The Curse Of The Top MMA Fighter
I’m watching Jacare Souza lose to a fighter who’s been out for over a year, and I’m reminded that no fighter is invincible, particularly no fighter in Mixed Martial Arts. Whoa, down goes Bigfoot Silva too, beaten by a guy who’s first fight was a little over 2 years ago. Most fighters usually have their time and sometimes their time is over a little too soon for some of their fans, including me. Mirko ‘Crocop’ Filipovic came to the UFC only 6 months after his stint in PRIDE, and we never saw him in the same form again. Fedor had a winning streak that will probably never be equaled by any other fighter, which is a testimonial to how quickly the competition is increasing, not to mention it took almost a decade to do it. Anderson Silva is nearly 5 years behind, followed by GSP, but Silva may be retiring soon and probably isn’t interested in going the Randy Couture/Dan Henderson route.
If you look back over the last 6 years at Light Heavyweight, you would notice that no Champion has held the belt longer than 406 days years since Chuck Liddell. The title has changed hands practically every year since 2006, each champion being declared more invincible than the last. Heavyweight Brock Lesnar fell short of holding on to the championship after his defeat by Cain Velasquez, not even cracking the 2 year mark. Both Jose Aldo and Dominick Cruz have only reigned as UFC champion for about a year. The last remaining holdouts are Silva at Middleweight, GSP at Welterweight and Frankie Edgar at Lightweight. We saw a chink in Anderson’s armor during the Chael Sonnen fight, the same with Georges St. Pierre during the Jake Shield’s fight, and more than a few people believe Gray Maynard beat Frankie Edgar in a fight labeled a draw.
Meanwhile Vitali Klitscho is heading on his 9th year as the dominant force in Boxing, if not for Lennox Lewis he’d be at about 11 years now. Is this a testimonial of how good MMA fighters are and how good they are becoming? Someone like Luke Rockhold, who is no-doubt a great competitor, can lay off for a year and come back and defeat the Strikeforce champion? When you see fighters like top contender Rick Story lose to Charlie Brenneman, a guy who typically fights on undercards, you certainly have to wonder what the level of competition really is in the sport and how skilled competitors are in any division. I’ve thought about it often and frankly it baffles me. There is practically no competition on the horizon for some of the champs in Boxing, yet every time we think one of the MMA champs have become a dominant force someone gets knocked out in one round.
Machida’s style had the message boards clamoring for Karate lessons from Tiger Schulman for about a year, then Shogun showed how to effectively use Muay Thai against him. Right now the flavor of the month is Jon Jones. A lot of fans are labeling him as the latest ‘unbeatable’ and predict him holding on to the belt for years. In my opinion and experience this is a recipe for him losing the belt at UFC 135. Call it a guess, call it intuition, but calling it wrong is tempting fate. Being a champion or top fighter in MMA seems to be a temporary situation, even for the top guys. There are so many ways to lose and almost every fighter you’re going against is carrying your kryptonite with him. Styles make fights, and somehow, someway, a style comes up just when you think your fighter has it all figured out. Every time someone is expected to dominate or are otherwise labeled as the next big thing, someone comes along with just the right formula to beat him. The stars are aligning for another upset whether it be with Jones or any of the other top guys in MMA.
We’re going to find out next weekend if we have any new casualties to add to the list. Don’t be surprised if we do. I sure won’t.
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