The biggest match of the year and the biggest upset of the year were both made last week, one in a courtroom and the other in the cage.
Around a week ago, the Randy Couture/UFC court saga ended with the announcement of “The Natural” returning to the octagon to defend his heavyweight title against Brock Lesnar. You heard that right and the dollar signs are all that can be seen after mentioning that matchup. The point of course is unification of the heavyweight title, as the winner of that fight will face the winner of Nogueira/Mir some time next year.
Last Saturday, Rashad Evans shocked the MMA world by knocking Chuck Liddell out in a manner not even Quinton Jackson was able to inflict on The Iceman. Both of these events have turned the MMA world on its ear and have created a completely different scenario for the final quarter of the year than anyone would’ve thought even days before the events unfolded.
In reality, Couture made the right decision to throw in the towel in court—the one place he would throw in the towel—because time is not on his side as at 44, the reality of him only having so much time left is exactly that. People can say that Liddell only has so much left, but he’s 38 and at 38 Couture was creating some of his most legendary magic. Plus, you knew that the only way Fedor/Couture was ever going to happen was in the octagon and it still could, but I’m thinking that Affliction is probably going to try very hard to hang onto Fedor, so for now that matchup looks to be a dead issue.
Looking at it from Randy’s point of view, Brock Lesnar is a good opponent for him—bigger, stronger, fantastic wrestling ability—and Dana really is at his most realistic when he says that he expects it to be the biggest fight in U.S. MMA history. The buys will go through the roof and the overly expensive tickets will be bought pretty quickly, especially if Rampage/Wandi III is made too.
My beef with the heavyweight title being on the line for Couture/Lesnar is my same beef with Evans automatically getting a shot at Griffin for the light heavyweight title after his win against Liddell: there are more deserving people in both divisions. With the heavyweights, Verdum is the most deserving in the heavyweight division at this moment because of the depleted nature of the division and the fact that he has beaten Gonzaga and Vera this year and another win would clinch him a shot under his UFC contract. But giving a world title shot to a guy with only three professional fights under his belt doesn’t prompt questions of why Lesnar is getting his shot because we all know the answer; Larry Merchant said it best when he described why George Foreman received his shot at Michael Moorer in ’94 after losing his last fight previous to the title shot 1 ½ years before the Moorer fight: “There are many, many champions and very, very few stars.” That describes Lesnar’s worthiness to the heavyweight title perfectly as Verdum is not a star in any way in the U.S., but deserves a shot much more than Lesnar. The same would go for Congo, but the most deserving of a match with Couture is the interim champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Do I think he’s going to beat Frank Mir? Yes. Having said that I think that Couture’s first fight should’ve been unification next year as it would only be four-five more months than the November date of his fight with Lesnar; he’s waited this long, what a few more months? However, Lesnar is a star like Merchant described as was evident by his impact on his first UFC pay-per-view’s buy total. Yes, it’s a good idea that Lesnar/Couture happen as it is guaranteed money, but should the title be on the line? No.
With Evans, it’s an example of striking while the iron is hot. Evans just pulled off the upset of the year and he’s unbeaten (with five less losses than UFC advertises him as having), so why not have him challenge for the title? I can understand that line of reasoning, but you could also have a battle of the unbeaten’s with Machida to decide Griffin’s first challenger. Yes, I’m still going to carry my little torch for Lyoto Machida because despite not being a UFC creation he is much more deserving of challenging for UFC’s light heavyweight title. If you compare the unbeaten records of both men, it’s no contest that Machida’s resume screams while Evans’ whispers. Yes Evans knocked Chuck the fuck out; it’s the biggest win of his career, but other than the disappointing Evans fight and the Ortiz fight he should’ve lost, there’s not much there. With Machida—as I mentioned months ago—he’s beaten a who’s who of UFC alums and current UFC fighters with his run in UFC proving that not only can he win, but he can be an entertaining or at least intriguing decision fighter, four of his five UFC wins coming that way.
These two fights—Couture/Lensar & Evans/Griffin—do show the business side of MMA as they are not really about finding out the best, but more about selling tickets and getting pay-per-view buys. First off, there’s nothing wrong with that as that is half the goal in any sport fighting or otherwise; the other half is in fact finding out the best because that is the nature of competitive sport, which MMA is for those who may have forgotten. And just to clarify something: will I be getting Couture/Lesnar? HELL YES! Am I pumped to see this fight? HELL YES! Again, it’s just that I don’t think a fighter with only three pro fights deserves a title shot (especially at 2-1); that’s all I’m saying.
So guys like Verdum and Machida may have to lay back in the cod for a little bit, but if they both can win their next fights, their time will come as one more win out of each should clinch each man’s spot as a challenger to their respective weight class’s title. With Verdum he may have to wait longer than Machida may have to, but again: one more win should equal a deserved and earned title shot.
It would be amiss of me if I didn’t end this week by remembering Evan Tanner, former UFC middleweight champion, who died this past weekend at the age of 37. Tanner was in the middle of a comeback in UFC that showcased his bravery and fighting spirit more than it did his ability to win. Still, 32-8 for a career is nothing to scoff at, and with victories over Paul Buentello, Heath Herring, Ikuhisa Minowa, Justin McCully, Elvis Sinosic, and Phil Baroni (twice), his career was a good one, one worth remembering, maybe more so because it was filled with Tanner’s charisma and personality—one of the more interesting ones to ever grace the MMA ring/cage. RIP Evan, thanks for all that you gave us.
