling based fighter, with top notch NCAA credentials, but can also trade on the feet (unlike Fitch). I expect this fight to be a bit of a snoozer, as Jon Fitch fights make me weep if I manage to stay awake through them. I really can’t decide who I want to win, as Fitch is dull and Hendricks spells his first name like a goof. People seem to think Hendricks has a good chance to win this and I feel like Fitch hasn’t looked great in his past few fights, but he is still the most dominant UFC fighter not named St. Pierre or Silva in the past five years. With a potential chance at a title shot, I expect him to put forth a better effort than lately, where it seems like he was treading water because he knew he wasn’t getting GSP again. Fitch by decision.
Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone: Cerrone has been on a tear this year, going 4-0 since joining the UFC after the WEC was closed for business. He is looking for a fifth win in 2011, an impressive feat to be sure. Diaz is looking refreshed since moving back to lightweight after a stint at welterweight. Diaz looked great against the ghost of Takanori Gomi at UFC 135 and Cerrone crushed Dennis Siver at UFC 137. The winner of this fight could be a fringe title contender next year, probably only needing one more win to get a shot. Diaz struggles against wrestlers with strong top games and Cerrone struggles against Ben Henderson, so neither of their weaknesses should come into play here. I lean towards Diaz, due to the fact he has fought consistently tougher competition the past several years and I like the way the Diaz brothers throw down. In what should be the fight of the night, Diaz by decision.
Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem: This is like Thor vs. the Incredible Hulk, two monsters in the cage going at it. There are so many questions going into this fight. For Lesnar - 1.) Is he in good health after battling diverticulitis for the past two years? 2.) Is he still afraid to get punched? 3.) Have his overall skills improved? 4.) Does he still have the dominant wrestling he used against Frank Mir? For Overeem - 1.) Can he stop Lesnar’s takedowns/can he keep the fight standing? 2.) Have the steroid allegations and his mother’s illness distracted him? 3.) Is he underestimating Lesnar by looking past him? 4.) Is he all hype, or actually a legit top 5 heavyweight? Lesnar’s inability to set up takedowns because of his poor striking game was exposed by Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez, but both of those men have extensive amateur wrestling backgrounds. Overeem is not a wrestling machine and has not ever fought someone with Lesnar’s skill in that department. Two things can happen when Lesnar comes in with that chest high takedown he goes for when he is trying to avoid striking - 1.) he could walk right into one of Overeem’s lethal knee strikes or patented standing guillotine or 2.) Overeem could get bulldozed into the mat and be at the mercy of Lesnar’s vicious ground strikes. If Lesnar doesn’t establish the takedown, I don’t have much faith in his abilities to stand with the Reem. Cain Velasquez was able to tee off on Brock and he is nowhere near Overeem’s level of striker. If it stays standing, I expect Overeem to finish within two rounds. For Overeem, he needs to defend the takedown and get up quickly if brought down. Just as importantly, he needs to do this without gassing out. I have no faith in his abilities to persevere through a round or two of takedowns and ground and pound. I tend to think that Overeem’s takedown defense (his biggest weakness) is not nearly as crippling as Lesnar’s weakness in responding to strikes. On the other hand, I feel like Lesnar may be able to turn a knee to the body into a takedown. He seems to be able physically to take a shot, but not mentally. If he eats a hard punch or knee to the face, he’s done. I think this is what happens. Lesnar is going to come out blazing for a takedown. If he gets it, he pounds on Overeem en route to a second round TKO. If he doesn’t, he gets caught and stumbles. From there, Overeem blasts away with knees to the body and punches and gets a first round TKO. I’m torn over which option happens. In some ways it doesn’t matter because I think Junior Dos Santos can beat both men, although the Reem would be tougher for him. Let’s go Overeem by first round TKO.
As always, feel free to share your predictions.
Nam Phan vs. Jim Hettes: This is a featherweight bout featuring one dude I’ve never heard of (Hettes) against someone I don’t care for (Phan). Hettes looks like he is a prospect with sick submission skills and Phan is a striker who has fought Leonard Garcia twice in the past year, losing one questionably and almost getting knocked out while dominating the second. I wasn’t impressed with Phan in his win against Garcia and he lost to Mike Thomas Brown, who has seen better days. Hettes beat some dude from the same season of the Ultimate Fighter Phan was on, so I assume this fight is to build him up some more. I’m going to go with Hettes by second round submission.
Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Alexander Gustafsson: Matyushenko has been fighting MMA since the USSR collapsed and Gustafsson is supposed to be part of the future of the light heavyweight division. This should be a real test of where he stands, as “The Janitor” should be a game opponent for Gustafsson. Vlad really only loses to the top level guys, or people on their way to that point. His only defeats are to Jon Jones (2010), Little Nog (2009), Andrei Arlovski (2003), Tito Ortiz (2001), and Vernon White (1999). Gustafsson recently beat Matt Hamill to a pulp (and into retirement) and has looked much improved since his loss to fellow up and comer Phil Davis last year. If this fight stays standing, I expect Gustafsson to dominate. Matyushenko needs to grapple and grind away to win. Gustafsson thwarted Hamill’s wrestling based game; I expect him to do the same to Matyushenko. I don’t know that he’ll finish him, so let’s say Gustafsson by decision.
Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks: No one took the news of GSP’s injury better than Fitch, I presume. The perennial number 2 welterweight in the world could potentially get himself in a title fight next year if he continues his winning ways here. His opponent, Hendricks, is no pushover though. Hendricks is also a wrestling based fighter, with top notch NCAA credentials, but can also trade on the feet (unlike Fitch). I expect this fight to be a bit of a snoozer, as Jon Fitch fights make me weep if I manage to stay awake through them. I really can’t decide who I want to win, as Fitch is dull and Hendricks spells his first name like a goof. People seem to think Hendricks has a good chance to win this and I feel like Fitch hasn’t looked great in his past few fights, but he is still the most dominant UFC fighter not named St. Pierre or Silva in the past five years. With a potential chance at a title shot, I expect him to put forth a better effort than lately, where it seems like he was treading water because he knew he wasn’t getting GSP again. Fitch by decision.
Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone: Cerrone has been on a tear this year, going 4-0 since joining the UFC after the WEC was closed for business. He is looking for a fifth win in 2011, an impressive feat to be sure. Diaz is looking refreshed since moving back to lightweight after a stint at welterweight. Diaz looked great against the ghost of Takanori Gomi at UFC 135 and Cerrone crushed Dennis Siver at UFC 137. The winner of this fight could be a fringe title contender next year, probably only needing one more win to get a shot. Diaz struggles against wrestlers with strong top games and Cerrone struggles against Ben Henderson, so neither of their weaknesses should come into play here. I lean towards Diaz, due to the fact he has fought consistently tougher competition the past several years and I like the way the Diaz brothers throw down. In what should be the fight of the night, Diaz by decision.
Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem: This is like Thor vs. the Incredible Hulk, two monsters in the cage going at it. There are so many questions going into this fight. For Lesnar - 1.) Is he in good health after battling diverticulitis for the past two years? 2.) Is he still afraid to get punched? 3.) Have his overall skills improved? 4.) Does he still have the dominant wrestling he used against Frank Mir? For Overeem - 1.) Can he stop Lesnar’s takedowns/can he keep the fight standing? 2.) Have the steroid allegations and his mother’s illness distracted him? 3.) Is he underestimating Lesnar by looking past him? 4.) Is he all hype, or actually a legit top 5 heavyweight? Lesnar’s inability to set up takedowns because of his poor striking game was exposed by Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez, but both of those men have extensive amateur wrestling backgrounds. Overeem is not a wrestling machine and has not ever fought someone with Lesnar’s skill in that department. Two things can happen when Lesnar comes in with that chest high takedown he goes for when he is trying to avoid striking - 1.) he could walk right into one of Overeem’s lethal knee strikes or patented standing guillotine or 2.) Overeem could get bulldozed into the mat and be at the mercy of Lesnar’s vicious ground strikes. If Lesnar doesn’t establish the takedown, I don’t have much faith in his abilities to stand with the Reem. Cain Velasquez was able to tee off on Brock and he is nowhere near Overeem’s level of striker. If it stays standing, I expect Overeem to finish within two rounds. For Overeem, he needs to defend the takedown and get up quickly if brought down. Just as importantly, he needs to do this without gassing out. I have no faith in his abilities to persevere through a round or two of takedowns and ground and pound. I tend to think that Overeem’s takedown defense (his biggest weakness) is not nearly as crippling as Lesnar’s weakness in responding to strikes. On the other hand, I feel like Lesnar may be able to turn a knee to the body into a takedown. He seems to be able physically to take a shot, but not mentally. If he eats a hard punch or knee to the face, he’s done. I think this is what happens. Lesnar is going to come out blazing for a takedown. If he gets it, he pounds on Overeem en route to a second round TKO. If he doesn’t, he gets caught and stumbles. From there, Overeem blasts away with knees to the body and punches and gets a first round TKO. I’m torn over which option happens. In some ways it doesn’t matter because I think Junior Dos Santos can beat both men, although the Reem would be tougher for him. Let’s go Overeem by first round TKO.
