Two of the biggest mixed martial arts organizations in the world held events on Sunday night: the UFC made its Versus debut with the cleverly named UFC on Versus, and Dream, the largest remaining Japanese MMA promotion (which more or less aims to pick up where PRIDE left off), held Dream.13 in Yokohama, Japan.
The UFC card was headlined by mega-hyped rising star Jonny "Bones" Jones and overexposed has-been Brandon Vera. It seems unnecessarily cruel to begin this column by skewering a man who lost half his face on Sunday night, so let's start with Jones. Believe the hype. Jon Jones burst onto the scene in January 2009, with his dominant unanimous decision victory over Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94, and became a full-fledged phenomenon when he destroyed Matt Hamill last December before being disqualified for illegal elbow strikes.
Jones dominated Bonnar in what many expected to be the beginning of The American Psycho's comeback following a series of injuries and suspensions. He outwrestled Hamill, an All-American who has been successful in the UFC. And on Sunday night, he broke Brandon Vera's face. Literally. Vera reportedly suffered three broken facial bones after an audible elbow strike from Jones. In fact, apparently his injuries were sufficiently severe that he was not permitted to board his flight home. And this was a legal elbow. I guess that either makes Hamill some kind of superhuman, or it's further evidence that the rules distinguishing legal and illegal elbows are ill-informed and arbitrary. Since the rule-makers are unfailingly conscientious and well-informed, my bet is on Hamill being half grizzly bear with a steel-reinforced skeleton.
I assume that this fight was the last time the UFC will pretend Vera is a contender. Every times he faces a legit opponent, he loses. He's dropped three of his last five, and his best win came more than three years ago. Vera's decision to stop fighting at heavyweight in 2008 was probably a good idea. With the rise of real 265-lb. heavies like Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin, staying in the division simply was not wise. But Vera has looked decidedly mediocre since dropping to 205. He's 3-3, with his best wins a close decision over Krzysztof Soszynski and a TKO of Michael Patt via leg kicks. Vera hasn't knocked out or submitted an opponent since 2006.
Vera never should have been promoted as a serious contender at 205, and the fact that he's headlined two recent cards helps explain the UFC's inconsistent ratings. Vera is a pretty good fighter, but he can't hang with the elite of the heavyweight or light heavyweight division. His future is as a gatekeeper, not a contender. Even that, however, is on hold following his recent injuries. Best wishes for a speedy recovery. You never want to see someone get his face broken just because he's a little overhyped and has a stupid victory celebration.
In other action on the card, Junior Dos Santos continued his impressive rise with an out-of-nowhere knockout of Gabriel Gonzaga, and Cheick Kongo bounced back from a two-fight losing streak with a surprising ground-and-pound win over fellow striker Paul Buentello. Dos Santos is a serious contender in the UFC's suddenly-stacked heavyweight crowd, while Kongo probably needs another win before he can be considered a serious opponent for top heavyweights.
The rankings below are exclusively for the UFC, so you won't see names like Fëdor Emelianenko or Gegard Mousasi on these lists. It doesn't mean they aren't great fighters.
Heavyweight (206-265)
1. Brock Lesnar
2. Cain Velasquez
3. Frank Mir
4. Junior Dos Santos
5. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
6. Shane Carwin
7. Roy Nelson
8. Stefan Struve
9. Gabriel Gonzaga
10. Mirko Filipovic
Make it Happen: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos
Light Heavyweight (186-205)
1. Lyoto Machida
2. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
3. Rashad Evans
4. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
5. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
6. Jon Jones
7. Thiago Silva
8. Forrest Griffin
9. Luiz Cane
10. Ryan Bader
Make it Happen: Jones vs. winner of Griffin/Nogueira
Make it Happen: Randy Couture vs. Rich Franklin (But only if, please, it's not headlining a card. Give us something with title implications.)
Middleweight (171-185)
1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Demian Maia
4. Nate Marquardt
5. Vitor Belfort
6. Yushin Okami
7. Yoshihiro Akiyama
8. Wanderlei Silva
9. Nate Quarry
10. Michael Bisping
Make It Happen: Marquardt vs. Belfort
Welterweight (156-170)
1. Georges St-Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Thiago Alves
4. Dan Hardy
5. Paulo Thiago
6. Diego Sanchez
7. Josh Koscheck
8. Paul Daley
9. Matt Hughes
10. Mike Swick
Make It Happen: winner of Daley/Koscheck vs. winner of rumored Paulo Thiago/Martin Kampmann bout
Lightweight (146-155)
1. B.J. Penn
2. Kenny Florian
3. Frankie Edgar
4. Gray Maynard
5. George Sotiropoulos
6. Tyson Griffin
7. Sean Sherk
8. Joe Stevenson
9. Terry Etim
10. Clay Guida
Make It Happen: Sotiropoulos vs. Sherk
UFC 111 will be held this Saturday (March 27) in Newark, and it's a huge card. St-Pierre (-800) defends his welterweight title against brash British striker Dan Hardy (+500). GSP has run through all top contenders, including convincing wins over Fitch and Alves, who will rematch each other after clearing out everyone in the division who's not St-Pierre. The winner of that fight is pretty clearly the second-best welterweight on the planet, unless Hardy somehow upsets GSP. I'm leaning towards Fitch, though I could change my mind before Saturday.
