Why Champions Must Face All Comers
by Brian Mayes on May 19, 2010 12:08 AM EDT
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When Maurico "Shogun" Rua originally signed to fight Lyoto Machida in June of last year, fans were rather nonplused. It wasn’t a fight anyone really wanted at the moment- Rua wasn’t considered a contender, having just come off wins over two older fighters far past their primes in Mark Coleman and Chuck Liddell. In the weeks before the fight was announced, the rumor around the net was that "Shogun" was going to fight Keith Jardine next, in his attempt to refurbish his career after a loss to Forrest Griffin and a poor showing against Coleman.
But fate has a funny way of changing things. Spike TV desperately needed the number one contender, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, to coach on their upcoming season of "The Ultimate Fighter". Their previous season had done some of the worst ratings in the series history, and they needed a serious boost- "Rampage" was the man to do that. The new champion, Machida, hardly spoke English, and certainly wasn’t the correct foil for Jackson’s trash talk. The former champion, Rashad Evans, was signed on to coach opposite Jackson. Without Jackson, Machida was left without an opponent. Enter Shogun.
Most fans just scratched their heads. Two wins over washed up, over the hill fighters who weren’t in contention puts you into a title shot? Most people thought that Shogun was just being served up as a lamb to slaughter for Machida-someone who would come right at him, provide an exciting fight, and make it easy for Machida to score a clean knock out victory.
But things don’t always turn out how we expect them to. Machida and Shogun fought to an extremely competitive decision, with most people (myself included) believing that Shogun won. The judges didn’t agree, and awarded the fight to Machida. They had a rematch several months later, which resulted in Shogun scoring a knock out over Machida in the first round. So much for fans thinking Shogun didn’t deserve his crack at Machida the year before.
Going into the Shogun fight, people had already anointed Machida as unbeatable at 205 pounds. As far as they were concerned, no one in that weight class was worthy to carry his jock strap, let alone give him a run for his money. People were already talking about how he’d do at heavyweight against Brock Lesnar and Fedor. Yet he lost (arguably twice) to a man that wasn’t considered the #1 contender at the time the fight was originally made. People scoffed at the idea of Shogun Rua beating Lyoto Machida. This is a guy who just fought life and death with Mark Coleman, after all.
If Machida was the champion people thought he was, he would have wiped the floor with Shogun. But he didn’t. And we never would have found out had the fight not been made. People incorrectly want to think that if a champion isn’t fighting the #1 contender, or someone with a sexy style matchup, the fight is garbage. This line of thinking is absolute rubbish. A champion needs to fight all comers. Not only does it prove his worth, we also get to see what both men are made of. Did anyone think Frankie Edgar have a chance in hell against BJ Penn? Of course not- but he went out there, made it a very competitive fight, and managed to sway the judges. We never would have gotten to see an upset like that if Joe Silva thought like the fans did and just went "Nahhh, BJ will kill this guy inside of a round. Better just send him up to welterweight."
Often, it’s the fighters who aren’t seen as having a chance who end up wrestling the belt away from a champion. Very rarely does another fighter who’s considered the same caliber as the champion take the belt from him, for no other reason than the champion knows the risks involved and shows up to fight. Often, when a champion takes on someone not considered a big risk, he’s more inclined to not take them seriously. Georges St. Pierre said after his loss to Matt Serra that he didn’t take Serra nearly as seriously as he did Matt Hughes, and it obviously cost him. One would suppose that BJ Penn probably didn’t take Frankie Edgar as seriously as say, Georges St. Pierre or Diego Sanchez either.
It’s the same thing with style matchups. Fans want to latch on to, "Well, we need to see Georges St. Pierre fight a striker, because that’s who’ll beat him." And then they get sore when he’s matched up with another wrestler. You know who will beat Georges St. Pierre? Some random top ten welterweight, most likely someone who’s not a sexy style matchup like a Josh Koscheck or a Jon Fitch, who just runs into Georges on an off night. Georges will come in injured, or with his mind somewhere else, and he won’t take his opponent all that seriously because they fit a mold he’s beaten over and over again……and he’ll just lose. It’s happened to pretty much every champion. People dislike the Fedor vs. Fabrico Werdum fight, because it’s not a sexy style matchup- Werdum is a lot like poor man’s Minotauro Nogueira, and we’ve already seen what Fedor can do against someone like that.
But that is precisely the type of fighter Fedor is going to lose to- a guy everyone thinks he’s going to smash, Fedor included. He’ll go in there expecting an easy night, and unfortunately for him, the guy standing across the cage will just want it much more than he does. And that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be knocked out or submitted- often times, you lose by the slimmest of margins. But when you’re fighting at this level, if you don’t come in at 100%, and your opponent does, that’s all it takes.
But that’s what makes this sport so interesting and exciting. Those championship fights where the underdog pulls it out will forever be etched in my memory. I’ll never forget the night I watched Randy Couture land the inside leg kick-over hand right combo on Tim Sylvia and drop him in the first ten seconds of their fight, and go on to dominate him thoroughly for 25 minutes in a fight where everyone was convinced that Randy was going to be sent to the morgue. I’ll never forget watching Forrest Griffin come back from being dropped by Rampage Jackson in the first round, only to nearly cripple the man with a leg kick in the second, and turn the fight into one of the best all out wars I’ve ever seen, and wrangle the belt from Jackson in a monumental upset.
