Tuesday Morning “Rampage” Reverie
Mike Sloan May 29, 2007
A funny thing happened while skimming through my inbox over the
past few dozen hours, something that made me snicker devilishly at
my computer screen.
Yours truly has received a cargo ship's load of e-mails, mostly regarding Quinton Jackson's (Pictures) stunning knockout of Chuck Liddell (Pictures) on Saturday. Out of roughly 200 or so emails pertaining to said fight, at least half were filled with surprise that this guy named "Rampage" could crack the iceberg that is Liddell.
Though I predicted a Liddell victory via knockout, I am not shocked
in the least that Rampage triumphed over The Iceman. It was a
toss-up in my opinion going into the fight, but I felt that with
Liddell being on such a tear lately and how Jackson hasn't truly
looked like the vintage Rampage, Liddell would successfully defend
his UFC light heavyweight title.
A vast number of fight fans out there who contacted me were either uneducated as to who Rampage was and/or if he would be able to stop Liddell's torrid knockout streak. So shocking was the knockout to a large percentage of UFC fans that it might actually go down in history as one of the most crucial occurrences inside the Octagon, meaning a new dawn of Ultimate Fighting has begun before our eyes without most realizing it.
My rebuttal to such absurd e-mails is simple: sit back and watch Rampage electrify the mainstream media as he carries the UFC with him into superstardom.
Several years ago Tito Ortiz (Pictures) was the bad guy trash talker of the UFC and the general consensus was that the UFC couldn't survive without Ortiz. Shortly thereafter came along Randy Couture (Pictures), who eventually became a fan favorite with his likeable attitude and "Captain America" persona, followed, of course, by Liddell.
The UFC is at a point right now where it would be able to fill the Grand Garden Arena to the rafters by pitting an MGM security guard against David Faustino.
With Rampage on board and now the champion at 205 pounds, there is no limit as to how much capital he will bring in and it's now not a matter of if the UFC event will sell-out, just how long it will take.
Rampage is new champ … embrace it
I wrote a column back in January of 2005 titled "Scoring the Perfect 10" in which I listed and explained who I felt were the 10 most marketable men in mixed martial arts.
On that list were a few fighters who wouldn't be anywhere near an updated version of said column, but ranked at the top as el peleador numero uno was none other than Quinton Jackson (Pictures). This was before the explosion of The Ultimate Fighter, before Generation TUF kicked into high gear.
Jackson was still fighting in the PRIDE ring, after being twice knocked out by Wanderlei Silva (Pictures). Heck, it was well before Brittney Spears went Dana White and took a shaver to her noggin.
I'm obviously no brain surgeon. I didn't come close to scoring a 2400 on my SAT and I couldn't even begin to explain how a carburetor works. But what I do know is what fighters have "it" and what fighters don't. The fighters that have "it," that character trait that transcends the world of sports and fascinates the masses, have to be marketed shrewdly to fully maximize both the fighter and his promoter's earning potential.
Out of all the fighters in MMA who have "it," Rampage clearly has the most and that is an observation that honestly shouldn't even be disputed.
Some fighters wear cheap bling or ridiculous costumes. Jackson has that chain. Some fighters are known to have powerful slams, but then there's Slampage. There are plenty of fighters who have a solid foundation of wrestling and ground-and-pound, and then there is Rampage's GNP. And lastly, there is pre-fight trash talk, and then there is Rampage's trash talk. Enough said.
Is Rampage the greatest fighter on the planet? No, not at all. That crown belongs on the head of Russian cyborg Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) (though his legacy is in peril). But is Rampage clearly, without a shadow of a doubt, the most marketable fighter on Earth? Yes.
When I was heading through the MGM after UFC 71, all I heard throughout the famed Studio Walk were hundreds of fans howling like wolves. The howling lasted at least 20 minutes without interruption and it was kicked into high gear when several fans, which were sporting nifty Rampage start-up kits, began jumping up and down chanting, "Rampage! Rampage!" and demanded everybody to keep howling.
