ANTONIO RODRIGO NOGUEIRA IS BACK
When Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira stepped into the cage with Frank Mir last December for his first interim heavyweight title defense, few gave his opponent any chance of winning the fight. What Mir’s critics didn’t know, however, was that the Nogueria he’d face in the cage that night wasn’t exactly the picture of health.
Nogueira had spent a week in the hospital a few weeks before the fight, nursing a severe staph infection that should’ve forced him to pull out of the fight. Not only that, but he’d completely torn his meniscus during camp. He shouldn’t have been in the cage that night and was advised by those closest to him to pull out of the fight, but Nogueira is one of the grittiest, toughest fighters in the history of the sport and he didn’t want to leave the UFC without a main event for its biggest show of 2008.
So Nogueira soldiered on, stepping into the cage at about 25% of his normal capacity. He was dispatched quickly and effectively by Frank Mir, making Mir look like a world-beater in the process and raising questions about the prospects of Minotauro’s continued effectiveness in the cage.
In dominating Randy Couture over the course of three rounds, Nogueira proved the Mir fight to be a fluke. He displayed great boxing skills, and outstanding ground game and the granite chin and legendary heart that won him so many ardent fans during the glory days of PRIDE. He took the best a very game Couture could dish out and never wilted, earning a one-sided decision over a man almost unanimously considered the heavy favorite going into the fight.
What’s next: A tilt with Brock Lesnar would be more than ideal, but he’ll have to wait and see if Lesnar gets past Shane Carwin in October. It would be a fresh matchup, and though Nogueira would no doubt serve as the underdog yet again, it would be almost impossible for people to completely count him out.
In the meantime, a rematch with Mirko Cro Cop would be welcome, providing Cro Cop gets past Nogueira protege Junior dos Santos at UFC 103.
TODD DUFFEE CONTINUES SEA CHANGE AMONG HEAVYWEIGHTS
Todd Duffee’s 7-second knockout of Tim Hague, the fastest in UFC history, turned him from just another non-descript fighter on another preliminary card into a legitimate heavyweight prospect.
At 6’3″ and 253 pounds of rippling muscle, Todd Duffee looks exactly like the kind of athletic fighter many believe will begin to populate the heavyweight division over the next three years. He’s an incredible athlete with heaping portions of size, strength, speed and agility tossed in for good measure.
In other words, he’s straight out of the Brock Lesnar mold.
Lesnar’s success means that more and more huge athletes are going to look at mixed martial arts as a viable way to make a living. Guys who would typically become defensive ends and play football for a living will instead look to the fight game. The heavyweight division will evolve from the “fat guy” decision into a corner of MMA filled with enormous men with the athletic attributes of much smaller men.
Duffee is only 23 years old, but the American Top Team fighter has a bright future that’s impossible to miss. He started boxing at the age of sixteen, but soon became enthralled by the different aspects of mixed martial arts. He rented all the old UFC shows he could find and became so hooked on the sport that he decided to start training.
He’s had just five professional fights, but only one has gone past three minutes, and all have ended by knockout or technical knockout. He’s one of the new breed of fighters – instead of learning one facet of the sport at a time like almost everyone prior to him, Duffee began training in every aspect of MMA nearly from the start.
What’s next: Duffee pleaded with Dana White to give him stiffer competition after the fight. He’ll be brought along slowly so that he can properly develop his skills, but it’s tough to imagine Duffee not turning into a big player in the heavyweight division within the next 16 months. A bout with Gabriel Gonzaga or Heath Herring may be the next test Duffee faces.
THE MIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION IS LOOKING UP
Six months ago, the UFC middleweight landscape was a drab and dreary land. Reigning champion Anderson Silva had dispatched all contenders, both legitimate and not, with relative ease, leaving pundits and fans alike to wonder what challenges could possibly away the best pound for pound fighter in the world.
UFC 102 indicated that Silva may have more work to do before calling it day.
To say Nate Marquardt dispatched Demian Maia with ease would be an understatement. Maia, who decided to test out his new Wanderlei Silva-approved standup game, attempted what appeared to be a flying knee early in the fight. Marquardt caught him in mid-air with a power right that sent Maia spinning to a face-firstcrash landing on the canvas.
The knockout happened just 22 seconds into the fight, an emphatic statement that may have confirmed Marquardt’s belief that he’s a much better version of the fighter that was blown out by Silva over two years ago.
Jake Rosholt, who has one of the deepest wrestling pedigrees in MMA, also decided to test out his standup skills against Chris Leben. The three-time NCAA champion displayed technical skills that were markedly improved from his previous fights, avoiding Leben’s crowd-pleasing haymakers and landing jabs effectively. He also showed some submission savvy after taking the fight to the ground in the third, and choked the stubborn Leben into unconsciousness to score the upset victory.
Rosholt already has the prerequisite wrestling background that can carry him past lower-level opponents, but he’s learned that wrestling alone can’t take you to the top. If he’s able to raise his striking level to a point anywhere near his wrestling skill, he’s going to be a tough middleweight to beat – even for champion Anderson Silva, whose only real weak spot may be against great wrestlers on the ground.
What’s next: Dan Henderson was promised the next title shot at Silva, but Silva’s camp believes that Henderson should fight Marquardt to determine who gets the next shot at the champion. For his part, Henderson claims that he’ll move back to the light heavyweight division if he’s not given his title shot as promised, which seems to indicate that a Marquardt/Henderson fight is not in the cards.
If Henderson faces Silva, then UFC matchmaker Joe Silva is faced with a tough test: who do you match Marquardt up with? One name that immediately comes to mind is Wanderlei Silva; the popular Brazilian serves as a trainer for Demian Maia and has his sights set on Anderson Silva. If that’s not a direction they’re interested in going, then pairing Marquardt up with Vitor Belfort (if Belfort gets past Rich Franklin) or Yoshihiro Akiyama would make for marquee matchups.
Rosholt’s impressive victory over Leben earned him a shot at stiffer competition, and a fight with someone like Alan Belcher or Patrick Cote would be his logical next step.
