Short Notice
Jake Rossen Nov 26, 2007
Depending on your level of emotional investment in MMA,
Thanksgiving may have turned out to be a bit of a turkey. Friday
brought news that UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra (Pictures) would be unable to defend his
title on Dec. 29 against perpetually smirking Matt Hughes (Pictures).
The loss of that bout, which was poised to receive 12 weeks of free advertising on cable, put a considerable damper on the UFC's plans to deliver a card that finally made productive use of its talent pool.
Fans prepared themselves for the inevitable bad-to-worse news;
either Hughes would fight fresh talent like Jon Fitch (Pictures) in a bout with a flimsy
narrative, or he'd simply wait for Serra's herniated discs to
resume normal functioning.
Instead, the UFC pandered to the wishful-thinking contingent and slotted Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) against Hughes, a fight that immediately returns the end-of-year event to baseline and allows for some slightly less muddled waters in that division.
A St. Pierre loss provides immediate disgruntlement for fans who will insist that their Canadian superhero had only four weeks to prepare for Hughes, and was either A). Out of shape, B). Mentally diffused, or C). Still suffering from holiday indigestion.
St. Pierre should, of course, be commended for refusing to play the diva and bolstering the card's star power. And why not? It's not as though Hughes presents as a foreign opponent, with St. Pierre having evaded his takedowns on two occasions already, and proving beyond doubt that his standup goes uncontested against the wrestler.
The man with the most to lose in the fight is Hughes. A loss here would presumably dash his title hopes for the foreseeable future, and for someone who has admitted to having only a few fights left, that's awfully definitive.
Hughes has "blogged" that he has his reasons for taking the GSP fight. Perhaps he planned for the Serra bout to be his swan song in the sport and wanted to end with a meaningful bout; perhaps he believes he's found an answer for St. Pierre's uber-athletic attack.
Whatever the case, fans should be happy that all parties involved took quick stock of a bad situation and made the best of it. Not every marquee bout needs to be years in the making.
To that end, my tryptophan-fueled brain considered some other examples of short-notice bouts and their results:
B.J. Penn (Pictures) vs. Matt Hughes (Pictures) II (9/23/06)
Notice: Five weeks
Set-Up: Penn takes the fight after losing to St. Pierre, and after St. Pierre politely excused himself from the rematch with Hughes due to a training injury. (Apparently, not even GSP himself can handle the "riddum.")
Outcome: Penn stuffs takedowns for two rounds, but the effort -- and a rib injury -- exhausts him, allowing Hughes to use his head for a speed bag.
Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) vs. Mark Hunt (Pictures) (12/31/04)
Notice: Less than a week
Set-Up: Super heavyweight Hunt accepts a fight with undisputed PRIDE 205-pound champion Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) after Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) bows out to injury.
Outcome: A spectacular fight that sees high points for both men. Hunt gets the decision, though fans bemoan the lack of consideration given to Silva's weight disadvantage.
Ben Rothwell (Pictures) vs. Ricco Rodriguez (Pictures) (9/20/07)
Notice: Three days
Set-Up: Tom Sauer (Pictures) ejects himself from an IFL event due to injury. Rodriguez steps in, his credentials as a former UFC heavyweight champion a legitimate threat to Rothwell's undefeated IFL run.
Outcome: Rothwell earns a decision in a bout that doesn't do much to impress fans of either athlete. On the plus side, Rodriguez sheds enough weight to finally stop wearing maternity-size fight trunks.
Guy Mezger (Pictures) vs. Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) (1/30/00)
Notice: Two weeks
Set-Up: Lion's Den regular Mezger takes on PRIDE poster imp Sakuraba in the opening round of PRIDE's open-weight tournament.
Outcome: Mezger keeps it ultra-competitive for a round, at which point officials urge him to come out for another. Ken Shamrock (Pictures) intervenes, claims they committed to only one round and hustles Mezger out of the ring, inviting both a forfeit and a lifetime of insulting manga parodies.
Tito Ortiz (Pictures) vs. Vladimir Matyushenko (Pictures) (9/28/01)
Notice: Less than two weeks
Set-Up: Their main event having imploded after Vitor Belfort (Pictures) puts his elbow through a window, UFC execs scramble to salvage the show by offering Tito Ortiz (Pictures) to both Ken and Frank Shamrock (Pictures). When the Shamrocks ask for too many zeroes, Vladimir Matyushenko (Pictures) steps in.
Outcome: Ortiz surprises observers by outwrestling Matyushenko for the five-round decision, the last two rounds of which are clipped by cable companies after the show exceeds its time allowance. (Considering the mundane pace of the fight, few people complain.)
So what have we learned? Without a proper six- to 10-week training camp, the odds of coming from a generic training session and overcoming an elite athlete aren't exactly encouraging.