I've seen hundreds of fans cheering and celebrating after their man just scored a magnificent victory as they caroused throughout arena or casinos, but I've never seen anything like what I witnessed on Saturday. I've been to some of the biggest fights in recent history and the most rabid of all the fight fans are without question the diehard boxing enthusiasts from Mexico. Whenever such warriors as Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Jorge Arce and especially Julio Cesar Chavez are pitted against either one another or against someone from a rival country like Puerto Rico or the Philippines, the energy and intensity from the crowd is second to none.
But never before have I witnessed such a celebration as I did with the howling Rampage fans. Only time will tell if any mixed martial artist will receive a victory parade in his home town like so many of boxing's elite or world champion sports franchises. The marketing acumen of Zuffa will capitalize on the opportunity and within a short period of time, Rampage should easily eclipse the popularity of Ortiz, Couture and Liddell.
Rampage has "it," more than any other man in MMA, and provided he is matched properly and marketed perfectly, he will become the first man from our sport to have his likeness affixed on the cover of a Wheaties box, which leads me to …
Bring on Henderson
Dan Henderson (Pictures) is easily one of the best fighters in the history of MMA and should be considered near the top of the pound-for-pound mountain. He has whipped many of the sport's elite fighters and all of his losses, save for the one against Kazuo Misaki (Pictures), have essentially come against the best of the best.
Henderson-Jackson is one of those fights that absolutely has to happen and it looks like it will sometime by year's end. In my opinion, Henderson always had to fight three people at some point in his career: Jackson, Couture and Liddell.
With the UFC bringing in Henderson to face Jackson, it surely demonstrates that the UFC is intent on bringing the best possible fights to the fans. The only drawback I see at this juncture in regards to a Jackson-Henderson showdown is that "Hollywood" Henderson is still a relative unknown here in America.
Zuffa needs to market Henderson beyond their capabilities if they want to make the light heavyweight title fight a box office blockbuster, because if they don't, that battle won't attract as many pay-per-view buys as it should.
One of the worst things that could happen now with Jackson is champion is for the UFC to bring in Henderson immediately without hyping him up. It would prove foolish on their part to do so, especially since Henderson has a great chance to knock Jackson off his thrown and isn't much of an attention grabber.
Either way, Henderson has to fight Jackson but it would be smarter to fill Zuffa-branded telecasts with spectacular Henderson highlights or feed him a few cans first.
Misc. Debris
Where exactly did Houston Alexander (Pictures) come from? I honestly never heard of him before he climbed into the Octagon to fight Keith Jardine (Pictures) but now the entire MMA world knows his name. It looks like Sokoudjou has started a trend here with absolute unknowns scoring stunning knockouts in their major show debuts. …
How far will Terry Martin (Pictures) go at middleweight? He's scored two impressive knockouts in a row and he has looked sensational both times. Dropping down in weight has so far proved intelligent and he is a massive dark horse in the talent-laden 185-pound weight class to steal a world title. …
Thiago Silva (Pictures)-James Irvin (Pictures) was going to be one helluva fight, guaranteed. It's too bad Irvin had to blow out his knee early in the fight. Hopefully he'll be able to recover quickly and resume his fighting career without much down time because "The Sandman" is easily one of the most exciting fighters in the sport today. …
Regardless of what happens in the Matt Serra (Pictures)-Matt Hughes (Pictures) fight in a few months, Karo Parisyan (Pictures) had better be fighting the winner. He was given one title shot and that was taken away when he injured himself in training. He's beyond exciting and he's more than earned his title shot. Hopefully Zuffa will give the Armenian warrior what he deserves: a title shot in his next fight. …
Liddell will bounce back in no time so fans of the Iceman should rest assured. There's no shame in losing, especially to a fellow elite fighter. My only question is how will Zuffa bring him back into title contention? Surely they can't just drop Liddell into a rubber match with Jackson and the fans don't want to see him feed upon steeping stones. The next several months are filled with intrigue.