It’s those moments that reaffirm why I’m an MMA fan.
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But that is precisely the type of fighter Fedor is going to lose to- a guy everyone thinks he’s going to smash, Fedor included. He’ll go in there expecting an easy night, and unfortunately for him, the guy standing across the cage will just want it much more than he does. And that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be knocked out or submitted- often times, you lose by the slimmest of margins. But when you’re fighting at this level, if you don’t come in at 100%, and your opponent does, that’s all it takes
Yep…I mean..if you fight long enough…it’s going to happen eventually.
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good stuff Brian
[ i was going to pick out the same paragraph as Kelvin even…lol]
"Be yourself, don't take anyone's shit, and never let them take you alive." ~ George Way
which is why Anderson Silva is such a ****** for thinking he gets to cherry pick whoever he fights. he was willing to fight guys with not a chance of smokin’ him on his way up…..now that he’s champ he whines about fighting whoever……
Gatti. Dekkers. Pele. Aoki. Kang. Vanderlei. Basillio. Harry Greb.
by theworldsoldestsport on May 19, 2010 2:10 PM EDT reply actions
One would suppose that BJ Penn probably didn’t take Frankie Edgar as seriously as say, Georges St. Pierre or Diego Sanchez either.
That’s a big supposition to make, personally. Going into the fight, I thought Frankie had the best chance against BJ based on the quick, elusive boxing he’d shown against Sherk, and hearing that he was only looking better than that in training after the fight. I think it’s unfairly dismissive of what Edgar did in that fight, and the caliber of fighter he is, to say he won because BJ didn’t prepare as hard as he did for the great Diego Sanchez. BJ was expected to smash Sanchez (and Florian, etc.) every bit as much as he was Frankie, and would have had the same excuse to not take them seriously, so just because one of those massive dogs actually won, we assume it’s because BJ didn’t try hard enough, not because that dog was better than the others? The difference is, Frankie performed better than anyone else BJ has faced as the 155 champ, because he was the best fighter BJ faced as 155 champ.
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Otherwise, very good article though, lest the above sound hostile or anything. People are certainly too quick to dismiss challengers in a division and hype up the champion as untouchable, with no better example than Machida.
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Oh,I agree completley about Edgar-I always thought he was the best style matchup to give BJ a great fight,mostly because of his slick boxing.
But I made that comment in the article mostly because of BJ’s attitude leading up to the fight-he was constantly saying how he was taking Frankie seriously,and how he couldn’t overlook him.It was like he was trying to talk himself into it being a tough fight.He wasn’t saying anything like that before he fought Florian or Sanchez-he openly acknowledged he was in for a long night against both men.
I think it’s also telling that he didn’t train with the Marenivich’s (sp?) for the Edgar fight,who had gotten him in such great shape for the Florian and Sanchez fights.He went back to training in Hawaii,and came in looking like the BJ Penn we’re used to seeing-looking great for the first few rounds,then fading down the home stretch.
I just don’t think he took Frankie all that seriously.Frankie’s a small guy,without a lot of offense-he doesn’t really pose any threat to KO or submit you.BJ probably thought it was an easy night,and came in under prepared.He certainly didn’t look like the same BJ Penn that fought Diego Sanchez.Both fights were at roughly the same pace,with the Edgar fight having much less grappling (Penn had to fend off Sanchez’s constant takedown attempts),yet Penn was a live wire in the 5th round against Sanchez and dead on his feet against Edgar.
Not trying to take anything away from Edgar-who fought a brilliant fight-just making an observation.
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nice piece, Brian
My only point of contention is about Fedor. Since Fujita rocked him, I don’t think he takes anyone lightly
Inhale deep, like the words of my breath—I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
Well,he might not take someone lightly,but he’s bound to have a bad night eventually-an injury,an illness,something that prevents him from being 100% and throws him off his game.He had an injury going into the Mark Hunt fight and looked like garbage.If he’d fought anyone who knew how to grapple,he’d have gotten tapped out that night.
But more than likely what will happen with Fedor is that he’ll just slow down.To be honest,he’s already starting to.Three years ago,Brett Rodgers doesn’t land a glove on Fedor.I mean c’mon,how long can he fight on this high of level?There’s a reason why his management won’t let him fight top competition on a regular basis.Look at the UFC champions that came up at the same time that Fedor did,and fought nothing but stellar competition over and over again-when they slowed down,they were no longer able to compete with the top dogs at all,because they’d taken so much abuse in all those fights.With very few exceptions,Fedor’s had his way with most of the guy’s he’s fought.He’s done more damage to himself in fights (busting up his hand,cutting himself with a headbutt against Nog) than he’s had inflicted on him by his opponents.
But still,he’s slowing down.And the competition is getting better.Not a good competition when you’re complete selling point is being the undefeated bad ass.Fedor loses,and there goes all his bargaining power.He can’t hold promotions hostage anymore.Suddenly he’s just another fighter like everyone else,and the guy who beat him is king of the world.
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