Mixed Martial Arts

Another year for Pacquiao, Silva to prove doubters wrong

(This piece appeared in 8CountNews on January 9, 2009)

by Mark Lorenzana

After three successful fights in as many weight classes last year (first when he eked out a split decision over Juan Manuel Marquez, second when he annihilated David Diaz to win the WBC world lightweight title, and third, his eight round drubbing of Oscar De La Hoya) Manny Pacquiao is the consensus 2008 fighter of the year among boxing writers and pundits.

Thanks to his fantastic showing, Pacquiao is in perfect position to enjoy even more lucrative fights this year. First on the list is Ricky Hatton, who has been salivating at the prospect of fighting the Filipino ever since the Pacquiao — De La Hoya fight pushed through. Should Pacquiao defeat Hatton, the most logical opponent would be Floyd Mayweather Jr. And if Pacquiao chooses to fight three times this year– win or lose against Floyd Jr. — he can have a farewell bout at the end of the year (perhaps a third fight with Marquez at Jr. Welterweight?) before hanging up his gloves.

Of course when we say fighter of the year, we should also look beyond prizefighting and take a look at the best among the practitioners of Mixed Martial Arts.

I don’t know if Anderson Silva is the consensus MMA fighter of the year, but I do know that in my book he is. The Spider showed that he is still the man to beat at middleweight when he won via submission over Dan Henderson in March. A lot of people believed that Silva’s reign as UFC Middleweight Champion would come to an end against a dangerous, skilled, and experienced fighter such as Henderson. But Silva once again proved his critics wrong.

Silva then climbed up to light heavyweight and took on James Irvin. Not a few wondered how Silva would handle the extra weight, not to mention how he would fare against a bigger opponent. Silva knocked out Irvin in 61 seconds.

However, Silva’s last fight for 2008 against Patrick Cote left a bad taste in some fans’ mouths. Instead of going for the kill early, Silva appeared to be toying with Cote. He didn’t show his usual deadly form, much to Dana White’s chagrin. The fight ended quite unfortunately when Cote blew out his knee and the referee was forced to put an end to the fight.

I attribute Silva’s less-than-stellar showing in his last outing to boredom. He has fought every possible contender in his weight class, annihilated every one of them, and he needs to step it up. Maybe Dana White should consider putting Chuck Liddell in the Octagon opposite Silva? Or how about the winner of the upcoming George St.-Pierre – BJ Penn fight? The point is, as good a fighter as Silva is, he needs to be fighting top contenders instead of tomato cans for him to be challenged. Give him an opponent who he knows could hurt him and even take him out, and Silva wouldn’t even think of toying with the other guy. I guarantee you’ll see the old Silva back in action.

In Pacquiao’s case, it has always been and will always be, proving other people wrong. Nobody gave him a shot to beat Lehlo Ledwaba, everyone thought Marco Antonio Barrera would school him in their first fight, boxing experts thought Erik Morales’s length and reach would be too much for him, and lastly, majority of the sports and boxing media thought the Dream Match was a farce and a huge mismatch.

Of course Pacquiao, as recent history has told us, cut through all of these opponents (and then some) like a hot knife through butter. Or, more appropriately, like a violent, ravaging Pacific storm through a sleepy seaside town.

Do I hear Erik Morales recently making noises about how Ricky Hatton will flatten Pacquiao? What, Pacquiao will go down in the sixth or seventh round because he will tire and lose steam?

With all due respect to Morales, a great champion and future hall-of-famer, since when did anyone of us see Pacquiao tire? Heck, the Pacman can easily give the Energizer Bunny a run for its money. Hatton, on the other hand, has had stamina problems in the past, of which, perhaps can be attributed to his hard living in between fights. Hatton is tough, a strong body puncher, and he has knockout power in both fists. But stamina is not one of his strong suits. He is a good pressure fighter for the early to middle rounds but for the rest of the fight he plods along and holds. Whether Hatton can outhustle, outwork, and finally overpower Pacquiao remains to be seen. But I dare go on the record here and say that I highly doubt it. I believe it will be the other way around.

