Fight Commentary

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Gracie and Slice win with superior jiu-jitsu at Cage Fury Fighting Championships 'Two Words – One Cage.'

I have to hand it to the folks at CFFC – when all was said and done, they put together a good event on the 23rd. Sure, there were a few kinks over the course of the evening. Some of the difficulties were technical; some of them spoke towards larger issues in the sport of MMA. There was, however, no problem in the entertainment value of the fights; on that front, CFFC 5 delivered, and with a bevy of exciting finishes, and quality match-ups

The Fights

Kimbo Wins… Off his back.

Excuse me? Come again? Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson, the man we all know for putting lumps on flailing thugs in various vacant lots across Miami? The man with hands of stone and a chin that eats bare-knuckle punches for breakfast? Kimbo Slice beat Ray Mercer by submission from the closed-guard? It's one of the simplest and most common finishes in MMA – and if your opponent is a one-dimensional striker it's usually available, literally sticking its neck out waiting for you to seize the opportunity. Kimbo has been training with Bas Rutten, an MMA legend who, like Slice, had his beginnings as a fearsome striker. Bas Rutten knows what it takes to adapt and did so very well as is evidenced by his impressive record. Will Kimbo Slice go on to achieve similar success? Time might tell; unfortunately, his fight against Mercer didn’t tell us much. The fight was billed as a contest between two worlds, Boxing and MMA. I found myself wondering if Kimbo Slice was really the best representative of the sport of MMA to prove that point, and furthermore, if that point really needed to be proven… Again. The real appeal in a match-up between a boxing champ and a street fighting hustler, is the battle between a craft honed in the streets, and a sweet science forged in the gym and ring. Did fans really want to see Kimbo sink a choke and finish his aging opponent from his back? I don't think so. I think fans wanted to see what happens when back-alley power meets ring-tested, ESPN-approved boxing skills. I was hoping to find out if the punches the made Kimbo Slice a YouTube sensation could fell a mastered boxer. But Kimbo forced the tap from mercer with a standard guillotine from his closed guard on the ground. As I think of it now, I imagine Kimbo going for a triangle choke, and it makes me chuckle – its just so wrong! But, hey its MMA and as 2007 has shown us, anything can happen. Incidentally, the one blow that landed with any clairity was a hook thrown by Mercer, shortly before he was choked by Kimbo early in the first. Nevertheless, the crowd loved the fight, and was on its feet the entire time – this is what many of them came for. It was announced that David Tank Abbott would square off in the cage against Kimbo in October.

Speaking of submissions…

Enter, Gregor Gracie

If your last name is Gracie, and your family hails from Brazil, chances are your family business is the suave art of jiu-jitsu. Back in the early 90's, the Gracie's sought to introduce their “scientific” take on no rules fighting to America. They made their point with the tall slender, anything-but-physically-intimidating, Royce Gracie as America watched him breeze through a steady stream of muscle-bound brawlers and masters of traditional martial arts in the early UFC tournaments. One by one he dispatched them with confidence and relative ease, and in doing so, changed the reality of no rules fighting forever.

Almost 15 years after Royce first stepped into the octagon, the name Gracie carries a great deal of cache. To beat a Gracie is to put your name firmly on the MMA map. When Frank Shamrock wanted to reignite his career, he knew it couldn't hurt to leverage the Gracie name to do so. And certainly, for young 2-1 fighter like Josh Lydell, a win over a Gracie would be a huge bullet on his resume. If you are the Gracie in question, having that kind of bounty on your family name might add considerable pressure – especially if you happen to be making your MMA debut. But Gregor didn't feel that way, or at least he show it. Gregor went about every moment of his debut experience with easy confidence and poise. In his mind, Lydell was the man who should carry the burden of fear.

