Canada’s Best?

I saw your note this week that T.J. Grant is the best Canadian fighter unsigned with a major promoter. Sorry, Sherdog. But I have to disagree.

What about Roger Hollett? Did you forget about Victor Valimaki and Carlos Newton? What the [expletive], Sherdog?
-- Van Buren

Andy Cotterill, columnist: All of the combatants you’ve mentioned are good fighters. However, when you look at making a claim of who is the best, as I did, you need to look at a few things. These include their overall skill-set in the three main areas of fighting (stand-up, clinch, and ground), how they themselves are developing as fighters, and most importantly, how successful they have been against increasingly difficult competition.

At the start of his career Grant and his trainer Scott MacLean decided on a course of action that planned for him to develop into a world champion, and since his first MMA bout nearly three years ago, he has gone from a promising rookie to a 15-fight veteran who thoroughly dominates tough opponents in all areas.

When planning the career of a professional fighter every fight serves a purpose, and there is no point in taking a fight that you know with certainty you’ll win. Winning over someone who could potentially beat them tests a fighter and lets them and others gauge their skills. In his past four fights, Grant accepted and won a fight with Mike Gates with only one day’s notice, beat two UFC veterans in Chad Reiner and Forrest Petz, and most recently he defeated Beau Baker in a one-sided performance.

If you’re like many fans and use the Sherdog Fightfinder as your primary method of learning about a fighter, then Grant’s twelve submission wins will mislead you to thinking that he’s just a ground guy, and that’s far from the truth. If you’ve even seen one of the fights I just mentioned, and I suspect you haven’t, then you’d know that in addition his submission skills, Grant possesses a terrifyingly effective muay Thai clinch, has deft and speedy footwork, and has pinpoint accuracy in his fists.

As I mentioned previously, this is a career to Grant, and he and MacLean are continually looking to develop his already impressive skills. They have regular month-long winter excursions to Thailand where he trains his stand-up and clinch, and his underappreciated wrestling keeps getting better and better.

One of the things you get with writing for Sherdog is that you will have readers who disagree with you, and I respect that you have your opinion. I think though, that when you finally get a chance to see Grant in action you’ll realize that my words were justified.

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Third time’s a charm?

So, we finally get to see [Quinton "Rampage" Jackson] take on Wanderlei Silva in the States. With the match being held in a cage, I think Jackson now has the advantage. Jackson by TKO in round one!
-- Paulo

Jordan Breen, radio host, columnist: While I can sympathize with the cage being more advantageous to "Rampage" than Silva, and come fight time, I may pick Jackson myself (despite having done so for their second encounter), the cage itself isn't going to magically propel Jackson to victory.

Silva did a fantastic job in their second fight of fighting out of the corner and off the ropes, and acquitting himself well in the body clinch with the larger, stronger Jackson. While Jackson may enjoy the ability to stack Silva against the fence, "The Axe Murderer" has always had solid skills off of his back and is likely not going to get completely trapped against the cage.

If anything, the finer particulars of the unified rules, such as elbows and five-minute rounds, will be of greater utility than the cage. Rampage has shorter intervals here as opposed to the dragging 10-minute round of Pride, which makes it strategically easier to exchange punches, set up a takedown, control and chip away on top with punches and elbows.

But, perhaps most important of all, is to consider the fact that no matter how the rules alter the bout, Rampage had the advantage throughout their entire second fight, as well. While it wasn't a blow-out by any stretch, there is no debate who was winning the fight through the first 13 minutes, and it's the same guy who ended up asleep on a ring rope, exsanguinating from the face. Sometimes advantages can't save you from knees to the skull.