Just My Thoughts: Justified Decisions or Robberies?
Just My Thoughts
Mike Sloan Jan 10, 2006
It’s been a little over a week since PRIDE delighted us with it’s
solid Shockwave 2005 event. But the debate as to whether Wanderlei Silva (Pictures)’s and Dan Henderson (Pictures)’s respective title-retaining and
title-winning performances were justifiable continue to rage.
Ravaging the various mixed martial arts forums and chat rooms like a rampant California wildfire, fans and media alike on both sides of the fence continue to debate the controversial scoring in both matches.
Silva defended his PRIDE middleweight crown by squeaking past
bitter rival Ricardo
Arona (Pictures) via split decision, but the
actual decision has come under fire. The verdict of the ringside
judges’ tallies has seen its share of supporters for both cases: a
correct decision in favor of Silva and a robbery claim in defense
of Arona. Both arguments merit sizable support systems, but one
must ask if the debate is truly necessary.
The same can be said about Henderson’s split decision nod over Murilo Bustamante (Pictures), a victory that allowed Hendo to capture the inaugural PRIDE welterweight (183-lb.) title. As with the Silva-Arona debate, the outcome of Henderson-Bustamante has split the MMA world in two, a virtual carbon copy of the middleweight championship discussion.
So instead of just garbling the two debates into one long-winded column, yours truly will simply break the two fights down into two separate articles shrouded in the guise of one singular opus. It’s kind of like buying one watermelon and getting one for free, only to realize that the bastard behind the counter charged you for two anyway.
Wanderlei Silva (Pictures): A rubber match with Arona is a must
The Chicago Bulls of the early- to mid-1990s. The New York Yankees of the late '90s and early 2000s. Tiger Woods' first five years of his professional career. Richard Petty's first two decades as a stock car racer. Like any great sport’s dynasty, they all had to come to an end in due time.
In fact, the only real dynasty left intact these days is Kenya’s stranglehold on the marathon.
The same could be said about Brazil’s Wanderlei Silva (Pictures). The “Axe Murderer” has dominated the PRIDE middleweight (205-lb.) division for five years, destroying all in his path without much resistance. His explosive knockouts over the likes of Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures), Quinton Jackson (Pictures), Guy Mezger, Yuki Kondo (Pictures) and countless Japanese “tomato cans” have preserved Silva’s reign as king of the middleweights.
However, Silva has appeared to slip lately as he has been witnessed struggling against the likes of MMA newcomer Mark Hunt (Pictures), Japanese superstar Hidehiko Yoshida (Pictures) and most recently, Ricardo Arona (Pictures).
Sure, the Hunt loss was controversial (I thought he deserved a victory) and Hunt was a full-fledged heavyweight and a late replacement. I thought Yoshida beat Silva in one of their two encounters, but that fight was so close that there really is no argument. But Arona decisively defeated Silva in the semifinal round of PRIDE: Final Conflict 2005 and many feel that the Chute Boxe legend was bested in their eagerly-awaited rematch on New Year’s Eve a week ago.
The intriguing aspect of this argument — whether Silva truly deserved the decision against Arona or if the tattooed king-sized “Shaolin” was the victim of inept judging — is that the fight was about as close as any championship fight could get.
Neither fighter was in jeopardy of being taken out and neither fighter secured anything close to a possible submission. Neither man was bloodied to a pulp and neither was completely gassed, holding on for dear life.
The fight, while not exactly a replica of Diego Sanchez (Pictures)-Nick Diaz (Pictures) in terms of action, was a seesaw battle of guile, cunning, technique and in scattered spots, attrition.
Silva bolted out of the gates and swarmed Arona instantaneously, attacking his nemesis with near reckless abandon, winging haymakers from all angles in hopes of removing Arona from consciousness. When Arona wound up on his back, Silva peppered his adversary with stinging kicks to the thighs, taunting his cautious opponent to get up and fight like a real man.
However, Silva’s effective aggression didn’t last too long as eventually it was Arona who seized control of the fight and scored several key takedowns. While Arona didn’t exactly wow the crowd and judges with Nogueira-like submission attempts, he certainly controlled the fight’s pace while on the ground. Back-and-forth the tides turned, but it was mainly Silva’s ineffectiveness on the feet and on the ground in the second and third rounds that wound up costing him the fight on my scorecard.
