WEC....No More? Let's Hope

It is difficult to argue that any organization, including the UFC, puts on more exciting fights than the WEC. Yes, I understand they are both Zuffa owned brands, however, the WEC consistently offers better fights if not more meaningful ones. The recent talk of Zuffa transitioning the remaining WEC divisions into the UFC and dissolving the WEC brand has been a hot button topic within MMA over the last few weeks. And I for one am all for it as I feel that it can only bolster the UFC brand and offer the smaller weight divisions more notoriety that they clearly deserve.

My argument begins with the clear fact that Zuffa does not have enough headliners to drive all their cards. Adding 2 or 3 additional divisions with strong champions can only help bolster pay per views as you have more champions to headline shows. We can already see the turmoil the lack of headliners has caused for the UFC over the next few months. Especially UFC 105, which sticks out like a tourist at Rocky Point. The headliner of that show is Randy Couture v Brandon Vera. I dare you to find a more random fight. Then with the dissolution of the Rampage Jackson/UFC relationship, the Tennessee card is left without it's main draw. These kind of things would and could be avoided by having a stronger roster with more exciting fighters and additional headlining draws such as Urijah Faber, Mike Brown, and Miguel Torres.

Another reason for the permeation of WEC into the UFC, WEC does not really make a whole lot of money. Which in turn does not make the fighters much money. Guys on the undercard of a UFC will often times make 2 to 3 times more than some WEC main eventers. Guys like Torres, Brown and Faber should be making the kind of money they deserve, as they draw eyeballs much better than many UFC fighters who make much more.

Dana White has stated that the WEC will stay intact for the near future, but an integration is inevitable. For this blogger, that moment cannot come soon enough.

Long Live the New Vitor! (We did it Mama!)

The clamoring for the "old" Vitor Belfort has been going on for the better part of this decade. Well, it looks like the "old Vitor" is gone......and good riddance. What people seem to fail to realize is that the old Vitor Belfort was not as good as the current Vitor Belfort. The older, wiser, more mature Vitor Belfort. Beating up 2 fat guys with a punchers chance in Scott Ferozzo and David "Tank" Abott is not the same as knocking out Terry Martin, Matt Lindland, and Rich Franklin. Tonight's win against Franklin has proven, to this blogger at least, that the Vitor of 2009 is the one that is going to make a legit title run in the UFC.

Belfort TKO'd a game Rich Franklin tonight at UFC 103 in Dallas, TX. In doing so, he showed a vastly more mature style and mentality than he has ever shown in the past. The first 3 minutes of the fight were fairly lackluster, eliciting obvious fan annoyance. Belfort did not care. Employing patience and elusive footwork, Belfort let Franklin make the first move and deftly countered a body kick with a grazing left hand that put "Ace" on his knees. From there, 4 more punches ensued prior to Yves Levine calling the bout and declaring Belfort the winner.

What was most impressive to me was not the physicality that "The Phenom" showed, as we have always known what Belfort is capable of. What was most impressive and intriguing to see was the mental game finally coming together for Vitor Belfort. The patience he showed when the fans got restless was a testament to his new found mental fitness. If this was the Vitor that had been fighting over the last 10 years, who knows where he might be now?

Rankings

While rankings tend to be severely subjective and in may cases altogether without merit, there are also instances that the rank of a fighter is justified. Unfortunately, it all comes back to opinion when determining who the top 10 fighters in the world are and how they line up sequentially. And we all know the old saying when it comes to opinions, just like assholes, everyone has one.

Well, here's this asshole's opinion on who ranks where, when, and how. Flame away my friends....

Heavyweight:
1. Fedor Emelianenko
2. Josh Barnett
3. Brock Lesnar
4. Frank Mir
5. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
6. Brett Rogers
7. Andre Arlovski
8. Randy Couture
9. Shane Carwin
10. Junior Dos Santos

Light Heavyweight
1. Lyoto Machida
2. Rashad Evans
3. Quentin Jackson
4. Forrest Griffin
5. Mauricio Rua
6. Thiago Silva
7. Luis Arthur Cane
8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
9. Kieth Jardine
10. Rich Franklin

Middleweight
1. Anderson Silva
2. Yushin Okami
3. Dan Henderson
4. Nate Marquardt
5. Jorge Santiago
6. Demian Maia
7. Vitor Belfort
8. Robbie Lawler
9. Yoshiro Akiyama
10. Chael Sonnen


Welterweight
1. George St Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Thiago Alves
4. Paulo Thiago
5. Josh Koscheck
6. Mike Swick
7. Matt Hughes
8. Carlos Condit
9. Dan Hardy
10. Jay Hieron

