In general, we’re pretty lucky that so many MMA fights are as awesome as they are. There’s 1001 ways to stink shit up in the ring, from refusing to engage to lay’n'praying to stalling to … eh, I dunno. Go back and watch a Tim Sylvia fight and you’ll see what I mean. Boxing went from being full of amazing fights to full of shitty ones. Will MMA go the same way eventually? I don’t know, but here’s hoping that shaming the participants in truly rank fights will keep them from becoming the norm. Here are your nominees for worst fight of 2008:
Mike Swick vs Josh Burkman at UFC Fight Night 12, January 23rd
This was a huge fight for both competitors and the first time either had headlined a card. Many were expecting fireworks between the two … ‘Quick’ Swick vs ‘The People’s Warrior’ Burkman, what could go wrong? A lot, apparently. Here’s a complete analysis of the entire fight: 15 minutes of Burkman holding Swick against the fence attempting a takedown while Swick defended. That’s it, that’s all. Swick won the majority decision which featured one judge scoring the fight a 29-29 draw.
Kalib Starnes vs Nate Quarry at UFC 83, April 19th
Who can forget the match that looked more like a track meet than a fight? Kalib Starnes ran himself out of the UFC by spending three rounds stuck in reverse, constantly backing away from his opponent. To his credit, Quarry did his best to corner Starnes but in the end gave up trying to engage and spent the final minute of the bout mocking Kalib. Starnes lost the bout via decision, with one judge scoring the fight 30-24.
Mirko Crocop vs Alistair Overeem at DREAM.6, September 23rd
With DREAM’s ratings at an all time low, the promotion needed to pull off a big main event fight that would give it a shot in the arm. A heavyweight bout between Mirko Crocop and Alistair Overeem was set up in the hopes of recreating some PRIDE heavyweight magic. Instead, the fight was stopped six minutes into the contest after Overeem repeatedly kneed Crocop in the balls.
Anderson Silva vs Patrick Cote at UFC 90, October 25th
A fight between two hard hitters should have been a surefire recipe for a slugfest. Instead Anderson Silva spent two rounds dancing around the cage before Patrick Cote’s knee gave out at the start of the third, resulting in one of the most disappointing matches of the year. Critics tore Anderson Silva apart, accusing him of toying with Cote and not taking the fight seriously.
Kim Couture vs Lina Kvokov at Strikeforce Destruction, November 21st
Rumor has it this fight only made it onto the televised portion of the Strikeforce card because HDNet pressured Strikeforce into doing it. That’s too bad, because the fight didn’t even deserve to be on a Strikeforce card at all, let alone the televised portion. If you took every pigheaded and negative attitude about women’s MMA and condensed it into one fight, it would look like Kim Couture vs Lina Kvokov. Couture was only featured because of her name, Kvokov was only featured because she was an easy victim for Couture, and it only gets worse from there.
A clearly afraid Kvokov spent the majority of the fight with her back turned to Couture, trying to avoid strikes. When she wasn’t pulling away she was covering up, and the ref had to step in and save her only 1:44 into the first round. It was an abomination of a fight and a disservice not only to other female fighters but all MMA fighters working their asses to get a shot in an organization like Strikeforce.
Paulo Filho vs Chael Sonnen 2 at WEC 36, December 5th
The first time these two met resulted in an exciting match with a controversial ending. Those expecting more of the same from the rematch were disappointed when a seemingly disoriented Paulo Filho refused to engage and spent half the match muttering in Portuguese to an invisible listener. Even the commenters were baffled by Filho’s behavior, wondering aloud if Paulo was “talking to Jesus or someone in the middle of the ring. Who is in there talking to him?” The crowd turned ugly halfway through the second round, chanting obscenities at the fighters for the remainder of the match.
Honorable Mentions: Brandon Vera vs Reese Andy, Matt Lindland vs Fabio Negao, Frank Trigg vs Falaniko Vitale.
So we all know that Keith Jardine is the original MMA Techno Viking, but he’s proven to be way too much of a sourpuss to acknowledge the similarities or even strike ‘THE POSE’. Fortunately we have kickboxer turned UFC fighter Pat Barry, who seems more than happy to show off his Techno Viking moves.
As a side note, we have a big announcement for the store coming up a bit later on today but I can’t really talk about Techno Viking without mentioning the totally sweet Techno Viking shirts in the Fightlinker store. Long story short, we’re done re-ordering old designs in order to make room for a bunch of new shirts, so if you want a Techno Viking shirt, you better order it quick because we have around 16 left in various sizes and that will be the last of them!
It takes a special kind of diet to be the best fighter in the world.
Sam Caplan over at Five Ounces caught up with everyone’s favorite crazy Russian, Vadim Finkelchtein, and basically drilled him with Fedor questions. The Cold War is over and I don’t think Caplan is a fan of Russian opera, so what else were they supposed to talk about?
“The Fink” basically reiterates the same talking points we’ve been hearing for well over a year: Fedor has had talks with the UFC, Fedor did not like the contract restrictions, Sambo is important to Fedor, Dana White killed a hooker back in ‘87, the UFC is entirely at fault, and all that.
