After it's short-lived series of shows in the early part of the decade the World Fighting Alliance was reborn last Saturday night in its brand new, heavily financed and promoted incarnation.  Like a caterpillar to a butterfly the organization is virtually an entirely new organism and many, myself included, continue to hope that it will help to reverse the nasty rear naked choke the UFC currently has sunk on live-broadcast MMA events in the American market.  The card, from top to bottom, was filled with an array of intriguing fights featuring former champions of both King of the Cage and the UFC, as well as the American debut of the only fighter to have defeated Rich Franklin and the return of legend Bas Rutten.  Needless to say, the WFA had MMA fans across the country anticipating a night of exciting live PPV match ups.   

Overall, despite shaky production on the live PPV, and occasionally questionable commentary from Bill Goldberg (of Professional wrestling fame), the WFA delivered an entertaining and competitive night of bouts.  I have to say I was a bit worried after Rob McCullough and Harris Sarmiento did their best to lure us to sleep by kicking each other in the legs for 15 minutes, but not a single fight came even close to the legendary snoozer that is, was, and will forever be Arlovski-Sylvia III.  Rutten dazzled in his come back, and the main event of Lindland versus Jackson was an absolute classic.  The following are some thoughts on the night's events.

Although many fans miss Rutten's PRIDE play by play, they would much rather see him at play.

Ricco "Grande" Rodriguez

One of the Sports perennial goofballs, Ricco Rodriguez, made short work of Ron Waterman in a rematch of their August 2005 bout in the WEC.  After the fight Ricco was quoted as saying, "I'm fat but I still got skills"  When the camera gets in front of this guy he actually says things like this.  It seems perhaps Ricco's best skills of late have been putting the hurt on donuts, beer and the couch.  Fans who hadn't seen Ricco since his days as a lean 245 lbs. UFC heavyweight champion were in for a shock as "Suave" made his way to the ring.  Apparently, Ricco lost 60 pounds while training for this fight, which, cue the drum roll please, left him hovering around the three hundred mark.  Unbelievably, despite his enormous size "Suave" managed to show flashes of the form that once made him one of the world’s top ranked heavyweights.  Rodriguez bounced and jiggled his way around the ring and, somehow, despite physical laws of nature that would seemingly prevent a three hundred pound man from moving with such speed and agility, landed a series of impressively accurate overhand rights that proceeded to both gas him completely while turning Waterman’s left eye into a disgusting bulbous mess.  The end of round one left both men gasping and straining for air.  After advice from the ringside doctor the fight was stopped between rounds and the victory was given to Rodriguez.  If Ricco can mentally pull it together, stay off the donuts, and lose some weight, watch out for him in the future. 

Bas Looks Awesome

After his impressive victory over Ruben "Warpath" Villareal, Bas Rutten revealed that he had a torn ACL, a torn groin muscle, and a dislocated rib going into the fight.  All I can say is that this guy is a freaking cyborg.  Bas began the fight by employing a series of lightning fast crushing combinations to the dome of Villareal.  However, the man who in his last fight fought legendary Don Frye to a draw, and also apparently has a head full of cement, kept coming forward.  After deciding that knocking "Warpath" out was apparently not an option, it took Bas only a few brutal leg kicks to bring the fight to a close.  I wasn’t entirely sure what we would see from "El Guapo" after a seven-year layoff but Bas was nothing short of spectacular.  If this guy wasn’t 41 years old the sky would be the limit and I shudder to think what he could do in the light heavyweight division today.  After the fight Bas expressed interest in fighting in the future and has one more WFA fight on his contract as well as a commitment to fight in the fledgling IFL.  Hopefully his body will bounce back from its current state, as watching Bas fight is always an incredible experience.      

Is that guy actually using a Karate Stance?

The return of Bas Rutten aside, easily the most anticipated match-up of the evening in my book was the North American debut of the man with one name Lyoto, aka. Ryoto Machida.  Machida is the undefeated half Japanese half Brazilian third son of Shotokan Karate master Sensei Yoshizo Machida.  Oh yeah, he also fights in a southpaw Karate stance.  I'm not making any of that up.  The guy has a background like a video game character.  Despite Machida’s impressive list of victims including BJ Penn, Rich Franklin, Michael McDonald and Stephan Bonnar, he had never fought on American soil and consequently remained virtually unknown to American fight fans.  Prior to the fight Machida’s reputation as an excellent fighter was so shrouded in mystery and intrigue that he had been elevated to near mythical status.  To be fair, in order to truly live up to the hype, Machida would have had to front flip into the cage and shoot a fireball into the head of Vernon White and then disappear into a puff of smoke.  What Machida did in reality was far less impressive.   Although he showed excellent technique, Machida's lack of aggressiveness and reluctance to push the fight drew boos from the crowd, and in the end won him a not so impressive decision victory over a journeyman fighter who, when last seen facing top notch competition, was getting his face imploded by Chuck Liddell.  Machida's performance may indeed be racked up to nerves, however, in his next contest he needs to dominate in order to convince that he belongs in the ranks of the worlds top 205 pounders.   Perhaps it has been his long periods of inactivity, which account for Machida’s ring rust or reluctance to engage. After a ten month hiatus, he fought only once in 2005 and did not fight again for over a year until three months ago. Machida was originally brought into the scene by Antonio Inoki as the next Rickson and had been a rare commodity since. Ryoto is NOT very willing to cut down to 205. He believes his bones are heavy and thick enough to handle the heavyweights. After all he is the same height and weight as Brandon Vera.