Lightweight
1. BJ Penn
2. Shinya Aoki
3. Eddie Alvarez
4. Kenny Florian
5. Tatsuya Kawajiri
6. Gray Maynard
7. Frankie Edgar
8. Sean Sherk
9. Gilbert Melendez
10. Diego Sanchez

Featherweight
1. Mike Thomas Brown
2. Urijah Faber
3. Wagney Fabiano
4. Hatsu Hioki
5. Jose Aldo
6. Leonard Garcia
7. Takeshi Inoue
8. Raphael Assuncao
9. Masanori Kanehara
10. Bibiano Fernandez

Bantamweight
1. Brian Bowles
2. Miguel Torres
3. Masakatsu Ueda
4. Takeya Mizugaki
5. Dominick Cruz
6. Joseph Benavidez
7. Akitoshi Tamura
8. Manny Tapia
9. Damacio Page
10. Rani Yahya

Fight Night Fallout: Guillard vs Diaz

In what appeared to be a less than stellar night of fights, the participants in tonight's UFC offering exceeded expectations. From the opening bell of the first bout contested between Tim Credeur and Nate Quarry, we saw a back and forth brawl that saw the "Rock" win a tough unanimous decision. With the win, it looks like Nate moves toward the next up and comer as the resident gatekeeper for the UFC middleweight division, and Credeur goes back to the drawing board.

In a fight most thought would be a convincing win for the former WEC champ Condit, Jake Ellenberger decided to contest that thought by corking The Natural Born Killer with a couple of steaming right hands. Fortunately for Condit, Ellenberger was not on the same level when the fight hit the floor. Condit recovered his wits to end the first round and scored with several sub attempts and ground and pound through rounds 2 and 3 to manage a split decision win to nab his first win in the Octagon. Condit showed he has the gusto to keep on trucking in the UFC welterweight division, while Ellenberger remains a developing prospect.

In farewell match for Roger Huerta, The Bully Gray Maynard managed to utilize improved boxing and his bread and butter wrestling to manage a hard fought if not uber exciting win. Maynard started the first by catching Huerta with a couple of glancing shots, then got rocked by a flurried combination by El Matador. Maynard managed to recover, but without much else occurring in the round, Huerta stole the first by a score of 10-9. Round 2 found a faster paced exchange, with Maynard earning the round with more accurate punching and a jab induce knock down. The final stanza saw Maynard finally use his D1 wrestling ability and take Huerta down. Once the fight hit the ground, it was only a matter of time as Huerta showed his inability to get off the ground and his lack of a submission game. Maynard managed a nasty kimura that saw Huerta's shoulder get twisted like a Rob Zombie film. The round ended with both fighters standing in a weak clinch as the buzzer sounded. Maynard takes the fight by split decision, moving himself one step closer to a title fight, while Roger "El Model" Huerta moves on to greener pastures.

The make-no-sense main event of the evening saw Smokey the Bandits 'lil brother Nate Diaz face off against controversial lightweight, Melvin Guillard. Guillard managed a knock down in the opening seconds of the first round, landing a ginormic right hand on Diaz. Diaz managed to recover, but ended up losing the remainder of the first round to the elusive Young Assassin. The end came just after 2 minutes in round 2 when Guillard decided to get lazy and stick his neck out giraffe style on a takedown, thusly getting put in a modified guillotine that ended the fight. With the expected win, Diaz gets to keep his job. Guillard experiences his first loss in 2 years, and shows some maturity as a fighter in a loss that will likely land him in the vicinity of Dana White's cut list.

Rankings: P4P

While rankings tend to be severely subjective and in may cases altogether without merit, there are also instances that the rank of a fighter is justified. Unfortunately, it all comes back to opinion when determining who the top 10 fighters in the world are and how they line up sequentially. And we all know the old saying when it comes to opinions, just like assholes, everyone has one.

Well, here's this asshole's opinion on who ranks where, when, and how. Flame away my friends....

P4P:

1. George St Pierre
While most pundits have chosen one Anderson Silva as the p4p king of our sport, I must go with the UFC's resident French Canadian phenom. His record speaks for it self. His last 10 wins have been top 10 wins. No one else can boast that kind of record against that kind of competition. If not for the Serra loss, this would not even be a conversation. Silva's dominance comes very close, but I feel that GSP has more than redeemed himself of the Matt Serra loss.

2. Anderson Silva
His utter destruction of former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin was like watching a cartoon. Silva's ability to finish guys and make them look like 1-1 fighters is unparalleled. The only reason he is not #1 is the lackluster performances against Leites and Cote and the fact that, though not his fault, his competition has not been to the level of George St Pierre's.