For Pacquiao and Silva, the year 2009 will be one of the most important years of their careers. And it is not just because it is another year to earn more money through the hurt business. More importantly, another year is upon them to show to the world that they can continue to fight the best, stay on top, and prove the critics wrong.

Again.

Nogueira vs. Mir: The Will and Resolve to Keep on Fighting

(This piece appeared in 8CountNews on December 2, 2008)

by Mark Lorenzana

When Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira fights, you notice a lot of things. You notice how calmly he stalks his opponent. You notice his poker face and how businesslike and dead serious he is in approaching the art of fighting. You notice that he’s not the biggest heavyweight out there and that on a few given nights his adversary would outweigh him by 15 pounds or more. You also notice that regardless of this, nobody or nothing fazes him one bit; he has extreme confidence in himself and his abilities (superb stamina, great Jiu-Jitsu and boxing skills) —that’s why his opponents regard him with utmost respect.

But perhaps the most noticeable thing about the man better known as “Minotauro” is a large scar on his back, an unmistakable deep indentation that becomes more prominent whenever his back muscles ripple as he unleashes a punch on the stand-up or whenever he dominates someone in the mount.

Although Nogueira started training in judo at the age of five and has been fighting all his life, the scar isn’t a result of his countless battles in the ring. At nine years old, he was run over by a truck. He fell into a coma for 25 days and during this time he lost a rib and part of his liver and had to be hospitalized for almost a year.

He wears his scar like a badge, a testament and symbol of his will to stand up, come back, and continue fighting.

Apart from his scar, his record speaks for itself and is proof of Nogueira’s durability. 37 matches, 31 wins, four losses. None of those losses came by knockout or by submission. He has hit the mat lots of times during his storied career but he has yet to be finished in a bout.

In fact, he hit the mat early in his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut against Heath Herring in UFC 73. Going into the fight, Nogueira seemed to have Herring’s number. After all, Nogueira already had two wins under his belt against the “Texas Crazy Horse” dating back to his Pride days. In the first few minutes of the opening round, Nogueira seemed to be doing well, stalking Herring and throwing jabs, most of which hit their target. Nogueira was successful in his first takedown attempt, and immediately tried to impose his superior Jiu-Jitsu skills on Herring. Herring managed to get up and Minotauro obliged, rocking Herring with a few punches and staggering him with a left followed by a knee to the face. Herring’s nose was immediately bloodied. Nogueira, the Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt, had turned the fight into a striking match and was winning it. Then, as Nogueira threw a jab, he unwittingly bobbed and ducked and his face smashed into a Herring high kick.

Nogueira went down like a sack of potatoes.

Herring immediately pounced on his fallen prey, raining a barrage of hammer fists on Nogueira’s face. Everyone in the stadium expected Nogueira to buckle under the onslaught. Everyone expected the referee to stop the fight right there and then. But curiously, as furiously as Herring swooped down on Nogueira as a violent tornado ravages a sleepy and unsuspecting town, the blitzkrieg stopped. Herring failed to capitalize and allowed Nogueira to stand up.

Bad move.

Herring should have realized that the man he knocked down and almost pounded out had been through worse situations. Nogueira dug deep and mustered enough resolve to stand up albeit on wobbly knees, come back, and continue fighting. He dominated the next two rounds and won the bout by unanimous decision.

If there’s one man who is known for his resolve and tenacity apart from Nogueira, it is Frank Mir.

Mir knows how it feels to be on top of the world after winning the vacant UFC heavyweight title against Tim “The Maniac” Sylvia four years ago at UFC 48. Referee Herb Dean stopped the fight at 50 seconds into the first round when Mir’s armbar visibly broke Sylvia’s right forearm.

Then, three months after claiming the UFC heavyweight belt, everything went crashing down – literally. Mir was knocked off his motorcycle by a car. The accident caused a break in Mir’s femur and tore all the ligaments in his knee. The bone in his leg had broken in two places and major surgery was needed to repair the damage. An interim heavyweight title was created while Mir was recuperating, which Andrei Arlovski won. Because Mir was not able to fight Arlovski as scheduled, Mir was stripped of the title, and Arlovski was promoted to undisputed UFC heavyweight champion.