Silva is known for his concussive strikes, but he never came close to icing Arona. His wild, sometimes amateurish bombs failed to make their target every time he launched them. Naturally, Arona did absolutely nothing on his feet to warrant points being racked up, but his countless takedowns and meager ground-and-pound, in my opinion, were more crucial to the scoring than anything Silva did on his feet.
The fight can be debated in a myriad of ways, but in reality it comes down to who imposed his will more effectively and who did more damage. Also, it depends on what style of fighting one prefers and what one considers points being scored.
For the first five or so minutes of the fight, Silva clearly caused more damage to Arona than Arona did to Silva throughout the course of the entire fight. But, for argument’s sake, Arona controlled the pace much more than Silva did. Also, Arona’s bread and butter is the ground game. After scoring numerous takedowns in every round and after dictating the action from on the canvas, that aspect lands in Arona’s favor. Takedowns, in my opinion, are worth equal — sometimes more — than thudding punches or kicks that don’t fell an opponent.
The real mystery — if you call it such — is what the PRIDE judges really look for when determining a winner. Looking deeply at the PRIDE rules of determining a winner when a fight goes the distance, it’s as plain as day.
The three judges decide at the fight’s conclusion as to who they felt won. It’s a matter of opinion, of course, but after watching the fight several times, I have yet to score it in favor of Silva. The contest was close, mind you, but my reasoning is quite simple: Arona controlled the pace much more intensely than Silva, he scored enough takedowns and nullified everything Silva did while on the ground. If inflicting damage is the most crucial aspect of deciding a winner, then did Silva really dominate Arona in such a manner?
Sure, his numerous leg kicks while Arona was down were pretty, but how much damage did they truly cause? Silva was able to clip Arona on a few occasions while they traded blows, but Arona gave virtually as much as he took while on the feet.
Naturally, the fight was razor thin in terms of who the true victor was and many have solid arguments in favor of Silva retaining his title. I can see someone’s point when they score in favor of The Axe Murderer. But I still feel Arona fought better as a whole and dictated the fight’s pace.
So whether you pronounce “tomato” differently than I or if you agree that Silva really won, that’s fine. I don’t feel as though Arona was robbed by any means and I don’t believe for a second that the outcome of the fight was rigged. It was close, it was entertaining and in sporadic moments it was dramatic. The two men truly dislike one another and now that each has scored a win over the other, it sure makes the rubber match that much sweeter.
Ravaging the various mixed martial arts forums and chat rooms like a rampant California wildfire, fans and media alike on both sides of the fence continue to debate the controversial scoring in both matches.
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The same can be said about Henderson’s split decision nod over Murilo Bustamante (Pictures), a victory that allowed Hendo to capture the inaugural PRIDE welterweight (183-lb.) title. As with the Silva-Arona debate, the outcome of Henderson-Bustamante has split the MMA world in two, a virtual carbon copy of the middleweight championship discussion.
Looking a bit deeper into the realms of the PRIDE title fight
debate, it is mandatory to look at both points of view in regards
to each contest. It would be foolhardy of me to just blatantly
shout out that I feel both Arona and Bustamante were robbed,
because I can see the points of argument on both sides of each
coin. It also should be noted that each fight was about as close as
they come and having both battles wind up as split decisions was
justified.
So instead of just garbling the two debates into one long-winded column, yours truly will simply break the two fights down into two separate articles shrouded in the guise of one singular opus. It’s kind of like buying one watermelon and getting one for free, only to realize that the bastard behind the counter charged you for two anyway.
Wanderlei Silva (Pictures): A rubber match with Arona is a must
The Chicago Bulls of the early- to mid-1990s. The New York Yankees of the late '90s and early 2000s. Tiger Woods' first five years of his professional career. Richard Petty's first two decades as a stock car racer. Like any great sport’s dynasty, they all had to come to an end in due time.
In fact, the only real dynasty left intact these days is Kenya’s stranglehold on the marathon.
The same could be said about Brazil’s Wanderlei Silva (Pictures). The “Axe Murderer” has dominated the PRIDE middleweight (205-lb.) division for five years, destroying all in his path without much resistance. His explosive knockouts over the likes of Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures), Quinton Jackson (Pictures), Guy Mezger, Yuki Kondo (Pictures) and countless Japanese “tomato cans” have preserved Silva’s reign as king of the middleweights.