From the onset of the fight, Gregor dominated. He blasted Lydell with a hook, took him down, got side control, and dropped a barrage of elbows and punches. He moved gracefully from one dominant position to the next doling out generous portions of punishment along the way before finally taking Lydell for one last roll and sinking in a rear naked choke. In his debut, Gregor, the 15^th Gracie to have entered recognized professional MMA, showed that he is well suited for his family trade, and I hope to see more of him in the cage and ring.

The first fight of the evening got off to a late start and pit NJ locals Al Buck and Brain Demuro against each other for three fast-paced rounds. Both fighters were in shape and vigorously sought to blast each other with hooks throughout the fight. It was Buck who connected with the telling blows throughout the fight including a powerful hook that rocked Demuro in the 2nd. Demuro nearly had Buck finished with a triangle choke that made the crowd gasp when it seemed that it was almost cinched, but Buck powered out and went on to dominate the rest of the fight, later landing a roundhouse kick to Demuro's face that could be heard all through the convention center. The Judges gave the fight unanimously to Al Buck after 3 rounds of action. It was a good start to the evening

Middleweights, Doug Gordon (team rush) and Lyman Good (Tiger Schulman) squared off in the Hexagon. This was mainly a showcase of Good's athletic abilities, as he was able to out muscle and out work Gordon both standing and on the ground for the majority of the three rounds. Gordon never managed to get his offense going and the judges had no difficulty awarding the unanimous decision to Lyman.

NJ Local and Crowd favorite Nick Catone (Ricardo Almeida/Renzo Gracie) would hand Boston kickboxer, John Howard, his second career defeat in professional MMA. Early on, Catone struggled to cope with Howard's powerful leg kicks, but as the fight moved to the ground Catone had no problem scoring on Howard with strikes from Howard’s guard, side control, and late in rd. 3, from mount and back mount. For his effort, Catone won the Unanimous Decision.

After a surprisingly entertaining undercard, 150lb fighters Jim Miller and Anthony Morrison met in the first televised fight of the evening. Morrison, a freestyle fighter, entered the ring wearing a big steel chain and could have passed for Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson 's mini-me. Miller, another fighter under Renzo Gracie, apparently undaunted by Morrison's cage couture, proceeded to treat his opponent to a smorgasbord of submission attempts from his hyperactive guard. Miller attempted a kimura, a triangle, an omoplata, and then back to the triangle which he closed tight to force the tap with 5 seconds left in opening round.

Next to meet in the cage were 170 pounders Nick 'The Mad Monkey' Serra and Mike 'the Boston Bad boy' Varner. It was clear from the onset that this was going to be an entertaining match-up. First off you have Serra, a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Renzo Gracie, who makes his entrance wearing his Jiu-Jitsu gi and a monkey mask while tossing bananas in to the crowd. Then comes Varner (Boneyard), also wearing a Jiu-Jitsu gi, while proudly waving his white belt above his head. It's hard to say what Varner's message might have been with the belt waiving – either he was saying, ‘yeah, I'm a white belt, but I'll still smash you,' or 'I'm a white belt, so give me a break if I lose on the ground.' Either way, the match had a comical quality to it that never quite went away. The first round was mainly an even-sided clinch battle that had Varner scoring with foot stomps while Serra tried to connect with knees. If not for Serra's takedown and brief top-game, the first round would have been very hard to score. The second round, however, required no guesswork, as Serra quickly took Varner down, mounted, and forced the tap at 2:32 of the second round with a smoothly executed armbar. Apparently Serra was so happy to capture the CFFC welterweight title that he decided to share with the crowd a freakish anomaly involving the prehensility of his toes. Nick Serra, like his brother, is a crowd pleaser.