As always, feel free to share your predictions.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
The Reem!!!, GSP vs Condit/Penn vs Diaz?, and the Strikeforce GP Final
Big MMA comings and goings in the past week, between new signings and fights being made, as well as last Saturday’s Strikeforce card. Let’s get right down to it.
In arguably the biggest news of last week, Alistair Overeem has signed with the UFC and he will be fighting a returning Brock Lesnar on December 30. To the casual fan, the biggest part of that is the return of Lesnar after another potentially career threatening bout of diverticulitis. It’s a great fight to introduce Overeem to UFC fans and it pits two behemoths against each other. It’s like Thor vs. the Incredible Hulk. Its also a win-win for Zuffa. If Lesnar wins and looks good doing so, he beats a highly regarded heavyweight and is reinserted in the title picture. If the Reem wins and does so decisively, he beats the company’s top draw and is the next contender for the heavyweight title. While this is a winnable fight for Brock due to his superior wrestling, I don’t think he will win. He has mediocre striking and due to that, his takedowns are set up poorly. Overeem isn’t Frank Mir or Randy Couture; he can’t just be hurled around. Lesnar reacts poorly to getting hit and Overeem is a K-1 kickboxing champion. If Cain Velasquez can knock Brock around, imagine what Overeem can do. Plus, the Reem has a nasty guillotine choke or Uberknee just waiting for Lesnar to shoot for one of those chest high takedown attempts he goes for after getting punched. However, if Lesnar can get it to the ground, his superior cardio and brutal ground and pound can get him through this. Still, as of right now I think Overeem takes this with a first round TKO. The combination of Overeem’s power striking and Lesnar looking vulnerable and coming back from a long layoff will be too much.
The other biggest story this week was the upheaval at the top of the UFC 136 card. Georges St. Pierre is no longer fighting Nick Diaz and is instead facing Carlos Condit. Meanwhile BJ Penn is fighting Diaz rather than Condit. This all came to pass after Diaz missed two flights to Las Vegas for a press conference to formalize the fight and didn’t return several of Dana White’s calls. While I would have liked to have seen GSP and Diaz to see how St. Pierre reacts to Diaz’s smack talk and technically sound boxing and jiu jitsu, I think that Condit may make a better fight. He has better takedown defense and fights hard, hard enough that I think he has a better chance of finishing St. Pierre than anyone he has faced in a while. And the only real way to beat him is by finishing him. Georges can go five rounds easily and his style lends itself to decision wins. On the other side of it, BJ Penn and Nick Diaz should be one of the more exciting fights of the year. Both have great boxing and BJJ and neither man shies away from a scrap. I think it can go either way. BJ is the more talented fighter overall, but Diaz has much better cardio. I lean towards Penn, but it could go either way. Regardless, whoever wins this should be next in line for a title shot. If GSP and Penn both win however, I would just go to the GSP-Silva superfight route instead because Baby Jay can’t beat Georges. If Diaz wins, I might still go with GSP-Silva since Nick flaked out on the last fight and the Silva fight needs to happen. If Condit wins, anything goes. If I was forced to pick winners, I would go with Condit and Penn. In the future, I’ll go into further detail about why I think GSP loses. I may even discuss Nick Diaz flaking out on the biggest fight of his career.
The final match of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix is set, as Josh Barnett (the favorite in his side of the bracket) will face Daniel Cormier (an injury replacement for Overeem) at some undetermined point in the future. For Barnett, his path was easy. He outgrappled Brett Rogers in the first round earlier this year and then outgrappled Sergei Kharitonov, winning both fights by submission. I don’t know who Cormier beat in his injury replacement fight, but he knocked out Bigfoot Silva impressively to advance. This is an interesting fight, one that could make Cormier a legit heavyweight with a shot at contending in the UFC next year or give the blacklisted Barnett another shot in the company he was tossed from nearly a decade ago. Cormier is the better wrestler of the two, but Barnett has size and experience on his side. Of course, this is not the fight that Strikeforce had planned on. They originally set up the brackets so that we could see some combination of Overeem, Werdum, and Fedor square off against Barnett. Unfortunately, their brackets yielded a dud in the Reem-Werdum match, Fedor was blasted by Bigfoot Silva, and then Overeem was forced out of the tournament. Still, this should be a good one if it ever happens. One has learned never to accept things from Strikeforce at face value, especially when their erratic scheduling is paired with Zuffa cherrypicking the promotion’s best fighters. That could include one or both of the finalists in the GP to help boost a sagging heavyweight division.
