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.

Joe's UFC 137 Predictions

UFC 137 is tomorrow, so as is the tradition here on BBB I have composed my preview of the fights we’ll be seeing on the main card. Originally 137 was going to be a great show with Georges St-Pierre defending his Welterweight Championship against Nick Diaz in the main event, and a co-main of BJ Penn against Carlos Condit. Diaz then skipped out on the media events to promote the show so Condit moved up to fight GSP and Diaz was dropped down to fighting Penn. Then GSP got injured, so now the main event is Penn against Diaz and a strange and underwhelming co-main of Cheick Kongo vs. Matt Mitrione. However, the first two fights on the main card are in the featherweight and bantamweight divisions respectively and the little guys are always exciting so this could be a pretty good show. But on the other hand this seems like one of those cards where almost every fight is going to go to decision and be pretty underwhelming. Who knows. Here’s the predictions…

Hatsu Hioki (24-4-2) vs. George Roop (12-7-1): I have no idea who either of these guys are, but looking at their records I can make some sort of feeble prediction. Hioki’s four losses have all been by decision, and for that to happen in 30 fights says a lot about his toughness. Twelve of his 24 wins have been by submission, and four of Roop’s seven losses have come by submission. In Roop’s last five fights he’s 2-2-1. In Hioki’s last five fights he’s 4-1, with the one loss coming as a split decision back in 2009. I’m thinking Hioki by second round submission.

Scott Jorgensen (12-4) vs. Jeff Curan (33-13-1): Once again, I haven’t a clue as to who either of these guys are, but Jorgensen is coming off a knockout win after losing a decision for the Bantamweight Championship. Curan is 34 with an insane 47 fights under his belt, but he’s got good submissions. Seven of his last eight fights have ended in a decision, and four of Jorgensen’s last six have gone to decision. I think Jorgensen wins by decision.

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic (27-9-2, 1 NC) vs. Roy Nelson (15-6): This is incredibly sad as it is essentially the Mirko Cro Cop retirement party. Mirko is a sad shell of the destroyer he once was. He used to possess devastating kicks, once describing them with the amazing quote, “Right leg, hospital; left leg, cemetery.” However he has been laid out in his last two fights and was demolished by heavyweight contender Junior dos Santos at the end of 09. Two underwhelming wins fill the gap between dos Santos brutalizing him and his two knockout losses. Cro Cop is cooked, and Roy Nelson will most likely finish his career off. Nelson is a disgusting slob of a person, coming into fights with a huge gut and obviously in no shape to go longer than a round, but he packs a devastating right hand. Sadly Mirko’s shown he can’t take many big shots anymore, nor can he give them out. Even before he submitted Pat Barry at 115 he was getting dropped by little punches the entire first round. Nelson is fat and disgusting and an insult to the sport, but he can take a beating in the unlikely even Mirko can throw out some strikes, and he can dish out some big punches of his own. Nelson wins by second round KO.

Cheick Kongo (17-6-2) vs. Matt Mitrione (5-0): Mitrione is a rising star in the heavyweight division. Known affectionately as “Meathead” from his time on The Ultimate Fighter, he has gone from being one of the most easily hate-worthy fighters to being an easily likable prospect. It is amazing. As for Kongo, he possesses awesome knockout power. He’s coming off a knockout loss to Pat Barry which was total crap since Barry was out on his feet for about a minute and the ref never stopped the fight, then Barry his Kongo with a freak punch and put him down. Kongo is a tough guy, only being knocked out once in his career. This fight could either be really exciting or really boring since that’s how it goes with the heavyweights. I'm sure the first round will be kind of intense, then the pace is going to go way down. I don’t like picking against either one of them really, but I think Mitrione wins a decision.

BJ Penn (16-7-2) vs. Nick Diaz (25-7-0, 1 NC): Though his record doesn’t make it seem so, BJ is the greatest lightweight of all time. Now he’s moved back up to welterweight, where he had won his first championship in the UFC against the legendary Matt Hughes. Nick Diaz is back in the UFC after a run as Strikeforce Welterweight Champion. BJ has been said to have the best boxing in MMA history, and Diaz’s striking is also very good. Both like to work submissions as well. It is a curious fight since BJ is known for coming out early and whooping ass, then gassing out later in the fight (see fights with Jon Fitch and Georges St-Pierre). BJ will be giving up some size but that has never mattered to him before. Diaz is extremely tough, having lost by TKO one time in the last 9 years. BJ's only true TKO loss came five years ago, while his other was just a corner stoppage since he was too tired and beaten up for go a fifth round with GSP. Neither has ever been submitted, and it is hard to see either fighter knocking the other out. As long as BJ doesn't gas out, this should be a very close fight. I feel bad picking against a Diaz brother, but BJ Penn is BJ Penn and you can't go against that. I think BJ will win a decision, though I could easily see him gassing out and getting beat convincingly by Diaz.

The Memory Remains...

"Today is the happiest day of my life."

With those words, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic capped off a four fight (two in one night) streak that brought him the 2006 Pride Open Weight Grand Prix title.  Unknown at the time was that not only would his remarkable performance in the tournament mark the best stretch of fighting in his entire career, it would also be his only championship victory.

