The Jack of All Sports on 105.7 The FAN Baltimore

The Raw Bone: This past Saturday night featured the first-ever live MMA event to be held in the state of Maryland. The live event, hosted at the First Mariner Arena and named “The Shogun Fights”, was made possible by the efforts of Baltimore’s own John Rallo and his Ground Control academy. The fight-card featured 11 tense match-ups, the majority of which were fought at Lightweight and Featherweight. And, almost all of which featured at least one prominent Marylander as the local-boy. Having been to the event, here are a couple key takeaways:

1. MMA REALLY is the fastest growing sport in the world. A solid crowd of roughly 5,000 showed up to watch local favorites and unknowns duke it out. Ricky Henderson, Ray Rice, and several other figures of notoriety made guest appearances, as did the legendary Renzo Gracie, who was introduced by John Rallo as his mentor and lifelong friend and training partner. The crowd cheered loudly anytime a Baltimorean was introduced, booed when opponents from out-of-state entered the ring, and by and large pumped energy into the First Mariner throughout the night. For a first-time event, the promotion seemed to come off flawlessly: the live-feed from the cage meant everyone could follow the action on the big-screen if need be (as is the case at any UFC event), and the professionalism of the ring-announcers and cage-girls made you feel as though MMA had already been in Maryland for years.

2. There is a WORLD of developing talent out there: Contrary to popular belief, the best MMA fighters have yet to be discovered. Whether those fighting on Saturday night were pro’s or amateurs is beside the point. Nearly every fighter fought with heart, looked to push the pace, and ultimately left the ring exhausted but with a satisfied crowd. Of particular note were the performances of Maryland’s own Kirwan brothers, Jacob and Joey, who fought out of Clinch Academy in Frederick and who both collected victories by overwhelming their respective opponents in the first rounds. But the fight of the night went to Rick Desper and Brett Thomas. After nearly being finished via rear-naked choke early in the first frame, Thomas rallied to pull out a majority decision by winning rounds 2 and 3 in stunning fashion.

3. It is only a matter of time before we see the UFC in Baltimore: The professionalism of John Rallo and Co.’s production, AND the energy of the crowd, virtually guarantees that Dana White and the Fertita brothers will take notice.

Saturday Night also featured UFC 104 live from the Staples Center. The main event featured undefeated Light-Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. For those that missed the event, let me spare you the pay-per-view $$ and give you the jist. Machida’s aura of invincibility was shattered as Rua battered the champ around the ring for nearly the entire 25 minutes of the championship bout. Rua is no slouch: he’s been fighting since he was a teen, and became one of the youngest fighters ever to win the PRIDE Grand Prix at the age of 22. But a transition to the UFC has proved difficult for many former PRIDE vets, and two knee-surgeries only served to complicate matters more for the distinguished Rua. Shogun lost his first fight to Forrest Griffin and put in a less than stellar performance against Mark Coleman. A KO victory over Chuck Liddell, however, seemed to show the UFC brass the old Shogun was back, and they quickly vaulted him to the front of the line to fight the undefeated Champ in Machida.

Rua’s game-plan could not have worked to better perfection. Machida lives by his counter-punch and cat-like quickness, so rather than roar in with a flurry of bombs — something that had epitomized Rua’s style in his earlier years — the Challenger picked apart the Champ with well-timed leg-kicks to Machida’s body and thighs. The strategy paid off: Machida was visibly battered and frustrated by his inability to check the shots to his legs and body, and by his inability to land anything successful on the counter. A controversial decision ultimately went the Champ’s way — to the chagrin of nearly everyone that watched the fight. The theory goes like this: you have to definitely BEAT the Champion to become one. Most people gave 4 of the 5 rounds to Rua — a clear indication of which way the fight should have gone — but in the end the only opinion that mattered was that of the judges. The subjective nature of scoring in American MMA has to be reviewed and a better system of scoring must be established. The current scoring system places too much emphasis on takedowns, regardless of the damage the fighter suffers once on the ground. In fact, many fighters prefer to fight off their back. The current UFC scoring fosters an environment which gives good wrestlers the upper hand.. The UFC needs to look more closely at the Japanese style of judging which examines the fight as a whole, not round by round. The Japanese scoring system simply rewards the fighter that inflicts more damage. A rematch is almost certain to come within the next few months.

The other main-event of the evening featured the much heralded Cain Velasquez against former IFL Champ Ben Rothwell. It must be said that Rothwell accepted the fight on short notice, and it showed. Velasquez dominated the former IFL Champ from the opening bell, leading to a merciful stoppage by the referee. Velasquez showcased incredible athletic ability and a sensational wrestling pedigree, as he was a two-time All-American wrestler at Arizona State. His dominating victory Saturday night vaults him to the front of the line for the winner of the Brock Lesnar/Shane Carwin Heavyweight Championship bout. (Unfortunately, this headline fight that was scheduled at UFC 105 on November 21st has been postponed due to Lesnar’s battle with the swine flu). Never before has wrestling appeared to be such a dominant fighting style, and never before in MMA has one division (in this case the Heavyweights) showcased so much talent from one fighting style.

Thoughts? You know where to find this dog…

Filed under: MMA Tagged: | Baltimore, Machida, MMA, Rua, UFC