MMA Musings

UFC on Fuel 5 delivered the kinds of fights Dana White prays for in events offered for free on TV, fights that pique the curiosity of fans who’ve never seen a PPV. The last two fights featured gutsy mixed martial artists using highly technical striking that brought fans to their feet.

heavyweights

Stefan ‘Skyscraper’ Struve took the first round to look ordinary while finding his range. Listed now at 7’0”---he’s grown an inch in the last few months I guess---keeping opponents out of range with his pointed jabs and powerful leg kicks should be a no-brainer. But his opponent, Stipe Miocic, found a way to get inside and pop the big Dutchman.

Hitting Struve and hurting him are distinctly different accomplishments, though. The idea is to punch through an opponent, and that’s hard to do when you have to reach just to get a glancing blow. Miocic used body shots in an attempt to make a difference, but Struve took it in stride, as most Dutch strikers are apt to do.

UFC 152 showcased two vastly different yet equally compelling title fights Saturday in Toronto. After the fights were over, online posts were dominated by disappointment in the card. Perhaps they should have watched it in an upscale bar habited by well-dressed meatheads, like I did, where the adrenaline level was high to begin with.

Light heavyweight title match

Jon ‘Bones’ Jones came off of a significant period of adversity---some of it self-imposed---such as crashing his Bentley, and the UFC 151 debacle in which UFC president Dana White wrongly blamed the young champion for Dan Henderson’s injury and the UFC’s  utterly insane suggestion of Chael Sonnen for a replacement.

Light heavyweight challenger Dan Henderson’s knee blowout precipitated not just the cancellation of his title fight with champion Jon Jones, but a historic first in the cancellation of an entire event. Somehow, fans and so-called expert journalists are blaming Jones. That claim is a joke.

When Henderson’s injury went from rumor to reality, UFC president Dana White offered Bones Chael Sonnen. I’m not sure what fan could hear this without spitting up a mouthful of beer. Sonnen recently has his ass handed to him by Anderson Silva in the weight class below Jones. Sonnen hasn’t fought at UFC LHW since way back in the mid-2000s. He was no barn burner then.

On August 11^th UFC 150 in Denver will pit former lightweight champ Frankie ‘The Answer’ Edgar against current champion Benson ‘Smooth’ Henderson. After Edgar gave up the title to Henderson last February, Dana White had proposed other opponents for the newly crowned champ, namely Anthony 'Showtime' Pettis, but Edgar succinctly pointed out that it had been a razor close decision, and that he’d had to fight Gray Maynard and BJ Penn in immediate rematches under similar circumstances: in the case of Maynard it was a draw; in the case of Penn it was a close decision no one had thought possible.