However, Silva has appeared to slip lately as he has been witnessed struggling against the likes of MMA newcomer Mark Hunt (Pictures), Japanese superstar Hidehiko Yoshida (Pictures) and most recently, Ricardo Arona (Pictures).
Sure, the Hunt loss was controversial (I thought he deserved a victory) and Hunt was a full-fledged heavyweight and a late replacement. I thought Yoshida beat Silva in one of their two encounters, but that fight was so close that there really is no argument. But Arona decisively defeated Silva in the semifinal round of PRIDE: Final Conflict 2005 and many feel that the Chute Boxe legend was bested in their eagerly-awaited rematch on New Year’s Eve a week ago.
The intriguing aspect of this argument — whether Silva truly deserved the decision against Arona or if the tattooed king-sized “Shaolin” was the victim of inept judging — is that the fight was about as close as any championship fight could get.
Neither fighter was in jeopardy of being taken out and neither fighter secured anything close to a possible submission. Neither man was bloodied to a pulp and neither was completely gassed, holding on for dear life.
The fight, while not exactly a replica of Diego Sanchez (Pictures)-Nick Diaz (Pictures) in terms of action, was a seesaw battle of guile, cunning, technique and in scattered spots, attrition.
Silva bolted out of the gates and swarmed Arona instantaneously, attacking his nemesis with near reckless abandon, winging haymakers from all angles in hopes of removing Arona from consciousness. When Arona wound up on his back, Silva peppered his adversary with stinging kicks to the thighs, taunting his cautious opponent to get up and fight like a real man.
However, Silva’s effective aggression didn’t last too long as eventually it was Arona who seized control of the fight and scored several key takedowns. While Arona didn’t exactly wow the crowd and judges with Nogueira-like submission attempts, he certainly controlled the fight’s pace while on the ground. Back-and-forth the tides turned, but it was mainly Silva’s ineffectiveness on the feet and on the ground in the second and third rounds that wound up costing him the fight on my scorecard.
Silva is known for his concussive strikes, but he never came close to icing Arona. His wild, sometimes amateurish bombs failed to make their target every time he launched them. Naturally, Arona did absolutely nothing on his feet to warrant points being racked up, but his countless takedowns and meager ground-and-pound, in my opinion, were more crucial to the scoring than anything Silva did on his feet.
The fight can be debated in a myriad of ways, but in reality it comes down to who imposed his will more effectively and who did more damage. Also, it depends on what style of fighting one prefers and what one considers points being scored.
For the first five or so minutes of the fight, Silva clearly caused more damage to Arona than Arona did to Silva throughout the course of the entire fight. But, for argument’s sake, Arona controlled the pace much more than Silva did. Also, Arona’s bread and butter is the ground game. After scoring numerous takedowns in every round and after dictating the action from on the canvas, that aspect lands in Arona’s favor. Takedowns, in my opinion, are worth equal — sometimes more — than thudding punches or kicks that don’t fell an opponent.
The real mystery — if you call it such — is what the PRIDE judges really look for when determining a winner. Looking deeply at the PRIDE rules of determining a winner when a fight goes the distance, it’s as plain as day.
The three judges decide at the fight’s conclusion as to who they felt won. It’s a matter of opinion, of course, but after watching the fight several times, I have yet to score it in favor of Silva. The contest was close, mind you, but my reasoning is quite simple: Arona controlled the pace much more intensely than Silva, he scored enough takedowns and nullified everything Silva did while on the ground. If inflicting damage is the most crucial aspect of deciding a winner, then did Silva really dominate Arona in such a manner?
Sure, his numerous leg kicks while Arona was down were pretty, but how much damage did they truly cause? Silva was able to clip Arona on a few occasions while they traded blows, but Arona gave virtually as much as he took while on the feet.
Naturally, the fight was razor thin in terms of who the true victor was and many have solid arguments in favor of Silva retaining his title. I can see someone’s point when they score in favor of The Axe Murderer. But I still feel Arona fought better as a whole and dictated the fight’s pace.
So whether you pronounce “tomato” differently than I or if you agree that Silva really won, that’s fine. I don’t feel as though Arona was robbed by any means and I don’t believe for a second that the outcome of the fight was rigged. It was close, it was entertaining and in sporadic moments it was dramatic. The two men truly dislike one another and now that each has scored a win over the other, it sure makes the rubber match that much sweeter.