In his first fight after the injury, Mir fought Márcio Cruz at UFC 57. It was a shocking upset, as Mir was TKO’d in the first round by the relative newcomer. He bounced back with a win against Dan Christison at UFC 61 but lost yet again to Brandon Vera at UFC 65 via TKO in the first round.

Unlike Nogueira, you won’t notice any distinguishing marks on Frank Mir. You have to take him as he is and take his fighting style and disposition as a gauge. With this in mind, he has more than proven that he has the will to stand up, come back, and continue fighting.

Take Mir’s last fight, for instance.

Mir took on Brock Lesnar (now the current UFC heavyweight champion) at UFC 81. In the first round, the hulking Lesnar wasted no time and immediately used his size and strength to take down Mir. While on the ground, Lesnar found himself in half guard with Mir working toward the sweep. Lesnar repeatedly banged Mir’s head with hammer fists, and with the latter in danger of getting pounded out, Steve Mazagatti stepped in and called a timeout. Mazagatti took a point away from Lesnar for hitting Mir in the back of the head. When the fight resumed, Mir went down a second time after getting hit by a Lesnar right. The hammer fists rained down again. This time, however, Mir didn’t wait for divine intervention to come in the form of Mazagatti. Mir found the resolve to maneuver and get a foot lock on Lesnar, and then a kneebar. Lesnar tapped out. Frank Mir, after going down two times and after being fed a steady diet of punches, successfully submitted Brock Lesnar in the first round.

When Frank Mir and Minotauro Nogueira face each other on December 27 at UFC 92, fight fans will notice a lot of things. But no matter what happens and regardless of the outcome, the most noticeable thing will be both men’s collective will to stand up, come back, and continue fighting.

An unfortunate childhood accident and a motorcycle mishap notwithstanding.

Mixed Martial Arts: Restoring Honor through Blood and Guts

(This piece appeared in 8CountNews on November 24, 2008)

by Mark Lorenzana

I want you to hit me as hard as you can.

This is the famous line of Tyler Durden, one of the main characters in Chuck Palahniuk’s iconic novel, Fight Club. The novel was adapted into a film of the same name and starred Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. The book became an international bestseller and the film became a pop culture phenomenon. Both featured the same plot, white collar guys meeting up in bars after work and knocking each other’s heads off, all in the name of stress release—and entertainment.

Of course, underground bare-knuckle fighting or fisticuffs depicted in the book and in the film is illegal. And not long ago, Mixed Martial Arts or MMA had a similar problem, as it had difficulty finding its way into the mainstream audience. Take the case of the Ultimate Fighting Championship for instance. The UFC is one of the earliest MMA organizations and back then it had a few limited rules. And it didn’t help that the UFC was marketed as “no holds barred”, prompting some legislators to label it as “human cock fighting”. Eventually the UFC reformed itself and slowly embraced stricter rules (and distanced itself from the bare-knuckle label by enforcing the use of four ounce MMA grappling gloves), becoming sanctioned by state athletic commissions, and making it the pay-per-view giant that it is now.

Even so, a lot of people still think MMA is nothing but a barbaric blood sport that pits two sadistic (and masochistic?) street fighters against each other. And more often than not, they view the fighters as unthinking brutes whose only mindset is to punish and hurt another human being.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Take two of its practitioners, for instance. Chuck Liddell has a bachelor’s degree in Business/Accounting from Cal Poly. Rich Franklin was a math teacher and holds a master’s degree in education. Both could have stuck to their academic pursuits but decided to take up fighting as their profession. Collectively, Liddell and Franklin are just the tip of the iceberg.

And who can question these guys’ hearts and work ethic? It takes a lot of courage to take a pounding and never quit, to fight amid blood and guts, and it takes strong will and dedication to prepare yourself physically and mentally for a big fight much like a prizefighter does in training camp.

The goal of the honorable duel of medieval times was often not so much to punish the opponent as to gain satisfaction. Rather, it was to restore one’s honor by demonstrating a willingness to risk one’s life for it. And in my opinion, fighting in a cage or in a ring is no different.

So the first question that begs to be asked is: Why is MMA so popular and why do a lot of people watch it?

Maybe this question is best answered by other questions. Who could forget the David and Goliath battle between Royce Gracie and Dan “The Beast” Severn in the early days of the UFC? How could have the gangling Gracie, with an almost 80-pound weight disadvantage, beat the much bigger and stronger Severn? Who wouldn’t be mesmerized with the way Anderson “The Spider” Silva gracefully dismantles his opponents? Or who wouldn’t be awed by Chris “The Crippler” Leben’s courage and devil-may-care attitude each time he steps into the Octagon?

The other question that begs to be asked is: Why do MMA fighters do what they do?

Unlike the sadistic and masochistic brawlers in Fight Club, MMA practitioners don’t ply their trade just because they need to scratch a bloodthirsty itch. They are legitimate athletes and sportsmen and they passionately perform at the highest level for their audience as any rock band or performance artist.

would. They have work to do, and thankfully for them (and woefully for the most of us), it’s not a boring nine to five desk job.

This is the way they put food on the table, this is the way they pay the bills. They just do their jobs the best way they know how:

By hitting each other as hard as they can.

UFC 94: In Pursuit of Blood-Sweet Revenge

BJ-Penn-Georges-St-Pierre-1 (This piece appeared in 8CountNews on November 21, 2008)

by Mark Lorenzana

If BJ Penn’s last two fights should be a gauge of what to expect from “The Prodigy” when he faces George “Rush” St.–Pierre in their rematch at UFC 94 in January, then we all should be excited.

Penn showed just how excellent his ground game is when he fought Joe Stevenson for the vacant 155-pound title at UFC 80. Penn did a good job of controlling the fight on the ground and managed to cut Stevenson’s forehead with an elbow in the first round. In the second, it was just a matter of time, as Penn continued to dominate the bloodied Stevenson on the mat. The latter eventually tapped out due to a rear-naked choke.

Penn was crowned the UFC Lightweight Champion. Then, as if to punctuate his dominance over his opponent, Penn licked his gloves, gloves that were drenched in Stevenson’s blood.

Fast forward to UFC 84 against Sean Sherk. This time, Penn displayed his strong stand up game. Penn rocked Sherk several times in the first two rounds before finally knocking him out in the third. The end came with a Penn jab followed by a right uppercut and another jab. The punches didn’t seem to land flush but they were enough to back Sherk off. As Sherk bounced off the cage, Penn greeted him with a knee to the face. Sherk went down in a heap and was pounded out. Some argue that perhaps the outcome had a lot to do with Sherk’s decision to stand and trade despite his strong wrestling skills. After all, Sherk has never been known as an explosive striker. But I beg to differ and say that the win had to do with Penn’s ever-improving overall skills.

Penn retained his UFC lightweight belt. But not before he went out of his way to go over to the fallen Sherk, wipe some blood off Sherk’s forehead, and lick the blood off his hand.

Whether Penn can do the same to GSP remains to be seen. Especially since Penn still holds the stigma of a loss, albeit a close one, to GSP in their first fight. So to Penn, nothing could be sweeter than revenge.

But this is easier said than done. GSP, the reigning UFC Welterweight Champion, has been stellar in his last four outings since his shock loss to Matt Serra. He has since won by unanimous decision against Josh Koscheck, submitted Matt Hughes, knocked out Serra in their rematch, and outfought a game and dangerous Jon Fitch.

Indeed, BJ Penn has his work cut out for him. Nonetheless, it seems he can’t wait to step into the Octagon with GSP.

Right after his fight with Fitch, GSP didn’t mince words: “I’m ready to fight everybody. Everybody who deserves a shot. I know BJ Penn wants it and I want to do it. Whoever they give me, I’ll do it. He deserves it.”

To which Penn, stepping into the Octagon in street clothes, grabbed Joe Rogan’s microphone and immediately responded: “Let’s do it. Let’s put the fight together. Let’s do this.”

GSP put in the last word: “I am not a chicken; I don’t want to duck anybody. I’m a proud champion.”

It’s safe to say that they are both proud champions. And neither one would duck anybody, especially each other.

This is the reason there’s a rematch, and this is why it’s going to be a guaranteed barnburner.

It remains to be seen whether BJ Penn has any blood-licking to do. But it’s certainly the one thing that might make revenge a little sweeter.