Does Fedor / Couture have to be in the UFC?

 

 

I want some responses to this question!

In my desperation waiting for the Fightlinker podcast, I have been listening to the absolute drivel that is excreted by the slubs from Sherdog.

There’s the Savage Gross Show, The Beatpunch, the Fuck Awesome Shit Show, the I don’t know whatever the fucking shitting hell they want to call it but every single show might as well be renamed

“The barely-awake-irritable-smarmy-condescending-morons-recorded-in-a-submarine-

then-post-processed-in-a-food-blender show”

And the ads! Don’t get me started on the ads. Anyway, I think I heard it on the show with Josh Gross and TJ De Santis (their chemistry is “brilliant”… Josh Gross sounds as though doing a radio show about MMA is some kind of community service sentence handed down by a judge for exposing his genitals to a kindergarten. TJ De Santis takes the full brunt of his lazy, barely concealed hatred until a caller comes on, then De Santis assumes role of smarmy condescender for a few minutes.)

Basically Gross said that he didn’t care where any fight took place (ie with what organisation), as long as the fight was compelling. And that got me to thinking.

The one fight that I really, really give a shit about at the moment is Couture vs. Fedor. This is absolutely the fight of the ages. No question that Randy’s storied history, plus his incredible comeback, put him as one of the greatest fighters ever to hold a belt in the UFC, and one of the best in the world, full stop. Fedor’s complete and unblemished domination of Pride’s heavyweights also guarantees him a place as one of the finest fighters of our time. Those two meeting absolutely has to happen.

But the question is where?

I’m all for other organisations coming up to challenge the UFC. I think it’s good for the fans, and good for the fighters, to have some choice. A monopoly is never good for anyone except the monopolisers.

But right now, at this moment, or in 2008 when I hope this fight happens (and I feel dirty saying this,) I really really want the fight to happen in the UFC.

The UFC carries weight. When you watch someone fight in the UFC, it feels important. It feels legitimate. Ken Shamrock fought in Cage Rage the other day, and it barely registered a twitch on my patented Emotionometer. However, when Shamrock fought Tito Ortiz a while back in the UFC, my Emotionometer was flipping wildy from “Seriously pumperised” to “God shit this is so exciting.”

All the other shows, and I mean all of them, play second fiddle to the UFC. Not something I like, but it’s true. It would be a crime for the biggest fight of the decade not to happen in the biggest promotion of our time.

I suppose I could settle for seeing them slug it out in DREAM, but even so… DREAM doesn’t feel permanent, and doesn’t have the history of the UFC. Randy and Fedor fighting in an organisation that could go tattooed-tits up any moment just wouldn’t have the gravity it would have if they fought in the UFC.

What do you think? In an ideal world, where would this megafight take place?

Would you be happy seeing it on HDNet alongside Johnny Buttnuggets versus Peter Dillfarb for the PMT Super Light Featherweight Championship?

Would you want to see it in Elite XC and being commentated by Mauro Ranallo?

Or an organisation based around a t-shirt company?!

Like it or not, there’s only one company big enough to pump up Fedor vs. Randy to the levels it deserves, and it’s the one headed by the bald guy who says fuck a lot…

Oh and if I have to hear any more stupid Sherdog staff members butcher Fedor’s name (sometimes multiple times in the same sentence) … It’s not FEEDOR, F’DUR, FAYDOR, or FUNDABBDOOZIE. It’s fucking Fyodor. Goddamn idiots.

The 10 Greatest Post-Fight Meltdowns

The 10 Greatest Post-Fight Meltdowns

This is actually really, really funny, and I wholeheartedly agree with the number 1. I never laughed so hard watching MMA as I did when Coleman went crazy-apeshit bonkers after winning the inaugaral Pride GP. In fact, shit, I wish I had thought of this article first.

The Monkey Speaks: UFC 80

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First off, they didn’t really shoot all that promotional footage of nice buildings lit up with colourful lights in Newcastle did they? They secretly spliced in some footage of Copenhagen or Koln or something, didn’t they? I mean, is that really the North of England? Where were the goateed old ladies quaffing cans of Special Brew? Where were the fat gypsies in string vests sitting on piss-stained mattresses watching flea-bitten dogs have sex?