Dante Rivera pushed a heated pace in his effort to defend his NABC middleweight belt against Alexis Aquino. It was immediately clear that Rivera came out looking for a knockout. Aquino was tough but couldn't match Rivera's onslaught of hook combos and uppercuts. But Aquino hung on until the end of the round and Rivera looked like he might have emptied his tank. In the second round, the pace slowed. Both fighters scored with strikes and for a moment appeared to be friends rather than combatants, as they had begun to high five each other after landing hard shots. Aquino apparently thought he could use this to win the fight and called for the high five, but instead threw a high kick with lots of snap on it. The kick didn't connect with any force, but if it had, it might well have been decisive. It didn't matter though, because a moment both fighters were on the ground attacking each other's feet. It would be Rivera who secured the tighter lock on his opponent and Aquino tapped in visible pain. Renzo Gracie was in the ring to celebrate the victory of yet another of his students, when suddenly chaos erupted all over the cage. Apparently, one of Rivera's teammates didn't appreciate Aquino's high-five trick, and wanted to express it. The brawl was short lived no one was hurt.

Devidas Taurosevicius (say that three times fast) successfully defended his NABC lightweight belt from local crowd favorite, Kevin Roddy. Taurosevicius relentlessly imposed his ground game with relative impunity before skillfully applying a match-ending armbar. The crowd was audibly displeased.

CFFC light heavyweight champ, Josh Rhodes, would give the Jiu-Jitsu-heavy night its only TKO victory in his title defense against Noah Inhofer of TUF notoriety. There's not much to say about Rhodes other than he's a big, tough, country boy who knows how to bring some serious hurt. Round one was an absolute slugfest. Both fighters connected hard and often, and both were rocked at moments, but it was Rhodes who landed the more telling shots. Early in round 2 Rhodes was able to slam Inhofer to cage floor and finish him there with some mean looking strikes to the side of his head.

Questions

CFFC seemed to be working out its own identity in the ever more crowded market place of MMA, and in that process raised questions about the evolution of MMA's own infant image. CFFC utilizes a fight stat calculator called 'Compu-Combat Strike Stats,' which gives a tally at the end of each fight of the total 'strikes' landed. The first and most obvious problem with the stats was exposed by the string of submission victories inflicted mostly by the half dozen Renzo Gracie trained fighters. What does it matter if the fighter with the popped ankle threw 37 more jabs than the fighter that took him down and forced the tap? As the MMA audience learns more about every aspect of the sport, will they want to see submission attempts, guard passes, sweeps, reversals and take-downs accounted for in the Compu-Combat stats? And what about striking in MMA? In boxing there is little challenge in calculating the efficiency of strikes used in a match. Boxers either jab, or they throw a power shot. Both can determine the outcome of the match, and when tallied, they usually tell the story you'd expect them to – the fighter who lands the most, usually wins (unless you’re Winky Wright). But MMA is worlds apart from boxing, just ask Ray Mercer, who found his carotid arteries unable to function between Kimbo Slice's massive arms. MMA opens up a whole new world of strikes and positions to strike from. If fighter A threw 40 knees in the clinch and fighter B threw 30 punches from full mount, who would you guess was winning? What has more value, a leg kick or a body punch? A high-kick or a hammer-fist from side control? Could CFFC engineer a combat calculator with stats that could tell the story of an MMA fight? Probably, but I doubt they could find anyone capable of reading fast enough to finish the whole report between fights. Still, I've always liked the idea of fight stats for MMA – I hope CFFC finds a way to make it work.

BJ Penn: Much Respect

Upon reading the Sherdog message boards, I came across this post concerning BJ Penn: http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?p=15710527#post15710527. This knowledgeable poster wrote about why BJ Penn is so respected with the intent of enlightening the newer fans who have only paid attention to the MMA world of the last two years. Upon reading, I thought to myself: how can people not give BJ Penn the utmost respect?