The third really big fight is the Interim Heavyweight Title match between Mir (-160) and Carwin (+130). It's a big step up in competition for the 11-0 Carwin, who hasn't fought in more than a year. The fight will also tell us a lot about Mir and his quest for revenge on Brock Lesnar. Carwin, like Lesnar, is a huge heavyweight with a strong wrestling background. If Mir beats Carwin, he will have earned a rubber match with Brock.
The other fight I'm really interested in is the Spike TV not-quite-undercard bout between Ricardo Almeida (-155) and fast-rising Matt Brown (+125), who is on a three-fight win streak. Brown looked one-dimensional on The Ultimate Fighter, but he's 4-1 in the UFC, with all his wins by stoppage and the loss by split decision. If he tops Almeida, I think we need to start viewing Brown as a serious presence in the UFC Welterweight Division. I'll roll the dice and go with Brown, whom I've already underestimated too many times. At some point, a rematch between Amir Sadollah and Brown might be interesting.
Dream.13
Twelve random thoughts on Dream.13, which aired at 3:00 AM Eastern on Monday morning:
1. Way too much of the broadcast was devoted to time other than the actual matches. Why are you running commercials for your own event? I'm already watching.
2. Dream wisely employs Lenne Hardt, better known as Crazy PRIDE Lady, to handle its English introductions. Really, you could tune in just for her.
3. Frank Trigg talks too fast. Brother, I've been speaking English my whole life, and I can't understand you. Slow down.
4. The first half of the card was great. The second half was dull.
5. There's a certain charm in the freakshow fights that you often see in Japanese promotions. Quick, talented Ikuhisa Minowa beat big, powerful Jimmy Ambriz, who outweighs him by 100 pounds, with a toe-hold in the second round.
6. Ambriz exceeded expectations, and hurt Minowaman before the submission. Here's hoping Minowa doesn't follow in the steps of Kazushi Sakuraba by making a habit of taking damage before pulling off his subs.
7. The second round of Ryo Chonan vs. Andrews Nakahara was the best round of the night in either event. If you missed this card and only watch one fight, make it this one.
8. KJ Noons vs. Andre Amade was a disgrace. Both men came in overweight, and nothing happened in the fight because Amade kept backing away. I half expected to see Noons doing the Rockhammer in the last minute, when Amade refused to engage.
9. It was a less-than-triumphant return to MMA for Noons, who in November 2007 defeated Nick Diaz for the Elite XC lightweight title. The boring fight wasn't Noons' fault, but it told us much more about Amade than Noons. This fight didn't prove anything except that Amade is afraid to get hit.
10. I believe MMA promotions will eventually start including a contract clause that prevents guys like Amade from showing up and collecting a paycheck without actually doing any fighting (see also Houston Alexander vs. Kimbo Slice).
11. Josh Barnett unleashed what appears to have been the most lethal groin shot in recent MMA history. It was accidental, but the ensuing fight stoppage was so drawn out, it made the Noons/Amade fight seem interesting. Let's stick to a five-minute recovery rule in the future, please. At a certain point — hopefully five minutes — you should just call it a No Contest.
12. Unimpressive fights from both Bibiano Fernandes and Joachim Hansen. Fernandes is supposed to be a great grappler, but he couldn't hold Hansen down and never established dominant position or threatened with a submission. Hansen is supposed to be a great striker, but he never hurt Fernandes and didn't press the action standing. Here's hoping Bibi's presumed rematch with Hiroyuki Takaya has a little more fight to it.
March 24, 2010
Anthony Brancato:
What happens in the main events of UFC 113 and 114 will have huge implications not only at light-heavyweight, but potentially, at middleweight as well.
Rampage is rumored to be on his way out of the UFC regardless of how he fares against Rashad; but if Shogun avenges his loss to Machida, Rampage may be inclined to stick around if, as would be expected if he won, he receives a title shot, as he and Shogun have some unfinished business so to speak.
Meanwhile, a loss by Rashad - especially if it’s by KO - will almost certainly result in his moving down to middleweight; this is all the more true with the emergence of Jon Jones (like Rashad a Greg Jackson trainee) as a serious light-heavyweight contender. And if one looks at the “consensus” in MMA cyberspace, Rashad is being given very little chance of beating Rampage (if this were an NFL game instead of an MMA fight, Rampage would be favored by somewhere between 10 and 14 points).
And at middleweight, Rashad would be immediately ranked about the same as Wanderlei Silva, who has also suffered an early knockout at the hands of Rampage in the UFC, and both narrowly defeated Michael Bisping.