Weekend Wrapup: UFC 62, Bushido 12 and Beyond

Last weekend, after a bit of a dry spell, we had two good cards of MMA action. One, UFC 62, rose above the crapulence of its card to put on a great show, while the other, Bushido 12, made good fights out of great matchups.

As is my duty as a serious fan of the sport, I have to look at what we’ve learned from these latest tests of strength and skill. For those of you with a 4th grade reading level (I'm looking at you, Frank Trigg and Joe Rogan) I've bolded the most important part of each lesson (your english teacher would call it a thesis if you'd made it to 8th grade).

The most important lesson: HumungusMMA is awesome at picking fights. Ok, I called the biggest fight of the weekend totally wrong, but still. Most all of the fights turned out exactly as I predicted, check it out: UFC 62 Picks Bushido 12 Picks. Okay, enough tooting my own horn.

The second most important general lesson: I am a fool with nationalities. I called all sorts of different fighters Dutch when they are not, so in the future I’m going to try to avoid even mentioning that sort of thing, or at least being right more often.

UFC 62, What Have We Learned?

Gouveia is the real deal and Combs is not. Anyone with a Record consisting mostly of 1-minute KO’s in small shows is not ready for a top-tier MMA fighter who will take him DEEP into the third minute. Hopefully Gouveia can work harder and make up for his dismal showing vs. Keith “Troll that scares Children” Jardine, where he was 1 leg kick away from victory for three rounds, and still lost.

Sometimes being a seasoned veteran can work against you. Hermes Franca stayed utterly composed, never giving in to nerves, excitement, or frustration. He also nearly lost the fight because Varner came in and tried to win. However, Franca’s strategy paid off in the end, but maybe next fight he should let a little more emotion get involved.

Cheick Kongo may not be Dutch, but he might as well be. In Holland MMA is dominated by strikers, with ground fighting playing very little role. Wrestling is not a popular sport for young people, and a BJJ parlor is hard to find. Kongo came out of a good fight looking like a striking monster who was severely limited on the ground. Hopefully he can take a page out of Bas Rutten’s book, and leave off improving his already great striking to train his ground game intensively with a good camp. Keep your eye on this guy, because he’s going to be exciting to watch even if he never wears a belt.

Nick Diaz is a scrapper. Diaz brought his attitude to the ring with him and outboxed Neer brutally while seeming to hold off on the power to preserve cardio. Diaz looked somewhat gassed after the first round, but continued to throw on strength of will alone. Anyone who faces this kid better come ready.

Forrest Griffen learned to box. While the first fight was so exciting because Forrest had no choice but to wing bombs at bonnar’s head and eat blows to the face, he impressed this time with very sharp striking that frustrated Bonnar and made him retreat into his shell. Definitely not as exciting as the first, but much more impressive, as he maintained a higher workrate without any signs of fatigue.

Chuck Liddell punches hard. Okay, so this isn’t a new lesson, but his fight with Sobral was absurd. If his fight with Tito goes the same way, we’ll have to put Chuck at #1 in his weightclass worldwide. Sure Sobral opened up for the shot, but Chuck was still very impressive placing his shots and generating that kind of power while moving backwards. The Wanderlei fight needs to happen soon, while both men are healthy, a state not likely to continue long given that Crocop has a knack for hitting people really, really hard with his foot. I have next to no interest in the Tito fight, because unless something weird happens and Tito gets it down AND finishes it, it’s going to be a repeat of the first tilt.


Bushido 12

The best grappler in Japan is a pretty darn good grappler. While Black had a monster record, Aoki made him look like a fool with an extremely rarely-seen triangle from half-guard. Aoki’s banana pants might have been offensive, but he looked comfortable at the weight and adds a very exciting new dimension to pride’s already unbelievable LW division, being one of the best and most exciting grapplers in the world. He still runs forwards with his hands out like a gimp though, but he’s fast enough and long enough to get away with it. For now.

Gilbert Melendez is a gangster. From the long hair, to the ghetto-script “Melendez” tattoo across his back like an El Camino window, Melendez is a gritty scrapper. His fight with Obiya looked on the verge of ending in a brutal KO on several occasions, and Gilbert showed absolutely no hesitation in using the Pride rules to their fullest with stomps, flying stomps, knees to the head, and soccer kicks. Melendez looked good at the higher weight, and dominated just as he did at 143, but we’ll have to see him against one of the true giants in that class before we can be sure. Obiya proved to be a gamer, and landed some heavy shots that slowly Gilbert’s onslaught, but was out of the fight from the first time he was dropped.