3. Fedor Emelianenko
Despite his sheer dominance over the last 7 years, outside of Mirko Cro Cop and Nogueira, Fedor's Pride run has been filled with opponents that were beneath him, or not relevant at the heavyweight class. Yes, yes, some will argue that guys like Heath Herring and Semmy Schilt were relevant, but those fights were 7 years ago, not to mention that those oppopnents no longer matter now. The Arlovski and Sylvia fights were quality wins, but at this point it seems that those fights were more of an indictment on the 2 former UFC heavyweight champs than kudos for the Last Emperor. Regardless, until he's beaten or goes back to fighting guys like Zulu or a featherweight, he will remain a top 10 mainstay.

4. Lyoto Machida
Undefeated, 3 top 10 wins in his last 5 fights, 2 top 15 wins in his last 5 fights, current reigning UFC light heavyweight champion. Machida's record speaks for itself. But what is more notable about him is his fighting style. His use of Shotokan Karate as a base for his fight style sets him apart from his contemporaries. Most critics and pundits alike feel that he is at least 2 years ahead of the rest of the division if not the rest of the MMA world. His new found aggression and ability to finish opponents only adds to the most unlikely UFC draw. Should he keep his current pace, Machida may surpass Chuck Liddell as the most dominant light heavyweight champion the UFC has ever seen. Since Liddell, no light heavyweight champion has defended the title more than once. Machida's march to greatness begins with Shogun Rua in October.

5. BJ Penn
One of the most charismatic and polarizing figures in all of MMA. He is either considered by most to be either the most talented fighter in the world or the most overrated. Regardless, Penn's endless quest to test himself has availed him a spot here on the top 10 P4P rankings. Beginning with his improbable win over then P4P king Matt Hughes, to his domination of Takanori Gomi, Penn has made a habit of defeating fighters he wasn't supposed to, and losing fights he should perhaps have taken easily. Regardless, the run Penn has put together in the lightweight division has been impressive. It looks like BJ Penn may finally live up to the potential that so many thought he had.

6. Mike Thomas Brown
MTB goes from quality lightweight to the best in the world at featherweight. Proving that when skill and ability are fairly equal, size matters. Brown fought for years as a healthy sized lightweight fighter and had great success doing so, earning quality wins over fighters like Mark Hominick and Yves Edwards. Fast forward a few years and move down a weight class and you get the #6 best fighter in the world. Brown's run at 145 lbs has run through Jeff Curran, Leonard Garcia, and a former pound for pound stalwart Urijah Faber, twice. Thusly showing that MTB is the RFD (Real Fucking Deal).

7. Jon Fitch
While I wouldn't put the boring label on Fitch, he is the MMA equivalent to Tim Duncan. Calling him the Big Fundamental would certainly not be a stretch as he is well rounded in all facets of the game. With a shiny 10-1 record inside the UFC, Fitch has cemented himself as the perrenial 2nd best welterweight fighter in the world as he is unfortunately the Scottie Pippen to George St Pierre's Michael Jordan. Regardless, Fitch has dominated the competiton he has faced outside of GSP, putting him in the upper echelon of the MMA world.

8. Quentin Jackson
5 top 10 fights at 205 with 4 wins out of those 5 puts Mr Jackson at the numero 8 spot on our rankings. While controversy still swirls around Jackson's 2008 road rage rampage, it cannot be denied that he has racked up the neccesary wins to keep himself in the mix in the pound for pound rankings. Jackson is receiveing some flack for taking on a movie role instead of participating in his scrapped match with Rashad Evans in December, however, a return in early 2010 against Evans is tenatively planned. Should he win that fight, Jackson can only climb higher on this list.

9. Miguel Torres
A stinging defeat by TKO at the hands of relative new comer Brian Bowles drops Torres to near the bottom of the list. However, Torres'record prior to the loss was as impressive as they come. Torres needs to win his next fight to stay relevant in the pound for pound conversation, but his ability and talent cannot be denied.

10. Rashad Evans
"Sugar" was on the run of his life before he hit the wall in the form of Lyoto Machida. Undefeated in 13 fights, Rashad saw his streak crumble as Lyoto put a punctuation on his win against the Greg Jackson trained fighter by knocking him out cold. Regardless, a KO of Chuck Liddell and a TKO of Forrest Griffin land Evans in the last spot on this list.

Rampage......I pity the fool!

Another season of TUF wasted with news that Rampage Jackson will be taking on the role of BA Barackus in the A-Team remake coming next year. Filming for the movie begins this month, meaning Rampage will not be able to train for his fight against Rashad Evans as planned in December. While I understand fighters need to have a back up career once they are done in the fight biz, being a fighter means fighting comes first. The Evans fight was as big a fight as there was coming this year as it pits 2 top 10 fighters against each other in the hopes of lining up the next possible title contender. With Rampage going Cung Le on us, it looks like we will have to wait for not only the Evans fight to materialize, but we also now have a stall out for the next genuine contender for Lyoto Machida's title. As is, Shogun should not be contending for the belt, now who knows who is next for the Dragon?