Coming off his masterful win over Jens Pulver last Saturday night in the Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale, the newer fight fans saw finally saw Penn in top shape as he put on a Brazilian jiu-jitsu clinic. Penn masterfully executed a perfect rear-naked choke midway through the second round, tying Pulver’s left arm down with his left leg, which left Pulver defenseless as Penn was free to choke him until he tapped. The victory came at the right time for Penn, and he no doubt gained many fans as a result; but before the fight, many of the new fans questioned Penn’s legitimacy, as he was coming off two straight defeats, the last one a brutal loss to Matt Hughes in the third round of their championship fight. Why all the hype? In order to understand why Penn is so respected by knowledgeable fans, one must go back to the beginning, much further back than the last three fights…

Penn first started training seriously in martial arts when he took up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ralph Gracie in 1997. In 2000, he was awarded his black belt by Andre Pederneiras of Nova Uniao—that’s right, he became a BJJ black belt in three years. Three years to become a black belt in jiu-jitsu is practically unheard of—to date he is the fastest American to achieve the prestigious rank. Along the way, Penn entered tournaments with unreal success- in his first tournament, he won both his weight and the open weight class. In June 1997 he entered the Joe Moriera tournament in the blue belt category and won his weight class, even though he was a white belt at the time—and this was only his second tournament!

Penn at the Joe Moriera tournament (notice legend Rickson Gracie is the ref)

In 2000, Penn became the first non-Brazilian to win the gold medal in the black belt division of the Mundial World Championships held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Needless to say, his jiu-jitsu is of the highest order and respected by the worlds greatest grapplers.

Penn winning the Mundial World Championship:

Because of his accomplishments in the jiu-jitsu world, Penn debuted in the UFC, which is fairly unheard of today (due in large part to the sprouting of minor MMA organizations). His first opponent, Joey Gilbert, was easily dismantled, and the fight was called in the first round due to a barrage of strikes. Penn’s next fight was against Din Thomas, who at the time was riding an impressive seven win-streak and had an overall record of 10-1, including a win over Jens Pulver and a very close loss to Caol Uno. At this time, Thomas was a huge favorite, and a win would have put him in line for a rematch with Jens Pulver, who had gained the LW since their last fight. Penn put a beating on Thomas, knocking him out two minutes into the first round. This fight completely shocked the MMA world and derailed Thomas' (and most likely the UFC management's) plan for a title shot.

The UFC then gave Penn his strongest test yet-- sort of a "how good is he really?" challenge-- in the form of a bout with Caol Uno, the only man who had previously defeated Din Thomas. Uno was one of the top fighters at this time, and had previously fought to a draw with Andre Pederneiras, who had awarded Penn his blackbelt. Penn knocked him out in 11 seconds via brutal punches to his head.

Penn then fought Jens Pulver, and lost a close decision. Penn almost closed out the fight with a tight arm-bar, but Pulver was saved by the bell as the round ended. After that fight, Penn then beat Paul Creighton by TKO, and won a decision over Matt Serra (the present UFC LW champ) and then fought to a very controversial draw in a rematch against Uno.

After that fight, Penn put together his own promotion to challenge then unbeaten Takanori Gomi, who had been tearing up the Shooto Organization (two months before the fight, Gomi lost his first decision, to Joachim Hansen, but when the fight was put together the intent was for Penn to prove he was the best fighter in the world). Penn submitted Gomi with a rear-naked choke in the third round.

Penn vs. Gomi:

Penn then returned to the UFC, moving up to the 170 lb division in defeating welter-weight champion Matt Hughes, who at the time was arguably considered the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA. Following that fight, Penn easily submitted Duane Ludwig, who had come off recent wins against Pulver and Genki Sudo. He then took on undefeated jiu-jitsu great Rodrigo Gracie, winning a decision over the man who many had crowned as the next great Gracie fighter. He moved up to the middle-weight division (185 lbs) to fight Gracie, a full 30 pounds up from his ideal fighting weight.

In May 2005, Penn fought in K-1 and faced Ryoto “Lyoto” Machida, fighting in a division over 50 pounds heavier than he had originally started fighting in—and was defeated in a close decision. Ryoto Machida is still undefeated, and had previously dominated Rich Franklin and Stephan Bonnar. BJ Penn took on a guy fighting at heavyweight and barely lost (imagine Oscar De La Hoya fighting against Lennox Lewis).

