Olympians?

Although the Athens Olympics tried to overshadow these last few busy MMA weekends, the sincere professionalism of two former silver medallists fell short in a parallel universe of Pride and the UFC. Having caught only a few of the heavy weight Judo matches made me think it was no wonder Ogawa got beat so fast. Hell, in Judo if you get hip tossed and you're head and arm and body are immobilized for twenty-five seconds, its over. It's like the rarely found high caliber heavyweight high school wrestlers, the first one to fall on his back, blam! But the novelty is that this was the first time women got to wrestle in the Olympics and Japanese women won medals in every weight class. I believe it was two gold two silver and one bronze in five weight classes and since there is only one competitor per country (except the U.S. two/weight) in Olympic women's wrestling, so that is 100% in terms of medal standings. Wait a minute, I've meandered again, I was talking about MMA, and yes, the two medallists, the other being Matt Lindland, who lost in a shockingly quick way. After all, Terrel is a submission expert, having recently taken out submission man extraordinaire Osami Shibuya in Pancrase only a few months ago. The quick left hook disappointed me, in that it wasn't a super technical grappling match, give us a rematch, again for the wrestler.

Another silver medalled Olympian named Matt Lindland bit the dust in an unexpectedly quick leftist fashion, in what should have been a highly technical grappling match against submission man Dave Terrell.   Photography by Peter Lockley

It must be mentioned though that Ogawa did get beat by another Judo man named Fedor. Emilianenko was competing in Judo until 1999 - right before he stepped into RINGS.
Although his background is also Commando Sambo, which is very similar
to Judo, actually a little easier in terms of throws because the Sambo gi has
these grabbing points. It is also harder on the ground game because there is no 25-seconds-hold-on-the-groundrule. That rule alone is making Judo players "lazy," not looking to finish the opponent with submission or choke holds. It must be remembered though that the "best" man on the ground in MA history was Yasuhiro Yamashita from Judo, who won gold in LA, 84. And the famous Masu Oyama from Kyokushin also said, "If the fight is in a locked room, no one can beat the Judo-ka." But, among the Judo heavyweights, even though it is allowed, we rarely see submissions or chokes.

Oddly enough, Fedor is not really famous for his past boxing experience and his punching doesn't look too pretty, but it is effective. Compared to Fedor's standing game, Nogueira's standing skill looks much more proper.

Hiding

For five entire days following the Pride Grand Prix, I stuck my head in the sand and shut my ears to the world of MMA. Why In Demand (Pay Per View) decided to torture the thousands of MMA fans here in the United States for an entire week does not make any sense. It was like a slow submission move that left us writhing in pain, picturing the possibilities. But c'mon, you guys at Zuffa gave away part of the climax to all the other ostriches like myself, who shut themselves off from the MMA media in order to experience a pure and beautiful MMA spectacle. And this was what dreams are made of, Nogueira-Kharitonov-Fedor-Ogawa, Yuki-Wanderlei.

In and out of consciousness, Chuck Liddell gives the audience another knuckling roller coaster ride, as Vernon White flinches.  Photography by Peter Lockley

A Clue

It became obvious after an unscathed and calm Wanderlei Silva stepped into the octagon with his big heavy Pride belt over his shoulder, as Randy Couture rambled some sincere certain words about unifying the light-heavyweight belt. For those who hadn't seen the Pride GP yet, since it was showing the next night here, and you probably figured out that Wanderlei had beat Yuki Kondo (although it was a non-title fight). And boy where you right, except it was by a much more exciting means, which is prohibited in the UFC; heel stomps to the face. And it was a hell of a lot more supercharged than the slow crawl elbow to the eye, although it is a very effective tool for the Ultimate Champion Couture. It would be interesting to see if the same would hold true if the cage where taken away.
I guess if Chuck could have kicked and stomped Vernon Tiger White while he was in his turtle defense, then the Southwestern fans could have had a real scream, but it would have been a much quicker fight. Obviously though, Vernon, who has fought in Pride, would not have employed the same tactics. Hats off to Vernon, who has once again given the fans a full hearted battle, and of course to Chuck, who was talking to himself during the fight, after getting cocked silly. As always, he regained his senses, clocking back in, finishing tough as steel.