Emerging from the mythical shadows Ryoto Machida turned out to be human against a Tiger named Vernon White.

Lindland Robbed?

In the main event of the evening Olympic silver medalist Matt "The Law" Lindland took on Quentin "Rampage" Jackson.  Despite the fact that Lindland hails from my home state of Oregon I must admit that I didn’t give him much of a chance in this fight.  Rampage, when on, is a devastating force with the potential to absolutely dismantle many of the worlds best 205 pound fighters.   Despite the fact that he was nearly killed by Wanderlei Silva, found Jesus, and has had a series of disappointing performances, I just didn’t think that the 185 pound Lindland would be able to counter Rampage’s significant size and strength advantage.  Throughout the fight Quentin employed his trademark gigantic slams that he revealed in the post fight press conference were designed to “Slam the stank off,” Lindland.  Despite the slams Lindland twice had Rampage on the verge of tapping due to chokes and used his Olympic caliber wrestling skills to consistently maneuver out of compromising positions.  In my opinion Lindland did enough to win the fight, however it was close enough to go either way.  The official score cards had the match a split decision with the win going to Jackson.  Jackson desperately needs to re establish himself as the ferocious fighter of a few years ago if the WFA is to survive as he is presently the face of the organization and has been given an undisclosed, but apparently enormous, amount of money to fight for them.  Lindland should fight Rich Franklin.  Period.  He has earned it but there is no way the UFC will risk a fight with their pretty boy “Ace” for fear he may lose to the significantly less attractive, and apparently very smelly, Lindland.  Also, the UFC cut off Lindland because of a "T-shirt,” he wore while cornering - many speculate it was a personal thing with Dana White - whatever the real facts, Lindland got dropped by the UFC in typical Zuffa fashion. However, the rumored fight with Jeremy Horn is intriguing and in the post fight press conference Lindland did express a desire to "beat up" Machida.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

Sporting hands down the coolest tattoo in MMA today the Matt Hume trained fighter Ivan Salaverry looked impeccable in his win over Team Quest fighter Art Santore. Employing a series of textbook head kicks and pinpoint strikes Salaverry turned Santore’s face into hamburger and in doing so re-established himself as one to watch in the 185 pound division. The UFC essentially turned their back on Salaverry after his yawn inducing match up with Nathan Marquardt last August.  After the fight he expressed interest in a rematch with Matt Lindland.  Lindland, however, didn’t seem interested saying, “Ivan made me chase him for two rounds when I fought him before and then he made the crowd boo me in the third round because I stood in the middle of the ring and made him come to me and fight…that’s about the most boring fight you can match me up with.“  Hopefully the WFA will be able to set up a fight that will test Salaverry in the interim and give Lindland a chance to change his mind.     

One of the flashiest former PRIDE fighters met perhaps the dullest of the UFC's former, but sparks did fly.

Despite being one of the UFC’s most recognizable fighters Tito Ortiz was all over the WFA pay per view cornering no less than three separate fighters (Ricco, McCollough, and Salevarry).  He also made a brief appearance sitting next to porn star Jenna Jameson.  I wonder how Dana White feels about this considering the CEO of the WFA Jeremy Lappen was ejected from the last UFC event?  Perhaps Dana will be able to take out some of his aggression in the ring as Tito had a yet to happen boxing match with Dana written into his new UFC contract.  Unfortunately for us, the boxing match won’t be open to the public.   

Finally, although I wasn’t there, the numbers at the forum were unquestionably disappointing for the WFA considering the amount of money they put into the promotion.  Fighters on the pay per view were seen walking down ramps surrounded by numerous empty seats.  With a card like the one on display last Saturday I wonder how this can be?  We know that California is home to numerous fight fans as both the UFC and the Strikeforce card featuring Shamrock-Gracie drew numbers above ten thousand.  Lord knows that if I was within three hours of the forum I would have made the trip.  In order for the WFA to survive they need to get their gate numbers up.  If they can do this is yet to be seen, but if the numbers stay down and they fail to secure a television contract soon they may be in real trouble.  This is disheartening as the WFA, by virtually all accounts, is one of the only organizations in the United States to actually treat their fighters with respect and give them the paychecks they deserve. 

Other Photos & Official Results WFA 07/22/2006 >>