There were a few notable quotes that shed a little light on the situation.
The UFC was categorically opposed to really having Fedor do anything in his life unless the UFC was involved and unless he was doing it under the UFC banner.
Anything in his life? If Lorenzo and Dana took Fedor to a ball game and he had to go to the little boys room, did the contract say one of them would have to hold his hand and watch him leak? Vad, I’m sure the UFC was more opposed to Fedor doing anything fight related without the involvement of the UFC. After all, if they were paying the guy millions to fight for them, a Sambo competition or appearances at other events might effect their investment, don’t ya think? Sacrificing some freedoms for the huge exposure the UFC platform would give Fedor across the globe sounds reasonable to me, but what do I know. I’m just a silly blogger who sits in his underpants all day and eats Doritos.
There were terms in there about the UFC’s power to change opponents at any minute without Fedor’s permission where if he was fighting one opponent for a fight and then last minute they would switch another opponent.
I doubt that’s exactly what it said as top fighters have turned down fights in the past. Either way, it looks as though the UFC contract wouldn’t let Fedor hand pick his opponents. Too bad. I was really looking forward to seeing Fedor vs. Warpath in the Octagon.
We told them, “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if Fedor is a part of the UFC and he’s the best heavyweight in the world and he happens to be Russian for us to do a show in Russia?” But it was never a demand.
I’m sure that’s exactly how the conversation went down. When asked to explain further, it probably sounded like this:
“Like, Fedor’s Russian, right? Well, me and Sergey had some pillow talk last night and were thinking how cool it would be if, like, Fedor fought in Russia. You know, since he’s Russian and all. We thought maybe, like, you guys would think that’s cool too. But if you don’t, it’s cool. Just sayin’. What’s that? I should pull my what out of my what?”
More good news / bad news on the UFC Montreal front … bad news first. Anderson Silva seems to be implying that he’s accepted a fight with Thales Leites for the card:
He is rumoured to be facing Thales Leites at UFC 97 and while the fight has not yet been officially confirmed, Silva says he is reasonably sure the bout is on.
“I think it will be against him, yes…. he will have the opportunity to fight for the belt, I hope he is training,” Silva told Tatame.
“Fighting a Brazilian is always complicated,” he added. “But we are professionals and we do our work.”
UFC president Dana White says that the long-awaited finale to the organisation’s heavyweight title ‘tournament’ may take place at in April.
“Mir took little damage in his fight with Nog, and Lesnar wants to fight him soon, so April may be the time and place for that. It will be good,” he said earlier today.
So it appears that Montreal may be getting two title shots at one event. But don’t get your hopes too high up … I’m passing this information on to you because it’s out there and it’s my pseudo-job. Do I really think the UFC is going to stack a Canadian UFC with two belt fights when so many other cards are ending up with none? Not really.
But there is one semi-logical explanation here. Anderson Silva gets a cut of PPV money, and he can’t be happy with the stream of lame opponents that aren’t helping carry the ticket. So was a co-main with Brock involved the only way to get him to accept the Leites fight? Brock has proven to be an awesome PPV draw, and that means more money in Anderson’s pocket.
But that still begs the question: Why Thales Leites? Why? Why?? Why??? What the fuck is that all about? Does Leites’ manager have Dana White’s family tied up somewhere in the jungles of South America or something?
With TKO’s Stephan Patry ditching the cold and dead sport of MMA for a trendy new sport he calls ‘Strikeboxing’ (which sounds like GrappleGrappling), everyone was wondering what was going to happen with Montreal’s bustling fight scene. Fortunately, upstart company XMMA seems to recognize their opportunity to become a serious regional force and have stepped up their game:
XMMA 7 “Inferno” has secured the services of powerhouse Phil Baroni (13-10), who takes on rising Canadian Guillaume Delorenzi (5-0) in the main event. EliteXC standout Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos and former TKO lightweight champ Shane Rice also grace the card, while a lightweight title match between Kajan Johnson and Steve Claveau will also be waged.
Also on the card:
Martin Désilets vs. Todd Gouwenberg
Ryan Jimmo vs. Mike Nickels
Steve Claveau vs. Kajan Johnson
Thierry Quenneville vs. Douglas Evans
Dan Grandmaison vs. Markhaile Wedderburn
William Romero vs. Mitch Gagnon
Valerie Letourneau vs. Kate Roy
Daylin Logan vs. Dominic Poissant
Sebastien Deroy vs. Jeff Royer
We’re still waiting with baited breath to hear who Cyborg is going to face. Fingers crossed it’s someone serious in the top five of the sport. The next XMMA is February 27th and we’ll be there, hopefully with a bunch of jackals.
Michael Rome bitchslaps fighter management for letting their clients languish in contract hell alongside ProElite for 77 days:
The real victims here, as usual, are the fighters. They have now gone almost 3 months without the promise of any income, and the UFC won’t touch them because of their uncertain contractual status. There are a lot of villains in this situation, but fighter management has been shown yet again to be almost completely useless.
