Oh, where to begin. Do I kick off this belated weekly column by griping that the IFL
still doesn't broadcast their events live on television, or do I grumble at the fact that the WEC didn't come close to filling up the rather wee Joint inside the Hard Rock?
Nah, I'll poke fun at the three-ring circus that surrounded an otherwise decent night of fights during K-1's "Dynamite!! USA."
This past Saturday's K-1 card was filled with recognizable names within the world of mixed martial arts and on paper the event sounded like a winner. What with names like Gracie, Sakuraba, Lesnar and a former NFL player, how could this go wrong?
K-1 did a few things right inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and there appeared to be about 25,000 people in attendance. Thus far, the California State Athletic Commission has yet to release actual attendance numbers, but if that guesstimated figure is close to accurate, K-1 will have set a North American attendance record for an MMA show, topping UFC 68. (How many people paid to get in might a different story.)
Aside from that and a few of the fights, I was searching the entire night for a bearded lady, a roller skating elephant and Pogo the Clown.
Brock Lesnar (Pictures) is a big dude. And he's very strong. There's no doubting the man can wrestle and he appears to be a natural at whipping some butt. But before we're overcome with glee about Lesnar's MMA debut, we as a collective entity must first take off the blinders and remove the drool pan.
Lesnar beat a fighter sporting a sub-.500 record, a man who tapped quicker than Gregory Hines. I would have been a bit more impressed had Lesnar faced an opponent who could have put up more of a fight, but that's just me being cynical and selfish all at the same time.
There's no denying Lesnar has the power and size to make some noise in the sport and I'm sure he'll go quite far with his charisma and celebrity status. It's obviously too soon to anoint him anything. He can't be labeled a viable threat to Fedor's crown and we certainly cannot consider him some pro wrestling flunky like others that have transitioned to MMA.
Once Lesnar takes on a heavyweight with experience and respect, like
Eric Pele (Pictures) or even
Pedro Rizzo (Pictures), we'll see how well he does. Only then should we start speculating about how great he is or could be. Until then, let's wait and see what's under the hood until we buy that Jaguar.
It took me literally three attempts to watch this fight. First off, the rematch should have been in Japan without a time limit, just like their epic first encounter. A
Kazushi Sakuraba (Pictures)-
Royce Gracie (Pictures) fight should never be constrained to three five-minutes rounds, ever.
And for that reason alone, the fight sucked like a Hoover. Drama was nowhere to be found, it was too short (in some regards) and both men have seen far better days. With that said, both men should consider packing it in ASAP, especially Sakuraba.
Over two full hours of actual telecast time was spent
without in-ring action. Over two hours! So much time was wasted in between fights, Dynamite!! USA's pay-per-view telecast made the usual UFC shows seem like an endless string of combat.
I'll never for the life of me understand why the fighters were made to walk down from the very top of the Coliseum and get carted halfway across the stadium before they got into the ring. The average ring entrance for each fighter was five minutes and by the time the combatants had their names announced, they were ready for bed.
On top of that, too much time was squandered with the idiotic dancing, singing, theatrics, etc. And what was up with the DJ who couldn't pronounce anybody's name correctly. Oh let's not forget Dennis Rodman (I guess he's actually alive) pumping up the event and dissing the UFC.
When are Japanese companies going to wake up and realize that American fans, for the most part, either don't understand or don't like this nonsense in their fight events? Sadly, the answer seems to be "never."
One thing they did get right aside from some of the fights was hiring Mauro Ranallo as the lead commentator. Other than that, Dynamite!! USA was an event I'll look back at as the event that could have been.
The WEC has some primo talent under contract, and that is without debate. Sunday's WrekCage event was a solid card headlined by
Urijah Faber (Pictures)'s excellent submission of
Chance Farrar (Pictures).
It was not the greatest MMA card ever assembled and it wasn't the worst. It was … decent. I'm actually kind of shocked that the event didn't sellout the Joint. With the way some of the figureheads talk about the promotion and how huge it's already become, I figure it would have already sold out the Mandalay Bay.
Was that really All4One who sang the National Anthem on the K-1 event? The last time I heard their name or saw them on TV, I was stupidly chasing some girl who worshipped Jodeci, the hottest new videogame was Chrono Trigger and Metallica had been lame for only three years. …
Former Detroit Lions receiver
Johnnie Morton (Pictures) was knocked cold for about four minutes before he finally started mumbling incoherent nothings to the medics. Being an enormous Barry Sanders fan, I felt sorry for his former teammate. Morton has been slammed in the forums for his unsuccessful venture into MMA, but I say so what? Sure he got clobbered in under a minute, but at least he tried, right? …
The IFL has been around for over a year now. Isn't it about time to start airing some
live telecasts? IFL Battleground is a great show to watch, but the significance is taken away tenfold when the fights happened months in advance. …
I saw
Forrest Griffin (Pictures) at the WEC on Sunday and what do ya know: he had a black eye. What is with him and
Rich Franklin (Pictures)? Why do they
always have black eyes when they are on TV or walking around a fight event? I'm starting to think those shiners are either tattoos or the two popular fighters get punched in the face every day just to have shiners. Or … they just train their butts off harder and rougher than everybody else. …
I'd like to see Mighty Mo in the cage or ring against any world-rated MMA heavyweight. He punches harder than probably anybody in the sport and his head and chin are made of solid concrete. It'll be interesting to see how far the standard K-1 veteran goes in this sport.
Hit me up at www.myspace.com/sherdogsloan
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