Look,
I love Bernard Hopkins. I think he's a great boxer and clearly one of the greatest of all time. He's one of my 3 favorite fighters, along with Money Mayweather (we have the same birthday), and...I can't think of anyone else, so that makes him one of my 2 favorite fighters.
But he's lost 3 fights in the last few years to younger fighters who he was still better than for 1 reason and one reason alone.
He's an asshole. (Don't hit me!)
How else do you explain that a man who hasn't tasted the canvas in 15 years allows himself to lose a fight because he won't throw his hands?
Do I think he won the Calzaghe fight? Yes. Can I argue with the judges who gave Calzaghe the split decision when he landed twice as many shots as Hopkins, even if they weren't doing a lick of damage? No.
You know why? Because that's how American boxing judges score fights.
If I hit you with three jabs and you counter with a hard hook, guess what, I won that exchange. Especially if we repeat that sequence 10 times in a round, I just hit you 30 times and you hit me 10. Well... I win that because you're countering and I'm being the aggressor. So what you caught me on the way out? American boxing judges reward activity and busy-ness, not strategy.
Hopkins knows this.
There are a few exceptions. Where there is a truly recognized champion who is also the favorite in the fight, the judges may give them the benefit of the doubt on strategy, IF they know that's his strategy going into the fight.
Example - Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Oscar De La Hoya
This fight was almost exactly the same as Hopkins Calzaghe in terms of strategy and execution (except there was a lot less punching.) Mayweather plays defense the entire fight, letting De La Hoya come at him, swing and miss, and then pops him with a quick jab or hook as a counter.
You'll also notice that fight was a split decision too. But Hopkins doesn't and never has, carried the same amount of weight with the boxing community (or said a different way, doesn't get the same respect from the judges) as the undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr.
He's been the underdog in all of his BIG fights. When the judges expect you to lose, they view the fight that way. Its a natural filter.
You see, everyone knows Floyd is a counterpuncher and defensive genius. Its part of his schtick. B Hop calls himself "The Executioner". Now if you call yourself that, and then go into a fight playing D the whole time, the judges just might think its because you're being overwhelmed ...especially when you're the underdog to a younger fighter who is known for his volumunous punching output.
All this to say - yes, Bernard Hopkins executed his strategy very very well last night. And yes, he won the boxing match. But he didn't do what he had to do to win on the judges scorecards. Its just as bad as when he started slow against Jermain Taylor twice. Who the f*** starts a 12 round fight slow? Yea ok, 2 rounds of feeling your opponent out is fine. Find out how hard he hits, what he's trying to do. But 5, 6, 7? No. That would mean you gotta shut your opponent out the rest of the fight. And what is the likelyhood that the judges will score rounds 7 through 12 for you when you're fighting the undefeated "champion of the future"? Well...3 losses he shouldn't have will give Bernard that answer.
Perhaps I'm so upset because I
1) really like Bernard Hopkins and can't stand to see him lose a fight he had in the palm of his hands for NO GOOD REASON
2) was also born in Philly and
3) REALLY REALLY REALLY want to see him fight Roy Jones Jr again and now that fight may not occur. Hopkins is 43. He's also a smart man. He has options outside of in-ring fighting. Roy will fight Calzaghe next and who knows what will happen after that. My best hope is Calzaghe beats Roy this fall, meaning Roy and BHop need each other to get that money and we get that big fight about a year from now. That's one of the few fights I'd pay money to see. Mayweather-Cotto doesn't even get me that excited.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Ultimate Fight Night 13 Review
Last night was a great night for me. I had been looking forward to the loaded Ultimate Fight Night 13 card on Spike TV for some time, possibly even more than some of the UFC Pay-per-views I religiously journey to Champps Americana in Uptown Park to watch.
There were a few reasons for this:
1) Six fights in 3 hours. At least.
2) Big name fighters
3) Big name fighters with something on the line
You see, I have an issue with some of the UFC's matchmaking and PPV fight selections. I've been following MMA for about 3 years, and while I won't call myself knowledgeable enough to be a full-time MMA blogger, I know a weak card and a bad matchup when I see one.
Bad Matchup - Brock Lesnar vs a former UFC Champion in his first fight
Bad Matchup - Houston Alexander vs an undefeated contender
Bad Matchup - Michael Bisping v Rashad Evans as a main event
Bad Matchup - Sokodjou vs Lyoto Machida
Now, don't get me wrong, Joe Silva and Dana White do a decent job putting together their cards, and they have tons of talent to juggle and schedule; but occasionally I think they miss the forest for the trees.
We get it, no one gets a free pass in the UFC...BUT...they should take a page out of Vince McMahon's WWE Book of "How to Build a Star". It's something like what they are doing with Kimbo Slice in Elite XC. He's not fighting top level talent because...drum roll please...he's not ready!
Brock Lesnar, credentials aside, is not ready to fight former UFC Champion FRANK MIR. Sure he came at Mir hard and seemed to have him in trouble, but then he got his ass caught in an anklelock...SummerSlam 2003 vs Kurt Angle or UFC 82? Either way he tapped. Now his star is a bit tarnished and WWE fans may not be as into the MMA thing as they would've been had Lesnar been tearing up low level heavyweights for a year or 18 months like he should've been.