Hit me up at www.myspace.com/sherdogsloan
Yours truly has received a cargo ship's load of e-mails, mostly regarding Quinton Jackson's (Pictures) stunning knockout of Chuck Liddell (Pictures) on Saturday. Out of roughly 200 or so emails pertaining to said fight, at least half were filled with surprise that this guy named "Rampage" could crack the iceberg that is Liddell.
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A vast number of fight fans out there who contacted me were either uneducated as to who Rampage was and/or if he would be able to stop Liddell's torrid knockout streak. So shocking was the knockout to a large percentage of UFC fans that it might actually go down in history as one of the most crucial occurrences inside the Octagon, meaning a new dawn of Ultimate Fighting has begun before our eyes without most realizing it.
What is rather funny, peculiar even, is that many of those e-mails
I mentioned contained concern regarding how far Rampage could bring
the UFC now that Zuffa's poster boy had been bombarded by a barrage
of punches in under two minutes. Many of the e-mails -- I'd blindly
guesstimate about 10 percent -- were convinced that Rampage and his
attitude would inevitably bring the UFC to its knees and give it a
negative image, similar to what the National Basketball Association
currently is reeling from.
My rebuttal to such absurd e-mails is simple: sit back and watch Rampage electrify the mainstream media as he carries the UFC with him into superstardom.
Several years ago Tito Ortiz (Pictures) was the bad guy trash talker of the UFC and the general consensus was that the UFC couldn't survive without Ortiz. Shortly thereafter came along Randy Couture (Pictures), who eventually became a fan favorite with his likeable attitude and "Captain America" persona, followed, of course, by Liddell.
The UFC is at a point right now where it would be able to fill the Grand Garden Arena to the rafters by pitting an MGM security guard against David Faustino.
With Rampage on board and now the champion at 205 pounds, there is no limit as to how much capital he will bring in and it's now not a matter of if the UFC event will sell-out, just how long it will take.
Rampage is new champ … embrace it
I wrote a column back in January of 2005 titled "Scoring the Perfect 10" in which I listed and explained who I felt were the 10 most marketable men in mixed martial arts.
On that list were a few fighters who wouldn't be anywhere near an updated version of said column, but ranked at the top as el peleador numero uno was none other than Quinton Jackson (Pictures). This was before the explosion of The Ultimate Fighter, before Generation TUF kicked into high gear.
Jackson was still fighting in the PRIDE ring, after being twice knocked out by Wanderlei Silva (Pictures). Heck, it was well before Brittney Spears went Dana White and took a shaver to her noggin.
I'm obviously no brain surgeon. I didn't come close to scoring a 2400 on my SAT and I couldn't even begin to explain how a carburetor works. But what I do know is what fighters have "it" and what fighters don't. The fighters that have "it," that character trait that transcends the world of sports and fascinates the masses, have to be marketed shrewdly to fully maximize both the fighter and his promoter's earning potential.
Out of all the fighters in MMA who have "it," Rampage clearly has the most and that is an observation that honestly shouldn't even be disputed.
Some fighters wear cheap bling or ridiculous costumes. Jackson has that chain. Some fighters are known to have powerful slams, but then there's Slampage. There are plenty of fighters who have a solid foundation of wrestling and ground-and-pound, and then there is Rampage's GNP. And lastly, there is pre-fight trash talk, and then there is Rampage's trash talk. Enough said.
Is Rampage the greatest fighter on the planet? No, not at all. That crown belongs on the head of Russian cyborg Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) (though his legacy is in peril). But is Rampage clearly, without a shadow of a doubt, the most marketable fighter on Earth? Yes.
When I was heading through the MGM after UFC 71, all I heard throughout the famed Studio Walk were hundreds of fans howling like wolves. The howling lasted at least 20 minutes without interruption and it was kicked into high gear when several fans, which were sporting nifty Rampage start-up kits, began jumping up and down chanting, "Rampage! Rampage!" and demanded everybody to keep howling.