It’s hard to imagine agents in any other field letting this happen to their clients. Monte Cox, Ken Pavia, and whoever else manages these fighters need to come together and file a joint action for declaratory relief in California. It will force Pro Elite to either put up or shut up about their future as a company instead of stringing these fighters along with false promises in order to maintain their only valuable asset for a potential sale.
Other websites have basically dropped this story … I guess without that “No presents for Christmas” line they were using last month, the little violin isn’t sad enough to justify another article. And Rome is right: at this point it’s time the managers spined up and did something about the situation. Waiting around and hoping for the best as far as ProElite’s chances of a sale go is NOT a good idea for anyone wanting to fight before June.
Once again, hockey might get in the way of the UFC coming to Montreal in April:
Participants have been told that the event will be held on April 18. However, as of Monday, the Bell Centre — which is the UFC’s venue of choice — told Sherdog.com that no date has been officially booked.
The apparent hold-up is the as-yet unknown playoff schedule for the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens. Right now the Canadiens are doing well and it’s expected that they’ll make the playoffs, and Saturday nights are often reserved for that storied franchise. However, a Bell Centre public relations rep did say that there are many dates in the Spring, April 18 included, that still might be taken by the UFC.
As a civilized Canadian, it embarrasses me to have to keep bringing up the specter of hockey every time the UFC comes to town. It’s way too fucking stereotypical for my liking … all we need now is for Jonathan Goulet to be eaten by a bear and everyone will think we’re a mirror image of the Canadian pavilion at Disneyworld.
I’m not too sure what Dana and his gang are doing by not locking this shit up … if they’re not careful they’ll end up with a card in Florida full of Canadians. Perhaps there’s an appropriate backup plan in place like Alberta?
Is there anything worse than having an awesome fight fucked up by a stupid ref? Lots of people like to say that being a ref is one of the hardest jobs out there, but personally I think that’s just an exaggeration perpetrated by refs to cover for when they screw up. And boy, do they ever screw up. Considering the basic concept of two guys going at it in a cage, there’s a surprisingly long list of ways in which a fight can be pooched by the third man in the ring. This award goes to the ref who has managed to do that in epic fashion.
NOMINEES
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Herb Dean
AKA the Dean of the Unforseen, AKA the Black Cat of MMA (and not because of his skin color). Herb is known for being extremely inconsistent with standups, stopping fights prematurely, and misinforming fighters of their rights when they get fouled.
Partial highlights of the year: He did such a poor job during Pete Spratt / Ryan Ford that he cost Pete Spratt the fight. He also fucked up the Marquardt / Leites fight, taking a point away for an imaginary foul and then ignoring Marquardt’s powerbombing of Leites. More recently, he was criticized for what some considered an early stoppage of the Mir / Nog fight.
Donnie Jessup
Donnie’s history as a major MMA ref is short but illustrious: he was the referee at the UFC’s Fight for the Troops event who obviously didn’t know shit about ground fighting. His comments during the Reese / Bruno fight were more befitting a drunken crowd member than a ref, and he was paying so little attention to the Hill / Hardt fight that he didn’t realize Hill’s leg was broken in half.
Donnie Jessup represents a large amount of what’s wrong with MMA reffing today: it’s filled with buttfuck boxing referees who have no idea what the sport is about and don’t seem to have any interest in learning.
Steve Mazzagatti
Meet the ref that Dana White said “just isn’t very good”. Steve is known for letting fights go on past the point of sanity … we’re talking about multiple times where fighters look up at Steve as if to ask “Do you seriously want me to keep punching this helpless person in the face?” The answer from the Mazz: “Yes, yes I do.”
Highlights of the year include handing Anthony Johnson a loss when he was brutally eye poked by Kevin Burns. He also demanded that Cris Cyborg knock Shayna Baszler out twice and stood up Lesnar / Mir over a single punch to the back of the head. This call wound up costing Lesnar the fight and completely changed the course of the heavyweight division for the rest of the year.
Dan Miragliotta
New Jersey’s go to guy and once apparent heir to Big John McCarthy’s throne, Dan made a good first impression during the tail end of 2007 but things quickly turned to shit in 2008. During EliteXC’s Primetime show he cocked things up bigtime, pulling a bevy of fishy moves out during the headlining Kimbo Slice vs James Thompson fight. Standing up the fight for no reason, refusing to stop the fight after Kimbo ate over two dozen strikes to the face, and finally waving off the fight in Kimbo’s favor while Thompson was still standing.
But that was only the beginning of the love affair Miragliotta had with fans over the next six months. Other highlights include a controversial stoppage of Vera / Werdum, poking Heath Herring in the eye before his fight with Brock Lesnar, knocking Akihiro Gono over twice during his fight with Dan Hardy, and raising the wrong fighter’s hand during the Taylor / Liaudin decision.
Honorable Mention: Many jackals nominated Cecil Peoples, but we were unable to find any specific fights in 2008 that he fucked up. Perhaps he deserves a special lifetime achievement award, but for this year he is in the clear. Mario Yamasaki also got some grief for letting fights go too long, but he simply didn’t get enough nominations.
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Herb Dean
Donnie Jessup
Steve Mazzagatti
Dan Miragliotta