But there is one unique trend: Of all the bouts thrown together at the last possible minute, the lack of strategizing and possible overtraining usually results in some dynamic action. While the UFC's co-headliner, Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) vs. Chuck Liddell (Pictures), could see two athletes desperate not to accept a third straight loss and play a conservative game, the main event should be appropriately spontaneous.
For comments, e-mail [email protected]
The loss of that bout, which was poised to receive 12 weeks of free advertising on cable, put a considerable damper on the UFC's plans to deliver a card that finally made productive use of its talent pool.
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Instead, the UFC pandered to the wishful-thinking contingent and slotted Georges St. Pierre (Pictures) against Hughes, a fight that immediately returns the end-of-year event to baseline and allows for some slightly less muddled waters in that division.
Sorta.
A St. Pierre loss provides immediate disgruntlement for fans who will insist that their Canadian superhero had only four weeks to prepare for Hughes, and was either A). Out of shape, B). Mentally diffused, or C). Still suffering from holiday indigestion.
St. Pierre should, of course, be commended for refusing to play the diva and bolstering the card's star power. And why not? It's not as though Hughes presents as a foreign opponent, with St. Pierre having evaded his takedowns on two occasions already, and proving beyond doubt that his standup goes uncontested against the wrestler.
The man with the most to lose in the fight is Hughes. A loss here would presumably dash his title hopes for the foreseeable future, and for someone who has admitted to having only a few fights left, that's awfully definitive.
Hughes has "blogged" that he has his reasons for taking the GSP fight. Perhaps he planned for the Serra bout to be his swan song in the sport and wanted to end with a meaningful bout; perhaps he believes he's found an answer for St. Pierre's uber-athletic attack.
Whatever the case, fans should be happy that all parties involved took quick stock of a bad situation and made the best of it. Not every marquee bout needs to be years in the making.
To that end, my tryptophan-fueled brain considered some other examples of short-notice bouts and their results:
B.J. Penn (Pictures) vs. Matt Hughes (Pictures) II (9/23/06)
Notice: Five weeks
Set-Up: Penn takes the fight after losing to St. Pierre, and after St. Pierre politely excused himself from the rematch with Hughes due to a training injury. (Apparently, not even GSP himself can handle the "riddum.")
Outcome: Penn stuffs takedowns for two rounds, but the effort -- and a rib injury -- exhausts him, allowing Hughes to use his head for a speed bag.
Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) vs. Mark Hunt (Pictures) (12/31/04)
Notice: Less than a week
Set-Up: Super heavyweight Hunt accepts a fight with undisputed PRIDE 205-pound champion Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) after Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) bows out to injury.
Outcome: A spectacular fight that sees high points for both men. Hunt gets the decision, though fans bemoan the lack of consideration given to Silva's weight disadvantage.
Ben Rothwell (Pictures) vs. Ricco Rodriguez (Pictures) (9/20/07)
Notice: Three days
Set-Up: Tom Sauer (Pictures) ejects himself from an IFL event due to injury. Rodriguez steps in, his credentials as a former UFC heavyweight champion a legitimate threat to Rothwell's undefeated IFL run.
Outcome: Rothwell earns a decision in a bout that doesn't do much to impress fans of either athlete. On the plus side, Rodriguez sheds enough weight to finally stop wearing maternity-size fight trunks.
Guy Mezger (Pictures) vs. Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures) (1/30/00)
Notice: Two weeks
Set-Up: Lion's Den regular Mezger takes on PRIDE poster imp Sakuraba in the opening round of PRIDE's open-weight tournament.
Outcome: Mezger keeps it ultra-competitive for a round, at which point officials urge him to come out for another. Ken Shamrock (Pictures) intervenes, claims they committed to only one round and hustles Mezger out of the ring, inviting both a forfeit and a lifetime of insulting manga parodies.
Tito Ortiz (Pictures) vs. Vladimir Matyushenko (Pictures) (9/28/01)
Notice: Less than two weeks
Set-Up: Their main event having imploded after Vitor Belfort (Pictures) puts his elbow through a window, UFC execs scramble to salvage the show by offering Tito Ortiz (Pictures) to both Ken and Frank Shamrock (Pictures). When the Shamrocks ask for too many zeroes, Vladimir Matyushenko (Pictures) steps in.
Outcome: Ortiz surprises observers by outwrestling Matyushenko for the five-round decision, the last two rounds of which are clipped by cable companies after the show exceeds its time allowance. (Considering the mundane pace of the fight, few people complain.)
So what have we learned? Without a proper six- to 10-week training camp, the odds of coming from a generic training session and overcoming an elite athlete aren't exactly encouraging.
But there is one unique trend: Of all the bouts thrown together at the last possible minute, the lack of strategizing and possible overtraining usually results in some dynamic action. While the UFC's co-headliner, Wanderlei Silva (Pictures) vs. Chuck Liddell (Pictures), could see two athletes desperate not to accept a third straight loss and play a conservative game, the main event should be appropriately spontaneous.
For comments, e-mail [email protected]
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