Just like a man, Yuki Kondo confronted his foe face to face, toe to toe.  Photography by Yoshinori Ihara

Special Delivery

By the time Ihara had dubbed the Japanese pay per view of the Pride GP for us, and Fed Exed the tape on Tuesday Japan time, we sweated out Thursday afternoon Brooklyn zones, hoping, waiting, crying… well, that's another song. When Shu called me on Friday morning, I could hear the crowd in Saitama Super Arena roaring through the phone. Next thing I knew I had taken a shower and connected four trains (R, F, G, V) to Queens in less than an hour. And there they were, and they started out with a home town decision against Murilo Bustamante, who completely paralyzed Nakamura in the first ten minutes, but then his stamina seemed to fade, or his thoughts, it might have been the way he landed from a throw right at the bell. I personally think that Nakamura didn't gain very much by this decision because he is still unable to finish and severely dependant on the home town judging. I think the real measure for Nakamura would be Rampage, whom I thought Murilo definitely defeated last year.
This was the kind of fight that should be deemed a draw, if nothing was at stake, but they were fighting for the right to compete in next year's PRIDE middleweight GP. It was by no means a "convincing" victory for the Judo-ka; it was tepid at most. I suppose he was the only consolation to the Japanese Blues on this particular night, since Ogawa and Yuki both fell short and hard.

The Big Show

Watching Nogueira against Kharitonov made me realized what a complete, fully rounded athlete Minotauro is, having incorporated instinctively the head motion and quick rhythm of Cuban boxing. He was so much quicker than Kharitonov, and was able to reach inside and strike with his twin cobras, although one of his elbows had a fracture before the whole shebang began. Nogueira has remained in Japan since the GP, and will be put under the knife, therefore he won't fight till the very end of the year or even later. So much for settling unfinished business, and obviously he won't be Prides representative against the UFC, which is going to Japan.
One of Nogueira's comments since the Grand prix has been that he felt he deserved the belt despite Fedor's cut, since this was a tournament. He agreed it that should have been a no contest, had it been a single "Championship Bout," but this was a tournament, and after four rounds of it, one man could not go on.

Nogueira - Kharitonov confirming the laws of physics, pure action and reaction. Photography by Yoshinori Ihara

Which brings up an interesting point, what if Fedor got head butted in the fight against Ogawa? No doubt we would have seen Ogawa advance, but not because he is Japanese, but because his opponent would not have been able to continue. This is the nature of a tournament, and there were no back up props left to delay what should have ultimately been his belt, to an undoubtedly deserving Nogueira.
 
Ping

It is ironic, that the UFC got it wrong when they ruled the second Belfort-Couture fight a victory for Vitor, and now Pride mirrored the same slow thinking stunt after a five month long tournament. And now the fans are left baffled, and with the same feeling of incompletion as the once proclaimed UFC Lightweight Championship belt title fight, which by the way, is the only time a draw was ever called in the UFC, at least that I can remember.
Perhaps, for the marketing purposes, the UFC wanted Vitor to be their champ. After all, the UFC are the ones who have the footage of Wanderlei being KO'd in a flash, and it was a younger Vitor who defaced him, the last man ever to hand Wanderlei a loss. Maybe Wanderlei, who is obviously very competitive, is still feeling sour about that loss he took in his heart, BRAZIL! It happened in their home town, an embarrassing defeat for Wanderlei.

Quintiple crown winner Couture proves that an old man can make a young man blue. Photography by Peter Lockley

Pong

After only about four minutes of fighting time in this GP, Fedor surely should have been headed, statistically, for a victory, but Nogueira, who had already fought a good cumulative forty minutes in the tournament, including fifteen against Kharitonov only an hour earlier, was too well prepared and frustrated Fedor's attack which looked almost one dimensional. Perhaps that ring time in the tournament gave Nogueira the hardness and struggle necessary to overcome any experience. Although Fedor tried in vein to pass the guard, Nogueira was a few steps ahead, and Fedor had to be very careful of falling into the web the thin Brazilian was fabricating and constantly reinventing. I believe that you can count Fedors strikes to Nogueiras face in one hand, and they were mostly skimming.
It is important though to mention Fedor's fights in RINGS. He finish Valavicius, Lee Hasdell, Mihail Apostolov, and Kerry Schall, all with submissions. In PRIDE, he finished Fujita, Coleman, and Randleman with submission or chokeholds, so he is indeed a very good submission artist as well. He also defeated Ricardo Arona and Renato Babalu Soboral in RINGS, actually dominating the ground game, but he is not at the mythic Minotauro level though.