I've seen hundreds of fans cheering and celebrating after their man just scored a magnificent victory as they caroused throughout arena or casinos, but I've never seen anything like what I witnessed on Saturday. I've been to some of the biggest fights in recent history and the most rabid of all the fight fans are without question the diehard boxing enthusiasts from Mexico. Whenever such warriors as Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Jorge Arce and especially Julio Cesar Chavez are pitted against either one another or against someone from a rival country like Puerto Rico or the Philippines, the energy and intensity from the crowd is second to none.
But never before have I witnessed such a celebration as I did with the howling Rampage fans. Only time will tell if any mixed martial artist will receive a victory parade in his home town like so many of boxing's elite or world champion sports franchises. The marketing acumen of Zuffa will capitalize on the opportunity and within a short period of time, Rampage should easily eclipse the popularity of Ortiz, Couture and Liddell.
Rampage has "it," more than any other man in MMA, and provided he is matched properly and marketed perfectly, he will become the first man from our sport to have his likeness affixed on the cover of a Wheaties box, which leads me to …
Bring on Henderson
Dan Henderson (Pictures) is easily one of the best fighters in the history of MMA and should be considered near the top of the pound-for-pound mountain. He has whipped many of the sport's elite fighters and all of his losses, save for the one against Kazuo Misaki (Pictures), have essentially come against the best of the best.
Henderson-Jackson is one of those fights that absolutely has to happen and it looks like it will sometime by year's end. In my opinion, Henderson always had to fight three people at some point in his career: Jackson, Couture and Liddell.
With the UFC bringing in Henderson to face Jackson, it surely demonstrates that the UFC is intent on bringing the best possible fights to the fans. The only drawback I see at this juncture in regards to a Jackson-Henderson showdown is that "Hollywood" Henderson is still a relative unknown here in America.
Zuffa needs to market Henderson beyond their capabilities if they want to make the light heavyweight title fight a box office blockbuster, because if they don't, that battle won't attract as many pay-per-view buys as it should.
One of the worst things that could happen now with Jackson is champion is for the UFC to bring in Henderson immediately without hyping him up. It would prove foolish on their part to do so, especially since Henderson has a great chance to knock Jackson off his thrown and isn't much of an attention grabber.
Either way, Henderson has to fight Jackson but it would be smarter to fill Zuffa-branded telecasts with spectacular Henderson highlights or feed him a few cans first.
Misc. Debris
Where exactly did Houston Alexander (Pictures) come from? I honestly never heard of him before he climbed into the Octagon to fight Keith Jardine (Pictures) but now the entire MMA world knows his name. It looks like Sokoudjou has started a trend here with absolute unknowns scoring stunning knockouts in their major show debuts. …
How far will Terry Martin (Pictures) go at middleweight? He's scored two impressive knockouts in a row and he has looked sensational both times. Dropping down in weight has so far proved intelligent and he is a massive dark horse in the talent-laden 185-pound weight class to steal a world title. …
Thiago Silva (Pictures)-James Irvin (Pictures) was going to be one helluva fight, guaranteed. It's too bad Irvin had to blow out his knee early in the fight. Hopefully he'll be able to recover quickly and resume his fighting career without much down time because "The Sandman" is easily one of the most exciting fighters in the sport today. …
Regardless of what happens in the Matt Serra (Pictures)-Matt Hughes (Pictures) fight in a few months, Karo Parisyan (Pictures) had better be fighting the winner. He was given one title shot and that was taken away when he injured himself in training. He's beyond exciting and he's more than earned his title shot. Hopefully Zuffa will give the Armenian warrior what he deserves: a title shot in his next fight. …
Liddell will bounce back in no time so fans of the Iceman should rest assured. There's no shame in losing, especially to a fellow elite fighter. My only question is how will Zuffa bring him back into title contention? Surely they can't just drop Liddell into a rubber match with Jackson and the fans don't want to see him feed upon steeping stones. The next several months are filled with intrigue.
Hit me up at www.myspace.com/sherdogsloan
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