Has England really come so far? Have I been away that long?

If so, fucking excellent, Newcastle looked fantastic.

The event itself was great. Plenty of great fights.

Paul Taylor vs. Paul Kelly was a really good scrap.

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The fact that they were both English and both ready and able to bang made the crowd go bananas which was exciting to watch. They showed each other a lot of respect, almost too much… hugging at the beginning of the round. I’m all for respect between fighters, but that shit is dangerous… if the other guy isn’t feeling it, kapowza, it’s lights out for you, Jimmy Boy. Check out Ray Sefo’s beatdown of Marvin Eastman and his corner when Sefo wasn’t interested in touching gloves.

The standard of British fightes is slowly raising, and can only get better with the UFC investing more and more in them, but it looks like the Brits still have a way to go before they can compete with the cream of the crop from the States. While we still have guys like Taylor who can try a kimura without even trying to close his legs around the other guy (and in the post-fight interview, be surprised that the guy escaped your submission attempts), we’ve still got work to do. Definitely on the right track though… those chaps were dropping some heavy artillery on each other.

Jorge Rivera vs. Kendall Grove

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Really enjoyed this fight. Rivera, who is kind of an up and down fighter… sucking one minute and being awesome the next… totally smasherised Kendall “The Spyder with the strange protrusion in his chest” Grove. Props to Grove, who managed to stay standing up just long enough for Rivera to punch his head so many times I thought it might actually pop off and tumble into the crowd at one point, spraying pineapple juice and sun tan lotion all over Dana White’s face.

Wilson Gouveia vs. Jason Lambert

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Great fight. Lambert looked big and strong, but his name simply wasn’t as cool as Wilson Gouveia’s, which meant that Gouveia could pull out a sweet right hook to finish.

Fabricio Verdum vs. Gabriel Gonzaga

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Despite Verdum moving to Chute Boxe and training with the guys there, I had Gonzaga winning this. The guy is a fucking animal–big, strong, and can kick like a mule. I just can’t get the image of him KO’ing Cro Cop out of my head. Especially since the UFC plays it every six seconds. Verdum has got the skills, but he’s just completely unremarkable to me. Gonzaga’s leg kicks were awe-inspiring. He splashed bruises on Verdum’s legs like his feet were covered in paint. He literally swept the leg, Johnny. I thought it was a matter of time til he put him in the body bag, but to my surprise, Verdum squeaked out a win by peppering him with some pretty weak (relatively speaking) punches from the back. He did clock him with a nice knee beforehand, though.

I hope this isn’t the last of Gonzaga. Feed him at least one can and let’s see him develop his potential as a force in the desparately lacking UFC Heavyweight division.

BJ Penn vs. Joe Stevenson

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What a fight! I was pumped for this. A prodigy who focuses his talent and refines his skills is a scary prospect indeed, and it looks like that’s exactly what Penn has done. Like he said to Joe Rogan, “Look at my abs.” Which was pretty hilarious… I mean, I noticed that you could see his abs, but he still looks like he eats donuts for breakfast compared to even the average fighter. Stevenson was definitely no joke coming into this fight, and he put up a good fight. But like my pals thingy and whatsisname on the Fightlinker Low Blow radio show said, we wanted to see BJ Penn build his legacy. Wanted to see him do something amazing. We didn’t tune in to watch the Joe Stevenson legacy (no offense to Joe, who I think certainly can build himself a legacy, only it won’t be as awesome or covered in glittery stars and hot boobs as BJ Penn’s.) We tuned it to watch a revamped BJ Penn kick ass, and that’s what he did. The guy is a freak: unorthodox but pinpoint striking, heavenly jiu jitsu, and now conditioning to go with it. Penn always comes off a little crazy when he speaks on the mic, and he’s got that nervous facial tic going on, but I really like the guy. He always seems to have the mental edge on people. I mean, he told Sean Serk he was “dead”, which is pretty hilarious.

Serk came out and mumbled some stuff about not respecting Penn, which I am sure he must have regretted when he thought about it afterwards. He basically came out and urinated on Penn’s face, after he had just made history as the only person beside Randy Couture to have held two different belts in the UFC.

Fgnarg.