MMA Round Up: Warmachine & the UFC
By Scott Heritage
This week in the world of mixed martial arts saw a heavyweight contender become embroiled in a still developing steroid scandal, Warmachine land himself in further trouble, Mirko Crocop’s next fight announced and much more.
Firstly this week former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia continued his climb back up the heavyweight rankings this week with a win over Paul Buentello, and has clear goals in place for the immediate future. His next scheduled fight is against Pedro Rizzo under the Moosin banner, and after that he hopes to regain the place he lost in the UFC.
Whether Dana White will be interested isn’t so clear at this point, but in all fairness, if Sylvia now succeeds in defeating Rizzo he will probably have earned a place with the company. After all it was only a few short months ago that Paul Buentello was in the UFC, and Sylvia made fairly easy work of him. The issue with Sylvia in the first place though wasn’t his ability, he was 1-1 in his last two UFC appearances, which is hardly a big losing streak. But the fact that he fought a series of safety first bouts which proved extremely unpopular with the fans and management alike.
Since then though and a couple of setbacks later he appears to have recaptured the form that won him the UFC heavyweight gold, and no longer appears as tentative or cautious when he fights. In all honesty he should have no problem with Rizzo at this stage, so don’t be surprised to see Sylvia back in the UFC fold before too much longer.
Sadly former UFC lightweight champion and fellow Miletich product Jens Pulver didn’t fare so well at the event, losing to little known prospect Diego Garijo in a little over a minute of the first round. This is Pulver’s 8th loss in 9 starts, and at this point there just doesn’t seem to be anything left in the tank for the now 36 year old.
While he acknowledges that he isn’t the fighter he once was, Pulver is also up front about why he continues to fight, he needs the money. Having gotten into the sport before there was big money in being a UFC champion, Pulver seemingly doesn’t have any other option but to continue to fight for the time being, but how much longer he will continue to get bookings with big promotions is not so clear.
It wasn’t such a good week for the UFC this week with Shane Carwin’s name coming up in a drugs scandal after an Alabama pharmacist was found to have sold large quantities of steroids to several clinics and athletes. Carwin apparently received the drugs before his time with the UFC, but well into his MMA career, suggesting that he has benefited from the drugs while in active competition.
Although neither Carwin or the UFC have yet made any statement on the matter, it will be interesting to see what if anything they can do about it. Several high profile UFC fighters have either been caught or have admitted to steroid use in the past, and after the appropriate athletic commission suspensions most have been forgiven and welcomed back. The matter has also caused a twitter feud between Carwin and Roy Nelson, probably the last athlete anyone would ever suspect of taking any steroids. Which seems especially odd considering Carwin has yet to make a formal statement on the matter.
Also Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira pulled out of his scheduled bout with Frank Mir after suffering an undisclosed injury, and will frustratingly now be out of action probably until the end of the year. Nogueira was knocked out quickly against Mir the first time the pair fought and has been eager for revenge ever since, claiming that he was still fighting off the effects of a particularly nasty staph infection at the time of the first fight. And certainly on the night he did look bloated and sluggish, and also weighed in at a higher wait than he usually does, suggesting perhaps that he hadn’t trained as well as he usually does.
That aside though, the UFC have succeeded in finding a perhaps even more interesting replacement in the form of Mirko Crocop. In his heyday Crocop combined excellent take down defense with knockout power and precision on the feet, exactly the kind of fighter Mir historically struggles against. With Crocop now past his best though things will almost certainly be a lot closer than they might have been a few years ago, and with the advancements in his striking of late Mir will probably now be comfortable wherever the fight goes.
The fact that Crocop is even fighting at all is somewhat surprising given that only a few weeks ago he was talking about retirement. In a recent interview he also said that he would not be fully prepared on only 5 weeks notice, and that he has only just gotten over an injury which stopped him training properly until this week.
Let’s hope he is in better shape that he’s letting on come fight time though, because he needs another bad performance right now like he needs a hole in the head. Although he fought fairly well against Pat Barry in his last outing, Crocop needs to keep winning if he wants to stay relevant and perhaps challenge for a title one day. A win over Mir would go a good way to getting him where he wants to be.
The fighter formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver has landed himself in more trouble this week, despite the sizable handicap of having been in jail. The some time fighter who now goes by Warmachine has had his previous plea bargain of one year of jail time coupled with probation torn up by the presiding judge over his attitude towards the court. Copies of blogs Warmachine dictated to friends for publication on the internet were also used by the prosecutor, which contained details of his drinking illegal prison moonshine among other things.
What will happen to the beleaguered fighter is now less certain, and he may well receive a heftier sentence than he might have otherwise. His trial will now resume on August 24th, after which his sentence will be decided.