That does it for this installment. Feel free to comment on anything that catches your eye. Stay tuned for UFC 135 predictions next week.
In arguably the biggest news of last week, Alistair Overeem has signed with the UFC and he will be fighting a returning Brock Lesnar on December 30. To the casual fan, the biggest part of that is the return of Lesnar after another potentially career threatening bout of diverticulitis. It’s a great fight to introduce Overeem to UFC fans and it pits two behemoths against each other. It’s like Thor vs. the Incredible Hulk. Its also a win-win for Zuffa. If Lesnar wins and looks good doing so, he beats a highly regarded heavyweight and is reinserted in the title picture. If the Reem wins and does so decisively, he beats the company’s top draw and is the next contender for the heavyweight title. While this is a winnable fight for Brock due to his superior wrestling, I don’t think he will win. He has mediocre striking and due to that, his takedowns are set up poorly. Overeem isn’t Frank Mir or Randy Couture; he can’t just be hurled around. Lesnar reacts poorly to getting hit and Overeem is a K-1 kickboxing champion. If Cain Velasquez can knock Brock around, imagine what Overeem can do. Plus, the Reem has a nasty guillotine choke or Uberknee just waiting for Lesnar to shoot for one of those chest high takedown attempts he goes for after getting punched. However, if Lesnar can get it to the ground, his superior cardio and brutal ground and pound can get him through this. Still, as of right now I think Overeem takes this with a first round TKO. The combination of Overeem’s power striking and Lesnar looking vulnerable and coming back from a long layoff will be too much.
The other biggest story this week was the upheaval at the top of the UFC 136 card. Georges St. Pierre is no longer fighting Nick Diaz and is instead facing Carlos Condit. Meanwhile BJ Penn is fighting Diaz rather than Condit. This all came to pass after Diaz missed two flights to Las Vegas for a press conference to formalize the fight and didn’t return several of Dana White’s calls. While I would have liked to have seen GSP and Diaz to see how St. Pierre reacts to Diaz’s smack talk and technically sound boxing and jiu jitsu, I think that Condit may make a better fight. He has better takedown defense and fights hard, hard enough that I think he has a better chance of finishing St. Pierre than anyone he has faced in a while. And the only real way to beat him is by finishing him. Georges can go five rounds easily and his style lends itself to decision wins. On the other side of it, BJ Penn and Nick Diaz should be one of the more exciting fights of the year. Both have great boxing and BJJ and neither man shies away from a scrap. I think it can go either way. BJ is the more talented fighter overall, but Diaz has much better cardio. I lean towards Penn, but it could go either way. Regardless, whoever wins this should be next in line for a title shot. If GSP and Penn both win however, I would just go to the GSP-Silva superfight route instead because Baby Jay can’t beat Georges. If Diaz wins, I might still go with GSP-Silva since Nick flaked out on the last fight and the Silva fight needs to happen. If Condit wins, anything goes. If I was forced to pick winners, I would go with Condit and Penn. In the future, I’ll go into further detail about why I think GSP loses. I may even discuss Nick Diaz flaking out on the biggest fight of his career.
The final match of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix is set, as Josh Barnett (the favorite in his side of the bracket) will face Daniel Cormier (an injury replacement for Overeem) at some undetermined point in the future. For Barnett, his path was easy. He outgrappled Brett Rogers in the first round earlier this year and then outgrappled Sergei Kharitonov, winning both fights by submission. I don’t know who Cormier beat in his injury replacement fight, but he knocked out Bigfoot Silva impressively to advance. This is an interesting fight, one that could make Cormier a legit heavyweight with a shot at contending in the UFC next year or give the blacklisted Barnett another shot in the company he was tossed from nearly a decade ago. Cormier is the better wrestler of the two, but Barnett has size and experience on his side. Of course, this is not the fight that Strikeforce had planned on. They originally set up the brackets so that we could see some combination of Overeem, Werdum, and Fedor square off against Barnett. Unfortunately, their brackets yielded a dud in the Reem-Werdum match, Fedor was blasted by Bigfoot Silva, and then Overeem was forced out of the tournament. Still, this should be a good one if it ever happens. One has learned never to accept things from Strikeforce at face value, especially when their erratic scheduling is paired with Zuffa cherrypicking the promotion’s best fighters. That could include one or both of the finalists in the GP to help boost a sagging heavyweight division.
That does it for this installment. Feel free to comment on anything that catches your eye. Stay tuned for UFC 135 predictions next week.
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