I have less of an issue with Houston Alexander's 3rd UFC match because he did mow through Keith Jardine, a top contender, but his 4th fight last night was disastrous. It was a bit fluky, but now, it looks like his first 2 UFC victories were too. What do they do with him now? He just tied the record for suffering the fastest UFC knockout at :08 seconds. The people still love him though...oh I know what to do - match him against someone he can smash who has no ground game and thinks he can stand with him. The fans get what they want and Houston gets his confidence back. Don't mistreat your popular stars.
Bisping vs Evans - Bisping should've been fighting Matt Hamill again anyway. This wasn't a main event level fight. A 2nd main event probably.
Sokoudjou vs Machida - I'm not sure casual MMA fans knew him enough to have him fighting "the guy Dana White makes you fight when your contract is up and he wants you to go out with a loss". Tito Ortiz - whose contract is expiring and has definitively stated he's not coming back - will have his last UFC fight against Machida - known for making people look bad and beating them while doing so. Machida is undefeated and also is the only man to beat Rich Franklin besides Anderson Silva. And you DEBUT someone who you think is going to be a star against him? NO, you don't.
Now that being said, I didn't write this post to slam UFC matchmaking, I wrote to praise it!
Ultimate Fight Night 13 was a big time success. Not only did we see good fights, we saw fights with repurcussions. Such as "Karo Parisyan might've blown his title shot" and "Kenny Florian just put himself in line for the next lightweight title shot". That's whats up. Let me see something with implications and know whats coming next. (UFC would do well to put out official rankings)
First impressions
OK, Karo Parisyan... you have some decisions to make.
Not because he lost a fight, but because something inside of me thinks the whole "I'm owed a title shot" thing is getting in the way of his progress as a fighter. I didn't see it last night from "The Heat". I'm hoping this loss will do one of two things - 1) cause Dana to call him and say "you lost the shot" and he goes apesh*t and gets focused or 2) Dana ignores it and puts him against Jon Fitch in a #1 contender's match in July or August with the winner fighting on the December card against GSP or Matt Serra. Karo's gotta get past this title shot thing. You are going to have to fight even after you win the belt so all the complaining won't help you. All the "I don't want a tought fight" talk out of Karo - not only is it lame but it hurts his impression with alleged tough guy Dana White and with the fans who, while they might understand, want to see good matchups. That being said - he did earn a shot and so perhaps just giving it to him and moving on would be best. I don't think the Karo Parisyan I saw last night can beat Georges St Pierre or Matt Serra or Jon Fitch or Josh Koshcheck or Chris Wilson.
Nate Diaz is crazy...and may turn into a decent UFC lightweight when its all said and done. The whole "showing off while I choke this dude out with no hands" thing was pretty hot. You don't see that every day. Will he take some heat for it? Sure. But so what. Do you.
Poor Houston Alexander.
I like Joe Lauzon. A lot. He'll eventually work his way to a lightweight title shot but Kenny Florian has been on some other ish since losing to Sean Sherk over a year ago. THAT being said, that was close to an even matchup and Lauzon nearly locked in two heel hook submissions on him and didn't look too hurt during the final barrage...he just had no way out.
Who is this Anthony Johnson dude? Impressive
You mean to tell me that Manny Gamburyan, Marcus Aurelio, Din Thomas and Clay Guida were on the untelevised portion of this card but we have to suffer through some of the crap the PPVs give us? Not feeling that...at all.
Matt Hamill may be ready for a move up the light-heavy ladder. I'd like to see him vs Stephan Bonnar when he heals or against Thiago Silva or Wilson Gouveia.
I skipped the Maynard-Edgar bout. We want to see the Maynard - Emerson rematch (their first fight was ruled a no contest Maynard slammed Emerson, who tapped because he hurt his rib during the fall...however, the ref said Maynard knocked himself out during the slam at about the same time.)
Finally, I'm very satisfied with the UFC Fight Night 13 production (being on commercial TV forced them to quicken the pace between matches...they should do that with PPVs. Why don't I get 7 matches for $50 bucks? Until they do that I'm not ordering at home.) and can't wait until April 19th for the Serra-St Pierre rematch. Don't be surprised if Serra wins again...I know that's hard to conceptualize given how good St Pierre is and how he won't get caught slipping again (blah blah blah)...but it happened once...so...
There were a few reasons for this:
1) Six fights in 3 hours. At least.
2) Big name fighters
3) Big name fighters with something on the line
You see, I have an issue with some of the UFC's matchmaking and PPV fight selections. I've been following MMA for about 3 years, and while I won't call myself knowledgeable enough to be a full-time MMA blogger, I know a weak card and a bad matchup when I see one.
Bad Matchup - Brock Lesnar vs a former UFC Champion in his first fight
Bad Matchup - Houston Alexander vs an undefeated contender
Bad Matchup - Michael Bisping v Rashad Evans as a main event
Bad Matchup - Sokodjou vs Lyoto Machida
Now, don't get me wrong, Joe Silva and Dana White do a decent job putting together their cards, and they have tons of talent to juggle and schedule; but occasionally I think they miss the forest for the trees.
