PC MMA - I mean post-Couture

It is true I heralded the Couture-Lesnar fight as good for the sport. But I am not the only voice on this. Here are some other hard-core fight fans.

bullshido.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=13

[quote]- Former champ Arlovski fights to a decision. Result: End his contract and do not air his final fight.

  • Top ten HW Werdum loses a match. Result: Cut him immediately.

  • Randy Couture comes back after 15 monthes off. Result: Instead of stripping him of the title like all other inactive champions (Sherk, Mir), still consider him the champion in his next fight so there are now officially two UFC Heavyweight champions for the next few months.

  • Wanderlei Silva starts making a comeback. Result: Match him up next against Rampage, who he already decisively destroyed twice.

  • Lyoto Machida goes 13-0 and 5-0 in the UFC. Result: No title shot in sight.

  • Brock Lesnar beats up an out of shape judoka, loses in his UFC debut, then fights Herring to a decision. Result: Instant title shot, main event PPVs, and one of the highest paydays in the sport.[/quote]

I don’t understand the topic.

Are you trying to figure out the future of the sport with giant wrestlers like Lesnar now in the picture? Does size and power play that much of a role? Is there now a reason to put into the works a super heavyweight class?

I’m lost.

Mostly I was trying to point out that while we think of this fight as positive, there is a large group that don’t. But since you brought up the point of giant fighters, let’s take a look at this. Lesnar is not the first ‘giant’ to enter MMA. Nor in fact, is he that giant compared with some of the other fighters now available.

Bob Sapp made his first appearance in 2002. He weighed in more than 100 pounds heavier than Lesnar. He was pretty tough to handle until he was stopped by Nogueira who Lesnar might have to fight next year. Lesnar’s the same height and only 20 pounds heavier. Also, Nogueira has beat Heath Herring 3 times, including by submission. Frank Mir is even heavier - and we all know what happened last time Lesnar fought him. Given the size of top heavyweight fighters, it’s not clear to me that Lesnar is any bigger than what a UFC heavyweight is supposed to be.

There’s been a long history of ‘giant’ fighters in combat sport. Konishki was one of Japan’s top sumo fighters at 264 kg. He ended up retiring with a poor record. Initially, competitors did not know how to deal with his size. Once they’d accommodated, he wasn’t that hard to deal with. The same could be said for Akebono. While he continued to win big until his retirement, he was no where near as dominant as he was initially when the surprise of his height (2.03 m) and weight (235 kg) made him impossible to handle. Lesnar’s an NCAA champion, so he’s not just a ‘big guy’ in the same way Bob Sapp is. But he really is a one-dimensional fighter.

I don’t have a good record of calling these, so maybe there’s something I’m missing. My guess is that unless he gets something else going for him, everyone’s going figure out how to beat him and then he’ll disappear along with other one-dimensional stars of MMA.