Although endowed with power and quickness, Fedor's submission game does not exist against Minotauro. Fedor relies on the quick attack and overwhelms his opponents with fists, and he is also ready to take advantage of the fast submission when the opponent reacts by opening up. Nogueira however is much more subtle and slowly sets up the tap out after testing various other avenues, although in this match he immediately went for a couple of knee lock attempts and played the ground to conserve energy. Fedor's plan was way too simple, and when his air cooled engine sprung a leak due to his head on "approach" at Nogueira, Minotauro's cranium can not be held accountable, especially since he was in a "defensive" position.

Although Verrisimo taught Hughes that the world is upside down, the judges taught Charruto that life isn't fair. Photography by Peter Lockley

Shimmy

Could it be that Pride is holding on to the last glimmer of Fedor Emilianenko participating in their ring, instead of another as has been speculated, such as K-1 Romanex. Maybe that is why Pride announced an official entry into UFC Japan, which has been slated for December of this year. That is why Wanderlei Silva was sent as an official representative to the last UFC, he is one of the Three Kings of Pride, and he has offered a precious gift to a man named Randy Couture, the honor of a fight. But obviously Wanderei ain't no fool, and he's not going to take a major pay cut for putting his ass on the line, therefore it is up to Couture to step up into Pride in order to prove his real standing in the world of MMA.
Actually, DSE still considers Nogueira, Fedor, and Cro Cop as their Top Three.

But it must be noted here however, that Mirko was completely dominated by a lighter Wanderlei in a special Pride match, whose rules favored the K-1 man, with limited ground time and rope escapes. If the proof is in the pudding, the Top Three would be Wanderlei, Nogueira, Fedor, and I'm talking in the world, not just Pride. It would be interstng to see Couture - Nogueira, so we could have a real measure of quality and caliber. It is amazing how so many so called MMA rankings by various publications are so ridiculously lopsided and misinformed.
While DSE is thinking about the "drama" and "duel" kind of concept rather than "competitive sport," and obviously now that the GP is over, they need another story. But, the only other rivals PRIDE could think of were either K-1 or the UFC? But this could be the perfect "dream stage" necessary to clarify MMA's state of affairs and true ranks.

Nogueira has logged in more milage and technique per fight than any other fighter in the Pride GP. Photography by Yoshinori Ihara

Impasse

Although Randy Couture may be speaking of unifying the belt, what will be the environment, and who will be the judges? Judging from the judgements in the last few UFC's and Pride shows, its like apples and oranges, the difference is as vast as the distance between the Brooklyn and Golden Gate Bridges.
Although I am totally jumping around here, a fine example of the difference in fight environments and decisions rendered, is the decision rendered by the UFC favoring their former Welterweight Champ, Matt Hughes against a submission expert, Renato "Charruto" Verrisimo. Although an extremely proven fighter in the octagon, Hughes was in my mind dominated by the spidery Charruto.

Skewed View

The judges must have been mixing martinis before rendering their decisions on this particularly Las Vegas kind of night. The only mix they forgot about was the term Martial Arts, but I guess real men only like the top position, and submission grappling is for fags, but I don't think so. Ask Nogueira or Royce Gracie, or just wake up, open your eyes and accept the underlying reality of MMA, it's called the guard, Jiu-jitsu. I don't know what kind of goggles these "experts" looked through, or if the oversized chicken wire got in the way, but in my eyes Verrisimo humiliated Hughes and completely dominated him utilizing the guard, attempting submissions, and striking from the first round on.

