MMA Round Up: The UFC Move & Strikeforce LA
By Scott Heritage
The biggest story doing the rounds this week is that the UFC have moved an event from Utah due to poor ticket sales. The UFC on Versus 2 card featuring Jon Jones vs. Vladimir Matyushenko as the main event will now take place in San Diego. Several theories abound about why the event struggled have been put forward, although there seems to have been several causes.
Firstly, the event is scheduled for a Sunday and featured lots of up and coming stars but no real major draws. Secondly Salt Lake City boasts a Mormon population rate of around 50%, and with their day of rest being Sunday, very few of them would be likely to attend. High ticket prices and people waiting until nearer the time to get tickets have also been mentioned. Either way, lesson learned by the UFC, I’m sure they will be back in Utah before too long, the television ratings fro the state have always been solid.
StrikeForce Los Angeles took place recently, and promised a selection of interesting fights from top to bottom. The main event was also a rather odd pairing, with Robbie Lawler meeting Renato “Babalu” Sobral a 195lb catch weight. Here’s the kicker though, if Lawler won he got to challenge for the soon to be vacant middleweight championship. If Sobral won he got the first crack at new light heavyweight champ King Mo Lawal. An unusual way to decide future title challengers, but it seems to work in this case.
In the end, Babalu was a clear winner, and an increasingly frustrated Lawler didn’t seem to pack enough power or have enough accuracy to put the Brazilian in trouble. The fact that the loss was at a catch weight though won’t have damaged his standings in his own division, and another win or two will put him back on track towards the title.
More interesting will be Babalu’s eventual showdown with King Mo Lawal, who has been calling out everyone from Quinton Kacjson to Fedor Emelianenko since he captured the title. Unlike his tilt against Gegard Mousasi though, where he used his dominant wrestling to control large portions of the bout, going to the ground against Babalu might prove to be more trouble than it’s worth to the undefeated prospect, and a more stand up based battle might ensue.
Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos once again defied the odds in defeating the more polished Marius Zaromskis, who has seen his stock plummet after two straight losses. This isn’t the first time a fighter has been compared to a young Mirko Crocop and then gone on to lose several fights though. Zelg Galesic suffered a similar fate and never really lived up to the early promise he showed. Let’s hope Zaromskis can turn things around before the Crocop comparison curse swallows up his potential as well.
The Ultimate Fighter finale takes place this weekend, with the finalists also having been given top billing on the card above Matt Hamill and Keith Jardine. Many of the predictions being made for Court McGee vs. Chris McCray have tended to go from their fights in the house, although this isn’t always the best course of action. People forget that the training in the TUF house isn’t that great, and doesn’t really focus on any one fighter to improve his game while he is there.
Not to mention being trapped in a house with lots of other fighters for months on end with very little contact with the outside world and having fights every few days isn’t the best approach to performing at the best of your ability either. What happens more or less every year is that the two finalists look completely different from how they did while they were in the house, often being much improved having had 6 months or so to prepare for their fight.
On past evidence, McCray is the more powerful of the pair but his conditioning isn’t always up to par. McGee is a decent all rounder, and has the wrestling to tire McCray out if he gets the chance. These days though, it isn’t always just the winner of the Ultimate Fighter shows who gets a contract with the UFC. Anyone who proves to be a draw or who shows promise is often also kept on board.
Jardine and Hamill is an interesting fight in that it might represent the last chance Jardine has of putting together another run for the light heavyweight title. While he is perpetually inconsistent and a little creepy looking, Jardine has pulled some big wins out of the bag in the past, and the UFC probably want to keep him on board if they can justify it. Hamill on the other hand is returning from a disqualification win over Jon Jones, who used illegal elbows while pummeling Hamill into ground chuck at the last Ultimate Fighter Finale night.
Having pulled Jones off after the incident, the referee asked Hamill, a deaf fighter who at the time had blood covering his eyes, if he wanted to continue. Not surprisingly he didn’t respond and the fight was called off. Now I’m not saying he could have fought on, but it hardly seems fair to ask him this if he has no way of responding anyway.
Chris Leben is also in action on the card against much hyped prospect Aaron Simpson, which many are expecting to be rather one sided. Leben has heavy hands but even with all his affectations he doesn’t have the wrestling or the size to match Simpson, and most are expecting him to be dominated.
Also on the card, newcomer Travis Browne makes his debut against former TUF contestant James McSweeney. Browne, who stands 6,7 has a record of 9-0 will face a big step up in competition in McSweeney, but if the hype surrounding him is anything to go by he might just run through the smaller Brit.