BJ Penn takes on a 205 lbs Ryoto Machida:

Penn then defeated Brazilian jiu-jitsu master Renzo Gracie in unanimous decision, before returning to the UFC to fight against Georges St. Pierre. St. Pierre had only one previous loss, to Matt Hughes, and it was very close fight. Penn dominated the first round. The second round could have gone either way, and the third round GSP won decisively. Penn thought he had done enough to win the fight and had clearly done more physical damage to Pierre than Pierre had inflicted upon him, but the judges scored the fight as win for Pierre in split decision.

Penn’s next fight and first back-to-back loss came in a re-match with Matt Hughes, a fight that Penn took on four weeks notice. It seems that this fight is where poor opinions of Penn originate. After dominating the first two rounds, with Hughes being arguably saved by the bell in the second, Penn came out completely flat and defenseless in the third round. and Hughes brutally punched him in the head before the ref called the fight. Everyone criticized Penn for not coming into the fight in shape, thinking he had completely gassed. What people failed to realize is that Penn popped a rib in the second round, a freak accident that had nothing to do with Hughes offense, but just happened when he was going for a routine position change. With that fight came critics who deemed Penn his own worst enemy, saying that his cardio was weak. But the reality is that aside from the fight against Georges St. Pierre, Penn has never actually gassed to a damaging degree in a fight.

With his completely one-sided victory against Pulver, Penn looks to be in the best fighting shape of his life. MMA math, never perfect, says that Penn means trouble for whoever he fights, whichever division that may be—even if he’s fighting someone 50+ lbs over what he weighed in at for his fight against Pulver. What the future holds for him is in his hands (and Dana White’s), but one thing is for sure: BJ Penn deserves much respect.

Fighter Nicknames

First off, let me start by saying that I dig nicknames when they are appropriate, just, and fit the bill. Sakuraba, for instance, is nicknamed "The Gracie Hunter", because he sought out and destroyed many of the Gracie clan, so the name makes sense. BJ Penn is nicknamed "The Prodigy" because he achieved the rank of black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in three years. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Aight. Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell. Ok. Randy "The Natural" Couture. Mirko "Crop-Cop" Filipovic-- the guy was an officer in the anti-terrorist police force. We get that, and it's definitely bad-ass.

Somewhere along the way, probably in the beginning stages of Ultimate Fighting, fighters were told that having a nickname would make one more marketable. Of course, it seems that if one is truly great, the real name is instantly recognizable-- Jordan, Bird, Woods, Muhammed Ali, Royce Gracie, Fedor Emelianenko. The nicknames today are adding to the theatrical element-- the professional wrestling element that Dana White claims that he is trying to get away from...

The following are some of the more ridiculous nicknames in the world of Mixed Martial Arts:

Ken "The World's Most Dangerous Man" Shamrock. Hmmm...At this point, Ken, you're obviously not that dangerous. One win since 2001 means that you're endangering yourself (and from the looks of TUF, everyone else that you "coach".) Wait-- does that mean that the nickname makes sense? I might have to re-think this one.

Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine. Cool, it rhymes! Keith "get your clock cleaned (by Houston)" Jardine. Ok sorry that last one was totally unnecessary... But really Keith Jardine seems like a pretty good guy, not mean at all. Was he a bully off-camera on TUF?

Stephan "American Pyscho" Bonnar. Please, this guy is about as boring as you can get. Aside from one amazing fight with Forest Griffin, he has never approached psycho-ness in the ring, even when he was on steroids. In fact, seems like he's an all-american tough guy. But then again, referencing your nationality in your nickname is cool, just in case you need to remind people of the location your parents were fucking when they conceived you.

Other notable bullshit names: Rich "Ace" Franklin. Joe "Daddy" Stevenson (actually I kind of like that one). Jens "Little Evil" Pulver-- doesn't seem evil at all, seems like a kind-hearted dude. Joe "J-Lau" Lauzon-- now we're just taking it too far...