Before Gabriel Gonzaga head kicked him into his decline and Frank Mir managed to defeat him in the stand-up in a disappointing UFC 119 performance, Mirko Cro Cop was considered the most feared striker in all of MMA.  Cro Cop came into MMA with a legitimate K-1 kickboxing background and showed it with his deadly striking, particularly his brutal head kicks.  So feared were those kicks that Mirko himself would describe them as "right kick hospital, left kick morgue."

Cro Cop came into the 2006 Pride Open Weight Grand Prix at a bit of a crossroads.  He entered the tournament with losses in two of his last three fights, a unanimous decision loss to Pride Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko in August 2005 and a split decision loss to Mark Hunt that December.  After a five month break to regroup, Cro Cop entered Pride: Total Elimination Absolute on May 5, 2006.

His "opponent" was the legendary Japanese fighter Ikuhisa Minowa.  Opponent is a term used loosely, as Cro Cop decimated him in 70 seconds in the evening's main event.  In his post-fight interview, Mirko thanked the fans and issued a quote that should have struck fear into the hearts of the rest of the competitors in the Grand Prix: "I hope you enjoy the event.  More importantly, Cro Cop is back."

Gone was the Cro Cop that was rendered ineffective against Fedor and disappointed against Hunt.  The man to show up for this tournament was hungry and focused like never before or ever again.  For current fans accustomed to the Cro Cop that refused to pull the trigger on the undersized Anthony Perosh at UFC 110 and seemed willing to be Junior Dos Santos' punching bag at UFC 103, the way he dismantled the rest of his competition in the tournament is frightening.

His next opponent was famed judoka and Pride's biggest draw, Hidehiko Yoshida.  This was looked at as a challenging fight due to Yoshida's slick ground game and the fact he had never before been stopped in any of his prior fights, which included two tangles with Pride Middleweight Champion Wanderlei Silva.  While the Yoshida-Cro Cop fight wasn't as short as the Minowa match, it was no less brutal.  Over the course of seven and a half minutes, Cro Cop unloaded savage leg kicks  that fractured Yoshida's right leg and forced him to forfeit after he could no longer stand.

The Yoshida victory put Cro Cop in the final four of the Grand Prix with American wrestler Josh Barnett, former Pride Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and the aforementioned Wanderlei Silva.  The semifinal and final matches were held on September 10, 2006, his 32nd birthday, at Pride: Final Conflict Absolute.

Up first was Wanderlei Silva.  For years, these two had been two of the most popular fighters in Pride and fans were salivating over the prospects of a battle between them.  Silva entered the tournament after Fedor had to withdraw due to injury and in his match against Kazuyuki Fujita, Wanderlei became the first person to ever knock out the renowned "Iron Head."  A natural middleweight (205 lbs.), Silva actually came into this fight four pounds heavier than Cro Cop at 225 lbs.  This would mark the second time they squared off, with the first being a 2002 draw fought under K-1 rules.  The rematch would be much more decisive.

From the onset, the difference between the striking styles of both men was apparent.  Silva waded in aggressively, throwing wild, looping bombs that Cro Cop easily avoided.  Mirko on the other hand was much more efficient, pummeling Silva with punches and kicks.  Early in the fight he landed two kicks to Wanderlei's body that instantly turned "The Axe Murderer's" torso purple.  After a punch that closed up Silva's eye, the referees considered ending the fight.  As Silva protested, a quick glance at Cro Cop's face revealed a man who looked like he was about to destroy anything set in front of him.  After the referees decided to allow the fight to continue, Cro Cop annihilated Silva with a vicious left head kick that will be shown on highlight reels forever.

After the five and a half minutes of brutality unleashed on Wanderlei, Cro Cop had one opponent left: former UFC Heavyweight Champion Josh Barnett.  Barnett came into the finals with a split decision win over Nogueira that night and prior submission victories over Aleksander Emelianenko and Mark Hunt in the first two rounds of the tournament.  The meeting between Cro Cop and Barnett on this night would be their third meeting, with Mirko winning the first by injury stoppage and the second by unanimous decision.

Like their first battle and every Cro Cop fight in the Grand Prix, this would end in the first round.  Mirko continued his striking onslaught and by stuffing Barnett's takedowns, nullified the main strength of "the Baby Faced Assassin."  After having his face battered for five minuts and thirty two seconds, Barnett submitted after a Cro Cop punch to the eye that rendered him useless.  With the stoppage, Mirko Cro Cop became the winner of the 2006 Pride Open Weight Grand Prix.

After the tournament victory, Cro Cop was uncharacteristically emotional.  Prior to thies display, fans had only seen a stoic man who went about his business in the ring quietly and efficiently.  During his post-fight interview, he gave a tearful thank you to his team and dedicated his victory to his father.  He also revealed that before the tournament began, he had mad a vow to retired if he lost any of the fights.

In retrospect, perhaps he should have considered retiring after winning the Grand Prix and Cro Cop has subsequently admitted as such.  Since leaving Pride in 2006, Mirko's career has been a mixed bag.  The predatory instinct and crisp striking that won him the Grand Prix have not been evident in his fights in the UFC.  Newer fans who have seen him fight in the last half-decade have heard tales about how devastating Mirko Cro Cop can be, but have never actually witnessed it.  Anyone who wants to see how truly dominant Mirko Cro Cop could be just has to go back to that five month span of May through September 2006 and witness his brutal run through the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix.