Clash Of The Titans

Tomorrow night two of the biggest (literally) heavyweight stars in MMA will face off at UFC 116.  Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin both will weigh in at the limit of 265 pounds but by the time the bell rings both will be significantly bigger.  This fight as the potential to be the biggest PPV draw ever for the UFC and its almost sure to live up to the hype.  The reason being is that these two behemoths are both brawlers by nature and strikers by training.  As much as I enjoy the chess game of a good jiu jitsu fight, that ain't what this is right here folks.  Somebody is getting their block knocked off come tomorrow evening.

For me I actually like both guys well enough.  Carwin is seen more as an up and comer although he probably has more experience and formal training in MMA at this point than Lesnar.  And Lesnar while immensely physically gifted, is somewhat of a dick.  Let me rephrase that, he's a major league asshole.  And while I'm not necessarily always anti-asshole, he did turn me off with his antics initially.

Well although Im still not what you would call a "fan" of Lesnar's, I have a helluva lot of respect for what he has done in his first 5 fights.  The guy is like a force of nature.  So big and quick that it should be against the law.  And he's vicious on top of it.  Many times with MMA or even boxing you find guys with one or the other.  Guys with a lot of killer instinct but a lower level of athletic ability, or a guy who is immensely skill that is perfectly happy with a decision every time rather than a stoppage. (*cough* Mayweather *cough*)  So while I won't be cheering the guy on, I will DEFINITELY be front and center to watch his fights.

Mind you I felt that way BEFORE reading this article.  Now I know that words are just words, but if this guy has really stepped his game up the way its inferred in the article, that's what I would call down right scary.

“I’ve been kinda like a steam locomotive ever since January 5th,” he said. “We threw a little coal in the fire, we got the engines going a little bit, and every week, the locomotive kept building more steam and building more power, and that’s really what this has been. Everything’s coming together, and I’ve said this before – the Brock Lesnar now would annihilate the Brock Lesnar of a year ago. That’s how crazy this is. I had to have a major setback, and it was almost a good thing. We started from scratch in January and really built my strength, my core, and I was able to work on a lot of different things, and I wasn’t under any pressure. I brought different training partners in and got a different look from some different coaches. We got this piece of clay, and we said let’s mold it again.”

Now that’s scary, considering that the first piece of clay won four of his five pro bouts, won the heavyweight title, avenged his only defeat, and basically steamrolled everyone in his path. But Lesnar knows that if you’re not improving, you’re slipping, and while he didn’t completely change his team, he did revamp it in certain areas, with key additions to this camp being UFC Hall of Famer and the man Lesnar beat for the title, Randy Couture, and standout boxing coach Peter Welch.

“I looked around across the board and analyzed my life in general,” said Lesnar, 32. “First of all personally and family wise and then I analyzed my fight situation. How can I get better? How can I evolve? What’s stagnant in my training and what are some different things that I can do? I bumped into Peter in Las Vegas a while ago, (UFC President) Dana (White) introduced me to him and we hit it off, so I brought him out here. I wasn’t sure what I was gonna get, wasn’t sure if our personalities were gonna match, but he came out, it worked out, we got along great, and more importantly, he’s a great teacher. I learned a lot of good stuff from him and I wish I had brought him in sooner. I’m happy with the decision and it’s been great.”

Peter Welch AND Randy Couture?!?!

Man listen, Carwin is a certified BEAST and I take nothing from him. But if Brock is even better on the feet now its gonna get really really ugly. And I mean that in the best sense of the word.

Now That's Just Mean!

I love watching MMA not only because of the level of skill involved but also because every once in awhile you will get matches with guys who really and truly don't like each other and when that happens you can expect major fireworks. Well last night there was a match between Shinya Aoki and Mizuto Hirota which turned out to be one of those instances. Now I have to warn you before you watch the clip that there is a nasty nasty submission hold involved, a broken or dislocated bone, and some very poor sportsmanship. If you think you can stomach all that then push play.





Now over on Yahoo they are debating whether or not this will hurt Aoki, the guy who rearranged his opponents anatomy and then turned around and insulted him for good measure, and his American promotor in getting him some fights here in the US. Further they are debating whether or not this would hurt MMA in general stateside had the match been shown here.

Well maybe something is wrong with me but by God, I while I was shocked at Aoki's behavior, some part of me loved it too. Now I don't imagine most folks think like me, but I have a sneaky suspicion that a lot of MMA fans do. Its like any other sport for me, when you make a big play in football or basketball or even sometimes baseball you want to both celebrate and also to make the point to your opponent that you are their better. While the one finger salute is crass, to me its not much worse than a player saying "In your face!". I have a sneaky suspicion that if boxers didn't wear gloves we would have seen some of them giving their fallen opponent the finger a LONG time ago. It is what it is.

On the other hand I am sure that for folks who don't like MMA and use words like "barbaric" to describe it, yeah they probably didn't care for the display at all. But who the hell cares what they think? Those are the same people who will NEVER like MMA and will never see it for what it is, a sport. Spending time worrying about if you are going to offend them does nothing more than kill time and energy better used on other topics. For all of the faux outrage after Brock Lesnar flipped off the crowd and his opponent after his dominating win over fan favorite Frank Mir, do you REALLY think that made MMA less popular? I don't. If anything it gave people more of a reason to watch because now they had a bonafide villain. Some of the fans would root against him, many would root for him but it never hurts to have a black hat as a contrast in any sport you can think of.

I don't think MMA would survive if this was the kind of behavior you saw after each and every match. But I don't think it hurts at all to see this every once in awhile. I can tell you this, I will definitely be checking Aoki's next match out. And somehow I bet I won't be alone.