Don’t mess with spiders. Brennan didn’t come to fight, and hopefully wasn’t hurt too badly on his way to pick up a paycheck. Kawajiri looked good.

Ishida kills grapplers. The energizer-bunny GnP continued to be effective for Ishida against yet another grappler. Ishida simply set a blistering pace that Marcello couldn’t keep up with. Ishida also showed why he has no submission losses on his record despite almost exclusively facing the best grapplers to fight in Japan. When someone tries to lock on a sub, he repositions himself and hits them, and if they still manage to put the sub on, he WILL NOT TAP. I expect Ishida to have to take some time off for healing and therapy on that arm. Tough fight.

Sakurai continues to look good at his new weight, and will hopefully avoid the slumps of his past and remain a major force in the best division in MMA.

Minowa is the hardest working man in showbiz.

Amar Suloev couldn’t deal with Kang’s power. Hopefully Suloev will take some time off and come back stronger. Kang enters the finals with incredible momentum.

Paulo Filho can submit someone if it’s handed to them. Legend has it that before every fight, Filho flips a coin to decide how he will win. Heads, armbar from mount, Tails unanimous decision. I guess the coin came up heads when sloppy bridging from Chonan left an arm vulnerable. A very very impressive fight for Filho, showing why he’s so highly respected as a grappler, and why so many are frustrated he often doesn’t try harder for a submission finish. Filho is an absolute monster in this division and everyone in the world needs to look out for him.

Mousasi might have lost, but he showed himself to be the real deal, and I should have given him more credit. Hopefully Pride will continue to use him to produce some exciting fights. I have my doubts about that though, given that he’s foreign and was brought in to lose.

Didn’t Dan Henderson used to be a wrestler who used his sloppy but powerful striking to setup takedowns from the clinch? Or was that just a dream I had?

Gomi is still a monster. While this wasn’t Gomi’s most spectacular fight of all time, he was never in danger at all. He however looked extremely uncomfortable on the ground, like he was about to vomit, even when he was in dominant position. Gomi used to have a dangerous GnP attack. What’s going on, Takanori?

The finals of the WWGP should be interesting. The best matchups would be Kang vs. Misaki in an excellent strikers matchup, and Gono vs. Filho in another intruiging fight. Filho can obviously win it on the ground, but I don’t see him subbing Gono so easily, and Gono is scrappy and experienced enough to make a real fight out of it, and maybe even win with strikes. It could be made a Final Conflict 2005 style Bushido supercard if they put Hansen vs. Gomi or Aurelio vs. Gomi on it for the title. Ishida is hot right now, but he needs time and I don’t want to see Gomi ruin him for a year or more.

Looking further into the mists of time, other fights can be seen.

• Kongo needs to fight someone whose name has been on a PPV before. Buentello would be a great matchup, but OOPS UFC let him go so he’s fighting Tank. Great work Dana, your HW division is so strong you’ll barely miss him.
• Nick Diaz needs to fight someone in that monster division he hasn’t fought before. GSP would beat him, but Diaz would make it a good fight, and it would reabilitate GSP for another title run. UFC doesn’t seem to really want Diaz anyway, so they could use that to give him the boot, and then maybe he could sign somewhere he was appreciated, like Pride or WFA.
• Forrest Griffen needs someone to fight. When Babalu is done crying, he could beat Forrest, but then what are they going to do, throw him at Chuck again? Hand Tito another loss after Chuck floors him? Sounds like a bad idea to me. This is what happens when you have thin divisions. Wilson Gouveia would be a good fight.
• Sakurai is getting his momentum up again after being floored by Gomi and needs someone to fight. He would probably prefer not to face someone else from the Ibraki top team, so Kawajiri and Ishida are out, so maybe a rematch of his bout with Shinya Aoki in shooto.
• Kawajiri needs to fight another top guy in Pride. He’s faced checkered opposition since his fighting Buscape and Gomi back-to-back. I wouldn’t mind a rematch of his “win” over Hansen in shooto, because that’s another fight that needs to happen. Shooto might want it to occur within its own ring though. Add Aoki, Melendez, and Ishida to the list of fighters that are in a great position to fight a tough opponent. Throw the names in a hat and no matter what, you’ll get good matchups.

To wrap up, I think butterbean is in good position to challenge Akebono at Wrestlemania LXIX.