Steve McQueen

In the first round alone Charruto made three triangle attempts, defending dangerously and flawlessly. He initiated the risk factor in the fight, he was like a French Guilloteen, and Hughes was Steve McQueen in Franklin J. Schaffner's "Papillon," subjected to pain and ready to be decapitated, while unable to escape the French Penal colony which in this case was Brazilian. Hughes seemed red faced and frustrated and his expression said it all.

Clint Eastwood

In the second round he finished even stronger, and landed strong elbows from his guard once again, while the baffled wrestler seemed lost in a desert, while the elbows of the sandy heat beat on his face and head, rising up from the octagon canvass. Here Hughes reminded me of Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's "The Good The Bad And The Ugly," but of course you knew the Gringo had to win at the end of the film, and Cherruto was indeed treated like Eli Wallach. It was like when Clint tells the Ugly dude that there are two kinds of people in this world, those with guns, and those that do the digging. The guy digging, in this case, was getting buried in a Brazilian trap.

The UFC has indeed reached a new era with a superb submission specialist named Frank Mir taking the top of the heavies. Photography by Nicholas H. McDonnell

Redefining

When you look up the word "anarchy" in the Webster's Dictionary, the first synonym they give you is chaos, but if you have ever read anarchist philosophy, it is a well principled idealistic concept of a possible society, anything but chaos. Anyways, what the hell does this have to do with anything?
So what if you get a take down against a Jiu-jitsu man, what the hell does a takedown really mean anymore? In the UFC being on top is imperative, I've had fighters tell me that it better to ride and pound rather than give up position attempting submissions, because the judges will give the fight away. A wrestler tries to stay on top, and the Jiu-jitsu fighter brings you down on top of them into their guard. Aren't they both takedowns? Both positions chosen by either are advantageous or comfortable within their own game or strategy. So maybe we need to redefine the language of MMA and get rid of this concept called the takedown. At this point it is a misconception.
There is a vast difference between taking the top and completely overwhelming the opponent and finishing, and staying on top trying to survive. It is the implementation of danger in a fight, which should really be valued, not how long did Joe ride without doing anything. Wrestlers are experts in riding, muscling, ground and pound, but even in this department the Miletich Man lacked his usual poignancy.
It seems that in the UFC, wrestlers have a handicap, and if you are a Jiu-jitsu fighter you might want to consider Japan instead, where the view is upside down and fourteen hours away.

Ping

In the same way, Fedor failed in his tactic, he couldn't deliver the deadly paralyzing punch and butted into Nogueira's thoughts, and got cut for it. Nogueira, like Verrisimo, was in perfect control of his game, controlling his opponents limbs and trying to create openings which lead to submissions.

Lost in Creation

So what do you do when invited to fight in someone else's house, with different rules, and judges who give absolutely no regard to the guard? If you are a smart fighter, first of all you probably pick the place, which will pay you the best for risking it all. Why fight at home, as Tito Ortiz chooses to do, due to comfort? I don’t think any fighter from Pride is crazed enough to step back into the hood of MMA, just to be recognized in the USA.
 
Sacrificed

The only positive sign of this last UFC was that they finally learned what the stop don't move rule is all about, but first Genki Sudo had to be presented as a sacrificial offering to judges who saw only the last one minute of a fifteen minute fight. Sudo completely dominated the fight, and was robbed after Bang was put on his feet after bleeding too much.
Wouldn't it be ideal if we truly could witness a Pride versus UFC event, with a series of heavyweight, light-heavy, middleweight and welterweight bouts.
I suppose the biggest question would be ropes or cage, and the best compromise would be both elbows and knees and kicks while on the ground.
Couture would have a hard time without the cage on which to stack, squeeze, pressure and pummel his opponents with dangerous elbows, basically looking for the cut, which he achieved against a gassed Vitor.
Wanderlei, on the other hand would not be able to look down on Couture and with all due respect, stomp!
So, now its up to the big boys; the producers of these two seemingly polar opposite MMA spectacles. Will DSE give Dana White Wanderlei or Sakuraba or only expectations? And if they do, who can the UFC offer as a sacrifice to Pride? If Dana White is a real gambling man he'll make it double or nothing.