We get it, no one gets a free pass in the UFC...BUT...they should take a page out of Vince McMahon's WWE Book of "How to Build a Star". It's something like what they are doing with Kimbo Slice in Elite XC. He's not fighting top level talent because...drum roll please...he's not ready!
Brock Lesnar, credentials aside, is not ready to fight former UFC Champion FRANK MIR. Sure he came at Mir hard and seemed to have him in trouble, but then he got his ass caught in an anklelock...SummerSlam 2003 vs Kurt Angle or UFC 82? Either way he tapped. Now his star is a bit tarnished and WWE fans may not be as into the MMA thing as they would've been had Lesnar been tearing up low level heavyweights for a year or 18 months like he should've been.
I have less of an issue with Houston Alexander's 3rd UFC match because he did mow through Keith Jardine, a top contender, but his 4th fight last night was disastrous. It was a bit fluky, but now, it looks like his first 2 UFC victories were too. What do they do with him now? He just tied the record for suffering the fastest UFC knockout at :08 seconds. The people still love him though...oh I know what to do - match him against someone he can smash who has no ground game and thinks he can stand with him. The fans get what they want and Houston gets his confidence back. Don't mistreat your popular stars.
Bisping vs Evans - Bisping should've been fighting Matt Hamill again anyway. This wasn't a main event level fight. A 2nd main event probably.
Sokoudjou vs Machida - I'm not sure casual MMA fans knew him enough to have him fighting "the guy Dana White makes you fight when your contract is up and he wants you to go out with a loss". Tito Ortiz - whose contract is expiring and has definitively stated he's not coming back - will have his last UFC fight against Machida - known for making people look bad and beating them while doing so. Machida is undefeated and also is the only man to beat Rich Franklin besides Anderson Silva. And you DEBUT someone who you think is going to be a star against him? NO, you don't.
Now that being said, I didn't write this post to slam UFC matchmaking, I wrote to praise it!
Ultimate Fight Night 13 was a big time success. Not only did we see good fights, we saw fights with repurcussions. Such as "Karo Parisyan might've blown his title shot" and "Kenny Florian just put himself in line for the next lightweight title shot". That's whats up. Let me see something with implications and know whats coming next. (UFC would do well to put out official rankings)
First impressions
OK, Karo Parisyan... you have some decisions to make.
Not because he lost a fight, but because something inside of me thinks the whole "I'm owed a title shot" thing is getting in the way of his progress as a fighter. I didn't see it last night from "The Heat". I'm hoping this loss will do one of two things - 1) cause Dana to call him and say "you lost the shot" and he goes apesh*t and gets focused or 2) Dana ignores it and puts him against Jon Fitch in a #1 contender's match in July or August with the winner fighting on the December card against GSP or Matt Serra. Karo's gotta get past this title shot thing. You are going to have to fight even after you win the belt so all the complaining won't help you. All the "I don't want a tought fight" talk out of Karo - not only is it lame but it hurts his impression with alleged tough guy Dana White and with the fans who, while they might understand, want to see good matchups. That being said - he did earn a shot and so perhaps just giving it to him and moving on would be best. I don't think the Karo Parisyan I saw last night can beat Georges St Pierre or Matt Serra or Jon Fitch or Josh Koshcheck or Chris Wilson.
Nate Diaz is crazy...and may turn into a decent UFC lightweight when its all said and done. The whole "showing off while I choke this dude out with no hands" thing was pretty hot. You don't see that every day. Will he take some heat for it? Sure. But so what. Do you.
Poor Houston Alexander.
I like Joe Lauzon. A lot. He'll eventually work his way to a lightweight title shot but Kenny Florian has been on some other ish since losing to Sean Sherk over a year ago. THAT being said, that was close to an even matchup and Lauzon nearly locked in two heel hook submissions on him and didn't look too hurt during the final barrage...he just had no way out.
Who is this Anthony Johnson dude? Impressive
You mean to tell me that Manny Gamburyan, Marcus Aurelio, Din Thomas and Clay Guida were on the untelevised portion of this card but we have to suffer through some of the crap the PPVs give us? Not feeling that...at all.
Matt Hamill may be ready for a move up the light-heavy ladder. I'd like to see him vs Stephan Bonnar when he heals or against Thiago Silva or Wilson Gouveia.
I skipped the Maynard-Edgar bout. We want to see the Maynard - Emerson rematch (their first fight was ruled a no contest Maynard slammed Emerson, who tapped because he hurt his rib during the fall...however, the ref said Maynard knocked himself out during the slam at about the same time.)
Finally, I'm very satisfied with the UFC Fight Night 13 production (being on commercial TV forced them to quicken the pace between matches...they should do that with PPVs. Why don't I get 7 matches for $50 bucks? Until they do that I'm not ordering at home.) and can't wait until April 19th for the Serra-St Pierre rematch. Don't be surprised if Serra wins again...I know that's hard to conceptualize given how good St Pierre is and how he won't get caught slipping again (blah blah blah)...but it happened once...so...
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